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Chapter Text

"Whoa, you're up early"

"I was forced, Dani literally dragged me out of bed," Hanni replied sleepily, adjusting her eyes to the brightness of the phone screen. It was way too early for Hanni to be awake at the moment and her body was still trying to function properly. She was struggling to even stay up to continue the conversation.

The cold autumn air was probably the only thing keeping her awake, "why does it has to be so cold here...," she mumbled, shivering slightly as the wind blows.

"Why is it so dark? Are you outside right now?" Minji's voice sounding more concerned rather than curious. Hanni never goes out so early in the morning, and definitely never woke up as early as 5:30 a.m. on a holiday. She would often wake up a bit later.

"Yeah, but I'm just in front of my apartment to take out the trash, don't worry," Hanni explained. Minji, knowing Hanni, she saw right through her lie just by the tone of her voice but decided to play along anyways to see how long Hanni's lie could last.

Hanni has never been a good liar- or at least that's what Minji believes since the younger girl can't seem to hide anything from Minji. Just as Hanni was about to speak up, the train station's PA system started to announce that the train is arriving.

Hanni cursed internally.

"The train station isn't anywhere near your apartment. Hanni Pham, are you lying to me?" Minji furrowed her brows, sounding more concerned (and also slightly mad) than before.

Minji knew that Hanni was lying about where she was but she didn't expect her to be at a train station. 'what is she doing there?' 'didn't she say she was going to stay indoors all day with Dani?' 'why didn't she mention anything earlier?' Minji's thoughts kept on replaying in her head.

Hanni and Minji text and call daily so the fact that Hanni is traveling somewhere by train so early in the morning and lying to Minji about it seems very suspicious of her. Minji wanted an explanation and Hanni wasn't going to give her one.

Instead, she just panicked, running towards her luggage and shaking her phone in the process, leaving Minji with just a blurry image of her. She caught a glimpse of Danielle checking what Minji believes to be train tickets.

"Hanni, the train is here, we have to go! Come on!" She heard Dani shout.

"I'm trying!" Hanni exclaimed as she dragged her luggage into the train.

"Where are you going with that big of a luggage? Are you going to stay somewhere far for a while? Hanni Pham, answer me!"

"Well, um- I gotta go, I'll call you later!"

"Wait, Hanni-," she hung up.

__________

'The train will be moving shortly, please keep all your belongings under watch at all times, thank you.' the PA system announced.

Hanni sat down and placed her luggage right in front of her. Even though there was only her and Danielle on the train at the moment due to the odd hour the pair decided to take, she wasn't going to let her guard down.

"How'd the call with your girlfriend go?" Danielle teased, taking a seat next to Hanni.

"First of all, she definitely knows we're going somewhere. Luckily, she doesn't know where. She's so going to scold me later..." Hanni sighed.

"Obviously, you're bad at lying when it comes to Minji."

"Secondly, she is not my girlfriend." yet, Hanni hopes.

"I can't believe how long you guys are taking to get together... It's been 3 years since you started liking her!" Danielle stated, visibly frustrated at her friend's choice of actions.

"What am I supposed to do anyways? Call her right now and say 'I've liked you since the day we met, would you please be my girlfriend?'" Hanni replied in a sarcastic tone, slumping further down her seat, making herself comfortable.

"Yes, but no. Don't say it like that... and if you dare confess to her over a call I might as well suffocate you with this," Dani said, holding up a stuffed octopi toy, "We're going to give her a surprise visit, right? You have to tell her face to face!"

"Says the girl who haven't even met their crush irl, "Hanni mumbled loud enough for Dani to hear.

"Hey, don't change the subject! This is about you and Minji, not me and Haerin!" Danielle smacked Hanni's shoulder. And if you're wondering, yes, Danielle and Haerin are online friends. They met in a game about cats. And yes, Haerin's username is 'tomato_frog'...

"Owch dude, what the heck!?"

"You deserved that, and if you don't tell her by the end of our trip, I'm leaving you there," Dani joked, placing the stuffed octopi toy on Hanni's head.

"Okay, I'll try"

"Wait, seriously!?" Danielle's eyes widened in shock, shifting her body to face Hanni who was slowly drifting to sleep, still not used to being awake so early.

"Yeah, I'll try..." Hanni said softly before falling asleep.

Chapter Text

Hanni hummed softly, following the tune of the song that was playing on her earphones, staring out the bus window, liking the fact that Danielle let her have the window seat, admiring the view of the city she rarely gets to go to.

The scenery was so different from the neighborhood she lives in, there were tall buildings everywhere and the road is always full of cars and other vehicles. The buildings looked very interesting, their exterior design never fails to amaze Hanni who was still staring out the window, taking everything in.

'I wonder how it feels like to live in such an area' Hanni thought to herself. Hanni lives alone in an apartment near her school because her parents are busy with work in Australia, though she insisted on staying, that doesn't mean she doesn't feel lonely sometimes.

Luckily, she met Danielle Marsh, a bright and friendly girl who would never seem to let her get the chance to feel lonely. Hanni and Danielle first met on the first day of high school, Hanni was struggling to find her classroom and Danielle was kind enough to help her out, they quickly became friends afterwards.

Danielle, also being Aussie gave Hanni a sense of familiarity that she really needed back then when she would often get homesick. They would often have sleepovers and hang out whenever they get the chance to, so much so that Hanni's parents trusted Danielle with taking care of their beloved daughter in any scenario whatsoever.

Danielle's parents are also really fond of Hanni and would often invite her over for dinner and even in their family events, Hanni was like a daughter to them.

"Hanniiiiiiii, look at what Haerin sent me!" Danielle, who was seated next to her on the bus broke Hanni's concentration on the view outside, shaking her shoulder's slightly trying to get her attention as she showed the image her online friend with the username 'tomato_frog' sent her on her phone; it was a picture a cat, most likely a Callico cat, loafing on a bookshelf with the caption 'this little trickster knocked down my books yesterday...' under it.

"It's so cute! Should I send a pic of the place when we get there?," Danielle continued, still smiling at how cute the cat is.

"You've only known her for a day, what if she's some kind of kidnapper in disguise? Or even worst, what if she was in the area and tried to abduct you? You should probably get to know her more first," Hanni advised with her earphones still on, looking at Dani with a semi worried expression.

"Fine, but I don't think she's a kidnapper. She's just like us, a normal high schooler."

"Whatever, as long as you're not gonna get in trouble, I'm fine" Hanni said, changing the song on her Walkman, "Here, want it?", giving the other side of the earphone to Danielle.

"Sure," she put it on. They stayed in comfortable silence while listening to 'Butterflies' by Micheal Jackson and a bunch of other songs on Hanni's playlist, waiting to arrive their destination.

The bus was heading to a science exhibition mostly made by students with the help of their teachers which was held in a building in the city. The school decided to plan a half a day trip there, it was an event especially made for students, from primary schoolers to secondary schoolers.

Not many people from their school decided to sign up for it, there was only around 30 people who joined the trip. Since the trip was on a school day, it means that they had the day off. How could they resist such an offer?

"Hey Dani, look," Hanni said, pointing out the window where a big building that was shaped like a semi sphere -a dome basically, was situated. "Is that where we're going to? It looks fun!" Danielle couldn't help but feel excited already.

"I think so. The teacher's told us to go in groups or pairs later so we don't get lost. You're stuck with me," the shorter one said. "Obviously, but that means you're stuck with me too," Danielle let out a giggle, linking her arms around Hanni's.

A few minutes later, the bus parked somewhere near the venue. "Okay, is everyone here?" one of the teachers asked, counting the number of students on the bus, "great, now, I want all of you to get down and don't forget any of your stuff on the bus, please line up, we're taking attendance."

Hanni took of her earphones and stuffed them in her pocket, standing up and fixing her skirt up after sitting for about an hour on the bus. Danielle on the other hand was fixing her hair in her small heart-shaped hand mirror to look more presentable.

They both got off the bus and lined up as they were told. The teacher started giving them a briefing of what not to do, where and when they were going to meet up after the exhibition and everyone headed to the entrance. The dome was huge, it was crowded with students from different schools and it there were a variety of food trucks just outside. There was even a small inflatable planetarium right in the middle of the dome.

Hanni found it quite funny, 'a dome inside a bigger dome, huh', she thought.

"Looks like we can do whatever we want now. Lets go check the exhibitions," Dani grabbed the older one by the hand and pulled her along, "Which one should we go to first?" she asked. "Maybe that one over there. It looks cool" Hanni tilted her head towards the direction of the exhibition she mentioned. "Oh that does looks cool, lets go!"

They kept on going from one exhibition to another, they had a wide range of topics and activities to choose from. They played a lot of the games there and getting free candy in return, they also received badges from the front counters. After a while, they went outside because it was too crowded inside to take a breather.

"I'm so tired already..." Hanni sighed sitting down with her face buried in her knees on the staircase just outside the venue, "my legs are done for..."

"Don't be so dramatic, your legs wont break from this," Danielle countered, also exhausted from all the walking but still manages to stand up and reach for her phone in her pocket, "I can't believe we've been walking around for 2 hours already..."

"Dani, could you buy us food?" the older girl pleaded, handing her some money from her purse while still sitting, acting as if she couldn't get up, "just buy me anything you think I'd eat. Oh, and get me a drink too."

"For a person asking for a favor, you're quite demanding y'know," the younger one replied as she took the money, "I'll do it, but only because I love you. Just stay here, ok?," she said as she walked towards the food trucks, leaving Hanni to rest and gain her energy.

_____

It's been 15 minutes and there still isn't any sign of Danielle. 'What's taking her so long... did something happened?' Hanni got worried, she couldn't just sit there anymore, she stood up, trying to get a better view. She somehow managed to spot Danielle from afar, she was walking back into the building with some girl Hanni has never seen before, she was wearing a different uniform so that means she's definitely not from their school...

So much for staying in pairs.

'who the heck is she?' Hanni was wondering if Dani ditched her for some chick but that's not possible, Dani wouldn't leave Hanni like that. So what in the universe did she just witness? She started to walk towards them but as soon as she went into the building, they were nowhere to be found.

The Vietnamese girl was left confused, she kept on trying to find Danielle but failed. She regret leaving her phone at home. It has been minutes already and Hanni was just about to give up, but she saw a little room on the upper-side of the dome.

She went up, hoping she could find her best friend faster if she saw the dome from a higher point of view. She didn't expect anyone to be in there but when she walked in, she was greeted by a stare coming from a girl who looked to be around Hanni's age, sitting on the floor playing what seems like a game called 'rhythm hive' on her phone.

The girl had long black hair that parted in the middle, sitting with her knees up in comfortable position, laying her back on the wall. Her pretty dark brown eyes looking up staring right at Hanni with her brows slightly lifted, her lips slightly parted as if she wanted to say something.

'She could totally be a model' Hanni thought, still staring at the girl. She was wearing the same uniform as the girl she saw earlier so she assumed they went to the same school.

'crap' "Um, sorry, I didn't know that you were here, I'll leave now-" she was just about to leave but then the girl spoke up, "Oh, no no, it's fine, I was just chilling here. You can stay here, if you want," she paused her game. "I'm just looking for my friend, I don't think I'll be staying long," Hanni forced out a smile, feeling a little awkward just standing at the door.

"I was actually looking for my friend too, but I sorta gave up and just stayed here. Wanna go look for them together?" she offered being the extrovert she is, standing up as she placed her phone in the pocket of her skirt and walked towards Hanni. She barely knew her, so why could've just politely rejected her offer, instead, Hanni just blurted out a quick 'sure'.

Why did she do that? She doesn't know either. She just didn't seem like a bad person and Hanni was bored of walking alone. "I'm Minji by the way," she offered her hand out to Hanni with a smile which made the Vietnamese girl's cheeks feel warm.

Hanni shook her hand, "I- I'm Hanni," she stuttered. That was weird, 'why was I stuttering?' she thought.

Now standing up, Minji was a taller than Hanni by a few inches so Hanni had to look up a bit to look at her face. 'She's so pretty' Hanni thought. "So, wanna go now?", Minji asked, switching off the lights and walking out of the room. Hanni replied with a simple 'sure' and followed her out, closing the door behind her.

They kept on walking in silence for a while until Minji suddenly broke the silence, getting bored of searching already, "We'll find them sooner or later, wanna just hang out?," she turned her head to face Hanni who was next to her, still wondering why she was feeling so giddy since she saw Minji's smile.

'what's up with me today' Hanni wondered as she replied with yet another 'sure'.

As they hung out, Hanni was surprised that they got along quite well. It's as if they were already friends to begin with, they both felt comfortable talking to each other and Hanni was no longer stuttering, enjoying the company of her new friend.

Although, Hanni would still blush a bit when Minji smiled at her, luckily, Minji was nice enough not to point it out, thinking that maybe Hanni was just nervous while Hanni was still confused as to what she was feeling.

"Have you been in the inflatable planetarium yet?" Hanni asked, pointing at it. "Not yet, you?" Minji was hoping she hadn't either so they could both go together.

It's as if Hanni could read Minji's mind, "Nope, wanna go?" she offered.

Minji smiled replying with a simple 'yes' as she grabbed Hanni by the hand and lead her towards the planetarium. Hanni started blushing like crazy when she held her hand, 'ok, this definitely weird...'

When they went in, they saw a bunch of kids seating on the floor, probably primary schoolers, they looked very excited for the show to start. Minji sat with them, signaling Hanni to sit next to her. Hanni quickly sat down as the show was about to start.

The guy that was playing the video, projected it onto the roof of the small dome. The show was honestly quite boring but the kids were really into it, as for Hanni... She couldn't concentrate at all, not with Minji next to her.

The place being dark didn't help with her situation, except for hiding the fact that her face was beet red, it wasn't like Minji hasn't noticed though. She knew the entire time, Hanni wasn't as subtle as she thought she was and Minji doesn't really know why she was blushing so hard. Now they were both confused as to why she was blushing.

"Wow, that was boring, huh?" Hanni commented right after they left the planetarium, the red on her face slowly subsiding, making Minji a bit glad that she stopped blushing since she came to the conclusion that maybe Hanni was sick or something. Minji nodded in agreement.

Hanni pulled out a lollipop she got earlier while playing games with Danielle and started trying to open the wrapper, she was really struggling. Minji who noticed it decided to help and took the lollipop from Hanni's hand and started unwrapping it with ease, "Here," she handed the shorter girl the unwrapped lollipop.

"Thanks," she took the it and grabbed another lollipop from her pocket and handed it to Minji, "Here, as a thanks, don't worry. I have more."

Hanni checked her watch, it was coming close to the time they were supposed to group back up to go back home and there was still no sign of Danielle. 'she must be there already' Hanni thought. "Hey, I gotta go back now, sorry for leaving so soon," Hanni told Minji who had the lollipop Hanni gave her in her mouth.

"It's ok, I think I found my friend too," pointing at some girl that was facing the other way so Hanni didn't see her face.

"Okay then, it was nice meeting you, bye," just as Hanni was about to leave, Minji stopped her by grabbing her wrist lightly, "Wait, can I get your number? You're really fun, it'd be nice if we could be friends," Minji asked giving the shorter haired girl her phone to put her number in.

Hanni started blushing again. "S-sure," she stammered, again. She took the phone and added her number into the taller girl's contact list and giving it back to Minji who set her name as 'hanni'.

"Bye, I gotta go," Hanni said rushing towards the entrance to get to the grouping spot the teacher told them about earlier, not looking back at Minji. 'What the heck is up with me!?' Hanni thought for the nth time that day.

When she got there, Danielle was sitting on the floor, holding the food she bought. "Hey," she greeted.

"WHERE THE HECK WERE YOU, I TOLD YOU TO RIGHT STAY HERE!," Danielle scolded Hanni.

"You were taking too long, so I tried to look for you. Don't think I didn't see you with that chick, you totally ditched me for a girl, dude," Hanni counters.

"It's not like that, I accidentally bumped into her when I tried to buy food and spilled her food all over her uniform so I had to help her clean up!" Danielle explained.

"Sounds like you alright," Hanni smirked, making fun of her best friend.

"You bitch" Danielle smacked Hanni on her shoulder earning a yelp from the older girl.

"C'mon, we gotta get on the bus now and here, your food. Oh, I drank some this," she said shaking the drink in her hand slightly as she handed the food.

"It's fine, let's go," they both got on the bus and sat down at the place they sat at earlier.

"What did you do when I was gone?" Danielle asked.

"Well, I met this girl-" Hanni was cut off by Dani who looked at her in disbelief, "You accused me of leaving you for a chick yet you were the one who went out with some girl!?"

"sorta?" Hanni replied casually.

"I'm gonna smack you again...."

"Please don't."

______

That night, Hanni got a text from Minji.

Chapter Text

7:30 a.m.

"Hanni, we're here already. Wake up," Danielle tapped the older girl, "If you're not gonna wake up, I'll take a pic of you and send it to Minji," she jokingly warned, taking her phone out of her pocket and tried to take a picture.

