Irene walks down the aisle in a long, cream dress that ends by her feet. Sehun flashes his signature smile from near the altar. With his face looking 20 years younger, she reaches for her face, conscious of wrinkles that formed the past years. Eyeing Wendy signaling her to put her hands back down, she follows, and smiles more with each step closer.

But she isn’t getting any closer. Sehun is still standing there, as well as everyone else. Irene is the only one walking and with panic, her heels clack louder on the tiles. However, it still gets her nowhere. And the more frantic her steps get, the blurrier everything else becomes.

She calls out for help as she blinks her eyes. There’s one girl who stays, unmoving, and with eyes that glimmer with hopelessness. But, she’s there, still and clear.

Wendy.

---

Irene wakes up only to realize her pillow has… bones?

When she opens her eyes, she is hugging Wendy still. It’s dawn. She sees some light through the window but the sun isn’t high up enough to light the room.

She turns on her back and stares at the ceiling. This isn’t her bedroom, and she could count with just her fingers the few times she’s been here.

But, it makes her feel warm, relaxed, and much less alone.

She stands up and heads for the kitchen. Glancing on the bed, she notices that Wendy is still asleep. She takes this time to wash up and leave a hearty breakfast for her friend.

Wendy is here.

She’s fine. She will be fine.

---

Minhyuk reaches for Sowon’s hand when they cross the street.

He fails.

Only when they are safely across does Sowon notice his hand.

“What are you doing?”

He ruffles his own hair.

“O-oh it was n-nothing. Don’t mind it.”

Sowon smirks at the sight of her embarrassed friend.

She links their arms as they walk. Friendly, but Minhyuk appreciates it all the same.

---

Jisoo has been pondering about it for a while. And truth be told, she’s getting tired of her own feelings.

She never wanted feelings in the first place. But, she knows it’s unfair to blame Jinyoung for it too.

Their relationship is not even close to ideal. She doesn’t know if she jumped in too quickly. But her father said, he fell in love with her mom the moment he saw her in the hallways. And that she instantly loved him back when they got introduced together.

Jinyoung is a great friend, that’s for sure. He listens. And he doesn’t try so hard to impress her. He’s chill and Jisoo enjoys spending time with him, even though she denies it.

Was love just an illusion all this time? Or is she just too young to know?

“What do you think?”

She asks Jennie, who is currently occupied in fixing the polaroid pictures - that mostly contain the two of them - above Jisoo’s desk.

“I don’t know what to think, Jisoo. I mean… I know you believe in that love at first sight thing. But maybe love develops the more you get to know someone.”

Jisoo ponders on this as she takes a seat on her bed.

“How about love at first kiss? Like the ones in books and movies. Snow white?”

Jennie whips her head fast at that. “First of all, snow white is a fairytale. And that story is tragic in many ways. That’s disregarding the biggest red flag that a prince kissed her unconscious 14-year-old self.”

“Secondly, I highly doubt it. Are you planning on kissing Jinyoung?” Jennie’s face contorts into uncertainty, or disgust? Jisoo isn’t sure.

Jisoo throws a pillow at her best friend. “No! I don’t think about those things yet. Should I? Have you? You’ve dated more guys than I did.”

Jennie plops herself down on Jisoo’s bed. “No. They've all been good to me but I’ve realized I never liked them that way.”

“Why not? And why am I only hearing this now?” Jisoo leans forward to lightly hit Jennie’s legs.

Jennie shrugs at that. “I like someone else okay. But I’m keeping it a secret!”

Jisoo opens to show displeasure. “Hey! I'm your best friend!”

Jennie chuckles. “You are!” Jisoo mocks annoyance and lunges forward to push Jennie down.

They end up in a tangle on the bed, laughing loudly and getting their hair messy. Jennie turns her head to the side to face Jisoo and neither realized how close they are. Literally. Their noses almost bumped with the little distance between their faces.

At that moment, Jisoo’s bedroom door opens with a knock from her mother.

“Dinner’s ready. Jennie, join us then we can drive you home.”

Jennie got up faster than Jisoo, greeting her mother as if that quick moment didn’t happen.

“Thank you, Mrs. Oh.”

“Just call me Aunt Irene.”

With a smile, her mother leaves and her best friend pulls her up. Jisoo doesn’t understand why she suddenly feels flushed.

---

Minhyuk comes home earlier, simply because Sowon is busy, and in turn he had returned to his regular speedy pace, without the need to impress or prolong time without her.

Coincidentally, Jisoo comes home a bit later than usual. It wasn’t a big deal as much, since she often waits for Jennie after practice or goes to cafes with her classmates. She even visited that ice cream store by the corner of the school more than is deemed healthy when she and Jinyoung were just starting.

Their mother isn’t as bothered as he had expected because Jisoo is always home before dinner, and apparently she texts her what time she’ll be home and that she’s with her friends.

But Minhyuk isn’t convinced. On the fourth day of Jisoo coming home a little later, Minhyuk had stayed longer in school. Sowon isn’t in any clubs that he knows of but she isn’t there. He sees Jennie training in the field and his sister isn’t sitting on the bleachers. She isn’t even in the library.

He shrugs, determined to catch his sister the next day.

When he gets to the bus stop, somebody taps him on the shoulder.

To his surprise, it was Jinyoung who greets him.

“Do you know where my sister is?”

Jinyoung turns from his gaze at the window to Minhyuk. He frowns and creases his eyebrows in confusion.

“She didn’t tell you? We broke up.”

“Oh.” Minhyuk gasps in surprise. “I didn't know.”

“It’s okay, bro.” Jinyoung returns his staring out the window.

Minhyuk feels bad for this guy. He wonders what he sees in her sister.

“I don't think I’ll ever meet someone as beautiful and kind as her.”

Minhyuk almost gags.

“Sure, you will.”

---

“Mom, do you know where Jisoo is?”

Irene is in Yeri’s weirdly clean room, hanging freshly ironed uniforms in her closet.

“She said she went to get ice cream with a friend. She promised to be home soon.”

When she walks out the room to bring his uniform to his closet, Minhyuk, and even Yeri trailed behind.

“Why aren’t you worried? She could be out with Jinyoung now.”

Irene smiles at him. A little less natural than usual but still a smile. “Why would I be worried? He’s her boyfriend. It’s been a while and he seems like a nice kid. You’re friends, right?”

“Yeah. You’re not mad?”

Irene pats his arm. “She may not be totally honest with me… yet, but I trust Jisoo. She won’t do anything crass.”

Yeri laughs then. Irene raises an eyebrow and Minhyuk asks “what?” louder than he intended.

“Jisoo and Jinyoung broke up already.” She shrugs her shoulders as if it should be common knowledge.

Their mother, confused, repeats her son’s question.

“What?”