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The leather of the couches in the green room is exactly the kind of cold Jihyo’s been craving. The air conditioning (she’s never been so thankful for that particular creature comfort in her life) whirs loud and powerful, cooling the material.
After the stifling heat of the stadium, it’s precisely what Jihyo needs. She practically hurls herself onto the closest one as soon as they’re off stage, pressing as much of her overheated skin to the seats as she can.
She can vaguely make out the sounds of the others shuffling in after her; some chatting, a few laughing at how she’s currently sprawled out. Nayeon makes some dumbass comment that Jihyo barely hears due to how her ear is currently pressed tight against the couch. She flips the older girl off anyway.
Nayeon just cackles. Jihyo can’t help the amused smile that tugs at her lips.
It was a good show. A great show, even. Everybody’s energy was high despite the blazing heat and it showed in the performance. Jihyo knows she danced well and sang even better, and she’s proud to say the same of her girls.
Fondness, warm and pleasantly aching, floods her system as she damn-near melts into the leather. She’s sore and tired and still so hot she could cry, but all of that is temporary. This—this joy she feels, attributable to the eight girls now spread out around the green room; this, she knows, is forever. They are forever.
Somebody settles on the arm of the couch she’s currently staking her claim on. A hand, gentle and familiar, finds her hair and begins to card through it tenderly.
“Tired, jagi?” A soft voice murmurs, all care and affection and the tiniest hint of teasing.
Jihyo smiles like the sun, like she always does when Jeongyeon’s around; another forever of hers.
“No,” she mutters back, wry and sarcastic as she lifts her head to meet glittering brown eyes. “I’ve got loads of energy, can’t you tell?”
Her girlfriend huffs a laugh. Then she rolls her eyes so prettily Jihyo’s heart stutters in her chest.
“Smartass,” Jeongyeon mumbles, tugging lightly on Jihyo’s hair in reprimand. It hardly works as intended—all it really does is make a much more pleasant, syrupy kind of heat pool low in Jihyo’s stomach.
“You love it,” Jihyo counters, and she knows Jeongyeon can’t argue with that. Not that she gets the chance to.
“Could you two please go be sickening somewhere else?”
Jihyo rolls her eyes this time. Jeongyeon just shakes her head with an exasperated smile.
Nayeon continues.
“It’s bad enough we have to witness your gross PDA on our days off and on stage—we don’t need to see it here too.”
Nayeon says it tired, like she’s some long-suffering martyr forced to bear witness to their affection. Nayeon says it without an ounce of real bitterness. Nayeon says it, of course, whilst perched so perfectly ironically atop Momo’s lap that Jihyo’s throat hurts with how hard she scoffs.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she retorts, pointedly staring at where Nayeon’s hand is stroking oh-so-lovingly at Momo’s shoulder.
Nayeon’s cheeks go pink, but she tilts her chin higher in defiance, refusing to back down. Momo remains entirely oblivious, as usual. Jeongyeon snorts.
“We’re nowhere near as bad as you guys,” Nayeon insists. “At least we know how to be subtle sometimes.”
Jihyo feels like throttling her in the fondest, oddest way. The older girl is perpetual pain in her ass, but she’s also one of her oldest friends. Despite her flaws, Jihyo loves her dearly.
“You do not,” Jihyo volleys back, though the bite she’d intended for her tone is mollified by the way Jeongyeon begins to scratch gently at her scalp, the way she knows she likes it best.
“Mina and Chaeyoung are subtle,” she carries on.
The mentioned couple are sitting together quietly looking at something on Mina’s phone, but both of them blush red at being used as an example.
“You two,” Jihyo points now, directly at Nayeon and Momo, and Momo finally looks up, “are absolutely not.”
“Not what?” The Japanese girl asks, all big round puppy eyes, and Jihyo doesn’t know whether to be exasperated or endeared.
“Subtle, Momoring,” Jeongyeon chimes in helpfully, and Jihyo can hear the smile in her tone. “She’s saying you and Nayeonie are definitely not subtle.”
Momo blushes pink, like she always does when she feels a little embarrassed. Nayeon immediately begins to coo softly down at her girlfriend, rubbing patterns with her thumb at the nape of her neck, like she always does when Momo feels a little embarrassed.
Jihyo opens her mouth to tease them again, but Sana beats her to it.
“None of you are subtle at all, so let’s just leave it at that. It’s too hot for bickering.”
Jeongyeon scoffs at the same time Jihyo does, and the synchronicity makes Jihyo’s heart warm in a cheesy, cliché kind of way. Two hearts, twin flames, soulmates—all that lovely, corny shit—that’s what she thinks of for a fleeting moment as Jeongyeon finds a delicious little spot behind her ear and scratches at it lightly.