Hanni, who was still half asleep immediately sprung up and snatched the phone from Danielle before she had a chance to even open her camera, "Don't you fucking dare," she cursed. Her legs are still a bit wobbly from sitting for too long, so she couldn't stay up for long and dropped back down on her seat, still holding Danielle's phone.

Danielle snatched it back the moment she sat back down, "Hey, that's not cool dude!" she frowned, "I woke you up, you should be grateful."

Hanni let out a chuckle, "right, thank you," she replied, making sure all her stuff was with her.

"We need to get off now, the train is gonna move soon," Danielle reminded.

"Hey, wait up!" Hanni said as she dragged her luggage with her, 'why is this thing so heavy' she thought to herself, wondering if she brought too much stuff along with her(she did).

Now that they're out of the train, they both sat on the bench at that area's train station, looking around. "Hey, there's a vending machine, want anything?" Hanni asks, looking at Danielle... -who was busy texting Haerin.

"Really girl? Isn't it too early to make me third wheel...," Hanni teased but was quickly cut off by Danielle, "Yeah, like you didn't call the girl you have a big ass gay crush on for 3 years just a few hours ago."

The shorter girl's judging face faltered, turning into a glare instead while Danielle just laughed.

"Ugh, whatever. Back to my question; Do you want anything from the vending machine?," Hanni asked, taking out her wallet from her pocket.

"No thanks, I'm good," she responded, not taking her eyes off her phone. (Haerin got her wrapped around her fingers fr)

"so whipped..," Hanni mumbled to herself, she's like that too so she can't really say anything about it. Danielle checked the address of the place they rented for 2 months, luckily, they also called a taxi to take them there earlier. There was no way they were going to walk around with their luggage.

After a few minutes of waiting, the taxi arrived. They stuffed their luggage into the bunk of the taxi and went to their destination.

...

"When you said you rented a place, I expected an apartment... NOT A WHOLE ASS HOUSE-," Hanni cussed out in shock.

"Girl chill, it's just a small 2 story house..," Danielle looked at her as if Hanni was the one being weird when she was the one renting a whole ass house for a 2 month stay with her own money. Hanni looked at her in disbelief, "I will never understand rich people.."

Danielle unlocked the door to the house and Hanni followed her in, bringing their stuff along. They looked around the place and tried to figure out which switch was which -they were really struggling with that. Hanni finally managed to switch on the living room lights and that was when they got a clearer view of the house.

The interior design of the house was Ikea themed and had cute paintings of cats on the walls. The Vietnamese girl is starting to get suspicious as to why the younger girl chose this house specifically, wondering if she only chose this house because it reminds her of Haerin who has a cat-like persona.

Hanni actually went to check the furniture if they were actually from Ikea (they were).

"Why do I feel like I'm in an Ikea magazine..," Hanni murmured, still fazed from how how every single furniture was from Ikea.

"I guess the person really likes the Ikea concept. It's pretty nice so I don't mind," Danielle added, already going up the stairs to claim her room first.

Hanni who noticed what Danielle was doing, quickly ran up. They had a little race up the stairs that somehow didn't result to them falling or tripping off something.

Though, that kind of ability was probably obtained in their 5 years of friendship since they'd always fought over things like siblings would. Danielle won the race so she got to choose which room she wanted first. The second floor had 2 rooms with their own bathrooms which are of course, also Ikea themed.

"Ok, this one is mine," Danielle stated, already in the room she chose.

"Aight, I'll take this one," Hanni pointed at the the only other room there, not knowing how it even looks like yet as the door was still closed.

She opened the door and saw a flight of stairs, leading to the roof. The room didn't need lights in the morning since there was a big window letting enough sunlight to enter and brighten the room in the morning.

"Like it?," Danielle suddenly appeared next to her, "I'm sure you'd like having this room... cause when you go to the roof, you can see Minji's convenience store near the beach," Danielle pointed out, heading up the stairs, and opening the sliding glass trapdoor to climb out and got on the roof, "Come on," gesturing Hanni to follow her.

"Hey, no fair. I wanted to go up there first!," the older girl exclaimed, rushing up and peeping her head out the trapdoor, "whoa, there's furniture and decorations up here too???"

It was the backside of the house so Hanni didn't see it when they went in the house. The roof was completely flat, it felt refreshing to be up there, breathing in the seaside air, since it was autumn, the sun was actually bearable, making them enjoy basking in the sunlight.

"Holy crap, you weren't kidding when you said I could see Minji from here!," Hanni was shocked to see the convenience store from there, it looked really tiny from there but Hanni could tell right away, that's just how whipped she was.

"Told you," Danielle said in a proud tone, she was glad that she did a good job on renting the right house, "also, you haven't checked your phone yet. Don't you think Minji is worried that you left the call earlier?," she reminded Hanni.

Hanni's eyes went wide in realization, she left her phone on silent to sleep on the train earlier

-she's fucked.

______

"WHAT DO I DO??," Hanni panicked, Minji had been blowing up her phone since 7a.m. and she was really worried. "I don't know, just say you're here or something," Danielle tried to help. "She's so going to kill me...," she slumped down on her bed, already accepting her fate.

"You should get ready, go meet her later, it's best to explain in person," the younger girl stated, opening Hanni's luggage to pick out an outfit for her, "get up girl, I'm not letting you mess this up. You said you'd try to ask her out and I'm counting on that," she continued.

"Fine, I'm up," Hanni replied, sitting up looking at Danielle who was on the floor, not minding her rummaging through her luggage.

"Great, now go shower and wear this," Danielle placed the outfit she chose on the bed, "I'll go there a little later so you can have some time alone with her," she smirked, teasing Hanni as she leaves the room. "this girl..." Hanni mumbled, blushing at the thought of being alone with Minji.

She grabbed her toiletries and went into the bathroom and showered.

"Ok, I got this," Hanni kept encouraging herself that she can handle seeing Minji again after 2 years of being busy with school and other activities.

Hanni pretty much fell for Minji at first sight and by time, she fell deeper. It's not hard to fall for Minji, her looks, her charming personality, her deep voice, the way her brows furrow when she's eating something good, her serious face when she's concentrated in playing games, Hanni liked everything about her.

She could go on for hours just talking about Minji, Danielle was always the one that has to hear her rants about Minji and in return, Hanni had to listen to Danielle gushing over Haerin. Though they'll never say it, they both liked seeing each other being so overly excited talking about each other's crushes. I mean, who doesn't like seeing their best friend so happy?

Hanni put on her clothes and fixed up her hair using a full-length standing mirror that was in the room, "Perfect," she said to herself as she finished making herself look presentable.

After a while, a knock was heard on the door, "Are you done yet?" It was Danielle, checking up on Hanni. "Yeah, you can come in," Hanni answered, unlocking the door and inviting her in.

"You ready to go?," Danielle questioned, "I'll walk you there and go somewhere else later." Hanni just hummed in agreement and they both headed out.

10:00a.m.

Hanni was a nervous wreck, she was having a hard time to stop her heart from leaping out of her chest, now that she's right in front of the convenience store Minji's family owns. Minji works there part time, since it's autumn, there isn't many people who go there so that would mean that Hanni could be alone with Minji...

The thought alone is already making Hanni unable to function properly, and Danielle who seems to notice speaks up, "Hey, it's okay. Calm down, you wont mess up. Do you want me to stay instead?," she tried to comfort her best friend.

"No, I'm f- fine, I can do this," Hanni tries to push away the nervousness, taking a deep breath.

"If you say so... I'll be going now, if you need me, just call, okay?" Danielle said, putting her hand on Hanni's shoulder. "Okay," Hanni replied and Danielle walked away.

'I got this' Hanni keeps repeating those words in her head like a mantra, opening the door to the convenience store. Minji was sitting behind the counter, reading a book with headphones on. She looks absolutely ethereal to Hanni, just as the first time Hanni laid eyes on her, 'She could totally be a model' Hanni thought.

Minji who assumed Hanni was just one of the usual customers or one of her neighbor paid no attention to her and continued reading her book.

Hanni feelings grew over the time they became friends and was completely awestruck, she stood there for a whole minute, until Minji got suspicious as for why the girl was standing there so long and looked up at her.

Her eyes widened in shock, lips slightly parted, almost dropping her book altogether, "H- hi?," Hanni said with an awkward smile, gripping onto the hem of her skirt, internally panicking.

"HANNI!!???," Minji said loudly, placing her book on the counter, automatically standing up.

"Yeah?" Hanni was still feeling nervous, 'gosh, she's so much prettier in person' she was gay panicking. When Minji started to walk towards Hanni, she was hoping that her legs wouldn't fail her. Hanni was expecting her to scold her for not telling her beforehand but before she could open her mouth to explain, she was engulfed in a big hug.

"I'm so glad, I thought I was daydreaming or something..," Minji broke the silence, still hugging Hanni. "I- " Hanni was left speechless, she didn't know how to react, her brain was malfunctioning, trying to process that her crush of 3 years is hugging her.

Minji pulled back a little bit, Hanni almost visibly frowned from the lost of contact, "It's really you, right?" Minji asked again, her grip on Hanni's shoulders tightened but not in a way that could hurt Hanni.

"Yes, it's me," Hanni managed to blurt out despite her nervousness.

"So this was what you were up to... Why didn't you tell me?," Minji asked, her brows furrowed.

"Sorry, Danielle said it'd be cool to surprise you," Hanni explained. "Where is she? I thought I saw her during the call earlier"

"She had something to do so she's staying at the house," Hanni lied, hoping Minji wont notice. There was no way Hanni was going to tell her Danielle was giving them some time alone.

Luckily, Minji didn't see through it this time, "Where are you guys staying?"

"Dani rented a place in your neighborhood," Hanni answered, finally managed to get over her gay panic.

"The weird Ikea house?," Minji questioned, taking her hands off Hanni.

"How did you know?" Hanni asked, looking up at Minji.

Minji chuckled, "That place is the only place that's up for rent in my neighborhood, of course I would know"

The same smile that stole Hanni's heart back then appeared once more and Hanni was more determined to properly ask her out in these 2 months.

Chapter Text

It was 10:30 in the morning and Danielle was walking around a neighborhood, unknown to her, trying to find where the nearest playground is, hoping they had swings so she could waste her time there while giving her best friend the chance to talk to their crush alone. Danielle has always liked playing on swings.

Back in her own neighborhood, there was a huge tree near the swings, as she swung up, she would often look up at the tree, it gave her a feeling of reaching something high up above her level and as she swung back down, it reminds her that she had to keep swinging to get back up, that kind of thought is what keeps her from ever giving up on anything, always pushing her way through every obstacle the universe throws at her with a smile plastered on her face.

Though it might seem silly to think that way she never stopped believing, for Danielle, small things such as that are what make life worth living.

As she made her way through, she watched as the leaves fell off, the wind blowing them in different directions, admiring the view. The leaves leave a slight crunching sound when stepped on, making her walk even more fun. The weather was not too cold despite it being autumn and Danielle was really happy about it.

In the process of finding where the playground was, she saw a cat, lying in the leaves in a splooting position. The cat was a calico cat so the fur blended well with the auburn, brownish and orangey leaves all over the pavement of the road, Danielle would've missed it if it wasn't for the cat meowing at Danielle, shifting up and stretching.

It approached her and started rubbing its head on Danielle's leg.

"Hey there little fella, what are you doing here?" Danielle crouched down and started scratching its chin, its fur was so fluffy that she couldn't help but keep going, the cat purred, "You like that?" she chuckled. "Do you have a name?," she tried checking if the cat had a collar on, but it didn't so she gently stroked the cat's back, she thought for a while,

"I'm gonna call you Jerry"

As she was about to take out her phone to take a picture, she noticed something, "Hey, you sorta look like Haerin's cat..." she commented starting to get suspicious of the cat, wondering if Haerin lives in the same neighborhood that she's in right now.

She knew that Haerin lives somewhere near the sea but she didn't know in what region specifically. Haerin doesn't talk much about where she lives since she knows that sharing your address with a person you never met before is a horrible idea.

Danielle and Haerin became online friends because of a game. Danielle was watching a Youtube video and she accidentally clicked on the ads and instead of closing the tab, she decided to play the game because it 'looked cute'.

That was where she and Haerin met, they were paired in the game to take care of a virtual cat for a month and they could communicate through the 'chats' section of the game. Haerin admitted that she only played it because she adopted a cat recently and wanted to see if the game could be any help.

Danielle had a great time chatting with Haerin and decided to become online friends, Haerin agreed. Haerin was a weird girl but that's what made her more interesting from Danielle's perspective.

After a few months, Danielle caught herself grinning from ear to ear whenever she get's a notification from Haerin, Hanni who noticed it first and had always teased her about it but she ignored it but after properly thinking about it, she couldn't deny it anymore.

She somehow managed to get a huge crush on Haerin, how could she not when Haerin was just 'too cute' and when she told Hanni, she wouldn't stop making fun of Danielle for catching feelings for someone she met online.

She only stopped after a week because it was making Danielle upset with her and she was in no place to judge, not with her obsession with Minji growing day by day.

She was just about to take a picture and send it to Haerin to ask but she heard the voice of a girl from behind her, "Hazel, there you are!" she turned her head to face the girl.

'Whoa, she's tall' Danielle thought, still crouching. "Um, hi?," the taller girl greeted with a sweet smile, contrasting her voice's confused tone, her dimple showing on her right cheek. She had long black hair that parted in the middle, just like Minji.

"Hi," Danielle replied, she was about to get up but the taller girl crouched beside her to be on her level and to pet the cat, "Is this your cat?" Danielle asked, facing her head towards the girl.

"Mhm, her name is Hazel, I was looking for her," the taller girl replied. 'oh, so it's not Haerin's cat... but how come they have the same name?' Danielle thought, disappointed that her chances of meeting Haerin were low for now.

"What's your name?," she asked, "I'm Danielle."

"I'm Hyein. It's nice to meet you," she replied, grabbing the cat and standing up, "I don't think I've ever seen you here before. Are you the person who rented the weird Ikea house?" she asked politely.

Danielle looked up at her in pure shock, "How did you know?" she asked, also getting up.

"It's the only place in this neighborhood that's up for rent and I saw people on the rooftop earlier, it was you, wasn't it?" she replied, scratching Hazel's head.

"Yeah, I was showing my friend the view," trying not to spill too much about her best friend's big fat crush onto a random stranger.

" Where is she now?"

"At a convenience store near the beach"

"Oh, she's at Minji's place"

Her eyes found the taller girl's, "You know Minji?"

"I'm the one who should be asking you that, she's like a big sister to me," she answered, hugging the cat in her arms tighter.

"Well, I'm her girlfriend's friend," she stated out, grinning, trying to joke around.

"Hanni's friend!?," Hyein dropped the cat (don't worry, cats always land on their paws), grabbing Danielle's shoulders, hoping she heard her right.

"Y-yeah?," startled by Hyein's sudden advance, "Wait, what? They're not together- How would you know???"

"OH MY GOSH, IF IT'S REALLY YOU THEN THAT MEANS MINJI IS WITH HANNI ALL ALONE THERE!?," the younger girl exclaimed, shaking Danielle's shoulders roughly.

Danielle felt dizzy and fell down.

_____

"Sorry about that, I got a bit too excited...," Hyein apologized, handing Danielle a bottle of water. The shorter girl grabbed it and finished the whole bottle in one go, she really needed that, "It's ok, that reaction is understandable," she sighed.

"So, did you guys go here just so Hanni could ask Minji out?"

"In a way, yeah," she replied with a chuckle, feeling better already, "We're gonna be here for 2 months so if one of them doesn't ask the other out until then, I'll personally smack both of them on the head"

"Count me in," she held out her fist to Danielle who fist-bumped her in response.

"Did Minji say anything about actually liking Hanni?," the shorter girl asked, trying to pry.

"Not really but she talks about her a lot, just this morning she said something about how cute Hanni being sleepy was..," she made a disgusted expression, "and whenever I try to point it out, she starts getting all defensive so I'm 100% sure they're just pining over each other like those useless lesbians you see in television shows," she continues ranting, frustration visible in her voice.

"Hahah... I get what you mean," Danielle also felt targeted by Hyein's statement so she chuckled nervously, looking away.

"Why are you here all alone though?," she lifted her brows, head slightly tilted.

"I'm giving them some time alone and I got lost trying to find the playground..."

"I can lead you there"

As Hyein leads Danielle to the playground, they talk and properly introduce themselves Hazel follows them. Danielle was overjoyed to find swings there when they arrived, Hazel, on the other hand, started rolling on the grass, making herself comfortable.

There were big trees stripped of leaves by the autumn air, the whole place was covered in dried leaves but that didn't bother her, she went straight for the swings while Hyein ran to the slides.

"Aren't you a bit too old for slides, Hyein?," Danielle questioned, sitting down on one of the swings. Hyein gave her a weird look, "No I'm not, I'm just 15...," she continued her way up the slide. That caught Danielle off guard, "Seriously?!" she assumed that Hyein was her age due to her height but oh she was so wrong...

