Chapter 8: 

 

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SM High Forum: 

 

Breaking News: Seulrene ship is finally sailing! 

 

Yesterday at noon, Goddess Bae and KkangSeul confirms their relationship with a sweet Instagram post! Captioned with two simple hearts, the couple has stirred an uproar in the school after confirming the suspicions of their shippers. Many have already speculated the both of them were dating ever since the dance captain started to send both Irene and her friend to school every morning. 

 

The couple has received congratulations from many after their post yesterday. Many asked about how their relationship started and the romantic dance captain sweetly reveals, “It was love at first sight.” Her honey words elicited a shy chuckle from her beautiful girlfriend, who has refused to comment on this issue. 

 

Their relationship is met with positive response from majority of student population, praising their visuals explosion and the birth of a new power couple. 

 

We wish Seulrene all the best! 

 

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While waiting for Seulgi at the foot of her building, Irene reads through the new post and lets out a sigh the first thing in the morning. Why is their private relationship even something to be talked about by others? 

 

A familiar yellow car pulls up in front of her and the windscreen immediately rolls down. 

 

A visibly distraught Seulgi catches Irene’s eyes and groans loudly, “Hyunnie! Save me from Wendy!” 

 

Wendy’s head immediately peeks out from the back seat and she glares at Irene with lasers shooting from her eyes. The girl barks, “Bae Joohyun! How dare you ignore my messages for the entire day!” 

 

Oops, Irene suddenly remembered she did turn off her phone for the entire day after leaving the bleachers without replying any of the messages. 

 

Seeing Wendy like this, Irene suddenly feels like taking the bus today. However, she still reluctantly hops onto the car. After putting on her seat belt, she turns back to meet her fuming friend with an embarrassed smile. 

 

“I-I’m sorry, Seungwan. I wanted to tell you personally!” Irene tries her best to reveal her best version of puppy eyes so that Wendy will let her off, but Wendy will give her none of it. 

 

“Well, I, your so-called best friend, had to find out through an Instagram post?!” Wendy shrieks back in reply.

 

Oh damn, Wendy is really angry. 

 

“I’m really sorry. Seulgi and I haven’t been dating for long so we didn’t want anyone to find out. No one knows about us at all so you’re not left out!” Irene tries her best to pacify her best friend with her rare-to-be-seen aegyo. All of her whining and acting cutely towards Wendy is seen by Seulgi, who almost swerves the car in the wrong direction out of surprise. 

 

She tries to stay calm by looking away, but her eyes cannot help but gravitate towards Irene’s direction to look at her aegyo. Indeed, Irene looks the prettiest when she is smiling. However, Seulgi realises that most of the times when they are together, Irene seems to be frowning instead. Is she doing something wrong? 

 

Fortunately, her aegyo manages to calm down her friend eventually. Wendy crosses her arms across her chest and grumbles, “Now, I demand to know everything about you two. When did you meet? How did you meet? Who asked who out? And, have you done anything yet.” 

 

“Done anything?” Seulgi asks while acting innocent, which ignites a glare from Irene. 

 

“You know, holding hands, hugging and kissing. That kind of stuff.” Wendy explains. 

 

“Oh,” Seulgi chuckles and suddenly her right hand reaches out to grab Irene’s left hand. “We have done many things.” She made sure to emphasis on the word “many” while smirking at Irene. “Right, Hyun-ah?” 

 

Irene immediately slips her hand away from Seulgi and smacks her arm hard. She hisses, “Stay away from me.”  

 

“Why do y’all look like you’re are still enemies?” Wendy narrows her eyes on them. “Now that I think about it, it's impossible y’all got together within such a short amount of time while I was sick. I remember Joohyun still refused to call you a friend a few days ago." 

 

"I was just joking, Seungwan!" Irene lies while letting out a nervous chuckle, without turning back to look at Wendy. She gives Seulgi a side glance, and the latter immediately adds, "Oh yeah! We were already close back then, but we didn't want you to find out." 

 

"But still, its way too fast for Irene to develop feelings for you." Wendy defends, still stubbornly refuses to accept their explanation. Seulgi simply sighs, thinking it is indeed hard to trick someone as smart as Wendy, who scored all 'A*'s for their previous common test. 

