Work Text:
-The Accidental Launch-
The air in the IVE dorm was thick with the scent of garlic and soy sauce, a far more appetizing aroma than the usual faint trace of various perfumes and room spray. Liz, with her hair tied back in a messy bun, was the picture of concentration as she meticulously chopped green onions on a cutting board.
"Alright, DIVE’s, are we ready to make some legendary tteokbokki?" Liz announced to her phone, propped up precariously on a stack of books. Her signature warm smile was in full force.
Beside her, Rei, looking effortlessly cool even in a oversized hoodie, stirred the bubbling mixture of gochujang and water in a pot "Legendary might be a strong word, Liz-ah. I'm just hoping we don't set off the smoke alarm this time"
A flood of comments scrolled rapidly across the screen.
unnie you look so pretty!!
REI IS COOKING?! WORLD IS ENDING
lol remember the pancake incident
where are the other members?? ㅠㅠ
Liz laughed, reading a few comments aloud "The others are around here somewhere! Gaeul-unnie is probably napping, and I think Leeseo is on a call with her mom" She conveniently left out the whereabouts of Yujin and Wonyoung. In her mind, they were just being quiet, perhaps reading or listening to music in the living room. It wasn't unusual for the two to find their own bubble of peace in the chaos of their shared life.
"Okay, so the next step is to add the rice cakes" Liz instructed, pointing her chopsticks at the camera like a teacher's pointer "Rei-ah, can you grab them from the fridge?"
Rei nodded, turning away from the counter. As she moved, her hip bumped the edge of the table where the phone was sitting. It wobbled precariously.
"Whoa!" Liz lunged, catching the phone before it could tumble to the floor. "Careful!"
"I got it, I got it" Rei said, taking the phone from her "Let's just adjust the angle a bit so they can see the stove better"
She fiddled with the phone, turning it slightly to the left to get a better shot of the pot. What neither of them noticed was that in their effort to frame their cooking station perfectly, the camera's wide-angle lens had now captured a significant portion of the living room just beyond the kitchen nook.
In the live stream chat, a few viewers noticed immediately.
wait is that the living room?
omg i think i see wonyoung on the couch
And indeed, there she was. Jang Wonyoung, looking ethereal even in a simple grey sweatsuit, was curled up on the far end of the long sofa. A thick book was open in her lap, her long fingers gently resting on the page. She was the very picture of serene concentration, completely oblivious to the fact that thousands of eyes were now watching her.
The comments started to pick up speed.
ITS WONYOUNG!!!
she looks so pretty omg
is she reading?? our intellectual queen
Liz and Rei were still engrossed in their culinary task "Okay, now we add the fish cakes" Liz said, dumping them into the pot "This is where the magic happens"
Back on the couch, Wonyoung turned a page. A moment later, a familiar figure walked into the frame. An Yujin, her hair slightly tousled, moved with an easy grace as she approached the sofa. She didn't say anything to the camera, of course. To the live audience, she was just Yujin, their capable leader, walking into the room.
She sat down on the sofa, much closer to Wonyoung than was strictly necessary for platonic comfort. Wonyoung didn't startle; she simply glanced up, a small, private smile already forming on her lips as if she'd been expecting her.
Yujin leaned in, her voice a low murmur that the phone's microphone couldn't possibly pick up. Whatever she said, it was the right thing. Wonyoung's smile bloomed into a full, radiant laugh. She let her book fall closed, dropping it onto the cushion beside her without a second glance. Her eyes, full of a light that was reserved solely for the girl in front of her, met Yujin's gaze.
The chat was no longer about tteokbokki.
HOLD ON
did yujin just say something??
wonyoung's laugh omg my heart
the way she looks at her...
Then, Yujin's hand moved with a playful precision. She hooked her fingers around Wonyoung's ankle and gave a gentle tug. Wonyoung, caught off guard, let out a surprised squeak as she slid down the length of the sofa cushion, ending up lying horizontally with her head propped up by a pillow. Yujin shifted, moving to hover over her, her arms on either side of Wonyoung's head, caging her in.
They were in their own world. The bubble of their secret relationship was so strong, so all-consuming, that they had completely forgotten the rest of the world existed.
