The skies are dark with clouds that threaten rain. They also threaten Irene’s mood. The house is tense with expectation, Junhan cooking up a storm (something he does when he’s nervous), Jennie pacing back and forth in the dining room to the point that the rug would be worn by the time she finishes, and Serenity sitting in the living room in a sort of silence that can be compared to that of a morgue.

The Park Clan is making their way to this very house, this very day.

It’s suffocating and stuffy and Irene detests it. She murmurs something about getting fresh air that two-thirds of the household can clearly hear before swiftly making her way out the door. The air is still frigid with ice and snow, but Irene can’t feel it like she had when she was human. Humans are sensitive creatures, she’s come to realize.

Speaking of humans, Irene realizes how long it’s been since she’d last seen the spunky, critical, yet caring human she’s come to love. Ice crackles underfoot, people staring at her openly now with familiar gazes and whispered words. Irene’s used to it, really.

All she knows is she wants to see Wendy.

Wendy’s giving her that critical stare that sweeps from the feet up and head down and back up again. Irene’s missed that look though she knows she’s about to get the beating of her life - and she lets her. Wendy rains punches slaps and kicks at Irene, and Irene just takes it, carefully shielding her face from harm, though, until Wendy’s had enough, breath shaking and eyes wild.

“Doesn’t really hurt anymore,” Irene says, grinning cheekily.

Wendy glowers at her with eyes full of a mixture of anger, relief, and confusion like a myriad of colors on an artist’s canvas. The familiar admiration is still there, though, somewhere behind the layers of emotions piled up on one another, and that makes Irene relax a little.

“You idiot. Never calling me, doesn’t even bother to give me an update. Is it so hard to send a text? You have a ing phone for a ing reason. Oh yeah, going from a vampire and human then back again isn’t such a big ing deal, right?” Wendy begins, vocabulary progressively becoming harsher and more creative.

Irene hurries to appease the ranting girl before it gets any worse “Alright, alright, I’m sorry, really. I won’t do it again, okay?”

Wendy rolls her eyes, newly dyed navy blue hair whipping behind her as she turns to walk back into her apartment without a second glance at the vampire at her door. Irene takes that as an invitation, removing her shoes, then carefully closing the door behind her with a silence that can only be achieved through knife-like precision of movement (though that sort of precision is natural to a vampire).

Irene knows that Wendy’s parents live in a mansion over in Canada, but Wendy chooses to live humbly in a small, but cozy apartment in the higher end of Seoul, close to where Seulgi lives, in fact. Irene lives up where the mansions lie, large and imposing, and so, so cold. Though she’s learned to deal with the loneliness that creeps up on silent nights.

Wendy’s living space is as spotlessly clean as usual, everything having its own place. It’s a different sort of clean than Irene’s house, though. Wendy’s cleanliness is a product of her own work, and one where keeping it clean would be a quite a bit of work. Irene’s cleanliness is due to the lack of things to clean in the large mansion - as if no one lived in it.

“How’s Seulgi?”

Abruptly pulled out of her thoughts, Irene replies with the first thing that comes to mind. “ . . . I kissed her.”

Irene shoots forward to catch the falling cup mid-air, swiftly setting the fragile glass down on the counter without spilling one drop, then turning back to Wendy who’s staring at her with wide eyes and comically raised brows (ever so expressive) and Irene resists the urge to laugh.

“You did what? How are you still alive?”

Irene’s expression contorts. “What?”

“I’ve met the girl, I’m surprised you’re no