Author's note: Here’s a longer chapter than usual to make up for the longer than usual time it took. To be honest, this chapter was even longer. Then I realised maybe I cutting it off at a different point made more sense. Keeps it more contained. The plot threads continue to tangle and I wonder whether I need to change my summary. Thank you for continuing to keep up and read this story. And if you're new, I hope you stick along for the ride.

Seulgi’s never really liked kids all that much. 

Even when she was a kid she didn’t like kids. Now she’s in high school, the situation has only somewhat improved (but not really). Come to think of it, now that she’s in high school, there seem to be a lot more kids around. She’s not sure if it’s super fair to call someone only one to three years younger than her a kid, but her brother totally does it too. Maybe it’s just a habit she’s picked up from him. He still calls her a kid now, to be honest, an it’s only the difference between high school and university. Is the difference between middle school and high school anywhere as bad?

The mornings make her way too philosophical. Maybe she’s just too tired. Waking up early had been slowly becoming a habit but sleeping in that other weekend wrecked her sleep schedule even if it had felt amazing at the time.

(She really wanted to be a morning person too. Morning people really seem to have their lives together. Seungwan’s a morning person, she bets. Why wouldn’t she be?)

Well, messed up sleep schedule or dreary morning like aside, she’s pretty sure she doesn’t like kids.

Case in point: these ones pestering her right now.

Covertly pestering, she’ll concede. Maybe that’s too kind. Attempting to covertly pester. (Then again, if they’re attempting to be really covert, then they’re also not attempting to pester. Their incompetence is just making it come out that way.)

Anyway, they’re trailing behind her, occasionally ducking behind lamp posts and sign boards and even people holding sign boards and whispering (or attempting to whisper, at least one of them is) to each other. They’ve been following her ever since she got past the convenience store at the foot of the hill on the way to school. 

Soojung meets her about a third of the way up, ringing the little bell mounted on her bike handle. The sound of it may as well be an alarm because it gets those two to scamper off somewhere else. Soojung, unintentional saviour that she is, remains oblivious as usual as she waves her down and dismounts the bike. It’s another reason to be thankful Soojung’s legs have recovered from Sports Day Hell Rush for sure.

Well, whatever those kids were planning, Seulgi has better things to do with her time than ponder it. For all she knows they’ll just disappear. Children have short attention spans, don’t they?

Not short enough, evidently. As she rounds the corner of the school gate (she has this little thing of not walking through the middle of big entrances and doors and stuff like that—like how she sticks close to the doorframe when she’s on her way to flopping down on her bed after a long day of school) she almost smacks into another person. She stops herself just in the nick of time and staggers backwards trying to regain her balance.

Seulgi blinks. Her brain takes a second to process. She blinks again. 

“You’re that kid from the other day. Sooyeon?”

The girl, in her slightly crumpled middle school uniform, beams a happy smile from round cheek to round cheek. “Sooyoung. But no one calls me that anyway. It’s Joy. Joy. J-o-y.”

Oh, okay. But Seulgi’s sure she’s heard of a Sooyeon at some point too. 

The kid, Joy or Sooyoung or whatever since Seulgi doesn’t really care too much right now, tilts her head to the side. Seulgi is embarrassed at how she doesn’t have to crane her neck down. If anything, she has to look up a little bit. She puffs up her chest, standing as straight and tall as she can. To her dismay, the kid is still about her height. (She resists the urge to check the heels of their shoes and compare.)

“Okay, and who’s that kid?” Seulgi says, pointing at the even younger child running in circles behind them, apparently chasing a butterfly.

“No one. That’s no one. Just ignore her. Unless she’s about to, like, jump onto the road and die or something. Just, like, pay her only the minimum amount of attention as mandated by standards of human decency.”

“I’m already doing that with you.”

“Sooyoung-unnie, let’s just go home. I’m hungry.”

“Not now, Yerim. And it’s Joy!”

“Then I get to be Yeri! It’s cuter!”

“Fine, fine. Whatever. Not now.”

“But, Joy-unnie—”

“I’m having a conversation here.”

“But—”

“Just give me a minute!”

“Hmph!” the girl harumphs.

Seulgi decides she’s going to go with Sooyoung from here on out, if only because this child is grating on her nerves too much.

“Oh my god.” Sooyoung pinches the bridge of her nose and makes a deep, exaggerated sigh, shoulders heaving with the effort of her burden. “Kids, right?”