Hyein hummed in response and slid down with her hands up, "Woohoo! AH-" she screamed as she fell on her butt, wincing in pain.

"Hey, you good there?," Danielle asked, now that she knew Hyein's age, she felt the need to make sure the younger girl was safe.

"Yeah, I just fell," she laughed it off and went back up the slide but this time Hazel followed her up, probably also wanted to play on the slides.

'Hazel seriously looks like Haerin's cat, I can't believe it's Hyein's cat...' Danielle can't help but think that the entire time she was swinging, not keeping her eyes off the cat and the younger girl. Hyein got off the slides and started rolling on the grass (now covered by dry leaves) along with Hazel and grabbed a handful of leaves to throw up into the air, creating a falling leaves effect.

"Is your mom not going to get mad at you for getting your clothes dirty?" Danielle asked.

"I wash my own clothes so she won't mind," Hyein responded, covering the cat with dried leaves until it got annoyed and meowed at Hyein.

She smiled at them, enjoying the view until something invaded her line of sight, it was Hyein, throwing dried leaves at Danielle.

"Hey!," she tried to sound mad but her voice was betraying her, coming out as a giggle instead, she stood up and joined them, causing even more leaves to be scattered all over the park as laughter echoed through the cold dry air.

After a while, they were both exhausted, playing around really drained a lot of their energy. They sat on a bench at the playground, resting, "Hah, that was fun," Hyein managed to say, breathing heavily, trying to catch her breath from all that running around.

"Yeah," Danielle replied with a bright smile, just as breathless, slumping her body on Hyein, who didn't mind at all. They stayed like that for a while. She was used to older girls clinging to her, mostly Minji and Haerin.

(a/n: how does it feels like to live my dream, Lee Hyein?)

"I gotta go return Hazel to my friend now, wanna hang out tomorrow?," Hyein broke the silence, "Minji will be there, so invite Hanni too if you're going" she gave a knowing look.

Danielle pulled away, sitting up properly, "Where?", she said, pulling out her phone from her pocket to check the time.

"The beach, gimme your number, I'll text you later," Hyein answered, taking out her phone and handing it to Danielle who replied with a simple 'sure' and put her number into Hyein's contact list.

"Cool, see you tomorrow?" Hyein looked at Danielle hopingly.

"See you tomorrow," she confirmed, "and don't worry about Hanni, I'll drag her there if I have to"

They exchanged goodbyes and went their separate ways. Danielle was heading back to the convenience store when she realized something, 'Wait.. Hyein said she wanted to 'return' the cat to her friend. 'WHAT' She looked back and Hyein was long gone, she got even more curious, what if her 'friend' was Haerin?

What if she actually lives around here? She pulled out her phone and started texting Haerin, asking if she lived in the region, not even a minute later, she got a reply

-Haerin does live in that neighborhood.

____________

When both Hanni and Danielle arrived at the house they rented, neither of them could sleep, busy ranting about their day.

Chapter Text

In a room dimly lit only by the morning sunlight that manages to pass through the thin curtains, situated on the second floor of a house in a friendly neighborhood somewhere near the sea, there you can find Haerin's paradise.

It's her escape from everything, her sanctuary.

She loved everything about her room, from her neatly made bed placed next to the windows, the bean bag next to her bed, her drawings pasted all over the wall in front of her desk with puzzle pieces, art supplies, stationary, her camera, seashells and her notebooks scattered on it making it messy but in an aesthetic way, her little potted plant she kept on the floor, the standing lamp near the door and most of all, the feeling of comfort it brings her.

Lately, something has been taking up all the space in her head, well, more like, someone and that someone is none other than Danielle Marsh, her online friend. She doesn't know when these thoughts of the older girl took over her, it just happened so suddenly and she does not know how to react to this kind of emotions clouding her mind.

She snaps out her thoughts, rolling off her bed, checking the time on her phone, she promised Hyein and Minji that they'd hang out today so she had to get ready.

She heard a faint knocking sound coming from the door, she immediately knew who it was, she stood up and opened the door, letting them in, "Hey there, did mom feed you yet?," she said, looking down at Hazel who was busy rubbing her head on Haerin, purring. Haerin crouched down and picked her up, holding her like baby, "c'mon, let's get you some food," she got out of her room, heading toward the living room downstairs to feed Hazel.

Hazel eats up all the food on her bowl as soon as Haerin finished preparing her bowl, "So impatient," she commented, petting Hazel's head, smiling to herself watching Hazel enjoy her meal. She gets up and went to the bathroom to shower, making sure she wont be late for their hangout.

She already prepared an outfit beforehand so she doesn't have to rush things. When she got out of the bathroom, she put on her outfit and took her sketchbook from one of her bookshelves, placing it on her desk. She wanted to draw a little before going out so she made sure her art supplies was there before sitting down.

She tried sketching out some drawings of the beach but none of them seemed appealing to her so she took out her phone to look for references on Pinterest, it didn't take her long to find the perfect reference, she grabbed her crayons and followed the reference.

The drawing turned out good so she pasted it on the wall, looking at it carefully, she felt like something was missing, there was everything a beach should have so why does it still looks so empty? She stared at it for a while, wondering if she should draw something else on it, then, she though of an idea.

She took her red crayon and drew her red door in the middle of it, not taking the drawing down, she had to lean on her desk and tiptoe a little to reach it. Why did she drew that? She also didn't know, it just looked interesting.

She slumped back on her bed, taking out her phone to text Danielle, 'I wonder where she's at right now' She had known that Danielle was going on a trip with a friend but she didn't know where cause all Danielle said was that she's going to get her best friend a girlfriend. Haerin was confused but didn't pry too much into it at the time, but now she's curious.

She wanted to text Danielle but she accidentally tapped on the call button so she decided to just roll with it.

Not even a few seconds later, Danielle picked up, "Hey, what's up? Did you miss me?" her heart raced, the way Danielle makes her feel with just her teasing voice is concerning.

"Mhm, maybe just a little bit," she lied, of course she missed her, even though they texted yesterday.

"I know you do," she giggled, "so, any specific reason on why you're calling me or?"

Haerin can't get enough of Danielle's voice, "Yeah, I just wanted to ask where did you go on your trip?" now laying on her stomach, elbows pressing deep into the mattress of her bed. She heard Danielle muttered 'um' through the phone, Haerin patiently waited for an answer but it never came so she assumed she shouldn't have asked.

"Hey, Dani... you still there? It's ok if you don't wanna say it-" she was cut off.

"Your neighborhood"

"What?," Haerin said, surprised, there was no way the girl she had been crushing on is in her neighborhood right now. She had never told her her address so how would she know?

"I'm staying at your neighborhood," she responded, more clearly this time, making sure Haerin heard her right, "but it's not what you think, I didn't know you lived here until yesterday, I'm just following Hanni, I swear!"

"A- are you sure you're here?" Haerin felt her heartbeat quicken, excited at the though of meeting Danielle irl.

"Yeah, I also met Hazel yesterday and your friend, Hyein" Haerin couldn't believe it, Danielle, the girl she had been recently crushing on is at her neighborhood and Hazel found her first before Haerin did, 'that cunning cat...' Haerin thought.

Before she could respond, Danielle continued, "I'm actually with Hyein right now, she said she's show me around and now I'm at a bus stop somewhere..."

"Oh, Hi Haerin, you were right, Danielle is seriously so much prettier in person!," she heard Hyein's voice through the call, "she's gonna join us later, isn't it so cool that you're finally going to meet her?" Hyein sounded really enthusiastic about it, she doesn't know about Haerin's crush on Danielle though.

"Y-yeah... I guess I'll see you later then" Haerin tried her best not to sound like she was panicking but Danielle could sense it through her voice.

"Haerin-ah, I know this all very sudden, if you'd like, we can meet some other time. I wouldn't waiting a little longer if it's for you" Oh gosh, Danielle will be the death of Haerin, her voice when she calls her name, the way she's always so considerate and sweet all the time, it was too much for Haerin to handle, her heart couldn't last.

Haerin tried her best to respond, "No, it's okay, I can't wait to meet you too honestly," she could feel her cheeks burn up.

"Well, I'll see you later then, Haerin-ah"

"Mhm, see you" the call ended and just like that, Haerin almost died.

------------

"You guys kinda sound like a couple," Hyein commented, the call earlier was really something to witness. Hyein and Danielle are in a bus, sitting at the back rows, the bus was empty, no other passengers were there so they had the whole bus to themselves.

Danielle was taken aback by Hyein's statement, she stared at her with wide eyes, "Seriously?" she questioned, somewhat happy to hear that.

"Not gonna lie, yeah, I've never heard Haerin talk in that kind of tone. If I didn't know any better I would've had assumed you've got her wrapped around your fingers or something," she said, genuinely surprised by the call.

"It's not like that, she's just such a precious friend to me, I treat Hanni the same way," she lied, trying to not be obvious about her crush on Hyein's best friend. There way no way she could talk to Hanni with that kind of voice, the thought alone made her cringe.

Danielle knows she's a good liar, she always had been -unlike Hanni, with her sweet voice and kind personality, nobody could tell if she was lying or not and she liked that special trait of hers, it really helps to get her out of trouble.

"If you say so..." she placed a film into her camera, "Wanna take pictures?" she asked.

"Sure," Danielle replied with a smile, glad that Hyein dropped the topic.

"Wait up, let me pose," she settled for making two peace signs with her hands with a wink.

"Whoa, the picture turned out nice, you look so pretty here!" Hyein showed the picture to Danielle.

"I guess you're a great photographer," Danielle complimented.

"It's also because I have a good model"

"Fair enough"

After a while, Danielle feels drowsy, she didn't get enough sleep last night freaking out about meeting Haerin the next day so she was exhausted, she laid her head on the younger girl, "Can I sleep like this?" she asked for permission, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.

"It's fine, I don't mind. Go ahead," Hyein said, making the older girl relax and slowly shut her eyes to drift to sleep, "Goodnight then?" Hyein joked. Danielle chuckled with her eyes still closed she replied, "goodnight"

(a/n: again, how does it feels like to live my dream, Lee Hyein?)

___________

Minji was at her family's convenience store, since it was autumn, there were barely any customers and she wondered why is she still there, getting bored, she put on her headphones and organized some of the things around the store.

There were boxes of books which were still in good condition, she opened them and checked them one by one, placing them on the shelves to be sold. The books varied from children's books to novels, none of them piqued her interest, so she quickly sorted them out and placed the now empty boxes behind the counter to be taken to the recycling center. There were also pictures that visitors usually buy as a souvenir, she sat down on the small yellow sofa, observing the pictures.

There was nothing else to get done so she mopped the floor which just tired her so she stopped and went back to the counter, grabbing one of the novels, hoping it would take away her boredom.

At first, the book was not such a big help in doing so, but after reading page after page, she got invested, she needed to know what happened next, and nothing broke her concentration from the book.

Well, that is, until Hanni walked in, she immediately looked up from the book, wondering why Hanni looked so anxious. While Hyein brought Danielle along on a little tour, Hanni slept in but she was informed last night that they were going to hang out at noon so she rushed to get ready and pretty much ran towards Minji's store.

"Minji, C'mon we gotta go!" was the first thing she said when she entered the store. Minji stared at her, one of her brows lifted, giving Hanni a questioning look, "What?"

"Don't play stupid, Dani said we're gonna go hang out with your friends today," Hanni explained, "Now lets go!"

"Oh yeah," Minji remembers, "Wait up, I have to close the store," she quickly got up, making sure the store was locked.

"Great, now let's go!" Hanni grabbed Minji by the hand, nothing else in her mind other than heading to the beach cause Danielle might kill her for being late, not literally of course. The younger girl wouldn't do such a thing, especially not to her best friend of 5 years.

Meanwhile, Minji was trying to balance herself, being pulled while running wasn't the only thing making it hard for her to be stable, it was Hanni, holding her wrist, her mind was going through a million thoughts in just a matter of seconds.

Minji is confused about why her heart isn't staying still, beating faster than normal and it's all because of Hanni. What's going on? Sure she had thought of the possibility of it but she had always pushed it down, thinking it would weird the younger girl out. She likes Hanni, not in a platonic way.

Minji was so happy about even the slightest bit of contact that it's honestly concerning her. Just how whipped is Kim Minji for Pham Hanni? Nobody really knows. They kept on running until they saw a bus stop, Hyein and Danielle were there, already waiting.

"Hey guys, we're here!" Hanni said, catching her breath from all the running with Minji behind her, almost falling from the abrupt stop.

"Took you long enough" Danielle commented, she gave her a stern look but it turned into a smug grin as soon as she noticed that they were holding hands, "I can see why now," she teased, signaling Hyein to look at their hands.

Danielle is impressed, to say the least, she didn't expect her friend to be that bold. Hyein looked at both of them with a judging face, "Good for you I guess?" she tried to be supportive.

"What?" Minji asks, wondering what's going on.

Hanni didn't realize that they were still holding hands, she automatically pulled her hand away, a faint blush visibly showing on her cheeks, "Ha ha, very funny guys. It's not like that, we just had to get here quick, OK?" she tried defending herself, glaring at Danielle.

"Right," Danielle replied, not buying her explanation.

"What's goin' on here?" Minji asks, still haven't caught on to the situation yet.

"Nothing, let's change the subject!" the Vietnamese girl tried to save herself the embarrassment of having to explain.

"Guys look, Haerin is here!" Hyein stated out.

Hanni felt so relieved that Haerin came to the rescue despite not knowing Harin that much, they do text occasionally, mostly just about Danielle.

Danielle immediately turned to look for her and there she was, Kang Haerin walking towards the group of friends, she was wearing a blue and light brown striped t-shirt with a white jacket draped on her shoulders along with a white backpack and yellow shorts, half of her hair tied into a bun while the other half was let down.

Without thinking much, Danielle ran towards Haerin, engulfing her in a big hug which made Haerin stagger, Danielle was so happy to finally meet her, smiling into the hug. Haerin hugged her back but only after a few seconds of trying to digest this new feeling, she's not used to people other than her family, Hyein and Minji (which pretty much counts as family too) hugging her.

Danielle was the first to pull away, "Hi" she greeted.

"Hi," Haerin replied, smiling bashfully.

"Wait- You know Danielle?" Minji asked, she could've sworn that the universe wanted to confuse her that day. She never mentioned Danielle to her friends since they had nothing to each other that is, until today, she had only mentioned Hanni.

"She's the online friend I've been mentioning for the past 2 years, I can't believe you know her either," Haerin answers.

"It's really suspicious how you guys are connected, it's like someone planned this..." Hyein placed her hand on her chin, showing a thinking expression.

"It's cool though, isn't it?" Hanni joined in, "If it wasn't for this, none of us would have met"

"Yeah, it's like serendipity!" Danielle started out, linking her arm around Haerin's.

Everyone collectively agreed, "Now that we got that part covered, what are we going to do?" Hanni asks.

"I was thinking maybe we should just walk around, we should get to know each other better," Hyein suggested.

"Before that, I've got something to give you guys" Haerin placed her bag on the bench of the bus stop and unzipped it, revealing a few cans of Coca-Cola, "Here's your cola" She gave one for each of them, "My dad has been really into coke lately, I'm not sure why but he bought a hell lot"

None of them questioned it, "Should we go to the beach?" Minji asked after she finished her drink, "You don't usually get to go to the sea, right?" she looked at Hanni.

"Oh, yeah, I wanted to check the beach out" She looked at the rest of the girls, he eyes silently asking if everyone was on board with her idea.

"Let's go then," said the youngest girl.

"Wanna race?"

-----------

When they finally got to the beach, they were all breathless from all the running so they sat down on the beach, not minding the sand.

"Let's never do that again..." Minji was the first to speak up, regretting her life decision.

"You're only saying that because you were second," Hanni smugly said.

The first one to arrive was Hanni, despite her having the shortest legs, she's got quite the stamina and speed. Hyein was the last, her stamina just wasn't enough for a race that long while Danielle and Haerin were running together so they both got 3rd place.

"That's not the point here," she tries to fight back.

"Doubt, you're too competitive to not care"

"I'm just tired, I don't care that I got a second place"

"Mhm, keep lying to yourself"

"Are you guys seriously arguing right now?" Danielle butted in.

"Yes"

"No"

"How did we became friends again..." Minji had enough.

"You were the one that asked if we could hang out together 2 years ago," Hanni replied, "Thinking about it now, you really liked me enough to ask me, a random stranger to hang out with you"

"I was just bored and I couldn't find my friend, remember?"

"Don't be shy, I know you love me," Hanni joked, not knowing her statement was actually true.

Minji suddenly got quiet, hiding her face in her knees, Hanni got suspicious so she inched closer, "Hey, you good there?," she said in a teasing tone. That's when she noticed that Minji's ears were red. Her eyes widened in shock, could it be what she thought it was? Now they were both quiet, Hanni sat next to her awkwardly, not knowing how to react while the other girls stared at them, feeling third-wheeled(or should I say 3rd, 4th & 5th?).

"What the heck is going on here?" Hyein looked so done with them.

"They're having a moment" Danielle added.

