Surprisingly, after Sandeul, Byul stays true to her words and that is to stay single.

“No more romance.” She said.

There are still random crushes but nothing that she pursues.

Maybe she’s sick after failing for the third time.

First being left behind.

Then being mistaken of the other’s feeling.

And last not far from the first one; being left behind.

Even if Byul alone already decided for herself that she will not try to find anyone to date nor accept anyone if they ever ask her out. Her friends still try to talk her out because they fear Byul will end up being alone for all her life—it was a little too paranoid and sometimes it was taken as a joke, but the concern was mostly real. It was no denying that after several failures in romance, Byul became a bit distance.

Maybe ‘distance’ was a bit too much .

Her friends—Wheein and Hwasa—admitted that and yet that’s what exactly happening right now.

Byul became less and less open about things that are going on, especially when it comes to her being close to anyone. At rare times, Wheein would go out and ask her, being bold by asking if there is anything, she’s currently hiding from her and Hwasa. But all Byul had to say was that she was fine and there really isn’t anything interesting for her to tell—she said everything was just going as usual. Nothing new and nothing special.

Byul wasn’t lying though.

And after a few tries, her friends let her be.

Meanwhile, Seulgi and Joohyun remains together and everything was going incredibly well for the two of them. Byul was happy for them and she was glad Joohyun never brought up the fact that Byul was once developed feelings for her. They both agreed to leave that topic as there is no reason for either of them to bring it up anyway. This also means that Seulgi doesn’t know a thing about it either, the said girl didn’t even get suspicious at all.

But not looking suspicious doesn’t mean she doesn’t know anything at all.

Because in all honesty, Seulgi knew but she didn’t speak a word about it. She would gladly talk about it if either Joohyun or Byul bring it up at some point, but they never did so Seulgi doesn’t see a good enough reason for her to talk about Byul’s feelings for Joohyun.

Everything goes well so far, but Seulgi noticed the slight changes from her unnie. Byul’s exam was over last week and yet she’s still spent most of her time reading books and using her laptop. Seulgi thought Byul was playing some online games with her laptop, but turned out most of the time Byul was working on god-knows what—definitely not playing games though. She also gets less and less game-time with her and Joohyun, that’s very unfortunate for Seulgi.

At one point, she thought it may be because Joohyun is now Seulgi’s girlfriend. Maybe Byul just doesn’t want any of them get awkward in the game, but then she remembered couple of weeks ago when they played together again after so long and nothing was awkward between them. They all acted normal, like usual. So, Seulgi thought about another reason.

The most logical one.

That maybe Byul is lonely.

Lonely as in she needs to go out and hook up or better yet get herself a girlfriend. It was because of the fact that Byul spends more time in the dorm than go out to meet her friends or hang out with Seulgi. Maybe she’s starting to lack of actual social life. You know, she’s probably preoccupied with college things and now she finds herself in a blackhole of loneliness. That’s what Seulgi thought.

Seulgi doesn’t want her unnie ends up being forever alone, that is just tragic.

Seulgi thought everyone deserves to have someone they love and be loved by that same person.

Like she and Joohyun does, of course!

So, she set up a small plan for Byul and of course with the help of her girlfriend, Joohyun.

Seulgi told Joohyun about her concerns and Joohyun understands. Seulgi then wondered if there is anyone, they can set up a date with for Byul. Joohyun disagrees with that idea. She thought Byul wouldn't like it if they ever set a date for Byul without Byul's consent and even if they ask for her consent, Joohyun was sure Byul would say no to it.

"Let's just ask her to hang out. I may have someone I can bring, a friend, who may or may not have a quite similar situation with Byul."

Seulgi narrows her eyes at her girlfriend, "Are you talking about that friend of yours?"

Seulgi knows that person—well, she only ever heard about her from Joohyun because she said her story was very interesting and she's been wanting to tell Seulgi about it. So, she told Seulgi a few things about her friend who has been dating guys because she insisted that she's straight.

Seulgi thought it was ridiculous.

Joohyun thought it's kind of sad in a way.

Because she still couldn't see her true self. And in the end, the girl admitted that she's most likely biual, Joohyun said the look in her eyes doesn't show happiness at all, they looked more like regret. It saddened Joohyun that she looked like she doesn't or maybe couldn't embrace her actual uality. Not because of society because the girl looked like she can handle it, it’s her parents that she couldn’t deal with. The girl also revealed a secret she never told anyone before and that was about her having an ex-girlfriend in the past. The saddest part about it was how the girl also said that even though she's attracted to other people, no one really ever made her feel like her ex-girlfriend did.

