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Hallim is beautiful this time of year; Mira almost always forgets this until Rumi drags her back to spend a week or two out in her childhood home. Mira thinks it’s probably a good thing Rumi doesn’t bring her out here as often as she could, because Mira doesn’t think she’d ever actually leave. She doesn’t even want to leave now. She’d stay in Celine’s house as long as Celine let her, which would likely be forever. Celine has directly told her once or twice that Mira is always more than welcome to show up unannounced and to stay for however long she’d like. Mira never would show up without at least asking beforehand, but the sentiment has always been very sweet.
Mira sort of thought she would maybe be jealous. Rumi has never brought any of her partners back home—that’s not exactly saying much, given how she doesn’t date that frequently to begin with—let alone showed them around all the spots Mira was introduced to first. She’s never had much of a reason to worry or get jealous in the first place. She wasn’t that worried about it, but she’s still just a little surprised that she hasn’t felt even the slightest twinge of it. Not even close.
She guesses that’s because Zoey is...Zoey.
Mira doesn’t know what she expected. Not Zoey to be Zoey. Which is insane and stupid and doesn’t make sense, but out of all of the partners Rumi has had in the past, none of them have fully gotten the dynamic they have. Which is fine. Mira has never put a name to it or has ever cared to, and Rumi’s hardly seemed that bothered by it just existing as a sort of in-the-air concept that both of them understand but haven’t called anything. Why would it matter? They know what they are to each other and they know what they have. They don’t need to call it anything because no one else has ever needed to know.
Even someone like Celine hasn’t really asked. Mira was the most worried about Celine, really. Mostly because she was kind of an asshole to Rumi for the longest time when they met as kids, and so the idea of explaining their dynamic going from ‘I nailed your daughter in the face with a dodgeball so hard I shattered her nose on impact’ to ‘I literally cannot live without her’ was quite frankly something out of a horror movie. Celine did take it in stride, though; she asked a few follow-up questions, not because she was doubtful or hostile, just because she wanted to actually understand and know more about what was going on between them.
Mira remembers that she tried her absolute best to answer all of Celine’s questions, but she truthfully didn’t know how to respond to half of them. The best she could manage was that she was absolutely, without a doubt in her mind, not romantically or sexually interested in Rumi in any capacity. She’s never been like that with anyone. She’s also never been the way she is with Rumi with anyone prior to her. She hadn’t really realised that was an option. Neither did Rumi, to be fair, which made the whole thing a little less formidable and a lot less embarrassing.
Regardless. They’ve never called it anything and Mira has never wanted to, and it’s also not something they’ve had to explain very often. Mira doesn’t really like it, but it’s easier to say Rumi is her girlfriend than to try and explain what she actually is. She usually settles for ‘best friend’, because that’s easy enough to understand, but not everyone believes her.
There was a part of her that was worried that Zoey was going to be one of them. Mira has never been very good at not planning for the future and the dozens of unlikely events that may or may not happen, and she’s especially not good at not doing that when Rumi is involved. She already had written down about a hundred plans on where to take her if they broke up, how to help her get over Zoey the best, where to reroute their walks and runs so they’d never so much as interact with a park ever again.
And then Zoey turned out to be completely normal. Better than normal, really. She’s incredibly sweet, charming, charismatic, genuine, sincere, and kind. After their first date, Rumi gave Mira’s number to Zoey after Zoey asked, and then she—Zoey directly texted her and asked if Mira wanted to be on the next one. Mira very carefully tried to navigate that conversation, completely convinced Rumi’s almost-girlfriend was already trying to cheat on her, and was only met with Zoey practically laughing in her face and telling her that that wasn’t even remotely what she was getting at. Zoey just wanted to know if Mira wanted to join the two of them on their next date. Since she was a huge part of Rumi’s life.
Mira could barely understand what she was being asked. She showed Rumi to have her read the texts out loud, just to see if she was missing anything, but no. Zoey was being serious, too. When Mira pushed back and insisted she didn’t have to offer that, that she wasn’t really involved in Rumi’s romantic life at all, Zoey just pushed right back and insisted that the offer was open, since, once again, Mira was a huge part of Rumi’s whole life whether or not she’s completely involved in all elements of it in a certain way. Then Zoey had added that it would be nice to get to know her, too. Which is why she asked in the first place. Which...makes sense, but Mira still couldn’t quite get her head around it.
