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Being desperate has its quirks.
Since when you consider Yoonchae’s predicament, it looks really, really desperate. Awfully, horribly, and terribly desperate.
Maybe buying a love potion off of an Etsy Witch, which both Lara and Megan have mentioned before, is a tell-tale sign of this. It’s not even a maybe, it’s a definite, ugly sign.
A week ago, she had ordered it, and now she just has to wait for her hopefully auspicious package. She sighs as she lies on the living room couch. Today, it’ll come. And maybe then Megan will fall head over heels for Yoonchae.
It’s not much of a surprise that the potion is for Megan.
Yoonchae had told the merchant, I need the potion to work for a girl who is cool and kind and pretty. Which, because of course, was the title of the product. Love Potion for cool, kind and pretty girls. No refunds.
Kind of sketchy the last part was, but Yoonchae didn’t care. She bought it in the end anyway. This is what being desperate makes you do.
She’s desperate because Megan has always been Yoonchae’s person. Since Dream Academy, since their predebut on and off situation, since SIS, since Beautiful Chaos, since now. She’ll practically do anything for Megan.
She just wants that final push, the catalyst which she hopes to hue Megan’s contacts and glasses into a permanent, rose-tinted colour.
To get Megan to look at her with casts of pink in her eyes. To get her to initiate things more. To let her stupid crush be mutual.
Yoonchae, although it doesn’t seem like it, is the one who initiates the most of their “Meichae moments” and it’s just that Megan amps up the situation once she gets the consent to. The lightstick live, like, Yoonchae had first tried to kiss Megan, then Megan had been so over the top after that. She didn’t start it. It was… Yoonchae.
That’s just one of many, and Yoonchae’s head perks up once she hears their doorbell ring. However, Sophia dashes to the door from the kitchen, saying she’ll get it.
When she opens it, she looks around as night-air floods inside, and her eyes set to the floor, seeing the package strewn down. Sophia crouches, picks it up, and reads who it’s addressed to.
She walks backwards inside, then shouts, “Yoonchae! For you,” and she shuts the door with a slam and approaches her. Once she reaches Yoonchae, she tosses it to her, “What’d you get?”
Yoonchae hesitates, “…For my project I want to do.”
“Oh, so, like, personal? I got you,” then Sophia winks at her like she knows everything, and scatters back into the kitchen.
Okay. Strange. But whatever, Yoonchae shakes her package, and she feels the liquid inside do a sort of jiggle. She hopes this works. If not, that’s fifteen bucks down the drain.
Yoonchae waits until Sophia’s done and goes upstairs, abandoning whatever she was doing in there— she said she was making pandesal, and it smelled kind of really good— and she wallows to the space, the smell lingering faintly. She hasn’t opened the box yet, but her eyes glint with a weird light.
The package is opened carefully, and the small bottle falls out onto Yoonchae’s hand. It doesn’t have the Minecraft-bottle-shape that Yoonchae had expected, since its shape resembles an ampule and a test tube. She guesses it’s around five inches long, and she can just hear Megan saying it’s average!!! right into her ear.
A thick, dark pink liquid settles to fill half of the vessel. Yoonchae sloshes it around, and it just looks syrupy, glazing the inside glass.
It’s not prepared, Yoonchae supposes, recalling her conversation with the merchant.
Yoonchae had asked a multitude of questions, ranging from “Does it come ready or do I prepare it?” to “Is it edible?” So. It is edible, she found out. And like, the preparation steps are a little strange.
Not in the oh, you need a lock of the person’s hair, and a droplet of your blood way, but in the way that seems nonplussed but because of how boring it is. The seller had said, “You just need to warm the potion up with your body heat, and chant the name of your love into the bottle, then mix by shaking it.”
Okay?? So boring. At least it’s easy, Yoonchae reckons as she pops the bottle open. She’ll do the name thing first.
The aroma of it spills out, and it’s a clear sweet scent, tinged with a little sourness. She whispers Megan into the container around eight times or so, and then she shuts it back up with the cork. Now warming it with her… body heat. Cool. Or warm.
