Work Text:
Chaewon wakes up to YooA staring down at her judgmentally. Or, like, her YooA Slogan, hanging off the edge of her dresser where she’d set it the night before. She feels her eyes droop shut before she realizes it’s Wednesday and shoots up, neck cracking as she tumbles out of bed and hauls herself up, reaching for her glasses.
She has to triple check she has everything in her camera bag before leaving.
Chaewon takes a bus to the venue, guarding her camera bag carefully from the group of businessmen standing next to her in the cramped aisle. She checks her phone to see if any of her fansite friends have made it.
She doesn’t have any texts, and to be fair, it’s 2pm on a Wednesday, so it’s not like she’s expecting many of them to show up. It’s only due to her very lenient professor that she’d been able to call out sick from her class. (She feels a little bad when she gets a “get well soon!” email.)
She knows the venue like the back of her hand, and she totally lucks out at the security checkpoint, winding up in Sooyoung’s line, who just rolls her eyes at Chaewon’s camera bag and waves her through. Chaewon gives her a cute little wave and promises her a pastry the next time she’s here.
“Yeah, yeah.”
She makes it just in time, sliding into her seat as the backing track to “Nonstop” starts playing and Oh My Girl step out to begin.
Chaewon loves this part. Taking photos is peaceful, meditative, all about making sure the focus is just right as she tracks Yooa across the stage.
Then her lens gets jostled.
“Hey!” she shouts over the music, lowering her camera to glare at the culprit.
“What?” the girl fires back.
Chaewon recognizes the girl, and then spots the camera in her hands. It’s BeYooATiful, a fellow YooA fansite. She’s wearing the cutest shirt. Chaewon almost wants to ask where she got it, but it truly just looks really good on her. Not that it matters. BeYooATiful should know better than to get in her way. As a fansite, she should know way better.
“Hands off the lens!!” Chaewon does her best to glare at the girl, who has her own cannon of a lens attached to a camera.
The girl’s expression shifts from confusion to annoyance in an instant. “Lens out of my space, then.”
Chaewon opens her mouth to retort when she catches a security guard looking in their direction. “Guard.”
BeYooATiful follows her gaze and drops her camera when she spots the guard too. “Uh, thanks.”
Chaewon does her best to not make a face. “No problem.” Because there isn’t. Right? Like, it’s just etiquette between fansites that you tell each other when staff are looking.
They watch the next song in silence, Chaewon snapping careful pictures of the screen on her camera for her preview posts. She zooms in close on Yooa’s face to get the perfect crop.
Then the music stops, the sudden silence startling her. “Huh?” She looks around, puzzled.
The stage speakers buzz and a staff member's voice comes through, low quality even with the high tech sound system. “Please bear with us as we troubleshoot the audio problems.”
Chaewon frowns, watching Oh My Girl filter backstage as the audio guy frowns at his setup, pressing various buttons.
“You, like, don’t like me, right?” The question comes from behind Chaewon and she turns to BeYooATiful, surprised at the accusation.
“Huh?” She can feel the tips of her ears reddening. Maybe she did have a slight distaste for BeYooATiful. That was her business and no one else’s. Maybe it was the way BeYooATiful had made that listicle “Fansites that are just as beautiful as their idols” and Chaewon didn’t. Like, even if it was true, it didn’t mean Chaewon shouldn’t have been on there too. And if YooA wore the gifts that BeYooATiful bought her more than the ones Chaewon bought? “What are you talking about?” Denial. Chaewon could play dumb.
BeYooATiful frowns. “You always set up right in front of me. I’m not stupid, you know.”
Chaewon is flabbergasted. “What!?” She says it so loud that several other people turn to look at them. Chaewon flushes at the sudden attention. Like, so what if she maybe did that? “Not that I’d even notice you enough to do that. But if I did, it would be because your huge lens is always getting in my way.”
BeYooATiful’s jaw drops. “We’re literally fansites, September Bloom. We have big lenses!!”
The sound system buzzes again. “Thank you for your patience. The staff are working quickly to fix things.”
BeYooATiful shakes her head. “Whatever. Lens in your space. Got it?”
Chaewon opens her mouth, brow furrowed, then shuts it. She can’t help but feel as though she lost that interaction epically.
