i rlly am not an expert at wenseul dynamics but... yuh. here u go~

/ / /

in theory, they shouldn't work as well as roommates as they do.

seungwan is everything seulgi isn't -- organized, particular about having things done the way she is comfortable with, adores simplicity and the tranquility of a clean, cozy bedroom after a long day of activities, where she could relax and listen to music and unwind.

seulgi is everything seungwan isn't -- arguably messy, prefers to do things the way that feels right at that moment for the best personal outcome (not folding her laundry in favor of getting an extra hour of sleep, leaving the toothpaste uncapped because she was in a rush, splaying her personal belongings out over the entire room because as long as things were spread apart, she knew where they were), and she could relax at a moment's notice, regardless of the location or atmosphere. 

laid out on her made bed, with no visible clutter in sight to affect her mental, with headphones on as music coursed through her ears and into her body was seungwan's most relaxed moments.

sat at her cluttered desk, surrounded by sketches and trinkets from her worldly travels, with her phone playing quiet music next to her as she draws is seulgi's most relaxed moments. 

nonetheless, they worked. in fact, in comparison to the other roommate dynamics that red velvet had experienced, both seungwan and seulgi firmly believed they worked out the best, hence why they frequently opted out of switching the living situations when the possibility came up.

maybe it was the principle that opposites attract; if you were to split a single line down between seungwan and seulgi's sides of the room, they truly seemed like opposite halves.

or maybe it was their natural tendency to bounce personality traits off one another, such as how over the years they had become blurry yet recognizable versions of one another; seungwan found a new adoration for naps and lazing around thanks to seulgi, seulgi had gained an appreciation for organizing some things like her art material drawers or bookshelves, and they practically had a shared music taste at this point with how often they'd simply play music in the room, whether for the other inhabitant or for themselves. seulgi's music library had an unsettling amount of western r&b artists and rap songs that she'd knew were famous but now she could absently hum along. for someone so small, quiet, genuine and unassuming, seungwan sure was capable of spitting bars.

their main personality traits may not have matched, especially in consideration of seungwan's, but they worked, and they had shared hundreds of memories within those four walls that neither could imagine occuring with any other roommate in red velvet. 

it was simply their dynamic, and their dynamic alone. anything different, or slightly changed and they are no longer who they know to be as seulgi and seungwan, and they would not have it any other way. 

/ / /

sleep is something very important in idol world. their staff, despite knowing the nature of their schedules and how early they are expected to be awake, always reprimand them for not sleeping enough. it's ironic, really, that those responsible for setting their wake-up times after dropping them back at the dorm so late feel the need to comment on their sleeping schedules.

seungwan's never been a consistent sleeper. her natural circadian rhythm seemed to shift with each stage of her life. as a toddler, she'd been told by her mother that she would be awake and making noise in the house at 4 a.m., wandering all on her own until investigated by a drowsy parent. as a teen, schooling and extracurriculars tried their best to regulate her schedule, but she still found herself often functioning on a mere few hours of sleep every night, regardless of how much she had to do the next day or how tired she was. now, as an idol, with what she believed to be the most exhausting schedule one could ever experience, she got even less regular sleep.

it affected her and she knew it, yet there was not much that could be done to change it. sleeping pills frightened her, and melatonin worked for a while but then it suddenly didn't anymore and she didn't know what else to do.

seulgi on the other hand could sleep like she was dead, much to the jealousy of the rest of red velvet. whether it was a thirty minute drive to a schedule or backstage waiting for their performance, seulgi could fall asleep in mere minutes. 

seungwan looked on bitterly often, wondering how the sleeping girl managed to catch what probably added up to a heathy amount of sleeping. 

however, on certain nights, seulgi was just as much of a pseudo-insomniac as her. their room would be bathed in darkness, save for seungwan's fairy lights and the glow of their phones on their face or seulgi at her desk, sketching away. seungwan knows the phone doesn't help her fall asleep at all, but at some point laying there waiting for sleep to come to her is too unbearable and she'd rather exhaust herself to achieve sleep.

the clock reads 2:00 a.m. when seungwan twists underneath her covers to observe seulgi's hunched form over her desk, absorbed in whatever it was she was working on. 

almost sensing a pair of eyes on her back, seulgi suddenly turns and looks at seungwan. luckily, the room is dark enough that the older girl cannot see the embarrassed blush on seungwan's cheeks from being caught staring.

the dancer quietly whispers "am i keeping you up?" because there's some unspoken rule about talking any louder than that after 2a.m., so quiet that seungwan can barely hear her and has to sit up in bed to hear the other girl, the exhaustion on her face speaking volumes of her lies she shakes her head.

