It was approaching dinner time and Joohyun’s unsettled heart was only calmed mildly when Wendy had returned. The girl looked utterly exhausted as she sat down on their cool dormitory floor after giving Joohyun a reassuring smile.

“What happened?” Joohyun asked concernedly.

After leaving EXO’s garage with Jennie who was beginning to sober up, they had arrived in their own garage. Wendy was not surprised to find Jisoo already there, waiting for them, her face full of worries. Jennie, upon discovering Jisoo’s presence and knowledge about her night affairs, gave Wendy a look of betrayal. Thereafter, Wendy had to explain her rationale for doing so but everything fell on deaf ears and Jennie had rudely turned her away. Wendy had felt so guilty, as though the incident with her elder sister was being replayed. She had failed to be there for Jennie when Jennie needed her the most and now she could not even get angry at Jennie for rejecting her companionship.

Fortunately however, Jennie had allowed Jisoo to stay behind, by her side. Wendy could only pray that nothing untoward happened to Jennie, or to the both of them. If not, Wendy would never be able to forgive herself.  

Deeming it to be too complicated an affair for Joohyun to comprehend and for herself to explain, Wendy gave an easy shrug and a tired smile, “will tell you later after you have updated me about your situation.”

Joohyun bit her lip. Her conjecture was that whatever must have happened to Seungwan was connected to her life as Wendy because right now, Seungwan was behaving completely like Wendy. Joohyun wanted very badly to know what might had happened to Seungwan but decided to push her questions back and did as what Seungwan had asked of her to do; to update Seungwan. However, it was difficult, it was so tough to confide her problems with Seungwan who was already dealing with her own problem.

“Not a really big issue, Jaehyun and Doyoung fell out because of some differences in opinion,” Joohyun stated a half-truth.

The President knew that her half-truth was not good enough when her eyes were met with that of Seungwan’s hard, thoughtful ones. Seungwan then did the unexpected by tugging Joohyun to the ground and enveloping the President in her arms, tightly.

“Do I have to coax the entire truth out from you?” Seungwan whispered slyly into Joohyun’s ears, sending a chilling sensation down Joohyun’s spine.

Seungwan’s level of perceptiveness was insanely high. Joohyun, despite knowing, was still surprised and after having an intense internal debate with herself, she finally let on the truth.

The President explained what had happened to Seungwan about Doyoung losing the club’s funds and the possibility of herself and the club having to suffer shame and punishment from the school. The President had even recounted the details so clearly that she had quoted the two males’ words in the exact same structure. During the confession of her worries, Joohyun noticed that Seungwan was an extremely good listener and the calm in her expression had the ability to make her reveal her vulnerabilities. By the end of it, the President had found herself sobbing, in Seungwan’s warm embrace.

Joohyun had sobbed for a long period and during that time, Seungwan had not uttered a single word. Yet, her silent presence was probably the best thing Joohyun could ever ask for. After a good ten minutes of releasing her emotions, the President sobs slowly turned to sniffles and then calmness. It was then that Seungwan spoke.

“I should have been there for you after our meeting, I am sorry,” Seungwan started.

Joohyun shook her head. “You shouldn’t be. I wouldn’t have wanted you to see me lose my cool as the President anyway.”

Seungwan scoffed and brought up a hand to Joohyun’s hair as she joked, “I guess what happened during the past ten to fifteen minutes was still pretty cool then.”

Unable to contain herself, Joohyun let out a low chuckle. “Perhaps not too cool. So now will you tell me what happened? It is okay if you lose your cool too,” the President goaded.

Giving the President an easy shrug and an equally casual smile, Seungwan said, “It does not directly impact me and I actually am still piecing together what exactly happened. Well… my disappearance has to do with a very drunk Jennie and a lot of missed notifications from last night.”

Last night… Seungwan had emphasised on those two words and the President knew the reason why she did so. Joohyun felt her cheeks grow hot instantly, her earlier worries, were temporarily thrown to the back of her mind as she thought about the previous night with Seungwan. Those passionate kisses they had showered on each other and those eager touches that sent their bodies into overdrive. Stop! Joohyun had to reel herself back to the present and focus on Seungwan’s difficulties right now and then.

“So… what have you managed to piece together with your perceptiveness?” Joohyun asked directly.

Scoffing again, Seungwan regarded Joohyun with reproachful eyes before speaking again. “President, I do appreciate your straightforwardness but I am afraid that until I can be certain of things, I wouldn’t want to reveal my conjectures.”

Joohyun pouted, clearly disappointed with Seungwan’s lack of trust in her. “Conjectures can be concretised with the help of getting the opinions of another person.

“Good bait, but I will not take it,” Seungwan gave the President a wintry smile before in a deep breath. “Anyway, your problem which is our club’s problem is more pressing. We shall have to find a solution to it.”

The President hated to be so crudely reminded of her predicament yet at the same time, she appreciated Seungwan’s straightforwardness as well.

Seungwan pulled Joohyun into a tighter hug as she whispered again, “you know you are not alone on this right? I won’t allow you to be.”

Those words from Seungwan warmed her heart and Joohyun wished for nothing else except for them to remain locked tightly like this forever and taking comfort in Wendy’s arms. However, she wondered if that could truly happen.

“Seungwan… thank you…” Joohyun’s reply trailed off as she left some words unsaid and that too, was picked up by Seungwan.

“There is something else bothering you, what is it?” Seungwan asked patiently.

Joohyun held onto Seungwan tighter as she tried to put the words together in her mind but found that she could not do it so easily because she was afraid, afraid to ask if her happiness and moments with Seungwan would be short lived.

“I will tell you next time,” Joohyun replied.

Wendy then pulled back from their embrace and looked into Joohyun’s eyes. “Promise?”

“Mm,” Joohyun promised.

**

“Yeol, why weren’t you home last night?” Mrs Park asked concernedly.

“I was! I just went out again in the morning because Sehun was stressed out about schoolwork and needed a morning jog,”

Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Mrs Park had wanted to