“You did,” Chaeryeong supplies helpfully. “Lose, I mean. Totally showed your whole ass.” Chaeryeong reclines on Chaewon’s bed. “You’re so lucky YooA wasn’t on stage to see you be the asshole. You don’t want your group to think their fansite is a jerk.”
“Are you saying this because Twice saw you beef with someone?”
Chaeryeong is silent.
“Oh my god, who?”
Chaeryeong rolls her eyes. “It was actually Ryujin. But she was being so annoying!! I cannot believe Jeongyeon scolded me over it.”
Chaewon nods, half-sympathetic, the other half very aware that Chaeryeong could pick a fight with a pebble if it caught her in the right mood. “But that’s totally—Nagyung touched my lens!”
“Okay, and were you watching where you were shoving it?” Chaeryeong looks at her knowingly.
“You’re supposed to be on my side,” Chaewon grumbles.
“Also, first-name basis? How did you even—”
“I asked around. Okay? Happy?” Chaewon interrupts. “I’m not going to feud with someone I’m calling BeYooATiful in my head.”
“Cute dress,” Chaewon hears from behind her. She turns around, looking for the person complimenting her. Her eyes land on Nagyung. She knew she recognized the voice, but she cannot fathom why Nagyung would be complimenting her, especially after she was such an ass at the concert.
“Thanks.” Chaewon tries not to show Nagyung how puzzled she is. Instead, she distracts herself by fiddling with her camera settings. Nagyung sets up her step stool in the silence.
There’s about a three minute pause before Nagyung speaks. “Do you always get to events early so you’re not knocking people in the first row with your lens?”
“Oh my god, really?” Chaewon looks up from her camera screen. Nagyung is adjusting the manual focus on her lens, not even looking at Chaewon.
Finally, she lowers her camera. “I’m just asking! Like, come on. You pay no attention to where you’re swinging that thing.” Nagyung gestures at Chaewon’s camera. “You’d think you’d be more careful with a lens that nice.”
Chaewon frowns. “You’re kidding, right? I’m so careful. It’s you who should watch where your head’s at.”
Nagyung shakes her head. “You sound like an idiot.” She frowns, looking down at Chaewon’s outfit. “Point still stands. You look cute today.”
“Like, seriously! What’s her game?” Chaewon gesticulates vaguely in frustration. “You can’t just compliment someone and then diss them like that! Isn’t that some kind of male manipulator tactic?”
“Are you accusing BeYooATiful of listening to incel podcasts?” Heejin frowns. “Wait, male manipulators are the ones who date women and are still angry, right?” She shakes her head. “Anyway, I don’t know what her game is, but can we please talk about our lives? I love you deeply, but I feel like I know more about your work wife, Nagyung, than I know about you.”
Chaewon flushes. “She’s not my work wife! For, like, so many reasons!! One, I hate her. Two, being a fansite master is not my job—” Chaewon trails off. “Okay, two reasons. But they’re so valid.”
Heejin frowns. “I feel like having a wife doesn’t mean you don’t hate her.”
Chaewon makes a face. “Now who's the incel podcast listener?”
“Oh my god, I’m begging you, let’s talk about anything else.”
As luck would have it, Chaewon finds herself shoulder to shoulder with Nagyung at the next concert.
“You again,” Chaewon deadpans.
Nagyung looks at her with raised eyebrows. “We are fansites for the same group.”
Chaewon flaps her mouth. “I know that! We’re literally both YooA fansites.”
Nagyung grins. “Nice taste by the way.”
“Thanks.” Chaewon responds. Then she thinks about it for a second. “Hey, wait—” And she shuts up because the lights dim and Chaewon has to raise her camera to get that first, perfect shot of YooA as she ascends from below the stage.
Nagyung isn’t a bad fansite master. Chaewon knows this in theory. It’s another to see it when her big head isn’t in the way of Chaewon’s camera. She nimbly switches between SD cards as the lights dim between songs. She even does it one-handed while joining in on a lightstick pattern. She might even be better than Chaewon (gag. You never heard this).
Chaewon’s attention is so split between her fansite duties and watching Nagyung work that she almost misses the staff walking towards them. She drops her own camera to her side, sliding it into her bag and opens her mouth to warn Nagyung, but the staff is already there, hand pushing Nagyung’s lens down and putting his hand out for her SD card.
