with the number of times she turned up for college training instead of sessions in her own school, she was bound to have blurred the social lines between appearing eager and appearing completely strange.

"seulgi-ah, answer me honestly. is there someone in that team you're crushing on...?" irene finally asked one day, after countless behind-the-scenes gossip and analysis sessions with joy, who got intel from yeri in turn. seulgi's eyes widened, wondering how she got found out so quickly, stammering and stuttering in a bid to deny the claim. before long, she gave up, ears red and chin tucked in defeat. 

seeing the sputtering spectacle of a response, the two unnis cooed in unison. joy held her nose in mock sadness. "aww our baby seul grew up in a flash while we were busy studying... oh how many years have passed since we entered those gates of the library...."

seulgi turned a darker shade of crimson. 

smirking at the reaction, joy prodded on. seulgi thought she heard wrongly at first, but turns out ... she blushed for nothing after all. 

"it's baekhyun, isn't it!"

seulgi laughed at the absurd accusation, but by the time the giggle came out, it was far too delayed for irene and joy to realize what it was about. the two unnis began to probe more while seulgi waved them off nonchalantly, only serving to confuse them over how quickly their little seulbear had turned from a blushing tomato back to her usual deceptively cool demeanor. seulgi recalled her interactions with baekhyun -- they had indeed been on good terms, and they had been bonding over crushes .... on other people. 

***

baekhyun had been paying special attention to seulgi since his initial defeat and it didn't take much for him to notice how seulgi asked around about wendy more than once, how she preferred to train with that soft brown-haired senior, and he definitely didn't miss it when seulgi had gotten closer to the love of his life ever since she started her frequent visits. it was after seeing seulgi participate in an animated conversation with the aforementioned seniors about baking, that he couldn't help himself but approach his tennis nemesis. 

"ya, seulgi, are you close with the tennis seniors?" baekhyun asked, channeling as much authority as possible. sweet, innocent and guileless seulgi answered in a heartbeat, so mindlessly that he almost immediately decided he wasn't going to be mean to her anymore. it seemed like the girl barely even noticed his usual attitude to her and it was him who always mistook her zoned out look as one of indifference and apathy. 

"yes I'm close to wendy unni! she's such a caring senior," and she ra