“I dunno, Seul… maybe I was too harsh?” Irene reasons, as she paces up and down the room, “I mean, I didn’t means to kinda shout at her it just sort of” she motions with her hands, “...came out, you know?”

“Look ‘Rene, I’ve been friends with you since High School, I remember the last time and I remember how much it messed with your heart, what “she-who-must-not-be-named”,”

Seulgi widens her eyes dramatically at that in an attempt to coax a smile out of the worried girl, she’s successful when Irene gives a small grin at the nickname and then Seulgi continues in a serious tone,

“did, and it’s made you careful. That’s not a bad thing, Irene. I want the best for you and if this Wendy girl isn’t ready to say where she stands with you then your reaction was justified, you deserve some comfort and closure.”

Seulgi tugs the girls arm to make her sit on her bed with her and pulls her into a one armed hug, Irene lets her head rest on Seulgi’s shoulder.

“I want what’s best for you, Irene. You deserve nothing less.”

Irene lets them sit there for a while, finding solace in her best friends words.

“Thanks Seul… I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you.”

Seulgi chuckles at that, “You’d probably go crazy and your only friend would be a pet rock named Steven.” That gets another laugh out of Irene.

“I’m trying to be serious here…” she laughs softly.

“There’s the Irene I know,” Seulgi smiles at Irene, “Come on you, let’s go get breakfast and then head to class.”

~~

Classes came and went and the afternoon rolled in. With the winter months rolling in, so were the cold fronts and Irene genuinely thought the weather gods were mocking her and her mood when, in the mid-afternoon, the heavens opened and showed no sign of stopping.

Irene sits in the lecture hall of her final class for the day, one hundred percent concentrated on...what book was this about again? Something about Frankenstein and the sublime nature... maybe? Or was that earlier..?

Irene sighed, placing her arms on the desk and laying her head on them in defeat.

Okay, so maybe she wasn’t paying her full attention to classes today.

Instead, every ten minutes or so, she would check her phone, hoping for some sort of sign from Wendy that she’d taken on board anything Irene said the other night. But, just like before, her inbox was empty and Wendy had made no such appearances.

Irene hadn’t made any attempt to contact Wendy since. She’d said her piece and put her heart on the line, it was now all on Wendy to decide for herself and Irene would accept whatever her answer was. Irene was just hoping she’d actually get one because, honestly, the silence and living in this vacuum of not knowing, was killing her.

Irene was snapped out of her semi-slumber as the students around her started packing up, telling her the lecture was over. Irene packed up all her stuff and stepped out of the hall.

As she walked out of the building she was not impressed to see that it was still raining and she had no way to protect herself from the falling water, just a thin jacket. It really was not her day today.

And so Irene began her slow, wet, walk home.

~~

It didn’t stop raining all day. Not when Irene made it to her apartment thoroughly soaked, not when she actually cooked dinner instead of getting take out because she didn’t want to be one more delivery for those poor drivers in this weather, not even now, at 10pm while she’s in her sweats doing her laundry. In fact, the weather has only gotten worse.

This is what Irene needed after yesterday and today, doing her laundry with music softly playing to take her mind off of the past events.

It was short lived though because while she was ironing one of her favourite sweaters her music skipped to the next song. Irene froze as a familiar song started to play. A drum beat. A melody of synths. It was the song. Their song.

Irene walked up to her phone and looked at the song playing, thinking back to the time Wendy gave her the music set and when she put it on her phone the moment she got home.

Her thoughts drift to Wendy, like they always do. She misses the girl and it’s only been just over a day.  She misses her smile, her jokes, her coffee order, her mischievous glare, her sparkle in her eye that can only be described as Wendy. She wishes she hadn’t yelled, that they hadn’t fought. She just wants her friend back.

Irene skips the song.

A few shirts and a pair of pants later, Irene nearly dies of heart failure when the buzzer for her apartment rings.

God damn kids messing about again, Irene thinks. The neighbourhood kids used to be the annoying brats they are and call all the apartments as a prank. Irene didn’t find it very funny.

Irene ignored the buzz, she knew it was no one important. It was 10pm on a weekday, no one would want to see her now. The only people who might would be Seulgi and her parents but they would have called and forewarned her.

Irene was pulled out of her thoughts by the buzzer ringing through her apartment again. And Irene’s had it, with the day she’s had so far she’s really not in the mood for this. She walks over to the intercom to tell whoever is downstairs exactly that.

She pushes the call button,

“Look if you think this is fu-”

“J-Joohyun..?” A soft, albeit static-y, voice calls through the speaker and Irene’s eyes go wide.

“W-Wendy?” Is all she asks.

“Hey?” The meek voice replies.

“H-How did you get my apartment number? How did you know where I live?”

“W-Well I r-remember you talking about the v-veiw from the fifth f-floor, so I just rung every ap-p-partment until I-I got you. I don’t think your n-neighbours l-like me very much.” Wendy stutters back through the intercom.

This doesn’t go unnoticed by Irene.

“You called every…