Irene wakes up again with a pounding head. This time she knows it’s from alcohol though, and not her changing bodies. She fell asleep on Yeri’s couch, or maybe she was put here. Irene can’t remember anything after her 3^rd drink. Irene rubs her temples, and sits up on the couch. She looks around for her phone, and sees it on the dining room table. The pizza, and wine glasses are still there from last night. Irene grumbles under her breath about not wanting to stand up, but does it anyway. She shuffles over to the table, and grabs her phone. She could’ve sworn someone accidentally put the sun inside her phone, feeling her eyes burn, and turning the brightness down. She has 5 missed calls and 13 texts from Seulgi.

9:03 Are you ever coming back?

9:03 I know I said I needed some air, but I didn’t mean to drive you away

9:04 If you really are Irene, I mean

9:05 MISSED CALL(S) FROM SEUL

9:06 Why won’t you answer your phone?

9:07 I really hope you are Irene, bc I’m starting to miss her a lot, and if you aren’t Irene then where is she?

9:56 MISSED CALL(S) FROM SEUL

9:58 You’re still welcome to stay at my apartment, you’ll have to sleep on the couch though until I find out you really are Irene.

10:30 3 MISSED CALL(S) FROM SEUL

10:34 Please answer my calls I’m starting to get worried

10:35 I figured you were with yeri, but she wont answer her phone either

10:35 Joy wont either

11:27 I guess just call me when you can

11:56 I’m going over to wendy’s bc I don’t like sleepigg alone, but if youre irene you already know that

11:56 sleeping*

1:48 goodnight

Irene contemplates calling her, or just going back home. Instead, she lays back down on the couch, and tries to fall asleep again.

About two hours later, Irene wakes up to the smell of coffee, and pancakes. Irene sits up to see Seulgi making breakfast. Irene rubs her eyes, and looks again to make sure it really is her. Irene slowly stands, and walks over to her. She stands behind Seulgi, and rests her chin on Seulgi’s shoulder. She has to bend down a lot farther than she’s used to.

“Yeri called me, and asked me to come make breakfast for all of you since you’re all hungover as hell.”

“Sorry for not calling you or texting you back. I didn’t see the texts until this morning. Are you doing okay?”

Seulgi chuckles, “I’m the one who should be asking you that. I mean you changed bodies and your head probably is exploding right now.”

“So you believe it’s me now?” Irene feels a twinge of excitement in her chest.

“Well I assumed Yeri knew since you’re here, so I asked her, and she said it’s definitely you. And while you changing bodies isn’t a crazy great thing, it’s way better than thinking Irene left without saying anything, and some random guy woke up in our bed.”

“Fair enough.”

“You said you wanted to change things about your life, and that’s why you went to a fortune teller,” Irene tenses up as Seulgi speaks, “What did you want to change?”

“I can’t tell you, or I will be stuck in this body forever,” Irene lies.

“Oh, so you can change back?”

“Once I change the things I wanted to change, I will get my body back. Except there are weird lines on my arm that only appear in black light, I think they might be a restriction or something.”

Irene looks down at the arm with the invisible lines, except one of the lines isn’t invisible anymore. A solid black line rests on her wrist. “Wait a second, one of them is black now.”

Seulgi looks down at Irene’s wrist, “This black line wasn’t there yesterday?”

Irene shakes her head, “Maybe it’s marking how many days I have left. There are twenty invisible lines on my arm, and yesterday was the first day of me being Ren, and now one line is out. That makes sense, right?”

“I mean, as much as it can. Listen, whatever it is, I’ll help you. I know you can’t tell me, but I love you and want to help you. If we can’t fix it, and you stay in this body forever, I’d still love you. I fell in love with Irene, not Irene’s body. Although, if we’re being honest-“

“Don’t be gross,” Irene cuts off Seulgi, who is now just laughing, and pouring more pancake batter into the pan.

Seulgi turns around, and looks up at Irene, “Now that I know you’re Irene, you can have that kiss you wanted yesterday.” She closes her eyes, and puckers her lips.

“Didn’t I just now tell you to not be gross, and look at you, being gross,” Irene laughs, but gives her a quick kiss anyway.

Seulgi looks up at her, and beams a bright smile up to her. That’s what love should look like. Irene hopes her smile looks just as bright to Seulgi. Seulgi goes back to making the pancakes. Irene leans against the counter behind her, and watches Seulgi as her mind wanders off to a negative space making her stomach hurt.