"no, i'm just... restless. you're good, keep drawing," she reassures, laying back down. 

seulgi nervously fidgets across the room, head swivelling between her art and seungwan's curled form, light illuminating just the top of her head. 

"you're not just saying that?" she asks again. 

"mmh," seungwan murmurs back in sufficient response, pressing her face back into the coolness of her pillow.

"... because i can turn the lights off and go to sleep, it's really nothing i can't finish tomorrow," the other girl argues gently.

"seulgi --" seungwan tries to cut in

"-- and you really need your sleep so it's fine," the older girl finishes, fingers already clasping the switch of the lamp before the room is completely dark. seungwan sighs as quietly as she can and burrows further into her covers, knowing seulgi's resolve would not stand for argument. she hears her roommate slide her chair out from the desk and then light feet padding over to the other bed in the room followed by the rustling of covers becoming occupied.

there's silence in the room again, but it's not awkward. seungwan just wishes it wasn't because of her, but she figures maybe the change of lighting will help her sleep and says nothing.

"... when i can't sleep, i listen to asmr," seulgi admits out of the blue, voice sounding like it's being spoken towards her despite seungwan's back being turned to the other. "i listen with headphones, but sometimes not because you're asleep," she says with a small giggle.

seungwan knows this already, having heard bizarre noises coming from the other side of the room before and wondering what the hell seulgi was doing until she realized it was videos.

"i can play some for you, if you want," she offers. "... some of my favorites."

finally, seungwan twists in her sheets and looks at seulgi.

"okay."

seulgi moves far too fast, revealing her excitement to share something she cared about, before tapping through her phone for a few moments. seungwan itches at her nose absently, heart thudding in her chest at the sight of seulgi biting her lip in dedication to her task.

finally, the other girl sits up in her bed and reaches to put her phone on the shared table between their beds. "this one's really nice, it's just some fingernail tapping and scraping... um..." seulgi's fidgeting again. "yeah. it's nice. let me know if it's not... y'know, for you, and i'll put something else on."

seungwan hums again, completely unwilling to admit that the mere sound of seulgi's late-night husky voice is enough to be putting her to sleep, before the video's sound begins.

she doesn't really get the draw of asmr, and hasn't experienced life-altering tingles as seulgi once tried to explain, but she will admit this video is nice to listen to with no visuals. it's pleasant, and repetitive, and gentle enough that within a few minutes, her eyelids are drooping to a close.

just a few feet away, seulgi's feeling the same effects of the video but she's too afraid to fall asleep in-case seungwan suddenly decides the video's annoying her. she fights the way her eyes want to shut and how her body feels like it's melting into her comfortable mattress, when suddenly she hears soft snores coming from the neighboring bed. her eyebrows shoot up her forehead, surprised at how fast the video had worked for seungwan and leans forward to confirm her roommate had fallen fast asleep.

her suspicions are correct when she sees seungwan, face peaceful and unmoving, with lips parted in sleep-borne relaxation. 

as quietly as she can, seulgi reaches to turn the volume down on her phone a few notches and falls asleep moments later, chasing seungwan into the world of dreams.

/ / /

luckily for seulgi, seungwan's a fairly doting roommate. she knew the younger girl was like that with almost everyone, but as her roommate, she believed she got a little extra attention.

seungwan's soft spot for her shows itself most willingly when seulgi falls ill with a little common cold, thanks to the chilly climate they'd been forced to endure for hours the day prior for schedules.

when she was younger, her favorite thing to do when sick was to simply curl up into her blankets and sleep it off, knowing there was no point to being awake while in such misery. however, the second she begins sneezing more than usual, seungwan's concerned face is trained upon hers, scrutinizing the red tint to her nose and her watering eyes.

