Yeri yawned as she scratched the side of her neck while walking down the dorm hallway. She stayed up late the night before playing video games, lost track of time, and slept in way past noon as a result.

Did she regret it? No. That was just the life of a gamer. Once you got into the virtual world, you just couldn't help but play more to see what happened next. Even if you ended up waking up really, really late the next day as a result.

It was fine though. She didn't have any schedules lined up. And even if she did, she still would have snuck in a few hours of playtime one way or another.

When there's a will, there's a way.

The young girl wasn't one to speedrun a game; she enjoyed taking her sweet time and soaking in every little detail. Playing games was something she loved doing dearly ever since she got her first gaming console as a kid for one of her birthdays: the Nintendo GameCube. It came with one controller, a memory card, and a copy of Super Mario Sunshine.

She had been hooked ever since. Sure, she didn't always have time to play due to her busy life as an idol, but that didn't mean she had to give up the hobby entirely.

Times have changed since that purple cubed system was originally released. Gaming consoles became smaller, faster, more powerful, and had stunning graphics that people could only dream of existing back when she was born. It truly was amazing how much progress had been made in the video game industry over the years.

But before Yeri could allow herself to become immersed in the virtual world again, she needed to get something to snack on. Couldn’t do anything on an empty stomach after all.

Well technically she could have, but she didn’t want to get hangry. Yeri wasn’t herself when she was hangry. 

While walking further down the hallway, she heard the familiar tune of a certain famous game series playing; the one where people shoved monsters into tiny red and white capsules after beating them into submission. Mixed in with the famous melody were grunts that sounded like it came from an iconic gorilla that wore nothing but a red tie.

Curious, Yeri continued walking forward, eager to find out just what was going on. When she made it out of the hallway, her eyes were immediately drawn to the big screen TV in the living room where she saw Kirby, in all his bubblegum pink, marshmallow-y glory, getting mercilessly punched in the face by Donkey Kong.

Poor Kirby. That punch looked like it hurt a lot.

“Yah! Seulgi! Why did you do that!” a familiar voice complained from the other side of the couch. “I was trying to remember how to block!”

“Because it’s part of the game?” Seulgi laughed. “It’s a dog-eat-dog world out here, Wan.”

It was true, especially in fighting games. You had to fight with all your might to win or risk losing the match. Unless you happened to be on the same team as the other player, but in this household, they never activated team battle mode in Super Smash Brothers. It just wasn't the way they did things around there.

The fact that there was a video game on the screen wasn’t surprising in itself. Yeri knew she wasn’t the only resident gamer in the dorm. Seulgi was her fellow video game connoisseur and would sometimes play in the living room if nobody was using the TV.

What was surprising was that Wendy herself was playing. She wasn’t one for video games. The most she did was play mobile games like Candy Crush and other clones of that on her phone, but that was about it. 

The maknae had tried to get her to play some games with her in the past, but the older girl always said no. Even to Mario Kart! And Mario Kart was the easiest game ever for beginners. All you had to do was drive a car (or motorcycle) in a race and try not to get hit by the other players in the process while trying to get first place. It was way better, and easier, than driving in real life in her humble opinion. (Plus you could literally ram your vehicle into other people and not face legal repercussions for doing so.)

Yeri couldn’t help but feel a bit bothered that Wendy was playing a game with Seulgi instead of her.

No. What she felt was much more than that.

She was jealous. Not that she’d ever admit that out loud, but the green eyed monster, the thing that she hadn't encountered in a while, decided to make an appearance at that exact moment.

And she absolutely hated it.

“Oh? Doth mine eyes deceive me?” Yeri gasped, trying her best to sound like a Shakespearean actor, while leaning over the couch, elbows resting on the top for balance. “Is Wendy actually playing a video game?”

“I know right! I was surprised too!” Seulgi replied while glancing back at Yeri for a few seconds before returning her attention to the game. Games like that required careful attention, but since she was playing against a total beginner, Seulgi could spare a few seconds to look away from the TV. “She never plays games.”

