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"Seriously, where the fuck is it?" Chaewon cursed as she tore through the dirty clothes in the hamper of the room she shared with the other members. The girls were informed by their manager of a busking event they were set to attend in an hour, hurrying them to grab some light clothing and head to the salon beforehand to get their hair and makeup done. Hearing this, she rushed to her room and began looking for her favorite black Salewa hoodie she often wore around, only to find it missing from the room.
It was a known fact the members of the group enjoyed wearing each other's clothing out in public or even in their private time, making up excuses of how warm or comfortable said members clothes were compared to their own. None of them seemed to mind sharing clothes, if anything, Eunbi encouraged it in the beginning as a weird membership training thing for the girls to get close to each other more quickly. After that, it became a habit to grab someone else's clothing rather than their own.
Chaewon was never the type of person to care if one of the others took a piece of her clothing, shrugging nonchalantly and telling them to take whatever they wanted as long as they brought it back to her, but this time was different; It was her favorite hoodie. The hoodie she always wore around the dorm. The hoodie she always wore out during her private time.
Frustrated, she sighed heavily, stepping over the dirty clothes she threw on the floor from the hamper and made her way into the living room where most of their clothes were kept hanging on the rack. She searched through the sea of clothes carefully, using her hand to push the hanger to the side if she didn't spot her hoodie. Most of the clothes she came across belonged to Hyewon or Eunbi, making her wonder if they did their laundry separate from the others. No. Their leader wouldn't do that when she was the one who nagged them at the beginning of the week to get their laundry together for washing.
"What are you looking for, Chae?" Hyewon asked, walking up behind the frantic youngster with a water bottle in hand.
"My black hoodie. I can't find it anywhere and we need to leave for the salon soon." Chaewon replied short, her hands moving at fast speed through the clothes.
"Have you checked the hamper in our room? Maybe someone accidentally threw it in there when someone was cleaning." Hyewon suggested.
"Yah! Who threw all of the dirty clothes on the floor after I just cleaned this morning?!" They heard Eunbi yell from their shared bedroom, sounds of slippers shuffling against the hard wooden floor towards them caught their attention. Chaewon was so dead.
Eunbi turned into the living room to find the two girls frozen in front of the clothes rack. "I cleaned the dorm earlier this morning while everyone else was asleep. Would either one of you care to tell me who threw the dirty clothes from our room's hamper on the floor?" She questioned in a serious tone, arms crossed over her chest.
Hyewon took a quick glance at Chaewon, nudging her, signaling for her to say something before the roommates got in trouble for something she did. Sighing heavily, Chaewon turned towards Eunbi with her hands folded in front of her. "I'm sorry, unnie, I was the one who threw the clothes on the floor. I have been looking for my favorite black hoodie since manager told us about the busking event, so I thought maybe one of us accidentally threw it in there when someone was cleaning the dorm." Her head began to lower.
Eunbi was the next one to sigh, running a hand through her black hair. "Instead of continuing your little rampage of turning the dorm upside down with dirty laundry, have you checked Chaeyeon's dorm? We were over there last night, maybe you left it over there without realizing it."
Their leader made a good point. After completing their schedule last night, they all gathered in the other dorm to sit down and talk about their day along with anything they wanted to talk about or address but didn't have a free chance to do so. The group's late night talks were something Chaeyeon and Eunbi came up with together in the beginning once they got separated into two different dorms due to there being a lot of younger members in the group and there being certain members who weren't able to share their feelings comfortably, opting to keep quiet or put on their bubbly attitude as per usual.
Through their late night talks with one another, they shared things never told to another person until now - their secrets, worries, fears, concerns. There was a time where their late night talk was used to make a few members comfortable with each other, seeing as they never had a chance to get closer to them unlike the others. Eunbi and Chaeyeon liked to keep everyone on the same page, to keep everyone comfortable with each other, to keep their bond strong.
With a small mumble of a simple 'thank you,' Chaewon walked out of their shared dorm wearing her mint green slippers, quickly making her way over to the other dorm to play detective. Oddly enough, she did feel like a secret detective on a case - The case of a missing black hoodie that disappeared from their dorm. Now she knew what Eunbi felt when she played detective to know who kicked over her snowman last winter.
She put in the other dorm's passcode with ease, letting herself in quietly to not disturb the others while they were getting ready. Leaving her slippers by the door, she walked in the middle of the living room to see Yuri and Wonyoung laying on the couch as if their souls left their bodies, Sakura running back and forth from Chaeyeon's room to her own carrying a pink backpack in her hands. It was just as chaotic here.
"Unnie, what are you doing here?" Wonyoung asked groggily upon noticing a tiny lost Chaewon standing in the middle of the living room. Yuri lifted up her head, mumbled a small greeting and dropped her head back down on the cushion.
Chaewon walked over to the couch, patting the two sleepy younger girl's heads softly. "Did I happen to leave a black hoodie here last night?"
"Mm.... Not sure. Too sleepy." Yuri's voice was laced with sleep, her eyes still closed.
"I think Chaeyeon unnie mentioned something about putting it in her room this morning, you can try asking her about it." Wonyoung gave the elder any information she knew, following Yuri with dropping her head back down on the cushion, not wanting to get ready for their upcoming schedule.
Patting the youngsters' heads one last time, she turned on her heels, walking swiftly to Chaeyeon and Hitomi's shared room, nearly colliding with Sakura when she came running out of the room for a third time. Chaewon let a small chuckle escape her lips before entering the room, knocking lightly to make her presence known.
