Handong entered the bar, looking around. It was a nice place, small but still populated, and there was beautiful music playing on stage. She had been trying to familiarize herself with this new area, and this place had caught her eye. After showing her student ID to the bouncer, she sat down on one of the barstools, looking at the bartender, who looked a bit younger than her.
“Hi, welcome to Dreamcatcher! You new here?”
“That obvious? Um, can I-I have a…” she muttered to herself in her home language, trying to figure out what the words were. Luckily, the girl decided to save her from embarrassment.
“You don’t have to order anything right now. Do you speak another language? Oh! Sorry, that must have sounded rude, but I heard you muttering, and it sounded like-” Now it was Handong’s turn to save her.
“I’m a transfer student. I was trying to familiarize myself with campus, and this caught my eye. I’m from China.”
“Wow, that’s cool! I’m Gahyeon, if you ever wanted to, I could help you? Just in general, really.”
“Thank you so much, that would be really helpful. I’m Handong, but you can call me Dong or whatever variation of my name you’d like.”
“Nice to meet you Dong-Dong! If you’re interested and available to stay for a bit, my sister and her group are going to sing anytime soon.” As if on cue, the MC for the night said goodbye to the previous singer, and 5 girls walked onto the stage. Gahyeon grinned at her and Handong gave a shy smile back.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome… Minx!” Applause and cheers erupted throughout the hole-in-the-wall bar.
“Hi, everybody! I’m JiU, the leader and ‘bunny rabbit’ of Minx!” Handong nodded along as the other girl pointed out her sister.
“Hey, guys! My name’s Yoohyeon, Minx’s ‘big puppy.’”
“It’s true, she acts so much like one!” Gahyeon whispered to the orange-haired girl.
“I’m Siyeon, main vocalist and Minx’s wolf.” She howled a couple times.
“I guess we’re all doing animals now. I’m SuA, main dancer and elephant.” Grinning, she handed the microphone to the last member.
“Hey, guys,” Her voice was deep and husky, and Handong blushed lightly. Her new friend didn’t seem to notice. “I’m Minx’s main rapper,” she paused, and gave in to the girls looking at her expectantly. “And panda, Dami.”
“But we won’t be doing any dancing or rapping for our next song. Please enjoy, Jazz Bar!”
They started singing, and Handong was entranced. Each little line the short-haired girl, Dami, sang left her looking for more. Finally the bridge came in, and Handong’s face exploded into a deep red that could no longer be blamed on her blush. After that, the girls did a few more songs and Handong turned to her new friend.
“They’re really something.”
“I know, right? They’re also so much fun to be around. Want me to introduce you?”
“Um, maybe not right now. I should probably start finding my way back to my apartment.”
“Ah, okay. Want me to walk with you? My shift is over in… 3 minutes, and it’s not exactly safe out there.”
“What about when you walk to your home?”
“It’ll be fine, I know exactly what places to avoid.”
“You sure? That still doesn’t sound safe. You can room with me for the night.”
“Are you sure? I could be a serial killer.”
“Unlucky me, then. Besides, I don’t really want to be alone tonight anyway.”
“Alright then, where’s your apartment.”
Handong pulled out her phone.
“Hey that’s where I live!”
“Really?”
“Yeah, me and Minx, Floor 5, Room 506. Nice to meet you, neighbor!”
“Floor 5, Room 508. Nice to meet you too.” She smiled.
________________________
Yoobin wasn’t one to notice cute girls on the street or in random places, but when Bora spotted one such cute girl talking to Gahyeonie, she noticed.
________________________
It had been a week since she first went to Dreamcatcher, and Handong needed a drink. Still, she hoped Minx (or more specifically, Dami,) was performing that night. Gahyeon wasn’t able to come with her, but she promised to pick her up when she was done.
When she walked in, Minx was already performing, so Handong sat down and ordered a drink. Soon after the girls walked offstage, someone sat beside her.
“I don’t think I’ve seen you around before.” The voice was deep, a voice she had come to enjoy over the past week. Dami.
“I’m a transfer student.” She turned and smiled shyly at the other girl.
“Do you happen to be Gahyeonie’s new friend?”
“Ah, um, yes I am.”
“She’s talked a lot about you Miss Handong. I’m glad you like our music.”
“It helps that your music’s awesome. I’m personally a fan of Jazz Bar, but you probably don’t want to talk about your business right now, Miss Dami.” She was pleased when the other girl let out a laugh.
“You would be correct. And, please, call me Yoobin. Dami is my stage name.”
“Nice to meet you, Yoobin.”
“You two, Handong.”
The girls talked a bit more, and Handong was proud of herself for blushing as least as possible. The conversation was nice and interesting and holy shit, she probably was crushing on Da- no, Yoobin even more now.
