Chapter Text
Yongsun was lying on her couch, scrolling through her social media, when the keypad on the front door chimed. She looked up to see Byulyi let herself in.
“Don’t you have your own house?” Yongsun quipped.
“It’s lonely there. And I needed to talk to someone after the date I just had.”
Yongsun sat up, her interest piqued. “You were on a date?”
“Yeah, with the woman I was telling you about last week.”
“How did it go?”
Byulyi flung herself down next to Yongsun. “Awful.”
Yongsun’s eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Oh no, what happened? I thought you really liked her?”
“I did—I do ! The date started out fine, but then she admitted that she was a little intimidated by how close we were and the fact that a lot of fans ‘ship’ us together.”
Yongsun frowned. “Do you want me to talk to her? Tell her that there’s nothing between us?”
Byulyi shook her head. “It gets worse. It turns out that after our last date, she got really into MoonSun fanfiction and fan videos—MoonSun is our ship name, by the way—and now she ships us together.”
Yongsun burst into laughter at the ridiculousness.
“Unnie, it’s not funny. She broke things off with me because apparently I need to realize that you are my one true love—her words!”
Yongsun couldn’t quite keep the amusement off her face, but she tried to compose herself. “Just how good are these videos and fanfiction?”
“I mean, many are well made. Haven’t you ever looked some up?”
Yongsun shook her head.
Byulyi took out her phone and started typing something into her web browser, and Yongsun leaned in to read over her shoulder. Byulyi clicked onto a site called Archive Of Our Own. “These are all works written about MAMAMOO. Look at how many fics there are shipping us specifically.”
Yongsun took the phone from Byulyi and looked at the stats listed in the sidebar. Her eyes widened. “Whoa, there are over eight hundred about us!”
“I know. In comparison, there are less than three hundred about Wheein and Hyejin.”
“Oh, people ship them together?”
“Yeah, the whole ‘couple tattoos and being best friends since middle school’ thing really lends itself to that.”
“That’s strange. There’s nothing between them!”
“Unnie, there’s nothing between us and people still ship us together.”
Yongsun hmmed. “I guess that’s true. Hey, you and Wheein are the third most popular pairing. I wonder how people thought that up.”
Byulyi shrugged. “Maybe because we used to room together, and because we goof around a lot in the waiting room.”
Yongsun tilted her head. “I feel like Wheein and I should be more popular though? We have Angel Line and Décalcomanie. Oh, and MC Dduk and Ddak.”
Byulyi leaned over to look at the numbers. “Well, you’re not that far behind. There are only about sixty more fics about me and Wheein.”
“Sixty is a lot!” Yongsun insisted.
“Why is this the thing you’re getting hung up on?”
“No reason,” Yongsun spluttered, “I just think it’s weird is all.”
“Okay, well can you please focus on my problem for a sec? What should I do?”
“Do you like her enough to fight for her?”
Byulyi nodded.
“Then you need to show her that you and she make a better couple than we do.”
Byulyi nodded again enthusiastically. “How do I do that?”
Yongsun was silent for a moment.
“Unnie, you have no idea, do you?” Byulyi asked, disappointed.
“I’ll think on it,” Yongsun promised her friend. “I’ll do some research. What was that fanfiction site called again?”
Yongsun was so deeply immersed in the story that she didn’t notice Hyejin enter the practice room.
“Unnie, you okay?”
Yongsun jumped and threw her phone to the other side of the room in a panic. Registering what she had done a second later, she wailed, “MY PHOOONNEE!” and went to collect the precious cellular device.
“Unnie, please chill,” Hyejin muttered, dumping her stuff against the wall and sinking to the floor next to it. It was too early in the morning for her to deal with their crazy leader’s antics.
Once Yongsun was satisfied that there were no new scratches on her phone, she calmed down and returned to her chair.
“So what were you doing when I came in?”
“Huh? Oh, I was just on my phone.”
“I know that. You were looking at it really seriously. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, yeah, everything is okay.” Yongsun hesitated. “Hyejin-ah, did you know that some Moomoos write fanfiction about us?”
Hyejin nodded.
“You did? How come I didn’t know?”