"seulgi-yah," she immediately chides, rushing over to her side of the room for a closer inspection. "you're sick, baby, aigoo~" she cooes, ignoring the way seulgi's face scrunches in disgust.

"i'm fine, wan," seulgi swears, betrayed by the immediate sneeze that escapes her nose seconds later. the younger girl holds her palm up, rushing out a just one second before disappearing out of their room. seulgi's tense body relaxes immediately and pulls her covers up past her face, hoping to sink into the mattress and disappear. the worst case scenario right now would be for her to get seungwan sick, which she figures is bound to happen with the girl's close proximity to take care of her.

a little later, the vocalist returns with a steaming cup of tea along with a tall glass of water. "okay. first you're going to drink this tea to help your throat -- i added honey to it so it should taste okay, i know you like yours with sugar but... deal with it," seungwan decides, standing at seulgi's side patiently while the girl untangled herself from her cover to take the mug from seungwan's hand. "and after you're done with that, drink this water and drink lots of water, so it passes through your system, okay?" 

"okay," seulgi croaks pathetically, knowing any other answer would just cause seungwan to go to even further lengths. she knew the younger girl was probably capable of dragging seulgi to the hospital herself to get a drip or medicine if necessary. she does as she's told, drinking down both liquids, holding back protest when seungwan immediately leaves to refill both.

the favoritism appears again when seulgi's let out of unoffiicial quarantine to watch a movie with the other girls in the living room, getting her own chair and blanket and bowl of popcorn to prevent the further spread of the plague as yeri had labelled it. 

"do you want some water?" seungwan had asked, even as the movie was starting, not waiting for an answer before breezing to the adjacent kitchen and returning with a glass. "let me know when you want more," she added quietly before settling down next to joohyun. 

seulgi notes the way seungwan doesn't tuck the blanket over her legs, as if she's ready to get up at a moment's notice.

so she tests it. might as well, right?

"wan-ah," seulgi whines, brows furrowed. "can you get me yoghurt from the kitchen? i don't want this popcorn anymore." 

she sighs internally when the vocalist shoots up from the couch, nearly sending joohyun's bowl of popcorn flying, nodding feverishly at seulgi's request before retrieving some banana yoghurt and placing it gently in seulgi's outstretched hands. 

she tries again a little later. "wan-ahhhh," seulgi starts, blushing at the way seungwan's head whips to her direction. 

"hmm?"

"can you get me another blanket... i'm really cold," she explains, rubbing at her arms for emphasis. her plan backfires however when seungwan pulls the blanket that was stretched over joohyun's lap and places it over seulgi's, oblivious to the stunned and speechless expression on their leader's face. the singer still goes to retrieve a new blanket for the two of them, and notices joohyun's questioning stare when she returns. 

"what?" she whispers.

"couldn't you have given that one to seulgi?" joohyun grumbles quietly enough for the others to not hear.

"but ours was warm..."

the leader rolls her eyes and doesn't bother to extend the blanket towards seungwan, knowing the girl will probably be up and down multiple more times for seulgi. 

"i'd say get a room to you two, but... y'know." joohyun sighs in defeat.

/ / /

sometimes, however, their natural-feel dynamic betrayed them. 

it often turned sour when one expected too much out of the other, mistaking their comfort with each other for an absolute willingness to change or sacrifice habits. 

the biggest culprit this time was seulgi's tendency to create messes in their rooms. they were small explosions of her personality, clothes strewn across the floor or bed unmade or boxes full of items left out from when she was looking for something in particular.

seungwan normally is fine just stepping between things, knowing seulgi would manage her mess eventually and usually was respectful enough to keep her mess contained to her side of the room. 

unfortunately, in her sleep stupor and desperation to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night, seungwan's words were much harsher than usual and her forgiveness was not present. 

she's blindly stepping towards their bathroom when her foot collides hard against a box filled with heavy objects that had it feeling like seungwan just kicked her foot purposefully into a concrete wall. she lets out a shriek of pain, keeling over, which immediately wakes seulgi despite the girl's deep sleep habits. 

