It starts when Joy wakes her up. That’s not the strange part; it’s usually Joy or Wendy who wakes Irene up, wakes everyone up, being the first ones to rise. No, the weird part was how Joy wakes Irene up: she kisses her. Multiple times. Irene can feel Joy’s lips fluttering against her skin- eyelids, nose, cheeks, collarbones- and it’s not particularly unpleasant or anything, but it’s different and Irene has always been weary of what she’s not used to. (Joy has never been particularly touchy with Irene when waking her up; she usually saves that for Seulgi and even then, it’s in the form of body slamming the older girl into the waking world.) Joy manages to persuade Irene to open her eyes with a tender kiss against her lips and a flick of her tongue over the older girl’s upper lip. “Morning, unni,” Joy grins from above her, eyes bright and hair still mussed from sleep.

	“Morning,” Irene replies back, voice crackling with lingering sleepiness. “What was that for?” she asks in an amused tone but under the haze of having just woken up, there’s a slight suspicion. She raises her eyebrow to emphasize her question but all she gets out of Joy is a playful smirk and a noncommittal shrug of her shoulders before the younger girl resumes her previous activity. Somewhere between Joy sucking the skin of her neck and her trailing kisses between the older girl’s breasts, Irene’s shirt ends up on the floor but she can’t bring herself to notice the off-putting cold of the morning when it’s Joy’s light touches that make her skin prickle. Irene learns to set aside her hesitance when Joy’s kisses trail lower and lower, quickly morphing from nothing but light presses of her lips against Irene’s skin to wet, open-mouthed kisses that makes Irene want to wrap her legs around the younger girl’s back and buck her hips. Then, as Joy dips her tongue into Irene’s belly button, fingers toying with the band of the older girl’s underwear, Irene raises her hips so that Joy can pull them off along with her shorts and learns to let go.

	Afterwards, when Joy’s trailing lazy kisses across the span of her collarbones and up the side of her neck, Irene decides to ask again, chest still heaving from exertion. “What was all that for?”

	Joy responds with a bright laugh and an off-handed comment of “You’re cute, unni” before pushing herself off of Irene’s bed and heading towards the door. “C’mon. Seungwan-unni made breakfast.” Joy leaves the room and Irene never gets an answer.

.

	Everything returns back to normal afterwards and that freaks Irene out even more. But she soon learns to calm down and not flinch everytime Joy’s in vicinity. Joy, for her part, acts like nothing happened. She doesn’t shoot her playful smirks with hidden meanings and doesn’t trail her fingers or her lips down the span of Irene’s body like she had that morning. So Irene stops tensing everytime Joy talks to her and eventually figures out that maybe the younger girl isn’t conspiring against her after all. But sometimes, when Seulgi and Joy or Wendy and Joy are talking and laughing from across the room, their eyes flicker towards her and Irene tenses up all over again.

.

	Irene’s… encounter with Joy eventually drifts from her mind and life goes on. Until Seulgi corners her in the bathroom. She’s almost done showering when Seulgi enters with the intention of brushing her teeth. That’s not unusual; they share one bathroom between the four of them and are usually short on time so it’s not anything they haven’t done before.  But then Seulgi backs Irene up against the bathroom sink after the older girl had slipped on her panties. Irene’s back hits the edge of the sink and she stares up at Seulgi with wide eyes.

	Seulgi smirks but hers isn’t playful or teasing like Joy’s had been; there’s a dangerous edge to it that quickens Irene’s pulse and slightly dizzies her vision. Seulgi leans in and a jolt shoots up Irene’s spine when she feels Seulgi’s hot breath hitting her ear. Seulgi still hasn’t touched her yet and there’s a gap between them that Irene desperately wants with a heated ache to close. “Don’t worry, unni,” Seulgi whispers, “I’ll make you feel good.” She seals the promise with a light nip to Irene’s earlobe and a soft kiss pressed against her lips that contradicts the atmosphere. Seulgi pulls back, shooting her a reassuring ghost of a smile and for a moment, she’s hers again- she’s her Seulgi and that makes Irene breathes a bit easier.

	But then Irene feels Seulgi’s hands trail lightly on either side of her legs before they curl behind the back of her thighs, and gasps when she’s abruptly lifted up and onto the counter of the bathroom sink.