"Baby, please.." 

"I'm just a friend, Irene."

***

Seulgi downed another glass of alcohol at a corner, eyes not leaving Irene who was in the midst of a conversation with her relatives and Ilhoon. 

They were at the Bae’s once again, this time for a Christmas Eve gathering; an annual affair with extended family.

Needless to say, Ilhoon was on the invitation list alongside with Seulgi, who Mrs Bae insisted for after knowing that the latter, for some unknown reasons didn't accompany her parents who went away to visit her brother.

"You don't have to go if you don't want to, I don't want you to feel uncomfortable." 

Irene brushed her fingers on Seulgi's cheek before kissing her softly. With a sigh, Seulgi let Irene rest against her chest, arms  wrapped around the petite figure. 

"Your attendance is mandatory, right?"

"Yes, but I promise I will be back before midnight so we can have our own celebration." 

Running her fingers through Irene's hair, Seulgi pondered for awhile before making a decision. Without having to think, she knew she wasn't going to like the atmosphere, even if it was supposed to be a festive celebration. 

"I will go."

Irene looked up, eyes full of surprise. 

"For you," Seulgi cupped her face. "I will go." 

In all honesty, Seulgi wished she stayed home instead when all she could hear among everything that Irene's relatives had said, was about how compatible Irene and Ilhoon looked together.

Every bite of the chocolate log cake dessert tasted bitter to her, her ears hurt from the praises that she scoffed at within her heart. If there was anything that made her remained her cool, it was the secret hand holding underneath the table whenever Irene noticed her discomfort. 

At least she knew Irene was hers, even if the rest of the world didn't.

She was in a dilemma, unable to decide if she wanted the meal to last so she could have Irene by her side, or for it to end quickly so she could escape to a corner where she didn't have to hear the never ending compliments. 

The latter situation occurred, but her frustration only seemed to escalate.

Alcohol was the only thing that kept her company for the hours, since relatives were particularly concerned about Irene's affairs, hogging onto her to talk about her welfare.

Extended family gatherings always took up the time of the older girl; cousins wanting to get close, aunties busy prying into her life, questions nothing more about her relationship, which Seulgi didn't see a need for them to be concerned about. 

Just like how her hand had never been free from glasses after glasses of alcohol, Seulgi never free Irene from her sight. She let herself get lost in the smiles that Irene offered her relatives, taking little comfort in knowing that Irene despite being busy, would be seen looking for her.

Eventually, Seulgi found herself in the midst of a conversation which Mrs Bae initiated, attention diverted from the only one who she wanted to look at.  

Little did she expect that within that short span of being occupied, Ilhoon had been inching closer to Irene by the minute, eventually even bold enough to rest his hand around the waist.

Irene jumped upon the first contact, wanting to move away but she was stuck in the middle of a talk.

Politely, she brushed the hand away but one didn't seem to get her cue, or maybe he just didn't want to. His actions only got encouraged further upon every sip of wine he took, holding Irene closely by his side, hip to hip at one side of the spacious outdoor balcony. 

“Ilhoon, you are standing too close.”

“Makes a Christmas night even cosier, isn’t it?”

How shameless. Irene scoffed.

“Remove your hand away from me.”

“You don’t think it’s cosy?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Don’t people always say when a girl says no, it’s just her being too shy to say yes?”

His face was so near to Irene’s, she could smell the alcohol from his breath and it irritated her. She pried his hand away but it seemed to have agitated the tipsy man who gripped tighter onto her side, even attempting to steal a kiss when she turned to glare at him. 

In the midst of all fury, Irene felt herself being yanked away from the disrespectful touch out of the sudden and into the hold of yet another alcohol reeking person.

Only this time, the touch was protective and safe. 

“Keep your hands off her.” 

Irene hid behind Seulgi who slipped her fingers and filled up the gaps between their hands.

It was a firm feeling, letting the elder girl knew she would always have someone to be dependent on.

It dawned upon her that Seulgi had been watching all these while and god knows how much anger and jealousy had she been pending on the inside. 

What was originally annoyance was about to transform into anxiety when Irene felt the atmosphere thickening at every breath she took. Ilhoon’s diluting eyes suggested that he had a little over his limit worth of alcohol and the way he clinched his fist as he stepped closer to Seulgi screamed potential of a fight. 

“You,” A finger stabbed into Seulgi’s shoulder. “Need to stay away from her and let us do our things.”

“There is nothing that she wants to do with you.”

“That’s not your say. She will do what I want us to do.”

"Funny to claim that when you both only met for what I can count with both my hands."

"And so? She's mine so maybe that's your cue to get lost, friend."

"I'm not yours, Ilhoon. Never was, never will."

A tiny pinch of happiness erupted in Seulgi's chest upon Irene's declaration but it didn't last when Ilhoon reached out to grab Irene on her wrist, forcefully tugging her towards himself without minding if he was inflicting pain on her.

A soft grunt was heard and Seulgi gritted her teeth, letting her last bit of patience burnt into ashes. 

