Chapter Text
Chaeryeong came down to the lobby for her latest breakfast date with Lucy and was surprised to find Momo waiting down there.
“You waiting for a breakfast delivery too?” Momo asked.
“Something like that,” Chaeryeong said, blushing.
“Oh!” Momo said, her eyes going wide. “You’ve got a date this morning! You still seeing Lucy?”
Chaeryeong nodded, suddenly finding herself speechless.
“That’s great!” Momo said. “I think you two make a really cute couple.” She patted the bench, signaling Chaeryeong to sit down next to her.
Chaeryeong sat down. “I’m really happy with her, and I think she’s happy with me,” she said quietly, “but I’m also kind of worried.”
“Because you’re not bonded yet,” Momo said, nodding sagely.
“Exactly,” Chaeryeong said. “I mean, I know you can’t tell if or when it’s going to happen, but. . .”
“But you want to know,” Momo said.
Chaeryeong nodded, her face grim. “I mean, I know I’m still kind of hurt from hurt from my bond with Yeri breaking, and I’m trying not to take the stress from that out on Lucy. But I’m just. . . I want to know, you know? If I’m going to bond with Lucy, then I’m really happy with that — I think she’s great, and I’d love to be bonded with her, but if I’m not going to bond with her, I’d love to be able to know that in advance, so that I can stop wondering and I can just enjoy my time with her without all the uncertainty.”
Momo reached out to put her arm around Chaeryeong. “Yeah, that would be really great,” she said. “Unfortunately, the world doesn’t work that way.” Just then motion outside the glass door caught her attention. “And unless my food delivery girls looks an awful lot like Lucy — and forgot my order — it looks like your date is here.”
Chaeryeong looked out the window at Lucy, waved excitedly, then turned back to Momo for a second. “Thanks, unnie!” she said before giving Momo a quick hug and then dashing out the door, where she gave Lucy a much longer hug.
Momo sat quietly, watching as Lucy took Chaeryeong’s hand and they walked off toward the taxi that was waiting for them. “I know there’s no way of knowing if they’ll bond,” she thought, “and nothing that can be done to make it more likely that they’ll bond, but I really hope that they do — Chaeryeong’s been through a really rough experience with her bond with Yeri breaking, and Lucy seems to be really good for her.”
Su-jin looked up as Nayeon walked into her office. “Hmmm,” she said, smiling. “That’s your ‘I’ve got an idea’ look on your face. Before you tell me the idea, how about first you tell me whether or not you think I’ll like the idea.”
Nayeon made a show of looking thoughtful. “Hmm,” she said, putting her hand on her chin. “Would Su-jin like an idea that promises to be profitable and requires little effort? I just don’t know.”
Su-jin laughed. “Okay, you’ve definitely got me interested. Now sell me on the idea.”
“Well,” Nayeon said, flopping down in once of the chairs across the desk from Su-jin, “now that Twice, Itzy, and Alexa are all part of Legacy, it doesn’t really make sense to have our fans divided into Once, Midzy, and AI Troopers. We need to have a unified fandom for all of Legacy.”
“And what would you call it?” Su-jin asked.
“I’m not sure yet,” Nayeon said. “I think it would be good to have all the fans from all three groups send in suggestions for what the fandom should be called.”
“Okay, that’s good,” Su-jin said. “It brings more attention to Legacy, and it’s low effort, but I’m not seeing how it would be profitable.”
“Because,” Nayeon said, leaning forward and gesturing dramatically, “once we have a new fandom name, we’ll need to have a fan sign for all the fans of Legacy to come together!”
Su-jin nodded. “That is a good idea,” she said. “I’d like to add something to it though.”
“What’s that?” Nayeon asked. “I mean, you’re the leader, so you can do whatever you want.”
“I suppose theoretically I could,” Su-jin said,”but I’d definitely like to have my sub-unit leaders on board. What I’d like to add — and it might delay the fan sign for a bit, but I think it would be worth it — is I’d like to reveal the design for the new Legacy lightstick at the fan sign and start taking pre-orders for it.”
“Only pre-orders?” Nayeon asked.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Su-jin said. “We can have the exterior design ready within a month, but getting the electronics design finalized and the manufacturing set up would require at least another two months.”