"what happened?" seulgi says, voice sticky in .

"god damnit seulgi! can't you clean up after yourself for once in your life?" seungwan hisses, angrily kicking the box to the side to storm into the bathroom to examine her foot, blind to seulgi's guilty gaze following her before the door slams shut. 

the older girl knew seungwan didn't mean to snap like that, but she knows there's true emotions behind those words and clambers out of bed to try to fix what she can as she hears the sink running in the bathroom. she's barely awake, but she quickly shoves things into the various boxes and shelves around her side of the room and shuffles them beneath her bed so the path from the bathroom back to seungwan's bed is clear and safe before the younger girl comes out. she can feel the tips of her ears burning with regret as seungwan comes back out and gets back into her bed without a word, not even in regard to the quick clean-up seulgi had done.

seungwan's sleep-haze is evident with how quickly she falls back asleep, probably barely aware of the situation, but seulgi's just as awake for some time before falling asleep, wondering if it will be awkward the next morning.

when she awakens, seungwan's already out of the room and, from the smell in the air, cooking breakfast for the others. she cringes as she recalls the incident from the middle of the night and stretches before standing up.

she heads into the kitchen and murmurs a quiet good morning to seungwan, who has her back turned to seulgi and simply hums in response, opposite from her usual cheery greeting in the morning. seulgi miserably notes seungwan seems to not be leaning weight onto one foot and gets a glass of water before returning to her room in silence.

when she gets back, she takes one good long look at her room.

in seungwan's defense, seulgi's side was pretty bad. she considered it somewhat of a chaotic neutral standard, where she often managed to keep her mess in a way that didn't affect others, but it was still not pleasant to see and she wanted to change that. 

so, for the next two hours, very aware that seungwan was avoiding coming back into their shared room, seulgi takes it upon herself to give their room (specifically her side, really,) the deepest cleaning and organizing it had ever seen. 

it takes up much of the energy that she had without eating breakfast yet, too afraid to leave, but when she finally finishes, she beams with pride at how clean and neat their room looked now and she knew seungwan would be happy to see it too. 

as she's putting away the cleaning supplies she'd borrowed from seungwan's side of the room, she hears footsteps making their way to their end of the hallway and she pauses, looking at the door handle twist with stricken eyes.

the door opens and seungwan is revealed behind it, mouth already open with intention to speak.

"seulgi, i just want to apo -- ..." the younger girl trails off, eyes taking in the sight of the uncharacteristically clean room and her roomie standing guility with a spray bottle and cloth in her gloved hands.

"seungwan! i, um... i cleaned up the room," she says quite obviously, a nervous smile on her face. the vocalist steps inside, eyes widening as the full room comes into view, especially seulgi's side of the closet that usually looked like a bomb went off in it. 

"seul..." seungwan whispers, eyes beginning to glisten with tears.

"wait... what! why are you crying? hold on!" seulgi says quickly, rushing over to try to wipe a stray tear from seungwan's cheek, forgetting the strange texture of the rubber gloves she had on.

seungwan gasps, almost as if she's surprised by her own tears, wiping at them herself. "i'm fine! i'm okay... i'm just... really surprised you cleaned this much," she says, raising an eyebrow.

"hey!" responds seulgi, furrowing her brows. she might've been a mess, but she could be clean when necessary.

"no! not like that... i'm happy you did, it's just... i feel really bad i snapped like that and then didn't talk to you this morning... it wasn't your fault the room was dark, that's never happened before anyway," seungwan tries to reason.

seulgi shakes her head. "it is kind of my fault. you look like you really hurt your foot and it was because of my stuff..."

seungwan sighs. "i also feel bad because i know you live in the way that's comfortable to you and i feel bad i've made you move everything around and all."

seulgi grins, the smile taking up nearly her entire face, before bounding over to their closet. "no, really! it's okay! now i know where everything is! you know that sweater i used to wear all the time? i had no idea where it went, but when i was cleaning i found it! how cool is that?" she swings around the sweater that was now on a hanger for good measure, smiling the whole time.

the younger girl is in a stunned silence for a second before letting out a laugh, shaking her head at her roommate's antics. only seulgi could be like this.

