Joohyun checked the time on her phone. Five minutes have passed since she and her friends waited outside the museum for Wendy. “Hm. Did any of you guys try texting her again?”

Seulgi typed up a message quickly and send it to Wendy to ask where she was. “I just sent one. She should come at any second now. You know how she is with being late.”

“And yet here we are outside, waiting for her,” scoffed Yeri, shaking her head. “So much for the punctual one.”

“Oh, there she is,” spoke Sooyoung, her index finger pointing at the direction behind the group. The others turned their heads and, to their affirmation, saw that it was indeed Wendy walking towards them while waving her hand in the air.

“Hey, hey, hey,” greeted Wendy at her friends. “Sorry for making you guys wait.”

“You’re lucky that the weather now is a lot cooler than before. Otherwise, we would’ve been sweating our asses off,” complained Sooyoung who then gave Wendy’s camera back to the latter. “I hope you don’t mind, but we took a couple more pictures, and your SD card’s pretty full now.”

Wendy shook her head, beaming a reassuring smile at Sooyoung. “It’s alright. I’ll send you the pics to our group chat later when I get home.”

Seulgi nudged Wendy’s arm, gaining the latter’s attention. “What’s up with you?”

Wendy frowned, cocking her head to the side in confusion. “Why? Is there something wrong with me?”

“No, it’s just…” Seulgi trailed off, looking attentively at Wendy before continuing. “You look happy.”

Wendy rolled her eyes. “What, am I not supposed to feel that way?”

“Did you meet up with someone inside?” questioned Joohyun. She could sense that Wendy was acting a lot more lively now than she was before.

Wendy blinked, pondering whether or not she should tell them about Namjoon sooner or later. She decided to go with the former and nodded at Joohyun. “Yeah, I did.”

“Ooh, interesting,” teased Yeri, grinning at Wendy with a playful look in her eyes. “Tell us more.”

“I won’t if you continue to look at me like that,” warned Wendy, narrowing her eyes at Yeri to threaten the younger girl. Yeri stopped what she was doing, and chuckled. Once that was taken care of, Wendy turned to look at the rest of her friends and shrugged. “It was a guy. He seemed pretty cool, so I went up to him, and then we started talking.”

“Are you sure that’s what happened?” asked Sooyoung, smirking as she crossed her arms over her chest.

Wendy groaned exasperatedly, placing both of her hands on her hips. “Are you sure that you don’t want me to choke your pretty little neck of yours so that you could stop asking ridiculous questions?”

“Okay, okay. That’s enough, you two,” intervened Joohyun, stepping in between Wendy and Sooyoung before the two girls start making a scene in a public area. “Let’s head home. Seulgi and I are gonna have a Netflix marathon. Anyone wanna tag along?”

“Will there be snacks?” asked Yeri.

“You betcha,” answered Joohyun, giving an ‘okay’ sign.

“And drinks?” Sooyoung joined in.

“We got Coca-Cola and Sprite that could last us the whole night,” answered Seulgi excitedly.

Sooyoung and Yeri looked at one another for a moment, and high-fived. “We’re in.”

The only response that was unheard of was Wendy’s. The girl stood there, looking at the faces of her friend who showed eagerness and excitement, as she felt the total opposite of those emotions. As much as she loved spending quality time with her only friends she had ever had since the first semester of her first year in university, her body and soul constantly remind her to spare the rest of the day with no one else but herself. Wendy often made use of that time to ‘recharge’ where she secludes herself in her one-bedroom apartment and do things she would normally do when she is alone. Reading books, cooking and blasting music through her Bluetooth speakers while she relaxes in bed with a laptop on her lap and the Internet to keep her company is among her favorite activities that help regain energy she had lost during the day. If Wendy were to explain this to other people, they would definitely look at her weirdly and say that she’s anti-social, when in reality she’s not. She was merely an introvert who loved to be alone when she needs to be.

Wendy cleared , gripping the strap of her black bag rather awkwardly. “Um… I think I’m gonna pass.”

“Oh, come ooooon!” whined Sooyoung, walking up to Wendy and started tugging the other girl’s arm lightly. “Why can’t you just come? I thought your classes tomorrow don’t start until 12.”

“Yeah, well…” responded Wendy, unsure of what to say. “I’m actually getting a bit tired now, so I figured that I should go home and chill.”

“But that means I won’t get the chance to annoy you all night long.” Sooyoung’s high-pitched whining was deafening, causing Wendy to wince and yank her arm off Sooyoung’s grip.

“Me, too!” Yeri followed Sooyoung’s actions, whining as annoying as she possibly could.

“Shhh!” shushed Seulgi at the two mischevious girls as she started to get sick from hearing all their whining. Turning her attention to Wendy, she smiled and said, “If you don’t wanna come with us, then that’s fine. In fact, I kinda feel bad for making you take so many photos of us all day long. Emphasis on the word ‘kinda’, though.”

Joohyun chuckled and nodded at what Seulgi just said. “Do what you gotta do to relax, Wendy. Bet your arms and knees are really sore now.”

