My old bandmates invited me to sing with them not because they lack one member but simply for fun. Also, it’s been five years—or maybe six—since we built the band. The band formed only because we all enjoyed music. We played in bars too if we got invited. Until the rest of the members became passionate and wanted to pursue music.

I didn’t see myself doing it for a long time. It’s just something I really do enjoy. My friends understood me but it didn’t take a long time for them to get a new drummer. We still play together but since they already built a career in music, it became less frequent.

I got a call from Yonghoon-oppa asking if I wanted to play with them. I never hesitated to say no. I told Yongsun-unnie that I’ll play with my band friends. Yongsun-unnie told Hyejin and now Byulyi-unnie and Hyejin wanted to tag along.

“It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen you play, Wheein-ah” Byulyi-unnie said from the driver seat.

They somehow decided to go in one car only. We only took Hyejin’s car because Byulyi-unnie volunteered to do so.

“Yes. It’s been so long since I’ve seen them too. I missed playing with them”

“I’ve heard their songs. They’re really doing great”

“I still always listen to their songs, unnie!”

“Shall we play them?” Hyejin suggested from the passenger seat. “Do you have them on your phone, Wheein-ah?”

“Yup!”

I connected my phone to the car’s stereo and played my favorite song from my friends’ discography. I smiled at hearing Yongsun-unnie humming in satisfaction.

“You like it, unnie?”

She met my smile with one of her own as she gave me a nod. She scooted closer to me and rested her cheek on my head.

“You shouldn’t have volunteered to drive, babe,” Hyejin said to Byulyi-unnie, which got unnie confused.

“Ah… Why?”

Hyejin pouted at Byulyi-unnie as she said, “I want to cuddle like them too…”

All three of us laughed at Hyejin’s whine while Byulyi-unnie reached over to Hyejin to hold her hand.

“We can cuddle later in bed”

“No naughty things under my watch, Byul-ah”

Hyejin’s head snapped towards Yongsun-unnie to glare at her. “Back at ya, Solar”

Even though Byulyi-unnie was quiet, she’s also giving me a warning by glaring at me through the rear view mirror. I raised my eyebrows at unnie and she only narrowed her gaze, giving me a pointed look.

“Of course. We don’t want Wheein to turn red and stay mum for the rest of the day all over again or else she’ll explode”

Now, I glared at Yongsun-unnie while she only grinned at me. “What? If I don’t get embarrassed you’d actually do it”

“I prefer not to answer”

“Yah!”

The car was covered in all three of their laughter. I pouted at all of them and playfully smacked Yongsun-unnie’s arm who laughed the loudest.

No shame. She has no shame at all!

My friends’ set will still be later in the evening so the three of us check into our hotel first before heading to the venue. Hyejin and Yongsun-unnie being so extra, instead of renting two separate rooms in a more cost-friendly hotel, they rented a penthouse-style hotel room. It’s like three times bigger than my apartment.

There’s a full kitchen, a spacious dining area, and an even more spacious living room. There are two bedrooms—one with a queen size bed and the other has two single beds. Each bedroom has its own bathroom and then there’s a huge separate bathroom with just a tub with glass walls overlooking the magnificent mountainous forest across from the hotel. There’s also a huge balcony with the same overlooking view.

“We’ll decide who gets which bedroom. Let’s head out first. I’m hungry already” Hyejin said.

Byulyi-unnie can’t say no to her wife. Yongsun-unnie can’t say no to her sister. I can’t say no to food. Besides, I am not tired since I wasn’t the one who drove us here. And so, we dropped our bags in the living room and then went out to look for food.

We went to eat samgyeopsal. I cooked the meat while they all impatiently waited for me to finish. I have to be the one cooking or else we’ll risk eating raw meat. They told me they went out to eat out back when Yongsun-unnie had broken up. Nobody had the patience to wait for the meat to be cooked and so, ten seconds after the meat touched the grill, they started eating.

“Were your tummies okay?” I asked as I glanced at all of them.

“We survived,” Byulyi-unnie said with a laugh.

There was a round of laughter on our table while I was taking out already cooked meat. They immediately started eating while I loaded more meat on the grill.

“Wheeinie…” Yong-unnie called with a wrap ready in her hand. “Open up”

She giggled as she watched me try to take the huge wrap in one mouth opening. I had to chew it first so I could actually take the entire thing in my mouth. She let go of it when it was just halfway through my mouth to grab her phone.