“I like to try new things every once in a while you know,” Wendy retorted while doing what Yeri thought looked like an attempt to fly the little pink intergalactic traveler back onto the stage, but failed horribly. She misjudged the amount of times Kirby could puff himself up from falling and inadvertently gave another point to Seulgi. “Although I still need practice.”

Yeri knew it was stupid to be feeling like this and yet she couldn’t help it. The question of why Wendy accepted Seulgi’s offer to play while rejecting hers multiple times just kept popping up in her head. She stopped asking Wendy after a while because, although she prided herself on being annoying sometimes, she didn’t want to be that person and push her away.

Yeri didn't like it when people bugged her to do stuff. It made her not want to do whatever was asked. For example, someone recommended a show for her to watch a while back and it geniunely looked interesting at the time. But she didn't have time to watch it then due to being in the middle of promotions. That person kept on bugging her about it so much that she didn't even feel like watching it anymore, and never did as a result.

She didn't want that to happen with Wendy, especially with a hobby that she held so dear to her heart. She wanted to share the joy with her favorite person in the world. That's why Yeri even bothered asking at all.

The maknae usually didn't care about what other people did and yet....she couldn't help but continue focusing on what was going on in front of her.

Why her and not me?

That question constantly repeated itself in her head, taunting her. 

“How funny. I remember asking if she wanted to play Mario Kart a few times and she said no.” 

“What? Really?” Seulgi asked Wendy while powering up her character's wind up punch attack. “Why?”

“Uhhhh…” Wendy stumbled, apparently not sure what to say. “Yah! Kang Seulgi! Are you trying to distract me!”

“No. You just accidentally walked into a bomb-omb that dropped onto the ground and killed yourself.”

“What!” She exclaimed loudly in English. "How did that even happen!"

Seulgi snickered. “You gotta pay attention to your surroundings more. I didn't even have to do anything that time.”

Normally Yeri would've laughed at such a rookie mistake, but she wasn't in the mood for it. Her mind was preoccupied with the scene in front of her.

Guess Seulgi is just special huh? she thought bitterly. There was no way she would ever say that out loud though. That would only just make things unnecessarily awkward.

She figured the best thing to do was just leave. No need to stick around and potentially say something stupid.

A part of Yeri told herself to just get over it; to not be upset by something so small, so minuscule in comparison to the numerous things Wendy has done for her throughout her life. But there’s a big difference between thinking about what you should do and actually doing it.

And the only thing she wanted to do at that moment was leave.

“Don’t mind me. Just passing by to get a snack,” Yeri announced while backing off the couch, taking care to try to keep her voice even and not give any indication that she was bothered. 

She walked into the kitchen faster than she normally would to get what she needed and looked around to see what there was to snack on. Her eyes settled on some small bags of chips on the counter and she grabbed a few. She also figured that she'd might as well get a soda, opened the refrigerator, and grabbed two cans. Not the healthiest of choices, but Yeri worked out pretty much all the time so it was okay.

And honestly Yeri just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible and return to the safe confines of her room. At least in there she wouldn’t have to pretend to be unbothered by what she saw. As soon as that door shut, she could do what she wanted, free from prying eyes.

”Have fun you two,” she said a bit too icily than intended while walking back to her room, trying to balance everything in her arms without dropping them everywhere. Yeri didn’t mean for that sentence to come out sounding like that; it just slipped out. But bringing more attention to it by apologzing wouldn't have served her any favors so she just let it be.

Seulgi must’ve not noticed because she chirped back in her usual cheery tone “see you later!”

Wendy didn't say anything.

She must've really been into the game.

 

 

As soon as the young girl made it back to her room, she shut the door with her foot and walked towards her bed.

Yeri laid everything out with a sigh and sat down, taking care not to sit on her bags of chips and smash them into even smaller pieces. It was bad enough most of the bag was filled with nothing but air for some reason; having microscopic sized chips to snack on didn’t sound appealing either.

As stupid as it sounded, she still felt hurt that Wendy said yes to playing video games with Seulgi when she asked her multiple times in the past the same question.