The live stream chat exploded. It was a digital wildfire of disbelief, shipping, and sheer chaos.
WHAT IS HAPPENING???
YUJIN IS ON TOP OF WONYOUNG
JESUS CHRIST
ARE THEY... ARE THEY...
NO WAY NO WAY NO WAY
LIZ AND REI CAN’T SEE THIS???`
But Liz and Rei were debating the perfect amount of cheese to add.
"It needs more" Liz insisted
"It's tteokbokki, not fondue, Liz-ah" Rei retorted
On the screen, Yujin leaned down. It wasn't a frantic, passionate kiss. It was soft, casual, and devastatingly intimate. A gentle, lingering press of her lips against Wonyoung's. It was a kiss that spoke of a thousand quiet moments just like this one.
Wonyoung's response was immediate. Her arms, which had been limp at her sides, came up to wrap around Yujin's neck, her fingers tangling in her hair as she deepened the kiss, pulling her closer.
And in the kitchen, two members of IVE were still completely, blissfully unaware that they had just broadcast their group's most protected secret to hundreds of thousands of people.
The kiss lingered, a soft and unhurried that spoke of comfortable familiarity and deep affection. To the thousands of viewers watching the live stream, it was like watching a scene from a movie they weren't supposed to see. The chat had devolved into a symphony of keyboard smashing, all-caps screaming, and a flurry of clipped screenshots being shared across every social media platform at lightning speed.
When they finally parted, Yujin rested her forehead against Wonyoung's, a contented sigh escaping her lips. Wonyoung's eyes fluttered open, and the camera caught the devastatingly satisfied smile that graced her features. It was a look of pure happiness. In a swift, playful move, she tightened her arms around Yujin's neck, pulling her down for one more quick, sweet peck.
Yujin chuckled, the sound too quiet for the stream's audio but the visual of her smiling against Wonyoung's lips was crystal clear. Wonyoung then leaned up, her lips brushing against the shell of Yujin's ear as she whispered something. Whatever she said, it made Yujin nod dutifully, her expression softening with fondness. With a final, gentle squeeze of Wonyoung's shoulder, Yujin pushed herself up, gracefully rising to her feet before extending a hand to help Wonyoung up from the sofa.
Once standing, Wonyoung grabbed her forgotten book and, with one last shared smile, the two of them walked away, disappearing from the camera's view and leaving behind a living room that suddenly felt empty and a live chat that was in complete and utter meltdown.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Liz had declared the cheese debate officially over.
"Fine, fine, a little more cheese" she conceded, sprinkling a generous handful over the bubbling tteokbokki "But only because you threatened to tell Leeseo I broke her favorite mug"
"I would never" Rei gasped in mock offense, though her grin betrayed her "Okay, DIVEs, it's looking good! Let's do one final camera check before we plate it up"
Rei reached for the phone, completely oblivious to the digital inferno raging in the comments section. She turned the device, angling it down to give a perfect top-down view of the pot, its contents now gloriously melted and steaming. In doing so, she completely cut the living room out of the frame.
"Perfect!" Liz declared, beaming "Now, let's get this plated. I'm starving"
They continued their live, completely missing the chaos they had just unleashed upon the world. They answered questions about their upcoming comeback, talked about their favorite snacks, and happily tasted their finished creation, all while their managers' phones were likely melting from the sheer volume of panicked calls from the company.
The live stream ended with Liz and Rei waving enthusiastically at the camera, their stomachs full of tteokbokki and their hearts full of the warmth from their fans' comments. They had successfully cooked a meal without burning the dorm down—a victory in their book.
"That was fun" Liz said, stretching her arms over her head as she started to clean up the counter. "We should do that again sometime"
"Maybe next time we try baking" Rei suggested, already scrolling through her phone to look at the final comments on the now-ended live. "The DIVEs seemed to like it."
That's when the front door of the dorm flew open with such force it slammed against the wall. Their manager, Manager-nim, stood in the doorway, his face a shade of pale that Liz had only ever seen once before, when Leeseo had accidentally locked them all on the roof during a practice break.
"Manager-nim? What's wrong?" Liz asked, her smile faltering at his panicked expression.
