08- Miss

Holy shiitake mushrooms!! is saying things and her slow brain can’t keep up.

“W-what?”

It’s now or never.

“I love you, Wendy. As more than a best friend.” She clutched the tangerine drink a bit tighter as her Wendy looked at her with wide unbelieving eyes. There’s no turning back now, “I don’t know when these...uhmm.. Emotions started but...it did,” she looked at Wendy a bit alarmed, “and I-I’m not expecting for you to like me back and you don’t have to answer anything now...” she looked away, cheeks tinged pink, “I just thought I should tell you..because you know... we don’t keep secrets from each other...” she finished, eyes casting downwards, fingers fidgeting while holding her drink.

Silence.

She dared a peek and saw the different splashes of red and pink coloring Wendy’s cheeks and an unreadable expression on her face. She sighed, standing up and mustering a bear smile for her best friend and clearing to get her attention.

“It’s getting late, c’mon I’ll bike you home.” Wendy nodded, still not speaking, and she led them both to her bike that was  haphazardly tossed to the side.

They were quiet the whole ride.

“She still hasn’t spoken a word to you?” her eyes strayed away from the blank canvas in front of her and looked at the pouting face of the pretty person next to her. She sighed.

“It’s getting better. She asked to borrow a pen from me.”

“Why is she being like this?! I thought you were her best friend? What kind of best friend just ignores a confession?! It’s not like she’s THAT pretty--”

“Krys” She cut off, her lips quirking up a bit at the worked up face of her friend. The pretty girl huffed and rolled her eyes.

“Fine, maybe she is THAT pretty.” She laughed at this, “but it’s no excuse to suddenly get mad at you for telling her how you feel!”

“She’s not angry at me.”

“Did she tell you that?”

“No.”

“Then how can you tell?”

“I just know.” she smiled warmly at her american friend who just looked back at her like she’s the weirdest being on this planet. It’s been a week since she told Wendy she loves her and the latter had been so awkward around her-- never looking in her eyes, giving wordless answers, and sometimes even obviously avoiding her. She feels that her best friend just doesn’t know how to react yet and is still mulling over what she said.

“I’ll be seeing you off on saturday~”

“Really?!”

“Yea--oof!” Krystal had jumped-hugged her in excitement, almost making them fall on the floor. She laughed.

“THANK YOU, SEUL! YOU’RE THE BEST!!”

“Aren’t your classmates seeing you off?”

“No.. I told them to not bother.”

“What, why?” Krystal moved away from their hug and smiled at her.

“To be honest, I’m much closer to you than them. You’re enough.” Her ears and face suddenly felt hot from what her friend said. Krystal just laughed at her reaction.

“Unnie--oh.”

“Hey, Yeri~” Krystal waved back and Yeri awkwardly waved back.

“What is it, Yer?”

“Oh, uhm, we were just wondering where you went...You didn’t eat lunch with us...”

“Oh. I’ll be spending more time with Krystal since she’s going back to the U.S.” she explained. Yeri looked at her, gauging, before nodding her head.

“This isn’t because of a certain unnie, right?”

“..........” her eyes casts downwards and she heard a sigh leave their youngest.

“Alright, unnie, I’ll tell the others. See you later~”

The sky was grey and the surroundings were dull. Two days passed since she had sent Krystal off to L.A. and about  two weeks of her best friend saying nothing to her--not even glancing her way when she asks her a question. It was starting to become a bit awkward in their group whenever she would try to talk to Wendy and the latter would mumble or would downright look away from her. Irene had given her a somewhat ‘sorry’ smile like she’s pitying Seulgi from the lack of replies she’s getting. It should be pissing her off but she guesses she functions differently than most people.

“Your colors are a little grey, unnie.” a figure hovered behind her, the brown locks of her youngest friend dripping on her shoulders. She shrugged, continuing to splash more of the colors on her sketchpad.

“Why didn’t you eat lunch with us today?” the younger one asked, turning around and sitting beside her.

“Hmm… I wasn’t hungry.”

“Yeah?” Yeri’s eyebrow rose, “like you weren’t hungry for the past week too?” She just shrugged and continued to mindlessly paint whatever. She heard the youngest sigh and can feel her staring. She glanced up, meeting eyes with Yeri before looking back at her dead art.

“Wendy unnie misses you...” the movement of her hands paused, “she might not say it out loud but it’s obvious, you know? She would glance up at the hallway plenty of times, waiting for you to come and eat lunch with us. We don’t comment on it of course but we can tell she gets sadder whenever you don’t appear.”

“....” a beat of silence passed before she packed up her things and stood up, “Yuri unnie’s here.”