 

"Well, don't forget that I chased her for about two weeks straight, with gifts and flowers every day. Joohyun may seem like she hated it on the surface, but she was actually touched by my gestures," Seulgi turns to smile at Irene and reaches out to hold her hand. Aware of their current situation, Irene also slips out a smile and she uses her own hand to Seulgi's hand tenderly. 

 

"Yeah, I was so touched by her actions." Irene lies through her bright smile and looks at Seulgi sweetly. Inside, she is trying her best not to gag at her own actions. 

 

"But, there was once a guy who chased you for two years in middle school with gifts and flowers every day! And, you didn't even give him a chance!" Despite their convincing lies, Wendy is still slightly skeptical about their relationship. 

 

"Well, that's because....I....um, I'm not interested in guys!" 

 

“That’s true,” Wendy finally accepts her lies and Irene heaves a sigh of huge relief inside.

 

However, Wendy immediately follows up, "Then what about that girl who also chased you for three months?" 

 

"I...I..." Irene sends a quick look towards Seulgi to ask for help, but the latter just returns her a helpless expression and slightly shakes her head. Seulgi mouths, “Don’t ask me!” 

 

"So? Don’t tell me all of this is fake...” 

 

“Of course not!” Irene quickly replies her and she suddenly reaches out to grab Seulgi’s hand for once, giving the latter a surprise. Irene tries to put on her sweetest smile while looking at Seulgi and she beams, “I’m really in love with my G-Gom...mom...” 

 

Damn it, Irene thought she could pretend she is in love with Seulgi but it is so hard to stay in character, especially while seeing the delighted smirk on the captain’s face awaiting her words. 

 

“Gom what?” Wendy asks impatiently, excited to know what nickname they have for each other. 

 

“Gomdori...” Irene mutters and sinks into her seat after saying that word. Saying it out loud has exhausted so much of her energy that she feels as if she has already finished her entire day’s workload when school has not even begun yet. 

 

“Oh. My. God.” Wendy gasps and then she suddenly lets out a loud excited scream. 

 

“Jesus, the car roof almost fell off!” Seulgi complains unhappily, her ears still ringing from the bloodcurdling scream. 

 

“Y’all are so cute!” Wendy leans in and pinches both of their cheeks, igniting simultaneous grunts from both of them. 

 

“She calls you a teddy bear!” Wendy exclaims to Seulgi, who just nods and chuckles. “Oh my god, Joohyun! Y’all are so in love. I ship y’all so much!” 

 

“Yeah, whatever.” Irene turns away from Wendy and looks out of the window out of embarrassment, hoping to hide the blush on her face. 

 

That was fast, Irene thought to herself. Maybe, Wendy is not all that smart after all.

 

When they reached the school, Seulgi requested Wendy to alight the car first as she has something to tell Irene. 

 

Before closing the car door, Wendy wriggles her eyebrows at the two and teases, “I’m leaving now. Y’all are free to do whatever you want now.” She pushes her lips together to show a kissing expression, and runs away quickly before Irene’s short arm reaches out to smack Wendy. 

 

“So, now we can do whatever we want.” It is Seulgi’s turn to tease Irene as both of them are  alone in the car now. This does not stop Irene’s free hand that is about to hit Wendy from landing on Seulgi’s arm instead. 

 

“Ouch.” Seulgi rubs her arm sadly and pouts, “Is this how you treat your Gomdori?”

 

“Ugh, shut up. What do you want to tell me?” Irene asks her in a business-like tone. 

 

Seulgi chuckles then warns her, “Later when we get out of this car, we will be subjected to the scrutiny of the public again. Remember we don’t want anyone to know that we are lying, Joohyun. Or we will turn out to be the biggest laughing stock in the school.” 

 

“I know.” Irene mutters. “I will do my best to act like I’m in love with a cocky like you.” 

 

“Good.” Seulgi chirps and she casually reveals while picking up her bag from the back seat, “Bogum’s watching us from the gate by the way. So, remember to act in a way that will make him lose interest in you.” 

 

“I know.” Irene replies with a solemn expression and picks up her own bag. Seulgi does not reply, but she is indeed a little worried about Irene’s performance later. 

 

Once they alighted from the car, Irene suddenly skips to Seulgi’s side and interlocks her arms with the latter. Seulgi widens her eyes in amusement at her how natural Irene’s acting is.

