Work Text:
IVE Dorm, Late Afternoon
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The book is propped open against her knee, spine carefully uncreased the way she always keeps them.
The Courage to Be Happy. Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. She'd picked it up at the small bookstore near the studio two weeks ago, meaning to start it sooner, and only now found the afternoon for it. The dorm is quiet in the way it only gets when most of the members are out. No one shouting from the kitchen, no TV left on by accident. Just the soft tick of the wall clock and afternoon light spreading warm and slow across the floor.
She's on chapter three. It's getting good.
She turns the page.
That's when she hears the front door.
Not just opened.
Announced.
Footsteps that land with purpose, quick and certain, the particular rhythm of someone who has somewhere to be and that somewhere is here. Gaeul's eyes lift from the page. The footsteps get closer. Then closer.
Her bedroom door swings open.
Wonyoung is still in her schedule dress. White, fitted, embroidered, the kind of dress that makes her look like she stepped out of a magazine cover and forgot to stop. Her hair is done. Her makeup is done. She came straight here, didn't even stop to change, and she is holding her phone out toward Gaeul's face like evidence.
"Unnie." Her voice is already unsteady. "What do you mean by this."
The screen is bright between them. Gaeul recognizes the layout immediately. It's her own handwriting, photographed and uploaded, floating in a thread of quote posts and retweets. The letter.
Oh.
"That one—" Gaeul starts.
"People on X are saying banryeoz is over." Wonyoung's voice cracks on the last word. Just slightly. Just enough. "They're saying your letter looks like a goodbye letter. Like you're— Like you wrote it to say—"
"Wonyoungah."
"Are you leaving me?"
The phone lowers. Wonyoung's eyes are already glassy, the kind of glassy that means she's been holding it in since she saw the thread, maybe since the car ride home, maybe longer. Her bottom lip presses together and she looks so young suddenly, so much younger than the polished girl who just walked through the door, and Gaeul sets her book down without looking at it.
"Come here," she says.
"Unnie—"
"Come here, Wonyoungah."
Wonyoung crosses the room in three steps and drops onto the edge of the bed, close enough that their knees almost touch. She still has her phone in her hand. Her fingers are tight around it.
"They said," she starts, voice smaller now, "they said the part about being happy even in places you're not— That sounds like someone saying goodbye." She swallows. "And then someone replied and said Gaeul-unnie has been working really hard lately and maybe she's tired and—" her voice wobbles badly on the word tired, and she stops, pressing her lips together again.
Gaeul watches her.
She doesn't interrupt. She doesn't rush her. She just reaches over, gently, and takes Wonyoung's hand. Wonyoung lets her. Her fingers are cold. She always runs cold after schedules. Gaeul holds them loosely and waits.
"I didn't want to believe it," Wonyoung continues, quieter. "But then I read the letter again and the last part kept..." she trails off. Shakes her head. A tear slips out, just one, trailing down the side of her face through her setting powder. "The last part kept sounding different the more I read it. And I kept thinking, what if—"
"Hey." Gaeul squeezes her hand. Once, firm and warm. "Look at me."
Wonyoung looks at her.
"I'm going nowhere."
A beat. Wonyoung blinks. Another tear follows the first.
"But you said to be happy even without—"
"I'm going nowhere, Wonyoungah."
The repetition lands differently the second time. Wonyoung's breath catches. Not a sob, just a small hitch, the kind that comes when something wound too tight finally starts to loosen. Gaeul slides closer and pulls her in, one arm around her shoulders, guiding her head down until Wonyoung's cheek is resting against her chest.
Wonyoung goes still.
For a moment she just breathes. Then her free hand comes up and grabs a fistful of Gaeul's sleeve, small and tight, like she's anchoring herself.
Gaeul starts stroking her hair. Slow. No rush.
"Unnie," Wonyoung says, muffled against her.
"Mm."
"Promise you're not leaving."
"I promise."
"Say it again."
"I'm not leaving."
A small sniffle. "Then, why did you write it like that?"
Gaeul's hand keeps moving through her hair, unhurried, the way you'd calm someone who's been frightened. She takes a breath.
"Because that's how I really feel about you," she says. "Not goodbye. The opposite of goodbye." Her hand stills for a moment, then continues. "I want happiness to find you everywhere, Wonyoungah. In every room you walk into, in every year that comes— With me in it or not. That's not a farewell. That's just..." she pauses, searching. "That's just how much I mean it."
