Chapter Text
As all the members of NMIXX except Lily and Jiwoo sat in the control room, eating chicken and drinking beer while waiting for Lily and Jiwoo, who were isolated in the practice room, to finish the conversation that they needed to have, Bae pondered the situation she found herself in. She had made a deal with Kyujin in order to keep Kyujin from trying to steal Lily from Jiwoo. In order to keep Kyujin away from Lily, Bae was supposed to try to fix Kyujin on a blind date — with Sullyoon, but Kyujin didn’t know that — and if Bae was unable to do that, then she had to go out on a date with Kyujin herself. It seemed like an elegant solution to the problem with Kyujin’s interest in Lily: Kyujin had agreed to go on the blind date, and Bae was fairly certain that Sullyoon would be willing to go on any blind date that Bae set up for her in order to avoid going on another date with Haewon, who she had already gone on one date with — a blind date set up by Bae — and who she was quite confident — despite Bae’s opinion to the contrary — that she was better off as friends with than as girlfriends. The problem was that after making the deal with Kyujin, Bae suddenly realized that she hoped Sullyoon rejected the blind date, because she’d suddenly found herself attracted to Kyujin. And that was when she realized that only she would know how much or little effort she had put into arranging the blind date for Kyujin, and that she could just claim that her efforts had failed, so that she “had” to go on the date with Kjujin.
Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted by Haewon repeatedly calling her name. When she shook her head and snapped out of the trance, Haewon gestured toward the drumstick that Bae was holding about eight centimeters away from her mouth. “If you’re going to eat chicken,” Haewon said with barely suppressed laughter, “if helps to bring the chicken all the way to your mouth!”
Bae laughed, somewhat embarrassed at getting caught up in her thoughts like that. “Yeah,” she said, “I suppose it does.”
After glancing through the glass and confirming that Lily and Jiwoo were still engaged in their conversation, Haewon turned back to Bae. “So what's got you all up in your brain?” she asked. “I’d say we've solved our problem.” She indicated Lily and Jiwoo with a nod toward the glass.
“Oh. . . Um. . . No,” Bae said, shaking her head. “It's not them. It's just that I’m supposed to be fixing up a blind date for someone, and I’m not sure how to go about it.”
“I would have thought you'd have given up on playing matchmaker after your experience fixing me up with Sullyoon,” Haewon said, smiling to make sure Bae knew there were no hard feelings.
“But you did enjoy that date!” Bae protested. “I mean, just because it wasn't love at first sight, that doesn't mean it was horrible, right?”
Seeing how desperate Bae was for reassurance, Haewon smiled indulgently at her and said “No, it wasn't horrible. Just because I wasn't Almond Bonbon, it doesn't mean the night was horrible.” Haewon was amused by the confused expression on Bae’s face, and still hadn't decided whether or not she wanted to explain things — she was leaning toward not — when she was spared from having to make the decision by the sound of Lily’s voice coming from the practice room: “Okay, we’re back together! Will you come unlock us now?”
Haewon barely managed to suppress her laughter as she reached over and hit the button to turn on the microphone. “Come on out!” she said. “The practice room door locks to keep people out, not to keep people in.”
Bae watched through the glass as Lily and Jiwoo hugged each other and then, still holding hands, rushed out of the practice room and into the control room to collect hugs from all the other members.
“Are we going to have to swap rooms again?” Bae asked Jiwoo after giving her a hug.
Jiwoo looked over at Lily, who was in the middle of an animated conversation with Sullyoon, then back at Bae. “Possibly soon,” she said, “but not right away. I mean we just got back together, and that only happened because you all locked us in a room together until we figured it out.”
“I’m sure you two would have figured it out eventually,” Bae said, smiling as she basked in the happiness that was radiating off of Jiwoo. “We just helped rush things along.”
Jiwoo shook her head. “I think you’re underestimating my ability to be stubborn.”
Bae laughed. “Having tried to get you to eat vegetables, I don’t think so,” she said.
“I’ll have you know that I ate a stir fry with lettuce and carrot in it!” Jiwoo said, doing her best to look wounded.
“Is that today, or once upon a time?” Bae ask, doing her best to look like a serious unnie, when in fact she was on the verge of hysterical laughter.
“It wasn’t today,” Jiwoo admitted, “but it was this week.” Jiwoo decided she needed to change the subject quickly, before Bae tried to make her eat more vegetables. “So unnie, now that Lily and I are back together, don’t we need to find someone for you?”
“I don’t know,” Bae said, trying to hide her panic. “I think if the right person for me is out there, I’ll find them.”
“Oh, come on, unnie!” Jiwoo protested. “I’m so much happier now that I’m back with Lily, and I want everyone to be this happy!”
“I just. . .” Bae said. She wanted to keep Jiwoo out of her love life, but she didn’t want to diminish her happiness. “Tell you what: If I think of any way that you can help me, I’ll ask and let you help. Okay?”
“Okay,” Jiwoo said. “But you’ve got to pinkie promise that you’ll let me help.” She held up her hand with her pinkie extended, then Bae interlocked her pinkie with it as she said “I promise.”
Just then Lily came over, holding out a bottle of beer to Jiwoo. “Hey!” she said. “I thought part of the reason we ended the conversation so quickly was so that we could get in here while the chicken was still hot and the beer was still cold.”
Jiwoo took the bottle of beer from Lily, popped off the top and took a swig. “I did want that,” she said, “but then I got to talking with Bae and I decided I wanted to try to help find someone for her.”
