36. “Woah, I never knew you had a tattoo!” - requested by @nojamsluggie

Seulgi doesn’t mean to stare when her roommate strolls in with nothing but a towel wrapped around her body and wet hair to match, but really, can you blame her? Bae Irene is the prettiest girl Seulgi’s ever seen in her entire life, and Seulgi? She’s super duper gay. Irene knows she’s gay because Seulgi made sure to tell her the day they met, but Seulgi doesn’t know which team Irene swings for, although at times she thinks Irene’s flirting with her.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

Seulgi feels herself go red, looking down at her laptop instead. “S-Shut up.”

Irene only laughs and, not for the first time, Seulgi wants nothing more than to record it and set it as her alarm. A minute later, she cautiously glances up again, though this time, something specific catches her eye, sending her standing from the bed and at Irene’s side in a matter of seconds.

“Woah, I never knew you had a tattoo!”

Before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s already tracing the dove perched on an olive branch drawn into the pale, alabaster skin of the girl’s shoulder blade, and Seulgi only snaps out of it when she feels Irene shiver and notices how still she’s gotten.

“Seulgi.”

Irene’s voice sounds strained and Seulgi leaps away, stuttering out a frantic apology. She watches the way the older girl’s shoulders loosen just a bit, although the tension is still there, clutching a towel to her chest as she turns around. Irene tilts her head at her with a twitch of her left brow that Seulgi’s familiar with, and she thinks the red might start oozing out of her pores because wow is it hot in here.

“Sorry, I just - I don’t know what I was - I’m sorry.”

Irene cracks a smile. “It’s fine. I know I’m irresistible.”

Seulgi makes a face. “You can’t be modest for one second, can you?”

“I am being modest. If I wasn’t, I’d just drop this towel right now.”

Seulgi sees it coming before Irene even finishes her sentence, and she rockets forward and grabs the towel just as Irene lets go. Before she can start stuttering and backing away, Irene’s grabbed her by the waist, pulling her flush against her, the older girl’s breath against her lips. It feels like the middle of July and it’s only February. And just like any prey in front of its predator, Seulgi freezes.

“For the record, I really, really like you,” Irene whispers.

Seulgi dead-on faints on the spot.

33. “I’m coming to get you, stay there.” - requested by @revsible and @jbfsignal

“Hey, Seul, did you know you look like a bear? Like a really pretty bear. Like the pretty bear that all the other bears wanna give all their honey to. Did’ya know that?”

Seulgi’s already snatching up her keys and pulling on her jacket, slamming the door shut behind her. “Where are you right now?”

“Me? I’m, uh, like, it’s this place with the pretty orange lights, it reminds me of you because you like orange, and -”

Seulgi knows exactly where that is. “I’m coming to get you, stay there. Also, stay on the phone, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. Anything for you, Seulbi.” Irene giggles. “I said Seulbi, who’s Seulbi?”

She’s pulling out of the parking garage with Irene on speaker. It’s the third time this has happened since the phone call about her dad came two weeks ago. Mr. Bae had collapsed during work and is having surgery that Irene can’t be there for. Seulgi knows how much that hurts her but the older girl’s never been able to talk about her emotions or express them in a healthy way. It bothers her, it really does, but all Seulgi knows how to do is be there to pick up the broken pieces. She doesn’t know how to stop her from getting broken.

“Irene? Unnie? Don’t talk to anyone, okay? Just talk to me.”

“No problemo. I could talk to you all day er’day. You’re the cheese to my wine, the eraser to my pencil.”

“Unnie.”

“I love it when you call me Unnie.”

Seulgi knows she’s gone red, and she struggles to swallow. This can’t be healthy. Her blood pressure is probably at the point where she might actually die. Irene tends to have that effect on her.

“Are you okay? You’re not drinking anymore, are you?”

“Of course not. I’m talking to you, Seul. I can’t drink and talk at the same time, silly.”

Seulgi relaxes a bit and steps on the gas a bit more, but then she hears a distinctively male sounding voice and she’s suddenly all tension and all kinds of negative emotions. But it’s not a second later when Irene’s voice cuts the man off.

“Can’t you see I’m on the phone with my girlfriend? Stranger danger! Stranger danger!”

Seulgi’s brain shuts down because Oh. My. God. Irene just called her her girlfriend. She almost misses the club that Irene’s at because she’s so zoned out that whatever Irene’s rambling about over the phone goes in one ear and out the other. She manages to park and tells Irene to stay at which the older girl whines an ‘okay’ while she gets by the bouncer. Who, very unsubtly, checks her out, and makes her way to the bar.