Chaewon thinks fast. Heejin would say she didn’t think at all, but this totally works, so whatever.
She bumps into Nagyung hard as she’s pulling the SD card from her camera and the card drops to the ground. “Sorry,” she shouts above the music as “One Step, Two Step” plays in the background. She kneels to retrieve the card and pulls another one from her pocket while she’s down there—a cheap decoy she keeps for situations like this. She places that in the staff’s hand, palming the other. The staff nods at the two of them before going back to his post.
Nagyung watches him go. “I bet you’re happy about that,” she grumbles, and, in Chaewon’s opinion, that’s really not fair. Like, it’s happened to her before. It’s happened to every fansite master. It’s practically a rite of passage.
“I hate to see any fansite lose pictures, you know,” she says casually, “no matter how big and obstructive their heads are.”
Nagyung rolls her eyes. “Whatever. I still have good pictures of tonight, you know.”
“So you don’t want these back?” Chaewon offers her the SD card.
Nagyung’s eyebrows shoot up. “How—” Nagyung pauses. “You switched them.”
Chaewon grins. “It wouldn’t be a real rivalry if we weren’t on equal ground. Anyway, are you gonna admit I pay more attention to my surroundings than you do?”
“Rivalry?”
Chaewon frowns. “What would you call this?”
Nagyung shugs. “I was understanding it more like you had a problem with me.”
Chaewon purses her lips. “That’s not entirely untrue…”
Nagyung rolls her eyes. “Thanks for saving this.”
Chaewon nods, eyes already back on the concert as YooA turns down the walkway to the center platform.
“For someone who doesn’t care about this random fansite master with a one-sided beef, you sure do talk about her a lot.”
Jiheon doesn’t even look up from her meal, leaving Nagyung to stare at her in betrayal. “Seriously? You’re supposed to be siding with me!!”
Jiheon makes a face. “I’m not siding with anyone!”
“That’s the problem, dumbass!,” Nagyung complains. “I need you to say she sucks!”
Jiheon shrugs. “She gave you back your photos. That was kinda nice.”
Nagyung gapes at her. “You’re kidding, right? Or am I hearing things? She’s the devil incarnate in the body of a tiny, annoying fansite master.”
“Tiny, annoying fansite master…hmmm. Sounds familiar.” Jiheon makes a show of stroking her chin in thought.
Nagyung rolls her eyes, standing and putting her bowl in the sink. “Good luck ever getting me to rant to you ever again!”
“Nooo!” Jiheon calls after her, just a little deadpan. “Who’s gonna complain to me about some cute fansite master then?”
Nagyung makes it halfway down the hall before she processes it fully. “I never said she was cute!”
“Uh huh.” Jiheon’s response sounds less than convinced.
“Do you always have to do that?” Nagyung asks Chaewon.
“Huh?” Chaewon turns to her. Somehow, they’ve ended up next to one another again.
“Dress up for these events.” Nagyung gestures to her outfit. “Like, you always look like you could be onstage instead of the idols. It’s distracting.”
“Huh?” Chaewon looks down at her outfit. “It’s just a dress. I mean, come on. I got it at Uniqlo. It’s not fancy or anything.”
Nagyung looks away. “Whatever.”
Chaewon can see a light dusting of red on her cheeks. She narrows her eyes.
“Anyway,” Nagyung continues, “I got here early and waited fair and square, so don’t be swinging your lens at my head like usual.”
It lacks its usual bite, and Chaewon stares at Nagyung. “Okay?” She says, even though she really wants to say ‘what the hell is happening right now?’ because Nagyung’s complaints feel more like teasing than any legitimate annoyance. Even now, she can feel Nagyung’s eyes on her as she double checks her SD card.
Nagyung looks away before Chaewon looks up.
Chaewon wakes up early to a rapid series of pings from her phone. Groaning, she reaches over and promptly knocks it from her nightstand onto the floor. When she finally has it securely in her hands, she cracks an eye open to read the notifications. 6 texts from Hyeju. She sits up, opening both eyes.