"Babe, you don't have to be shy about being mine. Why deny when your friend deserves to know?"

She wasn’t sure what was it that she couldn’t tolerate  more; Ilhoon claiming Irene as his with a lustful tone and brushed her off as just a friend, or the fact that he was physically hurting Irene.

"You-It hurts.."

Her tongue brushed against the inside of her cheek at Irene's whine, nails digging into her palms as she clenched her fists.

"Let her go now, now."

Never in her life did Seulgi know she could be this angry, especially with how Irene struggled to stay away.

She was about to take her lover back to her side when Ilhoon finally released his grip on the wrist, leaving white prints which soon turned red. But almost instantly, he lurched Irene by the waist towards his body, letting her collapsed into his embrace. 

“Man, you really need to know where you stand, Seulgi. Your position is called far away. Don’t think I haven’t notice how you have been trying to stir between my girl and I.” 

“She is not yours and for the last time, let her go.” 

Not only were her words sharp, her face was also turning red from an unbearable anger scalding every part of her body, inside out.

She was shaking against her will, as if she was a soon-to-erupt volcano. Irene’s peripheral vision could sense her parents’ eyes on the trio, and her nerves were tensed, unaware of what she should be doing instead of watching the situation get out of hands.

“And so what if I don't?”

Ilhoon smirked before whispering.

“You can stop me from touching her today, but it doesn’t mean you can stop me from touching her entirely in the days to come.” 

That was all it took for Seulgi to snap. 

Shoving him hard on the shoulders, Ilhoon collided against the wall, spilling the wine all over the ground. Before she got anymore chance to move again, the man struck back at the youngest among them three with a merciless slap.  

The slap echoed through the roofless balcony and Irene was too dumbfounded to react instantly until Mr Bae rushed over after instructing his wife to keep the remaining guests company, voice low but full of authority. 

“What the hell is happening here?”

Mr Bae was only relieved that the crowd had already moved towards the inner part of the house when the night started to get chillier, unaware of how to deal with the commotion created that would have gotten the fingers pointing. Ilhoon smashed the glass on the ground, shattering it with no hesitation and looked like he was moving in to assault again when Mr Bae held him back. 

Irene was too paralysed to react initiatedly, but watching how her father was hushing an agitated Ilhoon, she escaped her trance. 

“How dare you hit her?!”

Irene half hollered at Ilhoon who seemed to be cursing under his breath, both hands on the shoulders of Seulgi who never once looked up after the hit she received. 

“You know what? It’s time to call it a night for one of you.” Mr Bae commanded. “Seulgi, I think you should go now.”

“Dad! He slapped her but you are making her leave?”

“I saw what happened, Joohyun. She pushed first.” 

“She was just protecting me!”

Mr Bae stared hard. 

“From Ilhoon, who is supposedly your date? I’m not too sure where did she get the idea from that you needed protection.” 

“You are overstepping your line as a mere friend, Kang Seulgi.”

Ilhoon added with cockiness when he figured that the situation was gravitated more towards his advantage, his snicker making Irene’s stomach flopped with disgust. 

“As much as I like you and see you as my own, Seulgi, you do realised you are just a friend who is meddling with Joohyun’s affair way more than you should, right?”

“Friend…” 

It was a soft, miserable laugh but everyone heard the girl. They watched her shook her head before she pulled herself together.

Irene was desperate for an eye contact, warm tears welling up and a lump in . She held onto the arm of Seulgi, praying for an interaction, only to have it all crushed when Seulgi brushed her away. 

“I guess I really forget that I’m just a friend.” Two hearts broke simultaneously. “Merry Christmas.” 

“Seulgi, no!” 

Irene's voice was completely laced with desperation. 

"I will go with you!"

"No need for that, I will leave alone." The reply was so cold, her already trembling body shook more. "I want to leave alone."

Reaching out again to hold onto Seulgi before the girl could walk into the house, there was still no eye contact. Unwilling to give up, she inched herself close to latch onto Seulgi's side, whispering with her cracking voice.

"Baby, please.." 

Her heart sank deeper than it already did when they finally shared eye contact, but it was a pair of lifeless, reddened eyes bored into hers. Seulgi finally touched her again, but it was to brush her away. 

"Don't walk out on me again, let me be with you. I want to go with you."

Despite her effort in tightening her holds, Seulgi still managed to peel her fingers away, eyes clouded with foreign emotions that Irene had never seen before. 

"I'm just a friend, Irene."

With one last push, Seulgi swiped Irene's touches on her; as if Irene's touches weren't her favourite, as if Irene's touches were burning her skin.

It was only then when Irene realised how suffocated she was, how giddy she was, how paralysed she was, how painful her broken heart was.

"You are not a friend... You were never just a friend, my baby.."

The only thing she could do was to watch with her blurring vision as Seulgi left like a gush of wind without hearing her mutter, a sweet scent lingering in the air for seconds before it fully dispersed, just like how her sense of security vanished. 

***