Chapter 1: Haircut

Jeju Island

"Are you sure you want me to do this Seulgi?" The blond haired girl asks again for the nth time.

"Just do it already!" Seulgi groans.

She has been sitting on the floor of her bedroom for 45 minutes already just waiting for her best friend, Wendy, to cut her goddamn hair.

With timid hands, Wendy brings the scissors up to Seulgi's long black locks and starts to trim the ends off. Seulgi becomes even more impatient seeing only bits of hair landing on the floor.

"WEN! We'll be here for another 4 hours at this rate" Seulgi snags the scissors off of Wendy's hand, grabs a handful of her hair and snips off at least 9 inches in one snap.

Seulgi flashes Wendy a cheeky grin and hands the scissors back to Wendy for her to continue.

The best friend would have been shocked if she hasn't known Seulgi since young and has seen all the crazy stunts she had pulled.

Seulgi has always been the adventurous, daring, and happy-go-lucky half that dashes off to the nearest "treasure" she thinks exist and, of course, dragging Wendy along on these crazy rides.

Flashback:

Wendy still remembered back in 5th grade, when Seulgi decided to follow some treasure map she found hidden in a book she had stolen from her father's library. The two ended up stranded on Udo, an island 1 hour from Jeju Island, not knowing that the last boat back to the main land was 6pm. When they weren't home by nightfall, their parents set the whole island on high alert with search parties and helicopters raking through every inch of the island looking for them. When they finally found the girls near midnight, Seulgi was comforting a tear-stained Wendy with one arm and waving her other arm to attract the helicopter's attention. The girls returned home to very worried and angry parents. After hugs and kisses, the two were grounded for a whole month for the stunt they had pulled. Wendy felt really guilty for worrying her parents but Seulgi just shrugged off the consequences and laughed at some ridiculous headlines on the news the next day. "Wen! Look at these!" Seulgi shoved the newspapers in Wendy's face and laughed. "'Kang Enterprise and Son Corporation CEO's Daughters Ran Away From Home,' 'Rich CEO's daughters Kidnapped'" Wendy squeaked and Seulgi just continued laughing at the scenario.

Once Wendy is done t the last strand, she steps back to admire her work.

"Wow Seulgi, you look exactly like your brother now!" Wendy acclaims.

"That's the plan!" Seulgi grins and admires Wendy's work in the mirror. With her newly donned boy cut, she really does look like her 21-year old older brother, Kang Seul. Even though they are 2 years apart and of different gender, everyone kept gushing on how alike they look. The siblings never liked it but Seulgi can’t help but admit that they do have very similar features.

"I still can't believe you're doing this" Wendy says as Seulgi continues to examine her new hairstyle, sweeping her bangs to the right side to match her brother's.

This is going to work. Seulgi thought. She had already discussed the plan with Wendy. Her parents will be busy with the company's expansion this coming year and will be in and out on business trips. During that time, she will assume her brother's identity and attend S.M University in Seoul as Kang Seul. She will try out for their basketball team and prove to her parents that she has the skills to succeed as a professional basketball athlete. Her teachers will just think she's abroad with her parents in the meantime. When she comes back, she will be just one year ahead of her peers instead of two. Foolproof! And Wendy will be in Jeju to keep eyes of things.

Seulgi knows that this is not the best plan she had come up so far but her parents have already assumed that she will be working for the company once she starts university, despite her protest. They had handed her brochures for the best MBA programs in South Korea and abroad this summer before the start of her senior year in high school and asked her to apply to them knowing that that is not the route she wants to pursue. When she told them that she wants to play basketball in the future, they kept insisting that basketball is just a hobby. A phase. Now that her brother had run away from home to join his band on a world tour, she is sure that her parents will push the company onto her even more. It's now or never.

Seulgi is determined to carry out her plan and Wendy, knowing her best friend's personality, didn't even try hard to convince her out of it. Once Seulgi made up her mind, there's no talking her out of it. It's been like that since young, no matter how dumb or dangerous the plan is. So all Wendy can do is support her crazy friend on her crazy plan.

