Seungwan pauses from drying her hair when she hears her phone ringing from the living room. 

 

"Oh, Joohyun? What's up?"

 

"Are you at home?"

 

"Uhm yeah but I'm going out soon. Why?"

 

"What? You? With who?" Joohyun asks with a surprised tone, different from how she asked earlier which sounded like she was lying on her bed. 

 

"Troy? We're going to Violet Cafe. Why?"

 

"Oh. Can I come?"

 

"I thought you don't drink coffee."

 

"Yeah but for your information, we go to cafes too whenever we meet up with the girls. I'm just bored at home. Why can't I go? Am I bothering... the both of you?"

 

"But you always whine- never mind. Okay."

 

"Thanks~"

 

Seungwan sighs as she walked back into her room to continue drying her hair. She contemplates on bringing a sweater since she's already wearing 2 layers of clothes. I'll just bring in case.

 

----------------------

 

"Troy!!"  Seungwan smiles as she was pulled by him to exchange a hug as usual whenever they see each other, just like the old times. 

 

"I see you brought someone.." Troy gives her a cheeky smile, offering his hand for a friendly handshake. Joohyun merely smiles at him, giving in to the firm handshake. 

 

"This is Joohyun, one of my best friends that you already met the other day. This girl said she's bored at home so she wanted me to entertain her. She doesn't drink coffee so I honestly have no idea why she wants to come." Seungwan states sarcastically which receives a light slap from Joohyun. 

 

"I understand some English too, okay? Stop talking bad about me." They laugh at her response as she sulks beside the girl who was now focusing her attention on the taller guy in front of them. 

 

Joohyun now regrets following Seungwan, because she could hardly understand a word they said. They conversed in English which was slightly too fast for the girl to follow although she learned a few phrases before in the past. She plays around with her food, fiddling with her fingers, looking at the vase in front of her, observing other people in the cafe, observing him in particular. Just like Sooyoung mentioned; tall, muscular and handsome. She wonders if he would be Seungwan's ideal type too, but she certainly knows he isn't hers. He seems too muscular for Joohyun. She wasn't keen on people who are too muscular with obvious veins throughout their arms, she prefers hugging someone who doesn't have a rock hard body, but still fit enough for her to give her a sense of protection, someone who could give her warmth during chilly nights.

 

 

She takes few glances at Seungwan who looked enthusiastic throughout the night, compared to a slightly quieter Seungwan with the girls. Feeling bored, with her eyelids getting heavier due to the relaxing playlist in the cafe and the sound of the girl beside her talking, her head slightly droops down which doesn't go unnoticed by Seungwan. The younger girl places her hand over hers, nudging her.   

 

"Your hand's so cold!" Seungwan exclaims before immediately pulling out a sweater from her bag. She praises herself for bringing it because she notices how Joohyun seems to always shiver at night. 

 

"I'm going to the washroom for a bit." She smiles at them, pulling the sweater tighter to cover her body. She unconsciously sniffs the cuffs of the sweater, a habit of hers whenever she wears comfy cotton sweaters, which was noticed by Troy.

 

He waits until the girl goes out of their sight, folding his arms on the table and stares at Seungwan with an arched eyebrow. "Do you have something that I should know about?" 

 

"What?"

 

"You and.." He raises his chin at the empty spot beside her, before giving her a lopsided smile.

 

"No. Don't you remember, how I act like that to basically all the girls? And she doesn't know we're not straight so don't you ever mention about it."

 

"Hmm.. but does she act like that to other girls too?"

 

"Like what?" 

 

"You know well enough, Wendy." He turns around to find the girl approaching them, so he motions to zip his mouth in front of her. 

 

-------------------------------

 

 

After saying their goodbyes to Seungwan's friend, they decided to walk home instead of taking the bus. More like Joohyun deciding and Seungwan having no choice but to follow because the older girl refuses to take the bus, as night shift bus drivers accelerate like crazy on the roads which scares the hell out of her. Seungwan follows behind her with a slower pace, as if being dragged by the older girl due to their interlocked hands. She smiles at the sight of Joohyun in her cheerful self again once they exit the cafe, even though she seems to be shivering a little from the low temperature. 

 

The face of the older girl changes in an instant as she jumps and hides behind her. Seungwan immediately looks around in full alert as she hears her squirming. 

 

"It's just a dog!" She exhales loudly and drags the older girl behind her while kicking her feet up in the air to chase the dog away.

 

"It's A DOG!!" Joohyun skips in front this time as the dog merely stares at them from behind. 

 

"Seriously, Joohyun. You scared me! You looked as though someone was going to rob us!" She scolds the older girl lightly. She pouts with a puffed up cheeks as the girl beside chuckles at her cute behavior.

 

They continued to walk silently, with Seungwan swinging their hands, humming her favourite songs. Seungwan slowly turns on her musical side as she belts out La La Land's songs with only few people left on the streets. She turns and drags the older girl around who made incoherent noises as Seungwan flips her around like a rag doll. They danced around goofily before exhausting themselves after only a few minutes due to the lack of stamina. 

