"I'm fine."

"Bull."

Variations of this dialogue are heard across Hyejin's spacious apartment since the early morning. It's unnaturally bright in her bedroom – the cheerful summer sun is not being restrained by the dense fabric of expensive curtain blinds for the first time in year, and Hyejin's eyes are hurting from all this light.

And, no matter how much Hyejin loves summer, right now she is incredibly annoyed by it. She frowns and huffs and puffs, but, unfortunately, she is totally unable to do anything to make it better. She can't even sit on her bed without someone else's help. Walking up to the window and closing the curtains seems like climbing Mount Everest or something.

"Hey, Hyejin-ah!"

It's Kim Yongsun's yell from the kitchen that can be heard on the other side of Seoul. She's the sun too. Not as blinding as the other one, but equally annoying, bustling around her like a brood hen. Very beautiful sun. Hyejin loves this sun much more than the one in the sky.

"Where are you keeping the pots?" Yongsun shouts, and Hyejin hears the suspicious clang of kitchen appliances against the marble countertop.

"Why do you need a pot for?"

"I want to put it on my head and run down the street." Yongsun replies, and Hyejin kinda knows she's joking right now, but, honestly, you can never know for sure with this woman. "To make some chicken soup, Hyejin, what else would I need a pot for?"

"You never know," she mutters. "Don't make any soups, unnie. It's not gonna miraculously make me feel better. I'm fine."

"Stop lying. Where's the damn pot?"

Hyejin sighs. She feels terribly powerless lying in bed without any movement. The preparations for her comeback have been postponed, a whole bunch of important meetings have been postponed, everything has been postponed and cancelled; she scared the living out of everyone with her sudden hospitalization and caused a headache for half of the company; and she was unable to attend KCON:TACT with the rest of the members yesterday.

She feels bad. More from the aforementioned consequences of her injury than from the injury itself. Physical pain is nothing. She got sick plenty of times before. Could've been worse. But this time she got injured in a very bad moment, and her already busy schedule is paused, and the members are so worried that they decided to give a damn about their own plans and schedules as well.

Especially Yongsun.

She was supposed to go to her long-awaited trip to deserted island today, and instead she rummages through Hyejin's shelves in search of a pot so she can make her a soup. Hyejin wants to feel annoyed by her, but fails splendidly, and her chest warms with realization that her unnie has given up on all of her plans to take care of Hyejin.

This is all pretty new. Them. It sounds good. Hyejin often rolls their names on the flat of her tongue, savoring and enjoying the way it sounds. Them. Hyejin and Yongsun.

Dating someone while being an idol is basically being good at hiding. And if you are dating another idol like yourself, – and more so, a member of your own group – your hiding skills must be on a god's level. It's pretty easy to do it now - the whole world is on pause, they don't have any promotions now, and on a rare TV shows they usually appear separately. But it won't last long. Sooner or later they would have to start preparing for their group comeback.

Hyejin tries not to think too much about that.

"There's no point in worrying about it now, we'll think about it, when that moment comes," Yongsun said calmly when Hyejin shared her concerns with her a few weeks ago and gave her an affectionate kiss on the shell of her ear, causing Hyejin to lose all articulate thoughts.

"Relax, just don't make out on a camera and everything will be fine," Wheein waved her hand dismissively, and Hyejin blushed heavily.

"If you want, I can flirt with you to deflect suspicions," Byul suggested with a sly smile, and Hyejin threw a pillow at her, cutting off her bursting laughter.

They have great friends, aren't they?

"Hey," Yongsun walks into the room and carefully sits on the edge of the bed so as not to disturb Hyejin's back with unnecessary shaking. She's wearing an apron (Hyejin has no idea where she got it, she never owned one, let alone that sickeningly pink one), and her elbows are covered in flour. "How are you feeling?"

"Same as ten minutes ago when you last asked," Hyejin sighs. "Honestly, unnie, you can go home, I won't die without your close supervision."

"Don't be so grumpy," Yongsun grimaces and scratches her nose with flour-stained fingers, leaving a white mark on the tip. Hyejin suddenly realizes that she can't take her eyes off the stain. "I'm worried, you know..."

"Unnie."

"What?"

"Come closer."

"Huh? What?"

"Lean over to me, unnie,'' Hyejin repeats, her eyes never leaving the white mark on Yongsun's nose. "Please?"

Yongsun leans over Hyejin's face obediently, and the latter immediately grabs her by the cheeks, pulls her even closer and the flour off the tip of her nose with a quick flick of a tongue.

Yongsun blinks, dumbfounded, opens and closes like a fish washed ashore, and her face is going red with confusion. Hyejin laughs softly as she looks at her unnie.

"There was a flour on your nose," she explains. Yongsun splutters, tries to say something witty or flirty, but fails miserably with a dumb ‘uwwhhmm…', and Hyejin laughs again and kisses her soft cheeks, and nose, and eyes, and lips, and the line of her jaw, whatever she can reach. "Cutie."

Yongsun relaxes a little, rests her elbows on either side of Hyejin's face to avoid crushing her with her weight, and kisses her on the lips, ignoring the uncomfortable position of the mermaid on the rocks. Hyejin hums with satisfaction, wraps her arms around her neck and deepens the kiss, slowly and carefully taking the lead, and Yongsun moans a little with pleasure.

Hyejin feels a lazy surge of arousal pooling down in her lower stomach. Yongsun's closeness, the weight of her body, sweet and salty smell of her skin, familiar taste of her lips, all of it excite Hyejin's whole being, and, if she could, she would definitely buck her hips forward, hinting at the more enjoyable pastime than cooking.

But Hyejin is not even able to bend her knees normally without shooting pains in her back. Something more active than playing games on the phone i