All it took was Seulgi one try. Just one time. And yet…all the times Yeri asked, she was rejected.

“Jeez,” Yeri grumbled loudly while roughly opening up a bag of potato chips and throwing some in , chewing them vigorously. “What the hell is wrong with me?”

It wasn’t like Wendy took a hammer and smashed Yeri’s Nintendo Switch into a million pieces, poured gasoline on it, and set it on fire. Not that she’d ever do that in the first place. She was just too nice.

It wasn’t like they made a pinky promise to play together or anything either.

So what was the problem then?

She highly doubted Wendy did that just to be mean. The sweet girl wasn’t that type of person. But even if she didn’t do it on purpose….the fact remained that it still hurt. 

Yeri knew it hurt more because it was Wendy. If Irene or anyone else declined her offer to play, she wouldn’t have cared. She would have just shrugged and gone on her merry way, doing whatever it was she wanted to do.

But she cared a lot about Wendy; in ways that went beyond mere friendship.

It had been like that for a while. Over time she caught herself thinking about the older girl way more often than before. 

Not only that, but after a while Yeri noticed she'd stare at Wendy longer than considered normal whenever they practiced or changed around each other. The poor girl had to practically rip her eyes away from the beautiful form of her groupmate and friend multiple times, all while trying to be subtle about it. But who could blame her? Wendy was absolutely stunning. 

Not that Yeri ever said anything about it even though she probably should have. Not even Joy knew about Yeri's secret feelings for the older woman. The only one who knew about her secret crush was her diary that she kept hidden under her huge stack of manga on her bookshelf. That was it.

And she intended on keeping it that way.

Stop being dumb, Yeri told herself while munching on some more chips, trying to enjoy the salty flavor. She reached over to get a napkin to wipe her hand clean when, to her horror, she realized that she didn’t have any.

It must’ve slipped her mind when she was going to the kitchen and saw her unnies playing that fighting game together. Great.

Yeri didn’t want to leave her room. That would mean she would have to pass by the living room again.

There was no way she was going to do that. Maybe if the dorm spontaeously caught on fire or one of the pipes in the walls busted and started spraying water everywhere, but the chances of either happening were slim to none.

Yeri knew she was just being childish, but she didn’t care. She was going to sulk in her room and nobody was going to stop her.

Nobody.

She just needed to figure out what she should do about her dirty hand.

Her eyes drifted down to her sweatpants. They were dark blue and had some bleach stains from when she tried to do laundry by herself in the past (and partially failed.) She had them for a few years so they were far from being new.

Yeri could have easily wiped her hand on them and her problem would’ve been instantly solved. But…then she'd have dirty sweatpants. Sure, it wouldn't have been as visible since the sweatpants were a darker color, but still.

No she couldn’t do that. Yeri wasn’t going to let herself go that low even if she could buy twenty of the same pair. She may have been a gamer, but even she had standards. She wasn't a barbarian.

Yeri had an extra napkin stash that she built up from ordering takeout and the like frequently, but she used the last of it a few days prior when she accidentally spilled nachos all over her bed. If that didn’t happen, she would’ve been fine. But luck just wasn't on her side.

The poor girl groaned in frustration. Why was her life like this? 

She could, in theory, go to the bathroom and use toilet paper as a substitute for a napkin, but toilet paper was too easily rip-able. That and, with her luck, she'd probably bump into Wendy in the hallway. That was something she wanted to avoid at all costs.

There was only viable one option left. It wasn't her first choice, or even her second, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

Sometimes you had to do things you didn't necessarily want to do in life.

Yeri used her free hand to pull out her phone from her sweatpants pocket to send a text to the one person who could help her in this situation. Even though she used her non-dominant hand, she was still able to type well, albeit a little slower than usual.

She just hoped Joy wasn’t too busy looking at herself in the mirror to respond back. Otherwise, she was royally screwed.

[Hey]

Yeri needed her. The circumstances were dire.

To her surprise, she got a response a few moments later. 

