“God! Finally!”

It was Yerim’s squeal that echoed next. She jumped from the platform and dashed towards Seulgi and Joohyun and wrapped them inside her bone-crushing hug. “My ship has FINALLY sailed!!”

Joohyun and Seulgi looked at each other shyly, chuckling inside their maknae’s tight bear-hug.

Sooyoung smiled warmly at the scene. Finally, she thought, all their hard work came into fruition. She flinched when she felt a light nudge on her side and when she turned, Seungwan was smiling at her shyly and nodding towards their three members. She sighed and smiled, then she grabbed Seungwan’s hand to drag her to jump and ran towards the trio hugging, joining their huddle into one big group hug.

“Finally! SeulRene has become real! They’ve stepped out of best friend zone!!” Seungwan exclaimed as soon as she toppled them, making their huddle jump in circle, resulting for all of them to cackle.

“Took you long enough, Seul-yah!” Joohyun’s parents shouted as they approached the now breaking off huddle, to give way to Seohyun running towards her unnie.

Joohyun immediately caught her younger sister and carried her in her arms.

Seulgi chuckled shyly as she scratched the back of her head animatedly as reply to Joohyun’s parents' remark.

“That’s how a Kang does it!”

Everyone looked up and saw Seulgi’s father jump down from the truck’s driver seat, sending two thumbs up their way while his wife and son were soon behind him with a scowl.

“As if, dear. As if.” Seulgi’s mother rolled her eyes and paced faster.

Seulgi’s brother scoffed. “Right dad, as if.” He followed his mother.

Seulgi’s father frowned at that.

“Oh my god, my daughters, finally!” Seulgi’s mother cooed as she kissed Seulgi and Joohyun on their forehead.

Seulgi’s brother patted their heads next. “Nice one Seul, noona.”

“Thanks, auntie, oppa. But why are you guys here too??” Joohyun turned to look at a sheepish Seulgi, still scratching her head, chuckling.

“Well of course to support our bear!” Seulgi’s father answered excitedly, pinching Joohyun and Seulgi’s cheeks.

“Hey Seul-ah! Are we late????”

Everybody looked up and watched Moonbyul running towards them, holding a bouquet of tulips, this time with different colors. Yongsun was trailing near behind her along with Jennie and Lalisa.

Seulgi ran towards Moonbyul and immediately received the bouquet. The two couples patted her shoulder to congratulate her.

“Oh my god, Seulgi-yah,” Joohyun can only mutter as Seulgi run towards her now, her mother beside her giggling as she took Seohyun away from her.

“For you Hyunnie.” Seulgi shyly said as she offered the bouquet to Joohyun, an obvious tint of pink coloring her cheeks.

“Oh my god,” Joohyun embarrassingly received the bouquet, she can feel the heat rising up on her whole face and it won’t be a surprise if she’s blushing madly. “Yah Kang Seulgi, did you plan all this??”

Seulgi nodded furiously with a wide and excited grin.

“Congrats Seulgi! Finally, huh?!”

“Yeah we knew you can do it!”

“Joohyun-ah, you and Seulgi-yah look so good together!”

“Way to confess Seul!!”

“Oh my god! This is embarrassing!” Joohyun covered her overly embarrassed face as shouts from their neighbors echoed within the premises.

“Oh my god Seul. You’re overdoing it. You’re just confessing, not proposing.” Seungwan commented from the side, earning a sigh from Sooyoung and laughter from the others.

But Seulgi couldn’t care less. All she is taking in is how Joohyun fidgets in front of her, her cheeks painted with those blushes that looks so good on her.

Seulgi was determined ever since yesterday. When she heard Joohyun that night, it solidified her resolve to finally courageously confess, to step out of her comfort zone and just take that leap of faith towards Joohyun. She didn’t sleep that night, planning in her mind on how she’d do the confession. And what’s the best way for her to express her feelings? Of course, what she, and Joohyun for that matter, does best—through a song.

And so she spent the whole night writing the lyrics and the melody on her phone, hidden inside the blanket. When morning came, she kept quiet, afraid that her excitement might leak out of her contained smiles. She was only able to giggle it out when she left Joohyun’s house, immediately calling Seungwan to call up the gang.

“Operation Surprise Hyunnie.”

That’s all Seulgi had to say with her enthusiastic and giddy voice to have Seungwan understand the whole context of the call. So, she immediately called Sooyoung even though they haven’t talked yet—their cold war was soon out of the window when the taller girl understood what’s about to happen and excitedly called Yerim next.