Seulgi just returns her question with a skeptical glare, eyes narrowing. It’s not as though Sooyoung is doing a great job of painting herself as a rational and respectable young adult right now. Tersely, she says, gesturing in front of herself, “Kids.”

Sooyoung doesn’t get the hint. 

Instead, her eyes sparkle a little, somehow delighted, probably because she’s misunderstood it as Seulgi empathising with her—treating her like an adult. Seulgi’s never been that fond of people who have to put down other people to make themselves likeable, though. She knows this kid doesn’t really have bad intentions — she was like that too once, young and impressionable and desperate to leave the awkward window of puberty long behind her even though it was anything but long behind her — but she’s really grating on her nerves.

Well, it’s not like Seulgi’s much of an adult either. She sure feels like one, faced with this childish display, though. Her patience has been well practiced dealing with Seungwan, but dealing with Seungwan was never this unenjoyable, so maybe that’s why her temper’s starting to wear thin.

(Is this kid as cute as Seungwan? …Maybe. If she tilts her head to the side and squints. She can see the appeal. Definitely not her type though.)

“Whatever. Look, kid,” Seulgi says as coolly and calmly as possible, trying to keep her scowl from looking too deep. “You need to stop doing this. Just leave me alone.”

“But sunbaenim!” the kid protests, as though formality will somehow convince Seulgi of her sudden and totally plausible maturity. “I haven’t even started to explain why I need to talk to you.”

“Oh god,” Seulgi mutters, inaudible to everyone but her and resists the temptation to rub her temple or touch her face in anyway in case the kid think that makes a similarity between the two of them. “Fine then. Just say what you need to say.”

“Um…”

“Go on.”

“Just… Just give me a second, okay? I didn’t think we’d get to this topic so fast. I mean, I appreciate your directness and all, but I’m just a little…”

“I’m waiting.”

“…”

Seulgi sighs. Did this person really intend to do anything at all? “Please leave.”

“But I’m serious! This is really something important!”

“Is it really?”

This, of all things, is what it finally takes to make Sooyoung’s confidence falter. Her tongue trips over her words and her pale cheeks colour a dusty rose, just a tad. The smaller girl following her takes advantage of the stupor to pout and poke her in the stomach and say, “Feed me or I’m telling.”

Sooyoung scowls, mood ruined by this little intervention, and glares down at the kid. “Not now.”

“But I’m hungry. We’ve been waiting here for ages and she doesn’t want to speak to you so let’s just go somewhere else.”

“Yeri, you don’t get it. Things work like this—”

“Pleeeeaaaaasssee feeeeeed meeeee,” the kid groans out and plops herself on the dirt. “Mom gave you money! I know she did!”

“Hey, is that any way to speak to someone older than you?”

“You’re speaking to your sunbae like it’s no big deal!”

“I’m me and you’re you. The levels are just too big.”

“You’re annoying!”

It’s this moment that Seulgi finally makes the brilliant realisation this kid is brilliant. It’s the distraction Seulgi needs to make her get away. This is perfect. This is the moment. She scampers away quietly, detouring away from Sooyoung’s line of sight. Never mind the fact the most direct way back home would be straight though it. Some things in life just require a little subtlety.

She’s made it almost away from eyeshot when she finally hears Sooyoung yell, “Wait, sunbaenim! Where are you? Where are you going?”

She can only hope this middle schooler is incompetent enough to not know where she lives.

Other information also handy to know: Sooyoung is loud. Very loud. Because right after that, she yells, “Okay, I’ll try again tomorrow!”

True to her word and to Seulgi’s bitter disappointment, the next day the kid is there yet again. Instead of stalking her through her commute to school, though, she’s settled for just lurking near the school gates, leaning against a wall on the path on the hill that winds all they way up to school.

“Why are you here again?” At least the other kid doesn’t seem to be around. It’s almost kind of a shame. She was a little bit useful, if only as a distraction.

“I can’t give up so easily, you know, sunbaenim? Sunbaenim? Sunbaenim?”

“Please stop.”

“Sunbaenim! You’re so forward!” She simpers, batting her lashes all faux-embarrassed. “But I don’t think we’re really close enough to drop the formalities, you know? I still have to call you for a while longer. I’d like to get to that point soon too, though!”

