“W-What?”

“I need your help to make Seulgi jealous. Please help me.”

Wendy heard it the first time but she’s still in shock. Irene likes Seulgi? She knows Seulgi’s attractive and really nice and now that she thinks about it, they actually look good together. Irene’s been staring at her with puppy eyes and she feels stuck.

“Why me?”

“Well, first, Seulgi’s been jealous of you. And second, you’re actually similar with each other but of course I like her better.”

“Woah wait what did I do that made her jealous?”

“She said we were caught cuddling together after the housewarming party but I was pretty sure I entered her room though.”

“W-Well, you did. It was me that had a drunken mistake. Sorry about that.”

“Aha, so that’s why the was squishier.” says Irene as she does squishing motions with her hand, probably trying to remember the feeling. Wendy can only look at her amused and blushing. 

“I-I don’t know.” Wendy’s been stuttering around Irene a lot lately and she doesn’t like it one bit but Irene keeps getting her flustered.

“Oh, come on pretty please? A few days from now Seulgi’s gonna mention our routine sleepovers to you. We do it almost three times a week.”

“That many in the span of a week?!”

“Yeah, that’s how close we are. And what I need favor from you is that you’d allow me to slip into your bedroom and cuddle just for a while when we know she’s checking.”

“Wait why do we have to cuddle?” 

“Well, so that she’d get jealous. Come on it’s okay we’ve cuddled before.”

“I was drunk before.”

“Should I get you drunk before the sleepovers?”

“What the f- no need.”

“So..? Will you please help me?”

Wendy doesn’t know what made her say yes. Irene’s pleading eyes? Her being trapped between Irene’s arms? Irene’s glinting mischievous eyes? The fuzziness she’s never felt for so long since—never mind. She already said yes anyways.

××××××××××××××××××××××

Irene’s been clingy since the incident in the bathroom and she was right, Seulgi informed her about their sleepovers. Now panic starts to seep in since day one is tomorrow. What if she can’t cuddle with Irene when she’s sober? What if cuddling with Irene while being sober is the problem? What if Seulgi starts to dislike her instead? Wendy started to twiddle around and Irene noticed it so she held Wendy’s hand and whispered comfort. “Calm down everything’s okay.” she’s starting to regret accepting the offer but having someone to hold her hand at times like this sure is nice. They’re grocery shopping for the sleepover and to restock their supplies. Seulgi’s buying beef while they’re buying other ingredients with the cart.

“Hey I got the sirloin part to celebrate our first sleepover at my new place.” Seulgi suddenly pops out of nowhere and Irene lets go.

“That’s great! We’re gonna have so much fun.”

“Yeah. Fun.” Wendy can only imagine not being able to sleep much.

The sleepover came and they were watching movies together in Seulgi’s room. Wendy chose to read books in her own room, romantic gestures on paper are the closest she has to not being lonely for now. She can hear screams ever now and then from the room across her. 

Maybe they’re watching a horror movie.  

To prevent herself from thinking about what the other two are doing, she wore her earphones. Soon enough she was too sleepy to finish the book and decided it’s time to call it a night. As she falls asleep, their laughter lulls her. Of course before totally falling asleep, she left some space for Irene. She’s not evil enough to take up all the space to herself.

×××××××××××××××××××××

The scent of vanilla welcomes her as she flutters her eyes open. She rubs her eyes softly to see her surroundings better and feels a heavy weight on her stomach. She’s face to face with a sleeping Irene.

She looks so serene.

She stares at Irene thinking that cuddling wasn’t as bad as she thought it’d be. Her worries were for nothing. Irene looks so peaceful, like she was made to be called a sleeping beauty. She can smell the mixture of their shampoos, vanilla and lemon. It was a very nice warm morning, one Wendy haven’t experienced in a while. She can’t tell if it’s because she hasn’t cuddled anyone for a while or because Irene’s vanilla scent is that good of a fragrance to be surrounded with this early morning. Wendy was about to remove Irene’s arms around her waist when she heard soft knocks on her door which made her halt. 

It must be Seulgi. 