“I should probably go, you never know how drunk Bora and Siyeon are already.”
“Bora?”
“Ah, that’s SuA. And Minji is JiU. Yoohyeon and Siyeon are the only ones who use their real name. Well, it’s been fun talking to you. I hope we meet again.”
“We probably will. I think this is my new favorite bar.” The two girls smiled at each other.
“I’m glad.”
________________________
Handong soon met and became friends with the rest of Minx, and integrated into their friend group, though she and Yoobin hadn’t talked alone since. The girls had her even sing onstage with them once, apparently Gahyeon did that too whenever she felt like it.
________________________
Yoobin was tired. She’d had a long day of asshole professors and over the top work, so she decided it wouldn’t be too bad if she had a drink or two. It had been a while, and she never really drank when she was with the girls.
So she had a drink. And then she had another one. And it kept going until it was late at night and she could barely walk straight.
Yoobin was a confident drunk, so she went out to the dance floor and showed off, returning to the bar every once in a while to grab another drink.
Just a few blocks away, her friends were extremely worried.
“Where is she?”
“She said she would be home a bit late, but this is too much.”
“Any chance she just fell asleep at the library?”
“We’ve checked the library 4 times already.”
“Maybe she’s at Dreamcatcher?” The other 5 looked at Handong.
“Of course!”
“Yeah, she’s probably practicing or something.”
“Handong, you’re a genius.”
“But why would she not text us?”
“Let’s find out.”
“No, you should go. We’ll stay here if she ends up back here before you do.”
“Bye, Dong!”
The girl grumbled to herself before remembering that this was Yoobin, and she could be in any state right now. When she got to the bar, the Yoobin she expected to find was definitely not a drunk one.
She watched as the normally calm and composed girl chugged a drink, before making a mad dash to the dance floor, cheering. Yoobin then climbed a support beam and started pole dancing.
Handong was definitely dreaming. Still, she snapped out of her shock enough to take a video before making her way over to the other girl.
“Yoobin! Yoobin!”
“Huh?” The girl almost fell off the support beam.
“Oh my god, don’t crack your head open.” Handong held her hands out, just in case.
“Dongie! You’re here!” She somehow got back to the floor on two feet.
“Come on, Yoobin, we gotta go. Get on my back.” She blushed as she said that.
“Where areeee we gooooing?” Yoobin tilted her head.
“Home. It’s late.”
“Noooo, it’s so much fun hereeee.”
“I never thought I’d ever hear you say that. Come on.” Much to the other’s protests, Handong lifted her onto her back. However, after a while, the drunk girl started to fall asleep.
“You’re like a princess! Princess Handong…” she yawned.
“If I’m a princess, shouldn’t these roles be reversed?” But the other was already asleep.
When they got back to the apartment, the other girls swarmed her with questions.
“Oh my god.”
“Is she okay?”
“What happened?”
Handong’s saving grace was Minji.
“Alright! That’s enough, everybody. Dong, why don’t you put her in her room, then you can come back and explain.”
She obeyed, carrying her to her bedroom and laying her down onto the bed. After walking back to the kitchen, the others looked at her expectantly.
“So… she was at Dreamcatcher.” She started out, still a bit in shock.
“And?”
“When I got there, Yoobin was piss drunk.” She deadpanned.
“No way.”
“What?”
“You’re kidding me.”
“When was the last time that even happened?”
“Like, never.”
“It’s been years.”
“What?!” Everyone looked at Yoohyeon.
“Uhhhh.” She scratched the back of her head. “How about we just ignore what I just said?”
“How about we don’t?! Quiet, sweet, shy little Yoobin has done this before?” Bora shook the tall girl violently.
“It’s been years since that happened!”
“We’re still in college!”
“Yoohyeon. Explain.”
“Well… When Yoobin and I were in high school, we used to go to a lot of these parties and she used to get very wild…”
“Does that explain this, then?” Handong unlocked her phone and showed the video of Yoobin drunkenly pole dancing.
“Oh my god.”
“I think I’m going to die.”
“Ok, but how is she so good?”
“Yeah, I’m done.”
________________________
The first thing Yoobin did when she woke up was puke. Good thing there was a bucket near her bed- wait what?! Looking around, she was in her room, and couldn’t remember anything from last night. That meant that she must have gotten blackout drunk again and the others must have found her blackout drunk. God, she hoped she hadn’t done anything too embarrassing.
Holding her head, she walked to the bathroom trying to ignore her piercing headache.
“Ugh, I do not miss this.” When she came out of the bathroom, she registered a shock of orange hair in the next bed. Now she really hoped she hadn’t done anything embarrassing.