Her hands are probably the most tamest way to do this, so she slots the bottle into her hands and clenches it there. The warmth from her hands travels to the concoction through thin glass, and after a minute of silence, Yoonchae releases her grip. Again, she twirls it, and this time the liquid gushes around like it’s gotten less viscous.
Its colour has brightened up somewhat, now with murky orange and blue tints hinted into the pink. Next step: shaking it to mix it. She doesn’t exactly know for how long, given that the merchant had been very vague for all of the instructions.
One minute, she guesses, and off to shaking it like a bartender she goes.
She has only ever seen how a bartender does it, like, once or twice in real life, and a couple of times through TikTok. So she kind of just moves her arm up and down with her wrist unabashedly. Now she’s greeted with the vivid mental image of someone walking in.
With wavering confidence, she slows her bartender-esque to a stop, then tries to make shaking a bottle as calm as it’s able to be.
A minute goes by, and she sets the potion onto the counter. Then she can do whatever she wills with it, Yoonchae supposes as it rolls around carelessly. So, either putting it in a drink, or getting Megan to drink the thing without her being suspicious of anything.
Yoonchae is half-sure that Megan would drink it without any questions, save for “What is this?” then cutting to her chugging the thing in full. Yoonchae probably wouldn’t even have to say anything.
But that’s the easy route out, right?
It would be more, like, bonding if Yoonchae concocts the potion into a drink for Megan. Like a tea or something.
Hot water boils as she thinks of what to make. Tea? That’s too easy. Something new? That’s… too hard. Okay. New plan. Yoonchae just needs to think. She’s got this. Scrap that water.
After a bit, she settles onto making something that looks like alcohol. A non-alcoholic drink. There’s some sprite in the fridge, and a lemon somewhere— Yoonchae remembers seeing one. It’s a bit boring, but she can say that inspiration hit her, she made it for Megan, some patience, and then—
Boom. Megan is Yoonchae’s. Something like that.
She brings a tall glass out, then contemplates how to set it up. Thank god there’s only her, Sophia, and Megan at home. Dani, Manon, and Lara had all gone out partying. Somehow Megan didn’t go.
Yoonchae doesn’t mind, since now she can finish the setup and give it to her as quickly as possible, but then again, Megan is lurking at this hour. She’s a kind of ghost when she’s alone. Kitchen-ghost. Then she can sneak up on Yoonchae. Then Yoonchae would have to explain with shaky words about what she’s doing.
Then she’d find out, and laugh at her.
Hopefully not, Yoonchae thinks as she drizzles the potion onto the inside-walls of the cup, then pouring the rest at the bottom. There’s enough to glaze the walls prettily, and enough to settle.
Ah. Fuck. Yoonchae does not know if it tastes good. Okay. It’ll be okay. The fates will align in her favour and give her the fortune that spells out success. It’ll taste good. The sprite will carry, and the lemon is there for good measure. Yoonchae has a drink and a dream. It did smell sweet, right?
Digging the sprite out from the fridge, she pours it in languidly, like she’s given up. What if the drink tastes like shit and Megan throws up???
Then Yoonchae will cry about it tonight, and go to sleep wanting to kill herself. Okay. Sophia would call her a creep and other names she doesn’t even know the meaning of right now. She slaps her face softly, and she leaves a little space from the rim to the drink.
Now the lemon. Megan had once said that lemons on drinks are bougie, or whatever. Cutting the lemon into a thin slice, Yoonchae tosses the rest of it where she had found it— then slots it onto the rim.
Colour from the potion seeps into the sprite like a weird lava lamp, and it looks somehow majestic. Megan would call it her unicorn pee or something, then Yoonchae would side eye her like she’s killed someone. But she’s almost done.
She stirs it with a spoon, and the colour’s a nice pink. Finally.
Careful not to spill it, Yoonchae clambers up the stairs and to Megan’s room. She knocks, “...Megan?”
She hears a faint Yoonchae!, then rapid footsteps to the door. It opens, almost excitedly, and it startles Yoonchae. There’s Megan, hair a little tousled from her headphones, Yoonchae guesses, and she smiles. Her eyes track onto the drink for her, and she asks, “What’s this? For little ol’ me? Bougie-ass drink.” Then she grins, taking it and… chugging. Okay. Cool. Guess we’re doing that.
