Unfortunately for Joy and Yeri, keeping Seulgi and Wendy apart was going to be more of a challenge than they had first suspected, especially since both girls kept their own odd hours after school and rarely checked their phones.

Seulgi was surprised at how dark it already was outside as she left the gym after practice. The slow descent from fall into winter and the shortening days always managed to catch her off guard, especially on afternoons like this one, coming out of practice at 5 o’clock to catch the last slivers of twilight through the hallway windows before the day finally gave way to night. It was disorienting and made the days seem like they passed by very quickly, while the nights melancholically stretched on and on.

And as she passed by the auditorium at a contemplative pace, she saw that she wasn’t the only one who seemed to have lost track of time.

Made even smaller by the quiet, empty theater and the large pieces of plywood erected up on the stage stood Wendy, stretching up on her tiptoes to add a few more of paint onto the beginnings of their set backdrop. Seulgi watched for a moment as her understudy leaned down to add more paint onto her large brush before reaching up again to continue painting over the plain wood. She seemed to be all alone, and it wasn't even a rehearsal day.

Seulgi left her bag up by the door as she wandered down the aisle and quietly ascended the steps of the stage, not wanting to disturb the little artist just yet. Seulgi herself wasn’t much taller than Wendy, but there was something strangely adorable about watching her struggle to reach what appeared to be a rendition of the night sky above a penciled out cityscape, probably for one of the numerous nighttime scenes in the play. Seulgi came to stand beside Wendy and finally announced her presence.

“Hey-” she began before getting a mouthful of paintbrush as Wendy startled and struck her across the face with it, leaving a nice wide streak of midnight blue in its wake.

“Oh my god!” Wendy cried as she saw the mess. “I’m so sorry!” She quickly put her brush down and winced as she watched Seulgi slowly crack her eyes open and gently touch her fingers to her face.

The tips of Seulgi’s fingers came away wet with paint and she stared at them for a moment in surprise as Wendy apologized once again. She was afraid to swallow, tasting the thick, latex house paint on her tongue and sought around for something to clean off with, and Wendy saw her distress and scrambled to hand her the roll of paper towels she had been using.

As Wendy watched Seulgi scrub at her face and even her tongue, she couldn’t completely conceal a snort of laughter at the sight, especially as Seulgi finally looked over at her with half of her face still smudged with dark blue paint. “Is it gone?” she asked hopefully. “I’m sorry I scared you,” she added after a moment.

Wendy tried to keep a neutral expression as she took the paper towels from Seulgi and continued to carefully wipe at her cheeks. “I didn’t mean to hit you; I thought everyone had already left,” she explained, then paused. “Actually, why are you here? Did you just come from practice?”

“Everyone? I was going to ask you the same thing: why are you still here?” Seulgi countered as she stood there like a child getting cleaned up by her mother after spending the afternoon playing in the dirt.

Wendy withdrew her hands in defeat, unable to get the last of the faint blue stain off of Seulgi’s face, but she hoped the girl wouldn’t notice… at least not until she got home later. Although the attentive expression Seulgi was giving at her while looking like Braveheart was making it hard for her to keep from laughing.

“Moonbyul and I thought we’d get a headstart on some of the set pieces before tomorrow. She wanted to get an idea of what they should look like, and before we knew it, we were already painting…” Wendy glanced up at the unfinished sky and the sketched outlines of buildings on the plywood. “We still had all this paint in the storeroom from last year,” she gestured to the open cans set out on old newspapers.

Seulgi looked around for Moonbyul but everything was quiet, save for the sounds of Wendy picking up her brush once again and dunking it in the paint to continue working.

“Is Moonbyul still here?” Seulgi asked, a little confused.

“Who knows?” Wendy gestured with a shrug, unintentionally flicking more paint around.

“YAH!” Seulgi shouted as she leapt back, fresh spots of paint dotting her shirt and arms. She caught a trailing droplet off of her bicep and reached out and wiped it on Wendy’s cheek in retaliation. “You’re dangerous with paint!”

Wendy gaped at her in shock and raised her brush threateningly. “How dare you…!” she breathed, trying to keep the laughter out of her voice.