"I've got sparklers in my bag, do you guys wanna use them?" Haerin tried to direct their attention away from whatever the heck is going on with Hanni and Minji.

"Let's play with them," the youngest girl agreed, "wanna look at some of the pictures I took of Danielle earlier on the bus first?"

"Yes," Haerin replied almost instantly, sitting closer to Hyein.

"Hyein is such a great photographer, my pictures turned out great"

Haerin tried her best to not appear too interested but her her eyes gave it away, the way they lit up just by the mere mention of Danielle made Hyein wonder if the older girl liked Danielle. As she was showing the pictures, the corners of Haerin's lips threatened to curve up, she bit down on her lower lip to make sure they don't form a smile and that was all Hyein needed to confirm her suspicions, she'll definitely question both of her best friends about their actions later, but for now, she'll pretend as if she doesn't know.

"It looks good right?"

"yeah" was all that Haerin could muster out to stop herself from complimenting too much.

"I'm gonna check on those two, they've been oddly quiet for a while now," Danielle said, walking away.

"If you want, I'll send you these pictures later," Hyein said after Danielle left, knowing that the older girl was interested.

"I love you so much," Haerin replied, grateful that the younger girl was understanding.

"I know you do"

_________

Haerin took out a few sparklers from her bag, "Are you guys gonna join or just sit there?" she gestured the two older girls.

"We're joining," Minji finally got up, the blush on her face finally settled down, she looked down on Hanni who was still sitting, "right?" she put her hand out to Hanni to help her get up.

"Yeah," she answered, "Did you bring a lighter along?"

"Oh- wait, I left it at home..." Haerin checked her pockets.

"I've got one, here, catch it," Minji threw a lighter at Haerin who catches it with ease, "It's from the store, I forgot to put it back"

She handed out the sparklers to each of them and lighted them up one by one.

"They look so pretty!" Danielle said, "I can make a heart shape with this" she used it like it was the weird wand thing from Disney Channel, forming a heart shape that quickly disappeared in less than a second.

Hyein started doing the same thing but with a star shape instead, "Hey, it does works!" she continued trying out other shapes she could think of while the rest joined in.

It was already 5:30p.m by the time they finished up all the sparklers, they threw away the remaining part of the sparklers into a trash bin near by the seashore, dusting off all the sand on their outfits. Minji suggested that they should go to her store for the remaining time they have left before the sun sets so they made sure nothing was left behind at the beach before going there, the idea of leaving trash on the beach or littering doesn't sit right with any of them.

They walked towards the store, not having the energy to run anymore. Danielle took the opportunity to hold hands with a very nervous Haerin while also having her arms linked with Hanni's to make her actions doesn't come out as suspicious. Minji was at the front, walking as if she was leading the way or something along side Hyein who was busy taking pictures of everyone and the surroundings.

Upon their arrival, Minji took out the keys and unlocked the door, inviting them in.

"Whoa, for an old looking convenience store, this place looks really cool," Danielle commented.

"My mom likes this style so she made my dad rearrange it when we first got the place"

"That's nice, I guess?" she replied, not knowing what else to say.

"Let's take pictures here then!" Hyein suggested, she's been really into taking pictures lately.

"Do we have like, props or anything?" Hanni asked, trying to find a way to make the photo look more fun.

"Props? If you count bubble blowers as props, then yeah, we do," the older girl went behind the counters to grab them, "here, there's only one though," she handed it to Danielle since she was closest to the counter.

"One is good enough"

"Am I supposed to shoot you guys with this?"

"Yes"

"No"

"You're supposed to shoot the bubble up so they fall down, I think" Hyein stated out.

"Ok then how should we pose?"

"We don't"

"We just play around to make it feel real"

"Sound reasonable"

Danielle shot bubbles out on everyone, laughing at how silly everything they're doing is, everyone joined in laughing, fooling around with the things around them and posing in silly ways, Hyein was trying so hard not to drop her camera from laughing so much, taking proper photos. It was getting dark outside, Minji checked her phone, it was 6:30 already and they had to return home. All of them exchanged contacts and made a group chat named 'UmUm' by Hanni and Danielle because they insisted that it sounds nice.

"See you tomorrow?" Minji looked over to Hanni, hoping Hanni visits her at the store tomorrow.

"See you tomorrow," Hanni replied, feeling a little brave she intertwined her fingers with Minji's and looked her straight (more like gay) into her eyes, "I'm really glad I met you"

Minji blushed, "I'm glad I met you too"

"c'mon Hanni, we gotta go," Danielle interrupted them.

"I'm coming, wait up," She let go, smiling back at Minji and the rest of the girls, "bye"

__________

"Someone had a little too much fun today," Danielle teased, opening her shoes and placing them neatly on the shoe rack next to the front door, walking up to the kitchen to grab a cup of water after a long day.

Hanni sat on the couch, too tired to get upstairs to shower yet, "Like I didn't see you clinging on Haerin the entire time," she defends herself, now laying down in a an odd position, she was somewhat sitting but her back was on the seat and her legs were on the backrest, her head dangling upside down, almost touching the floor.

"Whatever, It's pretty cool how we we're all so comfortable with each other, it's like we were friends even before"

"Yeah, Hyein was super cute and Haerin was super shy, only around you though. It's so obvious she likes you back."

"Stop feeding my delusions, I might go crazy, seeing her today, made me so happy," she took a sip out of her cup, "It's really such a shame we only got 2 months of this"

"It can't be helped, I have to go get ready for college and you've still got one more year of secondary school"

"Everything is happening so fast, I'm just scared," Danielle sounded sad, placing her cup down on the table.

Hanni immediately sat down properly, gesturing Danielle to sit next to her, "I know it's hard but we can still text each other when we're apart, we've talked about this," she pulled Danielle in for a hug to calm her down.

"I know, It's just scary, growing up," Danielle said, sounding even more sad than earlier, "I'm really going to miss you..."

"I'm going to miss you too," she patted the younger girl's head, comforting her, sounding just as sad.

Despite that day being filled with joy and laughter, that night was filled with worry and fear for the Aussies, they slept together in Hanni's room, not wanting to leave each other's side even for a minute, wanting the moment to never end.

Chapter Text

"Hi"

"Hi," Minji smiled when she heard Hanni's voice.

Today was another day of taking care of the convenience store with barely any customers due to the season but there was still some people in their neighborhood who came there to buy house necessities such as cooking oil or kids who stop by to buy candy so her parents decided not to close it yet, they planned to close it by October and luckily, it was just in a few more days, 4 more days to be more precise.

It was supposedly another boring day of sitting behind the same old counter for the past 26 days since holidays started, that is, is it wasn't for Hanni.

She insisted on coming there everyday to 'help out' around the store despite it being empty 80% of the time and would often use the 'I just like the vibe here' excuse when confronted by questions from the taller girl, but Minji knew, all Hanni wanted was to spend time with her and the thought alone made her feel like she was on cloud nine.

Both of them were painfully obvious about their attraction towards each other but also painfully oblivious at the same time.

It was taking everything Danielle had just to push down the urge to slam their heads together into a kiss like they were those Barbie dolls she used to play with as a kid or so that's what she tells Hanni. Danielle wasn't with Hanni that day, she went to play with Hazel alongside Haerin and Hyein.

"Anything I can help with today?" Hanni questioned, knowing there was literally nothing that had to get done.

"You could help take away my boredom," Minji murmured, putting her head on the counter.

"And how exactly should I do that?" she closed the door behind her, walking towards the counter, leaning forward on it.

"I don't know, make me laugh?" she lifted her head to look at the girl, bad idea.

Both of them froze in place, Minji's face was only inches away from Hanni's and neither of them knew how to react. Her dark brown orbs stared right into the younger girl and she could've sworn time stopped in that moment, it felt like her heart was doing backflips, if that was even possible.

Hanni was quick to pull away, standing up properly as she run her fingers through hair while looking down in an attempt to hide how flushed she was, "Um, you want me to make a joke?" she looked back at Minji who was now sitting up awkwardly.

"That'll work," she propped her elbows on the counter, trying to calm her heart down, really hoping Hanni hadn't notice how loud her heart was beating for her.

The Vietnamese girl crossed her arms, making a thinking expression, "What did the Korean onion say to the ham?" she finally said her joke, holding back a chuckle, already laughing at her own joke, "I heard it somewhere and I find it really funny"

Minji started thinking and after a few seconds, she gave up, she really had no idea what it could be so she asked, "What?"

"Onionhamsayyo," Hanni burst out laughing, covering her mouth with her right hand.

"What?" It took Minji a while to process the joke, "Oh- OH GOSH THAT WAS SO LAME," she laughed nonetheless, not at the joke but at how Hanni was still laughing at it.

When Minji finally stopped laughing, she looked over to Hanni who was still grinning from ear to ear, her smile was a sight to behold, Minji had always loved Hanni's smile, she loved the way her eyes scrunch up when she was genuinely happy.

She couldn't help but smile at the sight of it, giving her, as what Hyein would call it 'heart eyes' and Hanni who noticed it tilted her head slightly with her brows slightly lifted, asking 'what's up' with her body language.

Minji shook her head, "nothing"

"It's your turn now, say your best joke," Hanni requested.

"You should sit first, here," Minji suggested, pulling a chair next to her, telling Hanni to take a seat behind the counter next to her.

Hanni sat down and Minji pulled the chair closer, making her stagger a bit, "Ok, I don't have good jokes either so please bear with me"

"I'm sure I'd still laugh," Hanni replied, facing Minji.

"What pronounce does chocolate prefers?"

"What?"

"Her/she"

The place went quiet, neither of them said anything, Hanni's expression turned into an unamused one, or as Danielle calls it, her 'judging face'.

"That was the daddest dad joke I have ever heard in my life..."

"I told you, my humor is on another level," Minji sounded proud of herself.

"Whatever, wanna listen to some music instead? Jokes definitely aren't our strong suit," Hanni took out her phone and earphones, "here" she gave Minji the other side of the earphone.

"This is such a classic high school/collage romance move," Minji took it and put in on, "Hanni Pham, are you trying to woo me?" she purposefully said it in her deep voice to tease the younger girl, leaning closer and hoping Hanni won't notice that she was actually panicking inside.

"So what if I am?" Hanni played along, "You should be lucky the great Hanni Pham herself talking to you" she also leaned in, giving her a flirtatious smirk.

"Oh wow, lucky me, being given the ability to speak to a highly being such as yourself," Minji says dramatically, pretending to be a pheasant in the presence of an all mighty king.

"Exactly. Now, what do you wanna listen to?" She asks, opening the Spotify app.

"You pick, I wanna know what you listen to," she replies.

"Oh, there's this song I've been listening to, it's called Airplane Thoughts by um, I don't know how to pronounce his name but it's spelled D-H-R-U-V, he blew up a lot last year," she checked her playlist, clicking on the song.

The song started playing and both of them went quiet to properly listen and enjoy the song, not without stealing a few glances at each other and looking away when their eyes would meet.

"How was it?" Hanni asks, trying to get her opinion after the song finished playing.

"I think it's really cute, the lyrics, I mean," Minji says genuinely, giving her a soft smile.

Their conversation was cut short by a group of primary schoolers barging in the store, "Minji unnie, can we buy more candy?" one of them said.

Both Hanni and Minji turned to the direction of the voice.

The other one noticed Hanni behind the counter and asked, "Who is that girl next to you?"

"IS SHE YOUR GIRLFRIEND?" the rest joined in.

"Oh wow, she's so pretty, I want a pretty girlfriend too when I grow up!"

"Did you guys kissed already?"

"What's her name?"

"Wait what? NO, GUYS SHE'S NOT MY- ," Minji tried to correct them but Hanni had other ideas.

She leaned on Minji's shoulder, wrapping her arm around the girl and gave her a playful smirk, "so we're not girlfriends?"

Minji died, well, internally at least.

"S-stop encouraging them!" Minji stuttered, Minji never stutters, this was a rare occasion.

"Ah! Minji unnie is nervous around her girlfriend!"

"It's like the dramas my sister watches!"

"Do you guys have a ship name or something?"

It was already getting out of hand so Hanni decided to stop playing around, "Sorry kids, but we're not dating. I'm her friend," she explained.

"Awww, but you two look cute together," the kid said, pouting.

"You guys really need to learn what not to say to strangers," Minji scolded them, gaining the composure once more.

"But Minji unnie isn't a stranger?"

"Yes, but Hanni is, technically to you"

"Hmmm," they thought about it for a while before continuing as if the whole conversation before didn't happen, "Ok, can we buy candy now?"

As the kids chose which candy they wanted Hanni tugged on Minji's sleeve, "They really like you, huh?"

"I'm basically every kid in this neighborhood's big sister at this point," Minji sighed.

"Good luck with that then, Minji unnie," Hanni teased.

___________

Haerin doesn't know how to feel about this whole thing happening, nobody was supposed to invade her precious space, her one and only sanctuary AKA her room (other than her family and Minji and Hyein) but now here she is, standing at the doorstep of her own room, bringing in snacks and drinks for an uninvited guest, laying on her bed with socks on.

How exactly did this happened?

She was getting dressed after showering and suddenly, her phone started blowing up with notifications from Hyein, saying she's at the door. Haerin who already used to her showing up unannounced payed no mind to it and opened the door for her, that's when things went astray from her usual activities. Standing next to Hyein was the one and only, Danielle Marsh.

Apparently, Danielle decided to tag along with Hyein after bumping into her that morning when she was heading to Minji's store with Hanni so the two older girls could be alone together and (hopefully) confess already or so that's what Hyein said. Haerin was shocked to find out Minji and Hanni were into each other but after putting the puzzle pieces in her head together it all finally made sense.

She placed the tray she's holding next to her table lamp near her bed and sat on her desk, opening her laptop, ignoring the two girls on her bed.

"Oh, you brought us snacks, nice!" Hyein spoke up, reaching for the snacks and stuffing some into her mouth, a muffled 'thank you' could be heard just the next second.

Danielle got up and walked towards Haerin, "What are you watching?" she asks curiously, leaning down to get a better look at the laptop's screen (and also closer to Haerin) putting her hand on the edge of the desk for balance.

The younger girl panicked, she didn't expect her to walk up to her nor even be that close to her, if only she'd been told about their arrival beforehand, she would've had enough time to mentally prepare herself for this kind of scenario.

"Cat videos on Youtube..."

"Can I watch with?" Danielle asked softly, her sweet honey-like voice made Haerin melt, how could she ever say no to such an angel?

Just as Haerin was about to reply, Hyein butted in their conversation, "I wanna watch them too, just put the laptop on the bed!" she patted the space next to her while stuffing more snacks into her mouth.

Haerin placed the laptop on the bed and played the video, all three of them somehow managed to fit comfortably on the bed with Haerin sandwiched in the middle of Danielle and Hyein, it was a complication of cats being silly/cute.

After a while, Hyein got bored so she took some of Haerin's comics and read them while Danielle and Haerin started talking about cat games to play when they're apart again, searching up suggestions from Google and giggling along when Hyein tells them something silly from the comic out of nowhere despite Haerin already knowing every part of her own comic because of course, Haerin would always indulge the younger girl.

Faint knocking sounds could be heard on Haerin's door, Hyein immediately knew who it was and opened the door, it was Hazel, their shared-custody cat.

Hazel was found by Minji but she couldn't take care of it so Haerin took it and Hyein was too young to care for her that year so they decided to call it a shared custody, Haerin being the mom and Hyein being the dad of the cat so they both owned the cat. The idea was silly but they went along with it because it was quite convenient and fun.

Hyein picked her up and put her on Danielle's lap, "You hold her I gotta continue reading"

"Okay," Danielle agreed, "aww, you're so cute," she kept on complimenting the cat she scratches it's head listening to it purr.

Haerin reached over to pet Hazel on the stomach, "You little trickster, always finding more people to put on your slaves list," she joked.

Danielle chuckled, "Is that what I am now? One of her slaves?"

"Maybe," Haerin giggled, not noticing Danielle's hand was now on hers.

Danielle took the opportunity to intertwine her fingers with Haerin's and looking into her eyes, refusing to be as slow as Hanni. She noticed that Haerin's cheeks were flushed, her pupils were blown and she heard Haerin's rapid heartbeat- or maybe that was just her own?

They were close before, but now they're even closer, their faces just inches away from coming into contact, Danielle could've sworn she saw Haerin staring at her lips, closing her eyes slowly and slightly leaning in, that is, until Hazel started chewing on the mouse wire and Hyein scolded her, breaking the two girls out of their trance.

"Hazel, No, you cant eat that!"

"Oh gosh Hazel, not again..."

"Cats eat wires?"

Hyein pulled her away and Haerin placed the laptop back on her desk, securing the mouse while Danielle was still wondering if cats eats wires. Obviously, they don't.

Chapter Text

Today is the day Minji was finally set free from what she knows mentally as the 'torture of boredom' of taking care of her family's convenience store during such an ungodly season. Though, it wasn't all bad if she had to be honest, mostly because her friends kept coming over to hand out and of course, the sudden appearance of Hanni and Danielle made it even more enjoyable.

