III. 

“No, no, no, NO!” Joohyun was constantly trying to convince Seulgi to start the car again and turn to the direction of their apartment. Seulgi clearly doesn’t seem to hear anything even when Joohyun was constantly trying to get her attention.

“You see Joohyun, how are you going to stay here for the remaining three years if you’re so afraid of getting out there,” Seulgi held Joohyun’s arms that were constantly flailing in the air while she was trying to get Seulgi’s car keys.

Joohyun had that whiny face on display. Seulgi was trying so hard not to voice out the ‘aww’ she was suppressing because it was just so cute. But right now there are more important things to deal with.

“Look Joohyun, we get in and if, say, after twenty minutes you still don’t like it then we’ll try something else,” the taller girl smiles. She tries to lower her head so that Joohyun can see her face because the latter’s face was down.

“Please Joohyun-ah?” Seulgi would’ve cringed at herself if she wasn’t doing this for her roommate but what the hell, she wanted to make Joohyun happy and that’s more important. She’ll do embarrassing stuff if that’s what it takes.

Seulgi was doing all those cutesy things to no avail. She was at the verge of giving up but then she saw the bear keychain that was attached to her car keys. The same keychain Yerim had given her because the little girl had told her she looked like a bear.

“Joohyun-ah if this doesn’t make you come with me then I don’t know what will,” Seulgi says as she opens her side of the car door. This has got to be the stupidest idea she ever had. She makes an advanced mental apology towards Joohyun for any second-hand embarrassment.

Seulgi succeeds in getting Joohyun’s attention when she gets out of the car. She goes to the pavement across where she had parked. When she noticed that Joohyun was still intact and was just looking at her, she screams, “Watch me Joohyun!” and the other girl just had that confused look on her face.

Since they were around some busy street bustling with drunk college kids Joohyun was just so utterly confused when Seulgi stood in the middle of a pavement. Just when Joohyun was about to open Seulgi just started doing what probably was most embarrassing thing she will ever do in her entire life.

To prove a point of course.

Whatever that point may be.

gom sema-ri-ga

han chi-be-yi-so

appa gom

omma gom

ae-gi gom

Seulgi had her eyes closed the whole time she was doing the steps of the ever famous bear dance that was shown in one of her favorite dramas. Yerim seemed to love it. But Yerim was a child and would think of it as cute and adorable. The situation at hand proves to be on the opposite side of the spectrum. A busy street at a weekend after midterms, it was a complete contrast to the tiny room that Yerim had at the back of the restaurant.

Now she could just feel the embarrassment creeping in especially when she heard faint remarks–mainly made of whispers– of other people that were passing by. Of course, that would be everyone’s reaction. What’s a fully grown adult doing dancing some children’s song in the middle of the night?

But in the midst of all the other faint remarks, one voice stood out the most, Joohyun’s.

“Yah! Kang Seulgi stop that!” Joohyun exclaimed. Shewas trying to cover her face. Seulgi wanted to stop because she could see how the other girl didn’t like the attention she was getting. Though she was a little touched by fact that even though she didn’t like the attention, she makes the effort to also save Seulgi from it.

Seulgi slowly opened her eyes and saw that Joohyun was getting out of the car. She was ready to drag her out of the place but she isn’t the type to just abandon her plan no matter how stupid that is, it didn’t stop her.

She starts to run away from Joohyun as soon as the latter was close enough to drag her out of the street, “No Joohyun-ah not until you agree to come with me to the party!” she lets out her tongue to tease Joohyun and they are really getting the attention Joohyun especially didn’t want.

Seulgi repeats the first verse of the song doing some more embarrassing dance moves while Joohyun was constantly trying to chase after her. The smaller girl was doing awful at chasing Seulgi not just because her legs were shorter but because she was constantly trying to hide her face from embarrassment. She was awfully embarrassed because just then Seulgi had to change the lyrics and announce to the whole street their names.

gom sema-ri-ga

han chi-be-yi-so

SEULGI gom

JOOHYUN gom

ae-gi gom

Seulgi was still singing the three bears song and some students had already recognized her and were already taking videos of her but she didn’t care, Joohyun was still not budging. When Joohyun had realized all the unwanted attention and she saw how silly Seulgi looked just to make her agree she smiled, then she laughed. She really might be going crazy.