Rumi said yes for both of them. Mira went along willingly, albeit sort of nervously. And then, before they could get past greetings, Zoey launched into a spiel about how her brother has a sort of similar dynamic with his four ‘best friends’, that Zoey has at least some base knowledge, and that she’s totally and completely cool about everything...if they were also cool about said arrangement.
Clearly, Mira thinks, they were.
It’s been half a year now since Rumi and Zoey officially got together. Mira has found herself orbiting Zoey more and more; it’s hard not to. She’s genuinely so sweet, she’s always been really good to Rumi, and she’s always been really good to Mira, too. She makes it so impossible not to like her. And it’s—it’s not like Mira was ever trying not to like her, or anything like that. She was pretty much in full support of Rumi going for her after Zoey offered her jacket without prompting in the middle of the rain. She just hadn’t expected to...
Like her.
It’s not the same as Rumi. That’s something entirely different and separate, even though it might be technically close. Mira wouldn’t say it’s the same. Her dynamic with Rumi is different from her dynamic with Zoey, but it all falls in the same vein, sort of. Like, if someone asked if she was dating Zoey in the same way people have asked her if she was dating Rumi, Mira would probably say yes. And that’s fucking weird to her, because she had only really gotten used to her arrangement with Rumi a few years back, had only really started to accept it once she hit her twenties, and now it’s happening again? A second time? With someone she’s known for infinitely less time?
Rumi hasn’t made fun of her for it, if only because Mira has genuinely been sort of distressed at the whole thing, but she’s definitely wanted to. She’s not even helpful, either. All Rumi ever does is dreamily say something stupid, like, ‘yeah, she’s great, huh?’ with stars in her eyes, and that hardly helps the problem. It’s not even really a problem. They’ve talked about it, Mira and Rumi, and Rumi has promised that Mira can do genuinely whatever she wants. She doesn’t care and she’s not bothered by it.
Mira’s a little bothered by it.
Admittedly, it’s hard to be bothered when it’s Zoey. She’s made everything very easy even if she’s not in the loop about all that’s been happening. Mira is sure she at least has to have a vague idea of what’s going on; it’s not like she’s been very subtle about it, and Zoey is also very perceptive when it comes to both of them. Mira just...doesn’t know how to address that or bring it up, or if she even should.
With Rumi, they sort of just fell into it. There was never a conversation until years later when Rumi casually asked what they were and if they had to call it something, because obviously ‘what they were’ didn’t fit neatly into anything they knew. Mira didn’t have an answer for her then, and that was sort of the extent of it. They had always just...been like that. There was never a time where they needed to work it out, there were no dramatic conversations. They just simply were.
Mira knows she’s psyching herself out. There’s no good reason for her to be as nervous as she is, especially when Zoey has proven time and time again that she’s beyond trustworthy. She knows Zoey wouldn’t freak out at her for just bringing it up as a concept, and she knows Zoey still wouldn’t freak out at her if she offered it as more of a concrete, ‘is this what we are’ sort of deal. Mira just really does not want to fucking do that literally at all, so she’s been avoiding the conversation.
She’s pretty sure Rumi brought them here so she could have said conversation. Unfortunately for Rumi, Mira is the most stubborn person she’s ever met, including Rumi herself, and she’s not going to cave just because Rumi is trying to get her to. If Rumi wants it to happen so badly, she can have the stupid conversation herself. Mira absolutely won’t.
She plans on enjoying Hallim and Hyeopjae beach, and that’s it. She doesn’t plan on spending the rest of her vacation doing anything she doesn’t want to do. Rumi can hold her at gunpoint for all she cares. There’s just no way in hell Mira is going to deal with that right now.
Rumi is going to make Mira talk to Zoey even if it kills her.