Wendy smiled gratefully, nodding her head. “Will do.” She proceeded to hug all of them one by one, not forgetting to mess up Sooyoung’s hair as a form of revenge which earned Wendy a light slap on her arm from the taller girl. She was about to leave when she remembered something. “Oh, I almost forgot. I’m gonna be visiting the library tomorrow to work on my essay. I guess I’ll see you guys then?”

Seulgi gave Wendy a thumbs up. “Sure thing. I’ll probably go with Sooyoung after we finish our lecture.”

“Wait, what lecture are we having tomorrow?” asked Sooyoung.

“Um, I think it’s the one for Human Resource Management and Strategy,” recalled Seulgi as she looked through her timetable for the current semester to double-check. “Yup, I was right.”

Sooyoung nodded understandingly. “I can deal with that. I like Professor Kim. She’s actually really cool and nice. Oh, and pretty. Unbelievably pretty. No wonder all of the guys drool over her every time she does the lecture.”

Joohyun looked at her with an eyebrow raised upwards. “Shouldn’t you be focusing on dating Sungjae now?”

Sooyoung shrugged nonchalantly. “So? It’s not like I’m into her or whatever. I just wish all of the professors and tutors acted the same way as she does. Seulgi, you’re with me on this one, right?”

“Huh?” Seulgi was busy staring off into space until Sooyoung called her name out. “Oh, right. Professor Kim’s really beautiful.”

Wendy giggled at her friends, then waved her hand goodbye as she bid farewell. “Gotta go, girls. See you later.” The group waved back and told Wendy to have a safe trip back home before parting in the opposite direction, heading to Seulgi and Joohyun’s shared apartment and spend the rest of the night there.

Once she was left alone, Wendy took a deep breath and let out a sigh of relief. Fishing out her phone out of her pocket, she untangled her earphones that was tied together with her phone and plugged both buds into her ears. Her thumb pressed onto the screen to play a particular song in her playlist, and as soon as the music silenced the sounds of people chattering around her, she began her journey home.

…

The bathroom door opened, revealing a Wendy wrapped in a white towel that covered her from the chest area to the waist down. She stepped out of the bathroom, her light brown hair still dripping wet but was too lazy to dry it out, and walked towards her wardrobe. Once she had open it, one hand reached out to grab an oversized white shirt while the other hand grabbed a black sweatpants.

Throwing it all in her bed, she stripped off her white towel and treaded towards her drawer next to her wardrobe, then proceeded to rummage through her underwear before settling for grey boxers. Wendy wore it quickly, closed her drawer and wardrobe, and got into her nighttime attire right by her bed.

Her phone vibrated all of a sudden. Wendy picked it up as soon as she was done putting on her clothes to see what it was, only to find out that it was a low-storage space notification, which made her frown. She hoped for someone to text her how she was doing, and it didn’t have to be her friends specifically, but she assumed everyone was off doing their own things tonight. Things that were a lot more important than texting her. The thought made her sigh sulkily.

Her mood changed instantly when she thought of a way to cure her temporary sadness away: YouTube and ice cream.

Wendy opened up her laptop, which had been laying in her bed the whole day, and turned it on. Opening her browser, she scrolled her cursor using the touchpad and clicked on the ‘YouTube’ bookmark. As soon as the page loads, she typed in a specific keyword on the search bar and hit enter. Wendy’s finger scrolled down a few videos until finally stumbling upon one that was a fanmade John Mayer documentary. After clicking on the video, she quickly paused it before it could start playing and got up to head towards the kitchen.

The layout of her small apartment was simple: after walking through the front door, the first thing Wendy sees is a little area that is used to take off her footwear. A shoe rack – which is completely packed with all kinds of shoes that both barely fit and fit perfectly (all owned by none other than Wendy) – is provided. The kitchen is located on the right side of the small hallway while the bathroom, which is the only room that is separated from the rest of the apartment, is located on the left.

The end of the hallway leads to the main area of the apartment, comprised of a single queen-sized bed, a small-sized television with two bean bags placed in front of it (one black; one grey), a messy study desk that Wendy needs to organize, a white wardrobe and a white drawer. A single houseplant, named ‘Lily’, stood in a corner near the large window that overlooked a small playground, a couple of cafes and a convenience store. The plain, white walls were decorated with posters of Wendy’s favorite movies and musicians. The place was small, but it was cozy and homey overall.

Wendy opened up the refrigerator, smiling giddily as soon as her eyes fell upon the giant tub of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream; her most prized possession. Her hand went into the freezer and reached for it.

Wendy paused. Her thoughts interrupted her.

“Have I eaten too much today?”

She recalled the lunch she had with her friends: one large cheeseburger, some cheesy fries given by Seulgi and a glass of cold water. Previously, she had bread and blueberry jam for breakfast. Dinner was excluded; Wendy has been purposely missing out on meals after 6 p.m. due to a specific health fact that someone from her past once explained.

All in all, she didn’t eat too much today, so she figured she should reward herself with something sweet.

Wendy’s smile returned after taking her tub of ice cream out of the freezer. She closed it back into place before grabbing a clean spoon from the kitchen and running back to bed to start her night of watching endless YouTube videos until 3 a.m.