Irene was frustrated with the way Wendy had been ignoring her for days. She didn’t even know what she did or said to make the girl behave this way. As far as she knows, she hadn’t been pulling off any pranks on Wendy that month. She did try talking it out with Wendy, but the latter just won’t budge or say anything. Wendy only stared at her.

“Hey, do you know why Wendy is not saying a thing to me? It’s been going on like this for days,” Irene said, pulling the friend to the said-girl a bit too rough that it even caused Seulgi to yelp in surprise.

“Yah, I’ve just walked out from the bathroom. At least give me a chance to breathe.”

“…Fine,” Irene crossed her arms as she let go of Seulgi’s shirt. The leader went on and tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for the bear to answer her.

“That’s better,” Seulgi smiled. “Oh, by the way. You might want to use the air freshener when you go to the bathroom.”

“Why?”

“I just pooped, and it was green since I had mint ice cream earlier,” she rambled on. “Oh wait, unless you like the smell of mint there’s no need to use the air freshener-“

“Please, don’t spare me the details of you going to the loo,” the older girl’s face scrunched in disgust.

“Oh right. Sorry,” Seulgi grinned. “You wanted to ask me about Wendy?”

“Yes, on the reason why she hasn’t been talking to me for days.”

“Oh my, she hasn’t be talking to you for days?” Seulgi blinked for a few times in surprise. Her friend is really not the type of person to ignore people. Wendy likes people, even those that aren’t very likable. “Did you do anything to her unnie?”

“I didn’t,” Irene let out a low groan. “I haven’t even pull off any pranks on her.”

“Well, she only tend to lose her voice in front of the person that she likes-“ Seulgi paused upon hearing the words she had just blurted out, staring at Irene wide-eyed. Wendy told her once, about her secret. On having this weird condition where a sore throat would come all of the sudden whenever she’s with the person that she likes. And it would go away once she’s fifty meters away from her crush. “Unnie, did she try to keep a distance away from you too?”

“Yes, that too. You’re close with her, why don’t you ask her what’s wrong?”

“Rest assured unnie. I’m going to interrogate her until she spills it out,” Seulgi could only grin, and hope that her suspicions were true because if it is, she’s going to have so much fun on teasing the hell out of Wendy.

-

“Girls, I bought some ice cream.“

“Ice cream?” Wendy beamed upon the word ice cream, but her face fell the moment she saw the owner of the voice, standing in the middle of the living room. Wendy could feel all the blood draining away from her as if she had just seen a ghost and she quickly shut herself inside their room.

Irene managed to take a glimpse of the main vocalist and sigh, handing over the ice cream she had bought for Wendy to Seulgi. “Give her this will you?”

“Why don’t you give it to her yourself unnie?” a playful smile played across her lips after unwrapping the ice cream bar, only to get a smack in return from the leader. “Ouch, what was that for?” Seulgi whimpered.

“You know what will happen. That aside, didn’t you say that you’re going to interrogate her? What happened with that?”

“Oh that…”

“Kang Seulgi, I’m so going to murder you if you told her about this!”

“Why not? I’m sure that Irene-unnie will be thrilled to hear that she’s got someone crushing on her- Hey, what are you doing with that knife?”

“I was originally planning to use this to skin the chicken. But maybe I could use it to skin you alive instead.”

“H-Hey! Put that down and let’s talk this out instead!”

“I haven’t got the chance to do so unnie. It slipped my mind,” Seulgi flashed her an awkward smile. “I’ll ask her when I get the chance to!” she hurriedly made her way to their room to deliver the ice cream to Wendy, leaving the leader behind with their maknae even before the older girl gets to say a word.

-

Wendy could see the leader struggling with her shoelaces from a distance. She contemplated for a second on whether to help Irene out despite of the fact that will be burning as a result of doing so but the moment she spotted a guy, whom she recognized to be from a boy group, seemingly wanting to help Irene, Wendy instantly pushed her way through the hallway.

There’s no way on earth she’s going to let someone else get close to her Irene, especially not someone who’s very good-looking.

Irene was surprised to see a pair of familiar shoes standing in front of her, but Wendy just played it cool as she squatted down, not even bothering to meet the leader’s eyes.

“What are you…” Irene’s voice trailed off upon seeing Wendy tying her shoelaces carefully, and blushed. She must’ve looked so pathetic, she thought. That even Wendy, whom hasn’t spoken to her for a while, decided to help her. “Thank you.”

“Y-“

Wendy’s throat suddenly burned at the sudden realization that Irene is in fact, right in front of her. Just a few inches away. Wendy only stared at Irene for a few seconds as soon as her voice was drained away from her before quickly shuffling back on her feet and ran away.

“…What’s wrong with her,” Irene mumbled and shook her head as she stood up, smiling nevertheless, at the thought of Wendy lending her a hand. “Such a weird girl.”

-

“Are you sure that you don’t want to tell unnie about it? This can’t go on forever you know,” Seulgi quietly said as she looked over to her friend, the two of them standing in front of the mirror in the toilet. Little did they know, their leader was in one of the stalls, listening intently to their conversation.