When Seulgi noticed that Joohyun was approaching her, laughing, she didn’t run away this time. She lets Joohyun catch up to her because both of them we’re dead tired anyway.

“Fine…fine Seulgi I’ll come to that party,” Joohyun says in between laughs. Anyone seeing them would think that they could easily pass a crazies. Seulgi had long assumed that everyone that saw them already thought of them as crazies.

Seulgi laughs too when the amount of attention they got finally dawned upon her. She couldn’t help but feel embarrassed. But seeing Joohyun laugh was enough for her to think that the embarrassment was worth it.

“You’ll really go Joohyun?” Seulgi asks after she had bowed and apologized politely to the people that were throwing looks at them.

“But the deal is still on, if after twenty minutes I still don’t like it, we’ll go home ok?”

“I highly doubt that Joohyun, trust me.”

-------

Seulgi was absolutely right when she told Joohyun that she wouldn’t regret coming with her to some college party. At first it was something that Joohyun had always envisioned. Loud blaring music that could almost pierce a hole in her eardrums. Flashing lights bright enough to blind her. The intoxicating smell of alcohol that can make you drunk even when you haven’t had a drop of alcohol tasted.

Then ten minutes in to the party, which Seulgi had explained to be a celebration because midterms are over, Seulgi asks Joohyun to join her in the dance floor. The dance floor that was full of drunk college kids having no care even when they’re already moving inappropriately–to Joohyun at least. Joohyun would skip that any time of the week but then Seulgi just had to shoot that smile again.

Joohyun wonders if Seulgi had hypnotized her to unknowingly consider anything the taller girl says when she flashes that smile. She really thinks that she was in some sort of spell but then again when reality hits her, she knows that it wasn’t that.

Joohyun hesitantly takes the hand that Seulgi had offered when she asked Joohyun to join her in dancing. Seulgi takes them to a less crowded area of the dance floor and she had started dancing like no one was watching. Joohyun starts with small grandma-like dance steps but then she hears Seulgi laugh because of how weird she looks.

Seulgi on the other hand was dancing her heart out hoping that Joohyun would eventually see that there’s no one there to judge them whether or not they danced to the rhythm. She throw smiles at Joohyun from time to time to show her it was ok to let go and break loose.

“Joohyun-ah, this is step number two!! Dance your fears and stress away!!!” the taller girl says loud enough for Joohyun to hear through the loud EDM song playing.

She sees Joohyun slowly change her grandma like moves to something that actually was more fitting to the upbeat song playing. Seulgi starts cheering Joohyun by holding one of her hands as she started jumping up and down screaming profanities about school and how hard the exams were. People were starting to hype Seulgi too by screaming some sort of agreement when she voiced out rants about university. Maybe this was enough for Joohyun to finally break out of her shell and slowly jump with Seulgi and to also scream in agreement to what Seulgi was saying.

As they were jumping up and down, hands clasped together and all, their gazes meet again and for the nth time today they both weren’t sure why their hearts were beating not only because of the tiredness they feel from jumping.

Since they were dead tired from jumping and all the chasing,  they decide to take a break and went to sit at one of the vacant booths at the club. Seulgi was surprised when a certain red haired girl decides to join them along with a blond girl who looks all too happy holding a glass of liquor.

And from that moment, Seulgi knew that rest was almost impossible.

“Seulgi!!! I thought you weren’t coming,” the red haired girl asks.

“I thought so too Sooyoung but I thought of bringing Joohyun here so we could both enjoy exams being over,” Seulgi replies turning her head to Joohyun when she mentions her name.

“Owww, is she the roommate?” the blond asks as she took the seat next to Sooyoung almost falling down tripping on herself.

Seulgi answers yes and both the girls’ mouth went agape, “How come you never come out when you’re so beautiful,” Sooyoung asks with shock.

Joohyun was still not answering so Seulgi just holds her hand for a moment and informs Joohyun with some eye signal that Sooyoung had asked her a question. Seulgi pressed her thumb on Joohyun’s hand hoping that it’ll send a message that it was ok to answer them.