Wonyoung is quiet for a long moment.
"I don't want to be happy without you," she says finally, very small. "I don't like that version."
"I know."
"So don't write things that sound like that."
The corner of Gaeul's mouth moves. "I'll note that."
"Unnie." The grip on her sleeve tightens. "I'm serious."
"I know you are." She presses her lips briefly to the top of Wonyoung's head, just light, just there. "I'm sorry I scared you."
Another sniffle. A long exhale. Wonyoung's grip slowly loosens from desperate to something softer, and she tilts her head back to look up at Gaeul. Her eyes are red at the edges. Her mascara has migrated. There is a faint pink on both her cheeks and she looks absolutely nothing like a magazine cover and somehow so much more beautiful for it.
"You know I love you, right?" Gaeul says.
Wonyoung nods. Small.
"Is it wrong," Gaeul continues, "to wish the person I love to be happy? Even when I'm not there? Even if I'm in another room, or another city, or—"
"No," Wonyoung says. "It's not wrong." A pause. "But still... I want you there."
"I'll be there."
"Always?"
Gaeul cups her face with both hands, thumbs brushing gently below her eyes. Wiping away the last traces. Wonyoung lets her, eyes closing briefly at the touch, and when she opens them again she's looking up at Gaeul with an expression that is completely unguarded and completely trusting and Gaeul doesn't think she'll ever stop being a little undone by it.
She leans down and presses a kiss to Wonyoung's forehead.
"Always," she says against her skin.
A beat.
"Again, unnie."
Gaeul pulls back just enough to look at her. Wonyoung's expression hasn't changed. Soft, still waiting, still just a little red-eyed and completely unashamed about it.
Gaeul kisses her forehead again.
"Again."
She kisses the tear track on her cheek.
"Again."
The other cheek.
"Again."
The tip of her nose. Wonyoung scrunches it, just slightly. A small sound escapes her. Soft, somewhere between a breath and a laugh.
"Again," Wonyoung whispers.
Gaeul pauses. Looks at her, close and quiet, one thumb still resting against her jaw.
Then she closes the last distance and kisses her, soft and unhurried and full of everything the letter was trying to say. Wonyoung's hand comes up to her wrist, not pulling, just resting there, holding on. When Gaeul pulls back it's slow, like she's not in any hurry to be anywhere else.
She isn't.
"I promise," she says.
Wonyoung's smile breaks open like something that has been waiting.
Real and bright and so warm that Gaeul feels it in her chest. She tips forward and tucks her face back against Gaeul's shoulder, arms wrapping around her waist, and Gaeul holds her back and just lets the moment settle.
"Unnieeeee," Wonyoung says, in a completely different voice now. Still muffled. Dramatically elongated.
"What."
"You know I want to declare to the whole world that we're together and Banryeoz is not over right?"
Gaeul strokes her back in one long, slow line. "Banryeoz is very much not over. But we'll get in trouble, Wonyoungah."
"I don't care." A pause. "Just kidding. I won't. For now."
"Should I be scared."
"Obviously."
Gaeul huffs, quiet and fond. "You cutie DdaeHaemi."
Wonyoung lifts her head immediately. "Unnie! How do you know about DdaeHaemi? You're teasing me like the fans do!"
"Of course. I lurk around to see your photos that the fansite masters took. You are cute."
"I'm NOT—" she stops. Looks at Gaeul's expression. "Stop smiling like that."
"I'm not smiling."
"You are ABSOLUTELY smiling."
Gaeul tried to control her face. Fails slightly.
Wonyoung narrows her eyes at her for exactly two seconds before she laughs. A real one, surprised out of her, the kind she can't perform. She drops her forehead back onto Gaeul's shoulder with a small dramatic groan and Gaeul pulls her back in, still almost-smiling, chin resting on top of her head.
The room is quiet again. Good quiet, this time.
"From now on," Gaeul says, softly, "the only tears that come out of your beautiful eyes are happy ones. Okay?"
She feels Wonyoung nod against her shoulder.
A long, warm silence.
"Thank you, unnie," Wonyoung murmurs. "I love you."
Gaeul closes her eyes. Her hand moves slowly against Wonyoung's back.
"I love you too, Wonyoungie." A beat. "Thank you for being my loveable person."
Wonyoung makes a sound. Small and soft and unbearably sweet, pressed into the fabric of Gaeul's shoulder.
She doesn't let go.
Neither does Gaeul.
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