“Oh, I know you’re not talking, Minatozaki,” Jihyo shoots back at Sana, mirthful and wry and absolutely righteous.
Sana gives her an incredulous look. Jihyo arches an eyebrow.
“How’s Miyeon? She manage to cover up that little ‘mosquito bite’ she got last time you two hung out?”
The whole room erupts in scandalised little giggles. Sana flushes bright red and Jihyo chuckles, entirely smug.
Things fall quietly into familiar routine after that. Hair extensions are pulled out carefully, makeup wipes are passed around, food arrives and is claimed with an almost frantic sort of relief. Jihyo grabs herself a box of something or other—she really doesn’t care what she eats right now, she just knows she’s hungry—and settles on the floor next to Dahyun.
The energy in the room by now is lazy, but still tinged with lingering exuberance from the show. Jihyo watches fondly as Tzuyu and Sana discuss a cute sign one of the fans had made, then lets her eyes drift back to where Nayeon and Momo are still glued together.
The eldest member is no longer curled up in her girlfriend’s lap, instead choosing to press herself up against Momo’s side as the Japanese woman scarfs down her food. Jihyo smiles at the sight of it. For all her teasing, all her and Nayeon’s play-acting at arguments, she’s happy for the two of them.
It had taken them a while to get to where they are now. Youth, the pressures of the industry, the fear of ruining things for the group—all factors that had delayed what Jihyo now sees was inevitable. Nayeon had been too selfless, Momo too clueless, and they’d very nearly missed each other entirely, but eventually they’d made it. They’d figured it out, individually then together, and now they hold joint second place for the cutest couple she knows.
Joint second, because Mina and Chaeyoung really are too adorable to ignore, and Jihyo can never seem to stop herself cooing at the pair whenever she sees them show affection. And not first place, of course, because that spot is firmly reserved for her and Jeongyeon.
A smile pulls at Jihyo’s lips at the thought of the older woman, then she immediately feels absolutely pathetic. God, just thinking of her girlfriend makes her all giddy, like a blushing schoolgirl with a crush. It’s ridiculous.
She really wouldn’t have it any other way.
Jihyo’s eyes search the room and land on Jeongyeon easily—like metal to a magnet. Jeongyeon’s always been far too attractive for her own good.
She looks beautiful like this; bare-faced, loose-shouldered, sharing bites of her food with Chaeyoung whilst Mina watches the two of them softly. She’s always beautiful, always the brightest thing in the room to Jihyo, but something about her when she’s relaxed, when she’s not performing for anybody—it just makes Jihyo melt.
“You’re staring, unnie,” Dahyun mutters fondly beside her.
“Of course I am,” Jihyo replies, low and dreamy and unapologetically sappy, “just look at her.”
Dahyun just chuckles, entirely used to this behaviour from her by now. Jihyo sighs happily, and keeps her eyes fixed on the most beautiful girl in the room.
She finds her way back to Jeongyeon’s side once everybody’s finished eating. Mina and Chaeyoung have vacated the couch the three of them were sharing in order to take mirror selfies they’ll never post, leaving Jeongyeon sat alone. Jihyo takes the chance she’s been gifted and drops herself down next to her girlfriend.
Jeongyeon looks up from her phone when she feels Jihyo beside her, and the smile she gives is nothing short of brilliant.
“Hey you,” the older woman murmurs, affection and amusement weaving together in her tone.
“Hi, baby,” Jihyo replies softly, leaning in to press a quick kiss to Jeongyeon’s cheek.
Jeongyeon goes a little pink, and her nose scrunches entirely too adorably for Jihyo not to coo.
“I like it when you call me that,” she admits, her voice almost a whisper. Like she’s telling Jihyo a treasured secret.
“Yeah?” Jihyo muses, like she doesn’t already know this. Like she doesn’t call her it specifically just to see how bashful her girlfriend gets.
Jeongyeon nods, reaching for Jihyo’s hand and lacing their fingers together.
“Yeah,” she mumbles, squeezing once. “It makes me feel so loved. So yours.”
Jihyo very nearly climbs on top of her girlfriend for saying that, but she just about manages to restrain herself. Barely.
“You are so loved, princess,” Jihyo murmurs—another of Jeongyeon’s favourites, “and you are mine.”
Jeongyeon’s blush deepens, and Jihyo makes the softest, most precious little sound at the sight. Her girlfriend really is too cute for words sometimes.
“What do you want to do tomorrow?” Jeongyeon asks a little later, once her cheeks have returned to their normal colour and they’ve rearranged themselves so that Jihyo’s head is on her shoulder.
The question makes Jihyo hum in consideration. She hadn’t really planned to do much more than her regular workout and then maybe some shopping, but Jeongyeon sounds eager. She knows the older woman always likes to make the most of their days off, and she’s honoured to be included in any of her potential outings.
