"I specifically told you guys not to make out!" Wendy groaned as the two jumped away immediately after she caught them. "What if the kids caught you??"

Still, Wendy coulnd't help but giggle.

"Stop laughing!" Irene scolded as Seulgi buried her face in her hands. 

"I'll leave you to it then." Wendy winked as she closed the door.

---

"Omo, I'm so tired." Joy yawned widely. "I can't wait to fall asleep in my bed."

"Aren't we going to eat first?" Yeri asked, not looking up from her phone. 

"I'm so tired, though." Joy groaned.

"Maybe we can ask the unnies to cook something up." Yeri said hopefully.

Several minutes later, they arrived at the Red Velvet dorm.

"Unnies!" Joy called out. "We're home!"

"Switchin' them positions for you," Yeri's head bobbed as she listened to Ariana Grande's new song from her Airpods. 

"Hey," Joy called again as she went to the kitchen to grab a drink. "Anybody home?"

Then Joy heard loud voices coming from Seulgi's bedroom.

"What is happening over there...?" Joy's head craned towards the source of noise. She stopped when she reached the living room, hesitating. Choosing to sacrifice their maknae instead, she turned to Yeri.  "Yerim, go check it out."

But Yeri was still too busy grooving to the beat to hear the tall girl.

"Yerim-ah." Joy called. "Yerim-ah!"

Joy couldn't figure out whether Yeri really didn't hear her or was just actively ignoring her so she grabbed a pillow and threw it at Yeri. "YERIM-AH!"

"What the hell?" 

Wendy walked out from her room, unhooking her earphones just as Joy and Yeri were just about to tear each other's heads off. "What the hell is going on here?" 

"Sooyoung-unnie's hurting me!" Yeri whined.

"But you've got her in a headlock." Wendy observed. "Now let go, Yerim-ah. What are you guys even fighting about?"
 

"There's some noise coming from Seulgi-unnie's room," Joy said raspily as she massaged . She gave Yeri one last shove. "This brat won't listen to her unnie when I asked her to see what it was about."

"All right, all right!" Yeri stood up and dusted herself off. "I'm going."

Then Wendy realized that the noise must have been from Irene and Seulgi.

"Uhm," She grabbed the back of Yeri's collar. "Hold up." 

"What the heck?" Yeri almost stumbled. "Why? Do you want me to check it out or not??"

"What kind of noise?" Wendy said as she apologized to Yeri by smoothing out her crumpled up shirt. 

"What do you mean, 'what kind'?" Joy shrugged. "Just noise."

"Just stay here, all right?" Wendy put her hands up, as if teaching two energetic dogs to sit still. "I'll come check it out."

"Ooh, maybe some mouse got trapped in Seulgi-unnie's room." Yeri piped up.

"Let's go see!" Joy said gleefully.

"WAIT!" 

But Joy and Yeri were already sprinting towards Seulgi's room. Wendy ran after them and just as she caught up with them, grabbing the maknaes by the scruff of their shirts, the door burst open.

Irene hurriedly walked out, fresh tears cascading down her face. 

"Joohyun-unnie?" Joy and Yeri said in unison as Irene walked past them to go straight to her room. 

Then the three of them jumped as they heard a loud bang because Seulgi slammed the door to her bedroom so hard, the hinges rattled. 

"What in the world is going on?" Joy and Yeri turned to Wendy.

---

"Are they ever going to come out of their rooms?" Yeri said after a while. The three were in the middle of having dinner. 

They knocked on the door to Irene and Seulgi's room respectively to invite them to eat but they were just met with complete silence. 

"What happened exactly, Wendy-unnie?" Joy asked. "Was it because of the current issue with Joohyun-unnie?"

"I don't know." Wendy avoided their stares. It wasn't her story to tell anyway, so Wendy chose to just keep shut. Although, she had been worrying about her two members and internally debating about which one she should talk to first. "I think they got in a fight."

"I think that's the first time I saw Joohyun-unnie in tears after a fight with another member." Yeri pushed her food around. "So maybe it's that bad.."

"Don't worry," Wendy assured them. "I'll talk to them."

---

Are you ever going to come out of that room?

Wendy sighed as she looked at her text message. She decided to send it both to Irene and Seulgi after not being able to choose which one to console first. Half an hour has passed since she sent it but so far, no one has replied.

Joy and Yeri were already resting in their rooms since it's almost midnight but Wendy couldn't sleep until she talked to at least one of them. She knew her friends were hurting and she would stay in the living room all night long if she has to just to make sure they're okay.

Wendy's phone suddenly lit up and her eyes widened as she saw a reply from her same-aged friend.

I feel like

Wendy dialled her number immediately. "Can I come in?"

"Okay." Seulgi's voice was hoarse.

Several minutes later, Wendy and Seulgi were huddled under the thick comforter.

"We really screwed up, Seungwan-ah." Seulgi said in a small voice.

"Because of the kiss?" Wendy squeezed her friend's hand.

Seulgi nodded. "We never should have done that. We crossed a line."

"What did Joohyun-unnie say?" Wendy asked cautiously.

"She.." Seulgi closed her eyes. "She was the one who kissed me."

Wendy was surprised at that but she did not try to pry anything more out of Seulgi, opting to wait patiently for the older one to continue.

"And I should have stopped it." Seulgi pressed her palms to her eyes. "God, why did she do that?"

"Maybe she couldn't take it any longer.." Wendy offered. "She's been holding it in for far too long, anyway."

"Yes, she told me that after you walked in." Seulgi nodded. "But she said she's not regretting what she did."

Seulgi groaned. "She's so confusing, Seungwan! She pushed me away several times in the past and now she's pulling me back in. You don't know how hard I tried to get rid of my feelings for her."

Wendy could only rub her arm sympathetically. They were in an impossible situation and sadly, no one holds the solution. 

"Now, she's telling me she's in love with me? What am I supposed to with that?" Seulgi continued. "I finally accepted that we'll never be together, which is what she wanted all along! And now that we kissed again.. I just don't know how we'll ever get past this."

"How did you end the conversation?" Wendy asked. "Did you come up with an understanding, at least?"

"I think we left things messier than before." Seulgi shook her head slowly. "I went off at her, saying that what we did was a huge mistake and that she never should have kissed me. And then we had another screaming match. Then she said she never meant to have feelings for me. And I told her.." 

Seulgi's shoulders shook as she started crying again. "I told her I wish she never told me because I was better off when I didn't know. And I said that if I could have a chance to fall in love again.. I wish it wouldn't be with her."

Wendy gasped. "Surely, you don't mean that!"

"I don't!" Seulgi sobbed. "I was just caught up in the moment. Before I had the chance to take it back, she said that she wishes she never met me and then she walked out."

"I'm sure she doesn't mean that either." Wendy consoled her friend.

"I hope she did. I'm such a horrible person," Seulgi said. "She just got over such a dreadful thing and I go and hurt her like that."

"Oh, Seul," Wendy held her friend as she cried. 

"You should apologize to each other." Wendy said as she Seulgi's hair. "But for now, I think you should just leave each other be."

"Okay."