“I almost shed a tear you know when i see you and that girl earlier.” Irene and Taeyeon are on their way back to Irene’s house after the Korean Idol Junior first shooting today when Taeyeon suddenly brought the topic up.

Well maybe not so suddenly since Irene knows, sooner or later, her cousin surely will bring the topic up. It’s inevitable.

“Her name is Seulgi.” Irene tried to sound normal and nonchalant as she mentioned the girl’s name. When in fact she can feel a weird warm feeling surge up to her chest at the thought of the young girl who has the prettiest-cutest eyesmile that Irene ever witnessed.

“Oh, what a lovely name.” Taeyeon said with a smile. She always has a soft spot for kids in general.

Irene decided to end the conversation there by not replying back to her cousin. But Taeyeon seems not finish with the talk yet.

“So, i was wondering.. why you suddenly can warm up to a kid that fast? I mean i never see you acted like that before to any kid. It just kinda surprised me.”

“Wasn’t it you who warned me to not make more kids cry today? I just did what you told me to, unnie. And Seulgi happened to be the first kid i met right after you nagged me. And besides, she indeed has a good voice. Her technique is good too. I didn’t find any reason to critique her. And maybe i’m being a bit biased, but she sings Red Velvet’s song. You know how much i love them.” Irene doesn’t realize how fast she speaks until she stopped and finding herself panting a bit. She sees Taeyeon’s smirking at her.

“What?!” She snapped at the older girl.

“Nothing.” Taeyeon just shrugged before go back to checking the agenda in her phone. “So after this, you have 2 and a half hours to have some rest. And grab a dinner. After that you’ll have a quick interview with XXX magazine. And that’s it. That’s all for today.”

“Okay. By the way unnie, when is the next shooting for KIJ?” *KIJ=Korean Idol Junior*

“Next Wednesday.”

“Okay.”

See you in 5 days, Kang Seulgi.

(Fast forward to 5 days later: KIJ’s second stage audition)

“Hello everyone.” Irene greeted her fellow judges slash friends in music industry who’s already sit on their respective seat before her.

“Hi, Irene.”

“Hi, Bae.”

Irene takes her seat and can’t help herself from wondering..

Where is Seulgi? She must be here already. Somewhere in this building.

With that thought in mind, she excused herself, saying she needs to use the toilet for awhile and will come back immediately since the shooting will begin in 20 minutes.

She wanders around by herself, peeking through some rooms that she randomly checked but still, she can’t find Seulgi.

She took a look on her black Baby-G watch on her left wrist and realized that she’s running out of time. With somehow a heavy heart, she walked back to the audition room.

How surprised she gets when she sees the person she has been looking for is actually there, cutely trying hard to put her head in between the small gap of the open door without making any sound, afraid that she might get caught.

Guess Irene is not the only one who loves to peeking huh?

God knows how hard Irene tried to suppressed her laugh right now.

Irene slowly making her way to approach the person from behind. She makes sure her steps will be unheard. And when she’s close enough, leaving only a small space in between their bodies, Irene loudly cough.

“AHEM!”

“AAAAAHH!!” The poor Seulgi almost got a heart attack in her such very young age because of that. She literally jumped on her spot very high before she fell down because her knees turned jelly, too weak to support her body weight.

Irene finally let out her laugh roaring out loud seeing the younger’s girl pathetic yet super hilarious state at the moment.

“I-Irene unnie?” Seulgi stammered as she’s still crouching on the floor.

“PFTT~” Irene tried hard to stop her laugh. She takes out some tissues from inside her jeans pocket to wipe away the remaining tears in her eyes. It’s been awhile since she can laughed this hard. It feels good to laugh again this much. All thanks to Seulgi.

“Hey, sorry kid for surprising you. Now c’mon, get up.” Irene stretched out her hand and open up her palm, asking for Seulgi to grab it.

Seulgi look at Irene’s baby-like hand, she still remembers how soft and warm that hand is. She likes to hold it. So she waste no more time to grab that hand and hold it tightly when Irene’s pull her up.

Both didn’t say anything for awhile. Maybe waiting the other to speak first. Well, for Seulgi’s part, she’s currently busy arranging words inside her head to explain to Irene if the older girl ask her about her doing in front of the door earlier.

“Well..” Irene begins. Seulgi’s anticipating.

“You now are strong enough to stand on your own feet right?” Seulgi was confused at first with the question, but she nodded her head as confirmation.

“Good. So do you think you can support yourself and let go of my hand?” Irene teased with a mischievous grin.

“Ah sorry!” Seulgi quickly let go of her hold on Irene’s hand. She didn’t realize that she’s still holding onto Irene’s hand until the older girl pointed out. She feels so embarrassed right now. She can feel the heat crept onto her face.

Irene just snickered. “It’s okay, Seul. You don’t have to be shy about that.” Irene put her thumb under Seulgi’s chin and push it up a bit so Seulgi would look at her again.

“I have to go back inside now. The shooting will start soon. You better go back to your waiting room too and prepare yourself.”
 

Seulgi nodded.

“Good. I’ll see you again soon.” Irene smiles and patted Seulgi’s hand before she