She’s, like, pretty sure Mira has probably caught onto the fact that Rumi brought them back to Hallim with the specific intent of having them talk, which—okay, maybe it’s a little cheesy, but she loves where she grew up. She loves being here and she knows Mira loves it too, and she also knows that Zoey will love it, too. What better place for them to talk than here? They could do it on the beach, or in Rumi’s childhood house, or in the garden, or out in town. Literally anywhere. They could talk literally anywhere at any point in time, except Mira is avoiding it like the plague, and Rumi is just not going to stand for it, quite frankly.
She knows that she was freaking out about Zoey nearly half a year ago—she can barely believe it’s only been half a year, it feels like she’s known Zoey her whole life with how in love with her she is—but this is different. Mira has known Zoey for all six of those months, she’s gotten close to Zoey during all six of those months. What does she have to worry about? Rumi knows that she’s not actively making the choice to freak herself out about any of it, but still. She genuinely has less to worry about than Rumi did back with Zoey giving her her jacket unprompted, which is saying something.
Rumi is doing her best to strike a careful balance between not pushing too much while also pushing just enough to get them somewhere. She’s had private talks with both of them over this, though she hasn’t outright told Zoey what Mira’s problem is. ‘Problem’ is a harsh word for it, but Rumi isn’t sure how else to describe it. She’s told Zoey enough without revealing too much. She wants Mira to at least be in control of that. She also just knows that Mira literally won’t do anything she doesn’t want to do unless she’s forced into it, and she knows this would be good for her, even if Mira adamantly disagrees.
It doesn’t even have to be a big deal! Rumi is, like, ninety-nine percent sure that Mira could outright go ‘hey I think we have a close dynamic to the one I have with Rumi, thoughts?’ and Zoey would probably just go ‘yeah I know I feel the same’ and that’d be that. Rumi knows Zoey adores Mira. She’s heard the way Zoey talks about her, especially when she thinks neither of them are listening. It’s not like Rumi has exactly meant to eavesdrop on Zoey’s calls to Jinu, but she talks pretty loudly sometimes, and—and basically, the point is, Rumi has heard directly how much Zoey loves and adores and cherishes Mira. And she’s also maybe heard Zoey begging Jinu for help on how to bring this literal exact conversation up without doing something wrong.
So, yeah. Rumi is crazy confident in the fact that everything would be completely fine if Mira could just buck up for twenty seconds to have a talk. She guesses Zoey could also probably bring it up first, but Zoey at least has never had direct experience with something like this before.
Rumi sort of feels ridiculous with how she’s been trying to stage a conversation without actually staging a conversation. She’s mostly just been disappearing in the middle of all three of them going out somewhere and she’ll pop back up ten minutes later only to find out that Zoey and Mira haven’t said a word to each other. Or that Zoey got distracted and started rambling about something, and then Rumi spends the next half hour kicking herself for missing that. It’s such a double-edged sword and it sucks, because she loves Zoey and she loves Mira and she wants nothing more than to spend her entire life with both of them, including all the little ten minute intervals she’s thrown away, but god, it’s for their own good, she swears it is.
It’s not even like she’s asking either one of them to have some big, stupid confession! That’s now how it went for her and Mira! Their talk was actually incredibly easy and happened within all of ten minutes, if even that. Maybe there would be more to work out, but they could figure all of that out after they laid down the groundwork. Both of them are just stubborn and refuse to be the first to bridge the gap.
‘Gap’, Rumi thinks, sort of incredulously. It’s more like they’re two steps away from each other but they have their eyes shut and their ears plugged and they’re both screaming as loudly as they can so they don’t have to listen to her telling them they’re both being kind of pathetic about all of this.
She will get them to talk. She swears to god she will. They can only avoid her and each other for so long before it becomes genuinely unreal, and she’s going to either break them before then, or force them to get to that point. Regardless, they will in fact get here, and Rumi is going to gloat about it for the next fifteen years when it’s the easiest conversation either of them have ever had in their lives. She can’t wait to rub it in. By the time she finally manages to get them to talk to each other, she’s sure she’ll be more prideful about it. She’ll probably deserve to gloat more than anything, honestly.
