JOOHYUN’S living room had never been that loud and lively until the band gathered in her place. The Episode 0 of the competition was aired on that Friday night where all the band performances were aired. 

The production also requested for them to take a reaction video of them watching the said episode and they all agreed to view it in Joohyun’s place without even asking for the Director’s permission. They all cornered the director saying that it was part of the role of the band manager. 

Joohyun just rolled her eyes and just went with whatever the members were asking. They gathered in Joohyun’s house after work, had dinner together before finding their places in the living room. Yes, it was indeed a sleepover. 

As honorary members of the band, Sooyoung and Minjoo also joined the sleepover but they made sure their faces won’t come out in the camera together with Joohyun. Yujin smirked at Minjeong which made the girl annoyed. 

“What the hell is with that face?” Minjeong asked as she glared at Yujin.

Yujin’s eyebrow wriggled. “Aren’t you jealous? You’re the only one without a pair~”

Joohyun’s eyes widened at that comment. ‘Hey, are they already pairing me up with Kang-daeri?’

Before Minjeong could hit Yujin with the sofa pillow, Seulgi who was sitting on the ground joined their conversation. “What do you mean by only one? I and Director Bae don't have a pair as well…”

The three just looked at Seulgi with those judging eyes. Seungwan took the pillow from Minjeong and threw it to Seulgi. “Hey! What’s that for?”

“No pair, my !” Seungwan shouted at her and immediately blocked Seulgi’s revenge attack. The three then turned to Joohyun’s direction and gave her a meaningful look.

“What?” Joohyun asked with her right eyebrow raised. But there was no answer from the three. They just kept looking at Joohyun.

“What? What is happening?” Seulgi asked before looking at Joohyun with those panicking eyes. “Director…? Don’t tell me you already got a new—ACK!”

Seulgi was hit straight to the face with a fast pillow coming from Joohyun. The others laughed at the scene.

“Director’s clearly upset with you, Unnie!” Yujin commented.

“Eyy, silly Unnie!” Minjeong just shook her head. She was quite thankful that Seulgi actually saved her from Yujin’s teasing.

“Director Bae will be so frustrated with you, Seulgi.” Seungwan laughed. 

“Stop it, stop!” Joohyun shouted at the grade schoolers. “Your performance is up next!”

“The camera is recording now.” Minjoo gave them an okay sign after checking the camera lent by the production team to them.

“This is more exciting since we watch it all together!” Sooyoung said with clasped hands. “I can’t wait!”

“Here we go!” 

Close up shots of their faces were shown first which made Yujin and Minjeong burst out laughing. They laughed at Seulgi’s face even more because she didn’t even bother looking at the camera even though they were told by the production to look.

Seulgi immediately turned red in embarrassment and hid her face on the pillow that Joohyun threw at her. 

They all took turns teasing each other whenever one is being shown on screen. They all cringed on Seungwan’s cheesiness when she commented that her singing in front of the camera was for Sooyoung. They laughed loudly on how Minjeong was seen either looking down or closing her eyes, proving the judges’ comments to be true.

Seulgi melted in her place when the teasing went back to her as she was shown looking in just one part of the audience. The bassist wanted to evaporate into thin air because she could see in her parallel vision that Joohyun was watching very intently.

When the song finished, they all looked at each other in silence before giving one another a high-five.

“We really did well!” Seungwan energetically said. “Though we really need a rhythm guitarist for better sound, we actually did pretty well.”

“When will our rhythm guitarist ever come back?” Minjeong sighed. “My back hurts from carrying all of you—”

“Ya!” Yujin poked her cheek. “Your back hurts from what again? Huh!?”

“It was really good.” Seulgi said with a gentle smile which stopped the premature fight between the youngest preschoolers. “Good job, Yujin. Good job, Minjeong.”

The two youngest’s eyes sparkled in joy as they jumped from the sofa and gave Seulgi a big hug. Joohyun felt like she had seen this scene before and couldn’t help to imagine that the two were golden retrievers. 

