“Was that really Daeyeol on the  call?” Talia asked as they scuddled to the car amidst the chilly breeze of night.

            “Of course, I wouldn’t have made us all book it out of there if it wasn’t,” Alex confirmed, hurriedly unlocking her car. “The least we could do is give them some alone time,” she snickered as Talia entered the car.

            “What do you think they’re talking about?” Talia inquired, her curiosity overtaking her partially out of excitement for her friend and partially so she could compare her own experiences afterwards. While she and Seungmin still talked regularly, often, she had to call him, always unaware of his schedule and wanting to take the burden of the initiative from him. They often spent hours on the phone when time allowed and she had gathered much about his ambivert personality, constantly asking how his day was and encouraging him to rest when he had a chance though she was a hypocrite behind her own words. On other days, when he had a tight schedule, they often only texted brief good mornings or good nights and, if she didn’t know any better, she would think he was using an automated service like Pocketdols to rattle off those texts. Yet, Daeyeol had just “met” Lylah and she was curious about what they would talk about. While they all knew that Lylah was head over heels for Daeyeol even before becoming a committed stan, no one knew what Daeyeol was thinking, regardless of how much Talia and Fay begged Seungmin and Joochan, respectively, for information. Moreover, he had called her a mere few days after meeting, something that Talia wished Seungmin had more courage and willpower to do on his own.

            “Who knows, but whatever it is, I stan. You saw the way that he was looking at her the other day, right? This could be another Joochan/Fay situation. We can only hope at least,” Alex replied optimistically as she was a shameless, avid supporter of the ship.

            “It would be a miracle if it was. Who would have thought something like that could come so easily,” Talia almost huffed, wishing that her own relationship with Seungmin could be that smooth. Such luck, she was sure, certainly couldn’t strike twice, though she was happy if it did. She would cheer for her friend if this was the case and she wouldn’t despise her, but rather, she coveted the ease with which Fay and Lylah seemed to be navigating their budding relationships. She was patient, for the most part, and would give Seungmin all the time that he needed to come to terms with his feelings for her and often, his “I love you” rang through her head, reminding her of her purpose and stance in the relationship. Yet, it was difficult to see something she longed for so long be replicated and echoed in her two closest friends without an ounce of their luck trickling down to her.

            “Well, he is the leader. He’s been trained to have this type of confidence and just go for things. Plus, his brother is also an idol. Being bold seems to run in the family—and we’re glad it does,” Alex hypothesized as they pulled out of the parking space and down the short block to the Jack in the Box. “You know full well that not everyone can have the confidence of an idiot. It takes time for some of us to know what we want, let alone chase what we want,” she added, her mind wandering to Y though her message was centered on Seungmin. In accordance with Y’s rules, she had not had any private chats with Seungmin so any interaction with him came through the occasional group chat message and any image of him was an amalgamation of what she could glean from the others on the chat, her own thoughts and feelings about him, and Talia’s reinterpretations of their conversations. Needless to say, it was muddled, everything and nothing all at once. The Seungmin she knew was still the one from the party, the one who couldn’t fix himself to say the right words, couldn’t fix himself to do the right thing, to think before he acted. The Seungmin she knew was still the princely yet slightly shy idol from the photoshoot, the same one that said “Don’t worry, I’ll come back for you,” after remembering her enough to choose a new, more intimate pose the second time they met. The Seungmin she knew was the power center, the tiny giant who could do everything but reach the top shelf. She didn’t know the Seungmin that chatted with Y before his departure. She didn’t know the Seungmin that always had double meaning cloaked behind his sweet nothings. She didn’t know the Seungmin who held Talia’s heart captive in the same maze that he had sheltered his own. She did know that Talia was madly and unexplainably in love with this same Seungmin, every one of him. She did know that Talia was doubtful, skeptical, and treading far too lightly, too cautiously for this relationship to advance the way that she wanted. She did know that Talia clung to everything he said and would continue to chase him and his words through that same maze until she got him for herself once and for all. Talia was often stronghearted and hardheaded, but even now, she needed reminding that, while it seemed that she was putting in all the effort to construct and reach the Seungmin of her dreams, she was still his dream to chase once he decided definitively upon it.

            “I have to give Daeyeol credit, he’s a bold one for real,” she nodded, “And they’re so flipping cute that I’m glad he did something first because we all know Yvie would sit back and do nothing, pine from afar or whatever,” she added truthfully.

