Irene would be arriving to her place any minute now, so Seulgi checked her mental to-do list one last time, in case she'd missed anything the other dozens of times she had checked. The most important item on the list was of course, the much needed absence of the self-proclaimed 'Shipping Fairy Yeri', who insisted on coming and sleeping over at their dorm on the weekends 'to conveniently carry out her shipping duties'. As helpful as the teenager wanted to be and as much as Seulgi (not really) tried to tolerate her, she was as unintentionally destructive as Seulgi herself was. They definitely didn't need twice as much trouble as they already had with Seulgi single-handedly ruining just about anything she came into contact with. So Seulgi had asked her trusted and only friends Luhan and Amber to take Yeri out somewhere and distract her for the evening, until she would tell them that they were welcome to return. Not that they were welcome in the first place, but they also lived here and paid fees...

Seulgi had told Irene that she'd take her somewhere that would "sweep her right off her feet" - but she was car-less, broke, and as ingenious as a store-bought jar of kimchi - so there weren't a lot of options. At least she'd cleaned the dorm beforehand (which basically meant picking up everything on the floor that probably didn't belong there and shoving it into their closet), so Irene didn't have to be literally swept right her off her feet. She tidied what she could, hid questionable things out of sight, doused all the rooms with air and fabric freshener, and so on. Irene had already been here before but it was just a brief visit to pick up Seulgi. Since they were going to spend the evening here, everything had to be spotless and flawless. The rest of her date preparations were in place, and Seulgi herself looked more than presentable; credits to Suzy, her unofficial, unpaid stylist.

She was ready. She had to take everything about her dates with Irene very seriously, because she considered it training for her to eventually become a perfect, experienced girlfriend for Wendy. She was doing this all for Wendy, the person she'd swim across oceans for, cut through forests for, move mountains for, align the moon and stars - the doorbell went off and Seulgi raced toward the door. "For Wendy!", Seulgi shouted in her head with the voices of a thousand Spartan men as she hurriedly unlocked and opened the door. The voices were quickly silenced.

She startled Irene, who was in the middle of tugging down her cream-colored sweater that didn't even look like it needed the slightest bit of adjustment. Somehow, this girl managed to make even the simplest outfits look like runway material. She looked up at Seulgi with widened eyes momentarily before clearing and regaining her composure. It felt strange to catch Irene doing such a thing, and her reaction to Seulgi's sudden appearance made it feel even more...wrong. After exchanging somewhat awkward greetings, Irene asked, "We're hanging out here at your place, correct?"

"Oh yeah - come in." Seulgi told the older girl as she moved out of the way to make room for Irene to enter. She closed the door behind her and turned around to see Irene looking around, something she wasn't able to do the first time she'd been there. Seulgi was glad that she took the time to 'clean'. Irene eventually took notice of the already set table in the kitchen and glanced at Seulgi for explanation. The taller girl led her to the table, pulling out a chair and gesturing for Irene to have a seat. As she sat down, Seulgi explained, "You mentioned before that you really like pasta so I decided that I'd give it a try and cook it here myself. I hope you don't mind, especially since it isn't fancy or anything. You didn't have dinner yet, right?"

"No, I haven't." Irene answered with slightly raised eyebrows.

"You look surprised."

Irene smiled in response to Seulgi's remark, a bit embarrassed. "I didn't peg you as the cooking type."

"College does make you learn things...well, living in a dorm does, at least. You gotta live how to survive on your own and cook edible food for yourself. What would you like to drink, by the way?" She questioned, opening her refrigerator and peering inside. "We have apple and orange juice, soda, water...some kind of red wine - I can't pronounce the name but it starts with an 's'."

"Water would be fine, thank you."

"I wanted to set up candles on the table but Luhan was convinced that I'd somehow manage to burn our place down so he hid all of them somewhere. I should find them, arrange them in his bedroom, and light them all up just to spite him." Seulgi recalled as she twirled a bit of red sauce pasta around her fork. She wasn't exactly eating quite yet though.

Irene expected something more...unusual. Seulgi wasn't the showy type and Irene didn't expect anything like that out of her, but she admittedly seemed like the type of person who was...out there. Home-cooked dinner seemed very normal, and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary with Seulgi's presentation either. She felt somewhat relieved, actually. Their first date held more than enough surprises for the both of them. Regardless of the seemingly normal date, Irene was still impressed. "Wow, this is really good." She commented after her first bite. She looked up to see Seulgi staring at her with a rather intense expression and she nearly choked on the food she was in the middle of swallowing. She grabbed her glass of water and quickly drank to help herself, while Seulgi sighed in relief. She didn't even seem to notice how Irene had nearly choked thanks to her laser-worthy gaze.

"Okay, good. I'm no five star chef so I thought that maybe it wouldn't be good enough for a pasta enthusiast such as yourself. But you said that it's really good, so I'm happy." Seulgi said, smiling brightly. Irene found this smile of hers rather cute and innocent, an honest smile derived from praise. For Seulgi, on the other hand, this compliment meant that she could also cook pasta and possibly other dishes as well for Wendy. She'd learn to cook everything and anything if it meant being able to please Wendy. Heck, she could even prepare something one of these days and bring it for Wendy to try since she was going to help her with gardening anyway. She made a mental note to do it when they decided to meet up; nothing could go wrong in an effort to impress one's crush. "Irene, would you mind if I cooked for you?" The girl in question quirked a brow and Seulgi continued, "Amber and Luhan tell me that I at cooking, so I was wondering if I could try cooking for you and getting honest opinions so I could improve."

"Sure." Irene agreed, though she had a feeling that Seulgi would be doing this for a certain someone else's sake. Even if she didn't approve of Wendy, she would still help Seulgi because that's what their relationship was based on, a mutual agreement to help one another: Seulgi with experience and Irene w