Chapter Text
Karina walks into her apartment with not a single thought in her mind but the biggest smile on her face, which makes Giselle stare at her like she’s crazy for a few moments before she just shrugs it off.
“Why are you so happy?”
“Nothing.” Karina says, giggling as she drops herself on the spot next to Giselle on the couch. “What are you doing?”
“I was watching a tv show but now I'm more interested on what got you smiling like that.”
“Do you want to guess?”
“No.”
Karina only pouts in reply, making Giselle roll her eyes, but the girl still does as Karina wants.
“Is it something with Winter?”
“Yes.”
“Figured.” Giselle looks extra thoughtful, as if she really wants to get it right all of a sudden. “Did she ask you out? Since the film and everything is done.”
“We still have some interviews and stuff.” Karina points out. “And she did not ask me out.”
“Please tell me you’re not this happy over a compliment or something, Karina.”
“It wasn’t a compliment.” Karina chuckles.
“A hug?”
“No.”
“Did she buy you dinner?”
“No.” Karina furrows her eyebrows at the guesses. “You’re really bad at this.”
“Then maybe just tell me.”
“She kissed me.”
“She kissed you?”
“Yes.” Karina replies, her smile getting even bigger. “I mean, I kissed her first, but yes.”
“You kissed her first ?” Giselle asks, the doubt clear in her words. “You, Karina, kissed her, Winter, first?
“On camera.” Karina adds, laughing as soon as she hears the gasp that comes out of Giselle.
“Okay, I won’t scream because I don’t want to go full Ningning on you, but what?”
“I wasn’t thinking. I just wanted to kiss her so I did it.”
“And then?”
“Well...” Karina goes on to tell Giselle the whole thing and already preparing herself to have the same conversation with Ningning because she knows it won’t be half as silently. “Then she left.”
“So you are telling me that she told you that if you were going to kiss her, the least you could do, is do it right but then she dropped you off with nothing but a cheek kiss?” Giselle doesn’t even try to hold back her laugh. “This is so...”
“Stop.” Karina tries to sound serious, but soon she’s also laughing along. “She looked so shy all of a sudden, it was adorable.”
“You two have the weirdest dynamic I have ever seen.”
“No, we don’t.”
“No?”
“Maybe...”
“Okay, but how did you not get yourself a girlfriend after tonight is beyond me.”
“How are things with Ningning?” Karina shoots back.
“Honestly, seeing you with Winter makes me think that I will, in fact, date her before you two sort things out.”
“Shut up.” Karina chuckles. “I mean, we kissed! That’s a start, no?”
“I am pretty sure that after all you’ve been through, you should already be dating, Karina.”
“And I am pretty sure there is no reason to rush it.”
—
“It’s our last schedule together.” Karina tells Winter as her makeup artist finishes her makeup.
“Are you sad?” Winter asks, the annoying smirk that Karina has learned to love present on her face. “Are you going to miss me too much?”
“Maybe.” Karina half admits. “Won’t you miss me?”
“Well–”
“Girls, are you ready?”
“Yeah.” Winter pouts, not being able to finish her sentence, but then she turns to Karina already smiling. “We’ll finish this conversation after the interview!”
“Will we?”
“Yeah! There some... things we need to talk about.” Winter says. “Maybe I can stay over at your place?”
The last words are said barely above a whisper as Winter passes by the idol.
—
The interview goes without a problem for the most part. The usual questions they have answered in many other interviews being asked with just slightly different words.
But when the interviewer asks a question that Karina wasn’t expecting, she doesn’t quite hide her surprise.
“What about dating?” The interviewer asks it casually.
“Sorry?” Karina’s voice goes a pitch too high and she fakes a cough to regain her posture. “I think I misheard, sorry.”
“That’s okay.” The interviewer smiles politely. “I asked about dating. Anyone in your life, Karina? Or maybe in yours, Winter?”
Oh. After the realization that the question isn’t about them dating each other, Karina relaxes in her seat, her eyes going to Winter in hopes that the actress will answer first.
“Well... You see...” Winter chuckles, shaking her head. “I don’t think that it’s very easy to meet people romantically when you’re working in a field like ours.”
