135lbs, 5'6, 23 Female. A bit confused about what course of action to take in the case of being "Skinny fat"

I probably have a few misconceptions about weight loss since all this information is new to me. So feel free to correct me.

Most of my teen and some of my adult years I have been 115 lbs and have been told im too skinny and I was. Around the pandemic i gained weight but I did not notice till people said it. I did not really monitor my weight because I have been the same weight forever so it has never been an important aspect I guess. I never tried to gain or lose weight purposely so i never monitored too hard once I realized I was the same weight forever (or so I thought lol)

Now I am noticing the weight but it is only in my stomach and face. My legs and arms are still as skinny as ever. My neck is still skinny, it’s weird because i still have a defined hourglass shape but the stomach is just fat and lumpy. I look very disproportionate because its only my stomach and love handles that is large.

So I understand I need to burn more calories than I am taking in. And the calories should be healthy and not straight sugar. My main confusion are these things

1. I do not know what my weight goal should be because I have only ever been super skinny or the weight I am now. If I lose weight I will be closer to being underweight but the weight I have now just simply does not sit the way I want it lol (this leads to my second confusion). Should I lose weight even if that means im closer to being underweight? I feel like if I lose a small amount of fat then I’ll still look the same but if I lose too much then then I’ll be underweight.

2. I was thinking perhaps I need to workout and the fat will just simply convert to muscle (not quite literally but moving from fat to muscle in that general area is the idea) but i read that it does not really work like that since you cant spot reduce fat and I would need to lose weight in general. So doing sit ups or planks or whatever, it wouldn’t make me lose weight even if I built muscle, and if anything I’d risk looking bigger

Soooo I am just confused. Should I be focused on losing weight and not be worried about being closer to be underweight or do I workout for the purpose of muscle and lose weight from that? Idk what I should be doing really

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