Irene never cried. Well, at least not in front of the rest of her members. Wendy wonders sometimes, on how on earth does the leader managed to keep her feelings in check at all times, and not breakdown despite of the spotlight and hate on them. Irene’s ability to easily compose herself was so good that it worried her.

 

Irene is human too, so it’s only a matter of time where she would break down and Wendy dreaded for that day to come. She was scared of the possibility of Irene hurting herself because Wendy had experienced it before. She had experienced how it felt like to keep her feelings to herself and one day, when all hell breaks loose, she just lost it.

 

Wendy tried to reason with herself that it was her role as the mother of the group that made her care about Irene, but deep down inside, she knew that something else was causing her to care more compared to the rest of the members.

 

And so, she had come up with a plan.

 

Which is to make Irene cry, over something that is plain simple and silly.

 

Call her stupid, but by doing so she thought, maybe Irene would cry more easily in front of the girls.

 

-

 

“Let’s watch The Fault In Our Stars unnie!”

 

“Hmm?” Irene pulled away from the book she was reading, casting the younger girl a curious glance. “Isn’t that an English movie?”

 

“Yes!” Wendy nodded eagerly. “I heard that you can’t watch this movie without crying.”

 

“Does it have Korean subs? You know my English is not that good,” Irene smiled sheepishly, closing the book that she had in her hands before putting it aside, Wendy settling next to her in the couch

 

“Yes unnie. I searched for the subbed one so that we can watch it together,” she said, making herself comfortable by resting her head against Irene’s shoulder as she placed the laptop on her lap.

 

“In that case alright then.”

 

By the time the movie had come to an end, it was Wendy who was bawling her eyes out and Irene even had to try to soothe the girl down, by offering her boxes of tissues and gently caressing her back.

 

-

 

“What are you doing?”

 

Irene stared incredulously at the sight of Wendy trying to fan the loads of crushed garlic on the dining table towards the direction of the living room, which to be exact, is in her direction actually.

 

“O-Oh, I’m trying to uhm… To get rid of the fish smell?”

 

“Fish? Did we cook fish this recently?”

 

“Well no. But I heard that garlic can make you cry-“ Wendy mumbled, her eyes starting to sting a few seconds after. “What the heck,” Wendy said and fanned herself, wiping the tears that were forming in her eyes.

 

Irene on the other hand, just smiled to herself. Wendy could be such an entertainer at times. She’s even more amusing than the shows that she would usually watch on tv.

 

-

 

‘How To Make Someone Cry:101

 

It’s simple. Just smack them with this book.’

 

The muscle on the corner of her lips twitched a little the moment she opened the first page of the book, reading the content of it. Or rather, reading the one line that was printed out on the book. The rest of the book turned out to be blank, and she wanted to kill the person publishing the book so badly. Perhaps, it was her fault for not checking out the contents of the book first before deciding to spend $25 dollars on a thick book filled with blank pages and a stupid line.

 

Wendy groaned in frustration and threw the book right onto the wall opposed to hers, waking up the hibernating bear as a result.

 

“What the hell?!” Seulgi shot up from her bed with an agitated look, and a small blue bump on her head. Wendy swallowed her saliva nervously, cowering behind her covers in return. She had almost forgotten of the one fact. The fact that a hibernating bear is not one that any human should be messing with, if they wanted to live a full life.

 

“I-I’m sorry Seulgi-ah!”

 

“What the hell is this anyways?” Seulgi grumbled, turning into the first page of the book and soon smirked as she gave Wendy a glance. “Oh hey, let’s test this out.”

 

“P-Please don’t!”

 

Just then, Irene had to walk into their room, after hearing all the fuss from the living room and she was greeted by the sight of a sobbing Wendy, Seulgi raising her arm to throw the book towards Wendy’s direction. And it definitely wasn’t a pretty picture.

 

“What are you guys doing?”

 

“S-She’s trying to kill me unnie!” Wendy exclaimed and ran to the leader dramatically, earning a scoff from Seulgi.