            “Right?! Lylah talks her from time to time, but she doesn’t give herself enough credit. She could—and did—pull Daeyeol and now we get to watch it all unfold,” Alex cheered as they pulled into the drive through. “I literally cannot give a about anything else as long as I get my Daeyeol/Lylah and my Joochan/Fay cruise ships. If not, I will go down with either one of them, I don’t even care,” she declared frankly before rolling down her window to order. Talia nodded in silent disagreement before turning her attention to the menu board.

            “Ok, but imagine the next concert and those two meet? Of course, we’re going to be pretty close to the stage, so Daeyeol sees her and he has to keep it lowkey, right, but you saw that stupid smile he had the other day. Do you think he’d be able to keep it together?” Talia pondered after they had placed their orders and ordered for Fay.

            “Her or him? Place your bets on who folds first. You know how Lylah is. Do you even think she’d be able to keep eye contact with him if he looked at her during a ment or something?”

            “True, true, but Daeyeol seems down pretty bad for her, too. He may have made the first move, but that doesn’t mean that he would be any better at holding it together. If anything, he has it even harder because he’s literally trained to keep up his image and be faithful to all of Goldenness, but if he runs around doing things like this, he’s already gone. He’s going to lose it,” she rationalized.

            “And this is why I’m buying an extra Daeyeol snapshot just in case,” Alex pointed out. “For science. I used the extra Seungmin one for you for science so I could try to tell how tall he is and now, I’ll get an extra Daeyeol, give it to her and analyze who loses it first, for science. You know, psychology or whatever.”

            Talia winced slightly at the mention of Seungmin and how her entire relationship with him stemmed from a single spare snapshot. Alex, always one to go big or go home regarding any and all merch or snapshots, had ordered multiple Seungmin snapshots for the Philly show. Yet, because she had been unable to procure snapshots for that venue due to work, Talia would have had to leave the venue as Alex frolicked about between the members for who knows how long. Noticing the problem and not wanting Talia to feel excluded, Alex gave her her spare Seungmin photo, more than happy to simply have more time with Bomin so she could figure out how best to the way he had . She had claimed it was for science since no one, no fansite, no members profile page, hell, probably not even the members, knew Seungmin’s true height. If Talia posed with him, Alex might be able to gauge his height and propose an accurate number. For Alex, it was for the sake of mischief. For Talia, this had turned to so much more. This had turned to now. Granted, she had started developing feelings for Seungmin since the very first L.A. show, walking out of the venue smiling unabashedly, rambling about how charming he was and his massive and alluring stage presence. However, after the Summer Stage and the Philly shows, to say Talia was smitten would be a gross understatement. He didn’t know it, but he had his heart tucked into the pocket of his crisp and glittering white button up on that stage, jostling it around with his clean moves and resonating it to its core with his smooth, melodic voice. The photo was what made it real. Being so close to him, hearing his giggle and seeing his charmingly crooked smile only for her, made it real, validated her feelings for her. Though she would not admit it, she often wondered if she would feel as strongly for him had she not had the photo with him. Would she have rambled on about him the way she did, walk out of the venue glowing the way she did, still follow him tirelessly though the comebacks and previous videos the way she did, put as much effort into this ambiguous relationship as she did? She couldn’t be sure, but she knew that, as with her, a photo with Daeyeol for Lylah would likely deepen her already bubbling feelings for him.

            “We have to get one for Joochan, too, because Fay didn’t get to have a photo with him during the very first show and that’s just not right, you know,” she reminded Alex as they drove off with the food after paying.

            “You know what, you’re right. That was unfair because clearly, since they’re married, she should just have had all the photos with him, even at the first one, even if she couldn’t buy one on time ‘cause she was at work,” Alex concurred.

            “But wait, if they’re already getting married, wouldn’t they just take more pictures at their wedding?” Talia countered.

            “Doesn’t matter, the vibes. The fits, the venue, the atmosphere, everything is in that photo,” Alex retorted. It was true. Every memory, every image of the members was in the photos she had of them. While they now had a group chat and she had Y’s necklace, everything she knew about the members before or after them were in those photos. Jangjun’s endearingly idiotic personality was in his as his “Long time, no see,” greeting to her after returning to his line a whole two minutes later was in that