Chapter Text
“Look, all I’m saying is that you should ask her out. I mean NO ONE texts that much unless they’re like into each othe-“
“Soominnie, you’re literally texting Hyerin as we speak.”
“EXCUUUUSE ME MISS SOON-TO-BE-BIN-YEONJI.”
“YOU JUST WISH YOU HAD THE BALLS TO…”
So Yubin’s plan of asking her coworkers for advice was going exactly as she had planned. In retrospect, giving any sort of ammunition to the two biggest yappers at her LIBRARY JOB was going to be a bad idea.
“Guys we are being so loud, we need to keep it down before someone talks to us again,” Yubin said.
“Relax unnie, we work here anyway. If someone complains we’ll just kick them out!” Soomin exclaimed while striking a punching pose.
“Yeah, and I don’t know what you’re talking about ‘we,’ like sure, Soomin-unnie’s being obnoxious as usual but you’re not giving us enough details so we need to fill in the gaps,” said Yeonji.
Yubin’s eyes rolled just in time to miss Soomin flip Yeonji off. But Yeonji was right, she had been pretty sparse on the details. It was probably because she’d updated them separately over text as her situation developed, so she didn’t want to waste breath saying the same things in detail to people who knew most of it.
“I don’t know, like you know I love a yap session as much as the next person but it feels weird recounting all of this to you guys when you know it anyway,” sighed Yubin.
“Oh perfect we can just have someone new so that you can tell them from the start and we can really get into it!” Soomin said, beaming.
“You’re totally right!! Ok I’ll call Xinyu-unnie… Soom get Yooyeon-unnie here!” Yeonji said excitedly.
“Wait. No. This is not what I-“
“You asked us for advice! We’re just getting the perfect team together so that what you get is of the best quality. Ooh! I’ll call Nakyoung-unnie too,” Soomin said, not taking her eyes off her phone.
Yubin slumped in her chair. The initial idea to talk to these two about her love life was looking worse with each passing second.
“Unnie, didn’t you say you met through a friend anyway? Can you FaceTime her? Maybe she can give us more information too,” said Yeonji.
“At 11:17 PM??”
“You work the closing shift of the library that closes at 2. No college student is sleeping right now,” said Soomin matter of factly.
“Every shift you complain about having to be quiet when you go back home so you don’t wake up Chaewon-unnie.”
“OH MY GOOOD YEONJI LET ME LIVE MY LIFE.”
“‘LeT mE LiVe mY LiFe,’ I have no idea how Hyerin-unnie handles you.”
“YOU WISH YOU COULD HANDLE ME, IM MORE TH...“
Yubin ended up tuning her coworkers out. The calls and texts had already been sent, and she would have felt even worse sending her friends home after they’d been called to hear her dilemma. The cat was already out of the bag and it did her no good to try to wrestle it back inside. She pulled out her phone and tapped her favorited contact.
Bong Yubin: what’s good g@ng
G-Woo: oh my god
what now
Bong Yubin: WHAY DO YOH MEAN WHAT NOW
G-Woo: you dont start convos like that ubless you need somthung or like you want to talk
you better just want to ft
Bong Yubin: wanna ft
HOW
G-Woo: nailed it
ne way yeah i can whenever
Bong Yubin: fantassssssstic im lowk waiting on some others
G-Woo: o ya ur working right
are we waiting till after shift caus thats too late lowk
Bong Yubin: no im gonna talk at work i just need some other peeps to come so they can hear too
G-Woo: fire
im gna shower then lmk when ready
Yubin reacted with a thumbs up and put her phone down. In the time that text conversation took, Soomin and Yeonji seemed to have finished their respective recruitments.
“Ok so Yooyeon-unnie and Naky-unnie are on their way from their house, Nakyoung-unnie said ETA is 6-7 minutes,” Soomin said.
“AYYYY 6-7 GOTTEM! Soomin text them 'gottem.' Text them that. Say it’s from me.”
“Yeonji, I’m gonna make Jaden fire you if you make another one of those jokes in my presence by the way,” Yubin said with a deadpan expression.
“Yeah yeah, anyway Xinyu-unnie is walking over, and she asked if Nien-unnie could come too, so I said yes.”
“I love how you didn’t even ask me.”
“This is like a party anyway, so like, let’s just get people here! Besides, it’s one more taken-person to help you get taken too!” Yeonji said.
“Unless you’re the taker… you’re gonna be the one asking her out right? That makes you the taker. Who even came up with that anyway, doesn’t it remind you of like, being taken in your sleep? That was one of my biggest fears as a kid. Actually no, I’m still afraid of it. Yubin-unnie you have your own room right? How do you protect yourself from being taken? THAT’S WHY WE NEED YOU TO ASK HER OUT! It’s a lot harder to be taken in your sleep when someone’s in bed with you. Amirite? Amirite?” Soomin somehow said in one breath.
The prospect of being surrounded by her other, more calm and sensible friends suddenly became less of something to begrudgingly accept, and more of a salvation.
“Hihihi~” Jiwoo chirped, waving at the camera.
“Long ass shower, everyone got here like 10 minutes ago,” Yubin moaned.
Jiwoo’s hand and face fell at the same time. “Whatever, you’re the one calling at this ungodly hour.”
“You didn’t even shower before I had texted you, we all knew you were going to be awake anyway.”
“Fantastic banter, many notes, but can we get on with it? The library closes in like 2 hours!” Soomin complained.
“We have two hours Soomin-ah, Yubin’s not like you, so she should get through the whole story before that happens,” Yooyeon said calmly. “Even so, I would like to get started. All Soomin texted me was ‘we (yubin esp) need you asap,’ followed by, ‘not an actual emergency,’ and ‘come fast tho.’”
“Dang, I wish I got that much, all I got was ‘show up for free food,’” Nakyoung sighed.
“Soomin, they literally live together, why did you text them separately?” Yeonji asked, sounding incredulous.
“Why does your face separately? BOOM ROASTED.”
“Guys, stop fighting! I want to know about this mystery girl who has you all flustered. Look! You’re already smiling thinking about her!” Xinyu squealed. Nien shook her head as she chuckled beside her.
Yubin didn’t realize the corners of her mouth had turned up. She looked at the screen and saw Jiwoo nod her assent to start.
“Alright, fine. So here’s basically how I met Jiyeon.”