He didn't waste a second on pleasantries "The live. You need to take it down. Now."
Rei looked up from her phone, confused "The live? It just ended. What's going on? Was the food bad?"
"The food? The food is the least of our problems!" he practically shouted, running a hand through his already disheveled hair. "Just... check the comments. Check Twitter. Check everywhere! Just get the VOD down from the platform!"
His frantic energy was infectious. A knot of dread began to form in Liz's stomach. She and Rei exchanged a worried glance before their eyes shot back to their phones. Rei navigated back to the live video's page and scrolled down to the comment section.
The first few comments seemed normal enough, but as she scrolled further, the tone shifted dramatically.
um... did anyone else see what happened at the 15:42 mark??
I'M SCREAMING. YUJIN AND WONYOUNG. KISSING.
ANNYEONGZ IS REAL???? I'M LOSING MY MIND
is this a prank?? a new concept???
Liz peered over Rei's shoulder, her brow furrowed "Kissing? What are they talking about?"
"I don't know" Rei whispered, her fingers trembling slightly as she typed the timestamp into the video player. The live stream replay started, showing them happily cooking. They fast-forwarded, watching their past selves joke and stir the pot.
Then, the camera angle shifted. The living room came into view.
They watched, frozen, as Yujin walked into the frame. They saw the intimate smile Wonyoung reserved only for her. They saw the playful tug, the way Yujin hovered over her. And then, they saw it. The kiss. Clear as day, soft and real, completely unscripted. They saw Wonyoung's satisfied smile, the quick peck, the whispered secret.
"Oh my god" Liz breathed out, the color draining from her face.
Rei was speechless, her eyes wide with horror. They had done this. Their clumsy camera adjustment had just exposed their group's most protected secret to the entire world.
"Delete it" Rei said, her voice shaking "Delete the VOD. Now"
Their manager was already on the phone with the company, but Liz's fingers fumbled with the screen, her heart pounding against her ribs. She found the option to delete the video and pressed it without a second thought. A confirmation box popped up. 'Are you sure' She hit 'Yes'. The video, with its incriminating evidence, vanished from their official Youtube channel.
For a moment, there was a sliver of hope. Maybe they had contained it.
But Manager-nim ended his call, his expression grim. "It's too late" he said, his voice heavy with defeat. "It's already everywhere"
He turned his phone around to show them. On Twitter, the hashtag #AnnyeongzIsReal was the number one trend worldwide. On TikTok, edits of the kiss were already going viral, set to romantic music and slow-motion replays. On YouTube, the clip had been uploaded dozens of times, with titles like "IVE Yujin & Wonyoung KISSING During Live (NOT CLICKBAIT)" and "The Moment Annyeongz Shippers Won" The comment sections were a mix of shocked fans, ecstatic shippers, and concerned DIVEs, all watching the 15-second clip on a loop.
They hadn't just soft-launched Annyeongz. They had cannonballed them into the deep end of the public eye, and there was no way to pull them back out.
As the initial shockwave of the kiss clip began to settle into the internet's permanent memory, a strange phenomenon started to occur. Instead of widespread outrage or accusations of deceit, the narrative began to shift, guided by the very fans who had been shipping them for years.
It started on forums and Twitter threads "Wait a minute..." one user posted, attaching a link to an old video "Did we... did we forget this?"
The link led to a screen recording from a paid fan call event. In the clip, a fan was speaking with a bright-eyed Wonyoung. After the usual pleasantries, the fan had asked, a little shyly, "Wonyoung-ah, does Yujin-unnie has a girl friend?"
Wonyoung's signature smile widened as she leaned closer to the camera, her voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper as if sharing a precious secret. "No" she giggled "I'm the girlfriend" The fan on the other end had burst into shocked laughter, and Wonyoung joined in, waving it off as a joke, but the happy, confident look in her eyes remained.
Then, another clip resurfaced. This one was also from a fan call, this time with Yujin. The fan on the line, clearly a dedicated shipper, had boldly declared "Unnie, Wonyoung-unnie said she is your girlfiend!, You're her girlfriend, right?"
