Today wasn’t a good day. Their dance practice was a disaster. Tensions were definitely running high as D-day got closer and closer, but Seulgi performed worse and worse. Irene asked for reruns after reruns, and they all knew that it meant ‘not good enough, again’ but Seulgi just couldn’t push herself harder with her injury. She sighs as she taps her student card at the ID to enter the dorm lobby. Maybe she should have just endured it and pushed herself harder. Her other three members didn’t have to suffer just because of her injury.

She’s so deep in her thoughts that she doesn’t realize the lift’s here and a hand waves through her vision, breaking her train of thoughts. Seulgi is brought back to the present and she sees the doctor, Wendy, looking at her with a small smile before entering the lift, holding it open for her. Seulgi murmurs thanks and punches her floor and sees the ‘21’ button lit up alongside with her ‘10’. Seulgi stands at the corner furthest away from Wendy as the doctor just stands in front of the buttons and Seulgi finds herself staring at the doctor’s brown mane. She has never seen Wendy before in the dorm, or maybe she just wasn’t paying enough attention.

Wendy turns around to look at Seulgi with a small unsure smile and Seulgi returns with one of her own, hoping it’s sincere enough. She sees the doctor’s gaze move down her legs to her ankles and Seulgi finds herself shifting unknowingly, wanting to appear as normal as possible to the doctor. Finally, the lift sounds and Seulgi sighs a sigh of relief as she promptly makes her way out, making sure to keep her hobbling as subtle as possible. She thinks she has passed the test when she hears the lift doors sliding open again and Wendy hastily grabbing her to turn her around and Seulgi winces at the pressure on her ankle. No words are exchanged as Wendy frowns and Seulgi knows her cover is busted. Wendy pulls up her sweatpants and Seulgi’s swollen and red ankle is in blatant view, mocking at her and she huffs as she tries to cover it back and hobbles away from Wendy.

“Hey!” Wendy stops her with another tug on her hands, this time a lot gentler. “Did you rest your ankle? It looks a lot worse than the previous time.”

“Er, yeah of course!” Seulgi coughs out, hoping it sounds real enough. “Now, if you will excuse me…”

Wendy doesn’t let Seulgi pass, obviously seeing past the blatant lie Seulgi is telling. “You didn’t, did you? Is it because of the dance competition?”

Seulgi stands shell shocked at the doctor’s words. So she knows. She forces her brain to think up of a proper reply. “Then you should know why I can’t rest. At least not yet. So please just keep this secret for me for another one and a half weeks?”

Agony is written all over Wendy’s face as she contemplates over the decision and finally decisively looks up to lock gazes with Seulgi squarely. “On one condition. You will let me check on your ankle every day.”

Man, this doctor just doesn’t give up. Oh well, there’s no harm in getting free check-ups from a doctor right? Seulgi sighs and holds out her pinky, which Wendy takes happily and presses her thumb against Seulgi’s. “Promise and sealed!”

Seulgi just returns a feeble, half-hearted smile at Wendy’s megawatt smile as she lets Wendy help her back to her room. When will this 1.5 week be over?!

--

A knock resonates against her room door and before Seulgi could reply, the door bursts open, revealing Wendy hugging a handful of stuff which she promptly lets go on Seulgi’s table, all the stuff clanking onto the table. It’s one week after their agreement, and Wendy’s been visiting Seulgi every day, in the same invasive manner that Seulgi has gotten use to Wendy’s intrusion into her room. She just waits for Wendy to finish organizing the stuff she brought over on the desk with her left foot stuck out of her blanket and as expected Wendy settles down in her swivel chair and slides closer to her foot, inspecting it before resting it on a pillow, before proceeding to place an ice pack over it. Seulgi winces a little at the coldness while looking at Wendy, waiting for the doctor’s diagnosis.

“The swelling seem to have gone down, but it’s not going to heal if…”

“I don’t rest, right?” Seulgi interrupts. “I know. But you and I both know I can’t.”

Wendy rolls her eyes and doesn’t bother to fight Seulgi on this because she knows the girl is so adamant on this issue it’s impossible to persuade her otherwise. She slides to the table and pulls out a lunch box from the mess on Seulgi’s table, handing it over to the latter who groans at the sight of it.