She starts beating herself up for not loving Seulgi. Irene thinks she let herself get complacent somewhere in their relationship, and that’s why she’s in this situation now. Seulgi loves her unconditionally. Irene can’t even love Seulgi as she is, not in the same way. Irene starts to wonder if she ever loved Seulgi, or if she made the decision to date her because it would benefit her to do so. Irene cares a lot about Seulgi, that much she can be sure of. She could never hurt Seulgi. Irene knows she’s being selfish not telling Seulgi her feelings, but she also can’t bear the thought of hurting her, or not having Seulgi in her life anymore.

“How are you and Wendy?”

“We’re good. Why are you asking?”

“Just curious.”

Irene knows that Wendy would take care of Seulgi if she ever decided to tell Seulgi the truth. If she doesn’t fall back in love with her with the help of this magic, she knows she has to tell Seulgi.

Yeri wanders out into the kitchen, Joy stuck to her arm like a shy child on their parent’s leg.

“Good morning, Ren,” Yeri flashes a small smile.

“You were so cool last night, Ren. I don’t know why Yeri hadn’t introduced us yet,” Joy mumbles through her hangover. She had twice as many drinks as Irene, so Irene is surprised Joy remembers she even exists.

“It was nice to meet you, too,” the words are hard for Irene to say since she’s known Joy for almost as long as she’s known Yeri.

“Pancakes are almost done.” Seulgi says without turning around. “Go ahead, and sit at the dining room table, and I’ll bring them to you.”

Joy and Yeri go sit at the table, but Irene stays behind Seulgi. “Need any help?”

“I guess you can bring them coffee.”

Irene nods, although Seulgi isn’t looking, and brings three coffees and one orange juice to the table. The orange juice is for Irene because she doesn’t like coffee.

“Weird. It’s almost like Irene is here,” Joy laughs.

Irene and Yeri follow with awkward laughs.

Seulgi brings over two huge stacks of pancakes, and paper plates, “Breakfast is served,” she says with a weird accent Irene can’t quite identify.

“Are you trying to sound like The Queen’s butler?” Yeri mocks in a British accent.

“You know I’m bad with accents,” Seulgi whines.

They all laugh, and load up their plates with pancakes. Seulgi has always been a great cook, and Irene can feel love and warmth in every fluffy piece of pancake she eats. Joy and Yeri are the only ones talking at breakfast. When Joy starts asking personal life questions about Ren, Yeri dismisses them from the table, “Joy you smell like booze, let’s go take a shower.”

“Awe, but I want to know more about Ren.”

“Ren has work, and Seulgi needs to get back to Irene so maybe later. Let’s go get showered.”

Yeri gives Irene a look saying “get out of here, quick” so Irene stands up, and nods in Joy’s direction, “Yeah, I have to head out, but I’m sure we’ll meet again soon.”

Joy waves, “Okay, see you later!”

Irene is pretty sure Joy is still drunk, because she’s usually much more composed. Seulgi grabs Irene’s hand, “Let’s get out of here.”

“Just one second,” Irene looks around for her shopping bag from yesterday, finding it in front of the TV in the living room, “I got Joy a gift yesterday while I was out shopping. Don’t worry, I got you one, too. And Wendy.”

“You got Wendy a gift?”

“Of course, she’s your best friend though, so you can say it’s from you.”

“What is it?”

“Guitar strings.”

Irene rummages through Yeri’s drawers looking for a piece of paper and a pen. When she finally finds them, she writes “To: Joy From: Irene” on the paper, and places Joy’s gift on top.

“My handwriting is different. Do you think Joy will notice?”

“It’s not that different so probably not.”

“Alright. Now let’s get out of here.” Irene looks up at Seulgi, and sees her looking down at her feet. Irene can almost see the storm cloud forming above her head.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Irene walks over to Seulgi, and puts a hand on her shoulder.

Seulgi wipes her eyes, “We can talk about it later. It’s no big deal.”

“Okay,” Irene says softly, and gently wipes the tears under Seulgi’s eyes.

“Can we stop at the craft store on the way home? I really want to paint today.”

“Of course,” Irene wraps her arm around Seulgi, “We can go wherever you want.”

Irene is following behind Seulgi as she looks at painting supplies. Irene thinks she probably looks like Seulgi’s body guard since Ren’s body is so large, and Seulgi is so unrealistically beautiful.

Irene feels a strange sensation, like breathing on the back of her neck, and turns to look behind her. She catches a glimpse of a familiar-looking woman in a purple shawl, walk swiftly passed their isle. She sees a tiny glint from the rings on the woman's hands, and is positive it's her. Irene takes off running after her, leaving Seulgi in a cloud of confusion.