“You often seem lost in thought. What are you thinking about?” Irene comments as she sits down in front of Wendy. It’s their second lunch together during the week and it’s only Wednesday.

Wendy shakes her head. “Nothing serious. I was just people-watching.” She takes her gaze away from the tall man in a suit and faces Irene with a warm smile. “You know I used to daydream about being a rich wife who waits for her husband at home, in full make-up and dressed in glamour, while sipping tea and chatting with friends at the veranda. That must feel nice.”

She ends her daydream with a soft sigh. Irene chokes on her water and takes the table napkin that Wendy immediately offers her. When she coughs, that’s when Wendy takes in Irene’s appearance. She’s wearing bolder makeup than usual that matches well with her royal blue blazer and black slacks.

“Oh!” Wendy’s eyes widen in realization. “That’s your reality.”

Irene pulls her brows together ad frowns, not following her line of thought. Wendy finds it difficult to form words so she just gestures to the woman’s outfit.

“Oh this? I’m dressed to go out and we made plans today…?” Irene explains with her head cocked to the side still confused. She moves her hand to refer to Wendy’s striped button-up shirt and white pants. “And you are wearing similar clothes for work.”

What she said is true. But Irene looks like she’s the owner of the company rather than another employee.

“Is it too much?” Irene consciously asks, fingers combing her straight ebony hair to cover her face.

“No!” Wendy is quick to assure her. “You’re really beautiful.”

Wendy sees doe eyes blink at what she said before muttering a soft thank you. She glances down at her food, dispelling the already weird atmosphere between them by continuing her previous thought.

“What I meant was that, my daydream… was your reality.” She could easily picture Irene in clothes similar to what she’s wearing now with a gentle smile grazing her lips.

“Ah.” It was Irene’s turn to look bashful. “That’s not true. At least not to that extent. But my best friend was married to Korea’s king of pop. Our husbands were away most of the day, kids were in school, and we didn’t have much other close friends so...” Irene takes another sip of her drink and keeps her gaze away from Wendy.

“Wait, was? Isn’t Solar still married to Eric?” Wendy remembers meeting Solar a few times. She’s seen her on TV too. And Eric is practically a household name.

Irene’s lips turn from a frown to a confused expression at her question.

“Have you been living under a rock?” Irene jokes and Wendy could not contradict that.

As usual, she reluctantly bids Irene goodbye. But there’s work waiting for her and she only has five minutes left to walk back to her office. Likewise, Irene has a kid to fetch and house to attend to.

“You look wonderful.” She can’t help but comment as they walk out of the restaurant. From her peripheral, she sees Irene look down but a small smile made its way to her lips.

“Thank you. I seldom go out anymore. So I wanted to dress up for once.” Irene smiles, a light shade of pink dusting her cheeks.

“But really, you look like you’re on your way to a board meeting.” Wendy turns playful earning a light shove on her arm.

“Shut up.”

---

Jisoo flops face down on her bed as soon as she gets home. It’s been a long day and she feels exhausted. She groans just by the thought of the busy week ahead of her. What’s rest? she thinks, when there’s a pile of homework and projects awaiting her this week.

Her studies she can manage. Just a few hours of sacrifice will do although it would be a great help if her friend-slash-study buddy could tutor her on chemistry. If only she could talk to Jennie, who seems to be avoiding her with the excuse of being busy for things she would not disclose. She stays behind in school even when she has no scheduled training leaving Jisoo to go home on her own.

And then there’s Jinyoung. None of her other friends, save for Jennie, ride the same route as her. And with Jisoo alone in the afternoons, the boy accompanies her instead, even going out of his way to walk her home. She can’t deny that he is good company. He makes her laugh, treats her to ice cream, and listens to her random ideas.

“Jisoo?”

She stops her random musings when her mother knocks on the door. She sits up when Irene leans comfortably on her desk facing her.

She swallows and wonders if she is in trouble. Her mother look so serious she could melt from her stare. But despite the creased eyebrows, Irene doesn’t seem to be mad, just deep in thought.

“Would you please check up on Sowon every once in a while? She’s transferring to your school.”

Jisoo lets out a smile. She, Minhyuk, and Sowon used to play together as kids. Sowon is just a year younger than her and a year older than Minhyuk.

“She’s back? They’re moving to the neighborhood too?”

Irene nods. “They bought the penthouse unit at that condominium we always pass by.  And yes, she’ll be staying with Solar here then spend her summer vacations in America with her father.”

“That’s great then! I guess?” Her mother still has that somber look on her face so Jisoo tries to cheer her up a little. She doesn’t know the details but she remembers Sowon telling her about her dad bringing her to America and Solar crying in their living room while Irene and Sehun comforted her. It’s a sad memory, even for Jisoo who didn’t know it was divorce until the news broke out on their TV later that night.

“Yeah. They moved in yesterday…” Her mother suddenly seems to find her room interesting with the way her gaze darts from one place to another. After seemingly forever, she finally trains her eyes on Jisoo's face.

“Solar says they think they saw you by the convenience store eating ice cream with a friend. Who were you with?”

Oh.

Jisoo thinks of the 4,000 bucks she just lost to Minhyuk to keep his mouth shut. She did not let Jinyoung walk her to their house in fear of a misunderstanding. So when she saw the smirk on her brother’s lips from across the block she knew she had to stop it.

What a waste. She could have used that to buy something useful instead.

“Jinyoung, We had a grueling test at the end of the day so we decided