She said, "I think she's the one...but I don’t know… Maybe not anymore."

Joohyun said the girl seemed to regretted a lot of things in the past with her ex, Joohyun wanted to ask her about what happened but she didn't. She just assumed it must be a really bad break up.

Despite the story that girl shared with Joohyun, the girl was still able to look okay and fine, as if her heart and mind didn't suffer from thinking about her ex. Joohyun just felt bad for her friend... She is a really kind person, really fun to be around and just very lovable... One wouldn’t think that this girl has deeper things going on in her head. And the fact that lately the girl said she's getting tired of hookups and would like stay single for a bit gives Joohyun the idea that she could be friends with Byul. Maybe they can relate to each other?

Well, since they both didn't seem interested in dating anyone.

It wouldn't hurt to get a new friend, right?

Besides, Joohyun has been wanting to introduce her close friend with Seulgi.

Eventually, a week passed. It was only the starting week on Monday when Seulgi received a call from Joohyun saying that her friend can hang out on Friday. Seulgi didn’t waste a second to go and tell her Byul-unnie about it.

"Unnie, let's go out this Friday."

Byul stops what she's been doing and turns her head to Seulgi with an 'are you kidding me' look. "You have a girlfriend, ask her out instead."

"Well, she's coming too of course~"

Byul resumes her task. "I don't wanna be a third-wheel."

"Who says anything about being a third-wheel?"

"Then who else is coming? Please tell me you're not setting up a date for me with anyone—you asked this last week and I said no already."

"No, no, no. I heard you, this is not a date. We're just gonna hang out~ Hyun gonna bring a close friend of hers and—"

"It already sounded like a set up date."

"–Noooo, her friend doesn't look for any partner either. Trust me on this. She's kinda like you, I think? That's what Hyun said. She's been wanting to introduce her friend to me and I wanna do the same so this should be a great chance!"

Byul sighs, turning to Seulgi again. "Joohyun knows me, you should ask someone else. I don't know, maybe Sunmi?"

This makes Seulgi pouts her lips. Sometimes it would work on Byul because Seulgi look more adorable like that.

"But Hyun's friend is her dormmate so I have to bring my dormmate too~"

"It doesn't have to be a dormmate though???"

"Well, yeah but..." Seulgi sighs, it sounded a bit like a defeated sigh. "I really want to hang out with you again, unnie. It's been so long since the last time we did... I don't know if you're doing it on purpose or because you felt uncomfortable with Joohyun being my girlfriend—"

"Whoa, hold on, I don't feel uncomfortable—"

"It's okay, unnie, I know."

Byul frowns at the younger girl. “Know about what?”

With a sigh, Seulgi looks away. For some reason, she couldn’t look at Byul in the eyes when she admitted to her that all this time, Seulgi knew about Byul’s feelings for Joohyun. “That night when you and Hyun talked… I overheard it.”

“…You weren’t asleep at all?”

“I was…when Hyun moved, it kinda woke me up and when you two started talking… Hyun sounded serious, so I pretended to be asleep. I was surprised…but at the same time relieved too. But it would be a lie if I said I didn’t feel any form of guilt after that…”

Byul’s frown softens, the corner of her lips turned up a little. “It wasn’t your fault—or anyone’s fault. There’s no need for you to feel guilty. I’m totally okay and I’m not lying when I said I’m happy seeing you together with Joohyun now.”

“Are you really…? Because I don’t know if I’m overthinking this, but you don’t look quite okay. We rarely hang out like we used to; I can even tell now you stopped playing games too. It’s just… I like your company a lot, unnie. It’s sad to think that these days we can hardly do anything together.”

Well, Byul couldn’t argue with that.

Seulgi was right.

Byul isn’t really clueless either, she’s very aware of what she’s been doing lately. She’s aware that she’s distancing herself from everyone around her for basically no reason at all. If anyone ask and she has to answer honestly, Byul would say she just finds comfort in being with herself. It feels nice to focus on herself because most things she’s been doing before was only worrying about others.

She only wants to take a step back and think of herself more.

She spends so much time being selfless that now she just wants to be selfish. (pun totally intended)

But turns out it gives everyone the wrong idea. It worries her friends that she became so distant and starting to spend less and less time with them. Byul probably just have to be honest with them and tell them there is nothing to worry about her life now, she’s not in a dark place or whatever after all.

Byul take one more look at Seulgi and thinks it won’t hurt just to hang out.

Like she said, it’s been so long since they hung out together.

“Okay—”

At that moment, Seulgi immediately looks up, her eyes gleaming. “Okay?!”

“—Yah, hold your excitement