“Not that,” Seulgi grits out.

“Ah, you agree. I knew we were on the same wavelength.”

“No,” Seulgi insists. “I mean I’d appreciate it if you stopped talking to me and left me alone.”

“No can do.”

Seulgi ignores her and continues walking her way up the path, pretty fast at that.

She’s interrupted when a figure bursts out of a bush and blocks her path. Her heart almost jumps out of her chest in the shock. Seulgi’s never dealt well with jump scares, not even in video games when she’d sneak over to see her brother play his survival horror fare. It’s worse in real life.

“Rah!” the figure says, thankfully a beat to late to contribute to any cardiac arrest, and Seulgi has to tilt her head down to see where the voice is coming from. 

Ah, that other kid. Yeri, was it? She’s got some leaves in her hair. Now, how much later do middle and elementary schools actually start compared to high school? The amount of time these two have to plan these things seemed a little excessive.

“Excellent job,” Sooyoung says, jogging to catch up. “Now, sunbaenim, just hear me out a little. I know I’ve been pretty forceful with my approach and all, but…”

“But what?” Seulgi snaps, a hand at her chest. She can still feel a little bit of a cold sweat from when Yeri jumped out at her. “You think this is an okay way to act? We don’t even know each other. Is this really okay? Your parents raised you to think this was fine? This is fine?”

Sooyoung flinches. She draws her chin up and slowly stands taller. “Maybe not. But it’s for something really important so I have to do what I can.”

Seulgi realises that, even though she’s walking, Sooyoung isn’t getting any further away.

“You’re really going to follow me all the way here?” Seulgi grouses.

“If I need to,” Sooyoung says. “Maybe if you’d just stop and hear me out, sunbaenim, then this wouldn’t be such an issue.”

“The last few times I tried to do that you either ran away or spent all your time talking in circles around it.”

“Well I know I come across as dashingly confident, but I get nervous too, you know?”

“Uh huh,” Seulgi says, skeptical.

“It’s true! I have the heart of a fair maiden.”

A voice unfamiliar to the current conversation chimes in, “Who has the heart of a fair maiden?”

It’s Seungwan.

“You’re early for once,” Seulgi notes, zooming in on her with her gaze. “Are you sure you got enough sleep after all your after school activities?”

Seungwan rolls her eyes. “You don’t need to be worrying about me.”

“Hmph.”

Seungwan takes a deep look at Sooyoung and Yeri and then turns back to Seulgi. With a lopsided grin, she teases, “Do I need to be worrying about you?”

“Please do,” Seulgi says. “Someone should.”

“Oh?” Seungwan replies, voice a little sharper, eyes a little narrower, back a little straighter. “Being bullied by kids?”

“We’re not bullying anyone,” Yeri protests, crossing her arms and stamping a foot down in front of her. “You’re butting into our conversation.”

“Hey. What do you mean ‘you’? Is that the way you talk to people older than you?”

“I know, right?” Sooyoung says. “She has no filter.” 

“You too. Should you be around here now—” Seungwan squints to read the name tag on the middle school uniform “—Park Sooyoung?”

“I was just talking to sunbaenim here when you interrupted.”

Seungwan twitches. Her fingers flex. Seulgi wonders if she should use this as a diversion to get to class. Then again, she’d only have to deal with an irritated Seungwan if she just ditched her now.

“Excuse me, I don’t like your tone.”

“I don’t like your face.”

“Hey! That’s out of line!”

Seulgi doesn’t want to be amused by the kid. She doesn’t. She’s not. Honest. 

“It’s time for us to go to school. Authorised personnel only. Scram. Scoot. Scidaddle,” Seungwan says, making dismissive waving gestures with her hands.

Yeri’s cheeks puff up in protest. Sooyoung makes an expression between a scowl and a pout. Seulgi would find it cute if the kid wasn’t so damn annoying. (Then again. She wasn’t really. It was just her meddlesome association with Sooyoung that worsened that particular perspective.)

“Come on, let’s go,” Seungwan says. Seulgi follows her. So, too, do Sooyoung and Yeri.

Seungwan frowns.

“Hey, hey, not you,” Seungwan says, blocking their way in as they ever approach the school gates. “I’m not afraid to call security. I get all sorts of perks in my position of classroom power.”

“What?” Sooyoung says.

“She’s class president,” Seulgi clarifies.

