Seulgi blinked not a second after the flash got off.  Sooyoung’s mom had positioned the four of them together as a reminder of their friendship.  Everyone was watching them with smiles on their faces and even Seulgi felt proud to be standing up there with the birthday girl.  All these people knew she was one of the unit of four.  The four of them had been through a lot together and most people from school knew that.  

When they’d finished with the pictures, Joohyun grabbed her hand and started dragging her to the corner of the room.  She looked determined, which gave Seulgi the feeling she had something very important to say.  Seulgi had a general idea she wanted to talk about what had happened at lunch earlier in the day.  In fact, Seulgi herself was still having a difficult time processing it.  They stopped when they were away from the majority of the crowd and Joohyun was sure no would would eavesdrop, 

“Have you talked to Kai yet?”  Joohyun asked.

This confirmed what Seulgi had been thinking.  She didn’t really want to talk about it until she knew what she thought of it on her own.  She needed time to really think it through.  Normally she would have rejected any confession.  She didn’t have the time or the right situation to have a relationship with anyone.  The thought of a normal relationship wasn’t even possible for her. 

She thought about how would her father react if she ever brought Jongin home.  The thought of bringing Jongin home was laughable.  He would never be able to have a normal relationship with her so it was best to not even start one.  Seulgi couldn’t help thinking that if things were different, she might have said yes.

“No I haven’t talked to Kai.  I don’t want to talk to him.  He’s a ,” Seulgi grumbled.  

“He’s a ?” Joohyun repeated, giving her a strange look.

“I don’t want to use swear words here.  You know how conservative Sooyoung’s family is,” Seulgi defended herself.

“Don’t try to distract me.  I think you need to talk to Kai as soon as possible,”  Joohyun rolled her eyes.

“Is this your way of trying to figure out what my response would have been?”  Seulgi questioned.

She knew her friends too well to go along with whatever scheme they had thought up of.  Seulgi knew exactly how it had probably went down.  Joohyun had probably declared they need to do something about her.  Sooyoung would have been the brains of the entire operation, which would start out with Joohyun confronting her indirectly.  Somewhere in the course of conversation, Joohyun would say something extremely sensitive to which Seulgi would break down yet still refuse help.  The final stage of the plan would be for Seungwan to ask Seulgi a direct question that she would answer in her vulnerability.

It was truthfully a beautiful plan but Seulgi had fallen for this pattern many times.  She wasn’t going to let it work this time.

“Tell Sooyoung to brush up on her tactics, won’t you?”  Seulgi drawled.

“For god’s sake, we’re not that obvious,”  Joohyun blurted out.  An instant later, a guilty expression crossed her face.

“You guys are about as subtle as Mark when he flirts,”  Seulgi snorted.

“What about me?”  Mark’s voice cut in.  Seulgi turned around to see Mark grinning at the two of them.  Suzy wasn’t too far behind in the distance, chatting with Hyuna and Sooyoung.

“Where’s Kai?”  Joohyun asked, looking around.  Seulgi had no idea why Joohyun, out of all people would be so concerned about where Kai was.  

Mark’s grin turned into a frown and he stole a glanc