“Tired of waiting?”

Listlessly dipping her feet in pool water with her on the gutter, Irene looks up and finds the owner of the voice wrapped in a royal blue silk bathrobe walking towards her. “Any second later and I would have jumped you,” Irene jokingly replies. It is a calm evening for a good swim in the pool in front of the rest house. Seulgi shows up almost an hour later than what was agreed, and the other girl was beginning to get impatient, thinking she bailed out.

Seulgi smirks then shrugs off the robe to reveal her slender body in a black bikini. Irene gulps at the spectacle before her - it was the first time she has seen her scantily clad, and oh boy, did her irritation of her being late dissolve.

“Well, I took time deciding what to wear,” Seulgi remarks with a hand on her waist.

Suddenly, Irene’s one-piece swimsuit felt tight around her body and she could feel the blood rush up to her face. She clears and stammers, “I-I hate you, I thought you wouldn’t come.” She averts her gaze and jumps into the pool to conceal her chagrin. She dives, going a bit deep but not reaching the floor, then emerges back onto the surface of the water. She wipes the drops of water away from her face with her hands, and when she opens her eyes she sees Seulgi treading in front of her. “Don’t be mad, you know I’ll never ditch you,” Seulgi coaxes. She reaches for Irene’s hands, and the latter doesn’t pull them back albeit taken aback with the other’s boldness.

Seulgi leads Irene, and together they float towards a shallow corner of the pool where Seulgi backs the latter against.

“I think I know how I could make it up to you,” the brunette whispers just loud enough for Irene to hear. She moves closer, and they could feel their bent knees touch.

“How?” Irene is trying hard not to show excitement and anticipation. Something weird is going on.

“Can I kiss you?” Seulgi asks.

Irene’s knees almost buckled at the inquiry. Totally weird. “K-kiss me?”

Seulgi chuckles, then slowly leans in. Irene is blushing so hard - even harder than the first - and she can feel her heart leap to . She can feel the weight of Seulgi’s gaze upon her, and she loved it. Irene has always wanted to be desired by her. She returns the stare just as warm, then Seulgi closes her eyes once their faces are only an inch apart. Irene hesitates if she should do the same, because this is the one thing she wants to witness in her life—

Her dream is cut short by the rapping at the door.

Irene peels back her lids and stares at the low ceiling of her bedroom. She lightly slaps her cheeks. That was a good dream, she thinks, blinking rapidly. We were about to kiss! Ugh, she thinks again, annoyed, wondering who disrupted her sleep. She rolls out of bed, rubs her eyes, and blindly slips her feet into her bunny slippers. She turns the knob and pulls it back, finding Yeri standing on the other side of the door.

“Yeri, you’re early,” Irene complains, yawning.

“What early? It’s ten in the morning! I can’t believe you still haven’t gotten out of bed,” Yeri retaliated. Irene gave her the password to their digital lock because she trusted her friend, but she didn’t think through how inconvenient it could be for her at times.

Irene pouted. “I was dreaming about the lemonade girl! You just had to ruin it!”

“Oh! So now it’s my fault I interrupted your date in a freakin’ dream,” scoffs Yeri, her arms crossed in indignation. “We’re eating brunch at the resort, remember?”

Right, I totally forgot! The older girl realizes she might have gone too far and quickly douses the tension between them. “Okay, sorry I was just joking. Just wait for me, I’ll be ready in a jiffy.”

The blonde waited for an hour.

The burger and lemonade kiosk are dealing with relatively more customers today than the past few days. The uptick in customers can attributed to a huge gathering for a family reunion booked at the resort’s hall today, which involved not only the immediate family but also the extended ones. Most of the kids preferred their stall’s snacks than the fancy finger foods served at the hall. Nearing lunchtime though, the buyers dwindled which they did not mind for it was their cue to rest.

“Don’t you really think the girl was weird?” Joy found Irene's behavior yesterday to be eccentric. It sort of ticked her off that the girl wasn’t even discreet, lying to her face.

