[I need your help. Are you free today?] Seulgi shot a text to Wendy and impatiently waited for a reply.

After a few moments one arrived. [Yeah why? Is everything okay?]

Seulgi sighed, wishing she could feel more relieved. [Could you go with me to Heechul’s store? Can I pick you up?]

[Wait don’t pick me up] The first response came lightning-quick, then Wendy sent an additional follow-up message: [I’ll come and get you. Why do you need to go?]

Wendy arrived at Seulgi’s apartment in under 15 minutes, and Seulgi was truly grateful she had made a friend as reliable as she.

She pulled up into the driveway and rolled down her window. “Hey, baby, going my way?”

“Cute,” Seulgi muttered, rolling her eyes. She walked around the car and got in the passenger seat, sighing heavily.

Wendy only waited a beat before getting right to the point. “Hey, are you alright?”

Seulgi nodded and tried to smile. “Can we go, please? Thanks for driving.”

“No problem,” Wendy quietly replied, confusion and concern still evident in her expression. She turned in her seat and backed out of the driveway and got them on their way towards Heechul’s store. Thankfully the snow from the night Seulgi had closed with Irene had almost completely melted away. Truthfully, winter itself seemed to be finally melting away into spring with how warm it already was today. If Seulgi had been in better spirits, she might have rolled down the window for some fresh air.

“So… do you want to tell me what’s going on?” Wendy ventured again after they had gone a couple blocks.

Seulgi stared out the window. “Did you know they’re getting a remodel?”

“Who, Heechul? That’s neat,” Wendy replied. The longer this went on, the more worried she got. She had never seen Seulgi like this before; her voice was distant, wistful.

“So we’re going to get a couple of borrowed baristas for a while,” Seulgi went on.

Wendy had no idea where this was going, but tried to hazard a guess. “So you… want to check them out?” Wendy was vaguely familiar with the baristas at Heechul’s store - it was the closest one to their own, and they have had to borrow supplies and ingredients from each other from time to time.

Seulgi was silent for a moment. Wendy spared a brief glance at her. “Yeah, sort of.”

Wendy let the disjointed conversation lapse into silence. After a few more minutes, they had arrived, but as Wendy went to reach for her seatbelt buckle, she paused noticing Seulgi hadn’t moved an inch.

“Are you coming?” Wendy prompted.

Was she coming? Seulgi had briefly entertained the idea of sending Wendy in alone to see, but Seulgi knew that wouldn’t work. She finally nodded and got out of the car.

Whatever was going on with Seulgi was starting to put Wendy on edge. Beyond Seulgi’s odd behavior, Wendy still didn't have a good idea of why they were really here. She wasn't exactly thrilled to be stepping into work on a day off, even if it wasn't their cafe specifically.

Apprehension clear on her face, Seulgi pushed open the door with Wendy a step behind. It felt like all eyes were on her as she entered, though truly barely anyone looked up at their entrance. Still, almost right away Seulgi saw who she had been dreading to see most, and she felt the dread coiling in the pit of her stomach.

She paused so suddenly that Wendy walked right into her. “Seulgi-?!”

Seulgi was all but prepared to push Wendy back out of the store when they both heard a crash of ceramic hitting tile, an all-too familiar sound in their line of work.

“Whoops, careful there, Eunae! Don’t worry, I’ve got it.” Seulgi heard Heechul’s voice, and she slowly turned around.

There she was, that Eunae, staring right at her with a mixed expression of horror and astonishment, oblivious to Heechul sweeping up shards of the cup she had just dropped.

Wendy peeked over Seulgi’s shoulder, unable to miss the look this unfamiliar barista was giving her friend. “Seul?” she whispered up to Seulgi. “We can’t keep standing in the doorway like this.” 

Seulgi didn’t know what to do. “Let’s… let’s go.”

Wendy blinked up at her. Seulgi slowly, painfully turned around and gently ushered her back out into the parking lot.

Wendy unlocked the car door for her and Seulgi climbed in wordlessly.

“So…”

“That was Eunae,” Seulgi said emotionlessly.

Wendy had pieced that much together herself. “And she’s-?”

“My ex.”

Wendy had been about to ask if she was one of the baristas they were going to be borrowing, but Seulgi had just opened up a whole new layer of understanding for her. “Ah.”

“From L.A.”

“Wait, what? I didn’t know you’re from the west coast,” Wendy asked in surprise.

Seulgi closed her eyes. Her thoughts were swirling around in her head so frantically, she hadn’t realized she was only saying half of them aloud. “No, no, that’s not what I meant. I’m not from there. I mean she’s not really from there either. She just... “ left. She just left. “She went to school out there. And I guess… I guess now she’s back.”