Hyejin smirked. “We have a monthly Loser Club fanfiction reading. We do enactments and everything.”
Yongsun squinted at her. “I can’t tell if you’re joking.”
“Too bad you’ll never find out because you’re not allowed at the meetings.” Hyejin ignored the glare thrown her way. “So what fic were you reading?”
“Um…” Yongsun debated making something up, but she figured that Hyejin wouldn’t make it weird. She was one of the least judgmental people Yongsun knew. “It was a WheeSun fic.”
Hyejin ahhed knowingly. “WheeSun is all about angst.”
Yongsun nodded vigorously, encouraged by Hyejin’s response. “So much angst, right? I don’t get it. I feel like Wheein and I have a very cute relationship. Why would most of the stories about us be so tragic?”
“That’s why it’s fan fiction . But if you’re looking for cute and wholesome, maybe you should check out the WheeSun fan videos.”
“Fan videos, huh?” Yongsun made a mental note to do a YouTube search later. “By the way, why do you know so much about WheeSun?”
“Oh, it’s because I’m a hardcore WheeSun shipper,” Hyejin deadpanned.
“Funny,” Yongsun muttered. “What does Wheein think about that?”
“What do I think about what?” Wheein asked as she entered the room, followed by Byulyi.
“Nothing!” Yongsun shouted before giving Hyejin a silencing glare.
Wheein giggled, and Yongsun’s heart melted at the sound. “That wasn’t suspicious at all, unnie. It’s okay, I’ll let you have your secret for now. Hyejin will tell me later.”
Yongsun turned with panicked eyes toward Hyejin, who just gave her a wink that wasn’t reassuring.
Hyejin was right. WheeSun fan videos were much less angst-filled than the fanfiction.
Yongsun smiled as she read another comment about how WheeSun was the softest ship. “Yeah, we are,” she murmured to herself.
Perhaps after her previous interaction with Hyejin, she should have learned not to consume WheeSun content in the practice room, but the videos were just so addicting. She was on her eighth WheeSun video of the morning when someone gently pulled out one of her earbuds.
Yongsun looked up from her phone to find Wheein staring at her. There it was—the gaze in the fan videos, the one Yongsun hadn’t really noticed until now. She wondered if it meant what some commenters insisted it meant. She realized that she hoped it did. Was she looking at Wheein in the same way?
“Unnie?” Wheein’s voice interrupted Yongsun’s inner dialogue.
She blinked. “Sorry, did you say something?”
“You’re so distracted today. I asked you what you were watching.”
Yongsun scrambled to think of an answer, but when time stretched on for too long, Wheein leaned over to look at her phone screen. The video was paused on an image of Yongsun watching Wheein intently as she talked.
Wheein raised an eyebrow. “You’re watching a video of us? Why?”
Yongsun looked down, avoiding Wheein’s eyes. “I- I don’t know. I don’t know why I’m suddenly feeling this way. Ever since Byulyi showed me these things fans have been writing and creating about us…” She trailed off.
“What things?”
Yongsun pressed play and held up her phone for Wheein to watch.
After the video ended, Wheein was silent for a moment before asking, “Have you been watching a lot of these videos?”
Yongsun nodded, eyes still downcast.
“I think I know what’s wrong, unnie.” Wheein lifted Yongsun’s chin so that they were looking at each other again. Wheein had a serious expression on her face. “I think you like me.”
“Oh,” said Yongsun, equally serious.
“You know what else?”
Yongsun shook her head.
“I think I like you back.”
“Oh. Oh! Really?”
Wheein nodded and smiled, her dimple prominently on display. Yongsun grinned back.
“Took you long enough to figure it out,” came a voice by the entrance. Yongsun and Wheein both turned to find Hyejin leaning against the door frame. “Are you two done gazing lovingly at each other now?”
Wheein grabbed Yongsun’s hand, sending a pleasant feeling through her arm. “Nope. We’re gonna do it as much as we want.” She turned back toward Yongsun with warm eyes.
Yongsun could see it clearly now—the admiration, the love, the want . Had Wheein always looked at her this way? She supposed it didn’t matter. She just wanted to see that gaze for years to come.
(She still sees it to this day.)