Yujin hadn't missed a beat. She looked at the camera with a soft, knowing smile and simply nodded. "Ne," she agreed, her voice gentle but firm. "I should be." The fan had squealed in delight, and Yujin had chuckled, treating the statement not as a wild accusation, but as a simple confirmation of a known fact.
These videos, once considered cute, isolated incidents from the private world of fan calls, were now being re-contextualized. They weren't just fan service; they were revelations.
The public discourse took a fascinating turn. The narrative wasn't "IVE's Yujin and Wonyoung were caught in a secret relationship" It became, "Yujin and Wonyoung told us they were dating, and we didn't believe them"
Even the general public, who might not have followed IVE closely, found the story charming. Major news outlets ran segments not on the "scandal" but on the "heartwarming" tale of two idols who had been openly declaring their affection for years, only to be finally proven right.
A popular entertainment news show had a panel discussion about it. "This is a unique case" one critic noted "There's no sense of betrayal here because they weren't hiding it maliciously. They were hiding it professionally, but personally? They've been telling us the truth all along in their own language. It's almost like a slow-burn romance where the audience was the main character, slowly piecing together the clues."
The phrase "Lucky Vicky had already won her puppy after all" began to trend right alongside #AnnyeongzIsReal. It was a nod to their iconic "123 IVE" series, where their natural, close chemistry was always on full display. Fans felt a sense of collective victory. They weren't just passive observers; they were the invested audience who had seen the signs, supported the ship, and were now seeing their beliefs validated in the most spectacular way.
There was no one to complain to, no sense of being lied to. How could you be mad when the evidence had been there all along, delivered with a smile and a playful whisper during intimate fan calls? Yujin and Wonyoung hadn't been caught in a lie; they had just been waiting for the world to catch up to their truth. And in the end, Lucky Vicky had won, and so had everyone who had been rooting for them.
-Omake-
While the internet was in a state of controlled chaos and their manager was likely fielding a 3 AM emergency call from the Starship CEO, the two people at the center of the storm were surprisingly calm.
In their shared room, Yujin and Wonyoung were curled up together on Yujin's bed, the soft glow of Wonyoung's phone illuminating their faces. They were scrolling through Twitter, reading the threads and watching the compilations of their old fan calls with a sense of detached amusement.
Wonyoung let out a soft giggle, her head resting on Yujin's shoulder "Look at this one. 'Annyeongz Shippers: We've Been Winning Since 2021.' They're so dramatic."
Yujin smiled, pressing a kiss to the top of Wonyoung's head. "Dramatic, but not wrong. My favorite are the ones analyzing our 'eye contact' from three years ago like it's a slow burn romance film."
"They're calling us 'masterminds of slow-burn romance'" Wonyoung read aloud, her voice full of laughter "As if we weren't just trying to get through the day without you tripping over your own feet"
"Hey!" Yujin protested playfully, tightening her arm around Wonyoung's waist "I'm graceful"
"You're a giant, clumsy puppy" Wonyoung teased, turning her head to look up at her. The fondness in her eyes was unmistakable, even in the dim light "But you're my puppy"
They fell into a comfortable silence, the phone's screen eventually going dark, plunging the room into a quiet stillness. The weight of what had happened—the trending hashtags, the news articles, the certain, inevitable change to their lives settled in the air between them. But it wasn't a heavy weight. It felt... light.
Yujin broke the silence, her voice a low murmur in the dark "We told them"
Wonyoung hummed in question, nuzzling closer.
"We told them" Yujin repeated, a small, knowing smile playing on her lips. "During the fan calls. I said it. You said it. We literally told them"
Wonyoung pulled back just enough to see Yujin's face, her own expression mirroring the same dawning realization and amusement. "But they didn't believe us"
"Nope" Yujin said, popping the 'p' with satisfaction. "They just thought it was fan service. A cute little joke for the people who paid for a call"
A quiet laugh escaped Wonyoung's lips, a sound full of irony and pure delight. "All that time we were worrying about being too obvious, and our biggest secret was hiding in plain sight. They just... didn't believe it was real"
Yujin leaned in, her forehead resting against Wonyoung's "Well" she whispered, her voice filled with a warmth that had nothing to do with the blankets around them. "They believe us now"
And in the quiet of their room, away from the noise and the speculation, that was all that mattered.