Wendy finally started the car and drove out of the lot. She couldn’t get Eunae’s expression out of her mind, the way she had looked at Seulgi like she was seeing a ghost. Though Seulgi had looked just as haunted. She let out a long breath. “Was it bad?”

“No.” Seulgi had answered so automatically, that she hadn’t even given herself time to contemplate what Wendy might have been asking about. Was the break-up bad? Had the relationship been bad? “It was… weird,” she vaguely added.

Wendy stayed silent, patiently waiting for Seulgi to collect her thoughts.

Very weird. “We dated for about a year,” she said after a pause. “We met during college.” She wasn’t sure how deep she wanted to get into it with poor Wendy, so she paraphrased. “We weren’t going to the same school,” Seulgi continued to disjointedly explain. She turned to Wendy suddenly with a curious look. “Actually, she went to yours.”

Wendy briefly glanced away from the road to regard Seulgi. "My school?" So this Eunae was a musician? Wendy had been lucky enough that the combination of her hard work scholastically and musically had granted her access to one of the top music schools in the US. This Eunae must be pretty talented. “...But then she transferred?” Wendy ventured. She had considered doing the same multiple times considering how expensive the school was, but student visas were complicated...

Seulgi nodded, and continued to explain as best she could as they drove. It had been a whirlwind of excitement for Eunae, and a suffocating pit of quicksand for Seulgi. Eunae had met a Californian transplant in one of her production classes, and had been offered an opportunity to intern at a sound studio in L.A. How could she possibly say no to that? In a time when degrees meant little on paper, and experience and connections were everything, Seulgi had seen the logic in her decision, but that didn’t mean she had been happy about it. “She changed schools so she could finish up her degree out there while she was working,” Seulgi concluded.

Wendy waited for more, but Seulgi seemed to have retreated into her thoughts. They pulled up to her apartment and Wendy put her hand on top of Seulgi’s. “Did you want company?”

Seulgi became acutely aware of the touch, not really one for being in contact with others, but there was something grounding about it. It forced her out of her own thoughts and back into the moment. “Are you sure?”

Wendy smiled and got out of the car in answer.

Seulgi took her porch steps two at a time to get ahead of Wendy and unlock the door and let her inside. It wasn’t the first time Wendy had stopped by for a visit, otherwise Seulgi might have been a bit more embarrassed about the rather bachelor-like state of her apartment.

Wendy didn’t seem to mind a bit as she made her way over to the couch and curled up on it. Seulgi followed her and sat at the opposite end. She stood again almost immediately. “We didn't have a chance to get drinks... Did you want something?” she asked, not wanting to be a terrible host.

Wendy just laughed and waved away her concern. “No, no, I’m fine. You can relax.”

Seulgi flopped back down with a long sigh, trying to comply with Wendy’s admonishment. They lapsed into a silence, Wendy not wanting to pry further, and Seulgi not immediately offering to continue their previous conversation.

“It’s been such a weird month,” Wendy mused aloud after a while.

Seulgi nodded, then realized Wendy wasn’t looking at her, so she made a small noise of agreement. “First Kyuhyun, then Irene, and now…” she waved her hand in front of herself in a beleaguered gesture.

Wendy turned herself so she was facing Seulgi, resting her arm on the back of the couch. “What do you think of Irene, anyway?”

Seulgi’s eye twitched. “What do I think about her?” she repeated. She’s gorgeous, for one. She shrugged. “She works really hard…” she answered lamely.

Wendy smirked. “Great, maybe she can use you for a reference if she applies for another job.”

Seulgi rolled her eyes. What could she say? She was their boss. “She does, though. She put me on a clopen the other day, but have you seen her schedule?”

Wendy had seen it, in fact. Irene had written her own name into every gap in the schedule made vacant by Kyuhyun and still ended up staying late or coming in early to catch up on the store’s administrative duties. That wasn’t quite what Wendy was trying to get at, however. “I have, but what about her?”

Seulgi blinked at her.

“What is she like? I work midshifts, Seul, I haven’t had the chance to actually talk to her yet.” Seulgi felt a little guilty at that. Wendy had sort of called ‘dibs’ on Irene all those weeks ago, but she still felt inexplicably drawn to the older girl. There was something buried beneath that aloof exterior that Seulgi was only just beginning to see, like a secret no one else knew. No one except Heechul, apparently. It was definitely envy Seulgi felt. And perhaps a bit of jealousy now, too, as she looked over at her friend.

But Wendy deserved the world, and if she was interested in Irene, the right thing to do would be for Seulgi to gracefully bow out. The feeling she got in her chest recalling that way Irene cheekily smiled up at her from the rim of her mug, however, was not something she was going to be able to forget easily. So the least she could do was try to give her friend a head start, and she would settle for that.

“I close with her again tomorrow. Do you want to switch?”