She could now spend her morning peacefully without any need to rush through her routine and that was exactly what she planned to do. Unfortunately, her childhood friends refused to let her have such privilege and barged into her house at 8 in the morning then proceeded to rummage through the kitchen for cereal and milk like they were racoons.

Minji couldn't do anything about it, both Hyein and Haerin knew they passcode to unlocking the front door since they've been together long enough for her parents to trust them like they were an extra addition to the Kim family, this system however, works vise versa with both Hyein and Haerin's families. Let's just say even their parents are like siblings.

That morning, all three of them had cereal for breakfast, mixing different types of cereal they thought would go well together. Minji wanted a proper self-made breakfast, nevertheless, she joined them in the process of making cereal mix when the youngest girl asked her to.

Oh, the things Minji would do for them.

Hyein placed the cereal boxes back into the kitchen cabinet while Haerin wipes the dining table (they played around too much, the cereal spilled) and Minji does the dishes after they finished eating. Everything felt so domestic, it has always been like this with them but this was also the reason they're scared.

Minji will leave for collage soon, leaving the two younger girls behind and neither of them wanted that but it was inevitable. By that logic, Haerin will also leave Hyein behind in a few more years. It's horrifying to think about the things that are going to change between them.

At that moment, they all knew what each other was thinking about, it has been a usual occurrence ever since Minji graduated. Hyein was the first to break into tears, all these emotions became overwhelming for her, she couldn't handle it anymore.

Minji walked up to Hyein and hugged her, gently caressing her back to help her calm down. Haerin could only pat the younger girl's head, wiping her tear-stained cheeks using a kitchen towel and reassuring her that everything was going to be okay and nothing would ever break their bond despite being equally scared.

They have talked about this multiple times before, Minji pinky promised to call them at least once a week. It didn't make things less sad but getting reassurance from the older girl made them feel better in a way.

Deciding not to dwell on the topic, they went on to play games on Minji's playstation.

"Let's play the Spiderman game again!" Hyein suggested, sitting excitedly on the couch, traces of tears no longer noticeable from her eyes.

"We play that every single time, isn't there anything else?" Haerin asked Minji, grabbing the controller from the tv cabinet.

Minji who was behind the couch, propped her elbows on the head of the couch, "I installed a fox game yesterday, I haven't played it yet though," she replied.

"This one?" Haerin clicked on the game with the title 'Endling: Extinction Is Forever' because there was a fox on the cover.

Minji hummed in agreement, encouraging her to hit play. There was a cutscene, a fox making it's was through a burning forest caused by humans, it was depressing to watch it limp and struggle to make through the falling trees and fire.

"This is just sad..," Hyein commented, her facial expression showing obvious discomfort.

"That's the point, I think it's to raise awareness or something," the oldest girl stated out.

They continued on with the cutscene, the fox finally managed to find a way out and a burrow to live in. Apparently, the fox was pregnant and that night it gave birth to four cubs.

The entire purpose of the game was to survive and Haerin was doing quite a good job at it, until one of the cubs got kidnapped. They played the game for about a few hours, trying to keep the cubs alive and finding the kidnapped cub. It was getting tiring (and very depressing).

A few minutes later, the bell rang.

"I'll get the door!" Hyein jumps off the couch and skips to the door.

"Who's there?" she asks, making sure it wasn't some creep.

"It's me, Hanni," she heard the girl's voice from behind the door and immediately swung the door open.

"Hyein?" Hanni sounded confused, isn't this supposed to be Minji's house? Why is Hyein at the door?

"Yes?" the younger girl answered.

"Did I get the wrong address?"

"I don't know what you're talking about but maybe?"

"Minji invited me and Dani over, is this Minji's place?" she says, pointing at Danielle who was deliberately ringing the bell over and over again, knowing the door was already opened just to embarrass Hanni.

"Hyein, who is it?" Minji pokes her head out from behind the taller girl, "Oh, you're here already! Come on in"

"So, I did get the right address.." she says as she drags Danielle by the arm into the house with her.

Haerin was still playing when the walked in, too busy with the game to notice their presence. Hyein lightly nudged her shoulder, "Hyein, stop. I'm feeding the cubs," she says annoyed.

"We have visitors" Haerin paused the game, turning her head to face the door.

She quickly fixed her sitting position, putting down the console, "Hi," she awkwardly mustered out.

_______________

'I swear, they fluffing planned this' Hanni thought to herself because there is no way this whole thing wasn't a set up. She took a mental note to smack Danielle (and maybe Haerin and Hyein as well) when she gets back.

Half an hour ago, Hyein wanted to try cooking with everyone. Nobody had other ideas on what to do so they went along with it and while they were giving out tasks, Hanni got paired with Minji to buy the extra ingredients while the others had to cook something with the stuff they already have at Minji's place.

("Why can't I just go with Danielle? We're using her money to pay for the groceries after all," Hanni tried to rationalize the situation.

"Minji knows the grocery store, I've never even step a foot in there nor know where it is," Danielle counters, "Plus, you two are the oldest so you should go"

Hyein and Haerin also backed her up, nodding at every word she says while Minji easily agreed because the reasons Danielle listed out were realistic.)

That's how she ended up here, in a grocery store with Minji, it's not like they were awkward around each other or anything, in fact, being with Minji actually gives her a sense of comfort but she wouldn't want Minji to find out about how fast her heart was beating for her.

Having a big fat gay ass crush on such a hot girl like Minji can be such a problem sometimes and this is definitely one of those times.

(a/n: don't mind me, just using Hanni to simp over Minji)

A list of things to buy was made before they left to the mart, "It's surprisingly long," Minji checks the list, "How much meat should we buy?"

"A lot," Hanni says without hesitation, "I'm going to tear up meat today with my mouth"

"Don't tear up meat," Minji chuckles, finding her statement amusing, "but I wonder if it's fine to leave the cooking to them"

"Hyein is good, last time when she came over, she made something for me and Dani"

"Yeah, Hyein is good, I trust her enough not to not let Haerin and Danielle burn my house down"

"I feel like Haerin would be the type to just watch..," Hanni jokes.

"She is actually, she can only fry eggs"

"Bingo, I guess?"

___________

Back at Minji's place, the younger girls got to work.

"How should we do this?" Hyein grabs the bag of tteokbokki from the table and walks over to Danielle who was busy unwrapping plastic off a cabbage.

"I don't really know," she replied without looking away from the task at hand.

"Have you ever made tteokbokki before?"

"I haven't"

"Oh no," now Hyein really believes they're hopeless, glancing over to Haerin finding more ingredients from the fridge.

She took out the cutting board and to cut the vegetables Danielle finished washing, hyping herself up by convincing herself that she can do it. Just as she was about to cut it, a thought came to her mind, "How big should the pieces be?" she asks Haerin.

"They should be small, like this," Haerin made random gestures with her hands and cutting sound effects which doesn't sound anything like cutting but Hyein could still make do of what she meant despite not even facing her way nor seeing the hand gestures properly.

"Don't we need some for skewers?"

"Ah, then split them into two"

"Two types?"

"Yeah"

The way that they can communicate even without using actual words is honestly impressive, they've been together long enough to have such ability to read small things such as so. Hyein starts cutting up the green onions, regretting it right after because they're looking oddly chopped.

Haerin brings in more vegetables from the ones that Danielle has washed to the table and sits next to Hyein. "This is right, right?," Hyein says, laughing through the pain of her awkwardly cut vegetables and instead of saying 'it's fine' Haerin laughs along.

Finally, Danielle, joined in, chopping carrots. Haerin was sitting right in the middle of them, watching and giving encouraging words like 'You're doing so well' and 'I'm cheering you on' because there was noting for her to do at the moment.

"Haerin really is just watching..." Hyein complained.

"I'm not just watching, I'm cheering you on, It can so be helpful," she counters.

"Then, can you separate these?" Hyein hands her over the cabbages, "You know what I mean, right?"

"Okay, okay, I get it" She gets to work, not without stealing some of the carrots Danielle chopped which lead to everyone else eating the carrots along as an energizer of some sorts.

"This is why you need to be on the cooking team, you get to snack on something"

"True, I wonder how are things going with them"

"Hanni is probably going to smack me when she gets back..."

"More like, smack us, we set them up together"

"Let's pretend we're in a show and look up saying 'I wonder what the others are doing' so the camera cuts to them!"

"Ok, 3, 2, 1.."

Everyone said at the same time, "I wonder what the others are doing," looking up to the ceiling.

Not leaving time for a moment of silence, they broke into laughter, finding this very silly.

________

Minji went straight into the mart and took a shopping cart from the entrance where the carts were located because there was way too many things on the list for them to carry around by hand throughout the entire time they were shopping or as Hyein calls it, ingredients hunting.

She hands over the list of ingredients to Hanni, "I'll push the cart, just keep an eye on the things we have to buy"

Hanni took the list, purposefully brushing her hand against Minji's for a bit longer than needed because for now, all she could do was subtly pretend to 'accidentally' or 'unconsciously' grab her hand from time to time. Oh how she wished they could just hold hands without having to freak out internally whether the other was okay with it or not.

The Vietnamese girl looked around, finding the supermarket rather colorful and lively than the one close to her apartment back at their region. She walks ahead of Minji confidently as if she knew where everything was, trying to find the meat section because she decided to check that first off their list.

As luck would have it, the first thing she saw when she walked over to a particular lane was meat, they we're already cut into parts and neatly wrapped around a plastic wrap, "Should we buy 400g of pork shoulder?" she heard Minji asked, looking through the glass fridge door.

Without looking up from the meat Hanni replied, "I think it might be better to buy two packs since we eat a lot of meat," pointing through the glass, gesturing Minji to grab them and place it into the cart and as per usual, Minji complied.

Hanni took out her pen (yes, it's her iconic plant pen) to check 'meat' off their list. They continued on with their task, clearing out more things off the list, going through it over and over again to make sure noting was left. The bottom of the cart was barely visible by the time they finally checked the last item on the list.

"Hanni, is there anything else you need?"

"I was planning on making my mom's chicken noodles, Danielle loves it"

Not wasting much time, they went to look for fish oil but failed and settled for just powered ginger instead because apparently, it can be used as a substitute.

'Ingredients hunting' has been a success.

__________

"I'll start looking up tteokbokki recipes"

"Could you give me the red pepper powder?"

The younger girls started making the tteokbokki, following a recipe from Hyein's phone closely as none of them knew what they were doing and, mixing sugar, red pepper powder, soy sauce, minced garlic and gochujang together into a bowl.

That's when they heard the front door unlocking, signaling them of the older girls arrival, "Guys, were back"

"I can hear Minji!" Hyein and Danielle collectively shouts from the kitchen. Hyein immediately got up and greeted them, jumping excitedly like a little puppy, contrasting from her size.

As soon as the groceries were put where they were supposed to be, they got back to work. Minji cleaned the meat and cooked it over the stove, never latching her eyes away from the meat as she seasoned it as she believes that timing is the key when it comes to cooking meat.

Hyein, Haerin and Danielle was already done with their part, Danielle was the first to taste it, finding it more delicious than they expected it to be, she called the rest over to taste it too. When Minji took a sip of the soup, the younger girls were waiting with anticipation for her comment on their tteokbokki.

They practically squealed after Minji said it was good, high five-ing each other identical to children after getting praised by their mom for doing a good job at something.

"Our tteokbokki will be the highlight of the meal!" All three of them said out of sync but you could still tell they were on the same vibe, a chaotic one that is.

Hanni on the other hand was peacefully draining out the blood from the chicken in the sink, making sure they're clean to make her chicken noodles. She filled the cooking pot with water and waited for it to boil then inserted the now clean chicken in with a little bit of salt.

Getting rid of the scum that appears on the surface with a spoon for whatever reasons which even she herself can't explain but she just does it anyways because there has be a reason for it, probably.

After getting rid of all the scum, she placed a whole onion into the broth, then took out the chicken. The other girls randomly checked up on her but in a way that it wasn't disturbing, just as a way to encourage her or something.

She sprinkled a lot of her mom's 'special salt' into the broth to make it tasty and some ginger powder to complete the taste. Shredding the chicken as she waits for the broth to cook.

Danielle walked over and Hanni could instantly tell what she wanted so she took a piece she already shredded and hand-fed it into her mouth, earning a 'oh my gosh' from the younger girl because it tasted really good despite it only being chicken boiled with a little bit of salt.

The next person she fed was a curious Haerin and hungry Hyein appeared afterwards. Hyein takes some of it to share the food with Minji who was still cooking the meat, her brows quickly furrowed, she always does this when the food is good.

As for making the noodles, Hanni asked Danielle to cook it because she was too preoccupied with the broth. In accordance to her request, Danielle took out the noodles from the packaging the boiled them and draining the noodles up to place in five separate bowls individually.

The recipe Hanni was working on no longer felt like her mom's recipe as she had made more changes to it to be considered 'following a recipe' anymore. She added in the vegetable and the rest of the ingredients and the noodles were finally done and ready to be served.

Haerin set up the table with Hyein and they all sat down, proud of what they made. Hanni's noodles was the main course, they all loved it. Eating feels much more rewarding when they make it themselves.

_________

Hyein landed on the couch right after they all finished cleaning up the kitchen and dining table, feeling too full to move anymore. Her height causing her feet to dangle a little on the edge as she lays on her back with her hands over her stomach.

Danielle lay next to her, wrapping her arms around the younger girl's waist and nuzzling closer. Needless to say, the couch was fully occupied so they had to squeeze in to avoid falling off.

Despite only knowing each other for a month, Hyein felt like a younger sister to Danielle. Since the only sibling Danielle had was an older sister, she had always been curious on how it would be like to have a younger sibling. Meeting Hyein was the closest she has ever gotten to having a little sister and she really liked it, smiling into the hug when she feels another pair of arms wrap around her too.

Meanwhile, a pair of dark brown orbs had been observing them from the table, jealousy building up within them, wishing she was in Hyein's position, it was Haerin. She slumped down on the dining table, pretending not to care while still monitoring them.

She knows Danielle only sees Hyein as a younger sister and Hyein would never take Danielle away like that, not to mention their age gap felt illegal because Hyein was only 15 and Danielle was already 18 but she still couldn't help but envy her.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up only to find Hanni's smug grin, "You seriously need to learn how to be subtle man," her voice was barely above a whisper to avoid anyone else hearing what she said as she lightly pat Haerin's shoulder who's eyes widened in shock, she didn't expect anyone to catch on, other than Hyein and Minji of course.

"Don't worry, I wont tell her," she smiled softly at her, fighting the urge to tell her that her best friend actually has a huge crush on her too and that they should just make out or something along the lines of that. Now she understands how Danielle feels when she looks at her and Minji.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it," was all Haerin could think of saying.

"No problem, wanna watch Harry Potter in Minji's room with me?" the Vietnamese girl invited, pointkng towards Minji who was at the bottom of the staircase, waiting for Hanni.

Haerin took the opportunity to tease the older girl, "Nah, you two lovebirds have fun" Hanni could hear the complacent tone in the younger girl's voice.

"...right, obviously you knew," Hanni sighed, "You won't tell either, right?"

"I wont. Now go, you don't want to keep your future girlfriend waiting, I'm rooting for you"

"Ditto"

She made her way to Minji, joining her upstairs, glad that she can have someone to consult about Minji after this.

"Don't start exploring her chamber of secrets!" Haerin jokes, loud enough for of them to hear as they walked up.

Hanni wanted to take back what she said and smack Haerin so badly while Minji flushed red, awkwardly laughing at her friend's joke, also about to strangle the younger girl but they both decided to past it and ignored the absurd comment.

Chapter Text

The sky was slightly cloudy, and the air was cold- it was the perfect weather to stay in bed and read a good book. Although some may disagree, it is an undeniable fact that the majority of people believe it to be true, including a particular girl named Pham Hanni.

Hanni is currently getting comfortable in bed. She reaches over to the desk to grab the novel she had planned on reading. Although Hanni is not typically someone who reads in her free time, she decided to give the novel a chance after receiving it from a friend in high school.

With the lights dimmed and half her body already covered in a cozy blanket, she is excited to finally dive into the book. The weather is on her side tonight, providing the perfect atmosphere for reading.

Danielle was occupied with preparing a group presentation for her English class with her classmates, and hence, she could not hang out with Hanni at her apartment. After setting up a playlist for reading, she tried to immerse herself in the contents of the book, and to her surprise, she found it neither boring nor hard to read.

It was perfect for her. She kept flipping through the pages, so focused that she barely noticed someone opening the door to her room.

The person walked into the room carrying a tray with two mugs of hot cocoa and a bowl of fruit. Hanni had not noticed her yet because she was engrossed in a novel. The person chuckled and asked, "Having fun?" She placed the tray on the desk and climbed onto Hanni's queen-sized bed, sitting next to her and laying her head on Hanni's shoulder. Hanni smiled and replied with a hum, still not taking her eyes off the book.