Okay, that wakes Chaewon up. She opens Twitter. Like any reasonable person, she has her notifications set to be filtered for quality. She misses most of the replies to her posts, and doesn’t follow anyone other than the official accounts. It’s more peaceful that way. When she switches to her private though, not even Hyeju’s texts could have prepared her for the dumpster fire on her timeline.
Chaewon agrees with that last post. She shoots off a text to Hyeju.
Hyeju, thankfully a ridiculously fast texter, sends a response almost immediately.
“Are you serious?” Chaewon says out loud.
“Why would I—” Chaewon mumbles to herself. “I mean, what horse do I have in this—” She scrolls on the timeline a little longer. Jesus. Obviously Chaewon is no stranger to mean comments, but this feels unreasonable, even for Twitter.
Chaewon backtracks out of the replies and opens the new Tweet window. She starts typing a few times.
Except that called Nagyung pathetic, which she wasn’t. Just annoying.
But, like, she didn’t also want to be eviscerated. And two YooA fansites under fire at once might make YooA look bad.
Sure, that feels…just mad enough, but still professional. She shuts off her phone.
Nagyung stares at her phone, rubs her eyes, then stares at it again. She screenshots the notification just in case Chaewon deletes it later. (And ignores the fact that she has push notifications for Chaewon’s fansite account. It’s just for research into her main competition, okay?)
“Hey, can you read this back to me?” She shoves her phone in Saerom’s direction. If Saerom had demanded to come in and take care of Nagyung during her fansite drama, she might as well make herself useful instead of lounging on Nagyung’s bed and eating her snacks.
Saerom squints at the screen. “I’m not reading you any more hate Tweets. It’s bad for you, and they’re idiots.”
Nagyung frowns. She’s only asked for that once or twice. “It’s not that. I want to make sure I’m not hallucinating.”
Saerom sighs and plucks the phone out of Nagyung’s hand. “Anyone who would spread cruel messages about a fansite, block—” Saerom looks up. “Hold on, September Bloom? This is your fansite girlfriend, right? The one you pretend to hate?”
Nagyung flushes. “She’s not my girlfriend.”
“But you do pretend to hate her.” Saerom counters. “It’s so you. Playing a little cranky and hard-to-get. And look at her, protective and principled. I totally get your little infatuation.”
“She’s not!” Nagyung snatches back her phone. “She’s so annoying! Like, she has no idea where her lens is ever, and it’s especially bad since that’s the one I’m saving up for! It’s brand new! And she’s totally distracting at events—”
Nagyung snaps her mouth shut at Saerom’s knowing look.
“Whatever.”
Surprisingly, there’s really no fallout from Chaewon’s post, just a few replies in support, and some excited messages about the big YooA fansites being friends. It might just be because she has her notifications set to filter out the spam and she never opens the quote retweets.
In fact, she basically hears nothing about it until she’s sitting in front of YooA as she signs her albums.
YooA jots down an answer to her post-it question and looks up at her with her same, familiar smile. “How are you? Exams were last month, right?”
Chaewon’s always surprised YooA can remember things so easily. “Yeah, thanks for remembering.”
Yooa smiles and nods before leaning in and lowering her voice. “Hey, is BeYooATiful okay?”
Chaewon is startled at the bluntness of the question, and she sees Jiho look over, interested. Chaewon flushes at the attention and shrugs, voice a little hushed. “I actually haven’t reached out to see.”
YooA frowns. “Well, why not? Are you guys still enemies?” YooA waves off the manager trying to urge Chaewon forward. “I want my fansites to be friendly, you know!” she whispers after Chaewon as she’s practically forced by the manager to continue to Jiho, who’s not even trying to pretend she isn’t listening. Chaewon feels a little bad for the fan before her.
“How’s your day been? Lens upgrade?” Jiho nods to Chaewon’s camera setup in the second row. Chaewon is surprised Jiho even noticed. “How did you—”
“BeYooATiful mentioned something about it. Anyway, are you going to reach out? Can I help you draft the message? I’d have you say ‘hey BeYooATiful, let’s be best friends forever or even mor—’”
“Please head back to your seat.” The manager waves her on, eyes a little pleading. Chaewon’s never been thankful to be rushed before, but she nods at the manager and scurries back to her seat, cheeks burning.
