"T-THIS is very awkward…"

Minjoo whispered to Yujin while the two were getting food to fry. The other girl just turned to her with those sparkling eyes.

"What do you mean by awkward, Minjoo?" Yujin asked while overflowing with excitement. "This is like watching a drama right before your very eyes! This is so exciting and will even help our investigation!"

Minjoo faked hitting Yujin but the other girl didn't even flinch. She's so used to this action of Minjoo that it doesn't even reach her at all.

"Don't be like that. No matter how you look at it, this is very awkward for Professor Bae!" Minjoo sighed. Just thinking of the said professor sitting on the same table with the one she likes and the possible bride of the person that she likes was already hurting her, how about seeing it in reality? How about the Professor herself!?

After all the talk, Yujin invited the two for dinner. They were only actually going for some tteokbokki near the university but they ended up in a meat buffet. It was because fate played with them once again.

When they left Professor Bae's office, Professor Kang, together with her visitor, came out of the panda-door office right at the same time. There was a moment of awkward staring between Prof. Bae and the visitor until Prof. Kang ended the said moment.

Seulgi casually asked the three where they were going, to which Yujin answered herself. The professor didn't even bother asking them why they were all together because she already knew what's up. She just couldn't believe that they would team up that quickly because Joohyun wasn't fond of Yujin.

To make the story short, Professor Kang actually invited them to join her and Seungwan to dinner. The invitation to dinner came first before introducing Seungwan to them.

"Anyway, I know you have heard about her but this is Son Seungwan. She's a rising musical actress."

That's just how Seulgi introduced her. She didn't even say anything about their relationship at all unlike when she introduced Yujin and Minjoo as her students.

"Long time no see, Joohyun." Seungwan greeted the surprised Professor. 

Joohyun got a hold of herself and greeted back. "Nice to see you again, Seungwan-ah. I heard you went back to Canada. When did you come back?"

"I just arrived this morning. I came here right away to meet up with Seulgi."

Just that simple exchange made Minjoo tense. She felt like the two were already firing lasers at each other with the way they stare. What's weird was that she was the only one feeling the tension between the two while Seulgi and Yujin were happy talking about basketball on their way to the restaurant.

"Don’t you feel worried at all?" Minjoo asked again before taking a quick peek at Professor Bae who was left sitting with the two. The professor was just minding her own business while Prof. Kang merrily talks with Seungwan as if Joohyun wasn't there at all. "Professor Bae looks really uncomfortable."

Yujin also looked back at their table before going to the seasoned meat section. "This is something that Prof. Bae has chosen a long time ago. We can't do anything about it."

"W-What do you mean?" Minjoo hurriedly followed her friend. "This is something that Professor Bae has chosen?"

"Yeah." Yujin pressed her lips together. "She has witnessed Professor Kang going out with countless other women but despite the feelings that she has for Professor Kang that would definitely hurt her while witnessing her going around with others, Professor Bae still chose to hover around. She didn't leave Professor Kang even though it hurts to see her with someone else. I guess when you choose love, you're also taking pain together with the parcel. That's just how it goes."

Minjoo was clearly taken aback. She couldn't believe that her silly friend could actually talk like that. "What's with you, Yujin?" She asked with a playful smile on her face. "I-Is this what being in love do to you?"

"Don't tease me like that. I am not used when you're the one doing the teasing." Yujin laughed. "Maybe I should've recorded what I said and used it as a material in my final project."

"I'll remember it for you and tease you with it the rest of your life!" Minjoo playfully tapped her at the back before the girl moved to the side dish section.

Yujin just watched Minjoo with a smile, not knowing that her friend was actually concealing her pain.

But Minjoo’s pain that day didn’t end there.

“Hello, Yujin-ssi~”

Yoo Jimin’s friendly greeting to Yujin made not just Yujin freeze but also Minjoo. When they got back to their table, two more people were added. Yoo Jimin from Class 2A of the same major and Kim Minjeong from the Theater and Arts Department.

“J-J-Jimin-ssi?” Yujin gulped. “W-What are you doing here?”

“Come on, girls! You’re all same-aged friends and you call each other like that?” Seulgi said while giving Yujin that teasing look. “You guys are still at university and not office workers. You can be more casual!”

“P-Prof—“

“You’re right, Professor Kang.” Jimin looked back at Yujin. “We should really drop the formalities, right? Yujin?”

“ACK!” Yujin felt an arrow pierce her heart after that unexpected attack from Jimin. Minjoo just rolled her eyes and placed the side dishes that she took for all of them.

“Is this the reason why you asked us to bring food for seven people, Prof. Kang?” Minjoo casually asked Seulgi who is now sitting at the end of the table like she’s the head of the family.

“Yes, sorry for not telling you in advance. Don’t worry, they will be the one getting that next batch of food.” Seulgi turned to her right where Seungwan and the two newcomers were sitting. “As you all know, Jimin-ssi’s script was chosen for the stage play to be performed by the Theater Club this coming festival. Minjeong-ssi will be playing the protagonist of the story while our Seungwannie right here will do some special coaching~”

“Special coaching?” Yujin asked, she was about to sit beside Prof. Bae but the woman stopped her and literally shooed her away. Prof. Bae then turned to Minjoo and asked her to sit beside her.

