After that night, Seungwan became a prominent part of Sooyoung's life.

They would go on weekly lunches and they would share how their day was over dinner. For the first time in awhile, Sooyoung felt at ease.

Sooyoung is grateful for Seungwan's presence in her life. It made the moving to a different city a little bit more bearable. It had been awhile since she was able to connect with someone like that.

🥀

"I don't think my project partner likes me very much actually," comments Seungwan one day, thoughtfully staring at her fries. She has ketchup with them this time, so Sooyoung knows their platonic lunch date has a higher chance of continuing until the pre-planned time interval if Seungwan is choosing to savor her food. Sooyoung doesn't see any notifications from a specific person on Seungwan's phone screen, so it's already a good day.

"Forgive me if I have trouble understanding why anyone wouldn't like you, Wannie, but what makes you think that?" Sooyoung asks, playing along, corners of her lips tilted playfully already, and when Seungwan looks up, her smile is nervous and meek but her eyes are dancing.

"Well, for starters," A dramatic puff of breath and Sooyoung readies herself, "he doesn't even look at me when handing over his parts and just the other day, all he did was grunt and say 'wrap this up, Squirrel' and for God's sake, what is up with that nickname? Squirrel, really? At least Yerim had the decency to imply that she