For now, though, Rumi will keep parading them around through her home until they manage to get their shit together. She’ll love every second of it, because she loves every second she spends with both of them. And Rumi is very, very sure she’ll love every second spent with both of them way more when they finally figure out how to talk to each other.
Zoey has never been more afraid in her entire life.
She kinda feels like she’s being hunted for sport, actually. She’s still not totally sure how Rumi publicly scoping her out while she played tennis with Jinu led her to spending a few weeks in Rumi’s childhood town, which—that’s beautiful! Hallim is a gorgeous, beautiful, stunning place, and Zoey is pretty sure she’s fallen in love with the whole town already, and she really only loves it more and more the longer she stays and the more places Rumi brings her to. It’s so funny how she can see little bits and pieces of Rumi and Mira everywhere she looks. She knows Rumi grew up here, but Mira has been here often enough that she’s pretty much grown up here, too.
And maybe that’s sort of part of the problem. She knows Rumi brought her here just to fuck with her, which is totally fine, given how Zoey is deeply, deeply in love with her and all that. She can take a little being fucked with when it comes to Ryu Rumi. Honestly, she could totally take a lot more than she’s getting right now, but she knows Rumi would never do that to her. It’s still crazy fucked up that Rumi is doing it in the first place, even if Zoey can—theoretically—acknowledge the fact that maybe she’s being just, like, a little dramatic.
But it’s not her fault! It’s not! How the hell else is she meant to react to being brought on a surprise trip to her beautiful girlfriend’s hometown when said beautiful girlfriend has ulterior motives? And how else is she supposed to react when her beautiful girlfriend’s ulterior motives consist of said beautiful girlfriend trying to get her to have a...talk. With Mira. Who is effectively bonded with Rumi at a cosmic level and plans on spending the rest of her life together. Which is cool! Totally, super cool, Zoey’s pretty familiar with the idea after Jinu sat her down and explained to her that no, he was not dating all four of his college best friends, but it was actually more embarrassing—to him—than that. Zoey took that in stride pretty well.
She’s also taking this in stride! Mostly! It’s just that—this kind of involves her now. Not, not in the sense that she’s anywhere within Rumi and Mira’s relationship, oh no. What they’ve got going on is none of her business and it’s not like she’s trying to get involved with them like that, she, she would never do that. Which is maybe part of the reason why she feels so guilty about loving Mira in a way that feels like she’s just rebranded her whole thing with Rumi, even if she knows that’s not true at all and it’s actually different, but the thought is still there and she’s still nervous about the whole thing, and...
Well. She just...doesn’t know where to go from here. Does she go anywhere? Clearly Rumi wants her to, but her and Mira seem to be on the same wavelength of avoiding it. Which, thank god for Mira, like actually. Zoey loves her so bad, to death, and she’s genuinely thrilled that Mira has the exact same mindset on this whole thing as she does. She’s a little less enthused that Rumi has taken the complete opposite stance and is doing everything within her power to force them to have a talk about it.
Zoey doesn’t even see why they need to! Rumi literally told her that Mira and her barely talked about it! They had a five minute conversation where they basically went ‘is this a secret third thing?’ and then the other person went ‘yeah probably’ and then they moved on! So why—why does she have to have a talk about it? It’s not fair literally at all. They can just, they can spend the rest of their lives dancing around it and it’ll be totally fine! They’ve been doing it for six months!
And what’s Zoey even meant to say? ‘Oh, yeah, I like it when I hold your hand and when I kiss you on the cheek and I want to spend a lot of time with you and I really love and adore you and you mean so much to me but I don’t want to date you I don’t see you like that at all and also I’d kinda like it if we could be closer just generally in every capacity including physical like there is nothing I wouldn’t do to kiss you on the cheek again I kinda really liked that’? Like a freak? She thinks not!