Nayeon nodded, saying “Well, the time delay on the lightstick is disheartening, but I think it’s a great idea. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with.”
Su-jin laughed. “What I come up with? Oh no no no. You’re not getting out of this! I’m going to schedule an appointment with a lightstick design, and when I meet with them, you, Yeji, and Alexa are also going to be there.”
“Oh,” Nayeon said, blinking in surprise. “Should I go give the other sub-unit leaders a heads up on this?”
Su-jin nodded as she opened up her computer and started typing. “You should,” she said, “and you should also each start working on a message to send out to your fandom. Don’t sent it yet, though. Bring them to me once you’ve got them. I want us all to work together to be sure we’re all saying the same thing, and also I want all the messages to go out simultaneously.”
“Yes ma’am!” Nayeon said, standing up and saluting.
Su-jin laughed. “Okay, that’s enough of that. Now go round up the other sub-unit leaders and get started on those statements.”
Jeongyeon and Sana were sitting at a table in one of the practice rooms, each with a computer in front of them, going through the emails with suggestions for the new fandom name, adding them to a list of possibilities, along with counts for how many people had suggested each one.
“We’re not actually going to use the most popular one, are we?” Sana asked as she marked down another person suggesting that their fandom be called “The Best Fandom.”
“Oh, absolutely not,” Jeongyeon said, shaking her head emphatically. “Su-jin was very clear about that from the beginning. This isn’t an election — the most popular name doesn’t automatically win — and it isn’t a contest — if we eventually use a name that someone suggested, they don’t get any sort of a prize. The fans had to sign a waiver before submitting their suggestions that anything they submit is ours, to do as we please with.”
“That’s a relief,” Sana said as she marked down two more votes for Fandom McFandomface.
They worked in silence for the next hour, until suddenly Jeongyeon gasped and jumped to her feet. “I think we can stop reading the suggestions!” she exclaimed, turning her computer so that Sana could see the screen.
“GIFT?” Sana asked, confused.
Jeongyeon nodded, scrolling down. “They say that ‘gift’ is a synonym for ‘legacy,’ and by putting it in all caps like that, it can be made into an acronym — they suggest ‘Great Investment in Future Times’”
“I love it!” Sana said. “Quick! Call Nayeon — they’re in the meeting with the lightstick designer now, and they could probably make something out of this.”
Jeongyeon had picked up her phone and started the call before Sana had finished talking, then put her phone in her pocket, saying “It’s going straight to voicemail. She’s probably got it on DND for the meeting.” She picked up her computer and started running for Su-jin’s office.
Sana sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I hope they like it,” she said to herself. “I like it, and not just because it’ll mean I don’t have to read any more suggestions.”
Jeongyeon ran straight to Su-jin’s office, barely managing to open the door before running into it. Su-jin, Nayeon, Alexa, and a woman who must be the lightstick designer all stared at her.
“Sana and I found the perfect fandom name, and it leads right to a perfect lightstick idea,” Jeongyeon said between gasps as she tried to catch her breath. “We wanted to get it to you before you decided on anything!”
Putting her laptop down on the desk, Jeongyeon showed them the post explaining the GIFT fandom name. Before she was halfway through the lightstick designer had picked up her tablet and started sketching while listening to her explanation. Just a Jeongyeon had finished, the designer turned around her tablet and said “What do you think about this?” She had drawn a lightstick with a square package on top, wrapped in ribbon with a bow. She tapped a series of buttons in the corner and the package flashed in a variety of colors and speeds.
“Three buttons in the handle,” she said. “One for power on-off and to cycle through different flashing speeds, one to cycle through different colors for the package, and one to cycle through different colors for the ribbon and bow. Plus, of course, it can be controlled by the arena electronics, so that the whole crowd is flashing in unison.”
“Soo-young, you’ve outdone yourself!” Su-jin explained. “You can do this within the time frame we had discussed?”
Soo-joung nodded. “I can have a working prototype by the time of your fansign, and if I start now, I can have production rolling by that time, with enough inventory to start sales by the week after the fansign.”
Su-jin’s eyes grew wide. “Wow! That’s even better than I’d expected!”
Soo-young smiled. “You gave me a great concept to work with,” she said, “and since it’s my first time as head designer, I’m looking forward to seeing it in action.”
