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Irene and Wendy only knew each other as friends, but sometimes Cupid is being stupid and maybe Irene was a knee deep in completely falling in love with her best friend.

Irene rarely has any secrets, especially with her friend Wendy.

They’ve known each other ever since they were kids. Irene practically grew up taking care of the young girl who she sees as her adorable younger sister. Irene remembers those moments too well. She remembers carrying toddler Wendy with her small, frail arms and singing her a lullaby she heard from her mom. She remembered when Wendy was in third grade and how the girl always drops by her classroom to give her a pack of cupcakes she baked the other day. Wendy, in her memories, is a caring girl. And Wendy is. She’s always sweet and adorable and nice that everyone coos at the sight of her.

But Irene has one secret kept from her childhood friend.

And it’s a secret she swears she’ll keep in her grave because Wendy doesn’t feel the same way about her. She loves Wendy, for goodness’ sake!

And that’s how this story started.

----

“Dad, can you please stop hammering the furniture down? I’m studying.” Irene huffed from her room while reading through her Psychology book. Next door was the nonstop bangs Irene could hear because, as it seems, her dad’s cabinet is everything but sturdy.

“Sorry, Hyun-ah! I’d be finished in a bit!” Her dad screamed back, still doing his thing.

“DAD!!! It’s NOISY!”

“JUST A LITTLE BIT MORE!”

And obviously, Irene had enough of it. She stood up and marched to her parent’s room with a huge scowl on her face before banging the door open and glaring at her dad who is still trying his best with his wardrobe.

“Dad, buy a new cabinet, will you?” She muttered in exasperation. “It’s about time, anyway!”

“No way, Hyun. I made this as a gift to your mom on our marriage. It’s kind of unstable right now and possibly the first-ever thing I’ve ever made unstable so I will fix this as much as I can.”

Now that got Irene scoffing.

“Please, dad! I am the first unstable thing you’ve ever created! That cabinet only earns second place!” An obvious-but-adorable frown came into Irene’s face that got Mr. Bae chuckling. “Stop laughing at me! You know what? Never mind! I’ll just study at Wendy’s place. I’m sleeping over at her house tonight! Have fun hammering whatever—“

Irene slammed the door and gathered her stuff before going to her best friend’s apartment. Talk about a total emotional teenager Irene undoubtedly is, although she was already 24.

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“Hyunnie, when you said you’re crashing at my place because you want to study, I didn’t expect you’d be staring at my dog from two meters away,” Wendy mumbled, sparing her best friend a glance before going back on her Biology book.

The other girl was lounging on her bed, staring at the cute puppy in the room's corner that was playing with a stuffed toy.

“Studying is a contraction of a student dying in my vocabulary. It’s Saturday night and I’m not planning to die yet. Perhaps tomorrow.”

“Irene, we’ve talked about this—“

“Hush... And it’s Irene unnie to you.” Irene threw a pillow on her best friend’s face. “Did you ever wonder what your pet thinks about you?”

“That’s weird.” Wendy mumbles, putting the pillow away. “Why would you even ask, unnie?”

“Well for once, I believe it hates me.”

“That’s silly. Hubby won’t hate you! He’s a sweet puppy!”

“To you! I swear, it hates me. It glares at me whenever you’re not looking! It’s doing it again!”

Wendy turned to look at her puppy, but like a sly pet, the puppy’s eyes swiftly changed into something big and adorable that got Wendy cooing insight. Irene was beyond flabbergasted. That pet was a devil’s incarnate, no doubt.

“Oh, come on, Irene! Look at it! Isn’t it soooo cute!?” The puppy ran to its master’s arms with Wendy kissing it. “You’re just too weird.”

“I swear it was glaring at me a few moments ago!”

“Impossible!”

“It’s not! He hates me!” Irene pouted. “Fine, you can have that puppy all you want. I hate you.”

That got Wendy chuckling. In all honesty, the 20-year-old couldn’t believe that Irene was four years older than her. Especially when she acts like a baby. Putting his puppy on its makeshift bed on the floor, she gingerly hugged her bunny of a best friend and chuckled.

“What to do? I’m sure I adore my bunny unnie more than my puppy though.”

A blush started forming on Irene’s cheeks. Cute. Wendy noted.

“You’re only saying that to appease me.” Irene looked away with folded arms.

Wendy flicked her forehead. “Stop acting like a kid, unnie! Go change now, you stink. I won’t let you sleep on my bed if you won’t.”

“Aish, you said you adore me more than your puppy! You don’t even change his clothes every day or give him a shower.”

“That’s because it’s a puppy and it doesn’t need it!”

“Whatever!”

-----

Irene likes it whenever she gets the chance to sleep next to Wendy. The girl’s warmth is the best part.

Maybe that’s also a considerable factor of Irene’s huge infatuation on the younger girl, although she wouldn’t dare say it out loud.

Wendy is her ideal type among her list of ideal types. Not that Irene literally has one, but if she does, it’ll undoubtedly be Wendy (and not someone like Wendy, her ideal type is exactly Wendy).

And that night was one night that she likes the most. Wendy was clinging on her arm and even snoring with a cute expression. Like a cute squirrel. Although she’s not sure if squirrels snore. Or if they were ever cute.

Wendy is a very cute squirrel.