Rumi isn’t sneaky about how hard she’s been trying to get them to talk to each other. Zoey doesn’t think she’s been sneaky with how hard she’s been avoiding it. And Mira is the worst out of the three of them by, like, a long shot. Rumi will poof out of existence at random, and Mira will suddenly rush out something about her favourite kinds of fabric, and they’re literally in the middle of ordering food, or something. Or Mira will straight up migrate to a different side of whatever store they happen to be in. On the off-chance Mira doesn’t instantly scatter, Zoey sometimes does the same exact thing, or she’ll pick something out of her mind to talk about, and then she’ll talk a lot, really quickly, so Rumi can’t claim that they weren’t talking, ‘cause they technically were.
Just maybe not about that thing she wants them to talk about. That’s just not Zoey’s problem.
Well. It is. It is in fact her problem, and that is in fact part of the problem. Which sucks like crazy, and she’s really not happy about it, but god, what is she supposed to do other than continue what she’s been doing this whole time? She’s pretty much made a psychic promise to Mira of ‘if you don’t talk about it, I won’t!’ that Mira has thankfully been honouring.
Zoey is just...nervous, maybe, because Rumi is really starting to amp things up. Like, she’s been leaving them alone in the house for extended stretches of time to go out for lunch with Celine. Which—that’s also another thing Zoey didn’t expect! She had no idea she was going to meet Rumi’s mom! Neither of them told her about that! God, do they just like to fuck with her specifically, or something? The answer is obviously yes and she obviously lets them and is very cool with it, but still. Literally any warning at all would have been better than what she got, but whatever, she can take it.
She cannot take Rumi leaving her in that house with Mira, though. Rumi has to know what she’s doing, she has to. Because what else is Zoey supposed to do when she catches Mira making breakfast in the kitchen after waking up maybe five or ten minutes ago, looking so effortlessly beautiful, and she’s so charming and sweet and funny and gentle and she’s so nice and then Zoey is overwhelmed with how fond she feels and how much adoration she’s got in her chest for both of them and then she’s halfway to spilling all of that out loud before she remembers she does not want to have a conversation, and...
God, Rumi sucks so bad. Zoey loves her more than she thinks she’s ever loved anyone in her entire life. She swore it to Jinu the day she gave Rumi her jacket. She had just seen her walking by and was struck with the most intense urge to do something, to not let her slip away. Zoey couldn’t bear the idea of it, which was ridiculous at the time, but it totally makes sense now. And also it worked out for her, so...score?
She admittedly got more out of that decision than she expected. Not—not like she’s complaining! Because she’s not! She loves Mira so much that sometimes it makes her head spin. It’s been hard for her to wrap her mind around it, mostly because she’s never felt like...this before. She’s always been a very romantic kind of person. Like, if it were anyone else, Zoey thinks she probably would have fallen in love with Mira in the same way she fell in love with Rumi. But that hasn’t happened, and it won’t happen. It’s different. It’s completely different than anything Zoey has ever experienced before, and she doesn’t really know where to begin, but she’s so grateful it’s happened at all and that she has both Rumi and Mira, because now she can’t fathom just having one without the other, and...
Okay, yeah, maybe it makes sense why Rumi wants them to talk about it so bad. That absolutely does not mean that Zoey is going to cave and give her the win. It’s kinda like a point of pride now, too. She knows Mira feels the same way.
So maybe they’ll just keep running circles around each other for the rest of their lives, and Zoey will be totally cool with that the entire time. So long as she gets to spend the rest of her life with the two of them, she won’t complain about a single thing.
Mira hates her so bad.
Rumi is quite possibly the least elusive or sneaky person on the planet. Mira has had just over a decade to learn this about her, and it’s remained true throughout all of that decade. Rumi is horrible at keeping secrets or planning surprises or both at the same time, so it’s not a secret or a surprise when Rumi says that she’s taking them to Hyeopjae for an entire day and night out that she already has planned.
Mira has never trusted anyone less in her entire life. She still agrees to it, obviously. She’d agree to anything Rumi suggested and Rumi knows this and is actively using it against her. Zoey also agrees, because Zoey has fallen into the same trap as Mira, where she’ll agree to anything Rumi asks. It’s not a trap either of them can climb out of, and Mira hopes that Zoey has realised that by now.