Seulgi grabbed her wrist before she could attack and they struggled. “You… started it…!” she grunted, trying to keep the dripping paintbrush safely between them. Wendy could feel herself beginning to be overpowered by Seulgi and tried to use her ankle to trip the trained dancer, though she only succeeded in throwing herself off balance.

As Wendy began to stumble backwards, Seulgi adjusted her grip and caught Wendy around the waist, preventing her from falling. There was only one problem with that, however: Seulgi had released her grip on Wendy’s wrist holding the paintbrush. Seulgi shook her head fearfully as Wendy also realized the situation.

“Don’t… don’t do it,” Seulgi pleaded in a whisper as she continued to support Wendy’s weight.

Heartlessly, Wendy slowly touched the tip of the brush to the end of Seulgi’s nose, leaving the smallest dab of dark blue paint before throwing her head back in laughter.

Now, how could Seulgi be mad at that? And she laughed too, her face scrunching up in that notoriously adorable smile of hers.

“Alright you two, why don’t you save that for a date, hmm? I’m starting to feel queasy,” Moonbyul complained, coming up onto the stage behind them.

Startled, Seulgi dropped Wendy, who fell to the floor with a sharp yelp.

“Smooth,” was Moonbyul’s only comment as she stood beside Seulgi and began unwrapping a candy bar. “So did you get any work done while I was getting a snack?” she asked wryly, watching Wendy slowly right herself.

“I did, actually!” Wendy protested indignantly as she rubbed her hip, wincing in pain.

Moonbyul smiled around a mouthful of chocolate. “Alright, alright. Let’s clean up for today. I’ll have the crew work on it tomorrow during rehearsal…” she trailed off, noticing that Wendy wasn’t paying attention anymore.

Seulgi had fallen silent in embarrassment and had lifted the hem of her t-shirt to wipe the paint off her nose, and Moonbyul followed the direction of Wendy’s stunned gaze to Seulgi’s impressively toned abs.

She let out a tired sigh and snapped her fingers in Wendy’s face. “Hello? Wendy, eyes up here you useless lesb-”

“Yes! The clean up! I’m on it!” Wendy ground out in a strained voice as she quickly turned away to start replacing the lids on the paint cans.

“Can I help?” Seulgi asked tentatively, but Moonbyul shook her head and clapped Seulgi on the shoulder.

“I think you’ve done enough for today. We’ll see you tomorrow.”

+++

“What do you mean you’re already tired? We only ran through the number once…” Yooa asked in disbelief at the group of actors strewn about the stage in various states of exhaustion.

“Only once in full,” Saeron panted from her seat on the edge of the stage, her legs dangling limply as she fell onto her back. Yeri knelt by her side, offering a towel while Yooa just pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration.

“I think we went over those twirls at least 50 times,” Yongsun agreed with her hands on her knees. For once, she wasn’t being hyperbolic.

Yooa crossed her arms unsympathetically. “Timing is important; group choreography is difficult to synchronize, especially since none of you are dancers.”

Moonbyul coughed, and so Yooa added, “Since you began high school, anyway.”

Eunae was at the back of the stage, helping Joy with a certain sequence, while Seulgi and Moonbyul had their heads together watching a recording of the play on a cellphone. The rest of the club members were still trying to catch their breath, too tired to continue to complain.

“I think we need to build up your stamina,” Yooa announced to the cast resolutely. “How do you expect to get through a whole show dancing and singing if you’re worn out after one number?” If she recalled correctly, Seulgi had estimated the play’s runtime was almost two hours long front to back.

“I told you-” Saeron broke in with a raised voice as she sat back up, but the president herself interrupted from her seat in the audience.

“I don’t think that’s a bad idea,” Yoona agreed with a mischievous glint in her eye. “What did you have in mind?”

“Well~” Yooa lilted, catching Eunae’s eye across the stage.

+++

“Don’t you think you should do it too, President?” Krystal asked snidely, thoroughly amused by the train of Drama Club students jogging doggedly around the school’s track. “You know, setting an example as our leader?”

“Oh, no, I’m strictly serving in an observational capacity this season,” Yoona returned as she eyed the stopwatch in her hand. “Besides, if I have to do it, then you would have to, too,” she added with an angelic smile.

