Trends come and go. Some persist longer than others, but they continuously change as time passes.

One day people are talking about an obscure app game where the player continuously taps their phone screen so that their character-a bird that bears a striking resemblance to a fish that comes from a well-known video game series involving a certain Italian plumber- doesn’t bump into the various pipes that blocks its way.

The next day, the game gets taken down from all app stores, resulting in multiple clone games popping up so other game developers could make whatever money they could off the original game’s success.

Seulgi never really saw that game as anything special but, for some strange reason, it became popular and news about it spread across the internet like wildfire.

When Flappy Bird was removed from the app stores, some people were desperate enough to get the game that they even paid money to buy phones that had it preinstalled. Lots of money.

Some people must have had a lot of extra cash to burn I guess, Seulgi thought to herself as she looked at her phone’s screen while lying on her bed, debating whether she should delete the game or not.

She had a habit of deleting apps that she no longer used because, in her mind, why keep them if she didn’t even use them anymore? That’d be a waste of memory, even though she had plenty of memory on her iPhone 6 to spare.

It’s been about a year since she last played the once popular game. It was fun and strangely addicting at first, and she was even able to reach two hundred points on her best days. But that was only after she spent countless hours tapping the screen either too early or too late which resulted in her smacking the bird into a green pipe and getting a “game over.”

“I should play it one last time. For old time’s sake,” the lone girl said out loud to nobody in particular. She had a habit of talking to herself sometimes, and that led to some pretty awkward situations in the past, but Seulgi was in the comfort and safety of her own room; she had nothing to worry about.

Well unless her best friend, Wendy, was hiding in her closet again.

Wendy could be…..unpredictable sometimes.

Seulgi side eyed her closet across her room and stared at it for a few moments, wondering if she should check it out just to make sure. Wendy could be in there for whatever reason listening and watching her right now.

The blonde devil never really gave a reason why she hid in Seulgi’s closet that one time other than that she felt bored that day and wanted to surprise her.

Why can’t she be normal and surprise me with cookies or something instead of giving me a heart attack, Seulgi thought to herself as she sighed.

People normally don’t hide in their friend’s closets for an undetermined amount of time just so they can scare the pants off of them.

I’m being paranoid. There’s no way she’d be in there again, Seulgi thought as she shook her head and tapped on the game’s icon, starting the game.

Tap.

The bird swiftly avoided crashing into a pipe.

Tap.

Yet again, due to Seulgi’s superior gaming skill, the bird was able to avoid hitting another pipe.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

Hey I might even beat my high score today-

[Wendy: hey]

Is what Seulgi thought before a text message notification from Wendy popped up on her screen and interrupted her winning streak. The poor little bird flew into a pipe and died. He never stood a chance.

But that didn’t stop Seulgi. No. She was not going to let Wendy interrupt her game so she swiped her finger up on the screen, dismissed the notification, and tapped on the “play” button so she could resume playing.

After about two minutes of avoiding those pesky pipes (Seulgi wondered why there were so many pipes and if there was ever an end to them), she was feeling confident that she’d get closer to her high score when-

[Wendy: hey]

Yet another text message notification from Wendy popped up on her screen, which caused Seulgi to lose concentration and mess up her game. Again.

“Damn it Wendy,” Seulgi groaned in annoyance as she swiped up on her screen, dismissing the notification. Again.

Suddenly her phone began to vibrate violently and multiple notifications kept appearing, one right after the other.

[Wendy: hey]

[Wendy: hey]

[Wendy: hey seulgi]

[Wendy: hey]

[Wendy: SEULGI]

[Wendy: talk to me]

[Wendy: SEULGIIIIII]

[Wendy: STOP IGNORING ME]

Seriously Wendy?

Seulgi knew that it was pointless to continue playing the game when Wendy kept on spamming her with text messages. So she did what she felt needed to be done.

She texted back.

[Me: what do you want]

Now Seulgi loved Wendy. The blonde was funny, lovable, and possessed a special gift that made everyone around her smile: she could bake a mean cake. Well not only cake, but she could make many different types of mouth-watering sweets that would make the most disciplined of dieters say “screw it” and give into temptation to sink their teeth into whatever piece of deliciousness she made.

Wendy was just a boss at cooking in general.

Seulgi always thought that whoever Wendy ended up dating would be really lucky since they’d always be able to taste her food. But she was a bit “eccentric” at times.

[Wendy: I want]

[Wendy: you]

[Wendy: ;) ]

[Me: gross]

[Wendy: to talk to me]

[Wendy: I gotta tell you something]

[Me: I’m busy]

[Wendy: no you’re not]

[Wendy: you’re probably screwing around on your phone]

Which was true. Seulgi was indeed “screwing around” on her phone, but Wendy didn’t need to know that. Even if she was legitimately busy doing something, that didn’t mean she had to drop everything she was doing just to entertain Wendy.

[Me: bye]

And with a tap of her finger on the “send” button, the text message was sent with the hope that it would end the conversation once and for all. But with Wendy it could go multiple ways: Wendy could blow up her phone even more or just give up out of sheer laziness and find something else to entertain her. Or she’d find someone else to bother. Or she’d fall asleep. It just depended on what she felt like doing that day.

Seulgi hoped it’d be the latter because she really wanted to relax. She finally finished her summer math course last week and wanted to actually enjoy her summer vacation. She didn’t have the energy to put up with Wendy’s antics. Her brain needed to recover from all those math formulas she had to memorize over the summer.

“Freaking Wendy if you spam me again, you’re going to get it.”

But after being rudely interrupted by Wendy, she didn’t feel like playing that game anymore.