Irene was about to step out after finishing her business but the second she heard Wendy’s voice along with Seulgi’s entering the toilet, she decided not to.

“She’s going to be freaked out by me. It’s better for her to think that I don’t like her.”

“Seriously? What are you planning to do with your feelings then?” Seulgi sighed. “Don't tell me that you’re just going to forget about Irene-unnie. That’s going to be hard, considering that we’re in the same group.”

“It would be even harder if I were to get into a relationship with her since we’re in the same group,” Wendy replied shortly, taking a glance at Seulgi and she smiled. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

“…Fine, if you say so,” Seulgi murmured.

“I’ll be going ahead, I still have a lot of things to improve on my dancing,” Wendy chuckled and patted on Seulgi’s back, making her way out of toilet and straight back to the practice room.

Seulgi was about to return to washing her hands but swallowed the lump in as soon as she realized the creepy shadow reflected in the mirror.

“Seulgi, you have a lot of explanations to do.”

-

“Wait, what on earth are you doing? Hey, let me out of here!” Wendy slammed her hand on the door for a few times, wanting to be let out of the practice room immediately. Had both Seulgi and Joy gone nuts? Why on earth would they be locking her up with Irene when the two of them knew, they knew that Wendy has a crush on their leader. Well, Joy wasn’t supposed to know but Seulgi just couldn’t keep her ice cream hole shut and decided to tell their maknae about it. Yes, ice cream hole. That’s what she had decided to call Seulgi’s mouth.

“Wendy-ah.”

At the corner of her eye, Wendy could see Irene slowly approaching her and the first thing that she does was to take a step away, every time Irene took a step closer.

“Wendy-ah, I knew about your condition,” Irene said, a sheepish smile forming on her face.

“W-Wha- H-How,” she jittered, managing to say a few words as she was still fifty meters away from the leader.

“I overheard you and Seulgi talking,” Irene bit her lower lip, keeping her eyes on Wendy. Truth to be told, she was the one who suggested for Seulgi and Joy to lock them up together. She wanted things to be settled for once and all. “Seulgi told me that there’s a way to cure it.”

“…She did?”

Her eyes fluttered for a few times, baffled with what Irene had just said. Wendy didn’t mention anything about the cure. In fact, she herself didn't even know how to cure her problem.

“Yes, she did.”

And before Wendy even knew it, she was tackled by Irene to which her back landed on the floor. Wendy could only groan in pain and again, as soon as she was aware of the fact that Irene was on top of her, the burning in returned.

“I was quite skeptical when she told me about the cure actually,” Irene blushed and stared at Wendy’s neck nervously, resting her hands on Wendy’s sides. “But I figured that I should try you know, so that you won’t suffer from it anymore.”

What on earth is Irene talking about, she thought. But her question was soon forgotten, and her breath hitched up as soon as Irene leaned in, pressing her lips tenderly against Wendy’s neck. The leader took her time in kissing the main vocalist’s neck, as if it’s the most fragile thing and all Wendy could do was to stay still, enjoying every second of it.

She didn’t know what the hell was going on, but she wasn’t about to complain with Irene kissing her.

Surprisingly though, it worked.

The kiss that Irene was giving her was soothing the burn in , and by the time Irene pulled away from her, only to stare at Wendy’s beautiful orbs, her sore throat was gone.

“Did it worked?” Irene muttered under her breath, her cheeks flushed.

“Yes, it did unnie,” Wendy finally managed to voiced out and Irene was thrilled to see that the cure Seulgi told her was in fact working. The leader couldn’t help but to squeal in joy as she crushed the younger girl into a hug.

“Oh my god, it worked!”

“Unnie… You do realize what you did just now right?”

It was Wendy’s turn to blush, as she averted her eyes away from Irene, only to regret it a few moments later as she was greeted by their reflection in the mirror. Irene was still on top of her, and they are in fact still in the practice room.

“Well, it’s a bit embarrassing. I have to admit,” Irene confessed shyly as she pulled away from the hug. “But uhm, you…like me no?”

“Yeah… I do.”

“Then that’s all that matters,” Irene smiled and once again planted a soft kiss on Wendy’s neck. Wendy was about to ask the older girl about her feelings towards her, but she didn’t had the chance to as the rest of their members suddenly barged into the room. They ought to have a better timing, really.

“Unnie, what happened?!”

“Oh my god Irene-unnie, did it really work?”

“Yeah, it worked Seulgi-ah!” Irene beamed, smiling widely towards the said-girl.

“Oh wow, I just made it up. I never thought it would work!” Seulgi laughed but her laughter slowly faded away, at the sight of a very furious snowman and cabbage.

“What did you just say my friend?”

“You dare to trick your leader Seulgi-ah?”

“C-Chill guys! What matters right now is that her condition is now cured right? N-No?”

Author’s Note – Will be posting the sequel to The Two Shades Of Irene in a few days. You’ll find it in the rated section though. /coughs. That aside, here’s another fluff. Well, sorta. It’s more of a crack smh.