 

“Such a sissy.”

 

“Now now, be nice to each other kids,” Irene sighed, giving Wendy a gentle pat on her head. Life can never be simple when you're the leader of Red Velvet.

 

-

 

"Ouch!”

 

A loud thud could be heard across the hallway, and Irene soon found herself on the ground, her knee scraped.

 

“Are you alright unnie?” Wendy creased her eyebrows as she rushed to attend to Irene, who was sitting on the ground, busy examining her own wound but Irene instantly flashed a smile the moment Wendy approached her, as a sign that she was indeed alright. And Wendy wasn’t happy with that.

 

Wendy wanted Irene to cry, to bawl her eyes out, to flood the floor with her tears- Okay, maybe that was too much, but yes, Wendy does want Irene to cry.

 

“Yeah, I’m fine.”                               

 

“Are you sure?” Wendy said, sounding rather disappointed and Irene quickly picked up on the tone that Wendy was giving her, blinking rather curiously for a few times but the older girl decided to keep shut.

 

That is, until Wendy went on and ‘accidentally’ pressed too hard on Irene’s knee, eliciting a yelp from Irene.

 

“Seungwan-ah, are you trying to kill me?”

 

“Well no, I’m trying to make you cr-“ she almost said her inner thoughts aloud but Wendy was quick to change her words. How smooth, Son Seungwan. “I mean, no!”

 

“Really?”

 

“Y-Yes. Really,” Wendy nodded for a few times and it was then she had decided to postpone her plan to some other day, offering a hand to Irene to help the leader stand up but the stinging pain in her knee wasn’t helping her for one bit.

 

“Hold on for a second,” Irene hissed softly and bit her lower lip.

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“It still hurts.”

 

“Oh.”

 

It was Wendy’s turn to blink, and she felt guilty for having tried to put some pressure on the wound. But perhaps, this could be the chance to make Irene cry, she thought. Her heart however, couldn’t stand watching Irene in pain thus Wendy just threw her thoughts away and lowered her back, motioning the older girl to get on.

 

“Get on unnie.”

 

“What?”

 

“I’ll carry you to the infirmary.”

 

“I know that you’re strong Seungwan but I’m quite heavy you know,” Irene muttered shyly under her breath, and Wendy managed to catch the shy glance Irene was giving her through the reflections on the doors. And it was making her smile.

 

“It’s alright. These muscles aren’t for nothing,” Wendy laughed and playfully flexed her arms. “Should I carry you in my arms instead?”

 

“Yah, are you trying to embarrass us in front of our sunbaes and the trainees?” Irene hissed and lightly smacked Wendy’s back, which was a wrong move actually because Wendy ended up giving her a smirk as the latter turned around and shuffled on her feet.

 

“In my arms it is then.”

 

“Wait-“

 

Irene didn’t even get to finish her protest as Wendy slipped her arms under Irene’s neck and knees, carrying her bridal style.

 

“Put me down this instance!” she gasped, looking around in panic. Irene was relieved that no seniors or trainees were in sight but sooner or later, they would have to face one on their way to the infirmary. The building might be big, but so is the amount of employees in it.

 

“Oh whew. You’re right unnie, you are heavy.”

 

“That’s why I told you to put me down,” Irene blushed.

 

“It’s fine, I could still handle it,” Wendy smiled oh-so-charmingly and continued to carry the older girl down the hallway. Irene could only sigh upon seeing her member being so stubborn. After knowing Wendy for almost four years, she should’ve known better, she thought. Wendy wasn’t the type to give up, and neither is she but Irene decided to give in to her dongsaeng this time, snaking her arms around Wendy’s neck naturally in the end.

 

And it was just her luck that day, that both their seniors, f(x) and Girls Generation decided to have a meal together and ended up with an upset tummy by the time they get to the agency, to which all of them visited the infirmary afterwards.

