Chapter Text
Operation Copy & Paste - Day 1.
“Guys, I need serious help right now.” Mina sent at the group chat she just created.
“OMG, r u pregnant?” Sana instantly replied, and Mina couldn't stand to deal with her kind of humor at the moment.
“It's easier for Momo to get pregnant with Mina, and not the contrary. That bottom ass bitch.” And there goes Nayeon, as always, finding a way to call Momo a ‘bottom ass bitch’ . It was a regular Tuesday.
“?
I’m still her fiancé, slow down.” Mina replied to Nayeon’s text.
“What's bothering you, Minari?” Jeongyeon suddenly showed up and went online, too.
“Thank God someone cares. Please educate your wife.”
“?” Yeah. Nayeon was offended.
“Anyway…” Mina started.
“As you can see, Momo isn't a part of this group, sooooo……..”
“By any chance, do one of you guys know Momo's dogs’ names?”
“You mean Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V?” Tzuyu said, and they're doomed.
“Oh shit.” Jeongyeon replied.
Yeah. Oh shit. Mina thought.
She got engaged to Momo 3 months ago and has been dating her for 4 years. She definitely knew Momo's dogs' names before when they first started dating. Momo did tell her. She didn't forget, making it clear that she just couldn't quite remember. At all. Mina didn't know where in time and space she had lost Shampoo and Conditioner’s names.
To be honest, it was Momo's fault.
Mina couldn't recall a single moment in their entire relationship when Momo called those dogs by name. She could recall all the nicknames, though.
Big Burger and Milkshake. Fork and Knife. Echo & Echo. Ctrl + Me and Ctrl + Thee. Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
But there's not a corner of her mind that the real names might be. Not even a long-lost archive of useless things in the folds of her brain.
The questioning began that very afternoon when Mina, Chaeyoung, Dahyun, and Jihyo went out for coffee at a coffee shop near their workplace. Somewhere in the middle of all the conversation topics that were floating around, Jihyo suddenly asked:
“Does Momo remember her dogs' names?”
“Yeah, of course she does.” Mina said.
“Are you sure?” Chaeyoung entered the topic.
“Yes, I am sure, where is this coming from?”
“I mean…” Jihyo started. “She doesn't really call them by name, does she?”
“Unless their names are something like, I don't know, Homotron 3000 and Mister Little Gay Guy.” Dahyun said, making Jihyo and Chaeyoung laugh out loud.
“She never called them Homotron 3000 and Mister Little Gay Guy.” Mina defended her fiancé, knowing all too well that Momo might actually call them that way.
“I’m sure I heard her calling them Homotron 3000 and Mister Little Gay Guy last week.”
“Yeah, maybe she forgot their names.”
“Mina, do you know their names?”
“Oh shit.”
There was no need to panic. Mina is Momo’s fiancée, they’ve been together for years, and the dog’s names are something shallow, right? Maybe there was a reason to panic. Momo would be mad at her, because what do you mean you don’t know the names of the creatures your fiancé treats like her own children? Mina thought.
She stared at her phone, hoping someone in the group chat would suddenly remember something useful, anything. A throwback post, a vet appointment, literally anything that could help her out of this spiral.
“Didn’t she post something like... 'happy birthday, my lil Cocoa bean once?” Jihyo texted after what felt like an eternity.
“Wait. Cocoa?” Mina typed back, thumbs shaking. “That’s a name, right?”
“That or another nickname.” Chaeyoung replied. “That girl calls them ‘Bean 1 and Bean 2’ depending on the day.”
“I vote Cocoa is real.” Tzuyu chimed in. “Sounds plausible. Fits the aesthetic. Good dog name.”
“Hold up,” Nayeon said. “If one is Cocoa, maybe the other is... Mocha? Or Vanilla? Momo’s mind is food-themed.”
“That’s... solid logic,” Jeongyeon added.
“Okay, so… Tentative names: Cocoa and Vanilla.” Mina repeated, like she was taking notes for an exam. “I’ll test them later. See if they respond.”
“You’re gonna go up to your own dogs and beta-test their real names?” Dahyun asked.
“It’s called research,” Mina replied. “And saving a relationship. You wouldn’t get it.”
“Oh, babe.” Jihyo sent, “If your relationship is that fragile, maybe the dogs should get custody of you .”
Mina groaned and flopped backward onto the couch, letting her phone drop on her chest. She stared at the ceiling in despair.