Krystal curled her lip in disgust. “Please, I’m already in great shape. I’d just embarrass them,” she said with a wave of her hand at the poor figures stumbling the last few meters of the circuit. One by one they collapsed on the grass as they completed their run, groaning as if they were on death’s doorstep.

“Wow, you guys are more out of shape than I thought,” Yooa muttered.

Eunae silently agreed as she leaned in to check their times on Yoona’s stopwatch. This little exercise had been quite eye-opening; she was afraid the club members would take so long to complete their run that the sun would set before they could finish. When she and Yooa had agreed to try and help the Drama Club with their choreography, she hadn’t realized the two groups approached their respective crafts with such different attitudes. None of these theater kids were dancers, but they were having to split their attention between the movements, the singing, and making sure they still remained ‘in character’. It was no surprise to her anymore that endurance was the furthest thing from their mind.

But for some of these girls, their aversion to exercise was a little disconcerting. As she watched Krystal mark down each of the girls’ times as they finished, Eunae’s face fell from disappointment, to concern, and then to outright distress.

One of the first girls to finish was Irene, though that seemed to be more out of spite than actual athletic ability, as she immediately dived onto the grass panting heavily. Eunae had watched her keeping pace with Seulgi as they rounded the last turn, even though the struggle was evident on the shorter girl’s face the entire final sprint, and had been secretly impressed by her tenacity.

Seulgi, however, was barely winded, and she smiled as she tried to offer Irene a hand, even as prone girl looked up at her practically hissing like a feral cat.

“I DON’T NEED YOUR PITY,” Irene choked out, swatting Seulgi’s hand away and struggling to her feet. How she could manage to look so pretty and disheveled at the same time was a marvel to Seulgi, but she raised her hands defenselessly and backed away as Irene continued to glare at her.

“Y-you did really well…!” Seulgi offered placatingly. “I was impressed!”

Irene fussily fixed her ponytail, still giving Seulgi a suspicious glare. “You don’t even look tired,” she complained darkly.

Seulgi shrugged her shoulders with a sheepish smile. “Well, I mean I try to go on a run most mornings before school…” she admitted.

“That’s cheating,” Irene grumbled.

“Cheating-?”

“I’m not going to lose,” Irene continued, pulling herself up to her full height. “I’m going to start running, too.”

Seulgi wasn’t aware there was a contest, but she smiled at Irene’s resolution. “Really? That’s great-”

“You’re going to meet me in front of the school at 5 A.M. every morning from now on,” Irene said sternly, crossing her arms.

“Wait, me?” Seulgi asked in surprise, pointing at herself. They were going to run together?

Irene nodded with an expression that didn’t leave any room for protest. “I’m not going to sit around while my co-lead does all the hard work.” And even though she was still stunned at the command, Seulgi thought she could detect the beginnings of a smirk on Irene’s face. But 5 o’clock in the morning…

Seulgi opened to argue for a later time, but Irene simply raised and eyebrow, and that shut her up. She sighed in despair.

“How… dare… I am… an artiste, not… not some… dumb jock... “ Joy wheezed as she sprawled out in the grass.

Wendy gave her a sympathetic smile and handed her a water bottle. “Is it really so bad?” she asked, then winced at Joy’s glare.

“The next play better not be a musical,” the redhead intoned between heaving breaths, sitting up to accept the water bottle with perhaps a little more roughness than was necessary. Anything to make sure they wouldn't have anymore collaborations between their club and a glorified sport team. Wendy sat down in the grass next to her and rubbed Joy’s back. “What does any of this have to do with acting, anyway?”

Wendy looked around at the frankly pathetic club members struggling for breath, and saw Seulgi trotting up the hill towards Yoona, giving her a sudden reminder.

“Abs,” she said without thinking.

“What?” Joy asked, startling Wendy.

“U-uh, I mean wouldn’t it be nice to get into shape a little?” Wendy stuttered.

“Running doesn’t get you abs,” Joy countered disagreeably.

“No,” Wendy admitted, sparing another glance at Seulgi. “Maybe some sit-ups, then…”

Joy followed her gaze and glowered at the Dance Team Captain. She didn’t like the wistfulness in Wendy’s expression one bit. In fact, she liked it even less than she liked the idea of exercising. But if it kept Wendy away from Seulgi...

Perhaps it was time to hit the gym.