Yujin and Minjoo just looked at each other before shrugging their shoulders in sync. Minjoo sat beside Professor Bae while Yujin sat at the other end of the table. That’s when Yujin realised that she was sitting right opposite to Jimin.

“Nice job, Hyunnie.” Seulgi whispered to the other professor which Minjoo somehow heard. 

The girl really loves eating meat and free meat is the best but that night, despite everything being free, Minjoo just didn’t feel like eating. For some reason, she felt like no one’s by her side.

‘Who would be by my side if nobody knows about how I feel?’ Minjoo’s internal monologue echoed inside her head. ‘Since Prof. Kang and Yujin are close now, I guess Yujin already told her about her secret…’

Minjoo looked down at her plate. ‘I am not the only one now…’

Joohyun actually noticed the change in Minjoo’s expression and felt sorry. She was just more comfortable sitting beside Minjoo than Yujin but she didn’t realise that she accidentally set up Yujin with Jimin.

“A-Ah!” Yujin proceeded to fry the meat for them while Minjeong was the one who poured everyone's first glass. “W-What special coaching are you talking about, Prof. Kang?”

“Well, our rising star, Seungwannie, will be coaching the Theater Club for the upcoming play. It’s the 50th anniversary of the school so we need a great script, great actors and a great director.” Seulgi then turned to Seungwan and the two smiled at each other. “That’s why I personally requested for Seungwan to do the coaching.”

“I have done all sorts of stage play before I focused on becoming a musical actress.” Seungwan said with a cheerful smile. “It will be my first time coaching something this big but I will do my best. I know I will also learn a lot from this experience.”

“We’ll be in your care, Director Son~” Jimin said, which made Seungwan blush.

“Director Son? Hahaha. Just call me Unnie~” 

‘Ohh~ She looks really kind and sweet. She’s also really beautiful too. She’s really just like Wendy in the story.’ Yujin thought to herself. She instinctively turned at Joohyun’s way only to be surprised to see that the professor was already glaring at her. The student immediately looked away. ‘Why is she looking at me like that? Professor Bae is indeed scary.’

Yujin just sighed and went back to frying meat for their table. Though Seulgi was sitting like the head of the family, their tables were divided into two grill tables—the mentor section and the student section. Yujin was the one frying the meat for them while Seulgi was serving the other table. 

But to Yujin, it looked like the gathering of a family where the head has two wives and now they are sitting on her left and right side. She and Minjoo are like the daughters from Professor Bae while Jimin and Minjeong are the daughters from Seungwan’s side.

The student shook her head to wake herself up from that imagination. ‘That can’t happen though. That will make me and Jimin-ssi sisters!’

Yujin then took a peek of Jimin and their stares met. The shy puppy immediately looked away while Jimin just smiled at her. Minjoo just silently ate on her own.

The dinner a.k.a. the meeting for the upcoming play went like that. Actually, the meeting went by really fast. Seungwan will be back next week for the official start of rehearsals. Seulgi then asked Yujin to go and see what’s happening in the play so she could also learn from Jimin (who is under Mentor Seulgi as well) and the student shyly agreed. With brows furrowed, Joohyun also told her mentee, Minjoo, to join Yujin in her observations. The student eventually agreed to join despite the hesitation.

After that, it turned into a normal dinner where food and alcohol overflowed. Yujin’s sight was already swirling because of the ruthless targeting Seulgi did to her when she heard a name being called. 

“Jimin-ah.” the voice softly called. Yujin then tried to focus her eyes and saw the Theatre Arts Dept’s ace, Minjeong, checking up on the obviously drunken Jimin. “Are you okay? Do you want to go home now?”

Minjeong tried to help Jimin sit up straight but the girl ended up leaning on her. Yujin felt a pang of pain in her chest at that sight. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the alcohol but there was a heavy blush on Minjeong’s cheeks. 

“I really think we should go home now…” Jimin whispered. “Let’s just greet the professors and the director before we leave.”

“Alright, Professor Bae and Director Son are still in the restroom though. Professor Kang went to smoke. Maybe we can greet her outside and just have her tell the other two about us leaving.” Minjeong then cleared Jimin’s face of all those stray hairs. “I already told you to control your drinking. Look at what happened to you.”

Jimin just snickered and leaned closer to the smaller girl. “It’s not everyday that we drink like this anyway.”

“Alright… Let’s go home.”

For the first time during that dinner, Yujin saw a smile on the actress's face. Minjeong had been awfully quiet throughout the whole meeting and she would only speak when a question was directly asked to her. Yujin thought that she’s actually the spawn of Professor Bae.

“Oh? I thought she’s an Ice Princess.”

Minjeong twitched. She turned to Yujin with those questioning eyes. “Sorry… Are you talking about me?”

“Hm? Did I say that out loud?” Yujin asked herself, very confused. She thought she was having some internal monologue.

“So you were really talking about me, huh?” Minjeong just smirked, her eyes narro