Sooyoung shoots Seungwan a thoroughly unamused, unenthused, not the least bit impressed look. “That’s it? Weak.”

“Whatever! I can call them!”

“Hmph! Fine, fine! I won’t go in. But there’s no laws about talking to people on a public street.”

That determination is almost admirable when it’s not being directed straight at her. Seulgi wonders just how much perspective can change perception. When she’s not the target of Sooyoung’s attention, the kid almost seems like someone you want to root for.

“Oh my god, Sseul,” Seungwan groans. “Just leave them alone. Hurry up, let’s get to class.”

With that, Seungwan crosses her arms and stomps across the entrance border, right over the steel lined grooves in the ground where the gates slide through and lock into position. Seulgi watches her back, unturned and stalwart, as she marches her way to class. She doesn’t look back even once. Does she just expect Seulgi to follow her at her every word?

But it’s sound advice anyway. Getting out of here would be the best move. She’s a second too slow, of course, so Sooyoung just jumps up and tries to block her way. 

She succeeds too. Damn.

Seulgi tries to go left. Sooyoung block.

Right. Sooyoung follows.

A feint. Double bluff. Sooyoung sees straight through it. (Seulgi doesn’t really know why she tried so hard. What was she expecting? She’s not got Soojung absurd athletic prowess.)

How long is this going to go on?

“Geez, kid. Don’t you need to get to school or something?”

“I start way later than you. Middle school is awesome.”

“Don’t remind me. Really, don’t.” Seulgi finally goes for it. No bluffs, no feints, just pushing though. To her surprise, Sooyoung moves out of her way when she realises there’ll be no pausing or stopping. 

Seulgi crosses the threshold through the gate and leaves Sooyoung lingering on the other side.

“So I guess I’ll see you later this evening, huh, sunbaenim?”

Seulgi doesn’t reply.

“So… You know that kid?”

“Not really. She just keeps following me around.”

“Aw. Cute. Maybe she has a crush?”

“Ugh. No way.”

“It’s not like it’d be impossible.”

“Don’t joke around like that.”

“Why not? You’re pretty cool. I bet you’d be popular. Didn’t you go to an all girls before this too?”

“Who would ever transfer to an all girls from a co-ed school?”

“Soojung did.”

“Then I’m sorry for Soojung.”

“Hey!”

“Sorry, Soojung.”

“…”

“…”

“But…seriously, think she has a crush on you?”

“God, I hope not.”

“…To be kind of honest…”

“Hm?”

“Me too.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Forget I said anything. You’ve got something on your cheek. Just let me…”

“Why are you still out here?” Seulgi says. “It’s getting late. You should go head home before it gets too dark.”

It will pretty soon. Winter’s on it’s way, even if the calendar says it should still be autumn.

“Sunbaenim! You do care!”

Seulgi sighs. 

It’s not exactly loitering since it is her school they’re standing out of. Any number of people may need to wait outside the gate from transport and it’s not like they all need to clear out of there the second the last bell tolls. Seulgi is just, as always, a little too eager to make her way home. She glances around, wondering if anyone is paying attention to them.

“Are you going to do or say anything meaningful this time?” Seulgi says. “Or area you just going to stand there and keep bothering me? A high school student’s free time is a precious commodity, you know. It’s study back to back otherwise. We have university to prep for.”

Seulgi hates self-study period after school the most of all. Not everyone can be like Son Seungwan and get exemptions to attention a hundred and one hagwons to study music and art and calligraphy or who knows what else. Then again, having to be Seungwan and actually studying all those things— Seulgi will settle for her dreary, average existence.

“I know, I know,” Sooyoung says. “High school is awful. University is pressure. Blah blah blah.”

“So are you going to say anything.”

Sooyoung’s features scrunch together in contemplation. She stands on the tips of her toes an tries to look over Seulgi’s shoulder, or maybe just past her figure in general, off at the dispersing crowd of high school students behind her.

It’s then Soojung pops her head around the corner and tilts her head before following herself all the way out, bike in tow. She has a habit of entering rooms like that, like a little precursor in lieu of knocking, so she doesn’t stare the living daylights of whoever is alone in the room she suddenly poofs into. Apparently she can’t knock on doors too well. (Only Jung Soojung would—)

“Friends of yours?” Soojung says.

“Do we look the same age?” Seulgi says the same time Sooyoung happily introduces herself, jabbing a thumb at her chest.