Now it was Nayeon’s eyes that grew wide. “You produced that idea, just like that, and this is your first time working as head designer?”
Soo-young nodded. “I did most of the work on the latest version of the Candybong, but since my boss is a friend of JYP’s, he got most of the credit and most of the money. Su-jin knew what was going on, and when the time came to design the Legacy lightstick, she called me directly.” Soo-young stood up and bowed to Su-jin. “Thank you for your confidence in me, and now please excuse me — I’ve got to get to work.”
Dahyun was sitting on the couch in the Twice common room, looking at her phone. “Oh no,” she said. “She’s going to be totally insufferable after this.”
Tzuyu had come into the room just in time to hear this. “Who?” she asked.
Without saying a word, Dahyun scrolled back to the top of the article and handed her phone to Tzuyu.
Tzuyu looked at the phone and read the headline: “Blackpink Jennie Bonds.” “So?” Tzuyu said, reaching to hand the phone back to Dahyun. “We knew that was going to happen sooner or later.
Dahyun pushed the phone back toward Tzuyu. “No, read the rest of it,” she said, folding her arms and waiting patiently.
“Holy shit,” Tzuyu said, as she finished reading the party. “Does Yeji know? Does Su-jin know?”
“I don’t know,” Dahyun said, “but we should probably tell them. Nayeon too.”
It didn’t take them long to get Nayeon, Yeji, and Su-jin on a group call. “Okay,” Nayeon said. “You’ve got us all. Now can you tell us what’s so important that you bothered us at 11 o’clock on the night before a day off?”
“I just read the news and wanted to be sure you knew, and obviously you didn’t or you wouldn’t be asking me why I’m calling,” Dahyun said testily. “Maybe next time I’ll just keep my mouth shut and let you be surprised.”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” Nayeon said, trying to placate Dahyun before she got really upset, which would then end up getting Jihyo and Tzuyu upset as well. “What’s the big news?”
“Chaeryeong was on a date with Lucy tonight,” Dahyun said, “and then Jennie came into the restaurant and Jennie and Chaeryeong bonded, right there, in public, in front of Lucy. It sounds like Chaeryeong tried to keep things from escalating, but the news stories aren’t clear about what happened next. There might have been a fistfight between the alphas.”
“Thanks, Dahyun,” Su-jin said. “Nayeon, Yeji, you can go now. If you happen to see any of your members, let them know what’s going on, but this isn’t worth interrupting their evenings for. Also, Yeji, let me know if Chaeryeong comes back to the building, with or without Jennie. Looks like I’ve got to go into damage control mode.”
Su-jin hung up first, then Nayeon and Yeji, after they each thanked Dahyun for the update.
“It’s kind of funny,” Dahyun said, as she put down her phone and leaned into Tzuyu.
“What’s funny?” Tzuyu asked.
“Weki Meki members seem to have the worst luck where Legacy members are concerned,” Dahyun said. “It looked like Chaeryeong and Lucy were about to bond until this happened, and before that we all thought Sei was going to bond with you until you bonded with me and Jihyo.”
“Not to mention the time you and Sei almost got into the fistfight in my coffee shop,” Tzuyu said.
Dahyun looked up at her, blushing. “You’re never going to let me forget about that, are you?” she asked.
“Maybe someday,” Tzuyu said, struggling to hold in her laughter. “When it stops being funny.”
Dahyun snorted. “Yeah, let’s see how funny it is when I decide not to give you the blowjob I promised tonight,” she said. “Especially when Jihyo won’t give you one after she learn that the reason I won’t blow you is because you were making fun of me.”
“Aw Dahyunnie!” Tzuyu pleaded. “You don’t really mean that, do you?”
Dahyun smirked up at her. “Keep making fun of me, and we’ll see how much I mean it!”
Just then Jihyo walked in, wearing a bathrobe and toweling off her hair. “How much you mean what?” she asked.
“Oh, um, nothing,” Tzuyu said hastily. “I just. . . I was teasing Dahyunnie and took it a little too far. You know how I do sometimes.”
Jihyo looked at Dahyun, who looked sidewise at Tzuyu and shrugged. “More or less,” she said.