“Thank you, Seulgi-unnie!” Yujin was about to kiss Seulgi on the cheek but the latter was fast to shove her face away.

“Thank you, Unnie!” Minjeong was rubbing her cheeks on Seulgi’s shoulder which kind of tickled the other girl. 

“Stop it, you two!” Seulgi sounded annoyed at first but the sound of her laughter soon filled the room. Joohyun felt a warm feeling in her chest. Just months ago, Seulgi was doing her best to be away from the bass, she didn’t hang out with the members as well. Joohyun could still remember how gloomy Seulgi looked back then. She felt relieved to see progress in her even bit by bit. 

“Unnie is so cute.”

Joohyun turned to her left where Sooyoung was sitting. She was also the one who whispered that comment. Sooyoung just gave her a meaningful smile before looking back at Seulgi and the others. You can see the sincere happiness in the eyes of the younger girl.

“Hey, why am I the one not praised?” Seungwan whined before running to Sooyoung for comfort. Seeing this, Yujin also ran to Minjoo and hugged her girlfriend. Thankfully, the recording was already turned off before the puppies were unleashed. 

Being the only one left hugging Seulgi, Minjeong turned into a grumpy puppy and jumped back to the sofa. She hugged her knees like a little kid throwing a mild tantrum. “Go ahead and run to your pair, Seulgi-unnie.”

Seulgi’s eyebrows twitched. “My pair?”

The room then fell silent. It was only the sound from the TV being heard. Seulgi then turned towards the place where Joohyun and the others were sitting. 

“W-What?” Joohyun asked as she met her stare. “W-What are you looking at?”

The others were trying their best not to smile. Even Minjeong, who was supposed to be throwing tantrums, was smiling secretly. Seulgi just stared at Joohyun for a moment before finally cutting the connection of their stares. 

A faint smile curved up her lips. 

“Let’s not do this.” Seulgi sighed but her smile wasn’t faltering. “Let’s not bur—”

All of them flinched when a phone started ringing. It was Seulgi’s. The bassist immediately took her phone from the centre table when she saw that the caller ID was flashing for everyone to see.

“K-Kim Tae—”

Seungwan’s words were cut when Seulgi suddenly stood up. “I-I-I’ll just answer this!”

The girl immediately ran towards the verandah before answering the call. The gang was left in silence, looking at one another with those doubting eyes. 

“I-Is that who I think it is?” Yujin turned to Seungwan. “Is that really Kim Taeyeon-ssi!?”

Minjeong quickly went to the end of the sofa to be nearer to gossip. “We’ve seen it all, right? Taeyeon-ssi was really into Seulgi-unnie at the shoot in the company! She even visited us in the waiting room during round 1, too… Though it was said that she visited all the other groups…”

“T-Taeyeon-ssi is into Seulgi-unnie?” Minjoo asked which Yujin immediately answered with a nod. 

“You didn’t see it that time because you were called by the Chairman but she was really into Seulgi-unnie. Even Seungwan-unnie’s sensor sensed that!” Yujin eagerly explained. “She just wont’ let Seulgi-unnie out of her sight.”

“Right, right.” Minjeong seconded. “When Seulgi-unnie was called by Director Bae from some makeup retouch, Taeyeon-ssi suddenly looked so bored and she kept looking at her watch and at the door.

‘So, is Taeyeon-ssi one of the two people interested in Unnie!?’ Sooyoung thought while listening to the others, Her eyes widened in realisation. ‘Come to think of it. She said she can’t respond to her invitation because of work! It’s because Taeyeon-ssi is the MC of the show!’

Seungwan closed the open mouth of her wife by gently pushing her jaw up. “Bugs will enter your mouth if you don’t close it.”

“Hey, there are no bugs in this house!” Joohyun retorted with a frown.

“Director Bae~” Seungwan called as s