She saw her again.

 

The girl with the fairest skin of all.

 

The beauty whose face was probably protected since birth, for it was blemishless, acne free, and is probably smooth as hell.

 

The goddess who used to have a flowy, silky, dark brown hair, which was now in a lighter shade after she dyed it a month ago.

 

The petite lady that can kill you with her flashy smile, while her eyebrows slowly raises unintentionally.

 

 

 

She saw her again, the student council president that spoke to her during the annual assembly on her first day of classes in this university.

 

The senior who aced her academics.

 

The team captain of the cheerleading squad.

 

The kind-hearted neighbor who lives next door in her appartment.

 

 

 

She saw her again, hand in hand with her batchmate.

 

The friendly, social butterfly who transferred last year from Canada.

 

The siren who immediately became the school's vocal pride after one of the admins unintentionally heard her sing a song in English while she was fixing her bangs one day in the ladies' room.

 

The girl who ranked first in an interschool singing competition, which her goddess attended to as a host.

 

Oh, and how lovely was her goddess in that dress she wore in that competition.

 

 

Whenever she sees her, her heart melts the same way it did the first time she saw her.

 

That time, it was her hand she was holding, not Son Seungwan's.

 

Sometimes, whenever she feels desperate, she would hold her own hand and remember how Irene's tiny hands warmed her cold, shaky ones. How her small, pretty hands fit in her tanned ones.

 

 

Right.

 

Bae Joohyun was the very first student she has talked to in day 1. It's sad how Seulgi doesn't know how someone can manipulate her mood; how someone can turn her frown upside-down. How someone can make her feel oh, so dumb. How a single hair flip can grab her attention.

 

Hell, she was a slave for Irene. 

 

How can she not, if the girl herself is giving her mixed signals?

 

How can one not expect if that person continuously smiles at you for no reason at all? If you see that person staring right into you when you look at her? If you see that person pouting whenever you're talking about someone else? If that person keeps on trying to have a conversation with you when she chances to be outside her appartment room and you're about to enter yours?

 

 

 

But of course, Seulgi knows her limits. 

 

She can't hope for -- romance? Especially not when her best friend is her crush's girl friend. Not that they're official yet or something. Seulgi just... knows there's something between them.

 

I mean, whenever they're together they're either holding hands or linking arms. Irene would sometimes hug Wendy a bit longer than an average person's hugging span, if there's even such a thing. She would sometimes put an arm around Wendy (which Seulgi finds cute since Irene was slightly smaller than Wendy and yet she does that).

 

Seulgi doesn't know if she's plainly that friendly to everyone at school. But whatever she does with Wendy, she does to her.

 

 

One time, Irene and Seulgi went to the appartment together.

 

Seulgi got home late since she had to help her class decorate their room for a festival, and as expected from their student council president, she had a lot of things to arrange and plan. So when Seulgi got out of her classroom, Irene was surprisingly leaning on the wall parallel to the room's door, as if waiting for someone.

 

And you know what she said?

 

 

 

"I heard your class was decorating for tomorrow's event. Thought it would be nice to go to the appartment together."

 

 

 

And how can Seulgi not accept the offer? She didn't have any reason to, anyway. But the biggest question was,

 

 

 

"Where is Wendy?"

 

 

 

As told earlier, whatever Irene does to Wendy, she does to her. And it's making her question what Irene really feels about her. But anyway, that night was the best night Seulgi had that quarter, since she got to walk with Irene, hand in hand, on their way to the appartment.

 

 

 

 

She saw her again today, with Wendy of course, outside her classroom. It's been five minutes, and Seulgi was still in her seat, complimenting Irene in her head and watching the two from afar, an opened box of strawberry milk in one hand.

 

The two were planning something, like an intermission number for an event tomorrow, with the rest of the student council. It's of course going to be another English song to impress the guest speakers and other people invited from the outside of the university. But there was this uncertainty in Wendy's face as if trying to say she can't go or she can't perform there, which was making the student council stressed for a little bit. There's no one who's ready enough to step on the stage and perform, unlike Wendy.

 

Seulgi took her last sip from the strawberry milk and stood up from her seat to dispose the carton box in the trash bin, which was located outside of the classroom, which means she gets to be within Irene's sight again.

 

 

But she shouldn't have had thrown it.