Once Seulgi went home, she got her savings card and immediately went to Moonbyul’s, interrupting her supposed to be after-dance-practice date to ask her for a favor to buy a fresh bouquet of tulips and lilies with instructions on when to bring it to her. Her senior was a bit late but it didn’t matter. Besides, who can blame the dance leader when she had to juggle dance practice while gushing about Seulgi’s plan to Lalisa and Jennie, and basically her whole team, and to Yongsun—the three ended up helping her with Seulgi’s favor.

Sooyoung almost had her staffs panic because of the sudden prompt tasks to drive her to fetch Yerim, Seungwan and Seulgi, respectively, from their homes to their warehouse hideout and to prepare the mobile stage. A problem arose when she was at Seulgi’s—they don’t have a driver for the mobile stage—which was fortunately solved by Seulgi’s father overly enthusiastic volunteerism; the latter’s mother and brother later on happily jumped in on the boat to witness the whole stuff.

So it’s an understatement to say that Seulgi planned it all. She even involved everyone close to them to know—even Joohyun’s parents who she asked to be there at dinner time. When she said she’s going all in—she is going all in.

Seulgi can’t do all those though without her very precious friends—Sooyoung, Seungwan and Yerim. Sooyoung took care of all the needed resources (rich strings did the trick), Yerim learned bass impromptu (thank gods she’s such a genius), and Seungwan cheered her up when she got overwhelmed with pressure of time and making it perfect (again, angel Seungwan). A short break during the rush practice made it known to her that they’ve all been helping Joohyun and her relationship to progress even from the start—even MoonSun and JenLisa—through unorthodox means. Her simpleton, dumb, and dense self would’ve appreciated it if they just simply told her, but in Sooyoung’s words, where’s the fun in that? Well, she appreciates it either way anyway, although it almost went south. Yerim and the others begged to disagree though, saying that Joohyun and her would still be endgame regardless. Seulgi weirdly agreed.

So Seulgi couldn’t care less if what she’s doing right now is embarrassing or how she may be overdoing it. Joohyun, her Hyunnie deserves it all.

“So, uhm, Hyunnie…” Seulgi started, looking down at Joohyun who’s hiding her face behind the tulips bouquet.

“What?” Joohyun asked, slight irritation in her voice is obvious as she heard whistles and teasing sounds from everyone around them. Gods, here goes Seulgi again at what she does best, even from the start—shoving her into the spotlight. It’s not that she hates it—, she loves it—but she didn’t know she’ll feel so embarrassed about it, not to mention that they’ve got a lot of eyes on them.

Seulgi smirked, amused at Joohyun’s reaction. “Can I get a kiss?”

Everyone gasped in surprise at the bold question. Sooyoung’s and Yerim’s oh my god collided with each other, each with different tone—the former’s was in disbelief while the latter’s was of excitement. Joohyun’s and Seulgi’s fathers were guffawing loudly and proudly while their mothers were giggling. The two couples squealed by the sidelines, gushing. Seulgi’s brother stole Seohyun away from the shameless crowd.

“YAH KANG SEULGI!” Joohyun almost screamed in shock and smacked Seulgi’s chest hard while the taller girl just chuckled like an idiot. She buried her face further behind the poor tulips bouquet.

Seungwan sighed after facepalming then grabbed Seulgi by the shoulder. “Okay enough teasing, Seul. Let unnie process everything.”

“Hehe.” Seulgi let herself be dragged away by Seungwan while continuing her mocking laugh.

Amidst the laughter and teasing conversations, Yerim’s phone rang and in happiness, she answered it, unknowingly pressing the speaker button as well.

“YAH KIM YERIM, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!”

“Mom???”

“YOUR FOOD HERE ARE ALL GOING COLD! WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHEN ARE YOUR VISITORS COMING?!”

Seulgi perked up at that. She wriggled out of Seungwan’s hold and went to Yongsun, who was holding the lilies bouquet. She grabbed it and went to Yerim. “Happy birthday our maknae.” She greeted with a very warm smile. Everyone else followed the greeting.

That’s when Yerim announced, “Okay! Foods on me everyone!”

As expected, Sooyoung can be seen dialing in the corner to facilitate the transportation for the celebration.

+++

“So you’re all saying that, you all knew about us??? Even before???” Joohyun asked with so much disbelief after hearing everyone else’s stories of how they connived with each other just to push her and Seulgi together in realizing and admitting their feelings for each other. “You know you could’ve told us, right???”

“Same thoughts, Hyunnie, same thoughts.” Seulgi agreed, nodding.

Yerim settled again between Seulgi and Joohyun after going to the bathroom then linked her both arms on the two.

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