YUJIN couldn’t help but to frown and her professor was loving her reactions. Seulgi finished another glass of her wine and quickly proceeded to pour herself another one. 

“Why are you making that face?” Seulgi asked with that annoying sneer on her face. 

“I’m sorry… I am just really surprised.” Yujin’s scowl deepened as she looked at an empty space. “Are you saying that Professor Bae was literally the one who pushed you to Seungwan-ssi?”

“Yeah.” Seulgi casually nodded. “That’s what happened.”

“B-But why?” The student looked really confused. 

“Why, you asked? Hmmm…” Seulgi thought aloud. “I guess she’s just doing her job as a best friend? She really helped me a lot back then.”

“Professor Bae dug her own grave, huh?”

“Huh?” Seulgi turned to Yujin with a frown. “What did you just say?”

“Oops!” Yujin’s eyes widened in realisation. started running again. She just couldn’t properly keep her thoughts to herself when she’s drunk. “I-I’m sorry, it’s just a weird drunk symptom of mine!” 

The professor scoffed. “You’re lucky she didn’t hear you.” Seulgi let out a sigh as she sneakily looked at her bedroom door through her glass of wine. “I guess she already told you about what she feels for me.”

“Well…” Yujin’s shoulders dropped. “I told her about my suspicions but she didn’t deny anything. She’s really deep into you, Professor.”

A faint smile was seen on Seulgi’s face. She didn’t say anything and just continued to savour her wine. Yujin then felt that she needed to say something and thanks to alcohol that she couldn’t keep it to herself. 

“Just tell her if it’s not her.”

Seulgi looked at Yujin without even moving her body. The student had her head down. She actually feels bad for the other professor.

“If it isn’t Professor Bae that you’re going to marry then just tell it to her so she could start processing it.” Yujin’s head lowered even more. “I just feel really bad for her. She may have done things that hurt you back then but I can see that she’s properly facing the consequences of what she did. I just don’t think that playing with her feelings like this isn’t nice at all…”

The professor remained silent for a moment. She looked by her window and sighed. “Joohyunie hurt me back then?”

Yujin jerked at her professor's question. She slowly looked up and saw how those monolid eyes were filled with sadness. She was smiling but it wasn’t a happy smile at all. 

“I don’t really remember what Joohyun did to hurt me.” Seulgi said with a faint smile.

Yujin’s eyes narrowed. “Do you forget things when it’s convenient to you?”

The professor shrugged her shoulders. “That’s how my relationship with Joohyun goes anyway. We both forget things that aren’t beneficial to our relationship. That’s how we remain the best of friends until now.”

“Best of friends, my .” 

Seulgi just laughed at that comment from her student. She knew that kind of reaction is normal. Her relationship with Joohyun is not normal in the first place. 

“Anyway, are we here to talk about the [LFI] love interest or are we moving on to River’s story?” The professor took a sip of wine and looked straight to Yujin.

“You’re changing the topic again, Professor.” The student firmly answered, which earned a chuckle from Seulgi.

“Well, I thought it was [RPoR] that you wanted to know about that’s why you came here. I am just trying to lead you back to your original purpose.” Seulgi looked down at Yujin a bit. “Also, I am not planning to discuss anything about Joohyun right now. No matter how you try, you won’t be able to squeeze information from me.”

Yujin stared back at her professor. Seulgi is well-known for being outgoing and easy to socialise with but Yujin is also aware of how intimidating Seulgi can be. There was one press conference that she attended before with other up-and-coming writers but she was questioned by one reporter.

“How do you feel that you gained recognition in writing fanfiction?”

Yujin felt like tearing her phone screen that time since she was watching the interview live. She could see a lot of fans defending the writer at the comment section but the nasty ones were present as well. 

It was true that [LFI]’s characters were initially named after popular idols. Selene and Irene used to be an idol pairing. That’s the reason why Seulgi was initially looked down upon by her seniors at university too. They all believed that her work only got recognised because of the names she borrowed. If not then it was nothing but a generic story.

It was the release of [RPoR] that time and it has been a long while before she actually came up with something to officially publish. She was still active in writing but most of her works were used at school and then later published into a compilation of short stories. [RPoR] was her first ever work to get serialised into a web novel from a well-known online publishing company.

Yujin could remember how she felt goosebumps the moment Seulgi sassily grabbed the mic and looked straight at the journalist in which she answered, “I agree that it caused quite a stir in the fanfic community. It was recommended here and there by the pair enthusiasts but it was also read by other shippers and cried with the others. The professor who saw my work doesn’t even know that I used idol names in my work yet they were moved by it. [LFI] was turned into a stage play, a web comic and a short animated series using original names but the impact didn’t change. No one knew that it was a fanfic before someone posted about it online.”