“I’m her hoobae.”

Soojung sends a quick, brief smile in Sooyoung’s direction before her face frosts over again. Seulgi knows her well enough by now to know that’s her nervous face, not her ‘I hate you’ face as is commonly mistaken.

Soojung shrugs and turns to Seulgi. “Who knows? She’s pretty tall.”

“That’s a middle school uniform,” Seulgi says.

“I’m supposed to be able to tell? Besides, you’re early year.”

“Well that kid,” Seulgi says, pointing to the smaller one, “is obviously an elementary schooler.”

“I didn’t mean friends like that, but okay,” Soojung says again, recoiling a little. Seulgi takes a breath in. She didn’t mean to snap. (Did she snap? She forgets how sensitive Soojung can be.)

“Could you give us a moment, please, unnie?”

Soojung blinks for a second. She looks around. “Oh,” she says, her index finger pressing into the third button on her shirt almost exactly. “Oh, I’m an unnie to you? Oh, wait, no. That would make sense. Alright then. I’ll let you guys catch up. See you later, Seulgi.”

Then, before Seulgi can even protest, Soojung, that traitor, pedals away into the sunset down the hill. Some help she is. At least Seungwan can read the mood well enough to know when she want someone help to make other people go away. (And Soojung is on the receiving end of that sort of help all the time. Does she think she think it’s a miraculous godsend every time someone reads the panicky look in her eyes and does it for her— Never mind. The starry-eyed beaming smile she shoots them every time it happens probably means she does. Soojung can be a little… They’re going to need to have words. And anyway, that looks makes Seulgi feel a little uncomfortable sometimes. Soojung looks at them like they’re her personal heroes when all they did was do her small talk for her.)

Sooyoung clears . “Right. So as I was saying…”

“Yes,” Seulgi says, entertaining her for once. Where will this lead?

“Ah… Um…”

Nowhere, so it seems.

“If you’re not going to go anywhere? Can I leave?”

Sooyoung seems frozen in the spot, words still stuck in . Seulgi makes a move to walk away but find herself stopped yet again, this time by a light thwack to her leg and then small arms grabbing hold of her forearm and wrist. “No, just wait. Hang on. Joy-unnie, just hurry up and say it! Even I’m getting sick of this.”

“Okay! Okay!” Sooyoung says, loudly and probably to psych herself up. “Okay. I can do this.”

“Please do,” Seulgi says. Maybe then she can put all of them out of their misery.

“It’s something I really needed to talk to you about in particular. And I hope you can keep it secret. Well, not secret. Just, I mean, private. Because you know how it is. And I just wanted to make sure.”

Seulgi just nods. The kid is just too nervous. Another word from Seulgi and she’ll be sputtering out more nonsense and eating into her commute time. (It’s absolutely not because Seulgi is feeling sympathetic. Not at all. No way.)

“I like someone,” Sooyoung articulates with great care, “and I’d like your help to be able to let them know how I feel. To let them know how I feel and have them accept me. Ideally. Hopefully. I mean, I want that to happen.”

“That’s it?” Seulgi blurts out. Fine then, she can understand why someone would be so nervous, especially at that age, talking about things like that, but, still it’s kind of ridiculous to go following around a random person who you barely know just to—

“She’s a girl. I like a girl,” Sooyoung blurts out just as quick. “I like her like that.” She swallows. Hard. Seulgi can hear the lump in go down as much as she can see it. “Like the way girls are supposed to like boys. Like it—”

“I got it, I got it,” Seulgi says before her voice gets too loud. 

“I just— I just… I don’t want her to think I’m gross or anything.”

Seulgi’s eyes soften. Just a little bit. Maybe. She thinks they do. She sighs. It’s becoming a common reaction. She’s going to get grey hair at this rate. (It’s not like she doesn’t have the genes for it. Her brother already has a few strands sticking out through his spiky mop and wiry black. 

“Okay, so why me?”

“Why not you?” Sooyoung says. “You’re an inspiration to us all. All of us who matter, don’t worry. Just forget about those s who disagree. Just keep doing you, sunbaenim.”

Seulgi’s not sure whether to be surprised, horrified or laugh out loud at that little speech.

“Besides,” Sooyoung concludes, “You’re reputation speaks for itself.”

“I have a reputation?”