"Mind putting it down for a bit, darling? The drinks are going to get cold," the girl took out the left side of Hanni's earphones, effectively gaining her attention, "I also cut up some fruits for us"

Now they were both facing each other. "Darling? I didn't know the one and only Kim Minji could be so cheesy" Hanni placed a bookmark on the page she was reading and closed the book, placing it on her lap.

"Can't a girl try to be romantic?" Minji pretended to pout, crossing her arms.

"Of course you can," Hanni gave a quick peck on the cheeks.

Still trying to pretend like she was pouting, Minji furrowed her brows, finally looking at Hanni, "Not enough" She muttered. If the other girls knew about this side of Minji, she would lose her image as their older sister/ mom of the group or just be straight up teased endlessly by them. Hanni was glad she had the privilege of witnessing her in such a state.

"Let's have a drink first," Hanni said. "You said it yourself that the drinks are going to get cold." Hanni grabbed the mug with paw prints from the tray. It was her favorite mug. She loved how Minji remembered small things about her.

It was things like this that made her fall deeper in love with her day by day. Before meeting Minji, Hanni had thought that people like her only existed in movies or storybooks - someone who could sweep her off her feet with just a smile.

Oh how Hanni loves Minji's smile, the way it melts her heart when she smiles at her, the way her eyes squint when she's smiling widely, the way her smug grin makes her feel butterflies instead of downright annoyed- she could go on forever talking about it and never get bored.

She took a sip of the hot cocoa and she instantly had a new thing to add to her list of things she loved about Minji, she's so in love it's sickening but in a cute way. Unlike Minji who was chugging down the hot cocoa, Hanni sipped it carefully, savoring the taste.

"Can't you drink any quicker?" Minji was getting rather tetchy, she snaked her arms around Hanni's waist to hug her from behind and buried her face in the crook of her girlfriend's neck which made Hanni want to tease her more so she started sipping slower than before just to get a reaction out of her.

Minji who seemed to notice didn't let it slide, she moved her hair to the side and started to leave a couple of soft pecks on her neck, tickling Hanni.

"Ah- hey, that's not playing fair!" she yelps, turning herself around to face a laughing Minji.

"You weren't playing fair either" Minji stopped laughing, taking the mug from Hanni's hand. Her smile turned into a playful smirk when she found out the mug was already empty, "See?" she placed it on the tray and cupped Hanni's face, "Now, can I get my kiss?"

"Not yet, we still have the fruits to eat, don't want to put them to waste now, do we?" Minji groaned, she was beyond irritated now.

As she watched Minji's reaction, she couldn't help but feel amused. Taking advantage of the situation, she leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on Minji's pouting lips. In response, Minji's eyes lit up and she leaned in, initiating a soft and steady kiss that only they knew the rhythm of. It was a rhythm that matched the steady beat of their hearts in which they had grown so accustomed to over time.

Hanni straddled Minji's lap, completely forgetting about the book on her earlier, tangling her fingers in the taller girl's hair, and pushing her head closer. As Minji added a little bit more pressure on her lips to the point where it felt like they were crashing their lips together, Hanni couldn't help but gasp.

Minji took the opportunity to lick Hanni's lower lip, a subtle way of asking for permission. She pulled back to check her girlfriend's eyes for a response. Hanni's eyes were always expressive, and that was what Minji loved most about them. She could always tell how Hanni was feeling just by looking into her eyes. Right now, she could sense that Hanni wanted it just as much as she did.

Without wasting more time, she connected their lips again, easing her tongue into her mouth, she could taste the hot cocoa from earlier, luckily, chocolate was one of her favorite flavors and it being mixed with the taste of her girlfriend made it 10x better for Minji.

Hanni let out a whimper when Minji started sucking on her tongue, the grip she had on her Minji's hair tightened, her nails lightly scratching her scalp. This encourages Minji to suck harder, craving to hear more of the sweet sounds her girlfriend could make, melting at each other's touch.

Minji managed to change their position in one swift move, pushing Hanni by the hips gently to pin her down without breaking the kiss, her lips trailed down to her jaw and all the way down to her neck, leaving open-mouthed kisses on every inch of skin she could. Hanni turned her head to the side to give Minji more access, clearly telling her to keep going with her body language.

She starts licking and nipping on her neck, drawing out more noises from the younger girl. She could never get enough of it, but she had to pull away first before anything.

"Tell me if you want me to stop, ok?" she brushed her thumb over Hanni's lower lip, bewitched by the sight of the shorter girl under her.

Gosh, couldn't she be even a little bit of a red flag? Still asking for consent when it's already obvious that they were both on board with the idea, Hanni found it to be such a hot trait to have. It's as if she had the ability to knock all air supply she had in her lungs and leave her breathless in the best way possible.

In her eyes, Kim Minji was the greenest green flag alive and she wouldn't want to leave herself open like this to anyone other than her. Hanni pulled her back down, kissing her ever so sweetly and that alone was enough as a response for Minji.

Her hand snaked her way to Hanni's thigh, lightly squeezing it, checking if she was feeling tense- she was. "Hey, you know you can relax right? It's just me," she kissed her forehead, trying to calm her down.

Her body almost instantly eased up at her actions and she wrapped her arm around her shoulders, giving her a hug, "I know, and I trust you"

Minji got back to work, tracing her fingers on Hanni's thighs, grateful that Hanni wore shorts that day. She tugged at the hem of her shorts, wanting it off the girl but she knows better than to rush things so she continued caressing her thigh slowly while kissing her senseless. Hearing the Vietnamese girl's muffled moans and whines getting needier, she unzipped her shorts, urging her to finally take it off.

Just as she was about to lift up her hips to help Minji take her shorts off, the door swung open with a loud slam- waking her up from her dream.

"Hanni, Hyein is making pancakes! Get up or we'll finish it," Danielle pulled her blanket off, revealing a very flushed and sweaty Hanni. "Oh- Did you have a nightmare or something? It's okay, you're awake now," she tries to comfort her but was pushed away instead, "Do you need some time alone? I can save some batter for later," trying not to trigger anything.

"What, no, I wasn't having a nightmare!" Hanni exclaimed, sitting up straight on the edge of the bed, finally realizing her current situation, she was still in the Ikea house Danielle rented and not at her apartment. Now fully awake, she finds the pooled slick between her legs unpleasant, "Gosh, I need a cold shower..." she sighed.

"If you didn't have a nightmare then why do you look like you did?" Danielle tried to put the puzzle pieces together. It took her a whole minute to get it and when she did, her expression showed it, "WAIT A DAMN MINUTE PHAM HANNI, DID YOU-" Hanni covered her mouth with her hand, scared half to death of the people downstairs listening in.

"Oh my gosh Dani, don't say it out loud!" She scolded her, taking her hand off her mouth.

"Sorry, it just never crossed my mind that you could have such dreams cause all the dreams you've told me about were wholesome asf", she sat down next to her, taking in the situation, "Have you been lying about them or?"

"No, I haven't. If I'm being honest, I never thought I could dream about such a thing either..."

"So, this was your first time?," she say excitedly, curious about this new part of her friend.

"It was Minji," she covered her face, hoping she wont have to see her today, "I'm blaming Haerin for this," she refers to what the younger girl had said 2 days ago.

'Of course it's Minji,' Danielle could hear how embarrassed she was, "Tell me the details, it can't be that bad"

"Well, I was back at my apartment, reading. Then she walked in and we kinda made out and it escalated from there but we didn't do anything cause you woke me up" she was practically rapping the words out, "Is there a hole somewhere I can bury myself in?"

"Girl, chill, you didn't even go all the way. Plus, you've dreamt about kissing her before so what's the difference?" Danielle sounded unfazed, patting her back.

"Those were just light pecks, this is entirely something else!" Hanni was freaking out.

"Just act normal, that's what I always do"

There was a pause, "...you what?"

Hanni found out something about Danielle that she wishes she could unlearn, Danielle has dreams about Haerin like that almost every month.

____________

Hyein, being the youngest in the group, had the power to mandate her requests, so when she invited herself over and dragged Haerin and Minji along, the older girls had no say in it. Earlier that morning, Hyein asked Haerin to bring Hazel to Hanni and Danielle's place, but now Haerin regrets agreeing to it.

Hazel was sprawled on Danielle's lap, enjoying all the head scratches and pats it wanted, while Haerin watched. "That cunning cat," Haerin muttered for the nth time that day, sitting across from them.

In the kitchen, Minji and Hyein were making pancakes. After they finished preparing the batter, Hyein heated up a non-stick pan and put some butter in it, waiting for it to melt before pouring the batter in.

Minji heard footsteps coming from the staircase, so she poked her head out of the kitchen to take a peek. It was Hanni, her hair wet and a towel around her neck, as if she had just come out of the shower. Minji's heart melted at the sight of the most beautiful girl she had ever seen, hoping their friendship could lead to something more one day. She looked away, finally pouring the batter into the pan.

Hanni didn't notice her and walked straight to Danielle, taking the cat and giving it to Haerin before collapsing on the couch and laying her head on Danielle's lap, in dire need of her best friend's comfort. Hazel jumped off Haerin and tried to lay on Danielle's lap again, to which Hanni responded by pushing it away and saying, "She's mine, kitty. Back off."

Haerin didn't know why, but she felt challenged by Hanni's statement. She bit the inside of her lower lip, fighting the urge to say anything while Danielle started drying Hanni's wet hair. It reminded Haerin of a cat video she saved on her phone, so it somehow made her feel better.

"Still dying?" Danielle asks.

"You think?"

"I'll take that as a 'yes', Minji and Hyein are in the kitchen by the way"

"Don't remind me," she groans, sinking deeper into the couch.

"Hanni, could you prepare the table?" she hears Hyein calling her from the kitchen.

"Oh no, Danielle can you do it instead? I really can't face her right now," Hanni starts panicking, curling up into a ball position.

"Nope, act normal, remember?" She grabbed her by the back of her collar and pulled her over to the kitchen, similar to a mother cat picking up kittens by the scruff of their neck, leaving her there, Haerin laughed. She accepted her fate and walked over to the kitchen cabinet, taking out some Ikea plates to place on the table in front.

"Morning, slept well?" Minji greets with her usual smile, flipping the pancakes with ease.

Hanni didn't even bother to look her way, going straight to the sink, wetting the wiping cloth and twisting it to make sure it wasn't too wet. Minji wondered why she didn't answer, thinking she probably didn't hear her, she payed no mind to it.

Hanni rushed out of the kitchen to wipe the table, getting rid of all the dust on it before setting the plates down, "Done," she went back to the sink to wash off the cloth. Thinking there was nobody behind her, she turned around. Unfortunately for her, she bumped into someone taller than her, with a yelp, both of them to stumble and fall with Hanni on top of her.

"Oh crap, I'm so sorry Hyein! Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, um.. could you get off me?" Hyein looks up at the girl above her, finding it difficult to stay in the position.

"Yeah, sure, how did I forget that.." Hanni tries to stand up but she trips again, but this time, she doesn't fall because Minji managed to catch her by the waist, her other hand still holding the spatula, "Whoa, you gotta be more careful bro," she says with a half smirk.

She could feel Minji's front pressed on her back, her mouth dangerously close to the shell of her ear, feeling the heat rush up to her cheeks, Hanni pushed Minji away harshly, without an explanation. Minji was perplexed, why would Hanni do that to her?

She reached out for her hand but Hanni avoided it and walked towards the living room where Danielle and Haerin were playing with Hazel.

"What was that all about?" Hyein who witnessed the everything unfold in front of her eyes questions Minji, "Did you do anything to her?"

"I- I don't know..." Minji felt hurt by Hanni's sudden outburst, not enough to leave her with strong emotions but it still has an impact. Suddenly, she smells something burning, it was the pancakes. It was fully burnt so she had to throw it out no matter how much she hated throwing out food, it couldn't be considered edible anymore after all.

She tried to remember everything she did but nothing comes to mind, she and Hanni didn't argue about anything for the past month so why is she keeping her distance? The suspense was killing Minji, she wants to know what made Hanni push her away, no, scratch that, she needs to know.

She made it her goal to get to the bottom of this, she doesn't like being given the cold shoulder, especially if it's from the Vietnamese girl. She finished up with the pancakes and brought them to the table, "Guys, the pancakes are done!"

"We only have butter and honey from the fridge. The honey can replace maple syrup, trust me," Hyein puts it on the table, sitting down next to a now happy Haerin which may or may not be because Danielle invited her to the roof after breakfast with the promise of only the two of them would be there, not even Hazel was allowed.

Hyein had enough of her older friends acting weird today so she pays no heed to neither of then and starts pouring the honey on her triple stacked pancakes, adding the butter on the side of the plate to dip into it later. She takes the first bite and hummed in pleasure, pancakes are hands down one of the best breakfast foods in the world.

Danielle takes two pancakes and spread butter one each with the butter knife, pouring honey on them afterwards, taking a bite, "Whoa, the honey does tastes good with pancakes!"

"Told you," Hyein replies, smugly.

Chatter fills the room as they all started eating, mostly Hyein, Danielle and Minji. Haerin being the introvert she was, stayed quiet and only giggled along and commented a little here and there when it seemed appropriate meanwhile Hanni ate in complete silence, never taking her eyes off her plate even when Danielle mentioned her in the conversation.

When she finally listed her gaze, the first person she saw was Minji, sitting across her. Luck really hated her that day.

Her eyes traveled to her hands, checking out her fingers and the way she held the utensils, cutting up a piece of pancake and bringing it up to her mouth, her lips parted with her tongue sticking out a little, taking the piece into her mouth, chewing unhurriedly.

Hanni gulped loudly as she kept on staring but her head was still facing the plate so nobody noticed her. As if it were on cue, the honey from Minji's fork spilled onto her fingers, generously coating it. Without much thought, Minji licked them clean, making sure there was no more traces of it on her.

This doesn't go unnoticed by Hanni, blushing at the gesture. She knows she should look away but she couldn't, not that she wanted to in the first place. Minji looked up and their eyes met, instantaneously, the shorter girl lowered her gaze once more, pretending like she wasn't having weird thoughts.

The older girl couldn't take it anymore so she initiated the conversation,

"So, Hanni, did you sleep late last night? You woke up quite late y'know," practically forcing a reply out of her with her tone.

Since Hanni didn't want to make it that obvious in front of everyone that she was avoiding her, she gave a brief reply, "No, I slept early," her eyes traveled everywhere in the room except for the girl talking to her, taking another bite out of her honey glazed pancakes

Minji tried again, "Then, was the sleep that good?"

"No, yes, I don't know"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I- I don't know..," Hanni wanted to drop the topic already, tugging at Danielle's shirt under the table, silently asking her to help.

"She had a nightmare earlier so Hanni isn't feeling so well," Danielle seemed to understand and made up an excuse, thankfully, she's very good at lying.

"Oh, that's... reasonable," Minji lowkey regretted asking.

The rest continued on chatting and Hanni was relieved Minji let it slide, she took the last bite of her pancakes and took her plate to the kitchen to wash it then, she took a glass of water, chugging it down in one gulp. A figure walked up to her, leaning on the counter, "Hey, is there something going on? I might not have a place to say this but Minji doesn't deserve to be given the cold shoulder like this."

Hanni turned to face the voice, "I'm really sorry, it's just- I'm not sure I can explain it to you," she puts the cup down.

The cat-like girl who has been observing them from before spoke up again, "You don't have to, not to me. Minji really likes you, you shouldn't treat her like that," she sounded angry, Haerin was never the type to care much but she can get pretty hostile when it comes to people mistreating her friends.

"I know, I'll pull myself together, don't worry," Hanni made a decision, she wasn't about to let some silly dream stop her from spending more time with Minji, she only had 28 days left to confess after all. Haerin smiled at her response, satisfied, she left by saying 'great', expressing she was on board with the idea.

______________________

"So, how'd it go with Hanni?" Danielle asked, she was who insisted on Haerin telling Hanni off, she didn't tell her why she was acting weird to Minji since she respected her friend's boundaries.

"She said she'll pull herself together," Haerin closed the glass trapdoor after getting out.

"That's good," She grabbed on the railing of the roof, "What about Hyein, is it fine to leave her with them downstairs?" she refers to the tension between the two older girls.

"Her mom called earlier so she had to go back home. She took Hazel with her," she walked over to the railing, standing beside Danielle.

"That's good then," she may look like she was enjoying the scenery but in truth, she was freaking out on the inside. The sole purpose of inviting Haerin up here was to ask her out and she's not sure if she could say the right words and she felt like her heart was trying to beat its way out of her ribcage and fly away somewhere.

Danielle isn't dense, she knows Haerin likes her too. She tried putting herself in different scenarios since the first day they met to see Haerin's response and so far, she has been very successful. Being the ray of sunshine she is, nobody would ever expect her type to use such methods- making her job easier.

So why is she freaking out so much? To put it simply, Kang Haerin is unbelievably gorgeous from head to toe and Danielle is weak for everything she does. She let out a sigh, knowing it was going to catch Haerin's attention, leading her to ask 'what's wrong?'

