orange test
“so? What do you think?”
Dani shakes her head, pushing her thoughts away to try to focus on what her sister is saying “sorry what?”
“I asked you what you thought of the new song I sent you. Are you here or somewhere else with your mind?”
Dani is in a cafe shop to spend some time with her sister, but in fact her mind is somewhere else; more specifically with Minji. She can’t stop thinking about her.
Especially after a few days ago Minji said her full name, in a way that made her shiver, stretching out the double L and accentuating the pronunciation in a completely necessary, but charming, and provocative way. Dani couldn’t resist and flirted back “i like the way you say my name” she replied seductively
Minji paused before smiling provocatively “Do you, Danielle?” Again, with that damn pronunciation.
or like the other day Dani was teasing Minji for her laziness for skipping gym again “if you keep skipping you’ll lose all your strength”
Minji humf “I bet i can still lift you up like nothing and carry you around”
“Bet you can” Dani said with a twinkle in her eye and so Minji did, lifting Dani bridal style all over the house and causing them both to giggle. (Dani’s favorite day)
or even when the other day--
“Daniii” Olivia tries to call her sister back for the umpteenth time
“sorry sorry, you were saying that…”
“Ok that’s enough. What's wrong? what’s on your mind?” The eldest asks annoyed
"What are you talking about? nothing. Everything is fine, really" Dani tries to sound confident, but Liv is now more serious and worried "Dani you know that if there is something, you can talk to me. if you want to vent about everything that is happening with the hybe.."
and as much as Dani is actually worried about what is happening, what is occupying her mind at the moment is not that and she would really like to speak to someone, her sister first of all, they have never had secrets. but this thing about Minji, it is really too much
"it is not about that...just promise me that you will not ask me who it is" Dani starts to speak
"Who is who?" she asks confused
“I…maybe…or better to say, definitely, I have a little, kinda little, crush” Dani stammers, then covers her face with her hands out of embarrassment
“What? For who??” Liv asks smiling, concern quickly replaced by curiosity, she must know everything now-
“You promised not to ask this” Dani says annoyed
“Actually, I didn’t promise anything at all” The two laugh together “but okay, fine, if you don’t want it I respect it. Just tell me something about her. Did something happen between you two?”
“No no absolutely not, we’re just friends and she doesn’t like me that way but I can’t help but-” Dani is interrupted by the vibration of her phone, picking it up and seeing the screen a smile appears on her face
“a message from your crush I bet” Her sister teases her seeing the reaction of the youngest, who immediately looks up and clears her throat “Mhh no! It’s Minji. She’s free and was asking me if I wanted to go out. Do you mind if she joins?”
“Oh no of course.”
After just a few minutes Minji joins the duo and the three girls start chatting amiably and calmly, having a great time
“Do I have something on my mouth?” Minji asks turning her attention to Danielle, referring to the slice of cake she just finished eating
“just a little in the corner” Dani signals to the older one
And Livy is just caught up in the moment, staring at the scene in front of her because
Why is Minji licking her lips like that? I mean that’s definitely not how you’d clean yourself..and looking closely now, she’s not even dirty, what is her sister saying-
“wait I’ll do it” Dani whispers slowly reaching out her hand, and holding Minji’s cheek still in her palm while a thumb brushes the corner of her mouth
and why are they both staring at each other’s lips like that?
and then as if nothing had happened the two return their attention to Liv continuing to chat
“It's so hard” Dani says, trying to open the bottle of water that until a moment before was on the table “Unnie can you open it please?”
“sure” Minji smirk and without the slightest effort passes it to Dani
this whole interaction is so weird
why would Dani ask the other girl girl to open it when she had opened it just moments before with no effort and now it is already open, she already drank from that bottle what the fu--
“I'm still thirsty, I'm going to get another coffee.” Dani states shortly after, starting to get up, but is stopped by Minji “i'll take care of it, you go ahead” she stops “Danielle” they both giggle and liv is once again left puzzled
Why did she say her name like that-
WAIT
and when Minji is far enough away “oh my gosh it's her. Minji. She's your crush” she exclaims
Dani's eyes widen and immediately her gaze goes to Minji to make sure she didn't hear “lower your voice”
Dani wants to try to deny it, but now it's too late, her reaction leaves no room for justifications
“How did you figure that out?
“Seriously?”