But YooA’s words stick in her mind.
I want my fansites to be friends.
Like, Chaewon has to admit it was a little ridiculous that she and Nagyung aren’t friends given their shared love of Oh My Girl and photography. And Nagyung is a good photographer, and a gearhead just like Chaewon if her setup is anything to go by. She’d like to have more fansite friends.
Wait.
Something Jiho said in passing resurfaces (and not the part where she’d suggested anything romantic, thank you very much.) Why did Nagyung mention my new lens to Jiho?
“Does Nagyung talk about me to Oh My Girl?”
The thought is so humiliating she shudders. What had Nagyung even said about her? That she kept knocking her camera into Nagyung’s head? That she and Nagyung argued constantly? That she thinks Chaewon is a Grade A Bitch?
Chaewon slumps down into her chair, meal forgotten in her potential humiliation.
Chaewon types and deletes a few messages to Nagyung:
Chaewon puts her phone down because Jesus. Unhinged.
She looks down at her meal, which has gone cold. Ugh.
She steers clear of Nagyung during the next fansign. It’s not hard. She’s seated on the other side of the hall, which is just perfect–Nagyung has the good YooA spot, and Chaewon has to shoot through a clump of young fans who are giggling and waving to the idols. It’s cute, but Chaewon does need pictures of YooA without some ninth grader’s hand in the way.
When it’s her turn to go up, she almost forgets her ticket. That’s how out of it she is. She scrambles down to the tables, and she must look shaken, because Seunghee eyes her with concern. “Are you okay?”
“Yes, of course. Just a little disorganized. You know me!” Chaewon laughs it off, and Seunghee’s worry melts away.
“That’s good.” Seunghee looks at someone in the seats behind Chaewon and lowers her voice. Chaewon almost switches seats right there. She knows what’s next. “Did you end up talking to BeYooATiful yet?” Her eyes shine with interest. Was everyone in this group gossiping?
Chaewon can’t help the way her face goes red. “Uhhh—”
Hyojung looks over at them as she bids farewell to the fan in front of her. “You talking about your enemy?”
“She’s not my enemy!” Chaewon whines. It’s so embarrassing that all of Oh My Girl somehow knows all of her business and she’s sure it’s Nagyung telling them.
“Not for long…” Seunghee trails off, and it’s ominous, even as the manager gestures for her to slide to the next chair.
“We’re all rooting for you two, you know.” Hyojung says as she flips to her page. She scans Chaewon’s post-it. “Favorite vacation activity? That’s a good one. I catch up on all the hot dramas.” She scribbles down an answer and then looks back up at Chaewon. “Nagyung was just telling me—”
“Hold on—” Chaewon starts.
“Please head to the next seat.” The manager leans over the table to assert her authority and Chaewon has no choice but to proceed, and when she looks back at Hyojung, she’s already greeting another fan.
And Chaewon gets no reprieve from the Nagyung interrogation onslaught.
“Nagyung wants to talk to you, you know. I have it on good authority you didn’t message her.” YooA’s tone is almost scolding. Chaewon wonders if this is a first—a fansite getting in trouble with her idol for not texting another fansite. An idol mediating between two of her fansites.
“I tried! I was so awkward, so I gave up.”
“How are you two going to make things work if you’re hung up on awkwardness?” Hyojung asks, distracted from her fan, and Chaewon flushes. She hadn’t even realized she’d still been listening. Chaewon shrinks under their scrutiny.
“Wait. I’m—we’re not,” she makes an ‘X’ with her arms, hoping it’ll really send the point home, “Interested. We’re not even friends.”
“Wait—” Hyojung looks across YooA to Jiho. “You said they were—” She turns back to Chaewon, “Sorry.”
Jiho shrugs. “You should be, by the way.”
YooA nods, drawing a halo and sparkles on her picture in the album.
The manager gives Chaewon a look. She scoots into Jiho’s seat. “Can we talk about literally anything else?”
“Sure; but do you need help drafting a message?” Jiho scribbles something down on her post-it and it’s long enough to run onto the page below. “Here. That’s my advice. How’s your new lens been?”
Chaewon opens and closes her mouth. “Good?”
“Good. YooA loves your photos.” Jiho rolls her eyes. “She thinks she’s chic if she doesn’t tell you herself.”
