Irene made three laps around the entire grandroom but her girlfriend was nowhere to be found. She asked nearly everyone but no one seemed to notice Seulgi slipping away. Even her own members had no idea where she was.   

Frustrated, Irene called her girlfriend’s phone for the 6th time, but it went straight to voicemail again. She was about to sneak out to search the entire venue when she felt her buzz in her hand.

“Baby,” She sighed in relief, answering the call right away. “Are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m fine,” Seulgi replied, voice surprisingly neutral. “Sorry to disappear like that, I had a work emergency.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine now. I’ll be back in time for the concert tonight.”

Irene bit back a small whimper. “You’re not going to rehearsal?”

“I’m sorry, Joohyun. I’ll make it up to you.”

“No…” She trailed off, fighting the urge to let her pout bleed into her voice. “It’s okay. Work is important.”

“Okay.”

“Are we okay?”

A pause. “Yeah, of course. I’ll text you in a bit, okay?”

“Okay. I love you.”

But Seulgi had already hung up.

---

Irene’s mood stayed gloomy for the rest of the day. Seulgi sent her a short text a bit later stating that she was going to grab lunch with her friends instead of returning right after she finished working and Irene tried her best to not to be hurt by the fact that her girlfriend was choosing to see her friends that she already saw every other day over spending time with her own girlfriend whom she sees five times a year.

Seulgi was obviously feeling some type of way still, but it was unlike her not to be spilling her unbashful feelings into paragraphs of texts like she usually did. The younger girl was always the better one when it came to expressing feelings— something Irene was thankful for because most of the time Seulgi could explain her own feelings better than she could, but seeing her so closed off was concerning.

Just how upset is she? 

When her members asked where Seulgi ran off too, Irene begrudgingly explained the whole situation, just to have them shake their heads in disappointment at her own insensitivity. It felt like everyone was suddenly a pro at understanding Irene’s relationship while she was some struggling rookie making mistakes left and right.

And to add salt to her already stinging wound, Yeri of all people, turned to her and said, “If you don’t treat her well, someone else will.”

At this point, Irene had to practice her entire repertoire of breathing exercises to calm herself down enough to focus properly on rehearsals. After they finished, the girls moved to their assigned room and prepared for interviews. Each group was set up in a room where different reporters and journalists would interview them for 10 minutes before rotating to the next group.

“Unnie, are you sure you’re up for this?” Wendy offered, eyes soft with concern. “I can do most of the talking.”

The leader shook her head. “I’m fine, Seungwan-ah. Thank you though. Let’s just go with the flow.”

She knew this was an important opportunity for Red Velvet to reach international fans as well as reach a foreign market that wasn’t as familiar as korean fans were. Bae Joohyun may had been a small mess at the moment, but Red Velvet’s leader Irene was a professional. She’d never let her work slip, no matter how much distress her heart was in.  

She was going over her english introductions when she felt her phone vibrate in her back pocket. She slipped it out and saw the familiar name illuminate the screen.

            From: Baby Cub 💕

           Good luck w interviews

Irene’s heart clenched. There were no hearts or goofy emojis like a typical Seulgi text looked like, but the fact that she still remembered to wish her good luck showed that Seulgi still cared.

            Thanks~ are u coming back soon?

Her fingers paused for a brief second before continuing.

            I miss you

She watched the little three dots before Seulgi’s response came a second later.

           In a bit. Still have stuff to do, but i’ll see u tonight

Irene sighed at the unreciprocated ‘I miss you’ and pocketed her phone before returning to her memorizations.

---

Two hours later and Irene was feeling much better. American interviews were so different than Koreans and she was having fun keeping up with her english.

“Okay kids, last one and you’re done for the day.” Their ma