fake it till you make it | purinz

prologue

The idea occurs to Chaewon, as all of her least thought-out ideas do, while she's listening to Sakura complain about her latest "breakup" with Kazuha. Chaewon considers this conditional, of course, because Sakura and Kazuha are constantly on and off, often going on breaks that Sakura then laments as if they're never going to get back together.

(They always do, for the record.)

This particular time, whatever reason they broke up has Sakura on a kick about the importance of couples prioritizing each other, how nice it is to have that one person to trust and rely on always, to have someone to hold your hand and watch scary movies with and join you in dorky dances.

"Like what I have with Yunjin, you mean?" she asks distractedly, eyebrows furrowed as she unwittingly interrupts what would otherwise be a much longer diatribe.

Sakura sighs loudly. "That's friendship; it's different."

"How so?" Chaewon prompts before Sakura can resume and she's forced to finally tune out one of her best friends.

"Couples do stuff friends don't do, I guess. It's more of a partnership." After a pause, Sakura breaks into something between a smirk and a genuine smile. "It's more fun too, and I don't even mean that as an innuendo."

If she's being completely honest, Chaewon's never really thought about dating before. At least not beyond the superficial considerations of her friends' relationships; certainly not anything as personal as dating for herself. The moment she decided she wanted to be an idol, she knew it was probably off the table and so she boxed it off in her own mind, shelving even the contemplation of it for later. Even when some of the other girls in the group decided to ignore the dating rule, Chaewon kept her mental box intact.

Her face must be a little too blank, because then Sakura is scoffing and rolling her eyes.

"You'll get it when you're older, Chaewon-ah," she mocks.

Chaewon, for her part, laughs and shoves at Sakura's shoulder.

"Whatever, Sakura-unnie," she says, but it's already too late. The box has fallen off the shelf, and now Chaewon is contemplating.

-

"Okay, what's going on?" Yunjin demands, pausing their game of Mario Kart the next day. "You keep staring at me with a weird look on your face and you're in last place. Not like that's any different..." She mumbled that last part.

Admittedly, Chaewon has been a bit spacey and distracted all day long, but that's because hanging out with Sakura is a mistake that plants extraterrestrial seeds in her poor brain.

Yunjin's bluntness is startling enough to freeze said brain, and in the brief moment before it can reboot, Chaewon blurts, "We should practice dating each other."

The seeds, apparently, yield very impulsive, very stupid fruit.

Yunjin's mouth drops open. "What?!"

It's enough to send Chaewon into a tailspin of panic. "I-I mean... Yesterday Sakura-unnie was complaining about her latest breakup with Zuha and she kept talking about the things couples do together and I realized we already do most of them so I don't see why we couldn't test out the other stuff so that we have experience before we're, like, thirty and trying dating for the first time?"

Then Chaewon takes several deep, needed breaths as she scans Yunjin's frozen face. It takes a good minute before her features scrunch into contemplation.

"So... you're saying Sakura actually complained so much that you lost your mind and now you want me to be your pretend girlfriend?" she asks.

"That's not what I'm saying!" Chaewon exclaims, offended. "I just thought we could maybe practice together but if you don't want to, you can just tell me that."

"I'm not saying I don't want to," Yunjin admits. She chews on her bottom lip for a moment before clarifying, "I just meant... what would practicing even entail?"

Chaewon has not actually gotten this far. Up until this point, her thoughts had mostly been a loop of 'What ifs' and 'Yunjins,' so it's a bit inconvenient that she's being asked this question without any prep time.

"U-um, I guess go on dates? And hold hands, which we already do, but... uh, differently?"

Yunjin nods seriously. "And this would be separate from our normal friendship?"

"Yes," Chaewon says rotely, strangely eager to hurry Yunjin towards her decision.

Yunjin nods again, but it's a bit more resolute this time. She takes a big breath, and then she says, "Okay."

"Okay," Chaewon repeats. There is an awkward beat where Yunjin stares at her like she's waiting for her to say something else, but her mind went fuzzy the second Yunjin agreed and now she can't imagine what else needs to be said.

Finally, Yunjin cracks, the corner of her mouth tilting upwards. "Wanna start on Saturday night?" she prompts.

"Oh, right!" Chaewon chuckles to mask her embarrassment. "Yeah! Sounds good."

She wonders if they should shake hands or something, but Yunjin just laughs at her and starts up the game again.