"What's wrong?" The younger girl asked, her voice laced with curiosity and worry.

Bingo.

She shakes her head, "Nothing, I'm just really happy you're here," she smiles, purposefully making Haerin blush.

"Don't say things like that..," she looks away, hiding her face.

Danielle placed Haerin's hand on her cheek, leaving the younger girl speechless.

"Haerin-ah, will you listen to me?" she tried saying it in the sweetest tone she could, not that Haerin would mind if she didn't because, in her eyes, Danielle's voice will forever be the best thing her ears have ever been given the privilege to hear.

"I will," she cupped Danielle's cheek, loving the warmth of the older girl. She's not entirely sure what's about to happen but every part of her was really hoping for it to be what she thinks it is.

"Thank you," she closes the gap between them, hugging the younger girl, "Before I say this, promise me you won't freak out"

She hugs her back, "I won't"

"I like you" Her grip on the hug tightened, feeling like Haerin might run away at any moment.

Haerin went quiet and silence was deafening for Danielle, she stopped hugging the girl and tried to take a step back but she couldn't. Haerin trapped her in her arms, not letting go.

"Haerin?" No response.

She asks again, "Haerin?"

"Give me a minute," her reply was quick, still hiding her face on Danielle's shoulder.

They stayed like this for a few minutes until she finally pulled away, "Did you mean it?"

"Yes," she giggled, loving how red the younger girl's face was.

"I like you too"

Chapter Text

3rd October:

Hanni had never minded having to clean up, it's only fair since the other girls made breakfast. What she does mind though, is that neither Danielle, Hyein nor Haerin is here with her to help ease out the awkward tension between her and Minji who was also asked to clean up by the younger girls.

After being weird all morning, Hanni decides to put on her big-girl pants and move past it but it turns out that the phrase 'easier said than done' which has been repeatedly said by her former English teacher was no joke.

They split cleaning the kitchen into two tasks, washing the dishes and clearing up the counter. The Vietnamese girl ended up with the dishes while the Korean girl did the other task, wiping down the stove and clearing up traces of flour, egg, and milk from the counter.

Every time Minji puts a dirty dish in the sink, Hanni tries to start a conversation but even with her lips parted, her words are still stuck in her throat. It's like a warning, telling her she's on thin ice. She couldn't do it.

Minji finished her part and Hanni assumed that she was about to leave so she tried to finish washing the dishes as quickly as possible to catch up and talk it out. That's when she felt a pair of arms snaking their way around her waist, just like in the dream. Except, this wasn't a dream and she was fully awake.

Hanni almost dropped the plate she was holding, her brain short-circuited. Still trying to differentiate between reality and her delusions.

This can't possibly be happening, can it?

"You know you can relax right? It's just me," the older girl whispered into her ear with no hidden motive whatsoever, just as reassurance.

Unfortunately, that same sentence was also said by the Minji in that morning's dream, she could remember the entire thing vividly, making the situation worse. Her grip on the plate tightened, washing it as if nothing was happening as she replied with a simple nod accompanied with a low hum.

Minji was only satisfied when she felt Hanni's shoulders slacken, resting her chin on the blade of her shoulder.

She finally finished washing the dishes but now she couldn't move, not that she was complaining, "Minji, I'm done"

"I know," Minji didn't move, keeping her arms around the younger girl before saying, "If it's not too sensitive, can I ask what the dream was about?" she didn't mean to sound like she was pressuring her and Hanni could sense that she was only being concerned, she knows how much she cares about her.

Hanni felt her cheeks burn up, recalling everything, "No, I can't tell you..."

"That's fine" She hugs her tighter.

Despite the conversation sounding awkward to literally anyone else, it didn't feel like it at all. They were very much comfortable, knowing the issue was no longer stopping them from being close to each other.

_____

"So, how are we going to tell everyone?" Haerin asks her former friend (now girlfriend, yes, they talked it out), who is looking at her with a silly grin on her face, her heart feels so full. She had never imagined that somebody as bright and ethereal as Danielle could want her just as much as she wanted her.

What a lie. She had imagined it countless times even before they met in real life and even more after they met, daydreaming about holding her hand and going on dates.

Danielle grabbed Haerin's arm and rested her head on her shoulder, "Let's just not tell them," not a hint of uncertainty was heard.

That was an unexpected response, could it be that she doesn't want them to freak out or judge them? Haerin was 100% sure the rest of their newly formed friend group already knew both of them had feelings for each other and shipped them together to why Danielle insisted on keeping it just between them was confusing her.

She didn't want to question her choice but against her better judgment she asked anyway, "Why not?"

"It's obvious, isn't it? They'll figure it out themselves in no time, we don't need to explain anything"

Even though Haerin couldn't see Danielle's face, she could tell the older girl was smiling, but this smile felt different, she definitely had another reason she hadn't stated yet. It didn't feel entirely evil so Haerin could only assume it wasn't anything serious, "True" she replied.

4th October:

It was 7 am but Danielle still managed to summon everyone to her room, how? Well, Aussie magic I guess. Everyone except for Hanni who was still sleeping in the room across the hall, that is.

"Today's topic of discussion is an important one," Danielle says, pulling out a whiteboard from who knows where. She had fake glasses on with a black marker on her hand, making herself look like the most textbook-based teacher, that is, if a teacher wears pastel blue bunny and carrot patterned pajamas to class. "Do any of you know why you're here?" she asks, sounding serious.

"Because you spammed us saying Hanni isn't breathing," Minji deadpans.

"Yes, and no," she ignored her and continued on, "Anyone else?"

"Because you threatened to kidnap Hazel," Hyein manages to say, half asleep on Danielle's bed, finding her way under the covers.

"Also true but not the answer I'm looking for," Danielle points at the girl next to Minji next, "You?"

"Because you promised me a kiss," I think we can all guess who said it.

"What"

"What"

Looks like the cat is outside of the bag (literally), it didn't even last up to a full day.

________

The discussion earlier was about Hanni's upcoming birthday and when Danielle flipped the whiteboard, it revealed her foolproof plan for everything, from the types of food to the decorations and set up. Heck, she had the weather report written somewhere on the board.

"Are we clear with the plan now?" Danielle asks, handing out everyone's individual tasks and they were very oddly specific...

"I don't know how you came up with this but yes, we understand," Minji speaks up, in awe of the younger girl's planning skills.

"Ok, so Hanni will be awake in a few minutes so I need everyone to pretend like you just arrived"

They got out of the room, and went back to their homes to get ready for operation:' Birthday Girl

A few minutes later, a knock was heard on Danielle's door, "Dani, I'm going to make breakfast, you awake yet?"

_________

2:25 pm

Hyein is the distraction of the day, she's supposed to keep Hanni occupied with the Spiderman game she likes, knowing Hanni would get totally invested in it and not question the absence of everyone else. Danielle's plan was literally flawless, she even had 2 different backup plans if Hanni were to find out, and Minji doubted she'd even have to use one of them.

"How the fu- I mean, how do you keep winning?" Hanni almost cursed in front of the younger girl out of frustration, no matter how many rounds they played, Hanni would always end up losing. While it's great for grabbing all her attention, it's bad for Hyein because she is now scared for her life to win again and risk getting murdered by the older girl who looks like she's on the verge of committing 10 different war crimes.

"I- I don't know," she stammered, almost physically shaking in fear.

"I bet it's the controller, give me the one you're using," Hanni snatched it off her hands and Hyein was about to say 'that's not how it works' but she shut up when she sees the look on Hanni's eyes, pure horror. She makes a mental note to ask Danielle to never make her do this ever again.

Just as predicted, changing the controllers didn't change anything and it led to Hyein having to change to a different game to avoid getting flayed.

________

Minji's task was to get to a bakery where she gave the location to order the birthday cake and other pastries such as donuts and cupcakes for the party, the funny part was she had to go alone.

Danielle gave her a list of things to order and even step-by-step instructions on how to politely greet the cashier which felt a lot like she was trying to say that Minji had no manners but that wasn't true and Danielle wouldn't do that.

As soon as she entered the shop, the smell of freshly baked bread invaded her sense of smell and she loved it. Nobody else other than Minji and the workers were there, 'Guess it's not during peak hours' Minji thinks, walking up to the counter.

She started explaining her order according to the very specific requests left by the younger girl, luckily, the worker understood it completely.

The worker confirmed that the order would be ready by tomorrow and Minji was about to leave and call it a day but the pastries were extremely tempting so she bought one of them and quickly finished it to regroup with Danielle and Haerin who were in charge of buying drinks and decorations in the same building, feeling completely satisfied.

_________

Danielle and Haerin have been walking in circles inside the mall because, first, Danielle doesn't know her way around everything because she's never been here and fully relies on Haerin to lead her, second, Haerin rarely goes to the mall so she doesn't know either.

"We got the drinks, but now we can't find our way out to the parking lot we promised to meet up with Minji..," Danielle started to panic.

"It's fine, I think I know my way from here," Haerin sounded confident, walking fast and avoiding everyone in her line of sight. Until they're greeted by an angry Minji.

"Where the heck were you two? I was waiting here for half an hour, I almost just left"

"We got... lost"

"Why did I expect this to happen?"

___________

Danielle hides the drink in her room so Hanni doesn't see it, "Good job everyone, especially you, Hyein" She pats the younger girl's head.

"Never put me through that ever again, she tried to skin me alive"

"She tried to what?"

5th October:

The big day was tomorrow so they had to get Hanni out of the house for the entire day as they were planning on decorating and preparing the roof for the party. Hyein already forfeited beforehand so it was all up to Haerin to distract her because she's the only one that has a good excuse: Hazel.

Haerin brought Hanni to the pet store, pretending to find more toys and snacks for Hazel. It wasn't entirely an act, she really got invested in finding them after a few minutes in.

"The store is huge, is this where you buy all her stuff?" Hanni asks, looking around, the store was cold but not freezing, there were many sections and shelves. They even had fridges to store some types of food, not any that were safe to be consumed by humans though.

"Yeah, she's very picky, she'll only eat this," she pats one of the cat food packaging, "But she eats all wet foods from here"

"That sounds like her alright"

_____________

"By the way, when are you planning on confessing to Danielle?" Hanni placed a canned cat food into the trolley.

"2 days ago," Haerin says absent-mindedly.

"Oh good, it won't take long then," suddenly realization hit her, "Wait what?"

"I confessed 2 days ago. Technically, she confessed then I confessed so, yeah"

Hanni looked at her in disbelief, when the actual heck did this even happen.

"I'm gonna kill Dani when we get back"

"Please don't kill my girlfriend"

Chapter Text

6th October:

Birthdays are something most people consider significant, it's the anniversary of a person's birth as well as a chance to celebrate what's to come and connect with friends and family. Out of all the birthdays in a human's life, there are some that appear more special than the rest, such as the sweet sixteens, the golden birthday, and the 19th birthday.

As known to the general public, a 19th birthday only occurs once in any living creature's life span -besides the creatures with a shorter life span that is.

Nineteenth birthday parties are often overshadowed by the milestone 18th and 21st birthdays. A 19th birthday party is special because it is the last birthday of a teenager, and it should be celebrated properly.

Celebrating it gives the person an opportunity to appreciate how far they've come in life and to connect to their past, present, and future. Today marks the 19th birthday of Pham Hanni, which means it's her special day and if anybody ruins it Danielle Marsh will behead them using a scythe or any sharp (or dull) object within her reach.

Hanni knows that even if she didn't mention anything about it, Danielle and the rest would have prepared something for her special day anyway. She noticed it when they started randomly disappearing and leaving her with just one of them a few days ago yet she chose to remain silent because she knew it was out of their love for her and that alone was enough to stop herself from prying and ruining the surprise.

She loves how they show affection through things like so, she wonders how she got so lucky to end up with this kind of friend group.

Her parents called her that morning to wish her a happy birthday and apologize for not being able to celebrate it with her but they did mention mailing a present to her apartment so she has something to look forward to when she gets back from the trip.

They also took the chance to tell Hanni to be careful and use protection for whatever reasons they didn't bother telling her before hanging up, leaving Hanni a blushing mess at 8 am (she just woke up).

It was a bit weird that Danielle didn't wake her up because she's usually the one to knock on her door and pull off her blanket when she overslept but she came to the conclusion that it was part of the surprise. Getting out of bed was a lot harder than expected when her pillow suddenly felt criminally soft and fluffy.

Against the temptation to stay, she got up and headed to the shower, not letting such a silly reason stop her from enjoying her birthday to the fullest.

Feeling the natural grogginess when she transitions from being asleep to awake, she splashes her face with cold water since the shock of cold temperature stimulates the human nervous system, waking her up more quickly and helping her look and feel more alert and energized.

She opts to take a cold shower to jumpstart her day and pick her most comfortable outfit to wear.

As she made her way to Danielle's room to check on her, she found the room empty. Not giving much thought, she went downstairs to grab a cup of milk from the fridge but the curtains were closed so she could barely see her way down, relying solely on her sense of touch to avoid falling, trying to find the light switch. Just as she thought she had found the switch, she felt something touch her hand.

"OH MY GOSH, WHAT THE FUCK-" She fell.

Luckily, she was already on the first floor so she didn't stumble down the stairs like the most based clumsy main female protagonist in children's cartoons (Yes, I am referring to Marinette Dupain-Cheng) and break anything but she did fall bum first, leaving a painful sting.

"Happy Birthday!" She heard cheers and party poppers and then tried to look up but the sudden amount of lights entering her eyes made it hard for her, somebody switched it on already, doubling her pain. This was not how she had envisioned her day would be like but then again, with her chaotic friends, she should've expected something like this to occur.

Finally getting her eyes to work, she looks up to find Danielle and Minji holding up a banner with 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY' written in bold with birthday-ey drawing around it while the two younger girls had remains of the party poppers in hand.

"Why are you on the floor?" Minji asked with a confused look on her face and Hanni could already guess it was her who switched the lights on from how close she was to the light switch.

"You guys seriously scared me..," Hanni sighed in relief that it wasn't a robber who startled her, she laid down on the floor completely, trying to go back to sleep and ignore whatever was going on, "Give me a minute"

"Girls, you know the drill," Danielle spoke up and Hanni slowly opened her eyes, wondering what the heck was she talking about but she didn't get the ask when Hyein and Minji suddenly picked her up, "Hey- What the heck is going on, put me down!" She tried wiggling her way out but they kept a firm grip on her arms and legs.

"Sorry Hanni but Dani is scary when she's serious," the youngest apologizes as she and Minji who was trying her best not to laugh at her put her down on a chair at the dining table.

"I could've just walked.."

Minji ruffled her hair, "Dani knows you too well," she smiled and walked away to the kitchen to help Danielle and Haerin bring out the food while Hyein prepared the table.

"Whoa man, did you guys make me bread? Like- homemade bread!?" Haerin placed the main dish (a loaf of bread) right in the middle of the table and Danielle set the other pastries next to it.

"It was Minji's idea, It's a good thing Hyein can bake," Danielle explained, using the opportunity to tease both the birthday girl and the older girl on how much Minji thinks about her, giving them an innocent smile as if she didn't just outed Minji.

Hyein shakes her head at the older friends, she's so done with them being useless sapphic. She really doesn't understand why Minji and Hanni aren't together already.

It's been 3 years since Minji and Hanni met -meaning it's been 3 whole years since she had to listen to Minji ranting about Hanni almost 24/7 so the word frustrated isn't enough to explain how she feels every time the two older girls interact.

She's grateful that Haerin doesn't rant as much and Danielle isn't as slow as them, if they were, she swears she would've lost it and locked them both in a room and not let them out until they've settled their feelings out.

Needless to say, Hanni was happy with her breakfast because the pastries looked good but they tasted even better, "I never knew I needed a bread party on my birthday"

"Oh no, this isn't the birthday party, this is just breakfast," Hyein corrects her, spreading strawberry jam on her toasted bread.

"Wait what?" Hanni couldn't believe her ears, if this was 'just breakfast', imagine how the actual party would be. She's actually scared at what they have in store for her, hoping it isn't something too grand or crazy, she just wants to spend time with everyone.

12:46

Danielle pulled out her whiteboard again. This time, she gathered everyone in the living room, "So, do any of you know why you're here?" she started pointing her marker at Hanni to which Hanni shrugged and looked at the rest of the girls for an answer.

A huge smile appeared on Danielle's face but it wasn't her usual sweet smile, it was more like a mischievous smile -like Nayeon from Twice's famous Cheshire grin.

"So, to put it simply, today is your birthday," she turned the whiteboard, revealing the whole plan from two days ago, it was full with no space left for even a single letter to be written but it wasn't messy in any way, except for the little drawings, "and we made a timetable of sorts that we have to follow"

"I can see that," Hanni replies, unfazed. Danielle can be a little bit over the top when she's serious but Hanni knows Danielle wouldn't do anything she won't like.

"Great, so the first step, is to make sure the birthday girl is distracted," Danielle points at Haerin, "You're in charge of that," she continues, "Then, I, Hyein, and Minji will complete the finishing touches upstairs, we already decorated it, just need to sort out the food and the presents"

"What do you mean distracted? You're already showing me this.."