Seulgi sighs, studying her solid-colored fingernails. “Why?”

“She’s suspiciously chummy to you,” she squints. Seulgi didn’t particularly like when Joy’s suspicious and squinting, because she’s usually right and it’s totally unfair for the third party being subjugated to judgment.

“Maybe she’s just comfortable with me. I’m not really that hard to befriend,” Seulgi surmised.

“Are you saying I’m not likable?” Joy retorts. 

“I didn’t say that,” Seulgi denies. “You better go eat your lunch now ’cause it’s probably your hunger that’s doing the talking.”

Joy harrumphs, removes her apron, and stomps out of the kiosk to grab lunch. Seulgi chortles and slightly shakes her head, knowing that her friend has a temper and that it will soon pass. The redhead has aggressively tried to persuade her that Irene had ulterior motive other than just buying blue lemonade. The accusation was beyond her. Irene seems like a sweet gal who just enjoys their product, far from what Joy is painting her image to be.

“Speak of the devil,” Seulgi mutters under her breath. At a distance she spots Irene and another girl with long blonde hair approaching their stall, with the grey and partially overcast horizon in the background.

Irene is decked in an off-shoulder top and skimpy black shorts. She also spent her preparation time curling the ends of her hair, putting on light makeup, and choosing what to use among her collection of Victoria’s Secret scents. She settled with the summer eau de parfum since she thought it goes well with the season and her destination. Seulgi instantly catches a whiff of the floral and fruity notes of the perfume as soon as Irene reaches the kiosk.

“Hello! What would you both like to have?” Seulgi greets them with apparent enthusiasm, and reasonably so. On the clock eight hours a day and five days a week, a regular customer in the kind of establishment she is working on is rather rare. 

“I’ll take the usual,” replies Irene with a wink.  

“A bottle of blue lemonade… of course, of course!” Seulgi exclaims and turns to the blonde, “And you?”

“Same as hers,” Yeri answers noncommittally, distracted by Seulgi’s features. The girl behind counter owns a pair of sharp eyes partially obscured under the brim of her cap and a jawline more prominent in side profile, which is mildly contrasting - though not at all incongruous - to the roundness of her face and softness of her cheeks and nose. Her features makes her cute and chic, and Yeri knows her double charms could be deadly if only she knew how to wield it.

Seulgi hands them the chilled bottles, and in turn they pay with the exact amount.

“By the way, she’s my friend. Her name’s Yeri,” Irene introduces the brunette to the blonde and vice versa, “Yeri, she’s Seulgi.”

The both of them say hi to each other timidly.

“So, do the two of you live around here?” Seulgi asked, curious. Irene must either be staying in the hotel or in close proximity to the resort to have gone to the stall thrice now. 

“Ah, no… we’re just on vacation. Yeri’s relatives are locals, while my dad bought a rest house nearby. He’s hardly around due to work though, so I’m pretty much alone; hence why I go out and tag my friend along,” Irene explains. “What about you?”

“I do live in this town. I’m just working here for the summer though.”

Yeri unscrews the cap of the bottle and drinks, zoning out of the conversation. The other two girls had a quick exchange about the basics: age, education, and the weather - prompted by Irene to bury the awkward gap of conservation quickly. Seulgi found out that they’re both university students and she was one year her junior. Subsequently, Yeri snaps out of her trance…

Irene flips her hair, the curls dangling lazily behind her back, exposing her bare shoulders, and poses a rather forward question, “Can I get your number?”

A fit of coughing ensues as Yeri chokes on her drink, her face turning beet red. 

“My number?” Seulgi questions Irene while worrying if the other could breathe properly. “Are you alright, Yeri?”

She waits for the coughing to peter out then she nods. “Yup! Just went down the wrong pipe.”

“I know that was totally out of the blue, but I’m asking for it so that maybe I could invite you over to hang out in the future?” confesses Irene as she tucks stray strands of hair (that kept getting ruffled by the breeze) behind her ear and continues, “It can get lonely with just Yeri and I, so I’m making new friends.”