Nevertheless, she wordlessly walked into the kitchen, ignoring her pounding headache and walking straight by sheer willpower, and chugged 3 glasses of water. By the end of the second one, she noticed that the kitchen had gone silent and all the girls were looking at her.
“Dude. How do you still look normal?”
“Good morning!” Yooh handed her some tablets.
“You shouldn’t be up! Go back to bed!” Minji, ever the mom friend, made a shooing motion.
Suddenly, Handong walked in yawning. She did a double take before jumping in shock.
“How are you still functioning?”
“They may or may not know.” Yooh whispered to her.
“Kim Yoohyeon, I will murder you.” She whispered back, relishing in the other girl’s shudder. “So,” She drawled to the group, “any questions?”
“How are you normal right now?” Gahyeon raised her hand.
“I actually have a pounding headache right now, so I’d appreciate it if you weren’t so loud, but your answer is sheer willpower and practice.”
“Practice?!”
“I thought Yooh told you this.”
“She did say that this had happened before…”
“When we were in high school, we went to a lot of parties. I successfully hid it from my parents, Yoohyeon did not.”
“She was so wild back then, it was crazy.”
“Yooh!”
“How’d you learn to pole dance?” Handong held out her phone so she could see the video. Almost immediately, she erupted into a brilliant shade of red. Yoohyeon did too when she realized what she was about to say.
“Yoohyeon dragged me to some classes because she was ‘interested in the art,’ when really she told this one girl she knew how and had to prove it. So I ended up doing it for her.” Yoobin smirked.
“You were so much better at it than me!”
After a nice breakfast, Yoobin retreated back to her room, Handong following.
“That was a shock.”
“Not you too. You were supposed to save me from my stupid high school choices!”
“Maybe later. So were you one of those popular girls?” She raised an eyebrow.
“Oh god no. I was just the crazy one at the parties. Nobody actually knew who I was since I came when everyone was drunk. At school everyone just kinda ignored me.”
“Well that eases the image of a wild party animal Yoobin.” She yelped when she got hit with a pillow. “Hey! That’s no way to treat a princess!”
“ … What? Oh no. Oh god, I seriously called you that?”
“Nice to see you remember.”
“I don’t but this has happened a lot.”
“I feel like my image of you as a quiet bookworm is crumbling and I don’t really know what to do.”
“Hey! I was and am still a quiet bookworm, it’s just that I had a double life back then!” Yoobin pouted.
“It amazes me how you can be a nerd but also know how to do a good pole dance while drunk.”
________________________
“Guys! I’m going on ahead to the bar. Zap wants to practice one more time before tonight, and so should we. Uh, Minji-unnie, which song are we doing?”
“Probably My House, I don’t think we can drag a couch onstage.”
“Ok, bye guys!”
“Bye, Yoobin!” They chorused.
“What’s happening tonight?” Handong tilted her head.
“Ah, after our dear Dami performs her song with Zap, it’s cover night! We already made you an outfit, so if you have songs memorized, you can sing with us!”
“And dance with us!” Bora added.
“Who’s Zap?”
“This one dude at the bar heard Yoobin rap Once Upon A Time, so he asked her to collab with him on a song. She hasn’t let any of us hear it yet.” Yoohyeon pouted.
“What’s Once Upon A Time?” Right, Dongie was new. The 5 smirked at each other.
“Only Dami’s original song~”
“You should ask her to si- well, rap it for you!”
“It’s so good!”
“Ask her to do it for you! Ask her, ask her!”
________________________
The members walked into the bar, just as the MC announced the performances for the night. When they went backstage, Dami rolled her eyes at them.
“Did you at least practice?”
“Of course, and we taught Handong how to dance with us!”
At this, Dami smiled at the aforementioned girl, giving her a high five. She blushed at the sight of Dami in a suit.
“Looking princely.”
“Up to your standards, princess?”
“And now, ‘I Long For You’, by Zap, featuring Dami!”
“That’s my cue.” She hurried onstage.
During the song, Handong’s jaw dropped. She knew Dami rapped well, and she had heard some herself, but this was the first time she had rapped for over a minute. She blushed, only this time, Gahyeon took notice. They furiously mouthed words at each other, and Handong managed to postpone the inevitable conversation until later.
“Hey guys, thanks for listening, and a big thanks to Zap! For the rest of the night, we’ll be doing covers, so if you have any requests, please say them. But first, we’ll be doing Lucky Strike!” Dami high fived the other girls as they went onstage.
After many more songs, the girls left the stage, fleeting to the bar for drinks. Gahyeon, however, held her friend back.
“I saw that, you know.”
“Yes, I know.”
“So why didn’t you tell me you like Yoobin!”
“Well, I-” She thought back to the dances they did. Minji-unnie and Bora-unnie’s special stage with her, and how she was really close with Yoohyeon.
“You?”