Right, she agreed to make Seulgi jealous so she should at least stay in this position for a while. Good thing her back’s facing the door. She heard light footsteps coming so she closed her eyes in an attempt to pretend that she’s still asleep. It’s been minutes since she heard Seulgi. Did she leave already? She was about to open her eyes when she heard a sigh and decided to keep the act until eventually she fell back asleep.

When she woke up, Irene was nowhere to be seen and the morning felt colder especially now that winter is right around the corner. She was not surprised but still, it would’ve been better to be kept warm. It’s just because it’s cold, Wendy reasons to herself. She joins them for breakfast because of course, it’s the most important meal of the day.

“Good morning Seul and Irene.”

“Morning WenWen!” Seulgi greets with a mouthful of bread.

“Good morning, come join us. And you, will you please stop speaking when your mouth is full.” scolds Irene.

“Yes, maam!” Seulgi cheerfully answers, it looks like their plan didn’t work after all.

Wendy steals a glance at Irene, trying to read her expression but all she looks like is sleepy. Was she not good enough as a cuddle buddy? Wendy instead proceeds to eat to stop overthinking.

×××××××××××××××××××××

Since then, more sleepovers started to frequent the house which means more cuddles came Wendy’s way. She was slowly getting used to sleeping with small arms, whispers of stories from each other and waking up to vanilla and warm limbs around her when one day Irene told her they should stop for a few weeks. 

“Why? Did Seulgi get mad?”

“She’s starting to suspect us. I don’t want her to think I have feelings for you.” 

“Oh, okay.” Wendy didn’t know what to feel. Why was she disappointed with Irene’s words when it’s the truth? She thought she would at least matter a bit to the older woman especially after spending some of their nights together. But there’s nothing she can do, she agreed to their deal after all. She doesn’t even know why she’s helping Irene like this. 

Stupid brown eyes.

She was reading her way into sleepiness when it started to rain. Now the night feels much more colder than it already is. She sighed and grabbed a few more blankets in the drawer to keep herself warm for the night cause Irene decided to sleep in their spare room tonight. The rain falls harder and she doesn’t know if she can sleep through the storm or through her thoughts so she decides to drink some hot chocolate. 

It’s times like these that she’s reminded of her loneliness the most. Gayoung was her day, evening and future then. Morning kisses, backhugs and banter. They were inseparable; a package. She was a constant in Wendy’s life until she decided not to be anymore. Wendy knew it was her fault. She was told to be clingy that Gayoung felt suffocated. She never knew her presence could be that troublesome to her own girlfriend, it turned Wendy cold and started to avoid anyone and everyone during the first few months of her trying to move on, thinking that maybe if she did so, Gayoung would return to her arms. She was wrong. 

She realizes that her cup of hot chocolate is now empty when a thunder roared waking her from her thoughts. She should try to sleep now, no more overthinking. She’d probably have a harder time sleeping with all the factors bothering her starting from Irene’s absence, the cold weather and now thunderstorms. What a night. As she grabs more blankets to cover her small frame, her door suddenly opened loud. Lightning illuminated her room and she sees Irene at her door. She’s just facing the floor with eyes closed and hands covering her ears. 

“Irene?”

As Irene was about to say something, thunder screams and Irene runs to her.

“Irene what’s wrong?”

Irene was trembling hard and all Wendy could do was hold her closer and caress her back to soothe her from her shock.

She’s afraid of thunderstorms?

When Irene calms down a bit, Wendy cups her face to check if she’s okay. Irene’s eyes were b with tears attempting to fall. She’s scared and Wendy knew their plan of sleeping in separate rooms tonight would have to wait for another night. She pulled Irene under the covers and faced her trembling figure, her eyes were closed and she kept her hands on her ears. Wendy tapped Irene’s left temple in a rhythmic pattern. She waits for Irene to slowly remove her hands from her ears.

“Focus on my finger, on the taps. Feel it like your constant breathing, your constant heartbeat. It’s okay, everything’s okay.” Irene slowly flutters her eyes open to look at Wendy. She didn’t know what the look Irene gave her meant but it must be something good because she started to snuggle towards Wendy.