“Really?” The interviewer asks, curiously. “But you’ve had your fair share of good-looking co-stars, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” Winter nods. “And I’ve probably had rumors with each one of them, but they’re just that, rumors.”
The interviewer nods in understanding before turning towards Karina. “What about you, Karina?”
“I’m in the same page as Winter.”
“I’m sure your fans will be happy to hear that.” The interviewer says, before continuing with the interview.
—
It’s late at night already when Karina leaves her bathroom and enters her room, finding Winter sitting on her bed, the pajamas she let Winter borrow looking adorably oversized due to their little height difference making the actress look as cute as ever.
The entire scene feels so... domestic. And right. Like this is what Karina wants and should be coming home to every single night.
But the interview is still fresh on Karina’s mind, it’s been the whole day. The urge to ask Winter what they are been bugging her ever since the finished the interview.
“Hi.” Winter says, not taking her eyes off of her cellphone.
“Hi.”
“You took a long time.”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Then how did I miss you?” Winter asks, her eyes leaving her phone as she smirks, patting the stop in the bed right next to her.
“I don’t know but I missed you too.” Karina chuckles, making her way to the bed and sitting next to Winter, the actress’s head quickly goes to rest on her shoulder and Karina can’t help but smile. “Needy.”
“I was thinking...” Winter starts, ignoring Karina’s attempt at teasing her. “We are actually done with all the interviews and everything, right?”
“Right.” Karina nods, feeling slightly stupid for how down her mood got just by thinking about the way she won’t get to work with Winter anymore.
“That means we won’t be seeing each other during work times, mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“Mostly.” Winter shrugs. “I have plans of barging into that practice room whenever you practice for too long.”
“I would like that.”
“Good.”
There are a few moments of silence before Karina speaks up.
“What were you going to say?”
“Right!” Winter chuckles as she starts to play with Karina’s hand. “Well, I think that now that you won’t be seeing me during the whole day, maybe we could–”
“Go out with me.” Karina cuts Winter off. “On a real date.”
The actress’s head shoots up from Karina’s shoulder with the cutest confused look on her face. “I was saying something!”
“You were taking too long.” Karina replies, firmly holding Winter’s hand to stop the girl from moving her own hand around. “Were you nervous to ask me out?”
“I wasn’t going to ask you out, though.”
This time, Karina is the one who gets confused, she turns to get a better look at Winter’s face to try and get some clue about what the girl could be wanting to ask her. “What was it then?”
“Well, you see...” Winter trails off, smiling at Karina in a way that makes the idol’s heart almost melt. “I know I’m yours and I’d like to think that you’re mine but... We haven’t said it yet.”
If Winter’s smile almost melted Karina’s heart, her words surely finished the job.
“You’re mine.” Karina says, not even sure if she’s saying the words to herself or to Winter. “I’m yours.”
“I know labels aren’t really necessary and I was never one to care much about it but... I would really like to be your girlfriend.”
Karina doesn’t even know how much more her heart can take with the way Winter keeps saying all that.
“I would really like to be your girlfriend too.”
Winter doesn’t answer her, instead she smiles as she gets closer to Karina, leaving a tiny kiss right at the spot where Karina’s beauty mark is and laughing as the tiniest whiny sound comes out of the idol.
“What?”
“What happened to ‘if you’re going to kiss me, at least do it right?’”
Winter laughs before giving the idol another kiss, this time right at the corner of her mouth. “Better?”
Karina doesn’t bother to answer, instead glaring at the actress before she ultimately presses both their lips together.
“Better.”
—
Karina knew that dating Winter in secret wasn’t going to be easy, she thought about it a lot as soon as she accepted to be the actress’s official girlfriend.
She knew that they wouldn’t get to act much like a couple in public, knew that their relationship would be pretty much only for them to know.
She knew the whole thing wouldn’t be easy.
Turns out she knew nothing.
The longer they stayed together, the easiest it got and the less it even felt like a secret.
Her closest friends and family knew about it; she even went on some family trips with her family and Winter a few times.
The same could be said about Winter’s parents and friends.
