Irene’s never been an extrovert, no matter how much she wished and prayed to be outgoing and charismatic like the rest of Red Velvet’s members, she was stuck being the extremely shy young woman she’s always been. Not only that, but she relishes in modesty, telling her stylists and her managers that she’d rather not show skin if possible, but there’s only so much one can do in this industry to prevent that. She still gets surprised when someone tells her how beautiful she is, despite hearing it so often, because even with the utmost confidence in herself, it’s one thing to know you’re beautiful, and it’s another for people to acknowledge it. Irene sees it all the time in other people, walk up to any girl whose outfit is extremely well put together to compliment her, and watch her blink for a few seconds before turning red and thanking you. Irene thinks it’s cute.

But, of course, there’s only one person Irene knows who could make her truly feel beautiful.

 Sure, becoming the leader to one of SMTOWN’s girl groups has helped her get used to putting herself out there more often, what with the need to gain confidence at the blink of an eye and all. At first, though, Irene was terrified at the thought of leading. After her excitement about debuting wore off, she clung to Seulgi at night and whispered, “What if I can’t be a leader?” Seulgi was silent for a few moments, her eyes had been drooping shut just seconds before. Irene squirmed next to her, “Seulgi-yah? What if I can’t lead Red Velvet?” She felt a hand smoothing over her hair a second later, as Seulgi pressed a light kiss to her forehead. “That’s a silly question,” Seulgi murmurs, still half asleep, “You’re already a leader, Irene.”

Irene frowned to herself, “What do you mean?” Seulgi giggles and pulls the girl closer in her strong arms, “Unnie, you’ve helped me through multiple hardships already, haven’t you?” After a moment, Irene hums in agreement, “I suppose so.” Seulgi rolls her eyes, even though Irene can’t see her with the lights off. “Irene, that’s what a leader would do in the same situation. You take care of the members in your group, that’s one of the key roles right there.” Irene sighs in content at Seulgi’s response, “I guess you’re right, Seulgi-yah.” After a second, the younger girl giggles. “Besides, you’re the oldest in the group, Unnie,” her teasing tone earning her a smack before the both of them fall into a fit of laughter. “Yah...shut up, if you want to live to see yourself debut, Kang Seulgi.”

 Regardless of her newfound leadership, it doesn’t always mean Irene’s one-hundred percent comfortable with showcasing herself. She always pulls down her shirt if she feels like it rides up too high, and tugs on the hem of tight-fitting skirts to make sure she isn’t flashing anyone or letting the paparazzi get a glimpse of anything they’re not supposed to see. It’s not like Irene’s ashamed of her body, she knows that she’s beautiful, that there’s thousands of fans who wished they could date her, it’s that she’s never been the type to show herself off. Modesty is the best policy is what she grew up with, and Irene’s best guess is that it stuck. At least it’s one thing her parents got right while raising her.

Seulgi was the exact opposite of her, however. She seemed to love flaunting herself onstage, showcasing to the entire world. Time and time again Irene would steal quick glances at Seulgi’s exposed and toned midriff. With her tall height, the short shorts and the skirts they gave Seulgi always exposed more skin than the rest of Red Velvet. Once Irene had even asked Seulgi how she could handle being dressed in such a way. The younger girl simply shrugged and said she figured it’d be best to just embrace it. “It’s probably for the best that I catch people’s eye, right?” Seulgi joked, “That’s kind of my role in Red Velvet.” The only problem was that it drove Irene mad half of the time when Seulgi stepped out of her dressing room sporting something provocative in order to garner attention to herself and her perfect body. Irene would duck back into her empty dressing room and lock the door to either compose herself in the reflection of the mirror, or to let her trusty right hand bring quickly her a much-needed release.

When their manager announced that she and Seulgi were going to put on a cover of Ariana Grande’s Greedy at SMTOWN’s Seoul concert, Irene felt fear seize her for a split second, something she hadn’t felt in years. Over 45,000 people watching them, the only two people performing to an extremely suggestive song with a probably even more suggestive dance number, scantily clad at that. Irene could only envision the performance, feeling her stomach wind up in knots. Seulgi leapt up and down in her seat, cheering gleefully, while Irene meekly nodded her head along to her manager’s words, half listening, lost in her thoughts. “Isn’t this great, Unnie?” Seulgi asked on their way back home, grabbing her hand and looking at her so warmly, Irene’s icy exterior melted just a little. Her thoughts drifted back to that one night, so long ago, in Irene’s kitchen for a split second.

Even though they’d grown so much since they were young teenagers, fighting for a shot at their dreams, still some things remained the same. Seulgi’s enthusiastic energy had never been taken from her, in fact, it had intensified. As the years rolled on, Seulgi became increasingly kinder and humbler, and it stunned the other members of Red Velvet at times. “Unnie, have you ever even cursed?” Yeri asked one day after a fan event. They’d all been dazzled at the way Seulgi interacted with her fans, each taking mental notes on what they should do at the next event. Seulgi’s eyes turned up into half crescents as she laughed, “Good one, Yeri-yah!” Yeri and Joy shot each other a look from across the table, Joy mouthing, “You owe me fried chicken, Yeri.”

Seulgi’s drive and curiosity never faltered as well. Not long after their final performance of Happiness, she had asked Wendy to teach her a few English phrases. “I feel so silly whenever you or another MC breaks out into English,” she confessed, rubbing the back of her neck. “Wendy, will you show me a couple of the most popular sayings so I can try and understand a little better?” Her willingness encouraged the other girls to take a few notes while Wendy taught them how to correctly pronounce a few words, and teach them the weird ways of the language. “What’s ‘I told you so’ in English?” Joy asked, her mischievous eyes glinting. “How do I say this, Unnie?” Yeri asked, pointing to her phone screen.

“How do you correctly pronounce ‘girl’?” Irene asks after she’d spent half an hour attempting to say it right. She’d been staring at the mirror saying it as though she were growling, “Grrl?” Seulgi did the same, focusing her attention on the most frequently mispronounced English words, grilling Wendy time and time again on if she was saying them correctly or not. It made Irene’s heart soar to witness, and though Yeri and Joy eventually got bored and decided to play video games and eat fried chicken together in Joy’s room, she stayed with Seulgi, listening intently to everything she and Wendy said.

Irene would still catch Seulgi staring at her during dance practice, and vice versa. Their magnetism had never ceased to fail. After so long, Irene had stopped bothering to wonder why she never watched the other girls while they had dance rehearsals. Deep down, the older girl knew why they were so enraptured by each other. Her body temperature always skyrocketed when she realized she’d captured the younger girl’s attention, and Seulgi was often frozen in place at the sight of Irene.