#thewaltzy

Merry Christmas to you too!

Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanza, Joyous Solstice and Merry Newtonmas to everyone else!

Heejin had barely entered the warehouse with all the props when she saw Hyunjin running for her life, breezing past her in her hurry to hide, and Heejin almost made fun of her, until she saw what was waiting for her. Olivia was sitting at one of the folding tables, and Heejin walked towards her, keeping a respectable distance of six meters because there was no way she was getting near that.

She turned her head, and saw their three leaders standing frozen, shaking their heads no, unsurprisingly useless with animals as they were. Heejin took a deep breath: It’s alright, she told herself over and over. It’s nothing. I used to see bigger beasts than that when I lived in the country.

She crossed her arms over her puffed chest, bravely trying to appear more intimidating. Behind her, ten girls cowered in fear, Yeojin and Chuu clutching her shoulders in a vice-like grip. Only Gowon stood by her side, feet firmly planted on the ground, although Heejin could see her eyes shaking.

She watched, bemused, as Olivia took a lollipop off her mouth and held it up to the snake wrapped around her forearm - and its tongue flicking out to lick at the candy. What. And then Olivia put the lollipop back in her mouth. What the fuck.

“Hyejoo,” Heejin began, unsure. “Whatcha got there?”

Olivia raised an eyebrow. “A smoothie,” she said, showing the drink in her other hand.

“No, I’m,” Heejin was beginning to understand how Lip felt on the daily. “I mean. The. Why. Um. Why do you have a snake?”

“Oh,” Olivia said, monotone. The snake perked up: raising its scaly head, it stared at the ten of them with round, beady eyes. It had a squiggly-looking mouth and its scales were obsidian black, with a hint of blue. “Well, uh, it’s mine, now. I named him Nagini.”

Choerry peeked from behind Heejin’s shoulder, curiosity on her deathly pale face. “Oh, like in–”

“Harry Potter, yeah,” Olivia sighed, and Choerry beamed. Heejin’s eye twitched.

“It’s just that, well,” she shifted ever so slightly, as if afraid of moving too fast. “When you said that director-nim was going to give you an animal, we’d thought we’d get a, you know, something more conventional,” she said. She didn’t want to hurt Olivia’s feelings. “Like a cat, or a puppy.”

Olivia shrugged. “They were going to use it for the next MV but it’s gonna be a while before we shoot it, so, they wanted to bring it back, but I thought it’d be a waste of money. I just offered to take him back to the dorm in the meantime, that’s all. I got the vivarium and food ready too,” she said, booping the snake on its… snout?

Yeojin blanched. “That thing is gonna live with us?”

Olivia scowled. “It’s not a thing. It’s an animal with feelings.” As she said this, the snake raised its head towards Yeojin and hissed, showing short fangs. Yeojin screamed in panic.

“AHHHH!!!! GET YOUR FUCKING SNAKE!!!!!”

“It don’t bite.”

“YES IT DO!! Y–”

“Yeojin, shush!!” Heejin whisper-shouted. “You’re gonna anger it more!”

The others started protesting, and in the cacophony of their voices Heejin could barely make out ‘Animals are forbidden in the new dorm!’ and ‘I will dump all of your games in the bathroom if you bring that snake home, Son Hyejoo!’

“It’s alright, just a danger noodle,” Choerry cooed, and Heejin almost groaned. Of course the girl with (formerly…?) pet roaches would be alright with a fucking snake named after a fucking Horcrux.

Their manager called them from behind, signaling for their next shooting. Heejin sighed and gave up trying to reason with these two. At least they shared a room, so that was not her problem anymore.

Wendy really didn’t understand how it happened.

She’d go to sleep at night curled up in her bed alone and she’d wake up with a hundred some pounds of dancer draped over her back, snoozing soundly.

The first time it happened had scared the shit out of Wendy. The feeling of a heavy weight pressing down on her whole body didn’t mix well with her sleep addled mind. The feeling induced panicked flailing and she’d smacked Seulgi in the face hard enough to send her over the side of the bed. The red mark on her cheek didn’t stop her from appearing on the smaller girl again the next morning though.

She’d fallen asleep on the couch once while reading a book, back against the arm rest with her legs stretched out over the length of it, and when she woke up Seulgi was stretched out on top of her, her arms wrapped around her waist and her face pillowed against her thighs. Wendy could barely get up that morning; her legs felt like jello.

Seulgi’s habit hadn’t changed at all when they each got their own rooms; every morning, without fail, Wendy would wake up with Seulgi on top of her, with her arms wrapped around her or with her face tucked into her neck.

But by that point Wendy had gotten used to Seulgi’s nighttime habit. She even found some comfort in it herself; waking up with Seulgi’s warmth wrapped around her was comforting. Seulgi’s weight on top of her became an assuring presence rather than a crushing one.

Her favorite part though was waking her up. Wriggling one of her arms out of the other girl’s hold to run her fingers through her hair and whisper her awake. To plant a kiss on her cheek as a drowsy grin spread across her face.