CHAPTER 12

“Good Morning.”

The first thing that came to Seulgi’s mind was close. Too close. And with her intermediate reflex, she yelps and back off—resulting why she ended up groaning in pain on the floor.

A knock on the door was heard and Wendy peeked her head in and seeing Seulgi on the floor made her eyebrows furrowed, “What are you doing down there? Did you fell off from the bed?”

“I—

“—obviously,” Irene answers as she rolls her eyes, sitting up and wincing slightly as she touch one side of her neck, “Goodbye beautiful skin…”

“I’m sure the marks will be gone soon,” Wendy hoist a still-stunned Seulgi up, “Seulgi must have gave you ambrosia when she brought you here, right KkangSseul?”

Seulgi was still half dazed, not really getting into the conversation as her mind was still stuck replaying how Irene greeted her good morning and how close they were. And how if Seulgi had moved slightly forward, she might hav—

“Yah!” Irene’s scowl brought her back to earth, “You did give me the ambrosia, right?”

“O-Of course I did!” Memories flooded her mind on last night’s incident. Irene had passed out immediately after Seulgi gave her the ambrosia and she was now feeling extremely thankful towards Hypnos, the sleeping God, for she is glad Irene did not have to witness her unnecessary, embarrassing bawling before she realized Irene was still alive.

“Chill Irene, I’m sure Seulgi went through a lot bringing you here, despite one of her legs are slightly,” Wendy trailed off for a moment, “…Lucky there were no roadblocks or cops yesterday.”

“Why is that considered to be lucky?” Irene still did not quite comprehend what Wendy is stating.

“Well yeah, Seulgi drove your car here last night,” Wendy pointed out.

Seulgi’s inside froze when Irene turned to look at her and Seulgi swears she almost saw flames dancing in front of those brown eyes. “You what?!”

Seulgi heard an earful of blabbering and a bunch of charmspeak questions being thrown at her for the past 15 minutes and she was so grateful that Wendy came to her saving after Irene asked “Did you scratched anything?” to Seulgi for the hundredth time.

“Aren’t you going to the bakery shop today?” Seulgi breaks the silence over the dining table as they heartily ate their breakfast.

“Nope. Anyways I’ve already told my dad that I’m tagging you guys along back to the Camp,” Wendy smiled at her looking eager, “I’ve already did an Iris message with my cabin mates earlier. I’m so excited to meet them again!!”

“You’re coming back with us?” Seulgi bit both of her chopsticks, clearly a bit taken aback on the new info.

“Yup! Initially I wasn’t supposed to go back this year because I need to help my dad at the shop,” Wendy sighed before her eyes light up once more, “but last night he came to me and even insisted me to go!”

“That’s great!” Seulgi smiled, a little too bright, much to the dismay of the beauty beside her.

Wendy has been around the neighbourhood since Seulgi entered middle school. When the bakery first opened, Seulgi and her mother was one of the first customers and Mr Son and his cheerful daughter were really nice to them and soon later Seulgi was fast friends with the latter.

Although Wendy did not attend normal schooling like Seulgi does, Seulgi would always come and visit the bakery and indulged with many tastings of new bread or pastries while they talked about their daily lives. Seulgi used to wonder where Wendy went every summer, and instead of asking Mr Son of her daughter’s whereabouts, she asked one of the workers instead and only got the same reply from all of them, ‘Meet mother’. But now she knows.

“It’s gonna be twice great now that you’re gonna be there,” Seulgi beamed at Wendy chuckles as she denied.

Two chopsticks being put down on the table in a slightly loud manner, before Irene stood up, looking at the two of them with icy looking eyes, “Enough chit-chat. We gotta go back and report to Mr K about yesterday’s event.” And with that she left the table leaving Seulgi and Wendy staring casually at each other.

The whole ride in the car was quite joyful since Seulgi and Wendy catch up a lot of things about the camp and some campers and so on, while Irene remains silence, driving, with her cheeks puffing as she secretly glare at Seulgi on her side once in a while.

They dropped by to a gas station later and Seulgi headed to the restroom. She checked her appearance on the grubby mirror right after she came out from the stall. She sighed and stare at her ownself in the mirror, wondering what her cabin mates were doing and thinking of their reactions about Seulgi’s  empousa encounter and Woozi’s constant shuddering telling her that he’ll surely die if he faced one.

Seulgi felt slightly cheerful now and she smiled at herself while cupping both her cheeks up and wondering why people thought her cheeks were one of her charmpoint when she only thinks that her cheeks were an excessive baby fat that was supposed to go away, now that she is unofficially 18.

Another sigh escape and she came out from the restroom, with sudden strong wind hitting her face making her hair flying in parallel directions. The wind felt slightly odd somehow to her and as she makes another couple of steps forward, another gush of wind blows from her back and Seulgi quickly turns around—to find nothing, of course.

Weird— weird because the wind was only messing with her and Seulgi squint her eyes to see if there is anything fishy before facing the front—

“Arghhhhhhhhh !!”

Seulgi tumbled to the ground to see a floating Joy cackling and pointing at her while trying to form some sort of words which failed as she kept on laughing till her feet reached the ground. Another pair of rushing feet was heard and a worried looking Irene walked into them—confuse as she look back to forth from Seulgi on the ground to Joy who was taking deep breath to calm herself down.

“What are you doing here?” Both Irene and Seulgi asked at the same time towards Joy who was lifting her arms in sync with her breathing.

“To follow you guys,” Joy simply answered as she clasped her hips looking eagerly to the both of them, “But Seulgi, you gotta see your face earlier—I swear to Gods—“

And Joy continues to stifle her laugh as Seulgi stood up from the ground, trying to straighten her already haywire hair. “Why are you following us?”

“Because I was instructed too,” Joy came between Irene and Seulgi, putting her hands over their shoulder and turning them around, “Han-nim sent me here early this morning. Mr K says we need to go to Daegu and shut the freaking door.”

“Daegu?!” Irene unclasped Joy’s hand from her shoulder, “The underworld entrance is at Daegu now?”

“Yeah,” Joy shrugs, “You know how the entrance change places from time to time. Somehow it’s at your hometown…”

Seulgi was still trying to inhale all the information and seeing Joy alone, she felt slightly unusual because usually the girl would be attached with her fellow usual prankster pack but they were somehow out of sight. “Are you here alone?”

“Of course not,” Joy scoffed and walked ahead, “My sidekick is inside eating ramen. I’ll call her out.” And with that Joy walks away, leaving both Seulgi and Irene clouded in puzzlement as they look at each other.

“Umm, so…we’re not going back to camp now are we?” Seulgi asked Irene who was standing static on the spot, her face remains indifferent, “So…we’re going to Dae—“

“Ughhhhhh!!” Irene grunts and squished Seulgi’s cheeks before stomping away back to the car.

“Ouch…”

If Irene could, well technically, she can—but