Seulgi sat in the living room of her apartment, enjoying the last night of nonsense drama series marathon before school resumes. Don't get her wrong, she missed Irene and Wendy a lot, but she couldn't spend her whole day in bed anymore. "Kung!" An abrupt bang on the front door disrupted her peaceful evening. Seulgi panicked, was someone trying to break into her apartment? Or was someone in need of help? "Kung kung kung!" Three more quick pounds on the door were heard. Seulgi braved herself and opened the door. She hadn't expected to see a familiar face at the door. "Hey girl." Joy slurred. "Good evening." "Do you know what time it is?" "It's around 8:30. I just had dinner." "It must be party time." "I don't think so. Are you going out?" "Here we go!" Joy grasped Seulgi's arm and attempted to drag her out, but the latter reacted quickly to counter the force, causing the younger girl to lose her balance and ending up on the ground. Unexpectedly, Joy didn't lash out at Seulgi for the fall, instead, she just started laughing like a psycho. Her laughter resounded in the empty corridor, sending shivers down Seulgi's spine. "Joy, where are your shoes? You coat? It's freezing out there!" Looking down at Joy, the bear notices how insufficient was her apparel. "I lost them on my way here?" "You live next door. Gosh, what did you do? It feels weird for me to be the one scolding you. Come in before you catch a cold." Seulgi invited Joy into her house. While Seulgi was heating up the clam chowder soup for Joy, the latter seated herself at the dining table and started singing, loudly.

 

"P-A-R-T-Y! P-P-P-A-R-T-Y!"

Seulgi had never seen Joy like this, being so hyper and out of control. It was not bad to see it once in a while, as long as she doesn't damage her house. "Seulgi." Joy hugged Seulgi from behind and placed her chin on her left shoulder. It was a pleasant surprise for Seulgi, because the younger girl rarely initiated close contact with her. She surely could live with a clingy Joy. "You're really nice. I really like you." But she wasn't ready to handle Joy's sudden confession. "If this is a dream, please don't ever wake me up." "It's not a dream. I'm really telling you what I feel." "Can you tell me more?" "Um, I'm hungry?" Joy was truly weird tonight. Seulgi placed the dishes she reheated on the dining table. She sat across from Joy and observed her. "You're not eating?" Joy asked. Seulgi shook her head. "I ate already." Joy hummed in acknowledgement.

 

Judging from her observation, Seulgi determined that Joy has to be at least half drunk. She is not fully drunk, or she would not be able to knock on her door, speak, and eat without landing her face into the plate.

"Joy, so, how much bottle of beers have you had today?" "Like, one or three?" "Joy." "Alright, maybe one AND three." "You are crazy. Finish eating and go take a shower. I'll clean this up." "Thanks, mom." "If you weren't drunk, I would have punched you already." "You sound like me." "Oh yeah? Because you're not taking care of yourself." "Sorry." "You sound like me." "I guess." Seulgi guided the more sober Joy to the bathroom, who seemed to be able to handle her body coordination just fine. "If you need help, just yell." "Sure, mom." Seulgi sighed in defeat and proceeded to wash the dishes. Looking after a half drunk person was already like solving a Rubik's Cube, she wondered what would happen if Joy were fully drunk. Perhaps she would be too tired to do anything and made everything easier to manage. Twenty minutes had passed and the water was still running in the shower. Seulgi figured that she should check on Joy in case something tragic occurred when she was in the kitchen. "Joy?" The water stopped and the door opened. Seulgi had a bad feeling about the imminent event. She should leave before... "Seulgi!" Nope, too late. Joy acted more drunk than ever. She ran out of the bathroom, , and grabbed onto Seulgi's shirt. "Joy! Put your clothes on!" Seulgi's face and ears were red as blood. She wasn't sure if blood was dripping from her nose.

"Clothes? I sleep ."

"This is my house!" "Oh, I'll just walk back to my apartment." "In this state? No! You're staying and you're going to put the pyjamas on! Gosh! You're reckless!" Seulgi handed her the clothes she prepared for Joy. "Thank you, mom." "Mom me again and I'll ground you."