“Uh,” Joohyun giggles before answering, “I was just a bit scared of going out alone,” she continues.

The two girls voiced out a sigh of disbelief and immediately turns both their heads towards Seulgi. It was like they caught Seulgi red handed, “And why didn’t you accompany her Seul,” the blond girl asked Seulgi accusingly.

Seulgi matches the intensity of the looks that the two girls threw at her, “Well Wendy if you must know she was one of Sehun’s recent victims, I thought that he might’ve accompanied her to places, but guess what he was just in it for the kicks,” Seulgi says bitterly and she hears Wendy giggle a little bit. She might have said little bit too much and now she regrets it. She knows how her friends like to snoop around the things she says carelessly. Given the fact that they both have alcohol running down their systems, doom wasn’t so far for Seulgi.

“Well someone’s upset about that,” Sooyoung remarks, possibly adding fuel to the flame.

“So back to you Seulgi’s roommate, what’s your name again?” Sooyoung asks while pouring herself a drink. Which isn’t good for Seulgi as that would give Sooyoung the added confidence that would prove disadvantageous for her.

Joohyun looks at Seulgi first before answering, the latter just throws her a faint smile and a playful shrug, “I’m Joohyun,” she introduces herself and the two girls with brightly colored hair waves at her overexcitedly.

“Nice to meet you Joohyun, I’m Wendy and this girl right here is Sooyoung, we might look really right now but we’re not that scary, feel free to talk to us.”

“Hey don’t drag me into looking like , I still look fabulous Wendy, shut up,” Sooyoung replies hitting Wendy playfully on the shoulder.

For once, Joohyun finally felt at ease even when she just met the two girls who were bickering in front of them. When she turns to Seulgi, the girl was just shaking her head and although she couldn’t hear Seulgi she definitely could tell girl beside her was sighing. As Seulgi noticed that Joohyun was looking at her direction she was quick to mouth I’m sorry and a chuckle escapes from .

“Yah,” Seulgi interrupts, “Will you two stop bickering we all look like here except for Joohyun okay,” Seulgi says out of frustration and maybe she hadn’t completely processed what she just said because then everyone was just looking at her with wide eyes. She should really consider thinking before talking. She’s practically digging her own grave at this point.

“Wow Seulgi I never knew you we’re that in awe of her beauty,” Sooyoung scoffs.

“Yeah Seul you used to say that we are your most beautiful friends, you’ve changed KangSseul,” Wendy says while making crying motions.

Joohyun had stayed quiet but her eyes were still on Seulgi. The latter had rolled her eyes trying to dismiss whatever the two girls were saying, “Yeah yeah, don’t scare Joohyun even more.”

Seulgi would’ve let herself join the bickering galore but Joohyun was there. She looks over at Wendy who’s currently asking Joohyun about her major. Then, right there she had an idea. And now she’s sure that this won’t be one of the stupid ones she had all throughout this day. Maybe she had to thank Wendy and Sooyoung too.

“Hey Hyun, they’re part of the film society. Wendy here is an officer of the club. Feel free to talk to them if you want,” Seulgi completely dismisses the prior subject because she had noticed that Wendy was driving her in to an unwanted conversation topic. Also, this was way more important than whatever the blond was about to ask.

She knew Joohyun loved movies and she thought that maybe letting Joohyun meet her friends was a great idea. Not so much about the timing and the place but you can’t have it all.

“Ow, Seulgi do we have a film enthusiast here?” Wendy asks discreetly and Seulgi just smiles at Joohyun.

Seulgi knows that even though Wendy and Sooyoung were annoying and loud at times they were truly good people. They are sort of friendly in an odd possible way but nonetheless she sees that they were making Joohyun feel at ease.

Quite a few minutes later, despite the loud blaring music, the flashing lights and the wild crowd the three girls had somehow found a way to discuss movies. Now they were arguing and throwing opinions here and there about the ending of the movie Casablanca.

Seulgi wasn’t really the type to overanalyze movies. That’s why at times whenever she