 

 

 

"Omo! There she is!" Wendy pointed towards Seulgi, who was just about to shoot the carton in her hand. "She's the Kang Seulgi I was talking about yesterday! She'd make a good substitute!" Wendy stepped closer to Seulgi and took the carton in her hand and threw it for her. She then pulled Seulgi with her towards the circle of student council officers.

 

"Hi, nice to meet you, Seulgi-ssi!" The Public Relations Officer (P.R.O.) called Sooyoung greeted, extending a hand towards Seulgi. She took it with a shaky one, with a confused smile.

 

"Ehh... substitute? For Wendy?" Seulgi scratched the back of her neck.

 

"You'll sing for tomorrow instead of Wendy," a guy named Kibum (but he's called as 'Key' by everyone else because he thinks it's cool), the council's secretary provided. "Because you know, our little snowman here won't be able to attend classes tomorrow, as she'll be representing yet again our school for a competition."

 

Damn, Seulgi felt really awkward here. She'd rather rot in her seat, staring at Irene, than to be standing here in this very place.

 

"... Me?" Seulgi pointed to herself, still fully confused. Well, she now understands why Wendy needed a substitute but... why her of all people? "I mean, you could get someone from the school's choral..."

 

"Seulgi-yah, you should blame yourself for being too loud while singing in your appartment unit." Irene giggled, making Seulgi's heart race because she knows what she's going to say next:

 

"I mean, you really hit that high note while singing by yourself last week while I was trying to sort out some papers."

 

Yes, Seulgi remembered that afternoon. And a stressed out Irene even knocked on her door, politely asking Seulgi to tone down her voice a little. And since then, Seulgi never sang that loud ever again.

 

Everyone had expectant faces, but Seulgi just couldn't. "I-I'm sorry... I'm not even on Wendy's level, I don't sing that well! Please, spare me from this!" Seulgi pleaded.

 

But Irene took out her cell phone and scrolled through it. She played a file, and when she turned the volume up, enough for the council to hear, Seulgi can only blush.

 

Irene recorded her singing that afternoon.

 

 

 

 

Seulgi was with a tiny girl in a comfy, purple hoodie going by the name Yerim inside the student council office, where the little girl played an instrumental track and let Seulgi listen while talking to someone on her phone. So, what they said was real, that all student council officers can multitask very well.

 

"Unnie," Yerim started, looking at Seulgi which made the taller girl wake up to reality. "Do you know this song?"

 

Seulgi waited for the part where it might be the chorus. The tune sounds all too familiar, for she had heard this song somewhere while she was shopping with a friend at the mall. '"Is this Carly Rae Jepsen's I Rea--"

 

"Yes unnie, she knows this song." Yerim confirmed to whoever was on the other line. "We'll try to rehearse this later with Wan-ah, then maybe we could inform her about tomorrow's repertoire and the like," 

 

Seulgi face-palmed. She shouldn't have said it. But then her face lit up when Yerim continued to speak.

 

"Ah, you'll be coming later as well?" The little girl paused the track playing and grinned. "Alrighty! Bye, Joohyunnie!" 

 

Yerim ended her call with Irene and tucked her phone in her school blazer's pocket. "Yah, Wan-ah and Joohyunnie will be coming over later!" She exclaimed a bit too cheerfully. "We should start practicing this while waiting for them, Sseul-unnie!"

 

Seulgi didn't want to embarrass herself in front of Wendy and, of course, Irene. So she had no other options but to practice this.

 

"Yeah," Seulgi said, emotionless. "Let's."

 

 

 

It was past 4:00 in the afternoon, and every class must have been dismissed by now. Irene and Wendy walked in on a practicing Seulgi and a clapping Yerim.

 

Irene eyed Seulgi for a few seconds, before she whispered something to Wendy. The latter seems to be approving of whatever the former just said, and is suggesting something (at least in Seulgi's perspective, that's what's happening).

 

After Seulgi finished her 14th round of the song, Yerim squealed and ran to her other unnies.

 

"Did you hear that, unnies?" She received a nod from the two. "Omo! Wendy unnie, the both of you should perform a duet in the near future!"

 

"Hopefully, we can. We'll arrange that, alright, Seulgi?" Wendy gave Seulgi a grin that would literally bright up everyone's world. 

 

"I knew we made a great cho