“She doesn’t like me back!”
“How do you know?” The younger girl’s eyes softened.
“Her special stages! My House and Havana and everything else she did today, and Yoohyeon is so close to her-” She rambled while running a hand through her hair.
“Dong-Dong, those were performances. Also Yoobin-unnie and Yoohyeon-unnie have known each other for years!”
“Exactly.”
“What? You don’t know that they’re-”
However, Handong just turned around. She walked out of the bar and didn’t look back.
On the other side of the bar, Yoobin groaned. She was responsible for all the other drunk idiots, so she was unfortunately sober and alone with all of her intrusive thoughts and mortification.
“Whaaaat’s wrong, BinBin?” Yoohyeon slurred, draping an arm over the shorter girl.
“I’m such an idiot.”
“Huh?”
“I winked at her! My stupid stage adrenaline took over and I winked at her.”
“Whoooooooooo?”
“Handong, you drunken fool! Who else?!”
“You what?!” Gahyeon exclaimed from behind.
“Hello to you too. And, I don’t know, we were dancing, and all of a sudden I just winked at her! Oh my god, what if she thinks-”
“Yah, Gahyeonie! Didn’t you see? Our little Yoobin was-” Bora hiccuped loudly, “-showing off soooooooo much today~” She then threw herself onto the original two.
“Oh, she’s such an idiot” Gahyeon muttered. “Yoobin-unnie. You’re sober right?”
“I usually always am.” The girl shot a pointed look at her.
“Not that one time.”
“Emphasis on usually.”
“Riiiight. I think you should go after Handong. She left alone.”
“What?!” Yoobin exclaimed, already grabbing her jacket. She fled in a hurry, running around the streets. When she spotted Handong, she started waving her arms.
“Yoobin?”
“It’s dangerous to walk alone at night.”
“Ah, well, good thing there’s a prince here to accompany me. And they say chivalry is dead.” Handong blushed.
“And what is a lovely princess such as you doing here tonight?”
“The bar was stuffy, and I got tired.”
“I’m going to pretend I believe you and that’s all that’s bothering you. Are you and Gahyeon okay though?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I just… She made a fair point, that’s all. We’re fine.”
“Okay, then. But if the other girls notice and start questioning you, I don’t think I’ll be able to save you.”
“What kind of prince are you!”
“The best kind, obviously.”
They laughed together, under the streetlight, neither of them knowing that they were thinking the exact same thing.
________________________
It was after one particular wrestling session that led to an intense makeout session between Bora and Siyeon. The unlucky one to witness it was Handong.
“I’m going to need permanent brain bleach.” She whined as she covered her eyes.
“Are you okay- Hey! I thought there was no doing that where we all can see.” Yoohyeon poked her head in the doorway, also shielding her eyes.
“You guys aren’t the only ones who can do that, you know. Come here, Yooh.” Handong watched in shock as their leader also instigated a makeout session, while the other couple flipped them off. Finally, one last head walked into the living room.
“Oh my god. Hasn’t anyone ever taught you guys manners?” Yoobin walked into the room, also covering her eyes, and pulled Handong into another room.
“They’re dating?!”
“Have been since before you joined us.”
“What?!”
“You never noticed?” Handong thought back.
“That… makes a lot of sense now.”
“It must be nice to have what they have.” Yoobin was looking at her strangely. Don’t tell her…
“Does the prince have a certain someone in mind?” And with that, the other girl leaned forward and kissed her.
“So we’re…”
“If you want.” Handong smiled then smirked.
“Do you want to see how long it takes for the others to figure it out?”
“God, yes.”
________________________
For the start of their new relationship, it was really private and quiet. They loved it. Yoobin wasn’t really into pda, even simple ones like holding hands, so it was subtle, but it was still noticeable enough. For example, sometimes she would throw an arm around Handong’s shoulders/waist or Handong would play with her hair or peck her on the cheek, stuff they normally didn’t do.
So why, after 3 months, hadn’t anyone noticed? They loved the privacy, yes, but all they wanted was to call each other their girlfriend in front of their closest friends. Still, they refused to give up.
One day, the girls all went out to drink. After Yoobin’s blackout drunk incident they decided to take dd duty off of her shoulders every few times. But this night, the other girls had a plan. Gahyeon had informed them of Handong’s feelings for her now-girlfriend (not that they knew that) and so they decided to get them both drunk and push them together.
When they were sufficiently intoxicated, the girls interrogated Yoobin about her feelings.
“How do you feel about Dong-Dong?”
“Ahhh! Dongie’s my girlfrieenddd~”
“Yeahhh!”
And then they kissed, almost making the other 5 faint in shock.
“When?!”
“What?!”
“Oh my god!”
Needless to say, the couple had a lot of explaining to do the next morning.