And guess what? Yup! To take pictures of me. She still has this as her hobby.

I let go of the tongs to hold the wrap. I tried calling her name while glaring at her but with my mouth still full, only an unpleasant name came out.

“Hold still, baby”

I stopped chewing for her. It was really a struggle and the only thing she did was laugh at me.

“Oh, Wheein-ah! The meat’s burning!” Byulyi-unnie said, panicking.

“Ya!” I hurriedly grabbed the tongs and took them off the grill. Then I glared at Yongsun-unnie. I glared at her until I finished chewing the wrap she made for me. “Look what you did, unnie!”

“It’s not like you’re the only one who needs to do the cooking”

So I passed the tongs to her. “You cook then”

She raised an eyebrow while smirking at me. “You already cook all of them”

“Ah…” I scanned the table and she’s right. I’ve already done them all. I pouted at her instead.

“And besides, you don’t want to eat raw meat.” She winked and started making another wrap for me. A smaller one this time. “Open up again”

I took the wrap with ease this time and did a small happy dance. Who wouldn’t be happy with food?

Yong-unnie smiled at my dance and I grinned back at her. Her smiles are better these days. Her brown eyes are a lot brighter too.

It is indeed a lot different now than before. I have no apprehensions towards our relationship despite taking things slow. I’m not worried anymore at all. We both are.

“Where did you leave your babies?” Hyejin asked, words stifled by the amount of food in .

“Jihoon volunteered to watch over them,” Yongsun-unnie said with a giggle. Such admiration towards her nephew. “Jihoon would enjoy having them but I hope they won’t give Yonghee-unnie a hard time”

“They get along well. Ggomo and Yongkeey” I said. “It’s probably because Yongkeey is a quiet observer at home than when she’s outside. Ggomo judges everyone but he’s chill towards Yongkeey”

Byulyi-unnie nodded. “That’s nice”

“Yup! They have the same colors too! Like they’re brother and sister”

Yongsun-unnie giggled beside me, her hand gently squeezing my knee under the table. “It’s why I decided to adopt her other than she’s a good girl”

“Oh, we have to decide on the room assignments.” Hyejin hugged Byulyi-unnie’s arm while grinning at Yong-unnie. “Byulyi-unnie and I stay at the master bedroom”

“That’s fine. Wheein can sleep on top of me”

It was not my intention to cough my coke at Byulyi-unnie’s face. Not at all. Yongsun-unnie’s directness and bluntness are still things I’m not used to. It will always catch me off guard.

“Oh my! I’m sorry, unnie!” I stood up and grabbed some tissues for her. I helped her wipe her face while she only sighed defeatedly. “I’m sorry, unnie! It really wasn’t my intention”

Hyejin was laughing the loudest at seeing Byulyi-unnie’s face getting wet. Yong-unnie too. Although her laugh was more of like a giggle than a loud mocking laugh like Hyejin’s.

“It’s alright, Wheein-ah”

As an apology, Hyejin grabbed some tissues and helped Byulyi-unnie clean up. She was still laughing at her wife so Byulyi-unnie let out another heavy sigh. And since unnie already accepted my apology, it finally dawned on me how funny the scene was. And so, I giggled along with Yongsun-unnie.

“I’m sorry, Byul-ah. It has become my habit to make Wheenie flustered. I actually wanted to share the master bedroom with Hyejin. If that’s okay?”

Hyejin and Byulyi-unnie’s eyes snapped to Yongsun-unnie, eyes wide open from shock.

“You want to sleep with me, unnie?” Hyejin asked.

“Yeah… I think it’s a good opportunity to sleep beside you again. I somehow missed the old times”

“Aigoo…” the two of them teased.

I smiled happily at Yong-unnie. Mochi cheeks so cute being this sentimental.

“And I missed sleeping beside Byulyi-unnie too”

The two stopped their teasing and considered the suggestion more seriously. They looked at each other, communicating through their eyes only. Byulyi-unnie nodded at Hyejin while Hyejin returned it with a shrug.

“I don’t mind, Yongyong-unnie. I do think it’s a great idea”

“Just to keep everything in check. We don’t want anything naughty to happen, right?”