“What should I do? Draw?” mused Seulgi as she rolled on her side and scratched an itch on her neck, “Nah I don’t feel inspired enough to draw.”

Should she waste time on Facebook? No. Wendy would probably see she was online and start spamming her on there.

After spending a few minutes debating what she should do, Seulgi finally decided to kill time by watching videos on YouTube.

Usually Seulgi would watch videos of cute animals or people doing speed paints of their digital drawings, but she figured she’d allow herself to indulge in one of her guilty pleasures which was, namely, watching music videos with very attractive, and talented, women.

There was a time in her life where she tried to convince herself that she wasn’t attracted to other girls and that she purely admired them for various reasons like their beauty, sense of style, talent, and wanted to be just like them. But that was a load of bull.

She was gay. Undeniably gay. And nothing would ever change that.

The point of no return was when Seulgi met her. Her high school upperclassman, Joohyun, turned her world upside down.

Not only was she the smartest girl in school, she was the favorite student of all the teachers, received multiple awards for her academic achievements, had elite piano playing skills (so much so that whenever she played, the music teacher cried tears of joy), possessed the voice of an angel, and was undeniably beautiful.

Seulgi felt the corners of turn upwards as she recalled memories of her precious unnie. Her laugh. That gorgeous smile. Her voice. Everything about her was perfect through Seulgi’s eyes.

But that smile faded as soon as memories began hitting Seulgi one by one.

Joohyun was straight. Just like everyone else in the school.

If that wasn’t bad enough Joohyun, for some reason, had feelings for Seulgi’s older brother. Out of all the people in the world, she had to like him. The guy was dumber than a bag of rocks and only cared about sports rather than school.

Seulgi cared about school. Her brother did not. He lived and breathed football.

Seulgi always studied hard every day. He only did the absolute bare minimum so he wouldn’t get kicked off the team.

Seulgi never talked back to her teachers. Her brother had a smart mouth and that earned him multiple detentions throughout his academic career.

Seulgi helped Joohyun whenever the older girl needed it. Seulgi was willing to do anything for her. Her brother was always busy with practice and bailed whenever he was asked to help with something.

Seulgi always responded back to Joohyun’s text messages instead of ignoring them for no reason (like her stupid brother did). She may have almost always responded instantaneously whenever Joohyun texted her, but she learned over time to at least wait a minute or two before responding.

Seulgi had some rocking abs too. Her brother had a little bit of a pot belly. Not that there’s anything wrong with pot bellies. Santa Claus had a pot belly and everyone loved him. She just took pride in the fact that she had abs when her brother didn’t. Serves him right for being stupid.

It’s not like Seulgi was jealous of her brother or anything. No. Not at all.

Maybe she was a little bit jealous. Just a little bit.

Okay she was very, very jealous and even now, years later and a college student, she still couldn’t understand why Joohyun liked her brother instead of her. The guy was an absolute slob that didn’t pick up after himself and whose room smelled like the inside of a dumpster at a gas station.

He barely even knew how to use the washing machine. He accidentally dyed all his white t-shirts blue one time because he forgot to take out a blue shirt that was in the pile of clothes he brought. This was something Seulgi couldn’t comprehend since you’d think a blue shirt would stick out like sore thumb in pile of white shirts, but no. This was her brother. The same brother that thought money literally grew on trees until he turned fourteen.

But unfortunately, Joohyun somehow saw something in Seulgi’s brother. Even if Seulgi couldn’t see it, that didn’t matter. The cards weren’t in her favor.

Fate is cruel.

Nobody knew about Seulgi’s hopeless crush. Nobody. Not even Wendy.

Could it still even be considered a crush if it lasted for years?

She didn’t know the answer. She wasn’t a love expert or anything.

Seulgi thought she was discreet about it. She always made sure she never stared at Joohyun too much, but there were times when doing so was the most painful thing in her life. It was impossible not to stare at those luscious locks of auburn hair, her flawless skin, those gorgeous legs that went on for miles…

She took care in not fainting whenever she saw Joohyun changing in the girls’ locker room a few times.

She ensured that whenever the two hugged, it didn’t last longer than what was normal.

Okay maybe she failed at doing some of those things. Maybe.

Seulgi internally cringed when she thought about how obvious she probably was and felt like going back in time and slapping her high school self.

She also couldn’t help but feel a dull ache in her chest as she thought about the older girl.

Nobody knew that Seulgi was definitely not straight. She didn’t think it was anyone’s business but her own. But she couldn’t deny that the possibility of being ostracized by her family and peers because of her ual orientation played a factor as to why she never told anyone, especially when she was in high school.

She wasn’t going to tell anyone. Not yet at least. But she was not the scared high school student that she was years ago. Seulgi grew up, became a college student, and felt more comfortable in her own skin. Maybe if she somehow by the grace of God managed to find a girlfriend, then yes, she’d speak up.

Maybe her abs would come in handy in the future. Girls liked abs right?

Seulgi shook her head vigorously and slapped her cheeks a few times to get her mind off of Joohyun. She wanted nothing more than to relax and enjoy watching music videos in the comfort and secrecy of her room, free from the judging eyes of society. She didn’t need to make herself feel sad by thinking about the girl she could never have.

Get it together. Joohyun’s gone. There’s no reason to think about her now. It’s been years already.

A tap of her finger opened the YouTube app and she typed in the search bar the title of one of her favorite MV’s: Miniskirt by AOA.

The official MV was the first result and there was no hesitation as Seulgi tapped on the thumbnail and pressed the play button.

And like magic, all thoughts of Joohyun dissipated when the MV started playing.