 

"What do you think of Troy?" Joohyun suddenly asks in the middle of catching their breaths.

 

"Troy? He's a very good friend of mine back in Canada, just like you girls. Seen me at my best, and been with me at my worst."

 

"Is he single?"

 

"Hmm, guess so. He would've told me already if he's seeing someone. So I guess you can say he's single."

 

"What do you think of him?"

 

"Well....... He's good looking. He also has a good personality, a well rounded person. Everyone and their mothers like him. Not me, though. He's just not my type."

 

"Why not?"

 

"Just so. We both know that we are way not compatible for each other." Joohyun nods. 

 

"Why do you keep asking? Please don't tell me you're interested in him." Seungwan stops her tracks and looks at her with her eyes widened. 

 

"What? No!" Joohyun denies, before pestering her to talk about her friendship with him in Canada. So Seungwan just blurts out everything to her but of course being extra careful with her words. She also told her about how they had a dumb offer back then that when they're both single at the age of 40, they'll just marry each other instead because no one wanted them anyway. She doesn't want to expose him, although she has a feeling the older girl somehow misunderstood their friendship so she tries her best to assure Joohyun that she would never even consider to be with him even though he remains as the last guy standing on earth. 

 

The more she talks, the more she feels uncomfortable due to the pair of eyes staring at her. She continues to speak while looking at the path in front of them, also avoiding the girl's gaze that was a little too overwhelming for her. She's afraid that she would blurt out something that shouldn't be spoken of, her mind can only do so much at a time. 

 

"Joohyun, I would appreciate if you would stop staring at me."

 

"Why?" She creases her forehead at the younger girl's remark.

 

"Your eyes are fatal! What if I fall for you?!" Seungwan awkwardly laughs at the older girl who was quivering at her cheesy reply. was covered shut by the sleeves of her own sweater as the older girl pulls her into a headlock position, turning them around as they exchanged laughs. Joohyun lets go of her, grabbing her by the waist this time which makes her hearts jumps a little. She shrugs it off, blaming it on her mind trying to warm her body up by raising her own heart rate. 

 

 

------------------------------------------------

 

 

Seungwan lies on her bed as she thinks back on her conversation with Troy that night. 

 

-"You know well enough, Wendy."-

 

What the hell did he meant by that? She recalls the exact phrase he mentioned to her before, and that was when she told him about her past relationship with the disastrous prom boy. It was also how he assured her that she has nothing to be afraid of if she didn't like the kiss one bit, and he was just like her when he did the exact same thing. 

 

He also told her about how their friends are doing as they moved on to the next phases of their lives. 

 

-"She was pretty devastated when you left, you know. You didn't leave anything behind, not even your contact."-

 

Ah, the girl that she almost got into a relationship with. They clicked well, of course. But they never got the timing right between them. Either she was single but Wendy was with someone else, or Wendy was single and she was with someone else. There was never a time when the both of them were single at the same time, so they couldn't take it to the next level. Just when they thought there was a glimmer of hope for them after graduation, Wendy suddenly decided to move back to Korea, which caused them to remain as just close friends at the end of the day. But Wendy didn't even contact anyone when she moved back here, as if trying to cut all ties and her past behind. 

 

Even Troy didn't know where she disappeared to. He was lucky enough to found her in Korea, but he was glad that she was slowly finding happiness within herself.

 

Now.. with the single and available Miss Joohyun taking over her life slowly, she's starting to feel something within her and she wasn't quite comfortable with it. It's messing with her brain and her heart and she didn't like it. Because she doesn't want to fall for her best friend. She would never want to risk the friendship that she's built for years. It also being a temporary replacement for her because of her recent break up. Whatever Joohyun was doing to her, she wasn't having it. Call her selfish, but she doesn't want to pick herself up from of a one-sided affair. 

 

 

So she decided to drown herself in work for months. Whenever the girls called to catch up with her, she simply excused herself by telling them she had a dateline to catch on and she had to work late. She wants to avoid whatever that was messing with her mind.

 

Even when Joohyun rang her for an impromptu dinner, she carefully rejected them, using work or socializing with her colleagues as the excuse.

 

 

--------------------------------------

 

 

It was 1:38am when Seungwan was woken up from her sleep by a phone call. She was of course slightly annoyed at whoever calling her at this hour, and she cursed silently that it better be something goddamn important before she curses all three generations of the caller.

 

"Hello? Seungwan, is it?" She frowns at the voice of someone that she couldn't recognize. It was a male's voice, so she took a quick glance at the caller ID.

 

[Bae Joohyun]

 

She immediately sat up at the realization. 

 

"Yes. Why?" 

 

"Ah, I'm a bartender from Jimpae Bar. This girl in front of me is too drunk to go back by her own, and I couldn't contact anyone else from her phone. You're the only person that picked up. Do you mind coming over to pick her up?"

 

"I'll be there right away." Seungwan storms out of her room. 

 

You've got to be kidding me, Bae Joohyun.