ELEVEN

“You should’ve seen it!” Seulgi’s laughing out loud, causing her to bow down a little

She continued, “When I twisted my question and she said her food tasted charismatic, pfft,-” Her hand was already covering , “...her stupid expression got me high. A stupid baby face.”

Hyun –or what people usually call Irene- who’s patiently listening to her friend’s blabber about her student could not hide her smile when looking at how hyper Seulgi was.

It was a rare, a very rare sight, seeing the most charismatic woman she’d ever met being this fussy.

Seulgi her drying lips, “And then that time when we were at amusement park, I should be mad cause she threw up on me, but surprisingly it was really funny.”

It seemed like nothing could stop her now,

“And this…” She showed her new wrist-watch, “…it’s really cute at how she put an effort to find the similar one.”

“…it’s endearing.”

She said nothing more, just her eyes lingering on that wrist-watch from Joy. She caressed it gently as if that metal thing could break just with a light touch.

Irene shifted on her seat, arms were hugging her slim body.

Something was different.

Being Seulgi’s friend for years she could literally know what Seulgi wanted just by staring at the pringles maniac’s eyes.

So she knew that something was different.

A good ‘different’.

Since that Joy-girl came to Seulgi’s life, the original script that Irene never wanted to happen got scattered away. Surprisingly the Joy-girl brought a sun into her friend’s darkest place.

Seulgi opened once again, trying to tell her friend of unending story about a certain blonde. But it got cut off,

“Seulgi-ya…” Irene cut her blabber

“What?” confused, the orange-haired tilted her head to the side.

“Don’t get too caught up in your painful past…” Irene said with her eyes lingering on Seulgi’s, “…cause you may lose your precious future.”

After saying that, the Aphrodite reincarnation stood up leisurely, leaving a stoned Seulgi behind.

===

Irene walked straight in front of her, leaving her frozen from what that beautiful girl previously said. Those words stuck inside her ears before finally proceeding its way to her brain. That complicated sensory process had wrongly sent a signal through vein and went into her heart.

A painful feeling.

Painful…

She was still stood frozen.

‘Don’t get too caught up,’

With what?

‘…with your painful past.’

Sure it was painful.

‘Cause you may lose your precious future.’

What?

Will there be any precious future ahead for her?

Will there be any happy future for her?

Seulgi sighed,

Can she even wish for that?

All this time she lived only for one reason. A reason, the one she had to wait for years before finally able to achieve.

Such word like ‘happy’ was far, far away from her. It’s like a sky that could never touch the land. It’s like a shadow that always there but could never be the owner’s friend.

She even questioned herself, if she had completed what she thought was the purpose of her life, would she finally be able to feel happy?

The orange-haired flinched at the thought. She marched herself, chasing after her friend.

She found Irene at the kitchen, stirring a cup of hot tea. She yanked her friends on the wrist making the tea spilled everywhere.

“What did you mean?!”

Her cheeks were burning, her nose flaring, and her eyes suddenly feeling hot, indicating that she couldn’t hold back her anger anymore. An anger she didn’t even know the reason for.

Seulgi saw Irene leisurely clean up the table.

A guilty feeling piled up inside her, but that anger still won.

“Tell me!” Seulgi shouted.

Irene stopped herself from mopping. She threw that mop at the floor.

“Just stop it already, Seulgi!” Irene said.

Seulgi looked into her friend’s eyes. She found rage inside them, not sure of what it was for. That rage annoyed her, infuriated her, provoke her.

“Stop what?” Seulgi already knew what Irene was implying to.

“This…” Her friend’s shoulders fell down, she clenched her fingers on the chair, “…this game of yours.”

Right at the point

Seulgi already knew that this was going to happen. That Irene would bring up this topic. The one Seulgi asked her to work for.

At first, Irene followed her order diligently. Because almost every single time, Seulgi was the one who got the authority. Seulgi was the one who wore the pants in their friendship. Not because Irene couldn’t refuse her friend’s request, couldn’t refuse her friend’s demand, but mostly because she knew her so well that she couldn’t help but to willingly take the chance.

A chance she took out of pity. A chance she took in hope that Seulgi would learn something. A chance that would take the opposite turn from the one that had been planned out.

And the ironic thing about that, Seulgi already knew Irene’s intention all along.

It’s too late.

“No.” Seulgi answered.

Irene brows met in confusion, in need for confirmation of her friend’s greed.

“No.” She repeated it, “I want to catch up with my future while holding that pitiful past of mine. That, I believe will make it precious.”

It’s crystal clear now. Irene already lost the bet even before it’s started.

A sadness in those eyes crept out to Seulgi’s. With a sigh, her friend finally said,

“You’re a better person than this… Kang Seulgi.”

Then, she walked away.

***

Joy touched a branch nearest to her and peeked from over it.

Sneaking slowly near someone’s house, she found a girl just got out from a house she’d been staring for over an hour now. She recognized the girl,

It’s that ‘Hyun’.

The one Seulgi was talking to on the phone, the one that made her take initiative to take the first move. The most beautiful girl she’d ever met.

But that beautiful face of hers looked cloudy somehow. She paid attention at how Hyun walked away from that house –Seulgi’s house- with sluggish steps and the owner of the house was nowhere to be seen.

Something must’ve happened. That’s the only explanation as to how gloomy Hyun’s face was.

She squinted her eyes, taking a better focus at that Hyun girl. The girl already went with her car but Joy’s still looking for possibilities that something weird could happen.

A small gravel passed through her. She tilted her head, confused at the flying rock. Not long after that, a bigger stone successfully landed on the top of her head.

“Ouch!”

She turned around and found her rabbit-like-friend hiding behind the bush. She was crouching down.

Joy went over to her,

“Why are you hiding?” the blonde asked.

Wendy’s shoulders dancing up and down cutely telling her she also didn’t understand what she was doing.

“Well, I don’t know. Why are you hiding?” she repeated the blonde’s question.

Joy fell silent. She didn’t want to tell Wendy about her concern, about her doubt for Seulgi. That she was now being a stalker. She simply didn’t want Wendy to know that,

Not yet.

And being friends with the blonde for half of her age, Joy knew Wendy understand her intention when she stood up and cleaned off a bit of dirt that got on her shirt.

Instead, the Canadian surprised her with –for the nth time- a green rose and a letter on her hand. She handed the things to Joy.

“How did you get this?” Joy asked.

How?

That’s the right question at how did those things come to her. Just… how?

Wendy shook her head,

“The bell rang. When I got to the door, there’s no one there except for this letter and that flower.” Wendy explained, “…and that’s when I saw you sneaking, hiding behind this tree.” She pointed out at a tree

Joy nodded in understanding mode. Without saying any words, she opened the letter.

                                                                                                                             d

You love someone

because you just simply knew it,

and it had no more influence

in restraining