“Hey, does anyone own a blowtorch that I can borrow?”

A girl’s head pop into the lounge and at first, Seulgi is annoyed because she was in the midst of squeezing out the last of her brain juice for this math problem that she thinks is the absolute bane of the common curriculum system, but when she looks up, she kind of drops her pen.

The girl’s gorgeous.

And Seulgi’s brain just goes, “ok, I’ve never felt gayer”.

The next thing she thinks is, “darn, why have I never needed a blowtorch?”

And lastly, “who even uses blowtorches? Are you planning to burn the school down?”

Not that she minds, really. Burning the school down would mean that classes would be cancelled, which would mean that she wouldn’t have to go for math classes anymore, and the school, in apology, would probably issue a passing grade to every student around and Seulgi would have passed this math class without actually sitting for her finals (that are in three weeks, oh my god!)

It’s only when her friends whip their heads around to stare at her, like actually stare, does she realise that she probably said one of those lines aloud.

The girl’s brow arches. Her brain is also mush after all that math and she’s not really thinking straight, but surely, it’s the most beautiful eyebrow of all time.

“I’m not planning to burn anything down, no.”

“Don’t you kids from the culinary club own blowtorches?” Seungwan asks. “But sure, I can get one for you after I help Seulgi here with this problem.”

The girl shrugs. “Thanks. You’re… Wendy, right? From Productions? Tiffany tells me that you’re good at singing. You’ve got to show me sometime.”

It’s a request, but it sounds a little more like an order – simple and direct. There is something about the way she says the words, carefully and with considered enunciation, that makes her authoritative. Seulgi just cannot help but snap to attention at her words even though she speaks rather softly. Or maybe it’s just the intensity of her eyes, that makes Seulgi shiver a little even though the room’s really well heated.

“Yeah, sure. I’m at the practice rooms every Tuesday and Thursday. Come by then?” How does Seungwan even sound so unaffected? Seulgi’s eyes are large and round as she stares at Seungwan.

The girl lets a small smile creep into her face. “Thanks. I’ll grab the blowtorch from you then – Sooyoung can wait a bit to… do whatever with it.”

With that, she leaves. Seungwan is the one who picks Seulgi’s pen up from the floor. As Seulgi’s best friend, Seungwan somehow finds that it’s imperative to flick the pen at Seulgi’s face, effectively jerking Seulgi out of her trance and Seulgi finally snaps her gaping mouth shut with a pitched yelp.

“What was that for?”

Seungwan just sighs and points at the math questions in exasperation.

*

Seulgi doesn’t dare to ask Seungwan who the girl is. It’s embarrassing enough that Seungwan caught her staring. Seungwan is the best. She doesn’t judge, okay, not that much, and even if she does, she’s the best about it. Seungwan’s only going to sigh and help her do whatever she wants to do. Seungwan is the best.

Which is kind of why Seulgi doesn’t dare broach the subject.

Seungwan will definitely help her, no questions asked. In fact, Seungwan would be so good at helping her that whatever questions Seulgi has for the girl, or whatever it is, she knows Seungwan will somehow be able to conjure the girl in front of Seulgi for Seulgi to just… interact with. And Seulgi doesn’t want the answer to the questions Seulgi has for herself and the girl and okay, but ok that’s fast, Seul! What is she thinking about the girl? If she’s thinking of asking her out? Why is she even so nervous and jittery about it all? It’s not as if Seulgi’s never dated anyone before. (It’s just never turned out that well.) And it’s not as if she is the prettiest girl that has graced the face of the earth. Anyone else around would nominate someone like Yoona, probably! Or even Suzy, from her year.

Oh fine, Seul, she is really pretty.

Seulgi knows with a certainty that whatever it is, she doesn’t have a chance with girls like her. Girls like her are too pretty. Too lovely. Too unattainable. It’s better to let whatever she feels fade away, or remain a far-fetched fantasy for an unknown girl. If the girl is an unknown, then she is definitely unattainable, but not in a familiar and thus painful way. For now, she simply remains a faraway entity. Albeit yes, an entity that Seulgi really can’t stop thinking about. It’s almost pathetic, the way she has managed to get under Seulgi’s skin, slither her way into every piping in her mind like the basilisk in Harry Potter, in just the few short minutes that the girl was in the room the other day.

Okay, Seulgi confesses that it is pathetic; Seulgi has made a checklist of why the girl is out of Seulgi’s league.

Said Checklist Reads:

• Brains: not good at math.

(Her math makes Seungwan wring her hands.)

• Beauty: Who can even compare to that girl?
• Brawn(???): Uh. Last I checked, I don’t have washboard abs.
• Badassery(????): With what, my awkwardness?
• s: Oh, nvm.