 

"Noooo! I want to P-A-R-T-Y! P-A-R-T-Y!"

"Just do as I said, alright?" "Roger, mom." "No more alcohol for you." "You're the worst mom ever." "I never said I'm a good mom." "You're not even my real mom!" "I never said I am either." "I hate you." "You just said you like me." "How are you so smart today?" "Because the alcohol in your system is making you slow. Now put your clothes on!"

Seulgi valued her sleeping quality extremely, so she bought a king-sized bed for her own benefit. She set up the bed for both Joy and her. They found a comfortable position and laid on the bed.

"Your bed is really nice. Like, really." "How can you still sound so drunk after two and a half hours of sobering?" "I don't know. Do you want to talk?" Joy stared blankly at the ceiling, facing away from Seulgi. Seulgi glanced at the clock, it was only eleven at night. Work doesn't until nine in the morning for both of them. "Sure. You start." "I know that don't express myself enough. I am not romantic and kinda mean. Sometimes I'm worried that you'll give up on me." This was new for Seulgi, to hear Joy's fear. She always appeared to be especially confident with herself. "I would never." "I'm happy that you didn't. Thank you, Seulgi." Joy turned to face Seulgi. She seemed to have something on her mind that she needed to voice out. "Anything else?" "Seulgi, I love you." Seulgi froze in place. She didn't know if her imagination was playing a joke with her, because she desperately wished to hear it from Joy. "Seulgi?" "Did you just..." "I love you. Yes, I said it." "Wow. I love you, too, Joy." "Your turn to talk."

 

Seulgi was not the indirect type, so she really didn't know what else she can reveal.

"I hope you can be more comfortable with me in public." "I'll try." Joy yawned and rubbed her eyes. "We should sleep already. Good night, Joy."

"Sweet dreams, Seulgi."

 

The blaring alarm ringtone echoed in Seulgi's bedroom. Joy turned off the alarm and reluctantly jumped out of bed. "I feel like a truck ran over my head multiple times, definitely no more alcohol... Hey, bear, wake up." "One more minute." Seulgi whined, she wasn't ready to face the reality. Fortunately, Joy was always there to help her. She pushed the lazy bear out of bed and she fell face first onto the ground. "Ouch! Joy, that hurts!" Seulgi rubbed her nose to ease the pain. "My head hurts too. I'll leave if you're not ready in fifteen minutes." Irene and Wendy looked at the teachers with concern. They were both acting like zombies that were hurt, but not wounded enough to be dead. "I'm dying. Like, seriously." Joy groaned. Her headache wasn't getting any better. "Ms. Park? You're dying? Please don't die! Ms. Kang! Help her!" "Wendy, she isn't dying and neither am I. We're just tired." "Can we do anything to help?" "Yes, let me hug you little fluff ball." Seulgi opened her arms to welcome Wendy, or so she thought. Why hadn't she predicted that Wendy will run to Joy rather than to her?

 

"Irene? Hug?" Seulgi asked hopefully, maybe Irene will pity her.

"Yes, Wendy, give me a hug!" Irene rushed to embrace Wendy from behind to pull her away from Joy, but the teacher wasn't giving in.

 

"Irene, sharing is caring!"

"Wendy is mine!" "Children? I have an idea."

 

"What is it, mom?" Joy questioned, not forgetting about how she had mom-ed Seulgi while she was drunk.

Seulgi joined the group hug by wrapping her arms around Joy, the two kids ended up being squished between her and Joy.

 

"This is your idea? The kids can't breathe! They can't breathe!" Joy exclaimed in amusement.

"Well, Wendy got her Joy hug, Irene got her Wendy hug, and I got my Joy hug. I think everyone got what the want! And you didn't refuse my hug." "Because I said I'll try." "Thanks, Joy." "New year, new me."

"I like you just the same."

 

"I like you, too."

 

*

 

I heard someone tried looking for me on Twitter, I replied but got no response (maybe it's because I didn't know how to use Twitter LOL), so I thought maybe I'll get an ask account just for fun. (https://ask.fm/sofia_819) I'm not a good person to have a conversation with, FYI. I'm kinda mean, I guess.