“aa, i don’t know about that. i think our seulgi is too cool for a lot of people. too kind, too pretty,” he teases, maybe a little too playfully considering the situation, the circumstances. location alone makes it riskier than he’d prefer and he keeps his grin minimal, more subtle than he’s used to. “okay, just between us. sounds like a deal.” when she concedes to the autographs, he considers teasing her that he’ll buy out an entire music store but there’s actually a small chance he would just to support her. it’d be interesting to send home but maybe difficult to explain to the princess if she found out. he’s been missing her more lately, but it’s different. more muted, not as consuming as it once was and he wishes he could talk to someone about it, wishes he could talk to seulgi more freely right now.
“he is! aaa… a meme? in a good way, right? i don’t want you to be upset about becoming a meme. some people don’t like it, right?” any publicity is good publicity, that’s the phrase, but he doesn’t get it when some memes seem hurtful or illogical. but he doesn’t keep up enough. that could be the reason for it all. “do you like winnie the pooh? maybe if you don’t like him, you shouldn’t,” he ends up laughing more, shaking his head, hand pressed to the nape of his neck. “if you do it for halloween this year, it’d be really cute too.”
If anyone else had said all of that, she probably would have started laughing. She definitely knew she wasn’t too cool, she could sometimes be too kind and she wasn’t sure if she was pretty, especially considering the other girls in her group, but the fact it came from him makes her just smile and accept it. “If it comes from you, I guess I can’t fight it, then,” she said, just accepting it. She really was having fun, even if it was something short like this that would have to do for now. She wished that she could just talk to him like normal, but she knows there are too many people around that wouldn’t have understanding enough to not report them to their management.
“Upset?” she couldn’t believe she was dumb enough to not realize that yeah, there would more likely be harmful memes made about her than not in that situation, especially with her yellow-tipped hair at the moment. “I do like him, but I’m not sure now that I want to be memed to be him…” she said, pouting a little bit, since she knows she thinks Pooh is really cute, so she’d be sad for both herself and Pooh if bad memes came out of it. “You think so? I really haven’t even thought that far ahead, my minds like in a blender with how fast everything’s going for debuting!”
the biggest shame is that even if there’s the possibility of crossing paths at seocho, there’s so much going on there that explaining why they choose to hang out together or practice together for no reason is more difficult than still being in the same company. but free time is a rarity either way, even when seulgi was still a trainee. he finds it hard to believe their schedules will easily match up from now on. even this promotional period seemed like pure luck and it was only for a short time that their paths would cross. there’s only the potential for some brief moments like this and nothing like what he’s used to.
“really? aaa, i don’t agree with you! younggi, seulgi,” he pauses on calling her baby bear or little bear like their group of friends used to. in mixed company, it doesn’t seem right and he grins instead, wetting his lips with a soft sigh. “too cool for me now, tsk.” at the mention of a rumor, he’s rolling his eyes, a hint of exasperation exhaled when he lets out a small laugh, eventually shaking his head. “is that approval i sense? i can sell this if i take you out with the profits? you make it too easy to start an account just for selling younggi merchandise,” hoseok teases, fingertips tapping against the album cover. “i like the yellow. you look so bright. it’s cute. aa, since you’re a bear. it’s almost like winnie the pooh? honey yellow.” even if he’s never seen honey thatcolor.
She really hopes that this isn’t going to be only a random occurrance like it feels like it is. She misses hanging out with Landon already in Sphere and to think that they might only see each other when they’re randomly on the same show or maybe even at Seocho, made her feel unhappy about the situation. She had to hold onto hope that it would be better than that, that they could figure out some way of spending time together in a safe and smart way. In the meantime, this would have to suffice.
She whines a little bit when he says he doesn’t agree with her, definitely foiling any aspect that might have seemed ‘too cool’ in the moment. “You know me better than that, I’m not too cool for anyone,” she said with a shake of her head, finally smiling. “It’ll just stay between you and I, right?” she says, continuing on with the joke. “But yes, autographs for food, I’m okay with this trade,” she laughs too, smiling even more when he says her hair looks cute. “Oh right, yeah, he is kind of this color, isn’t he? I need to wear a red shirt next performance so people can meme that, maybe?” It was a funny idea at least in her opinion.
