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You and i, we can't be together right now.

(You&I - IU)

Irene is never a hopeless romantic person. But she’s always a believer.

She believes that everyone in this world, including her, has their own destined one. Or in another word, soulmate.

And now she might or might not meet her soulmate, a bit too early.

Just to make things clear, Irene knows for sure that she’s not a pedo.

She never feel attracted, infatuated, toward any kid, or anyone before in general.

But meeting Seulgi changed everything.

But then she also knows, she and Seulgi just can’t be happening right now, or anytime soon.

That’s why she asked the younger girl to wait for her before she can claim her for real.

5 years.. Irene can wait. She prays Seulgi could too.

But just to make sure Seulgi won’t forget her, Irene will make sure to always;

1. Keeping a close eye on the younger girl.

2. Making her presence feels by the younger girl.

When Seulgi was 13 years old.

The first time they met.

Irene makes a mutual agreement with Seulgi to wait for each other for 5 years before they can finally dating. A good start she made there.

After that, she gave Seulgi her mobile phone number with hope Seulgi would text her or call her when the younger girl needed her or just.. missed her.

Even though much to her dismay, Seulgi never contacted her.

Only after a few years later she finally found out the truth from Seulgi herself that at that time Seulgi didn’t have her mobile phone yet. Thus Seulgi couldn’t contact the older girl no matter how much she wanted to. So she only keeps the paper that had Irene’s phone number on it inside her drawer securely.

After knowing that, Irene only facepalmed herself and muttered under her breath, (Seulgi still heard her though because the younger girl tried her best to hide her smile)

“I was mopping around for weeks over nothing.”

A 13 years old Seulgi who passed the audition and became one out of 12 contestants in KIJ season 1, had to stay in KIJ dorm and live together with the rest of the chosen kids for 8 weeks.

In each week, they got to perform on stage and get themselves judged and voted by the audience. The one who got votes the least will get eliminated and ended their journey in KIJ.

And on the 8th week, the last week, there will be three remaining contestants who will have their last battle in the grand final. The winner of KIJ will get several prizes such as, money, scholarship in SOPA (School of Performing Arts Seoul), and after graduated from SOPA, the winner will immediately sign an exclusive contract with SM ent. and becoming their artist.

On the first week, Seulgi was crying so hard already at the backstage after the show ended. Why? There are two reasons behind her tears.

First, she just lost one of her friends, her cute and bubbly dongsaeng that she met in KIJ named Jeon Somi. Somi unfortunately got the lowest score and it means she has to leave the show on the first week. Even though they’ve been friends for practically only one week long, Seulgi already like Somi. She wished they could spend more time together.

Second, because her premonition was right. About couldn’t interact with Irene as much as they did in the audition days. Seulgi saw Irene on the judges panel when she performed on the stage. She even saw Irene smiles at her everytime she accidentally (or not) looking at the older girl. She should feel happy enough with that but she’s being greedy.

She wished Irene would show up in front of her right now when she needed her to console her for her loss. She prayed Irene would somehow magically appear and find her like what she did before. But Irene never comes.

“You, silly ol’ bear.. I wanted to go and see you at the backstage after the show ended. I saw you crying when MC Jang announced that Somi has to go home that night after getting the lowest votes, and it worried me seeing you like that. I really wanted to check on you, but sadly i couldn’t. At that time i was so busy preparing for my upcoming album. My schedule was so crazy tight, so i couldn’t even spare 5 minutes to check on you. I’m sorry. But i did make it up for you a few weeks later, right?” Irene softly nudged the blonde who’s currently snuggling deeper into her embrace, totally enjoying Irene’s warmth.

“Yeah, you totally did. Thank you for coming and taking care of me when i needed you the most. 5 years ago until now. You never stopped. You never changed.” The blonde lift up her head to give a lingering kiss on Irene’s cheek before she places her head back to rest on Irene’s shoulder.

“That’s what i should do, Seul. It’s my responsibility to take care of you.” Irene’s low voice gets slightly muffled since she has her face buried in Seulgi’s locks.

“You know what.. I really see you as a superhero when you suddenly showed up in front of me that day.” Seulgi grinned at the memory.

(Flashback)

Irene is in the middle of her dance practice for her new title track that will be released next week. She has been spending her time in the studio since morning. And she’s nowhere close to stop even though she’s already sweating hard.

“Irin, enough. Go get some rest before you continue your practice. You’ve been dancing non stop for an hour.” Taeyeon knows her cousin is a hard worker, a perfectionist too. If she didn’t tell her to stop, Irene might keep doing her dance practice for another hour non stop.

“No, i.. i’m fine, unnie.” Irene hardly answered with pants.

“I know you’re fine. And i just want to make sure that you’ll stay that way. So stop now before i drag you here by myself. And besides, Chaeyoung called you earlier. She didn’t tell me what’s the matter but it seems important. She asked me to ask you to call her back asap.”

“Chaeyoung? Which Chaeyoung? We know several people named Chaeyoung.”

Taeyeon snickered at that. “True. I was wondering why we have so many Chaeyoung around us. Anyway it’s the Park Chaeyoung.”

“Rosie. You can just said it’s Rosie or Rose from the beginning, unnie.” Irene rolled her eyes because obviously Taeyeon did this on purpose just to annoy her.

“Whoops sorry i forget. My bad.” Taeyeon giggled when Irene send a death glare at her.

Irene finally relented and takes her rest. She drinks her water and wipes the sweats on her body before she grabs her phone to call Rose.

“Hello?” Rose’s familiar voice greeted her after the second ring.

“What is it, Park? I heard from Taeyeon unnie you called me and it seems urgent. It better be really important and not some pranks from you or your girlfriend.”

“Bae, it just happened once okay? We pranked call you once and we never did it again after that, so move on will ya?” Irene can imagine Rose’s pouty-unhappy face right now.

“Fine, okay. So if it’s not a prank, what’s the matter, Park? What’s so urgent there?”

“I think we might use a little help here from you, Bae.”

“Wait, we? Who are you with right now? And where are you?”

“I’m in KIJ dorm. I have a singing class with the kids today. But when i check on the attendance list, i didn’t see Seulgi’s name on it. So i asked the other kids and they said Seulgi is down with fever since last night. She already went to hospital and get herself checked but she’s still unwell. Her parents were here but they can’t stay here for too long. I have to leave too soon for my next schedule. So i was thinking, could you pay a visit and check on her? Who knows she’ll recover soon after seeing you.”

“W-why?”

“Huh? Why what?”

“Why you thought she’ll feel better after she sees me?”

“Well, it’s obvious that kid likes you the most. She adores you so much since day one. So i thought your presence might help her to recover faster.”

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