“What”
Olivia rolls her eyes, her little sister is hopeless
“Wait, how can you say it’s not reciprocated?” Liv asks genuinely surprised, causing another reaction of surprise in the younger one “We’re just friends..I don’t even think she likes girls in that sense”
“Oh my..but did you see how she looks at you? it’s obvious” Liv gestures with her hands now, taken by her sister’s moment of blindness
Dani sighs bitterly “Even if what you said was true, and it’s not. There would be no point in hoping for it, it’s better this way”
and liv nods, a story like this is actually difficult “Ok I understand, but that still doesn’t mean you can’t have fun”
“Livvyyy!” Dani raises her voice scandalized
“Wait, I didn’t necessarily mean that way. Just testing the waters, to see how Minji is into it too”
“How can you say something like that?” Dani's cheeks turn red "I repeat that to you, for her I'm just like a friend.."
“So why don't you do the orange test?” seeing her sister's confused face Liv continues her explanation “it's just a trend where girls ask their boyfriends to peel an orange for them, if he does it he likes you, and you can also understand a lot from how he does it or if he volunteers” she says as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Dani is now convinced that her sister spends too much time on tik tok to give in to something like that “It's absurd Liv. Minji is a kind and caring person, she would do it for others too”
---
After her meeting with her sister, Dani stopped to think about how stupid it is to try a test like that. She can't believe that her sister really proposed to understand Minji's feelings just by making her peel an orange. Dani also knows that Minji would do it for everyone so she should just see how her reaction changes based on who asks? it's the stupidest and most illogical idea she've ever heard
"Who bought these oranges?" Hyien asks, pointing to the fruit basket on the coffee table.
"uhm me" Dani replies guiltily. So maybe yes, it's stupid, but it doesn't hurt to try. Now she thinks she has to convince her friends to all ask the same thing, without arousing suspicion. Liv already knows about her crush, she doesn't want it to become public knowledge.
luckily they're all together except for Minji so it'll be easy to ask without having to repeat herself multiple times.
"So I was thinking, wouldn't it be funny to ask Minji to peel an orange, one by one. Like how hilarious that would be" Dani tries to sound engaging by rolling an orange in her hands, but she probably just looks crazy, because that's how everyone is looking at her.
"why should we?" Hyein asks
"Um, I don't know, like a joke. yeah a prank. to make her do things for us. i saw that it's a trend"
Hyein is still not very convinced, but she is always ready to mess around with her unnie so she easily agrees
Haerin after closing and opening her eyes a couple of times, as if to understand what was happening, agrees in turn. Probably because she can't deny anything to her favorite unnie.
but the hardest one to convince is Hanni who keeps looking at Dani suspiciously "I don't know if you actually understood the trend Dani. it's like a couple thing where--" but Dani immediately interrupts her, the last thing she wants is to continue talking about this orange theory and make the younger ones feel it too, so as not to give rise to strange ideas "please unnie. you love bossing Minji around anyway" Dani asks a little too much in a begging tone, and Hanni is even more confused by the attitude of the youngest. but she understands that she won't get anything right now so she just agrees, in fact she really loves bossing Minji around.
Shortly after Minji returns home, settling down on the couch in the living room, next to Dani, tired from the day of schedule, ready to give herself a little rest.
“hey unnie can you peel one of those oranges for me?” Hyen asks in a childish voice, sitting on the floor focused on her phone
“Are you a baby? why should I peel them” Minji protests with a light tone, in fact despite the complaints she reaches out to take an orange from the table and starts peeling it “you know you could do it yourself” Hyein smiles triumphantly getting up to go to her room, after Minji passes her the completely peeled orange and smiles back.
As Dani had predicted, Minji immediately peeled the orange for the youngest, this only shows how kind and good she is, nothing to do with Liv’s theory.
“Unnie I want an orange too” Herin breaks the silence she has kept until now, looking up from the book she is reading
“it’s in front of you” Minji points out
“Can you peel it?” Haeirn asks seriously, keeping her gaze fixed
“what am I a slave? you can do it yourself” Minji replies, pretending to be annoyed, but once again after only a few minutes of silence the Korean girl reaches out and starts peeling, without stopping to complain in the meantime, even if you can tell from her tone that she is not actually serious, it is just an act “Here you go”
“thanks unnie” after taking it also haerin retreats to her room, without first casting a glance at Dani
once again Minji shows how much she cares for all her members equally, of course this theory can also demonstrate the affection that someone feels but in fact Minji loves all her friends so it is not such a feasible test, Dani thinks
“Oh you are back Kim Minji” Hanni at that moment enters the room “good, I really got hungry. Peel me an orange”
“what is it with all of you today asking me to peel oranges?” Minji asks annoyed to no one in particular
“pleaseee Minji-ah” Hanni tries to sound sweet, but there’s no need because before Hanni has even finished speaking Minji has already started peeling yet another orange
Hanni now sits down satisfied waiting for her loot
“Wait. What are you doing?” Dani at some point asks, focused on the scene in front of her
Minji looks at her confused “just peel--Oh you mean” Minji looks between Dani and the orange before understanding what the younger one is referring to and then smiles “Hanni doesn’t like the white peels you know, so I’ll take it off”
“and..are you also dividing it into slices?” Dani asks as if it were an absurd thing and the answer isn’t right in front of her anyway
“Good job Kim Minji” Hanni giggles
Dani doesn’t want to feel this feeling in her chest again, but she does. everything in that moment seems to collapse. just for a stupid orange. She feels her heart tighten and her eyes water. Liv's stupid theory now seems to make sense, because if it's true that Minji has shown affection to everyone, but with Hanni it is different, as always. and this hurts the youngest.