"well, i guess it's not too bad then. it's certainly a lot easier to walk around," she teases, tilting her head towards the floor as she walks to her bed. seulgi laughs nervously and scratches at her neck.

"now let's see how long it lasts."

of course, within days, the pristineness of their room is gone, but the mere thought that seulgi was willing to disrupt her entire natural lifestyle for her was enough for seungwan to not mind.

/ / /

for the most part though, red velvet really preferred going off to their private spaces when they were afforded time to themselves. joohyun had the best privileges, with her quiet and individual room, although they often heard some sort of ruckus coming from joy and yeri's room. seungwan and seulgi often just preferred to relax with their hobbies when given free time. seungwan preferred to read books or magazines and seulgi liked to work at her desk, writing or drawing. 

it was one of those particular days, except this time seungwan couldn't really seem to focus on her book. seulgi had been working at whatever it was she was drawing quite passionately for a few hours now, not even lifting her head to speak or change the song on her phone. 

curiously, she finds an excuse to walk past seulgi's desk and glances at the paper, eyes widening at the vibrant and beautiful watercolor animals seulgi had painted so far. she's unable to halt the words from her lips before an amazed oh wow slips out, startling the artist into twisting in her seat to look up at seungwan, who at this point was rather obviously lurching over seulgi's desk.

"seulgi, that's so good!"

"ah... really?"

"yes, really! can... can i look at it closer?" 

a silent pause passes before seulgi nods quietly and scoots her chair to the left, allowing seungwan to step closer for a better look. the older girl had clearly been practicing with watercolors since the first time seungwan saw her art with them. she had clearer control of the water and color gradients and her linework had really improved. 

seulgi had always been a natural artist, but it was practice and dedication that elevated the natural artist further. seungwan gently places her hand on the paper and tilts it, knowing the water was fully dried, to better inspect it. beside her, seulgi was blushing furiously and was nervously reaching out to get the paper back.

"i've gotten better with the watercolor but it's still hard to get it to look how i want," she admits, rolling one of her brushes on the desk absently.

"you've seriously improved though!"

the older girl scratches at the back of her neck. "thank you," she decides to reply simply. one could only dodge compliments for so long before it becomes odd. she reaches for a new piece of paper, idea in mind for what she wants to try to portray next.

"um..." seungwan begins. "would you mind if i uh... sat and watched?" she asks nervously. she'd never seen seulgi in motion with art as she had with dance and singing and wanted to see this process too. plus, she could still read beside her. both girls felt unadmitted benefits to being in close proximity sometimes, and that was true now.

"s-sure," seulgi stutters, wondering why the hell her confidence was deciding to fail her now, before scooting further over to allow seungwan to drag over a chair from amongst the clutter. "i work... really slowly though..." she admits.

seungwan shrugs, holding her book she'd abandoned from her bed. "it's fine, i'll be reading at the same time too. it's just... pleasant to watch? if that makes sense."

"oh." seulgi responds, sort of understanding. art had relaxed her too, it didn't seem too out of the ordinary for the process to be relaxing for others too. "okay."

and so the older girl begins drawing whatever comes to mind. she's at first keenly aware of seungwan peeking at her over the edge of her book, but as time passes, she falls back into her natural rhythm and loses herself in the art, not even realizing seungwan stepped away once to get her phone and had sat back down. 

something about the pleasant noise of seulgi's' pencils gliding over the textured paper, and the gentle shuffling of seulgi's arm over the wood grain of the desk clears seungwan's mind of any blocks that had existed and allows her to read through multiple chapters in her book over the next hour or so as seulgi drew, occasionally checking on the progress. 

it's these moments that, both seulgi and seungwan believe no other person they knew could function this comfortably in silence. seulgi knew seungwan sometimes needed the peace found from things like this, and seungwan knew that seulgi probably wouldn't allow anyone else into her personal space like this so nonchalantly. 

the thought of it has a small smile spreading across seungwan's face behind her book as she flips another page, eyes glancing between the words and the soothing motion of seulgi's pencil .

/ / /

k well this had like... no discernable plot or flow but like... wenseul roommates y'all... 

that's it. thenks :D