At least Yoonchae doesn’t have to convince Megan or anything. “It… wasn’t for you,” Yoonchae lies, just for Megan’s reaction.
“...What. No but, like, it’s pink?? Don’t play, I know where you live,” Megan narrows her eyes at Yoonchae. “and it’s only just us and Sophia here. You’d get Sophia, like, matcha or whatever.”
“Okay detective. We live together,” is Yoonchae’s response, and Megan smirks.
She says, “What’s it for? Is it ‘cause you love me so much?” Her voice is in that teasing tone, and Yoonchae debates whether to double down or argue.
“Sure. I love you so much unnie… that I got you poison.”
“What?”
“What?”
Yoonchae stares at her, pink glowing in her eyes. It’s a half-lie. “...Okay. Bye.”
She then shuts the door, blinking at the now-wall with a blank expression. Holy awkward. Yoonchae steps to her room, and she imagines Megan standing there with a glass in hand, looking at nothing. Just fuck Yoonchae’s baka stupid chud life.
Sophia sits at her bed once Yoonchae enters the room, and she looks at Yoonchae with perceiving eyes.
Yoonchae looks back, and she shrugs. “What?”
“Nothing,” Sophia answers, and she cozies herself into her covers. Mysterious ass.
-
It’s 4 in the morning. Yoonchae is only awake because of the buzz from her phone. She squints as she reads it.
meimei - 04:02 : thakn u for the drink btw
meimei - 04:03 : sory for th e late text
meimei - 04:06 : love u to o
-
So.
Maybe Etsy Witches aren’t a scam after all, Yoonchae concludes as Megan snuggles right up against her on the couch. She’s close. Closer than usual. And it’s not the close close Megan usually does, when she does a quick hug or squeeze, then lets go. It’s like. Romance-y close.
Megan slumps on top of Yoonchae, sitting in her lap, warm and ignorant. Her head perches onto the firm of Yoonchae’s shoulder. But she isn’t really focused on anything except for her phone.
When she walked into the cool morning air of the living room, Yoonchae saw her gaze lock onto her, and she approached with open arms. She said, “Yoonchae, I’m cold,” then she jumped right onto Yoonchae’s lap like it’s where she belongs.
Which, like, Yoonchae doesn’t hate. In fact, she’s enjoying it. Against the Ms Hates Physical Touch allegations. But because of those, she has to pretend like she doesn’t, and so if anyone else walks in, they won’t tease.
But then again. They will tease, no matter the circumstances. Just like little school girls. When Megan landed onto her, she huffed, “Get off. You’re… heavy.”
“So? I’m cold,” Megan replied with faux indignation.
She won, considering that she’s still sprawled over Yoonchae like a weighted blanket.
But like, maybe the potion really is working?
-
It’s dark in the room, save for Megan’s harsh computer light and Yoonchae’s laptop screen.
They’re playing Minecraft, since it’s been a hot minute since they’ve played together. It’s kind of quiet, but it’s okay, Yoonchae guesses, as Lara’s passed out on the bed adjacent to them— and Megan had told Yoonchae to be quiet.
The world before, which Megan had rage-quit, because she lost all of her netherite to the void, was nice. They had a cozy house together, decorated with lanterns and shrubbery. But, yeah. They’re making a new one, in this new server.
Yoonchae chops another spruce tree down for their house as Megan runs around hunting for sheep.
As she finishes her logging, Megan whispers, “I got enough for our beds.” Yoonchae nods, and heads back to the house. It’s sorta not really built fully yet. There’s, like, five walls total and they’re only three blocks tall.
Being the builder, Yoonchae keeps her logs and watches as Megan places their beds next to one another on the grass outside, near the chests stacked atop of each other. She coloured her one orange, and Yoonchae’s pink. “I made it our colour symbol things.”
A certain flag pops into Yoonchae’s head, a cog turning in her mind. Megan probably doesn’t mean that.