Yeri gapes at her friend. Unbelievable, she mouths.

“Oh, sure,” Seulgi replies without hesitation. “Do you have your phone? I’ll punch in my number and save it to your contacts.”

Irene fishes out her iPhone covered with a Judy Hopps casing and hands it to Seulgi with a satisfied grin on her face. Seulgi types her number on the phone quickly and saves it with her name in the contact list then returns the phone to Irene. “Thank you! I’ll take this to mean that we’re really friends now.”

“Cool,” replied Seulgi. “I mean, why not? You’re nice.”

This causes Irene’s mouth to split into a wide, beautiful smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll still buy your lemonade drinks at its retail price, I’m totally not doing this to ask for a discount,” she quips. Yeri snorts and the older girl lightly nudges her arm, blushing. Seulgi cackles a beat later.

“Anyway, I’m sorry for bothering you. See you!”

“See you!”

Irene leaves together with Yeri, an unopened bottle of blue lemonade in her hand.

“What if she’s a serial killer?!” Joy gripes animatedly. “How could you just give your number to her? She’s going to lure you into an isolated cabin and I’m the one who’s going to haunt you in your death if that happens because you did not heed my warning! Pretty girls like that are most likely psychopaths.” She and Seulgi are ambling the gravelly path lined with undergrowth that leads to the resort’s entrance, except that they were exiting the premises and going home.

“Give it up, you’re watching too much movies,” Seulgi rebuts. “How are you this skeptical with her?”

Joy stops walking and stares at her friend in disbelief. “How can you not? She lied to me about not wanting to buy anything, then once you came she says she was there for a bottle of lemonade juice! Isn’t that fishy to you?”

“We can’t really be arguing about this again,” Seulgi groaned. “I told you she got friendly with me the first time she bought a drink, and not to brag but I’m totally an approachable person. She’s staying here for the summer and she wants to make friends, at least that’s what she told me.”

Joy starts walking again, and Seulgi follows by her side. It is past five thirty in the afternoon, and the sun has been continuously hidden by the burgeoning cluster of gray clouds. Cold air lingers and the gust of the breeze hasn’t slowed down. The chance of rain was a nice change of weather though, a reprieve from the sultry summer days.

“And you believe her easily? If she wanted to make friends, how could she ignore me, then be into you only. I swear… a very beautiful girl, it’s almost unreal, is fond of you? She’s a witch and you’re the coven’s target!” Joy utters, clutching the string of her sling bag. “You’re dead, Kang Seulgi, you’re so dead…”

“Silly,” Seulgi chuckles. “You have trust issues, I know, because someone catfished you once. But c’mon, Irene’s a nice girl, and she’s just probably shy cause you’re intimidating."

“Not to mention she only buys blue lemonade each time she visits the kiosk! Not one time she bought any of our burgers! I’m the one who’s selling the burgers, Seulgi! Either she hates me or she has an appetite of a vegetarian!” Joy exclaims, ignoring her friend’s explanations, because she doesn’t want to hold back, despite her deduction going overboard.

Seulgi laughs. “Joy-ah, you’re getting really weird about this. Irene is not a conspiracy theory. She’s a goddess walking this earth, that’s true, and she’s fond of me and the blue lemonade, I can’t argue, but this is nothing to be wary of. You’re just being overprotective of me, and I get that.”

With those words, Joy could only relent. “You know you’re my favorite unni, right?"

They have reached the front gate, where a security guard is posted. They bid him goodbye out of courtesy.

"I know, I know." Seulgi kicks a pebble and it rolls out into the main highway. "No harm's gonna come to me, and please stop implying that Irene is crazy before you end up committing a Freudian slip in front of her."

“Don’t worry, I was just messing with you half the time,” Joy admits with a sly smile, “but I’m still gonna be watchful and find out her intentions.”

“Well, it’s not like I can stop you,” Seulgi says in defeat.