"So when is your flight tomorrow?" Wendy asks

"Tomorrow at 9 am" Seulgi answers while rummaging through her brother's closet to pack.

"Did you print out your boarding pass?"

"Yup!"

"Do you have Seul's ID? The school address? Phone? Clothes? Class schedule? Textbooks?" Wendy fusses over the details.

"Yup. Yup. Yup. Packing them and no need." Seulgi throws some hoodies and shorts into her luggage.

"How about money? Credit cards? Snacks for the plane ride?" Wendy continues to fuss.

Seulgi stops packing, walks over to where Wendy is, and cups the blonde's face.

"Wen. Stop worrying! I'll fine. How hard can it be to pretend to be a cool, all-star athlete? I mean I already got the cool and all-star down!" Seulgi winks.

"I'm being serious here, Kang Seulgi! You're going all the way to Seoul, by yourself, while pretending to be a freaking guy! What if the school finds out? What if you have to share the dorm with another guy? What if your teammates tried to hug you? OMG! What if you have to shower with them!?" At this point, Wendy is in panic mode now. She knew it was a bad idea.

"Chill Wen! First off the school won't find out. I'll be careful. And if they do, I'll just get kicked out and come back" Seulgi shrugs.

"Second, Seul applied for a single room in the dorm so I won't be rooming with anyone. Third, they have stalled showers at the gym. And if they tried to hug me, I'll just kick them before they could." Seulgi soothes the panicked girl.

"O..ookay" Wendy feels more at ease. "But call or text me every day so I know that you're okay. Okay?"

"I promise" Seulgi gives her friend a big squeeze.

Seulgi's alarm sounds at 6 am the next morning which she quickly snoozes and go back to hibernating. Her nickname bear did not come from just her round-face, bear liked features. The other half is from how much she values sleep and her ability to sleep through a snowstorm.

Wendy shows up at the Seulgi’s house at 6:15 am knowing that the bear is probably still asleep. She opens the front door with the spare key and barges into Seulgi’s room with a speaker blasting fire siren to the max.

“WOAH! HUH…WHAT…” the startled Bear jolts from her bed and was in combat stance in a second.

When Seulgi sees that it is just Wendy standing in front of her, she slumps back in bed and covers herself with her blanket.

“Get up! You are going to miss your flight if we don’t leave soon!” Wendy turns off the speaker and begins to shake Seulgi out of bed.

Seulgi leaves her bed reluctantly and drags her feet to the bathroom to freshen up. When she comes out, Wendy was already done heating up the rice, soup, and Seulgi’s favorite kimchi, that she had brought from home. Seulgi sits down and starts scooping big spoons of rice dipped in soup toward .

With a mouthful of rice, Seulgi mumbles “Wah am I gohna fo wifout chu Wen? Who else wis gohna geed me kimchi in the worning!?” (What am I going to do without you Wen? Who else is going to feed me Kimchi in the morning?). More rice spills out of when she attempts to give her best friend a cute pout.

“Seulgi! Talk after you swallow. Jeeze” Wendy grabs a napkin nearby and wipes the rice off the said girl’s chin.

Seulgi puckers her lips for the girl to wipe them also and gives her best friend her signature mono-lid crescent eye smile once she did.

At the airport. 

“We will now begin boarding for flight JA161 to Gimpo at gate 13. Calling all passengers with first-class ticket.” The announcement comes through the loudspeaker in Jeju Airport

“All right, boarding now. Bye Wen! Keep me updated on things at home.” Seulgi gives Wendy a big hug, holding on a tad longer than usual.

“I will. Take care Seulgi. And don’t forget to text me.” Wendy reminds.

“I won’t. I’ll text so often that you’ll have to mute me” Seulgi jokes. She pulls away and slowly backs toward the gate. Waving back at Wendy with a small smile that did not reach her eyes.

“Be careful and don’t be too careless!” Wendy yells across the distant and after Seulgi heads through the gate, Wendy whispers in a small voice with tears rolling down her cheeks, “I’ll miss you.”