With murder in her eyes, Irene stared her prey down. “Kang. Seul. Gi. What are you doing here?” Byulyi was used to seeing a very confident and enthusiastic Seulgi, and to see her this anxious was very odd indeed.

“I wasn’t going to do anything!”

“Oh, really? Then why are you here?” Irene scoffed. Yongsun, like Byulyi, wasn’t used to seeing this side of her friend, who was usually more introverted and soft-hearted, and did not realise Irene could have such an icy aura.

“I-I, um, well,” Seulgi couldn’t muster up the courage to reply.

Yongsun bravely darted forward and placed a hand on Irene’s outstretched arm. “She and Byulyi accompanied me here, Irene.” She gently pushed her friend’s arms down, freeing Seulgi.

Irene perked up at that name. “Byulyi?” Slowly turning her head like a ghost in a haunted house, she glared at Byulyi. “You again? Why are you two always together?”

What’s with her?, Byulyi thought to herself, disgruntled. “Yeah, I’m Byulyi, remember? Um, haven’t seen you in a while, Irene!” She stuck her hand out for a handshake and attempted a grin.

Irene instantly slapped her outstretched hand away. Okay, so… not as planned.

Seulgi took Irene’s momentary distraction as an opportunity to flee as far as possible. She grabbed Byulyi’s hand and zoomed out of the dance studio, muttering a thanks to Yongsun as they left.

        ************************************************

“Bae Joohyun!” Yongsun snapped, confused but nevertheless furious at her friend’s rudeness towards Byulyi. The recipient of this reprimand was sitting in a seiza position, legs folded underneath her, and her head bowed down in shame. “Explain!”

“There’s nothing to explain,” Irene answered, sulking. “I just don’t like that girl.”

Yongsun sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose in exasperation. “She has a name, Irene. And why don’t you like her?” At the lack of a reply, she sat down opposite her friend. Taking the girl’s hands in hers, she quietly asked: “Is it because of Seulgi?”

Irene, as expected, flinched upon hearing Seulgi’s name. With wavering eyes, she hesitantly looked up into Yongsun’s own, patient and expectant, and inhaled deeply. “I think Seulgi’s dating Byulyi.”

“…And why would you think that?” Yongsun was absolutely confounded. 

“Because lately she can’t stop talking about her Byulyi-unnie, and how she’s so talented and sweet and whatever. Seulgi’s not even hanging out with me anymore! She comes back home late after practice, singing praises about Byulyi’s amazing dancing skills…” 

As Irene ranted, finally letting all her frustrations out, the long-haired brunette listened attentively. It made her think of seeing the blonde in question with her arm around Seulgi, and the obvious affection between the two definitely did suggest more than just a simple friendship. 

Honestly, it made Yongsun rather uncomfortable thinking about the possibility of any… intimacy shared between the two girls. It made her heart sting, like the searing pain after touching a hot kettle. 

In that instant, she realised what she was experiencing. Yongsun refused to let that particular thought rear its ugly head, instinctually denying that emotion. But it was a question she had to ask, especially since she was very sure that Irene was feeling the exact same thing.

“Joohyun-ah, by any chance, are you jealous?”

                                                                                               ************************************************

In the campus park, Seulgi shot to her feet. “Jealous?!” she squawked, incredulous. “No, unnie, there’s no way. That doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes it does,” Byulyi rationalised. “Look, when I first met Irene, you two were really close, right?” 

A nod. 

“Right. But now, with our dance assignments and practices, you’ve had to spend more time with me.”

Another nod.

“See, Irene might think you’re purposely avoiding her to spend more time with me—” Seulgi started to refute “—listen me out, you impatient child. If she thinks that way, then it’ll make sense for her to suddenly get angry at you for supposedly no reason, and will also explain why she somehow has a newfound hatred for me.”

The younger girl balked, overwhelmed by this new train of thought. She slowly sunk back onto the bench where Byulyi was sitting. “Oh my gods, everything makes sense now.”

Byulyi patted her on the back encouragingly. “We just need to explain everything to her, and it’ll be fine, right?”

Alarmed, Seulgi turned to the older woman. “But what if she thinks I like like you?”

Byulyi, half-listening, was fiercely juggling ideas to appease Irene. This, she thought, would need additional input from Yongsun; after all, she had entrusted the girl with the important task of calming Irene down and obtaining any essential information. “Hm? Well, you don’t, right? So just tell her that, no harm telling her the truth.”

Under her breath, Seulgi muttered to herself: “But I do…”

“Seulgi!” The girl jolted at Byulyi’s sudden exclamation. “I know! Let’s go to the crêpe stall now. Yongsun’s sister, Yonghee-unnie works there, so we can ask her for Yongsun’s phone number, then we can call her later and ask about Irene.”

Jumping up, she tugged Seulgi to her feet, and ran all the way to the green police box.

                                                                                                         ************************************************

“So, Byulyi, what can I help you with again?” Yonghee asked as she poured batter onto some hotplates. The girl had arrived at her shop panting like a dog, with Seulgi trailing behind her awkwardly.

“I need Yongsun’s phone number, it’s an emergency.”

“Mhm, sure,” Yonghee hummed. “Then I should stop making food for you if it really is that bad of an emergency, right?” she joked. As she was about to discard the crêpes, Byulyi protectively grabbed them and shook her head.

“Unnie, I paid for these, you can’t just do this to me,” she whined as she handed a crêpe to Seulgi. Yonghee snickered, handing a post-it note to Byulyi. Scribbled on the paper was a phone number, followed by a series of suggestive winking emojis.

Byulyi chose to ignore the emojis.

Hurriedly dialling the number on her phone, she waited with bated breath. “Well?” Seulgi asked.

“She’s not answering,” Byulyi muttered as she attempted again and again to reach Yongsun. Behind her, Yonghee watched Seulgi as the young girl shuffled to stand in close proximity to Byulyi.

Tough fight, Yongsun, the stall keeper thought to herself. This girl’s really pretty. Like, probably ‘Top 100 in the world’ pretty. The phone in her pocket buzzed then, unbeknownst to the other two girls. Picking up the call, she exclaimed: “Oh, Yong! Where are you? Byulyi’s trying to call you, y’know.”

Meanwhile, Byulyi’s finger was still the phone screen insistently as she willed Yongsun to answer her calls. “Unnie,” Seulgi ventured, “what if something had happened to…”

As she said that, Yonghee ed her phone at Byulyi. “Hey, she’s asking for you. Sounds pretty urgent.”

Taking the offered phone, Byulyi raised an eyebrow at her quizzically, then shifted her gaze to the object in her hand. ‘Yongyong’, it said in bright letters. “Yongsun?” She shouted into the phone. 

Seulgi stood next to her and strained her ears to listen in, but their conversation was too fast to follow. Byulyi hastily ended the call and grabbed Seulgi’s shoulders, anxious panicked. 

“We’ve got to go. Yongsun unnie’s in trouble.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: tbh i was wondering how to continue (and whether i should even bother to continue) with this story because i wasn't really sure what to write about anymore. BUT. i think i will try my best to update. this story isn't like other normal stories, in the sense that most stories have a general singular plot, and a and an end. the purpose of this story is to follow a normal university student's life, and so it'll have both little problems and big problems, just like our everyday lives.

anyway, i hope you can bear with this writer for a while more. (whether it's a short while or a long while... no one knows)

p.s. guess who's finally moved into their new house! took us like a month holy wheesus >_<