She stared at the finished painting of the sunset displayed in one of the easels in her room, she grasped the envelopes in her hand a bit tightly before turning her back from the painting and placing the envelopes inside her desk drawer.

“Unnie! Let’s go or we’re going to be late!”

“Alright! C’mon!” She hurried downstairs, her school bag slung on her shoulders. She’s going to try to make things work.

She put on her best smile before entering the classroom, she skipped to her table and sat down, Irene looking at her curiously.

“Good morning Irene unnie!~”

“..goodmorning… You seem happy today?”

“Hm? I’m always like this~” Irene rose her eyebrow before giving her a small smile, “okay, Seul~” she hummed, bringing out her things for the next class.

“Good morning, Seulgi unnie~” Yeri greeted, patting her head.

“Goodmorning, Seulgi!” Joy waved before punching Yeri’s arm, “goodmorning, dwarf!”

“YAH! I’m as tall as you!”

“Yeah? But you’re still a dwarf!”

“At least I’m not stupid at math!”

“YAH WHO YOU CALLING STUPID?!”

“YOU, DUH!” and the bickering of the maknaes started. Irene sighed, standing up and going in between the two youngest to try and stop them from killing each other. She looked at the person sitting beside her.

“Good morning, my Wan and only!~” she greeted, grinning from ear to ear, and catching Wendy off guard.

“G-good morning...” the younger one nodded, eyes glancing at Seulgi a bit before casting them downwards. Her smile faltered but she quickly regained it when their other friends returned.

The whole of their classes was her trying her best to engage Wendy in conversation, or even a hint of a smile from the latter would suffice but all she got was a hum and more silences. The bell that indicates lunch finally rang and she let out a sigh of relief, fixing her things and getting her lunch bag.

“Let’s eat by the quad?” Joy suggested.

“You only like it there because the baseball player that has a crush on you gives you banana milk.” Yeri side-eyed.

“I brought banana milk for all of us, so you don’t have to accept that.” Irene huffed. Joy’s eyes sparkled.

“So, two banana milks today!” Irene and Yeri rolled their eyes.

“Yeri, we’ll share the extra banana milk.” the oldest decided and the youngest nodded her head in agreement, already walking farther away from Joy.

“What?! No! Guys, I was just-- guys!!!” the tallest ran after them, leaving her and Wendy alone. She bumped the younger one’s shoulder.

“I brought you  your favorite strawberry milk.”

“T-thanks”

“Let’s go, before those three get themselves into trouble.” she giggled, trying to be as light-hearted as possible.

“Y-you’re going to eat lunch with us?” Wendy asked, a bit shocked. She looked at her best friend and smiled reassuringly.

“I’ll eat lunch with you everyday.” there was a beat of silence between them and she felt the warmness, that she only gets when she’s with Wendy, envelope her as she saw the slightest of smile from the latter’s lips. They stared at each other a bit more before silently walking to where their friends are. There was no need for words because both of them knew what the other one was thinking,

I missed you.

It was getting better. Much better. Wendy’s acknowledging her again and laughing and telling stories and texting albeit not like before the confession but it’s a good start. She still hasn’t received a reply from the younger one pertaining to that topic but she’s not rushing it also. She can wait.

She skipped towards their school gymnasium where the summer activities are being held. It was vacation time and in just a few weeks, they’ll be graduating and heading off to college. These summer activities was just the school’s way of getting the older members to reassign and teach their successors whatever it is they needed to know. She saw the back of Joy and was about to tackle the latter when she heard the voice of her best friend. She halted, partly hidden from view.

“...confession didn’t go as planned.” she heard her best friend say. Confession?? She got curious if Wendy meant hers. She started walking towards them again.

“So you really did confess to Irene unnie.” Joy asked.

“Yes, unnie’s very nice and caring. I really like her--”

“Oh.” she said out loud accidentally. The two sisters turned to look at her.

“S-seul” Wendy stuttered. Her eyes met with her best friend for a moment before she looked away, fidgeting slightly and trying her best to laugh.

“Haha Y-Yuri unnie’s outside,” she paused, going towards the place where their backpacks are and putting her things hurriedly, “I-I’ll get going-” her voice shook at the end and she had to clear .

“Seulbear...” Wendy touched her arm and it feels like everything went still. She looked at her best friend’s eyes and the latter gasped quietly. She can feel the black hole enveloping her. She dashed out of the gymnasium.

A/N:  HEYYYYYYYYY GUYSSSSSS, miss me? No? Okay, I understand.

But here's an update soooo hopefully you'll still love me a bit, yeah?