Maybe things would go right for once.

Joyeee: [Is for horses :p]

She rolled her eyes at the Joy-like reply even though the other girl couldn’t see her.

Smartass.

[Can you do me a favor pls]

Yeri knew she was venturing into dangerous territory by sending those exact words, but time was of the essence. It was better to cut to the chase and get everything out of the way than beat around the bush.

The three dots at the bottom of the screen showed that Joy was typing out something. Then it stopped. And then started again.

Joyeee: [Depends]

Joyeee: [What do I get out of it? ;) ]

She shouldn’t have been surprised. Joy wouldn’t have done it out of the kindness of her own heart.

Although Yeri knew she’d probably regret typing the next few words, she did it anyways. 

[Just tell me what you want when you get here]

Joyeee: [Hmmmm]

Joyeee: [Okay]

Yeri hoped whatever it was Joy wanted as compensation wasn’t too expensive.

Joyeee: [Soooooo what’s the favor?]

Joyeee: [Need me to reach for something on the top of your bookshelf again? LMAO]

Yeri's first instinct was to say something rude back, but she restrained herself. She was the one that needed help and Joy was the only one available that could do anything. Making her upset wouldn't have done Yeri any favors.

[Can you go into the kitchen and get me a napkin pls]

Joy sent the crying laughing emoji in response. Yeri didn't understand what was so funny about what she sent. She knew she was naturally funny, but she wasn't trying to be at that moment.

Joyeee: [What happened to your legs? Did they fall off????]

Yeri sighed in frustration. Why was Joy like this? Why couldn't she just mind her own business and do what was asked of her?

Oh wait. It was because they're pretty much the same person except one was obnoxiously tall and loved dogs while the other was short and afraid of animals.

[Can you do it or not!]

Joyeee: [Avoiding the question hm?👀]

Joyeee: [Interesting]

It was never a good thing when Joy said the word “interesting” because that meant that she was going to try everything to find out the truth.

Well it was the lesser of both evils. She’d much rather deal with Joy being nosy than going out there again and seeing Seulgi live out her dream.

Dream?

Yeri shook her head, as if doing so would instantly make her go back to her usual self.

Get it together.

[Don’t forget]

She typed out the last message with a huff, set her phone to the side and waited.

It was then she remembered that her phone had the speech-to-text function and that she could’ve spared herself the trouble of typing with her non-dominant hand.

Oh well. At least Yeri knew she could live life as a left handed person for a while if she ever injured her right one. At least when it came to typing. She wasn't sure how she'd fare with other tasks.

Now she had to play the waiting game AKA the most boring game ever in existence.

How fun.

 

 

A few minutes passed by and Yeri was beginning to wonder what happened to Joy. Did she get lost? That was impossible. They all lived in the same dorm for years. Plus the layout didn’t magically change overnight. They didn't live in Hogwarts castle.

If Joy was outside of the dorm, she would’ve mentioned something in the texts. But she didn’t. All she did was act like her usual annoying self.

So why was she taking so freaking long?

Yeri contemplated on sending her another message, asking what was the hold up when her bedroom door suddenly slammed open, hitting the wall violently and causing the maknae to almost fall off her bed in surprise.

“Hey!," yelled Joy way too loudly than what was necessary. "Are you decent?”

“Jesus—“ Yeri gasped while clutching her chest to see if her heart was still beating from the unexpected outburst. “You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

Joy winked while waving around the very item Yeri asked for. “I’ve been told that I have that kind of effect on people.”

“Even if I wasn’t decent, it’d be too late by now don’t you think!”

Joy laughed as she walked towards Yeri's bed. “True. But we've changed in front of each other countless times so it wouldn't have been a big deal anyways.” She flopped herself onto the mattress stomach first and made herself comfortable, sighing in content. She laid there quietly for a few moments and Yeri almost thought that she passed out when the older girl abruptly turned her head and stuck out her hand. “Oh by the way, here’s your napkins.”

“Napkins? As in plural?”