Hyejin gave Yongsun-unnie a pointed look that made unnie chuckle. “I should be the one saying that, unnie. I mean with the incident during our beach vaca—”

“In my defense!” I inserted, “I informed unnie that Yong-unnie was sleeping at our place. And she didn’t knock!” I pointed an accusing finger at unnie.

Byulyi-unnie blinked her eyes as if to appear innocent. “I thought you forgot about that day—”

“Ah! Bla! Bla! Bla!” I covered my ears and closed my eyes. “I don’t know what you all are talking about”

I could still hear them laughing while feeling my cheeks burning, lips pouting.

Arms s around my waist and a gentle kiss pressed on my cheek, which I knew came from Yongsun-unnie. She rested her chin on my shoulder while they continued to laugh at me. She hugged me closer to comfort me.

“It’s alright, sweetheart. No one remembered that morning at all”

I hid my face at my safe spot so they couldn’t see how flushed my cheeks were. I hid on Yong-unnie’s neck.

“Noona!”

“Dongmyeong! Yonghoon-oppa!”

I let go of Yongsun-unnie’s hand and ran to my friends that I’ve missed for a long time. I threw myself at Yonghoon-oppa who easily caught me. Then I hugged Dongmyeong next before seeing the other three members joining us.

“Cya! Kanghyun! Harin! I missed you all!”

I gave all three of them a hug before the six of us hugged together again, laughing and throwing greetings at each other. I was able to finally tell them in person how much I love all of their songs and that I’ve been listening to them all the time.

“We even listened to your songs on our way here! Oh, yeah…”

I went to look for my companions and saw them standing just a few distances away. Hyejin and Byulyi-unnie were looking around the bar, probably to look for an empty table. Yongsunnie’s eyes, however, were locked with mine right away while she had an easy smile on her face.

“Let me introduce you to the ones I’m with.” I turned to my three companions and beckoned them over. I stood in between Byulyi-unnie and Yongsun-unnie while my hand held Yongsunnie’s. “You remember Byulyi-unnie, right?”

Byulyi-unnie waved at them. “Hi, everyone. Nice to see you again. Looking forward to your set later”

I pointed at Hyejin next. “And this is Hyejin. Byulyi-unnie’s wife.” Then I turned to my girlfriend and smiled at seeing her already looking at me. “And this is Yongsun-unnie, my girlfriend”

There’s a round of ‘oohs’ as they teased me. Yongsunnie only giggled beside me while Byulyi-unnie joined my former bandmates. I only smiled despite the light blush on my cheeks.

“Nice to meet you both. I hope you’ll enjoy our set. Wheein will join us in the second set. For now, I hope you’ll enjoy!”

We exchanged greetings before we separated. They have to prepare to play later while we have to settle down. Byulyi-unnie and I went to order while Hyejin and Yongsunnie looked for a table. We found them sitting not so far from the stage, which is nice. We brought chips, tteokbokki for Yongsunnie and fried chicken for Hyejin. We got beers and cocktails too.

I sit closer to my girlfriend seeing that more people are coming in the bar. She placed her arm on my shoulders as we leaned on each other.

“I think it’s going to be full tonight,” Yongsunnie whispered.

I pouted because the thought made me nervous. “It is…” I leaned closer to her until I was already hugging her waist and she simply adjusted to accommodate me. “I’m nervous, unnie”

There’s a soft chuckle of amusement before I felt her leaving a kiss on my head. “You know where we’re sitting, right?”

“Uh hmm…”

“Will it make you less nervous if you’ll look at us? Look at me?”

“I think so…”

“Then only look at me if you’re nervous. I won’t take my eyes off you, Whee”

“Okay…” I closed my eyes to sigh out my anxiousness. “Thank you, unnie. I’ll give my best”

She rubbed her hand on my arm as her way to comfort me. “I know you will, my baby.” She suddenly chuckled, catching my attention. “I remembered Gabby has episodes. Anxious episodes”

I pulled back to look at her because this really grabbed my attention. “Do tell if it’s okay”

“You know her anxiousness is drawn from her past, right?”

I nodded.

“I didn’t understand it at first so I always accompany her all the time and cheer her up”

“Ahh… So sweet of you, unnie”

She smiled at my teasing. “It will always take a lot of convincing so she wouldn’t be nervous and scared. Even when we hit the bed, I have to always reassure her that I won’t leave her”

When we started our relationship again, I wanted her to be open about her life w