“Seulmi!”

A tall man who looks like some sort of model from those department stores around the city looks at her with a raised brow. “Are you the girlfriend?”

Before Seulgi can answer, Irene’s grabbing her by the back of the head and practically slamming her forehead into her shoulder, at her ear. “It’s okay Seul, I can handle this. I’m an agent.”

“No, Unnie, you’re not - ow - an agent.”

“Shhhhhh. We have to be careful.”

Seulgi vaguely hears the man announcing his leave over the booming of the speakers, though she couldn’t care less considering the position she’s in. Irene’s a lot stronger than people give her credit for and it’s really starting to hurt.

“U-Unnie, can you please let go?”

“The coast is clear,” Irene slurs. Then, she’s free.

She knows her forehead is probably bright red and she’s starting to sweat from the mass of bodies around them, but Irene, right now, in front of her, makes up for all of it.

“Let’s go home, Unnie. Yeah?”

Irene smiles lazily and grabs onto Seulgi’s shoulder.  “Yeah.”

34. “Okay, so don’t freak out, but I got flour everywhere . . .” - requested by @kryberllama

Irene should’ve known better. She really should have. It shouldn’t have been a surprise when Seulgi magically appeared at the door with her stupid grin on her stupid face before she could so much as put the key into the lock, and it shouldn’t have been a surprise when she could see a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead as a symbol of guilt. Seulgi’s never been a good liar.

“Unnie! You’re back early!”

Irene raises a brow. “Yes? It’s nice to see you, too, Seul.”

Seulgi chuckles and squeezes herself tighter into the space between the opening of the door. “It’s a - a beautiful day, isn’t it?”

“Seulgi, what did you do?”

“What? I didn’t do anything. Nothing. Everything’s fine,” she babbles.

Irene doesn’t buy it for a second. “I’ve known you for nine years, Seulgi. I can tell when you’re lying.”

Seulgi shifts guiltily, and Irene spots a patch of white at the hem of her shirt. It looks suspiciously like . . . “Okay, so don’t freak out, but I got flour everywhere.”

“You what?!”

Irene’s pushing past Seulgi and kicking off her shoes before the younger girl can so much as flinch, and she’s met with the scene of her nightmares. There’s flour. Everywhere. It’s on the ceiling, the walls, the floor, the table, the counter, even sprinkled on the screen of the TV. Irene thinks she’s going to have an aneurism.

“Unnie?” Seulgi says tentatively.

“Kang Seulgi,” Irene begins, “what the hell were you trying to do?”

Seulgi dances around her so she’s away from arm’s reach, then shuffles her feet with her head bowed. It’s so damn adorable. Irene reprimands herself for being weak. The younger girl mumbles something under her breath that Irene wouldn’t have been able to catch if it depended on her life.

“What?”

Seulgi sighs and lifts her head just enough so that Irene can see her eyes. “ . . . I was trying to bake a carrot cake for you because you looked tired lately, but I couldn’t figure out how much flour to put in, and I spilled the first batch and I dropped the flour bag the second time and the third time I landed on the bag and it, like, poof and got everywhere. It was so bad, I thought I was going to have an asthma attack, and I thought you weren’t going to come until later and I was going to go buy a new bag -”

Irene grabs Seulgi by the collar of her flour-stained shirt and pulls her in for a kiss. She keeps it short and sweet, but she can still feel the girl practically melting against her, before Irene leans away and pecks her on the nose.

“You’re so dumb. You’re lucky Wendy isn’t coming back until twelve.”

Seulgi shudders. “Don’t I know it.”

8. “This is going to hurt, I’m so sorry.” - requested by @lleacre💜

Irene wonders how she’d managed to get kidnapped by the world’s kindest criminal. Seriously. She’s being treated better than she gets treated at home. Her kidnapper is a girl who’s clearly younger than her, and the mere fact that she doesn’t even have a mask on says a lot. She’s also pretty, and cute in a teddy bear sort of way, and, okay, maybe she’s a bit attracted to her and that’s pretty messed up, but what can she do?

“Are you feeling okay? Do you want some water?”

The girl blinks up at her from where she’s crouched, tilting her head questioningly, and Irene tries not to think about how much she likes her eyes because whether or not she’s being treated more like a friend than a hostage, she’s still in the process of being held against her will.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh?”