 

Irene found herself being stared at by several pairs of eyes as they entered the infirmary, and some even winked at her.

 

-

 

“Wendy-ah, are you alright?” Irene reached out to feel Wendy’s forehead, the younger girl staring at her in confusion in return.

 

Irene was concerned with the way Wendy was behaving that month. It was as if the latter was possessed, or something had driven her to do all the crazy things. Either way, it was freaking her out.

 

“Huh? I am unnie. Why the question?”

 

“You’ve been behaving quite weirdly these days,” she frowned and folded her arms. “Spill it out. I need to know as your leader.”

 

“…Nothing’s wrong!” Wendy hurriedly pulled the covers over her head, but she could feel a weight on top of her afterwards, and it was making her hard to breathe. “Y-Yah, get off me unnie.”

 

“Not until you tell me what’s wrong,” Irene hummed softly, wrapping her arms around the fluffy, fully wrapped figure. Wendy almost felt like a teddy bear to her. A teddy bear that was hiding a secret from her.

 

“I refuse to!”

 

“…I’m going to stay like this for the rest of the night.”

 

“Suit yourself then.”

 

“…You’ll find me the first thing in the morning, when you wake up.”

 

“Suit yourself- Wait, what?” Wendy widened her eyes and peeked out of the covers, and Irene took this as the chance to throw the covers off the younger girl, cackling with laughter.

 

“Aha, got you!”

 

“Not fair, you tricked me!”

 

“Whatever. Now spill it.”

 

“…Fine,” Wendy sighed, finally surrendering to Irene. She would have to spill out the truth eventually anyways. It’s just that, she didn’t expect it to be this soon. “I wanted to try to make you cry.”

 

“Make me cry?” Irene raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

 

“You never cried in front of us unnie.”

 

“So that’s what all the fuss is about?” Irene frowned, starting to dislike the direction the conversation was heading to. Why on earth does their lovely Wendy wanted to see her cry? Did she develop a certain dislike towards their leader?

 

“It’s just that, it’s not fair that you don’t get to cry just because you’re the leader,” Wendy fiddled with the hem of her shirt, not daring to look Irene in the eyes. And Irene was surprised to be hearing such things coming out from Wendy. No one had ever said those words to her.

 

She wanted to appear to be tough for the girls, because there were only four of them. The rest of the girls needed her. There will be a day where even their company, or their fans won’t be able to protect them and she’s preparing herself for that day to come. She might not be the best leader they could have in the whole wide world, but she is trying her hard to be a good one. Maybe, too hard that she ended up worrying them instead.

 

“Such a silly person,” Irene heaved a soft sigh from her lips, a smile forming on her lips a few moments after and she rolled next to Wendy, fitting herself on the small mattress. She then placed Wendy’s arms on her waist quietly, scooting closer to the petite figure.

 

Wendy might be small, but the warmth that was radiating from her definitely wasn’t. Perhaps, the day where she would finally cry would come in the future, and she was hoping that Wendy would be there for her.

 

“Are you going to sleep now unnie?”

 

“Mhm.”

 

“You’re going to sleep with me?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“I’m not very good at controlling my hormones,” Wendy murmured, catching Irene’s attention immediately with her words.

 

“Excuse me? Your hormones?”

 

 “I-I mean, are we going to end the conversation just like that?”

 

“What more do you want me to say?” Irene fluttered her eyes closed, breathing out loudly. “Can we sleep now?”

 

“But I deserve to hear more after all those things that I did.”

 

“We’ll talk more tomorrow.”

 

“My curiosity is killing me,” she whined but soon shut closed as Irene looked up to her and glared.

 

“Now be a good teddy bear. I’m going to sleep,” Irene stifled a yawn, drawing Wendy closer to her.

 

“Seulgi would make a better teddy bear though…”

 

“I’m going to shut you up with a kiss if you don’t stop talking.”

 

“I’m sleeping, I’m sleeping!”

 

 

Author’s Note – Happy Wenrene Day every one! \o/