She was supposed to be planning their wedding playlist right now, but instead, she was spiraling over canine identity crises.
Suddenly, her phone buzzed again. It was a text from Momo.
Momo <3: hey, babe. quick q: can u guess which one ate the sock?
Mina’s soul briefly left her body. She sat up in a panic, typing:
You: Which one…?
Momo <3: don’t do this to me! the lighter one!!
You: You mean... Vanilla?
Momo <3: WHO’S VANILLA
Mina’s hands froze mid-type.
She stared at the message.
Then she stared at the wall.
Then she screamed into a pillow.
Mina’s thumbs hovered over her keyboard as Momo’s “WHO’S VANILLA” text stared back at her like a gun pointed directly at her credibility. She typed slowly.
You: I meant like… as a nickname. Because he’s light-colored. Obviously.
She stared at it, praying it sounded casual.
Momo <3: awww that’s cute!!! i might start using that hehe
You: Pls don’t. You have enough chaos in your vocabulary already.
Momo <3: too late. i’m calling him Vanilla now
Mina chucked her phone across the couch.
“Goddamn it,” she whispered. Now Vanilla was officially part of the lexicon, and she was no closer to the truth.
Mina felt the need to tell her friends the update on her mission, so after she had stopped panicking, she picked up her phone and typed the most unserious thing she thought she could type this week.
“Operation Copy & Paste has failed.”
“LMAOOOOOOO” Nayeon replied.
“I’m framing this.” She knew that Jeongyeon was the most unserious person ever, so she could only laugh about it.
“Vanilla was a strong guess tho.” Tzuyu said, and, honestly? She was kind of right.
“So what are the names??” Chaeyoung asked.
“I’ll figure it out.” Mina needed to figure out. It was a moral necessity.
Dahyun sent a meme of a gravestone with “Here lies Mina. Killed by the muscles of her strong fiancé and her two small dumb dogs.”
It felt accurate.
Mina locked her phone, face down on the coffee table, letting out a long sigh. Operation Copy & Paste was in full effect, but so far, zero progress.
She’d been digging through every scrap of memory, every photo, every random chat with Momo, but nothing concrete. No dog tags, no birthday posts with actual names, just an endless parade of weird nicknames and Momo’s habit of inventing new ones every week.
Her friends were no better. Nayeon joked that maybe the dogs didn’t even have real names and Momo just called them whatever she felt like. Tzuyu said it had to be some kind of conspiracy that no one could have that many nicknames for the same two dogs. Chaeyoung insisted ‘Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V’ was the best theory so far, and Jeongyeon flat-out said she was out if the dogs were named after keyboard shortcuts.
Mina stared at the ceiling, wishing for a miracle.
Later that evening, she sat on the couch with Momo, who was scrolling through her phone, calling out to the dogs by a fresh new nickname.
“Hey, Milkman!” Momo said, scooping up the lighter-colored dog.
Mina smiled carefully, playing along. “Milkman, huh? That’s a new one.”
Momo grinned. “Yeah, I think I’m sticking with it for now.”
Mina nodded. She knew better than to ask directly. Instead, she decided to keep track quietly, every nickname, every odd call-out. One day, she’d crack the code.
Later, Mina updated the group chat with a hint: “Still no clues. Momo’s nickname game is too strong.”
Dahyun joked, “Wtf. So they’re basically nameless?”
Jihyo said, “Call them what you want, I guess.”
“Is this a Taylor Swift reference?” Jeongyeon said.
“Every word that comes out of Jihyo might be a Taylor Swift reference.” Sana type while laughing.
Nayeon laughed, “Skipping the swiftie content or I’ll be speaking forever but I’m convinced they’re secretly aliens who don’t care about names.”
Mina smirked to herself. “At this point, I’m just trying not to get caught.”
“Think on the bright side: at least you know that they are boys!” Sana said. “We can’t say the same about Kookeu.”
“???????” Nayeon replied. “Wtf? Kookeu knows he is a boy, and so do I.”
“Does he?” Sana typed fast.
Nayeon would cross seas for Kookeu. “He might be a little gay, but at least he has a name.”
“Siri and Alexa also have names!” Mina sent.
“I thought they were boys.” Tzuyu appeared.
“I’m done with you guys.”
Her friends sent laughing emojis and memes, but Mina felt a thrill.
Operation Copy & Paste – Day 1: Failed.
Risk: could’ve been higher.
Fiancée's dignity: intact.
Momo’s awareness: still zero.