"Please stop knocking on the door every time you come in here to grab something. I told you to come in after the first time you knocked, there's no need to keep knocking." The member on the bottom bunk spoke in Japanese, a hint of annoyance in her voice.
"This is the first time I've knocked though," Chaewon teased, getting the gist of the girl's sentence with her limited Japanese skills.
The member peeked her head over the railing cutely, her brown eyes making eye contact with the person standing by the door waiting to be invited in. "Oh! Chaewon unnie!"
"Did you think it was Sakura unnie running in here again, Hitomi?" Chaewon laughed. She carefully climbed into the bottom bunk, plopping herself down next to the adorable Japanese girl.
Hitomi hummed. "She's been running back and forth from her room to this room ever since manager told us about the busking event, but why can't she get everything in one go?" She huffed, rolling over on her side, staring at Chaewon's sideview.
"We both know she isn't the type of person to get everything at one time, she needed to keep coming back to make sure she didn't forget anything." Chaewon copied the younger girl's actions and rolled over on her side, moving a strand of hair out of Hitomi's face.
"I know, but it's annoying having someone knock every two minutes." Hitomi pouted.
Chaewon laughed and used her finger to tap at the girl's lips gently. "Living with Yujin is no walk in the park either, you know. I would rather have Sakura unnie knock every two minutes, running in and out than deal with Yujin."
"Ah.... Yujinnie is..." Hitomi paused, thinking of the right Korean word to describe the younger girl. "Interesting. She leaves her clothes everywhere, even at our dorm! This morning, Wonyoung had to give back a pair of pants she left here last night."
Suddenly, she remembered the exact reason why she came over to their dorm. Her black hoodie. "Hey, Hiichan." She called out softly.
"Hmm?"
"Did Chaeyeon tell you where she put my salewa black hoodie? Wonyoungie said Chaeyeon mentioned about putting it in here this morning." Chaewon took a moment to stare at Hitomi's face, waiting for the younger girl to answer. Her eyes travelled from her eyes, her adorable squishy cheeks, her cute little nose, right down to her pink lips.
"Your favorite black hoodie with the word 'salewa' written in gold?" Hitomi asked innocently.
"That's the one."
Tapping her chin thoughtfully, Hitomi shook her head. "I haven't seen it, unnie." A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.
"Are you sure you haven't seen it?" Chaewon raised her eyebrow.
"What if I had seen it?"
"I would ask you to tell me where it is so I can wear it to the busking event."
"What if... I wanted to wear it instead?"
Chaewon looked up at the top bunk pretending to think to mask her surprise from the bold question Hitomi asked. It was well-known among the members Chaewon was Hitomi's favorite unnie. The first time the topic came up was during dinner at their dorm; Chaeyeon told each of the Japanese members to give a piece of dessert to their favorite unnie or member, saying it was a test of their hidden feelings. Sakura gave to Chaeyeon, Nako gave to Eunbi and Hitomi shyly gave to Chaewon, causing the others to tease her nonstop with Chaewon jumping in to save the poor girl, wrapping her arms around her tightly and telling them to stop teasing 'her' Hitomi. The teasing got worse after that.
Though she had to admit, Hitomi did look even more adorable wearing her clothes. The first time she wore something of Chaewon's was after debut; The girls were getting ready to leave their van when Hitomi grabbed a nearby hoodie left on the seat next to her, assuming it was hers, she put it on. She only realized it was Chaewon's blue shark hoodie when Nako pointed it out, giggling and telling her Chaewon was going to tell her to take it off. Noticing this, Chaewon simply smiled, patting Hitomi's head gently, telling her she looked cute. After that, Hitomi wore Chaewon's clothes more often on purpose.
Taking the older girl's silence as the answer, Hitomi pushed the blankets off her body and sat up slowly, the black hoodie coming into view. She grabbed the bottom of the hoodie, beginning to pull it off her body when she was stopped by a hand on her wrist.
Chaewon straightened out the hoodie on the younger girl's body, fixing her hair right after, a soft smile on her lips. "I didn't give you my answer yet, why are you taking it off?"
Hitomi's bottom lip jutted out into a pout. "The silence was the answer."
"The silence wasn't the answer, hoodie thief."
"Your hoodies are nice to wear!"
The smile on Chaewon's face only grew bigger hearing that. "That's why you can keep wearing it. Actually, no, you can just keep the hoodie instead."
Hitomi's eyes widened, her hands flailing out in front of her in a desperate attempt to reject the kind offer. "I can't keep it! It's your favorite hoodie! You wear this everywhere you go." She dropped her hands to her lap, the hoodie sleeves covering her hands completely. How cute.
"It is my favorite hoodie, though you look much cuter in it than I do and you said my hoodies are nice to wear, so you can keep this one." Chaewon reached over and grabbed Hitomi's hand, moving the sleeve out of the way to be able to hold the younger girl's hand normally, intertwining their fingers. "Your sweater paws are adorable." She commented.
"Are you really sure you don't mind me keeping it?" Hitomi bit her lip softly.
"Why would I mind, silly? You look adorable."
Leaning back on the bed, a shy smile appeared on Hitomi's face as she looked over at the girl laying next to her. "T-Thanks, I'll take good care of your hoodie. I promise." She let go of Chaewon's hand to scoot herself closer, resting her head on her favorite unnie's shoulder, their hands coming together again like magnets.
"What's mine is yours now, Hiichan. Take anything you want." Chaewon rested her head on top of the other girl's, the soft smile reserved only for Hitomi making its appearance once again.
"Anything?"
"Anything."
"So... Your heart, too?"
"You've had my heart from the beginning."