"But you don't know what the place looks like so you don't know the entire thing. Still counts as a surprise," the younger Aussie girl rationalized.

Hanni checked her friends' expressions and none of them looked confused, meaning they'd definitely done this before.

"Operation: Birthday Girl, start," Danielle says and everyone got to work, Hyein and Minji headed to the kitchen and Haerin dragged Hanni outside, "Why do I keep getting dragged today..."

2:02pm

Hanni finds herself walking in the streets of the neighborhood, dry auburn leaves crunching under her heels, cold autumn air making their way into her lungs. There's just something about autumn that makes her feel a heady mix of nostalgic yearning, renewed optimism, and abstract melancholy, or whatever the heck it's supposed to mean. Suddenly, she feels a little sentimental, remembering long-gone school days or how excited she used to be as a little girl, knowing Halloween and Thanksgiving were around the corner.

It was a comforting feeling and with Haerin next to her, she felt even more safe. Hanni loves the comfortable silence between them, the younger girl, despite not being a talkative nor an expressive person, shows that she cares in many different ways, she and Danielle aren't that different from what Hanni could see for the past 34 days.

Seeing Haerin try to crunch the leaves with her heels makes Hanni smile, Haerin was truly such a precious girl and it makes sense why Minji, Hyein, and Danielle adore her this much.

"So, care to explain what your girlfriend is planning?" Hanni asks, breaking the silence.

"Can't say, but we're going to my place to pick up Hazel, she's invited too," the taller girl states and pulls out a little note from her pocket, "here, this is all I can tell"

The Vietnamese-Australian girl read the paper, "Make sure she's ready by 4 pm, tell her to put on the clothes we bought," she squints her eyes at the last contents of the paper before saying it out loud with a judging tone, "give me a kiss when you get back-" Haerin snatched the paper by the speed of light, "Um, Dani forgot to leave that out.."

"You guys are sickeningly sweet, y'know?"

" As if you aren't like that with Minji," Haerin snickers, folding the paper and stuffing it back in the pocket of the jeans.

"We're not like that at all," Hanni catches a falling dry leaf and throws it at the cat-like girl but the wind blows it in a different direction.

"Right, and I have plot armor," Haerin jokes, laughing loudly at Hanni's attempt.

"You better start running," Hanni grabs a handful of leaves from the ground and throws them at the younger girl who fails to doge them this time.

And that's how they ended up covered in leaves by the time they reached the Kang residence. Her mom greeted them by the door and invited them in but with one condition, get rid of all the dry leaves on their clothes and hair and so they did, not without Hanni blaming Haerin for it while she just laughed as loud as possible.

Another peaceful day with the chaotic duo, Kittyz.

They made their way upstairs and found Hazel sleeping on Haerin's bed in a very uncomfortable position for a human but she's a cat so it was most likely fine. The bed, however, was not, the blanket and pillows were thrown down and the bed sheet was on the verge of coming undone.

"Is this what you have to deal with every day?"

"She can be quite a handful to deal with," Haerin picks up the pillows and folds the blanket on the floor, "but I love her either way," she picks up Hazel, making it wake up and look around but when it sees that Haerin was the one who picked it up, it snuggled on her and went back to sleep.

"It seems that she loves you too," Hanni walks over to pet it on her head lightly, "You spoiled little kitty"

"Should we go now or?" Haerin sits down on her bed and takes out her phone to check the time, "Almost 3, we have to"go"

"Guess we spent too long throwing leaves at each other," Haerin giggles, still holding a sleeping Hazel.

Hanni ignores Haerin's attempt at joking, making her way downstairs. "Wait up"

They were walking back and the scenery was the same, the sky was just slightly darker than earlier but it was still beautiful no matter how many times she'd walked through the houses, all of them were designed to look the same but some people renovated their house making it contrast from the majority of the houses there, not in a bad way though.

Walking can be very fun at times and Hanni was feeling it that day, thought that might just be because it was her birthday.

Hazel finally woke up and jumped off Haerin's arms, walking in front of them. It looked like the calico cat knew where she was going and leading them there instead of the other way around. That is until she suddenly stops and rubs its head on Hanni's leg, meowing like it was asking for something. The shorter girl crouched down, "What is it, Hazel?"

'Meow' was the only answer it came out with but that was to be expected, if it started talking, Hanni would've jumped and screamed so loud the entire neighborhood could hear her, "I can't speak cat," she pats it's back, "Haerin, translate," she looks up.

"You know I can't speak cat either, y'know that right?" the taller girl crouched down to pick up Hazel but Hazel was unwilling which was weird because it always likes getting coddled like a baby. It took her a while to figure out that Hazel wanted Hanni to pick her up, "Well that's odd.."

"What is?"

"She wants you to pick her up"

"Oh? Alrighty then, c'mere you fluffy fuzz ball," she picks her up ease and Hazel climbs on her shoulder, resting its chin, "Aww, It's super adorable"

"Fluffy fuzz ball?"

"Oh shush, you have no right to speak after calling Dani 'the tomato to my frog' this morning"

3:30

"We made it just in time!" Haerin opened the door and didn't bother to look back at Hanni before heading straight into Hanni's room to inform the older girls her mission was complete and maybe, just maybe, also to get that kiss Danielle mentioned in the note.

The older girl puts Hazel down and closes the door behind her, locking it while Hazel follows Haerin up the stairs, 'where are they.. never mind,' she ignores it and heads to the kitchen to grab her chocolate milk carton Minji gave her yesterday, she tried to finish it in one go but she couldn't so she had to pause in between sips and drink it slowly to avoid choking.

She finally decides to head up to her room but when she opens the door she is greeted by the sight of Danielle giving a quick peck on Haerin's cheek, "Are you guys kidding me?" she says somewhere in between an unimpressed and disgusted tone.

Just as Danielle was about to say something, Hazel interrupted, jumping on Hanni and clawing her way up, "Owch what the fu- fluff!" she changed her choice of words as soon as she saw Hyein walking down from the roof, hoping the younger girl didn't hear her as she grabs Hazel and holds her like a baby, "Hi Hyein, are you guys done yet?"

"Yep," Hyein replied with a smile, her dimple showing. Her expression turned into a confused one, checking out Hanni from head to toe, "Why aren't you dressed up, yet?"

"Dressed up?" Hanni raised a brow but then she recalled the contents of the note Haerin had given her earlier, she looked at Haerin and Danielle before speaking, "Oh, that explains" Haerin looked away, blushing at what Hanni implied by her sentence. "So, what am I supposed to wear?"

"Here," Danielle took out a piece of clothing from her room, handing it over to Hanni, it was a mint-colored dress with little flower patterns on it, it didn't have any frills on it but it did have slightly big ribbon tied around its waist, perfectly simple and cute, just the way Hanni likes it.

"Is the dress your birthday present for me?" Hanni knows it isn't and this was just Danielle's usual gift-giving self but she asks anyway, wanting to be 100% sure.

"Nope, there's more. Now, go change, you've got 10 minutes left and we need to get changed too," Danielle left the room with Haerin and Hazel, leaving Hyein behind to help Hanni get ready because Hyein was the only one who was already dressed in the clothes they planned to wear and had no other work she needed to get done.

"Come to think of it, where's Minji?"

"She's in Dani's room, she has a secret mission" The younger girl took the dress from Hanni and undid the ribbon so Hanni could put it on easier, "Do you need to shower first or?" she looked over to the older girl.

"I spent half an hour throwing leaves and getting leaves thrown at me earlier so yes," the Vietnamese girl stated.

Hyein doesn't question, knowing Haerin probably said something and got her into the mess, "I'll prepare the rest of your outfit then"

"Ok," Hanni starts undressing, only stopping when she's left in her undergarments. It wasn't uncomfortable for either of the girls since Hyein has an older sister and Hanni has a younger sister back in Australia and they do this all the time. She's pretty sure it's a common thing between girls in general.

She and Danielle would dress each other up in the silliest outfits during the times they had sleepovers at Hanni's apartment and even when Hanni video called Minji, she was often in the comfort of her bedroom, wearing a huge t-shirt with nothing underneath other than her underwear.

She throws her clothes into her laundry basket and heads to the shower, making sure she's completely clean for the birthday party the girls planned for her.

By the time she got out, Hyein was done with her outfit, sitting on her bed with crossed legs, scrolling mindlessly through her phone, "Oh, you're done!" She looked up and noticed Hanni, her hair was damp and her body was wrapped in a grey towel with white heart patterns the first thing Hyein noticed was the texture of the fabric looked very soft to the touch -just a random thought.

"Yep," she walks over to the closet, she neatly stacked all the clothes she brought along to the seaside the day she and Danielle got in since they were going to stay there for 2 months.

She had a weird feeling, it wasn't exactly a bad one, it was just s bit uncomfortable because she remembered that she didn't have much time left before she had to leave, she was not sad, she already accepted it but it still didn't sit right with her that she had to be away from Danielle.

"We've got 20 minutes left. I'll dry your hair for you," Hyein grabbed the hair dyer from the dresser and plugged it in, "I'll turn around," she said, knowing the shorter girl needed to put on her undergarments.

"Done," Hanni sits down in front of Hyein and the younger girl starts running her fingers through the older girl's hair, "It's so soft. What shampoo do you use?" She switches on the hairdryer, blow drying her hair, making sure the settings are on the lowest because she doesn't want the heat waves to damage Hanni's hair.

"I use-" The door clicked.

Minji walked in, "Oh, you're almost done," she closed the door, "Don't mind me, just heading up," she waved and climbed up the stairs to the roof, not looking back at Hanni.

Hanni flushed red, her crush just saw her in her undergarments and didn't say anything about it and just walked away. Sure it's a normal reaction but Hanni honestly wanted the older girl to be a little bit flustered or at least give out some kind of reaction. 'Minji isn't some weirdo,' Hanni tells herself to stop overthinking it.

Hyein seems to notice, "Don't worry about it, I'm sure she's dying up there," She switches off the hairdryer to unplug it and put it back on the dresser. Not even a second after Hyein said that a loud thud was heard from the roof, followed by a muffled voice which Hanni could easily identify as Danielle's, worries over Minji, judging from what she could hear, Minji tripped over something and landed face first, "told you," Hyein flashed her a grin.

The older girl playfully smacked Hyein on the shoulder, "When did you learn such a thing?" she said in a shocked but amused tone.

"I'm going through puberty," Hyein joked, earning another smack from Hanni.

Hanni picked up the mint floral dress and put it on. It was a perfect fit, and it looked even better on her, Danielle really knows what she's doing. She did have trouble with putting the ribbon on which Hyein predicted already so she helped tie it around her waist, "Do you want to put on the earrings and the necklace or do you want to skip them? They're still yours either way, Dani and Minji picked them for you"

"Just the earrings please" Hyein did a thumbs-up and helped her put them on. Next was to style her hair with a ribbon and put some light makeup to complete the look and she was now ready for the time of her life.

Hyein checks her watch, '3:58, right on time,' "You look good and all but I kinda have to blindfold you now," she says nonchalantly with a black sleep mask on hand like it's the most normal sentence to be created in the history of mankind, "It's part of the plan," she elaborates.

"It seriously makes no sense, I'm gonna see it anyways in like a minute and I know it's on the roof," Hanni puts it on regardless.

"I honestly don't get it either, but the plan must be followed," Hyein leads Hanni up the stairs, carefully watching over Hanni's steps until they reach the top, "Ok, take it off in 3, 2.. 1!"

Taking the time to process everything, she finds herself speechless at the sight of how they managed to change the vibe of the rooftop terrace into a straight-out-of-a-movie birthday scene. From the star-shaped fairy light hanging from the railing to the pastel-colored cute lanterns on the support beams, everything felt so, sparkly?

Hanni didn't even know what word she should use to describe such a scenery, all she could do was stand there, eyes wandering to every detail.

"Happy birthday, Pham!" everyone collectively cheered out of sync but Hanni could still make sense of what they were trying to say, smiling from ear to ear at how wholesome her friends were.

To sum up what happened afterward, they made Hanni sit down and say happy birthday while she blows the candles and cut the cakes which turned out to be mint chocolate chip ice cream cake, Minji hesitated so badly to eat it but found out she loved it when Hanni spoon fed her a little from her plate while Hyein takes pictures of everyone on her camera and Daerin treats Hyein like she's their child, telling her she's doing great and feeding her some of the food on their plate.

Danielle gifted Hanni an acoustic guitar which Hyein almost called an autistic guitar due to her hearing it wrong. It led to everyone cornering Hanni and pressuring her into playing a song on it and singing but Hanni didn't mind so she went with it and it was a good experience.

As time passed by, the sky was getting darker and darker, it was now approximately 7:24 and Hanni swears she only blinked for a few seconds but the younger girls were nowhere to be found and the only person in sight was Kim Minji.

She's not being delusional, she knows what's about to happen and she doesn't like it. This was definitely the 'special mission' Hyein mentioned earlier and Hanni didn't want it but not for any bad reason, she simply didn't want it to be like this, not on this day.

"Hanni," Minji spoke up, closing the distance between them to an acceptable social distance. Hanni looked down, she was having a whole crisis, and this couldn't happen. The set, the sky, everything about this screams romantic and Hanni dreaded this.

"Minji," Hanni says, her eyes not leaving the floor.

"Could you look at me?"

"Yes," she looks up and her eyes meet Minji's.

"I have something to say," she invades her personal space but not in a weird way, in a romantic way of sorts. (I'm making 0 sense rn)

'Please don't' Hanni wishes but she nods.

"I know this will sound cliché and all but I'm really glad to have met you. And no, I'm not about to give a whole speech about how adorable you are, that's for some other day," she jokes, making Hanni scoff but her expression turned into a happy one instead of a worrying one after that so Minji still won, "From the start, when I asked you for your number that day, I didn't think much of it. I just thought you'd be fun to talk to and I wasn't entirely wrong"

Hanni raised her brow, "So, I'm not entirely fun to talk to?" she asked in a teasing manner, silly banter is pretty much their dynamic after all.

"We both know that's not what I meant," if you thought they were close (physically/literally) before, they're even closer now because Minji took another step forward, "You are fun to talk to, fun to be around, fun to look at, fun to eat with, you are fun," she takes a deep breath before continuing,

"Remember that day when you came back from school after winning the debate competition 2 years ago? You were so happy when you video-called me about it and even though I've seen you smile multiple times before, that particular one made me realize that I wanted to see it over and over again. I know we're still young right now but even back then, I knew I wouldn't mind seeing it for the rest of my life"

Hanni was a blushing mess at this point, her feet felt like they were nailed to the ground, and she couldn't do or say anything.

"But that wasn't all, I got to see a lot more after that, from you crying over small things like not getting ice cream on a Sunday morning to serious things like exams and missing your family, the overly dramatic fights we had over the silliest things, the day you skipped school with Danielle and almost got caught, The way you talk about the dogs you meet on the streets, I don't know how or when it happened but I've grown fond of them and now, meeting you has to be the best thing I ever did"

(did you get the Twice reference?)

The younger girl's face was no longer visible, she hid in Minji's front, mumbling something incoherent.

"What was that?" Minji asks, curious.

"I said, How dare you"

Minji looked down, trying to catch a glimpse of the girl's face but it was futile, "How dare I what?"

"How dare you do this today," Hanni looks up, tears forming in the corner of her eyes, "Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"I- I confessed that I like you?" Minji is still confused but she doesn't hesitate to wipe the shorter girl's tears away.

"YOU DID THIS ON MY BIRTHDAY AND ONE OF MY MOST IMPORTANT BIRTHDAYS TO MAKE IT WORST!" Hanni starts shouting and the younger girls who were secretly hiding and filming get concerned but Minji knows what she could be implying and just laughs at her tantrum, "WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING, THIS IS A SERIOUS MATTER!"

"I know, I know, but you do realize you don't have to worry about that right? I know I'll never leave you, Dani, Hyein, and Haerin would kill me if I did," Minji reassures her, wrapping her arms around the shorter girl, "So, does this mean you like me too?"

"No, I hate you," in complete contrast to what she said, Hanni hugged Minji tighter and that was enough as an answer for her.

"You guys can come out now, y'know," Hanni says out of nowhere and the three younger girls cam out of their hiding spot, "How'd you know?"

"As if you'd not want the tea," Hanni says, referring to Danielle.

"What did Hanni mean by a 'serious matter' and how the heck did you know what that meant," Haerin questions.

Apparently, Hanni didn't want to confess on her birthday because she was scared, not because Minji might reject her, it's because what if they broke up one day? This means every single birthday she has afterward will remind her of Minji and she doesn't like how sad that sounds but she knows Minji, and Minji isn't the type of person who wouldn't take things seriously but most of all, Hanni knows she can trust Minji.

In the end, everyone was happy with the outcome.

"Hanni, I forgot to mention just one more thing earlier," Minji bent down slightly to be on her level.

"What is it?"

Minji leans in and kisses Hanni on the forehead, leaving Hanni a blushing mess all over again.