Irene feels betrayal from the hair on the top of her head to the nails at the tip of her toes as she watches the smooth conversation occurring shamelessly in front of her. Wendy and Seulgi seem to have hit it off immediately in a way that they never had with her, and Irene is left to sulk next to Seulgi like a petulant child.

“Are your injuries healed?”

“Yes, I just had to take medicine and have a good rest. I feel completely fine now.”

“It that Irene was the one who was there to save you,” Wendy says with a pointedly mischievous look in her eyes, “It could have been anyone else.”

“You should’ve done it then, ‘anyone else’,” Irene snarls. “You couldn’t have done it even if you wanted to.”

Wendy scoffs. “What, stand there like a brick wall and let the guy crash into you? Wow, my hero.”

Irene lunges forward with a low throated growl and clawed fingers stretched out, only to be propelled backward by the scarf around her neck (betrayed by even an inanimate object, what has her life come to?) and she finds herself with her bottom back onto the hard redwood chair, and her hand falling back into her lap uselessly.

“You’ve tamed the beast! You’re amazing, Seulgi!” Wendy says, clapping.

“I call abuse,” Irene mutters darkly as she crosses her arms and looks out the window instead; only to shriek and topple backwards in her chair, the back of her head nearly meeting the ground, if it hadn’t been for her adequate reflexes; twisting like a cat would in mid-air and landing with her right hand pressed into the ground, and her knee holding the rest of her body weight up.

“Unnie, you didn’t have to fall for me that hard,” a familiar voice croons.

Irene slowly lifts her head, black boots, black skinny jeans, black sweater with a trench coat on top, and then a stunning face with a pair of leafy green eyes staring down at her with the most cheshire of grins painted across flawless features.

“Oh, you called me Unnie for once,” Irene finally manages to say.

She stands back up in one fluid motion, her grace not having been lost like her strength and speed has. Irene knows everyone in the small cafe can feel the tension crackling through the air like waves of unstoppable sound, rendering the entire building soundless.

“You haven’t been home lately, Unnie. Are you avoiding me?”

Irene flexes her fingers, opposed to the curling of fingers into fists humans would do as vampires are accustomed to lashing out with nails as sharp as knives and not the skin of knuckles that are easily broken.

“Why would I do that? I was just busy with . . . things.”

Irene knows Jennie hasn’t missed a single letter of Irene’s meaning, she’s too sharp for that, she’s always been, and a darker veil replaces the transparent one the young vampire had hung up, and the tension becomes that much stronger.

“Hello, my name’s Wendy. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

Emerald eyes swerve away from her’s, and Irene feels the slightest of relief course through her veins. The webs of mystery and the unknown abruptly snap and the cafe slowly fills with noise again. Tensed fingers relax, and Irene moves to take back her seat cautiously - like a wounded animal who’d neither won nor lost the fight.

“Jennie. It’s nice to meet you, too.”

Irene glances at Seulgi to find that the girl’s staring at her with an indiscernible expression, before Jennie’s melodious voice calls for her attention.

“Oh, hi, beautiful! We meet again.”

Irene’s happy to see Seulgi’s expression turn the slightest bit icier as she wordlessly dips her head in greeting. Jennie seems unperturbed as usual, flashing a smile before turning her attention back towards Irene. Jennie’s suddenly close - too close - their noses touching, and eyes level with one another, but Irene doesn’t flinch, standing her ground with steady nonchalance.

Then, with a voice loud enough to have rock stars make a run for their money (though with her perfect voice, it sounds like a chorus of angels singing), Jennie yells, “Bye, Unnie!” right into her ear, and makes a cool exit out the door.

Irene resists the urge to chuck a cup at the back of the girl’s head, taking in a deep breath before allowing her mind to calm. Whispers erupt around them at Jennie’s leave, flowing through the air and every syllable hitting Irene’s ears like an incessant battering ram.

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