At first, they tried to keep their dates very casual, tried to not bring any attention to themselves. Winter would as much as ask if Karina was trying to disguise herself from dispatch or if she was going on a secret mission when she would wear her full black clothes with face mask on some of them. But they soon stopped even hiding their dates.
Turns out that going out in public was the easiest thing when the public decides to coin you as ‘best friends’. It’s not like they were completely wrong, Karina thinks. Winter is one of her best friends now. She’s just... much more than just that.
The only hard part for Karina is not kissing Winter in public, but that isn’t even that big of a problem when they have so much time alone whenever they’re not too busy with work.
“Baby, you’re going to make me burn the food!” Winter whines as she tries to move away from Karina without getting away from the stove.
Karina refuses to let go of her waist, kissing the actress’s neck and nuzzling her nose against Winter’s skin. “We could cancel dinner.”
“Ningning would never let us hear the end of it.”
“Don’t you think that it’s weird that we’re having dinner with both your ex-girlfriend and my ex-girlfriend?”
“No.” Winter replies immediately, then she thinks a bit and chuckles. “I do think that it’s weird that we’re friends with both my ex-girlfriend and your ex-girlfriend but what can we do?”
“We can cancel dinner.” Karina offers again, her hold against Winter’s waist just as firm as before. “We cancel dinner, order food and watch a movie just the two of us. We’ll have many days ahead to spend with them, you know?”
“We will, won’t we?” Winter asks, thinking on it. “But Ningning and Minju will break my front door and every window in this place before they let us cancel dinner to be alone.”
“I’m sure I can convince Giselle to talk Ningning out of it.”
Winter stops for a moment, turning off the stove and turning towards Karina. “You convince Giselle, I’ll talk to Chaewon.”
“And I’ll order the food.” Karina laughs, finally letting go of Winter’s waist but not before leaving a kiss on the girl’s cheek.
—
Karina feels like she has learned to read Winter pretty well the last few years they’ve been dating, so, when Winter enters the practice room looking way too serious and Karina can’t figure out at all what’s on her mind, she feels herself worrying a little too much.
She’s used to the actress coming in already complaining about how Karina has been practicing for hours; about how much she’s missing her.
This time, though, Winter just entered the room and sat on a corner without saying a single word to Karina, which is way too unusual.
“What are you doing?” Karina asks, laying on the floor and resting her head on Winter’s legs.
“Waiting for you to be done.”
“I’m done now.”
“Good.” Winter hums.
They fall silently. Winter still on her phone while Karina just stares at the practice room ceiling.
She tries to think if there was something today, maybe she forgot some special date? No, she would definitely know it.
Maybe something happened with Winter at work? Or maybe–
“I want to post this.” Winter says, stopping Karina’s current line of thought as the idol turns her attention towards her.
“What is it?” Karina asks, trying to look at Winter’s phone but finding it too hard given her position. “I can’t see it.”
Winter lets out a little laugh before offering the phone for Karina to take it. She does so; finally noticing that it’s a picture of them in the same practice room they stand right now.
“Wait, when did you take this?” Karina asks.
“The first night I came here.”
Karina thinks a little before she finally recalls it; it was the very first time she asked Winter to meet her at the practice room. The first time of many, as it has turned out.
She remembers how she expected the other girl to turn down her invitation, tell her how late it was and how she wouldn’t come... She clearly remembers how surprisingly, Winter did the opposite, coming almost right away.
She remembers the way Winter narrowed her eyes at her the moment she told her she hadn’t eaten.
“You were all mad I spent the day practicing and hadn’t eaten yet.” Karina chuckles. “I remember it now.”
Winter narrows her eyes at Karina in the exact same way, before speaking up. “You and your hours of practicing.”
“Well, at least now I have a girlfriend that always makes sure to come by and make me eat, right?” Karina chuckles, intertwining their fingers as she meets Winter’s gaze. “But you asked me to post this picture that night, no?”
“Yes, but I never did.” Winter admits, getting a nod out of Karina who just waits for her to go on. “I just kept it to remind me that unpredictable moments can change your life if you’re ready for them.”