“What is it today?” Seulgi asks as she opens the lunch box reluctantly. Wendy had been providing her with food that is supposed to ‘speed up’ her healing process, which means lots of vegetables and fruits that provide her with lots of vitamins, which Seulgi hates. She opens it and to her surprise, it’s jokbal with rice and a little bit of vegetables on the sides (that, she can live with) and she squeals a little at the luxury of having meat in her ‘healing’ diet.

“I got jokbal for you today because you were being a whiny little kid about vegetables.” Wendy explains as she continues rummaging through the stuff she brought, finally pulling out a metal flask. “In exchange, you have to drink this.”

“I am not a whiny little kid and WHAT IS THAT?” Seulgi exclaims at the black concoction Wendy is holding and she tries to back away but it’s not very effective because she’s stuck on the bed and she’s kind of immobile because she’s snugly tugged into bed, blanket and all.

“It’s a Chinese herbal tea that will help to reduce the swelling. Come on, just drink it.” Wendy brings it even closer to and god the smell is so repugnant that Seulgi feels like she’s about to pass out from smelling it.

“Okay, okay! I will drink it later! Just put it there first!” Seulgi tries to sneak out of this one but Wendy crosses her arms while looking at her with a ‘do-you-think-I’m-an-idiot’ face and remains with that expression even when Seulgi pulls out her best puppy look. Seulgi sighs and holds out her hand for the drink and Wendy hands it over to her triumphantly. Remind her again why she made that deal? Seulgi takes a sip and immediately pulls the cup away from , grimacing at the extremely bitter taste of the tea. “What is this made of?!”

“Just drink it. It will help in your healing process.” Wendy states as she ignores the fuss Seulgi is making, once again going through the pile of stuff on the table, looking for the next item. Seulgi holds her nose and downs the rest of the drink, shivering as it goes down . That powdery feel coupled with the strong bitter taste of the tea will probably go down as one of the worst things she had ever had in the rest of her life. She slams the flask down and glares at the back view of Wendy. The girl is so annoying, who does she think she is, just ordering her around, eating this, doing this, don’t do this, don’t eat this… She’s like a second mom! Seulgi shoves the jokbal into , trying to get rid of the lingering taste of the tea on her tongue and the hatred she has for Wendy for subjecting her to food misery.

“I have replenished your Pringles stock for you so don’t walk around unnecessarily anymore.” Wendy pulls out a few cans of Pringles and stacks it nicely with the ones Seulgi already has at the side of the table, and Seulgi immediately feels bad for hating her for like, 30 seconds. “And this,” Wendy pulls out another black thing from the mess on the table, “is an ankle guard. Please wear it when you go out.”

“I can’t wear that! People will see and they will know!” Seulgi argues as she looks at Wendy, who’s already wearing it for her.

“Please, you walk around in sweats all the time anyway; no one’s going to see it. There!” Wendy sticks the Velcro and Seulgi looks at her leg which looks like it’s bandaged, but just in black. She tries to rotate her ankle and it’s restricting her movement greatly but that’s also how it’s going to protect and brace her ankle. Seulgi doesn’t want to admit this but Wendy’s really too kind and nice to someone she barely knows. She’s really like a mom, annoying but endearing at the same time, nagging but all for your own good at the end of the day.

“Thanks.” Seulgi murmurs and continues chomping down on her food and Wendy just replies with a beam as she moves back to the table, taking out her laptop and notepad.

“Er, what are you doing?” Seulgi questions in between mouthful of food.

“Er, studying, duh?” Wendy replies as if it’s the most natural thing on earth and it baffles Seulgi to no end. The last she checked, this is her room and she didn’t give Wendy permission to study here (heck, she didn’t even give her permission to enter the room in the first place).

“Go back and study in your room.” Seulgi replies, fed up with this invasion of her room and her privacy.

Wendy turns around in the swivel chair to face Seulgi. “Then who’s going to clean that lunch box for you? Who’s going to-“

“Okay, okay I get it.” Seulgi grumbles and Wendy smirks before turning back to her laptop. “Sometimes I wonder why you are taking medicine instead of law.”

Wendy mock sighs. “I know, sometimes I wonder that myself too.”