*

“Hey! Seulgi-unnie! Seulgi-unnie!”

Seulgi winces as Sooyoung’s voice cuts across the dining hall, earning a few curious stares from the few people who’ve woken up from breakfast at seven in the morning. Having been asleep for the past seven hours, her ears protest at the very sound of a certain Park Sooyoung’s volume. If she didn’t plan to go for dance practice before the clubs came in for their booking hours, she’d never even have dreamt of waking up this early.

All she wants is to be left alone with her eggs and toast. Is that too much to ask for?

“Hey! Aren’t you coming to join us?”

Seulgi sighs, turning around to drag her frame over. That’s when she realises that us doesn’t comprise of Sooyoung’s usual crew. Instead, she’s draped over a chair next to that girl. Ah. She suddenly finds her tattered pair of practice shoes a lot more interesting. Ooh, there’re two holes in her left shoe and has her right shoe always looked this scruffy?

Seulgi isn’t sure if she wants to groan because isn’t working – and never works in front of pretty girls – or if she wants to throw the plate at Sooyoung’s head and run to the refuge of the practice rooms.

Does the pretty unnie come down this early all the time? If she does, does this mean that Seulgi’s going to have to get up even earlier to avoid her? And why do you even want to avoid her? Oh you treacherous heart, you treacherous mind! What do you both want? To run, to flee, to leap?

Everything in her head cautions her against proceeding any further. Your list, Seulgi, your list! She’s way out of your league, Kkangseul! Approach her at your own peril! Why would you even think she’ll deign to bear your presence? Think of that list!

Then well, her heart is another story. If she didn’t need the darn thing to well, keep her alive, she’d opt to pry the thing out.

“Hurry up! We’ve just made some toast. Look!”

Seulgi finally drags her feet to the table and manages to look up. Despite her apprehension, she lets out a laugh. Park Sooyoung’s holding a piece of toast in her left hand and the blowtorch in the other. The pretty unnie bears an expression of long-suffering, and something in Seulgi makes her want to reach over to smooth the creases of her forehead over.

Jesus Christ, Kang Seulgi.

“You know Seulgi, Sooyoung-ie?”

“Yeah! You’ve met her before, unnie?”

“Seulgi’s friend lent us this blowtorch. And I might also add that you’re wasting the blowtorch on… toast.”

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” Sooyoung grins, her teeth flashing and Seulgi turns away to look at the other girl instead, lest be blinded by how the light glares off Sooyoung’s white teeth.

“It’s toast.”

“And?”

“We have a toaster. There’s a toaster on every floor. There are three toasters in the dining hall.”

“And?”

“Well! You… could’ve used a normal toaster?”

“I’m sure Seungwan-unnie won’t mind that we’re using her blowtorch for a superior way to prepare breakfast. Right, Seulgi?”

“What?”

Seulgi’s eyes dart frantically between Sooyoung and the-girl-who-she-still-doesn’t-know-the-name-to-yet. Why is Sooyoung asking her this? How’s she going to know what Seungwan thinks about her blowtorch being used to make something like toast? And oh my god, does this mean that she’s taking sides even before she finds out what the pretty unnie is called? Park Sooyoung, why do you do this to me?

“Um. Um. Yes?”

“Yes, to what?” Sooyoung presses, first rolling her eyes before leaning forward to glare down at Seulgi. If Seulgi’s not known Sooyoung for the past two years, Sooyoung’s extra height would’ve been intimidating. As it is, the pretty unnie’s cool expression is scarier. “Would she mind, or would she not?”

“Breakfast is good!”

She hears a laugh. Oh, that’s a nice laugh.

“Sooyoung-ah, stop it. You’ll only get non-sequiturs from her at this point. And I don’t think we’ve been introduced, Seulgi-ssi? I’m Joohyun.”

Joohyun? Joohyun. Seulgi almost opens to practice saying the words.

Sooyoung’s brows hike up so high that Seulgi swears that they’ve disappeared into her hairline. “First you ask me to invite her over to the table, and now you introduce yourself as Joohyun? What the hell, unnie?”

She leaps from her chair to avoid Joohyun’s hands as they reach out to slap her. “Irene-unnie only told us to call her Joohyun after an entire year!”

Sooyoung moves further away from Joohyun. “You must really like her, unnie!”

At this, Joohyun just flings an entire piece of toast at Park Sooyoung, who just squawks as she swipes for the blowtorch.

Seulgi’s not sure whether she’s going to come out of all this in one piece. She scans the room to be sure that the fire extinguisher is still in its usual corner. Just in case.