Irene frowns and shifts in the chair she’s tied up in. At least the girl’s doing something right. “If this is about my parents’ money, I hope you know they don’t give a flying crap about me. They probably won’t notice I’m gone until next month. And that’s me being optimistic.”

A sob echoes around the warehouse and Irene recoils at the sound, looking down at the girl who’s crouched on the floor, covering with her hands with tears trailing down her cheeks.

“Hey, what - what the actual hell is wrong with you?”

“I’m sorry for kidnapping you, I was just bored and I thought it would be fun, I didn’t know you felt that way,” the girl blubbers. “Here, let me free you.”

“Wait. You kidnapped me because you were bored?”

The girl looks confused. “I - uhm - yeah? Why else would I kidnap you?”

Irene stares at her in disbelief, and if her hands weren’t tied up, she would have rubbed at her temples to soothe the monster of a headache she could feel coming on. “Out of all reasons. I can’t believe my life has come to this. Just end me now.”

“No! I - this is going to hurt, I’m so sorry. I’m just going to let you go. Your wrists must hurt a lot,” the girl sniffs.

A moment later, there’s an unbelievably painful burn as the duct tape gets ripped away and Irene nearly screeches, cursing under her breath in a way that would have gotten her slapped and kicked out of the house in less than two seconds if she’d done it in front of her parents.

“Jesus mother - holy that - ow!”

Irene rubs at her wrists that are now raw and red, the duct tape marks livid against her skin. The girl’s hands abruptly replace hers and Irene flinches. Her fingers are soft although her movements are clumsy and Irene feels like she should be knocking the girl out and getting the hell out of dodge, but something keeps her there.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to,” the girl whimpers, looking up at Irene with the saddest of eyes.

“You’re unbelievably weird,” Irene says.

The girl hangs her head, ceasing her soothing movements against her wrists. “I used to get that a lot.”

“Would you mind if I stuck around for a while?”

Irene knows it’s crazy and maybe she’s high or something, but the girl seems as harmless as a bunny and there’s just something about her that makes her want to stay. She’ll deal with everything later, and anyway, her parents can suffer for a while for all she cares. She just wants something apart from mundane mess of her world.

“You’d like to stay?” the girl asks, her eyes hopeful.

Irene nods with a crooked smile. “I would.”

23. “You did this all for me?” “No, I did this for Jeffrey across the street. Yes I did this for you!” - requested by @ThisIsHaro💙

Irene watches the glimmer in Seulgi’s eyes with a disinterested sort of stare, crossing her arms across her chest and leaning against the doorway that leads to the dining area. At least, she attempts to seem disinterested. It doesn’t take long for the younger girl to turn around to look at her with absolute love in her pretty eyes and Irene finds herself smitten like some childish school girl. Well, it is Seulgi’s birthday and she knows the girl’s a complete romantic, and a candlelit dinner had seemed the way to go. Apparently, it was the right choice.

“You did this all for me?” Seulgi asks.

Irene rolls her eyes. “No, I did this for Jeffrey across the street.” She bemoans the fact that Seulgi’s expression actually falls for a second and waves her hands with a groan. “Yes I did this for you!”

Seulgi squeals in response and pulls her into a hug, burying her face against her shoulder, and Irene can’t help but melt into the embrace, feeling the smile that only Seulgi can coax from her spreading across her face. She wonders how this soft, teddy bear-like girl managed to make it through the unforgiving iciness of her exterior and into the very depth of her heart to make a home there. Seulgi, with her delicate hands and fragile skin, going through the layers of ice and crawling over stone just to make it into a little fortress of her own that Irene can’t possibly make her leave. She would do anything for Seulgi. She knows Seulgi feels the same. She doesn’t mind that her walls that had always been meant to protect her now protects Seulgi instead. After all, Seulgi’s the one that makes sure her heart stays strong and beating and alive.

“Happy birthday. I love you,” she murmurs bashfully against the girl’s collar bone.

Seulgi turns her head to nose against her neck and place a brief kiss that makes Irene feel like she’s soaring through the clouds. “I love you, too. Always.”

Then, Seulgi pulls aways and pecks Irene on the cheek with that silly little grin of hers and grabs Irene’s fingers to pull her to the table with an excited hop that she can’t help but think is unfairly adorable.

She supposes all is fair in love and war after all.