Wendy hugs her and lets Irene feel her heartbeat. Lets her listen to its rythm as a replacement for her taps. When Irene’s breathing softens and becomes more calm, she realized she’s asleep already. Wendy sighed, feeling accomplished that she got to calm Irene down. She sighs, tired but not wanting to let the sight in front of her be taken away by the morning sun just yet. She wants to savor the moment for as long as it could last. She didn’t know when staring at Irene’s face became her favorite thing to do to past time. So she fell asleep counting Irene’s lashes correlating them with every little story she knows about Irene. Like how she likes carrot cake more than any dessert, loves pink but still only has dark and white clothes in her closet because she likes the simplicity. Their pillow talks filled her mind, she recounted her lashes at least 15 times before her eyelids gave out on her.

×××××××××××××××××××

Seulgi woke up from the loud noise outside. She checks her window and sees the strong storm brewing outside. She was about to sleep again when she hears a loud thunder fill the skies. She covers her ears in an attempt to reduce the shock and remembers Irene. The older woman is smaller and much more easily frightened than her and whenever they experience thunderstorms, they cuddle with each other until they fall asleep covering each others ears to prevent the roars from reaching them. Seulgi runs outside her room and upstairs to check on Irene. She’s pretty sure the smaller girl won’t be able to sleep without Seulgi’s hands covering her ears and cuddling with her to lessen the fear. 

She panicked when she saw ruffled bed sheets but no sign of the black-haired woman. She was about to search all the room sin the house when she realized that Irene might be with Wendy considering they’ve been very cuddly lately. She placed soft knocks on Wendy’s door to check if anyone’s still awake but no one answered so she slowly entered the room in hopes that Irene’s fine with Wendy. She won’t lie, she’s been feeling jealous. Irene’s attention for her has never been this divided. She missed the times Irene would come to her to cuddle at night and have pillow talks about nothing and everything. She’s staring at the sight in front of her, not knowing what to feel. Cuddly nights are their thing for when they’re scared of thunderstorms, but what happens to her now that Irene found solace from someone else? 

You’re being unfair Irene Bae.

Seulgi can only sigh as she looks again at Irene’s serene face on Wendy’s chest and Wendy. Oh Wendy, her new friend, they could almost count as best friends if not for Irene Bae who already took the title and doesn’t want anyone else to have it. Wendy’s been nice to her, to Irene, and to everyone she knows. She’s never met anyone as kind as Wendy, which makes her feel guiltier for feeling jealous. Wendy’s too nice to be disliked. Seulgi slowly gets out of the room and enters her own, her heart feeling heavier as her lips heave a sigh. 

×××××××××××××××××××

It’s another morning at PEPROMENO and snow started to fill the streets. Everything’s perfectly normal except for the fact that Yeri is a customer today instead of serving them. She, Saeron, Joy and Chaeyoung decided to meet up and talk. She didn’t expect Saeron to be the first to arrive after her considering that they’ve only been hanging out for a short while and they aren’t really that close to begin with. Sure they talk and chitchat but it’s all acquaintanceship. Yeri always felt intimidated by Saeron. Other than being taller than her, the girl always stares at her and it makes her anxious.

“Hey, good morning.” Saeron greets her shyly.

“Oh hi good morning, come sit I bought you some frappe cause I noticed you never buy coffee when you come here, is that okay?”

“Wow you noticed that? Yes that'd be okay. Thanks.” Saeron started to smile at the table.

"Are you okay? What are you smiling at?"

"You." Yeri almost spat out her coffee with what she heard.

"O-Okay."

They sat there in silence, Yeri trying hard not to look back at Saeron who's literally staring at her the whole time. Finally everyone's arrived and they started to talk.

"Okay so why are we really here? What is this gathering about Joy unnie?" Yeri really had to know why she had to endure the first few mins alone with Saeron just to talk about something she doesn't really know what.

"Our unnies are in trouble."

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Hello here's Chapter 5. I will strive to keep updating as often as I could thanks for sticking around! Hope you enjoyed it ^^