“Yes. And I believe that since I went above and beyond in my duties, my reward should be doubled.”

Yeri rolled her eyes as she took the napkins from Joy with her free hand. As soon as she got the napkins, she immediately threw them back at the other girl.

Did Joy think she was stupid? "Yah! What the hell am I supposed to do with these?!"

"What else are napkins used for?" replied Joy innocently even though the mischevious smirk on her face showed that she was far from that.

"These are pieces of a napkin! Pieces! They're smaller than my freaking pinky!"

"Well you said to get you a napkin. You didn't specify that you wanted a full size napkin in your text message. So...."

Of course Joy would do something as stupid as that just for the sake of doing a prank.

Yeri slapped the prankster on the arm with her dirty hand which was met with an unnecessarily -sounding moan. "Do it again."

"You know I hit you with my dirty hand right?"

"That's okay. I don't mind being sullied by you."

The maknae didn't know how to respond to that other than visibly cringe in disgust. Joy busted up laughing. "Your face right now is totally priceless!"

"You're so annoying I swear....!"

After getting the laughter out of her system, Joy pulled out some other napkins and passed them to Yeri. "Here. And before you ask, yes, they're full size this time."

“Whatever." Yeri grumbled as she grabbed them and examined the napkins just to make sure they actually were full size. She didn't want to be tricked again and look like a complete idiot. When she was done with her visual examination, she started wiping her hand clean. "So? What do you want?”

Joy gasped as she rolled over and changed into a sitting up position on the bed, crossing her legs. “What? No ‘thank you so much for your help, unnie’ since I walked through such a long hallway when I was oh so busy looking through my script?”

Yeri was going to say something smart but couldn’t muster enough energy within those two seconds to come up with a good comeback. So she just gave in, which was something that rarely happened, if at all. “Thank you.”

She realized a few moments later that she shouldn’t have done that.

The older girl just stared at her suspiciously like she was an alien that had somehow assumed the form of Yeri and hid the real one in some top secret location somewhere. “What’s with you?” Joy asked, tone clearly worried. “You’re being.....weird.”

“You’re weird,” Yeri retorted without any energy as she set down the used napkin nearby, making a mental note to buy an emergency stash another day so she wouldn't suffer the same fate again in the future. She looked up at her accuser and scrunched up her face after seeing Joy stare at her intensely. “Why are you staring at me like that? Stop. It's creepy.”

“Okay something is up because the Yeri I know would have come up with five different insults on the spot. Not resorting to just….plain repetition like a grade schooler.” She stared at Yeri way more closely, trying to figure out what was going on.

It made the younger girl feel a bit uncomfortable being under such a scrutinzing gaze, like she was a specimen under a microscope that was being carefully studied for science.

“Spill.”

Yeri didn’t feel like talking about this, especially with her. She just wanted to be alone and sulk in peace. “There’s nothing to 'spill' unless you want me to dump my soda all over your head. That is totally doable.”

The older girl scoffed. “Oh please. It’s written all over your face. Something is obviously wrong. You look extra annoyed today for some reason.”

“You’re annoying me by being here.”

“Did Ari get divorced already?” asked Joy randomly, seemingly ignoring what Yeri said just moments before.

“What?“ Yeri blinked, confused by the question that came out of nowhere. “No she’s still happily married thank you very much.”

At least to her knowledge. If the worldwide pop star did get divorced, it’d be all over the news and internet. But she didn't see anything of the sort on her feed so she figured they were still together.

“If not then…..wait…are the servers down for your game?”

It seemed that Joy was going to continuously ask the randomest of questions in an attempt to figure out what was going on.

Not if Yeri had anything to do with it. She wasn’t going to confirm anything. And what better way to get that point across than by not answering any more questions?

Yeri crossed her arms, clearly showing that she wasn't going to give any more answers. “I’m not answering anything else without my lawyer present.”

She didn't actually have a lawyer, but it just sounded like the right thing to say at the time.

Joy shook her head while rubbing her chin in thought, yet again ignoring what Yeri said. “Actually no