Joohyun immediately sensed that there was something wrong the moment Seungwan entered their room. There were storm clouds about her and the thin hard line of hinted that Seungwan was trying to keep her temper in control. It was rare for Seungwan to be this angry so Joohyun reckoned that Seungwan’s dinner must have been much worst than she had anticipated.  

Joohyun was dying to hear about what had happened. However, knowing Seungwan’s character, the girl would tell her if she felt like it. Joohyun was careful to minimise forcing things out from Seungwan.

“They treated me like a commodity to be traded,” Seungwan started angrily almost alarming Joohyun.

Joohyun’s slightly startled looks must have softened Seungwan and the girl scooted closer to her.

Knowing that it was a prompt for Joohyun to follow up, the girl asked, “what do you mean?”

Seungwan then looked at Joohyun and gently took the girl’s hand in hers. “They were talking about marriage.”

Joohyun went still and her eyes went wide.

Seungwan felt a need to follow up with her story. “O-Of course, I declined… or avoided…”

Yet, Joohyun was quick to pick on trivialities. “Avoided? That means you have not shut down on that topic and that means the topic would be brought up again?”

Seungwan gritted her teeth and squeezed Joohyun’s hand in reassurance. “No, I did. I told him that there would be no marriage between us. I would be meeting Chanyeol to draw the boundaries between us.”

It was Joohyun’s distrust this time that made Seungwan more motivated in proving herself. “No matter what… I really have no interest in him. I only want a future with you.”

Seungwan felt her cheeks burning up as she said those words but she would not retract them because that was the truth. The only person she was interested in was Joohyun.

Joohyun had acquired a look of mellowed trust as she watched Seungwan try so hard to explain to her. The girl must have been so tortured from the dinner and yet she was still trying to placate her. Feeling an overwhelming sense of protectiveness, Joohyun cradled Seungwan’s head and brought it down to her chest.

“I love you. Thank you for putting in so much effort, in yourself and in us.”

Joohyun felt Seungwan’s arms wrapping around her waist and broke out into a smile.

Seungwan then pulled away and looked into Joohyun’s eyes as she said. “I love you, Joohyun. I want the best for you, for us. Thank you for always being such a strong source of strength for me.”

The President could not restrain her urge to kiss Seungwan then. First, on the lips, then slowly trailing down her neck. Seungwan had always been the one to service her but today, Joohyun felt like comforting Seungwan instead.

As a soft moan escaped from Seungwan’s lips, Joohyun knew it was time to take things further.

“P-President…” Seungwan muttered in that y low tone of hers.

“Shhh… I won’t stop unless you want me to…” Joohyun replied softly as she guided Seungwan towards their bed.

Seungwan nodded her head with her eyes shut. Joohyun grinned, taking it as a cue to go ahead with her explorations.

The two girls were so engrossed with their heated acts of love that they had completely forgotten about the late-night practice they had promised Joy and the barrage of messages that came from their other ill-fated pitch team member.

**

Jennie woke up with a start, surprised to find herself in the bean bed. Had she managed to get to the bed all by herself? The last memory she had was of herself barely making it into the garage.

As she surveyed garage, Jennie had a strange feeling that she had been helped by someone. Who was it? If it had been Wendy, she would already have gotten an earful from the leader. Rose was busy with school so… the only other person could only be Jisoo.

Jennie her cheeks inwards as she tried to recall whatever morsel of memory she had but there was none. She sighed. Jisoo… she really missed her comforting presence and felt her heart ache when she imagined what it would be like to have Jisoo in her arms again. Perhaps it was time Jennie looked for Jisoo to apologise to her. Then again, Jennie still had not sorted out her feelings yet.

Those thoughts in her mind was giving her a splitting headache and the girl made for their washroom to wash up. She looked into the mirror only to find out that she had a bruise on the side of her head. She rubbed it and recognised the faint smell of balm. Jisoo must really have been here… It merely increased her longingness for the girl. Jennie sighed again as she returned to the garage. 