Still, despite all of that and despite the looming threat Mira is still pretending to ignore, she’s excited to spend the day out. Their trip is on the last couple of days, and they’ve largely been staying inside and fucking around rather than going out like they did for the first week and a half. They’ve watched so many movies and shows that Mira has lost track by now, and they’ve played so many games together that it’s nothing short of a miracle that they’re all still alive. Mira was genuinely considering doing something horrible to both of them after they teamed up on her during Uno. Who does that? What kind of freaks absolutely fuck someone up at Uno? Mira literally didn’t even do anything to deserve it that time, either.
Whatever. They’re lucky she loves them more than life itself.
Which she’s ignoring. Or, well, partially. She can admit that about Rumi and has been able to for a very long time. She can technically admit it inside of her own head when it comes to Zoey, but she’s been trying to not let herself linger on those thoughts for too long. It hasn’t really worked; in the end, Mira always finds herself wide awake with Rumi wrapped around her, Zoey wrapped around her, and it’s all that’s on her mind.
With Rumi, it was sort of just always like this. Not immediately, not from the beginning, but it happened so soon that it almost feels like this is how it’s always been. Mira didn’t feel like she was falling into something new. It just sort of happened, like it was always just a fact. Like, yeah, this is how they’ve always been and how they always will be. Mira wasn’t waiting for something to happen, she wasn’t even looking, and then things just...happened. Just like that.
With Zoey, Mira felt every last bit of it. She knew it was happening long before she consciously acknowledged it. It still hit her all at once, a loud revelation in her mind when she put the pieces together fully and realised that this was something close to what she had with Rumi. In the same category, at least. And then she got to spend every single day for the last six months watching, waiting, and understanding that she feels so strongly about Zoey that it’s enough to make her genuinely nervous. It happened as naturally as it happened with Rumi; Mira wasn’t looking for it, she wasn’t going out of her way to see if anything would happen, and it also sort of just happened. It’s still different, though.
Mira knows she’s walking headfirst into a trap. She knows Rumi is going to pull something ridiculous, and she’s just going to have to sit there and take it, like she always has, like she always will. She’s still not going to make it easy for her, and she knows that Zoey will help her fight Rumi tooth and nail if it comes down to it, which it probably will.
That thought leaves her feeling far more fond than she’d care to admit. She guesses that’s part of the reason why they should talk about it. Mira can’t hide it and she’s not trying very hard. She’s seen the way Zoey looks at Rumi and how she looks at her. She’s seen how it’s different. She knows she doesn’t technically have anything to worry about.
...Still.
The best Rumi is going to get out of her will stay Mira’s miserable, sorrowful complaining at five in the morning, and they’ll all just have to live with that. It’s a good thing her and Zoey are in agreement over this, or else Mira is sure it would be infinitely harder to avoid.
Rumi genuinely, honest to god, does not get either one of them. She loves Mira and Zoey both more than anything, but unfortunately for them, she’s still going to kill them.
She can’t believe they have the audacity to act the way they’re acting when they both know she’s fully capable of outing both of them. It doesn’t matter if she wouldn’t ever actually do it! It’s the whole principle of the thing! And she’s feeling awfully close to just doing it herself, because both of them still suck and haven’t worked up the courage to have the easiest talk in all of existence.
Before they even got to the beach, Mira casually rested her hand on Rumi’s shoulder and softly, so softly, asked, “Are you okay? Are you sure you’re good to walk? Do you need us to carry you? I can carry you the whole time, babygirl, just say the word. I’m just so worried about a rogue car coming and running over your other foot, you know?” And, as if that wasn’t already bad enough, Zoey kissed her all soft and slow and asked if she ‘needed her to steal that foot brace from the elderly woman in the next chair over’ like a fucking freak.
Rumi can’t believe she’s in love with Zoey and is bonded to Mira like a cat. This life is super fucked up, and she’s going to make sure both of them pay for being so mean to her by pulling out all the stops to get them to talk to each other and stop feeling weird about how much they like whatever they’ve got going on. It’s literally not a big deal. Why would it be a big deal? What could either of them possibly have to be ashamed of?