Karina furrows her eyebrows, looking at Winter with a look that shows confusion as much as amusement. “Are you saying that this moment...” She starts, gesturing towards Winter’s phone. “Changed your life?”
“There have been so many life-changing moments for me since I’ve met you.” Winter says, her gaze never leaving Karina. “Each one more unpredictable than the other.”
“Is that so?” Karina chuckles.
“That entire show was unpredictable. I still remember how annoyed at Ryujin I was but now I couldn’t be more thankful.” Winter starts and by the determination in her voice Karina can tell that she’s about to let a lot out of her chest. “Then this exact night from the picture. I think that was incredibly unexpected. This idol girl that I barely know asks me to meet her at her company at like 10pm.”
Karina laughs at that; she still doesn’t know what had gotten into her to do that.
“It was more unpredictable for me that you came, you know?”
“I was surprised myself.” Winter admits. “But I just wanted– I needed to see you, I guess.”
“So did I.” Karina replies with an admittance of her own. “I don’t know why but I always missed you so much even back then.”
“You don’t know why, huh?” Winter chuckles. “We’ve been dating for years but you don’t know why?”
“I mean, back then I didn’t like you yet, right? So, I don’t know why I was already missing you so quickly whenever we didn’t see each other for a few days.” Karina explains herself, but in retrospect, she wonders if she really didn’t like Winter yet. Maybe love – like at first sight is real. “I feel like there has just... always been something there, though. I don’t know how to explain but I always felt something for you, I guess.”
“Wow.” Winter dramatically gasps. “You’re getting better and better with your words.”
“Shut up.” Karina laughs, sitting up and bumping her shoulder against Winter’s.
“This was supposed to be me being all romantic and confessing my feelings but look at you.”
“What are you even talking about?” Karina asks, her laughter dying down as she looks at Winter confusedly.
“Well, like I just told you, I kept this picture to remind myself that unpredictable moments can change your life if you’re ready for them.” Winter says, taking a deep breath as she starts playing with Karina’s fingers, looking slightly nervous. “I don’t think I was ready for it that night. I don’t think I’ve been ready for it ever since but... I’m ready now.”
“What does that mean?” Karina asks.
“It means that... I don’t want to hide this.” Winter says, bringing up their hands. “I don’t want to pretend like we’re just friends anymore... I spent most of my life trying to live up to people’s expectations. It’s time for me to do something for myself.”
“Are you sure?” Karina asks gently, trying not to show her emotions in her words because truth be told, the thought of telling the world about their relationship might scare her just as much as it scares Winter now. Not for herself, but for Winter. She knows too well how the actress feels about it. They’ve had uncountable conversations about it. “I already told you that I don’t mind keeping it a secret.”
“Yes.” Winter’s reply comes almost immediately. “I kept telling myself it was too soon to go public with it, but honestly? I don’t care if we’re together for a week, a month, a year or two... I just don’t care. I want to be honest about us. I am proud to be yours and I want to show it.”
“Are we really doing this?” Karina smiles.
“Well–” Winter takes her phone back from Karina, typing something on it before showing the screen to the idol. “Do you want to press send or should I?”
Kim Winter and aespa’s Karina confirmed to be dating!
In a surprising Instagram post tonight, actress Kim Winter has just confirmed her apparently long-term relationship with the singer Karina from girl group aespa!
The reactions have been divided so far, but mostly it seems like the two girls who were thought of as the cutest best friend duo, have gotten a lot of support from their fans and non-fans!
You can check the post bellow and we sure wish them all the best in their future together!
@KimWinter: I never thought I cared too much about what other people thought until I realized that I would let what others thought define how much of myself I would truly show. Until I realized I would hide how much I love someone in fear of what that could mean to my career. But I don’t think my career relies on what other people think of me anymore. I got where I am today thanks to myself and the people close to me and no matter what, I know I'll still have their support. So, with that being said, I would like to let everyone know, that I am and have been in love with Yu Karina from the moment our characters fell in love... or maybe from the moment we sung together. I can’t actually pinpoint the moment I fell for her, but I can tell you that I've been keeping this secret for way too long and I don’t intend to keep it any longer.
[1 Photo attached.]