There was a dramatic pause, a stare down with the journalist followed by the writer’s signature head tilting. “I believe you don’t know much about the fanfic genre. There are lots of great writers in that field as well. There’s a sea of available works out there and to have your work be acknowledged by enthusiasts is already a big deal. You’re even lucky if your work isn’t dropped in the first chapter.”

Seulgi smiled to somehow lighten the atmosphere up but her expression suddenly going blank made quite an impression on everyone watching. ‘Don’t look down at fanfic writers. There are a lot of stories out there that deserve big recognition but just didn’t have the chance.”

Looking back at that interview, Yugenius realised something. 

“Professor!” Yujin shouted. “Does River having no artstyle of his own reflect on you starting as a fanfic writer?”

“Ding dong daeng~!” Seulgi goofily smiled at her. “You got it right! You’re really a genius, puppy!”

“Here she goes calling me puppy again.” 

“What?”

Yujin covered . “N-Nothing, nothing!” 

Seulgi just shook her head and smiled. “You’re right. I got a lot of backlash back then because I initially uploaded [LFI] as a fanfic. A lot of seniors said that I only rode the popularity of the idol pairing. There’s also a group of people who called me a delusional freak for writing fanfic. I won’t deny that it got into my nerves. I just didn’t show it that much but I was really furious. As if some well-known writers didn’t have celebrities in their mind when they write stories. I just borrowed names but aside from that everything in the story is mine. Heck, [LFI] is literally my story!”

Yujin could only nod at what her whining mentor said. She understands where she’s coming from. In the end, how the story affected someone will be the weighing scale on how good a story is. 

“So, in the story, it says that Professor Bae was basically the one that got you and Seungwan-ssi together, right? How did that happen in real life?”

A smirk soon came back at Seulgi’s lips. She wiped the side of her lips first before answering her student’s question.

“Ahh, about that… It happened like this…”

***

“SEULGI!” 

Seungwan called out to her friend but it seemed like the girl didn’t hear her. She suddenly felt worried when she called her again but there was no reaction at all. She just kept walking with that scowl on her face and she knows her so well. Seulgi might be depressed but she never walks with that awful look on her face. 

The theatre actress then excused herself from her classmates and ran towards Seulgi. She intentionally bumped at her before clinging to her arm. “Kang Seulgi! I’ve been calling out on you but you aren’t even responding. Is there something wrong?”

The surprised look on Seulgi’s face soon disappeared as she let out a sigh. “It’s nothing. Just had a bad time in the club.”

“Bad time in the club?” Seungwan repeated before gasping in realisation. “Don’t tell me…”

“Yeah… Sorry I haven’t told you about it…” Seulgi sighed once more before brushing her hair backwards. “That’s some kind of luck… The professor paired me with her because they found out that we were in the same class back in highschool.”

“That …” Seungwan worriedly looked at her friend who’s back to scowling. 

“Right. big time. If only I am not in debt to the professor then I wouldn’t join that club.” Seulgi pressed her lips together as she processed her thoughts. “Man, I hope she doesn’t think that I came to this school because of her. I chose this school because you study here, Wannie.”

The other girl instantly felt heat on her cheeks and quickly lowered her head to hide it. “R-Right! Ha-ha! H-How did she react when she first saw you?”

“She looked rather surprised. She probably didn’t think that I would be taking the same major. Man, I just really hope she doesn’t misunderstand things. I already feel like puking.” Seulgi just continued walking with her sight fixed up ahead. “Of course, I already prepared myself in case our paths cross and I did exactly as I planned.”

“You actually planned something?” Seungwan chuckled. 

“Of course, I have to be prepared.” Seulgi pouted her lips. “I acted in accordance with what she wanted so yeah. I pretended like I didn’t know her at all.”

“But she didn’t buy it, right? That girl’s clever.”

“Yeah. Of course she won’t believe it. Short story shorter, we got into a little exchange and left her telling her that I will continue acting like I don’t know her.” For the nth time, Seulgi sighed. “Why is she the one assigned in making a review about [LFI] anyway? What a tragedy. She’s bothering me everyday.”

“She hasn’t read it, huh?” Seungwan nodded at the thought. “Why not ask her to come watch the play then? I bet she’d like it.”

Seulgi fell silent. It seemed like she was also pondering about the idea but she shook her head in the end. “No, she’d be devastated if she finds out how the readers received Irene.”

Seungwan just smiled. She knew Seulgi would answer like that. Despite being hurt, she never wished to hurt Joohyun back. She might be showing that she hates meeting Joohyun again but Seungwan knows that deep inside Seulgi’s heart, she’s happy to be reunited with her once again. 

But, despite that fact, Seungwan knew she had to support Seulgi in whatever she wanted to do. If she thinks that pretending like she doesn’t know Joohyun would help her then she is so r