"Hey Dani are you okay?" hanni asks at a certain point seeing the girl almost pale
"Mhh no, yeah.. probably not so well, I'm going to my room to rest" Dani declares getting up, and in part it's true because Dani feels like she's about to throw up
"Do you want the orange?"
"What?"
"The orange, do you want it? you told me before that you took them--” Minji asks worriedly, thinking that maybe the other one just needs to eat something, maybe because of a drop in sugar
“No no, you can have it, it’s the last one anyway” she says before leaving
---
I shouldn’t have listened to Livy with that stupid test, dani thinks
She is curled up on her bed and regrets this whole story. she thought it would be useless and instead it hurt her. Seeing Minji be so thoughtful towards Hanni has brought back the jealousy that had gone down in these days, she will never be on par with the other girl. for Minji, Dani is just a friend, like all the other members, and she doesn’t know what everything she has with Hanni means, but if Minji has someone in her heart that’s not Dani
“hey it’s me, can i come in?” Minji speaks from behind the door, immediately after knocking gently
right now she is the person she would like to see the least, but Dani agrees and gets out of bed “Yes come”
Minji enters slowly and smiles sweetly “How are you feeling? Better?”
“A little bit” Dani tries to smile, but fails and feels even more foolish, she has no right to be jealous
“I don’t want to bother you. I got you some things” Minji passes a plastic bag to the youngest, Dani hasn’t even noticed that Minji was holding it “If you need anything call me. I’ll let you rest”
Dani takes the bag and realizes how heavy it is “Wait, what is it?” she asks before even opening it
“Oh I just got some things I thought you might need” Minji explains and meanwhile Dani inspects the contents of the bag.
a couple of medicines for headaches and some for stomach aches. Some vitamin C supplements. Orange juice and… a bag of oranges.
Dani is confused, she doesn't know how to react, so she repeats to herself "what--what is this?"
"uhm you said you weren't well, but I didn't really know what was hurting.." Minji shrugs and gesticulates in vain "also today you told me you bought those oranges because vitamin c is important and yeah I thought... I bought those things" Minji smiles again, even if more shy now. Sometimes she wants to seem more stoic than she is, a light blush colors her cheeks
Dani is still shocked, she wants to cry, she wants to hug the eldest, she wants to.. kiss her, tell her what this gesture means to her. but she can only stare at the bag in her hands
seeing that the youngest isn't speaking Minji breaks the silence "Do you want me to peel them for you?"
"What?"
Minji laughs softly, today Danielle's reactions are so unusual that they make her feel tender "The orange. Do you want me to peel one for you?"
“Would you do that for me?” Dani asks as if it were the most serious thing anyone could do for her, in response Minji just smiles and grabs the bag from the hands of the youngest, but Dani jumps into her arms, hugging the older one who remains shocked and confused “Thanks unnie. I want to peel an orange for you too”
Minji giggles and hugs her back before letting go of the younger one “so we peel oranges together for each other?” Dani smiles sitting on the bed in front of the older one who follows her, grasping the absurdity of the gesture
“How do you want it?” Minji asks “should I remove the white peels?”
Dani can't stop watching the older one as she carefully peels the fruit
"it's okay"
Minji arranges the slices on the plate in front of Dani in the shape of a smiley face, causing the younger one to giggle again "i love it"
"love your smile" Minji says keeping her eyes down, but smiling "i'm glad it is back"
Right now not even a declaration of love could make her happier. or well maybe it could, but this is pretty close for now
"Unnie, would you always peel an orange for me if I asked?"
"I would plant an orange tree if you asked"
The two continue to smile sweetly at each other
and maybe this stupid test wasn't so stupid after all.