Wendy sat a little tighter in her chair, fingers trembling slightly as she looked at the slip of paper in her hand with Irene’s name written on it in her teacher’s squiggly handwriting. She was not entirely sure how she should be feeling about it.

“Hey, who’d you pick?” Joy, who also happened to be her classmate and best friend, asked a little too excitedly. Without waiting for a response, she snatched the piece of paper from between her friend’s fingers, eyes doubling their size as she clasped a hand over . “Omo!”

“I can’t do this, Joy.”

“Sure, you can, dummy! Don’t you see? This is the perfect opportunity! Just imagine… you, her, time alone together. How sweet!”

“More like awkward,” Wendy sighed, allowing her shoulders to droop along with the sinking feeling she had. On the one hand, she was totally elated and kind of excited that she would probably be spending more time with her crush thanks to this project. On the other, she knew it was probably the opposite for Irene.

“Quit worrying so much and get your over to her. It’s not nice to keep people waiting. I’ll catch you after class,” Joy gave her friend’s arm a quick squeeze before leaving her desk to join her partner for the project.

Wendy sat still as ever, eyes habitually travelling towards Irene’s seat in the corner at the right. She wished she could stay put and just stare forever. Admiring somebody from afar was her forte, not making the first move or starting conversations. Irene’s head was down, her hands busy texting away on her phone strategically hidden underneath the table.

“Alright, Son Seungwan. Enough with the delay. You can totally do this…” Seeing that there was no other way around it, Wendy inhaled deeply, allowing the air to fill her lungs completely. She needed as much oxygen as she could take in at that point. It was not as though she had never spoken to Irene before. Still, she felt infinitely more nervous this time, like she was going to propose or something.

Well, technically, she was.

Getting onto her feet, she nodded firmly and took quick steps towards the girl, hoping to get it all over and done with.

She came to a full halt upon reaching Irene’s desk, parting her lips only to realize that her silly brain had decided to stop functioning there and then. The blonde lifted her head gradually and unfeeling eyes soon panned Wendy’s reddening face.

“Yes?”

“I…” Wendy panicked hard, mentally scolding herself for behaving like an idiot. She needed to say something. What was it again?

One second passed… two… three…

The short silence was really starting to get awkward. And it did not help that Irene was steadily gazing at her.

“I… um… we…” Wendy racked her brains for the right words to say. “We… we’re together.”

Way to go. Like that could have gone any worse.

“I’m sorry?” The blonde’s eyes narrowed. She looked anything but amused.

“That um… I mean… for… for the project,” Wendy struggled to get her thoughts together. She had never felt more embarrassed.

“You’re kidding.”

Although the words upsetting to hear, Wendy hurriedly followed up, “No, I’m not. Um… here…” She reached out to present the now crumpled slip of paper, which Irene grabbed to take a closer look.

A frown manifested upon her features when she realized it was inde