“Shut it.” YooA snips, a dusting of red on her cheeks.
The manager gestures to the side of the stage and Chaewon takes the hint.
Chaewon forgets about Jiho’s message until she’s taking photos of the pages for her personal Twitter.
So, like, imagine her surprise when Jiho’s scrawled answer to “Do you have cheering words for students working on job applications?” is “Get your act together!!! >;p”
Chaewon does not post the page to Twitter.
Instead, she shuts the album and flops over, shutting her eyes and wondering how her idols got so involved in her personal drama.
“Okay, so are you going to get your act together?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Nagyung tries to play it cool, but the tinge of whininess in her voice gives her away immediately, and Chaeyoung is on her in a second.
“You are! I can tell I’m close to a breakthrough.” Chaeyoung looks dangerously giddy. “Do you know how cute it is that you have a little rivals-to-lovers thing going on? I would kill for a romance like that.”
Nagyung groans, leaning further over the sink and redoubling her efforts to scrub the sauce cemented to the side of her bowl. “You don’t know the half of it. Chaewon’s awful. She’s so annoying.”
Chaeyoung sighs, wilting into the counter. “Young love…”
“You’re literally my age and can we please talk about anything else? You’re making me not want to confess.” Nagyung grumbles the last part into the sink, face reddening.
“What!??” Chaeyoung reels back, then realizing her power, she zips her lips and marches her way back to the couch.
Chaewon gets her act together. And it’s only because she needs Oh My Girl out of her hair!! It’s not about the way she keeps having to duck behind corners and plan ahead to avoid Nagyung at schedules. But also, like, she’d like to stop having to do that, too.
So she figures it’s as good a time as any when she sees Nagyung fiddling with her camera in the lobby of the fansite venue an hour before the event. Chaewon looks around at the rest of the people loitering. She recognizes several other fansites, but no one pays her any mind, all too busy setting up their tech. Perfect.
She crosses the lobby and clears her throat.
Nagyung looks up, startled, then her face immediately falls when she sees who it is. Chaewon pretends she’s not offended. Like, whatever. It’s not like she likes Nagyung much either.
“What have you been saying to Oh My Girl about me?” Chaewon whispers, and even though it’s supposed to come out imposing and demanding, it ends up just sounding whiny and a little desperate. Although, maybe it’s just hard to sound scary when whispering.
“Nothing!” Nagyung’s eyes are wide. Chaewon watches her cheeks redden. She narrows her eyes.
“Jiho keeps talking about the stuff you’ve said to her about me.”
“It’s not like I want to!” Nagyung whispers back. “She just,” she waves her arms around. “Takes command of the conversation.”
Okay, well, Chaewon can understand that. Still, “Okay, but you have to tell me, because I have to face them and photograph them and not knowing is making things weird.”
Nagyung looks away, muttering something, and it’s so quiet that Chaewon can’t figure out if it’s directed at her.
“That I have a crush on you! Okay?” Nagyung’s face is a brilliant red now, and she’s looking anywhere but at Chaewon.
“Huh?” Okay. So. Yeah. Not at all what Chaewon had been expecting when she cornered Nagyung. She tries to think back to any of their previous interactions, but she really cannot fathom—“Why?”
“Ugh, seriously?” Nagyung whines. “It’s embarrassing enough to have to admit it. Don’t make me explain it.”
“No, I’m just like,” Chaewon waves vaguely. “Me? You? I’m so annoying to you.”
Nagyung sighs, sagging into the wall. “Unfortunately, I think that’s part of it.”
Chaewon opens and closes her mouth. Because, like, of all the scenarios she’d made Hyeju practice with her, this is not one that came up. (And she’s sure that Hyeju would have demanded far more than a full pizza to herself for any ‘romance bullcrap.’) “Okay, well. I think you’re cute?” She looks down at the ticket in her hand. “Uh, what number do you have?”
Nagyung wordlessly offers her own ticket to Chaewon. 46. Right next to Chaewon’s 45.
“Wanna sit together?”
“Not like I have much of a choice.” Nagyung grumbles, but Chaewon just laughs.
“I don’t think Oh My Girl are going to stop talking to us about each other, huh?”