*Very brief mention of mature themes*

"Yeah, so..." Irene stopped her sentence as she stopped by the door of her classroom, which Wendy had kindly walked her to so that Irene could finish speaking. Irene had looked so bothered at lunch that when Wendy had asked if something was wrong and the girl had been quick in motioning for Wendy to follow, Wendy could only comply, padding after her troubled friend. Irene moved up on her toes, restless. "I just don't know what to do."

"That really is a difficult situation." Wendy nodded slowly, pulling Irene in for a hug before letting go and saying, "But are you sure this is strictly theoretical?"

"Y-yes, what makes you think it isn't?" Irene replied too quickly and pursed her lips, something that didn't go unnoticed by Wendy, before beginning to enter the classroom. "Theoretical. That's it."

"If you say so, unnie. I don't know if I can give you much advice, but I'm here if you want to talk more."

"Thanks, Wan-ah." Irene smiled, and Wendy turned to leave but froze when Irene spoke again. "I wasn't looking for advice. This is something I have to figure out on my own. But thanks. Really." Irene kissed Wendy's cheek before leaving for real, a statue of a Wendy standing still in the hallway. If Irene was trying to distract her, it'd worked.

Did Irene just kiss me? Weird.

Wendy wondered whether the boyfriend Irene talked about was was Bo Gum, whether the girl was Irene, and who the third person was. Could Irene be cheating? On Bo Gum? Wendy quickly threw that idea to the side, finding it impossible to believe that Irene Bae of all people could be cheating on Bo Gum. No, Irene wouldn't do that. Never. So then who was she talking about? Who was the mysterious third party involved in the highly hypothetical situation?

Wendy wondered for a brief second whether it could be her. Wendy Son.

But that was just as impossible as Irene cheating. There was no way Irene could be infatuated with a girl like her. If anyone, the girl would be Seulgi, who everybody liked. Wendy was always the second choice, and she didn't see how she'd become first now.

Wendy finished walking to her class and snorted a laugh. She didn't even know why she was thinking about this. Irene was Irene, after all.

Straight.

"Wendy?"

"Huh?" Wendy quickly scooped her things up from the ground where they'd clattered very loudly, drawing the brief three-second attention span of all her classmates and the apparently longer one of Eunji.

"Nice going, Son!"

Wendy groaned. And that of Chanyeol.

"Shut up, Park!" Wendy picked up the last stray pencil that had managed to roll away before plopping her things down on her desk and taking a seat next to the pretty girl with the dazzling smile. "Anyway, what's up?"

Eunji giggled and topped Wendy's pile of things with an eraser. "You dropped this."

"Ah, uh, thanks," Wendy tucked the eraser back into her pencil case, where it belonged.

"Something wrong?" Eunji scooted closer and examined Wendy, looking into her eyes. "You seemed pretty distracted when you walked in. I mean, you did drop your things."

"Oh, yeah, that," Wendy said, propping her feet up on the desk. "Just was thinking."

"About what?"

"You."

"Stop, you flirt," Eunji laughed and playfully pushed Wendy, who smiled and laughed too. "You're too much sometimes."

"You like it."

"Hm, yeah, I do." Eunji booped Wendy's nose. "Got to go. Class starts in a minute. I'll see you later, Wendy." Eunji flashed one last smile at Wendy before turning and waving bye to her friends. Wendy watched Eunji's back disappear from the classroom and she exhaled. Damn, that girl was pretty.

Irene was pretty too. Wendy didn't know why she thought of that, but it was true. So whoever that third party was, whatever lucky guy, Wendy was sure there was no question about whether Irene would succeed. A better question to ask would be who could resist?

Riddle her that.

Irene blew air up at her forehead and tapped her pencil against her desk, not in the mood for calculus. She didn't want to think about derivatives or integrals or whatever it was they were doing. Yeah, she didn't even know what they were doing. 

"Irene!"

"Yes, Teacher Kim?" Irene answered, bowing her head to hide her oncoming embarrassment.

"Can you tell us the answer?"

"Uh... five?" That response drew a few good-natured laughs and a shake of the head from Teacher Kim.

"Very funny. The answer is x squared..." Teacher Kim scribbled on the board, writing what she spoke, "plus three root two... all over... x cubed minus five." Irene really liked the purple Expo marker, bright against the whiteboard. It was pretty. "So, I suppose you got one number right out of the entire answer. I also supposed that you would've gotten the entire answer correct if you'd been paying attention."

"Sorry, Teacher Kim."

Teacher Kim just sighed and continued teaching. "Now, let's learn how to turn this... back into this..."

When class ended, Irene got up from her desk and slung her backpack on her shoulder, preparing to leave when she heard her teacher call for her.

"Irene."

The girl froze in front of the doorway, turning slowly on her heels to meet the unwavering eyes of her teacher. Irene walked to the teacher's desk and after glancing down at clasped hands, began, "Teacher Kim, I really am sorry-"

The hands unclasped and one lifted to shut Irene up. "That's not what I wanted to talk to you about, Irene."

"Oh. Um. Okay. What is it?"

"Are you okay?"

"What?"

"I'm asking if you're okay, Irene. You seem distracted lately."

"I mean, I guess I have been a little off these past few days."

"I think it's been going on a little longer than that." Irene cursed in her head when she saw the paper that her teacher was sliding toward her. "You see this, Irene?"

"Yes, Teacher Kim."

"This is the quiz that we took just last week, and that," Teacher Kim pointed to the red pen scrawled across the top, a number circle, "is your grade. Do you see why I asked to speak with you?"

Irene pressed her lips together, looking at the quiz. Not too hot. "Yes."

"Look, Irene. I didn't ask you here to interrogate you about your life or your grades, but I am a teacher, and as a teacher, I do care that my students are doing well. Your grades are slipping and you always look like you're... mentally elsewhere. If you don't focus up, I'm afraid your grades will suffer more than you'll be able to fix, and not just in this class. I know that you haven't been doing all your homework in English."

"She told you?"

The teacher snorted. "Communication is key in relationships, Irene."

"Right." Irene couldn't help but think again of her (as Wendy suspected) not-so-theoretical situation.

Communication. Bo Gum.

Communicate to Bo Gum. To Seulgi.

Break up. Confess.

Mess.

No, thanks.

"Anyway, Taeyeon doesn't actually tell me everything about her students but since this seemed to be a pattern, she thought it only right to bring it to my attention. Imagine her surprise, and mine as well, to see that this... slump, of yours, was not confined to just one class." She paused before asking, "And it's not just our two classes either, is it, Irene?"

Irene ducked her head down, tucking her chin and looking at the ground. "No, Teacher Kim."

"I'm not trying to scold you, Irene, I'm really not. I just want you to be careful and take it a little easier on yourself with whatever it is that's got you so distracted." If only I could.  "I want you to go see the nurse."

"What? Why?" Irene felt alarmed. She didn't need to go see the nurse!

Tiffany gave her a strange look. "Well, I figured you could use a break. I'll let Taeyeon know. If she has a problem with it, she can take it up with me personally."

"Oh, okay. Thank you, Teacher Kim."

"Of course. I'll see you later. With your homework done. Right?"

"Right." Irene nodded apologetically and left, walking through the hallways and finally through the doors of the nurse's office.

"Hello?" The nurse's voice rang out from where Irene couldn't see.

"Hi," Irene said. "My teacher thought I needed a break and told me to go see the nurse." Now that Irene had said it out loud, it sounded like a pretty dumb excuse, but the nurse only nodded solemnly.

"I see. You do look a bit distracted. Oh, sor