Peanut m&m’s are the best things to ever exist. At least, that’s what Irene thinks. Unfortunately her roommate, Wendy, is severely allergic to peanuts and if Irene ever wants to eat peanut m&m’s, she has to be at least 10 metres away from Wendy during and after consumption. Which means no peanut m&m’s in their room. This is unfortunate because sometimes Irene has to go down to the vending machine in their dorm building to buy them, and she has to hang around there to eat them. 

    Today is one of those unfortunate days where Irene has to visit the vending machine. It’s two in the morning. She shouldn’t be awake now. But then again, it’s not her fault that Yoona came over with the intention of seeing how many Red Bulls they could drink in two minutes (collectively, they drank about nine cans) The main reason she’s out here is because Wendy kicked her out. Wendy kicked her out because while Wendy was trying to sleep Irene kept shaking her leg on the bottom bunk and the bed kept shaking and Wendy was not prepared to die that way. After sitting on their doorstep for half an hour, staring at the door of the room opposite and shaking her leg incessantly, she began to crave peanut m&m’s. And that’s why she’s down here, by the laundry room, with her hand stuck in the vending machine. It’s two in the morning. 

    She tries to pull her hand out, but through the hard plastic flap, she can see that it’s turning red, and it hurts, so she stops. Irene sighs. All she wanted were peanut m&m’s. Why did she even think that the best way to reach her pack of m&m’s was to jam her hand up the vending machine? She blames Yoona. On one hand, she hopes no one will ever see her like this, but on the other hand, there is no way she’s ever getting out of this on her own.

    Time passes slowly. Irene passes gas. Without her phone, this is the next best form of entertainment. She giggles. That last one sounded like a tiny little car beeping. Beep! She does it again, bursting into a fit of laughter.
“Irene?” Oh Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. JESUS CHRIST.
Irene turns around slowly, swallowing a painful lump in .
Ah yes, Kang Seulgi. Kang Seulgi, from Art History. Kang Seulgi, ruler of her before-bed thoughts. Kang Seulgi, the person she has a giant crush on. Isn’ t this just wonderful?
“Heeeeyyyyy Seul…gi….!” Irene grins. She grits her teeth. Of all people, Kang Seulgi. Not only does she have her hand stuck in a vending machine and no peanut m&m’s, but Kang Seulgi just walked up on her laughing at her own farts. This is all Yoona’s fault.
“What are you doing? It’s like two thirty in the morning,” Seulgi asks, looking convincingly worried.
Irene gulps, “well, as you can see, I have my hand stuck in a vending machine.”
“What?” Seulgi puts down her laundry basket, “how long have you been here?”
“Maybe about half an hour.”
“Jesus, aren’t you tired?” Seulgi squats down examining, the hand that’s stuck in the machine.
“Not particularly, I mean, Yoona did make me chug like, what, five cans of Red Bull. Or was it six?”
Seulgi snorts, “that sounds smart.”
“Hey! It seemed like a good idea at the time! And I couldn’t let her beat me, I mean come on! She can’t be pretty and funny and good at chugging Red Bull!” Irene reasons.
Seulgi sits down, “well, you’re pretty and funny and good at chugging Red Bull.”
“I—what?” Irene is confused. Did Seulgi just call her pretty?
“Yeah, you’re pretty and funny and all these other things—good things, I mean—well maybe you’re not exactly on the smart side but anyway.”

“I—wow okay,” Irene is still confused. But Seulgi called her pretty. And funny (and also dumb but she’ll let that slide).

    Another half an hour later and Irene is still stuck in the machine and Seulgi’s laundry is still not done. Probably because they’ve been talking the whole time.

“So um…are we going to get me out of here or…?” Irene asks.
“Oh yeah! I’m so sorry oh my god you’ve been here for an hour!” Seulgi starts to panic.
“Okay Seulgi, calm down, we can figure something out, I’m sure.”
“Okay, okay. We’ll get you out of here.”

    It turns out all they had to do was push the flap up back into the machine instead of pulling it along with Irene’s hand. Irene stares at her hand, red an slightly bruised. Seulgi also stares.
“That…doesn’t look so good…” Seulgi’s eyebrows furrow and she gingerly takes Irene’s hand looks closely at it.
“Eh. It’ll be fine,” Irene shrugs, “hey look! Peanut m&m’s!”
Seulgi opens to say something about priorities, but Irene has her cheeks full of chocolate and all that comes out is a laugh.

    “Hey Seulgi?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to tell you something that I’ll probably feel really embarrassed about when this energy rush wears off.”
“Embarrassed? Irene, I’ve already seen your , twice. You were stuck in a vending machine and I found you laughing at your own farts. You’ve vomited on me before. I don’t think anything can make you embarrassed,” Seulgi laughs.
Irene says nothing.
Seulgi starts to wonder if she’s said to much.
“I like you. I like you a lot,” Irene confesses, “and it’s kind of ridiculous how I needed five or six cans of red bull and being stuck in vending machine to tell you that but I like you. I like you a lot.”
Seulgi blushes and picks up her laundry basket, “hmm well, you’re alright I guess,” she giggles.
“‘Alright?!’ Just ‘alright’?! Hey—what’s that supposed to mean?!” Irene sputters and follows Seulgi as she enters the laundry room.
“I said you were alright,” Seulgi grins as she stuffs some clothes into the machine.
“What?! Not even a “I like you too”?” Irene is baffled.
Seulgi just giggles.
“Hey! Come on! What is it? Is my not good enough? I’ll do squats! Please Seulgi!” Irene whines.
“Mmm try again later when you’re off your energy high, babe.”
“Babe?” Irene’s eyes light up, “did you call me babe? Does that mean you like me back? Hey! Seulgi! Seulgi!! Where are you going? YOUR WASHING’S NOT DONE YET! SEULGI!!” This is all Yoona’s fault.