“I’m gonna go the gym in the morning, but then I’m free. What do you want to do, baby?”
Jeongyeon presses an almost absent-minded little kiss to Jihyo’s hair before she speaks, and it makes the younger woman’s heart beat like a pounding drum.
“There’s a beach about an hour from the hotel,” she starts, lifting Jihyo’s hand and fiddling softly with her fingers. “I was thinking of driving up there with my camera.”
Jihyo grins, then turns her head so she can kiss Jeongyeon’s shoulder.
“That sounds lovely. I’ll come with you, if you’d like?”
Jeongyeon lets out an almost exasperated little laugh.
“Of course I’d like that,” she says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “I always want you around. Always.”
Jihyo has to kiss her for that. She can’t not, because Jeongyeon says it like it’s the only real truth in the world and she’s looking at Jihyo like she’s something divine and really, it would be doing them both a disservice if Jihyo didn’t sit upright, thread a hand into Jeongyeon’s hair and pull their lips together.
It’s a soft, modest kiss; chaste, because they’re still surrounded by their members, but slow and loving nonetheless. Like always, Jihyo’s heart races at the feel of Jeongyeon’s mouth on hers, and like always, she pulls away looking absolutely smitten.
“You’re so cute, jagiya,” Jeongyeon murmurs, brushing her nose against Jihyo’s just to watch her go all bashful. “I’m gonna take so many pictures of you tomorrow.”
Jihyo’s cheeks, already pink from the kiss, flush darker. The way Jeongyeon treats her, the way she loves her—it never fails to leave her swooning.
She pulls back just enough to see her girlfriend’s face, then sighs dreamily. She’ll never get over how gorgeous this woman is, never get her head around just how lucky she is to call her hers.
“You have to let me take your picture, too,” she insists, poking at Jeongyeon’s stomach lightly with a hopeful gleam in her eyes.
The older woman chuckles, then nods. The ease with which she agrees to it makes Jihyo’s heart ache with something bittersweet. She remembers a time when Jeongyeon would shy away from a camera; a time when having her picture taken made her spiral, hide away from the world, hate herself for things outside of her control.
Jihyo had hated seeing it. Had hated even more how she could do nothing to fix it, to make it better.
But those days are past. That difficult time, that awful period where Jihyo was constantly unsure if she might be about to lose Jeongyeon forever—it’s over. It took pain and tears and hard work and so, so much bravery, but Jeongyeon had fought through it and come out the other side stronger than ever.
Jihyo’s never been prouder of anybody in her life than she is of Jeongyeon. As her leader, as her friend, as her lover—all parts of her swell with recognition and admiration when she thinks of all that Jeongyeon has overcome to make it to right now.
She can’t help but reach a hand out to cup Jeongyeon’s cheek, thumb stroking over the soft skin underneath her eye. Her girlfriend leans into it like it’s second nature, like it’s instinct, and Jihyo very nearly starts tearing up.
“You’re so beautiful, my love,” Jihyo breathes, the words spilling helpless and reverent from her lips.
She knows it’s sappy, knows it’s maybe a little much for the green room with the other members dotted about, but she can’t find it in herself to care. Jeongyeon is beautiful. She’s so beautiful, she’s so undeniably, blindingly perfect and she deserves to hear it. Deserves to know it, more than anything.
Jeongyeon blushes a pretty pink and nuzzles into Jihyo’s hand even further with a smile that could start and end wars.
Jihyo’s thoughts cast to a blurry, warm future—a few months from now, when the tour is over and they finally get to relax. She wants to take Jeongyeon on a trip once it’s all done. Somewhere with lots of beaches, somewhere she can take as many pictures as she likes. Somewhere they can be free and happy and themselves, and somewhere Jihyo can see that gorgeous smile every single day.
“I love you,” she says, because what else can she do? What else can she be, other than entirely, unconditionally in love with this woman?
Jeongyeon’s expression melts into something tender, something Jihyo knows is reserved only for her.
“I love you too,” she replies, soft and quiet but so, so sure.
Jihyo kisses her again. Firmer this time, deeper, because she feels so overwhelmed by her adoration, so crowded with affection and longing and desire, and she’s not sure where else to put it save for Jeongyeon’s lips.
They’re both smiling like fools when they pull back, foreheads pressed together, sharing air in the space between them.
They’ll make that trip, Jihyo decides right then. No matter the logistics, the fight she’ll surely have to have with the company about letting them go alone, she’ll make it happen. Because Jeongyeon deserves sunshine, deserves peace, deserves more love than she’ll know what to do with, and Jihyo, happier than she’s ever been in all her life, is determined to give it to her.
Because Jeongyeon’s here. Jeongyeon’s hers. And Jihyo will never stop being grateful for it.
*****
“Ok, seriously, get a room already!”
“Shut up, Nayeon!”