“Y-you’re not asleep yet?” Wendy mumbled with her hoarse voice, her eyes peeking open and still half-asleep.

“How can I sleep with your snores?” Irene whispered back as a joke, earning a soft giggle from the younger girl.

Wendy pulled her closer and wrapped her arms around her.

“Sleep, unnie... good night.”

Maybe Irene also likes it whenever Wendy clings at her, pulls her close as if they were girlfriends.

And when Wendy whispers good night?

Please, Irene would die just to experience that for the rest of her life.

------

Irene remembers it well when she first started seeing Wendy in a different light. And by different, she means finally seeing Wendy not as an adorable middle schooler with her big round glasses and chubby cheeks but as a woman, someone she might like and fall in love with.

And as silly as it sounds, Irene fell for Wendy when the latter started high school, minus all the big, round glasses but still with those chubby cheeks. Looking back, Irene was barely 20 then and was just entering the university.

Those times were the hardest for the older girl, considering she’s in college and was busy adjusting to an unfamiliar environment. She was busy, too busy in fact that she rarely meets Wendy at all.

But like they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and Irene sincerely missed Wendy.

The next three years were tough, with only minimal video chats and voice calls that kept their friendship going.

And that’s what made Irene treasure it much more. Especially those late Friday nights that Wendy calls her to ask how she was, or if things were hard, or when she says 'love u, good night'.

Irene knows she’s getting inside a rabbit hole she would never get out of.

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Irene has a big flaw.

Not entirely big, but big enough if you compare it to Wendy, and it is something she’s not exactly very proud of.

“Uhh—Irene unnie?” Wendy’s hoarse voice in the morning greeted the living room as the squirrel took a sniff of something unlikely coming from her kitchen. It took a few seconds before a frantic Irene came into her view.

“WENDY! Uh, where are you going?!”

“In the kitchen? I smelled something burning?” Wendy asked in doubt. “Are you cooking?”

“What? Oh—NO! W-well… kind of… but don’t worry about it! I’ll serve breakfast in your bed, okay?”

“But it seems like you need help…?” Wendy mumbled, trying to take another step in her apartment’s kitchen.

“NO! I-I mean, uhh…” Irene paused for a moment, trying to think of ways to stop Wendy from even taking a single step on her kitchen which would burn in the fire any moment now. Whoever thought cooking tuna kimchi fried rice was easy is dead in Irene’s list. “WENDY, I LOVE YOU!”

Now that got Wendy’s eyebrow raised. “You’re being weird in the morning, Hyunnie…”

“NO! I realize I never told you how much I love you, Wendy! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! Also, please-don’t-look-at-the-kitchen-I LOVE YOU!”

And Wendy took her word for it, brushing it off since it was Irene’s usual nature. (Although she took notice of the mess in Irene’s apron and the apparent smell of burning kimchi from her own kitchen. Still, she turned a blind eye. She may not say it, but Wendy adores it whenever Irene tries to do something for her. Those were the moments she truly appreciates, especially coming from her best friend.)

“Yah, I don’t think I’ve met a goddess who is so prone to accidentally hurting themselves,” Wendy mumbled in amusement, gently putting a burn ointment on Irene’s finger. They already had their breakfast when the younger finally noticed the red burn on Irene’s finger. Turns out that the older girl accidentally burned herself with the pan after cooking the fried rice (which was pretty good). “Please take care of yourself next time, please? I don’t want you to get hurt because you want to cook breakfast for me.”

A pout came to Irene’s lips, once again making Wendy question who’s the older one between them.

“But you’re the one who always cooks for me. I want to do something for you too.”

“Aigoo!” Wendy playfully knocks Irene’s forehead. “Stop being cute. It makes me want to kiss you!”

Now that definitely got Irene blushing. That’s a fastball right there! Is she flirting with me?! Irene thought. Nah, it’s how Wendy is. Irene, don’t read too much about it!

“Well, since we finished eating breakfast and treating your burn, how about we study for your tests tomorrow unnie? It’s your last year at the university and you’re supposed to be serious about it.”

The older girl, disappointed, lies on her friend’s bed lazily, like how she did the day before. “I don’t want to!”

“Come on! And please don’t ruin my bed, I swear you’re spending more time in it than I do!”

Irene still kept shaking her head, wrapping her entire body with Wendy’s comforters like a burrito.

A chuckle escaped Wendy’s lips.

“You know, if we will ever live together, I bet living with you is like living with a tornado.” Wendy wasn’t sure why she stated that out loud. But again, she rarely thinks of the words she spats out of her lips. “Well, a cute tornado, but still a tornado.”

Irene surely had another set of whines after that, something that Wendy laughs at. Because if you have a cute unnie like Irene, sometimes you just don’t notice her whines. You’ll be too distracted with her pouts and her eyes and the way she looks back.

------

Some days, Irene couldn’t contain the feelings and so, she resorts telling her closest friends about it.

Besides, what better ways to cool from her stressful college life than to gossip about girl feelings, right?

“Ugh, I’m so lame,” Irene whined, closing her textbook when the words started floating in her vision. Not to mention that a certain squirrel was occupying her mind a lot more than usual lately.

“What’s up?” Her best friend, Solar, asked her troubled friend. “Is it about Wendy again?”

“It’s—ARGH! Sometimes, she compliments me with her creative words,