Megan gets into hers, and groans, “Sleep, I don’t want any phantoms biting my ass,” and she pretends to snore while Yoonchae side eyes her. But she doesn’t actually care about that. What she actually cares about is the fact that their beds are placed together.
A month ago, she wouldn’t have given it a second thought, but last time they played, Megan gruffed, talking about how beds together in Minecraft, like, means something. So her doing it now is very telling.
Yoonchae looks to Megan as the night-dream-thing screen fades out into day. She’s smiling.
-
Yoonchae used to think rehearsal was just their outward personas coming out for a bit, dancing to their music and practicing it over and over again.
Hell, Yoonchae knows all of their choreo like clockwork, and she can probably do it while she sleeps.
Now they’re at the M.I.A choreo, and Yoonchae stands back as Manon and Lara do their thing, whatever it is, on the floor. There’s a prickly stare directed to her, and Yoonchae follows it to meet Megan’s eyes.
Her gaze lingers, and drifts to the perverts below them after an indistinct beat.
It’s not noticeable, after all the eye contact only lasts for a split second, but Yoonchae hooks onto it like a clueless fish to the tempting bait.
Maybe rehearsal lures their real selves out for a spin too.
After it’s done, Megan and Yoonchae walk out together, Lara and Dani ahead of them. Megan turns to Yoonchae, winks, then says, “Can we do our own version of the M.I.A outro?” and she skips along to the other two, chirping random words.
Yeah. The potion definitely works. What else can explain that?
-
Yep. Yes. Yeah. It works. The potion is real.
Why else would Megan be this close to her? Lips, almost touching, just mere inches away from the other. Yoonchae sweats as Megan breathes in deep, and she can feel her breath splinter like addicting smoke onto her face.
Yoonchae feels dizzy. Like she’s under some bewitching spell, as if Megan was the one to cast it onto her with a potion herself.
What colour would it be? A toxic green, a calming blue, a biting orange. It could be anything. It could be her face, her body, her voice, her personality, her everything. The way she dances, sings, speaks and jokes around.
It’s all a potion to Yoonchae. How each part of her brews together into an enchanting concoction that sums Megan up with blurry liquid and smooth glass.
Mesmerising, addicting, captivating. That’s all Megan. That’s why Yoonchae is so desperate.
Yoonchae’s eyes flutter closed as Megan inches near. What even happened to get them like this in the first place? Megan’s nose presses against the flat of Yoonchae’s lightly, like a message to get something across. Yoonchae doesn’t care about the past, about why they’re like that.
She cares about what happens next; whether Megan would even kiss her right now.
Megan smells like sweet, fragrant flowers. Her shampoo and body wash, Yoonchae reckons. There’s this citrusy undertone, and Yoonchae’s breath hitches.
Something touches her lips, but it’s not Megan’s. At least, that’s what she thinks as her eyes flitter open. Oh. It’s… two of her fingers. With glassy eyes, Yoonchae tilts her head at Megan, “What?”
Megan grins, “Nothing. Don’t use my card next time. I was really confused why someone bought a love potion using my money.” Then she leans back, flopping onto the couch, going back to using her phone. What the fuck?
Yoonchae blinks, and pulls out her phone. She checks her bank app, and tries to peruse for the purchase she made on Etsy.
It’s not there. Okay. Great. So Megan knew all this time.
“I… Lara dared me,” she says, an attempt to save face.
No luck. “No, it’s okay, I know. Just ask me out, Yoonchae,” then Megan sits up again, cupping her cheeks with tender hands. “Or do you want me to do it?”
Before Yoonchae can say anything else, Megan surges forward and their lips meet like waves to the shore. Forever as a promise. Megan is sweet and soft, and Yoonchae feels her heart rate rise above the amount considered healthy. Building up, crashing and falling.
They break off after a second, and Yoonchae’s face is utterly flushed. She can feel her skin burn hot as Megan stares at her like she was worth more than those fifteen dollars.
“Pay me back later,” Megan mutters as she kisses Yoonchae again. Syrupy and candied.
Maybe the potion did work. There's no refunds available anyway.