Jennie had no plans for the day, she never had plans with her life. So today she had decided to stay in the garage. Jennie has been here often to seek refuge but it has truly been a long time since she explored the place. As her eyes roved past the shelf which held their instruments and landed on Lisa’s guitar case, she felt her blood freeze in her veins. Snatching the guitar case up, she inspected it. Jennie even cleaned this case too… despite knowing…

Clenching her fist, Jennie then sent a long-overdue message to the person she needed advice from most. Wendy.

**

Joohyun and Seungwan were sitting at the cushioned seats in the fast food restaurant. Seated opposite them was a very indignant-looking Joy. The two girls had woken up the next day, vaguely remembering that they might have missed something. Upon discovering the number of missed calls and messages from Joy, they both jumped. This was a once in blue moon situation because for once, Joy was right.

“I don’t believe this?! Both of you stood me up for practice! And I thought I was the irresponsible one!” Joy exclaimed dramatically.

“I am sorry,” they apologised in unison.

“But seriously… how could you two forget at the same time? Two of the most responsible person I know at that. This is getting fishier… were you two together or something?”

The crimson on both their faces betrayed them. 

“W-What? Joohyun… are you blushing?! I mean its normal for Seungwan to blush b-b-but you…? Were you two seriously together? Last night?!”

Joohyun looked at Seungwan who looked at her in return. Before they could reply, an uninvited guest had entered the restaurant.

“Did you guys start eating without me?!” Seulgi yelled at them as she took a seat.

The colour was instantly leeched from both Joohyun and Seungwan’s faces.

“Well, yes we did. You were taking a while anyway. By the way, Seulgi texted me to tell me that she has no lunch buddy so I told her to join us. Seungwan, you must not have met Seulgi before right?” Joy asked. 

Seungwan smiled weakly to Seulgi and sat stiffly after.

Joohyun’s heart lurched. Joohyun flashed a look of warning to Seulgi, reminding her of the promise Seulgi had made to keep mum about Seungwan and her being roommates. Seulgi caught Joohyun’s eyes and immediately veered her eyes away.

“O-Oh hi Seungwan…”

“Seulgi! Can you believe it? Our President actually ditched me for practice yesterday!” Joy started complaining.

They paled further as Joy poured her grievances to Seulgi who in turn was trying to control her expression. At the end of the complaining session, Seulgi had looked so uncomfortable that Joy could not help but ask about the girl.

“Seulgi, what is wrong with you?”

“N-Nothing… continue…” Seulgi replied hastily and took long sips from her soda.

“So I was saying… Joohyun and Seungwan both missed our practice session, together. And I had the suspicion that it was because they were together.”

Seulgi almost spat out her soda.

“I-Is that so?”

“I am asking you for your opinions.”

“I don’t think so. Maybe? Ask them.”

Joy returned her attention back to her two teammates. “So, where were you guys?”

Joohyun hemmed and hawed, igniting more suspicions within Joy. Seungwan saved her.

“Yes, I was with the President yesterday,” Seungwan replied honestly.

All of them focused their attention on Seungwan right then.

Seungwan swallowed before continuing. “Yes, I needed the President to help me out with some work.”

Joohyun’s eyes widened as she reflected back on the previous night’s event. Technically, Seungwan was not lying.

“We got too engrossed with work so we missed the practice,” Joohyun supplemented.

Joy’s eyes had narrowed to slits by then and Seungwan could not help but draw resemblance of Joy’s look to a crafty snake.

“Fine, I will make sure you guys tell me eventually. Nothing slips past me.”

As if finally feeling the urge to exert her dominance in this situation, Joohyun gave a flick to Joy’s arm, “yes, yes, nothing slips past our Joy so you better make sure you perfect your pitch. If you slip up, I will make sure to sign you up for ten more pitch competitions.”

Trying to infuse some humour into the tense situation, Seulg