Regardless. Rumi has her plan, she’s confident it’s going to work, and if it doesn’t, she will literally do the whole conversation herself in front of them. She’s not picky at this point.
Mira is currently sunbathing, looking the most content Rumi has seen her in the last few hours. Zoey is in the shallows, slowly wading her way back to shore. She’s been running back and forth, showing Rumi and Mira both what she grabs from the water before she either drops it off in her ever-growing pile or takes it back to the ocean. Rumi knows she has about maybe a minute before Zoey makes her rounds again. Another minute before she gets to kiss her and then gets to see Mira look at her all fondly while desperately trying to hide behind her sunglasses.
God, they’re insufferable.
Rumi grins a little when Zoey prances over out of the water, jogging along the beach until she’s at Rumi’s chair. She leans down for a kiss, just like always, but this time Rumi grabs her by the front of her swim shirt, pushing her back while holding her there simultaneously. Zoey makes a sort of confused noise, and Rumi only grins up at her harder.
“Hi, pretty girl,” Rumi says as sweetly as she can manage. Judging by the instant scowl that forms on Zoey’s face, she’s done an awful job. “So...”
“Don’t,” Zoey immediately warns. “No. Don’t.”
Before Mira can get away, Rumi is already shooting out her hand and grabbing her by the wrist, tugging her closer so hard she nearly makes Mira topple off her own beach chair. Which, to be fair, crazy deserved after all the inflammatory shit Mira said to her.
“Yeah,” Rumi disagrees, giggling. “Yeah, no, I am.” She takes a second to beam at both of them, perfectly content with where she’s at. Why wouldn’t she be? She loves them both dearly. After another moment, Rumi says, “I’m kind of sick and tired of you guys running off, so we’re just...not doing that. Okay? Cool?”
Zoey makes a frustrated noise from the back of her throat, one that Mira replicates near-perfectly. “Rumi, this is so fucked up,” Mira snarls. “Let me go, weirdo.”
“Ru, please?”
“Nuh-uh,” Rumi disagrees again. “Anyway. Neither of you are good at hiding it, so can you please just admit that you guys want more than what you’re letting yourself have right now? You both feel the same way. Can we all be normal for a second? Please? Please? You’re driving me insane.”
Mira flushes so hard it’s almost comical. Zoey just petulantly looks away and starts to pout.
Rumi quickly tacks on, “Zoey, I’m not kissing you again until you buck up and say something. Mira, I’ll tell Celine that you were the one who broke my nose when we first met.”
Zoey gasps at her so loudly that Rumi is half-convinced everyone else on the beach turns to look at them. The look Zoey gives her is one of pure betrayal, her jaw dropping open as she hisses, “Ryu Rumi, you wouldn’t do that to me.”
Rumi gives her a look right back. “I might.”
Mira makes such a miserable noise that it’s almost funny. “Don’t fuck me over, Rumi, why would you do that?” she whines. “There’s not—there’s nothing to even talk about! Rumi, come on. Seriously.”
“There’s so much to talk about, actually,” Rumi helpfully says. “So...go ahead.”
“Rumi—”
“No.”
“But—?”
“Nope.”
“...Ru.”
“Nuh-uh.”
Rumi happily stays there without moving. She has no reason to be bothered by their current arrangements at all. She loves getting to see Zoey like this, she loves getting to touch Mira and have her close. This works out literally perfectly for her; she has no complaints whatsoever.
It takes less time than she expected. Mira heaves a long, massive sigh, covering her face with her free hand. She bitterly mutters, “I, like, seriously hate you right now, Rumi,” before she raises her head and sighs again. Rumi watches her work her jaw for another handful of seconds before she looks vaguely in Zoey’s direction and says, “I...like you a lot, Zoey. Um. And, you know, I mean, I’m not...like that. But I really like you, and I guess it’s probably more than a ‘you’re my best friend’s girlfriend’ thing. And...I don’t know, you know how I am with Rumi. It’s...like that. But different.”