“Don’t worry about it. I don’t think it’s a bad one or anything like that. Well, not to me. I mean, trust me. I’m sure the worst things I hear about can’t be true. You seem so cool, sunbaenim, I’m sure of it.”

Oh, man. Seulgi doesn’t even want to think of what sort of things are still floating around about her at her old middle school. Whatever they are, they sure seem to be memorable enough to spark the attention of incoming students who weren’t even present when she was in attendance. How long is this going to last? She hopes it isn’t the sort of thing that haunts you even in university. SNS is rough like that. The rumours can’t really ever die.

“So people say,” Seulgi concedes. Dismissing it will only make people more insistent. She guesses she’ll just have to live with it.

“No really, sunbaenim,” Sooyoung begins again. “I—”

Her voice cuts off. 

Her eyes flicker, staring off forlornly at something behind Seulgi.

Seulgi, being used to this sort of thing considering how often Soojung and Seungwan are prone to spacing out and hyper fouling on random things in their own peculiar ways, turns to track her gaze and it settles on—

Bae Juhyun-sunbaenim? The pretty third year who’s photo went viral on SNS because of exactly how super pretty she was. That student? Seulgi glances over Sooyoung, up and down, one time. She’ll guess, however tall she is, that she’s middle school second year at most. Bae Juhyun is a high school third year. Bae Juhyun going to be a legal adult pretty soon, if she isn’t already. Seulgi’s pretty sure this is illegal. Puppy love sure must sting and sting blindly. 

“So,” Sooyoung says, composing herself once more. “I just figured, considering your experience…”

“I don’t have experience,” Seulgi says.

“Well you’re the only person I know who’s remotely got anything I could use!” Sooyoung protests.

Seulgi sighs. She takes a deep breath in. “I’m pretty sure the principle is the same, you know. Confessing and all that. You can really just ask anyone.”

“It’s not even remotely the same and you know it,” Sooyoung snaps back at her. “A girl and a girl— That’s not something totally straightforward, you know? And even if you’re lucky enough for the situation to be like— Even if you know— But what if you don’t? What if you ruin everything? What if she hates me? How can I? I mean, you’re really brave, sunbaenim. No matter what anyone thought you just—”

“It’s not really being brave if you didn’t really try to do it yourself,” Seulgi cuts in, as gentle as she can. Even she’s surprised by the sudden bout of patience. That’s usually a sore subject. She sighs again and runs a hand through the ends of her hair. The wind has kicked it all up into knots. She tied it too tight. It’s just going to give her headaches later. More than this oncoming one.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Sooyoung adds, quiet.

Cautious and shimmery-eyed, Yeri creeps over and tugs on her sleeve. Sooyoung yanks it back. Seulgi watches on, wondering if she should admonish this kid for picking on another kid like that. She’s at a loss.

Ugh. What else can she do?

She sighs once more. “Look. This isn’t really the sort of thing I can tell you about in just two minutes while we stand on the street like this.”

Sooyoung looks up, eyes wide. “Does this mean—?”

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Seulgi says. “I’m just saying that you might be correct when you say it’s a complicated matter.”

“So does that mean—”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here,” Seulgi interrupts.

“Us? Ourselves?” Sooyoung repeats, buzzing with excitement and anticipation.

“I just—”

And then, inexplicably, Sooyoung grabs Yeri by the wrist and pulls her away as they break off into a sprint.

“Sorry, sorry,” she says, turning her head back as they dash away. “Just hold that thought!”

And just when that brat was sort of starting to grow on her.

Seulgi frowns. She can feel that headache coming on. She feels her eyelid twitch in annoyance. She closes her eyes. Deep breathing. Deep breathing. Calm. Calm.

Ouch.

She opens her eyes. Someone has bumped into her, sharp shoulder jutting into her arm. She turns to the source. 

Bae Juhyun?

“Sorry,” she says, although her voice seems a little too cold to really mean it. 

Whatever. It’s just a polite formality. Seulgi won’t dwell on it too much. It’s not like she’s been 100% committed to every apology she makes when she accidentally taps someone as she walks by on the street.

“No problem,” Seulgi replies. It really isn’t.

“Were you speaking to someone?”

“Huh?” Seulgi smacks herself internally. That’s no way to be talking to seniors. “No. No one.”

“Oh,” Bae Juhyun replies tightly. “I thought I might have been interrupting something.”