Lily laughed. “Yeah, right. It took four of your unnies plus Kyujin to get you to agree to get back together with me, but all of a sudden you’re an expert on relationships?”
“Something like that,” Jiwoo said, going up on tiptoes a little bit so she could look Lily in the eyes. “Besides, I’ll have you know that Bae-unnie pinkie promised that if there was anything I could do to help get her together with someone, she’d ask me to help.”
Lily gave Jiwoo a quick kiss, then turned to Bae and said “I’ve got to apologize for my girlfriend — she gets like this when she’s hungry. I’ll take her to get some chicken to she’ll stop bothering you.”
Bae waved to Jiwoo as Lily dragged her across the room to the box of chicken, then stood there watching them for a moment, blown away by how happy they looked together and hoping that she’d find someone that she’d be that happy with.
“So unnie. . .”
Bae jumped, startled to discover that Kyujin was suddenly standing next to her. She did her best to compose she face so that she didn’t look as startled and vulnerable as she actually was.
Kyujin smirked, obviously seeing through Bae’s attempt at concealing her emotions. “I was wondering if you had made any progress on setting up that blind date for me.”
Bae could see Sullyoon out of the corner of her eye, talking to Haewon. She hoped that she had managed to avoid looking at Sullyoon in a way that would draw Kyujin’s attention to her, but she couldn’t be completely sure that she hadn’t. “I’m working on it,” Bae said quickly, even though she hadn’t.
“Okay,” Kyujin said, her voice getting hard. “I’m only asking because you promised, but I haven’t heard anything more about it since.”
Bae flinched. “These things take time, but don’t worry — I’ll make it happen,” she said.
“Just makin’ sure,” Kyujin said. “Just remember: If you can’t follow up on your promise, then you have to go out with me.” Kyujin put her arm around Bae, pulling her up against her. Bae couldn’t help feeling a thrill of excitement everywhere that Kyujin was touching her — a feeling which intensified when Jiwoo spotted them from across the room and called out “OMG! Look at Bae and Kyujin! You two would make such a cute couple!”
“Thank you!” Kyujin said. “I just don’t know if it’s meant to be, though.” As Jiwoo turned her attention back to Lily, Kyujin leaned over and whispered into Bae’s ear: “It’s up to you, unnie. You can do what you promised, or you can let Jiwoo think she’s a matchmaker.”
Bae shivered at the feeling of Kyujin’s breath in her ear, wondered if letting Jiwoo be right would really be the worst thing in the world. She was once again getting lost in her thoughts when Kyujin whispered in her ear again, saying “It looks like Sullyoon’s about to leave. If I was trying to set her up on a blind date, I’d go talk to her now.” She pulled away and looked Bae in the eye, saying “Of course, I don’t know who you’re trying to set me up with, so I don’t know if it’s Sullyoon or not.”
Bae flinched at the look in Kyujin’s eyes — though she couldn’t say whether she felt more threatened or attracted by it — then turned to Sullyoon and called out “Sullyoon! Give me a second and I’ll walk you back to the dorm!”
“Keep me updated,” Kyujin said quietly as Bae grabbed her backpack and rushed to catch up with with Sullyoon.
As they were walking back to the dorm, Sullyoon asked Bae “So what was Kyujin talking to you about there? She looked pretty intense.”
“Oh, you know,” Bae said with a shrug, “girls, classes, upcoming performances: What do any of us ever talk to each other about?”
“Speaking of girls,” Sullyoon said, “are you really going to hold me to that promise of going out on a second day with Haewon?”
“Unless you can think of someone else you’d rather I fix you up with. . .” Bae said, leaving the opportunity open for Sullyoon to say she’d like to go out with Kyujin, but not directly suggesting it, so that Bae had a little more time to make up her mind how she felt about Kyujin, if indeed she felt anything at all.
They walked on in silence for a moment, Sullyoon obviously considering her options. “Well,” she finally said, “I was thinking. . .” She paused for a second, then said “No, it’s silly. Never mind.”
“No, it’s not silly,” Bae said. “If there’s someone you’re interested in, you should go for it, and if there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll do my best.”
“Well,” Sullyoon said, “I was wondering if you would like to go out with me.”
Bae’s blood ran cold. Of all the things she had imagined Sullyoon saying, this certainly wasn’t one on them, and she had absolutely no idea of what to say in response.
Sullyoon, interpreting Bae’s silence for rejection, began saying “It’s all right it you don’t want—” only to have Bae interrupt her.
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Bae said, “it’s just that I’m surprised.” She paused for a moment, temporarily unable to talk. After a moment of trying in vain to gather her thoughts, she asked “Could I have some time to think about it, and maybe we could talk tomorrow?” before hastily adding “I’m sorry. I’m sure it’s not the answer you wanted to here. It’s just that lately I’ve spent all my spare time working on trying to get Lily and Jiwoo back together, she I haven’t had any time to think about me going out with anyone.”
“That’s fine!” Sullyoon said, smiling at Bae in a way that made her heart skip a beat. “We can talk tomorrow or whenever.”
“Great!” Bae said. By this time they were standing outside Lily’s room, which thanks to Jiwoo was now her room as well. “Well, I’ll see you tomorrow. I’ve still got studying to do before bed.” As she said goodnight to Sullyoon and went into her room, Bae realized that she’d never felt more uncertain as to what she wanted to.