Rumi lets both of them go as soon as Mira is done speaking. Zoey instantly crouches down so she’s next to Mira, looking nervous even with how she’s smiling. “I really, really like you too, Mira. I’ve literally never done anything like this before, but I’d like to try with you. If that’s cool? And we can talk about it whenever we want,” she adds with a very punctuated glare in Rumi’s direction. “Because I’m not a monster, like someone.”
Rumi laughs, rolling her eyes. “You guys were never going to do it unless I made you! And, wow, would you look at that?” she teases, grinning so hard it leaves her face aching. “Nothing happened! It was super easy! And how long did that take? Maybe thirty seconds? Oh no, the horrors. I can’t believe I made you guys talk for thirty whole seconds.”
Mira groans, throwing her arm over her face when she mutters, “Yeah, but you’re a dick. I kinda hope you get your other foot run over.”
Zoey snickers. “I don’t know if I’d say that, but, like...” She shrugs, looking beyond pleased with herself. She has such a dopey grin on her face that...oh, right, Rumi can kiss her now.
So she leans over the side of her beach chair and does just that, grinning at Zoey’s sound of surprise. A flurry of excitement bursts in her chest when she feels Zoey’s lips curl up against her own. Rumi pulls back after a second, inclining her head toward Mira. Zoey breathes out, clearing her throat.
“Whatever. I’m really glad I got to meet both of you,” Zoey says. Rumi watches how she squeezes Mira’s wrist. “I didn’t expect, um, to be here. But I’m really, really happy I am. I can’t see my life without either of you in it. Without either of you,” she reiterates. “I don’t know what life would look like without you, Mira.”
“Me too,” Mira mumbles under her breath. “I didn’t, uh, I didn’t expect this. But I’m happy about it. Thank you for hunting Rumi down,” she teases, sounding far less miserable. “I’m glad it was you.”
Rumi grins. She lets out a content sigh and leans back into her beach chair, faintly listening to Mira and Zoey talk to each other. She doesn’t pay too much attention, figuring she can at least give them a little privacy after what she had to force them into. To be fair to herself, she wouldn’t have had to do that if they had just listened to her, but still. They’re talking now, and that’s all that matters.
Good. It’s about time.
So maybe Rumi was right.
It’s a hard thing to have to admit when she’s wrong, which is exactly why Zoey isn’t doing it, but she’s considering the possibility. After their talk, they spent the rest of the day at the beach and then went to a restaurant later in the night. Zoey managed to convince both of them into playing an impromptu game of volleyball with her—a sport she is infinitely worse at than tennis, but there’s no tennis court at the beach, unfortunately enough—which helped ease off some of her remaining anxiety. She won by a landslide.
Mira and her agreed to talk more in depth about everything later, but the general, basic facts were things Zoey either already knew or had figured out. They’ll stay the same and figure out what makes them the most comfortable and works best for them. It’ll probably be a lot of trial and error, but Zoey plans on being in their lives for literally ever, so she’s more than willing to work toward that. For now, though, any sort of casual touch they had going on is still allowed and is encouraged. They’ll stay the same and nothing major has to change unless they want it to, and that’s just...that. Zoey is still madly in love with Rumi, they’re still dating. Zoey still loves Mira more than she thought she could. It’s all been...easy.
Zoey thinks about that now, situated in between Rumi and Mira in bed, one arm wrapped around Mira from behind, head hooked onto her shoulder. Rumi is wrapped around her from behind. Zoey was trying to play the game of ‘biggest spoon’, but then Rumi insisted she get in the middle, and Mira sheepishly admitted that she’d probably like that, so...Zoey didn’t say no. Obviously. Why would she ever say no to either one of them about anything?
She nuzzles into Mira’s shoulder, holding her a little tighter. She blindly reaches behind her and takes Rumi’s hand in her own. She won’t be able to hold this position for very long without cramping up, but she’ll stay like this as long as she possibly can.
Zoey doesn’t think she’s ever felt warmer or more loved in her entire life. She can’t believe how lucky she got with both of them. She can’t believe she gets to have both of them, in whatever way that means that for them.
Zoey grins against Mira’s shoulder, squeezes Rumi’s shoulder, and lets herself sink into them entirely.