 

With a dazzling smile on her face, the shorter girl beams, “Lets go, Gomdori!” 

 

“O-Okay.” Seulgi slips out a bright smile of her own and interlocks her fingers together. The feeling of Irene’s small and lean fingers between her own feels weird, but oddly satisfying at the same time. 

 

They walked together into the school confidently as a couple, greeting anyone who cheered them on as they walked past. Irene’s bright smile only faltered once, when she is walking past the school gate and sees Bogum’s hard expression on his face, as well as her other friends’ angry expressions demanding her for an explanation. 

 

After a while, Irene suddenly whispers to Seulgi that she needs a break and she asks Seulgi to accompany her to the toilet. 

 

Once inside, Irene instantly starts to check if there is anyone else in the cubicles. 

 

Seulgi just stands by the sinks and smiles, “Are you scared someone will catch us kissing?” Seulgi was referring to one of their conversations just now, when Seulgi got a little too excited about spinning stories and lied about how they had their first kiss during their punishment together while cleaning windows.  

 

After making sure they do not have any uninvited guests, Irene finally drops her smile while looking at Seulgi. Now, it is replaced by a sharp glare and a hard smack lands on Seulgi’s arm again. 

 

“Y-You’re one scary woman.” Seulgi comments while glancing at Irene cautiously, after seeing Irene’s ability to switch her expressions in a flash like a professional actress. 

 

“How dare you make such a big lie right in front of me!” Irene suddenly barks, scaring the poor bear who stutters, “I-I thought you wanted m-me to make it as convincing as possible.” 

 

“Ugh!” Irene just grunts out in frustration and takes a few deep breaths alone. Meanwhile, the poor bear a few sinks away just looks at her warily, afraid that another word from her would invite another scolding from her girlfriend. 

 

Suddenly, someone enters the toilet and she greets them loudly, “Seulgi unnie! Oh my gosh, it’s Irene unnie!” The small girl screams out and immediately runs towards them to engulf them in a huge hug individually. The stranger suddenly jumps onto the unsuspecting Irene, and welcomes her with a overly enthusiastic, bone-crushing embrace. 

 

Once the girl pulls away, Irene finally notices the pair of big, round eyes staring back with zeal in her eyes. 

 

“W-Who are you?” Irene asks, taking a step back as she feels a little intimidated by the girl’s energy. The girl is really pretty, but what Irene notices instead is her bustling energy: a trademark of Seulgi’s dance club members. 

 

The girl takes two steps forward and she suddenly holds onto Irene’s hands tightly before introduces herself in a booming voice, “I am Kim Yeri! Seulgi unnie’s favourite dongsaeng from the dance club!” 

 

“Debatable.” Seulgi jokes but it stirs an uproar because Yeri suddenly storms towards her and crossed her arms. “What did you say, Unnie?” Her voice was low and threatening. 

 

“I-I’m just kidding, Yerim. You know me, right? I love you the most!” Seulgi quickly pacifies her maknae with a bright smile while ruffling her hair out of panic. 

 

Seeing the usually calm Kang Seulgi suddenly acting all so flustered around her dongsaeng, Irene realises she does like this particular child called Yeri. 

 

Just like the dance captain, Yeri was easily appeased with a few sweet words and she soon slips out a bright smile again. Yeri goes back to Irene’s side and she asks her, “Will you join us for recess today?”

 

That sounds like the worst idea Irene has ever heard. However, seeing the hopeful expression on Yeri’s face, she cannot help but feel bad when she says, “I usually sit with my friends so-“

 

“Unnie, sit with us please! There is so much I want to ask you~” Yeri tugs on Irene’s arm and whines cutely in aegyo, which melts Irene’s heart and makes her nod without thinking. How can anyone resist a child like Yeri? 

 

“Yay!” The maknae cheered and she flashes a thumbs up at Seulgi, who nods and returns one back to her. 

 

“Unnies, I’ll return to class first! See y’all later!” Yeri waves at both of them and runs out of the toilet, like how Jackson did yesterday. 

 

“I’ll pick you up from your classroom later?” Seulgi suggests, now both of them are alone in the toilet again. 

 

Irene surprisingly agrees, “Okay.” 

 

“You seem to like Yerim.” Seulgi comments, sensing Irene's good mood. “You said you didn’t want to meet her but she’s actually more likeable than expected right?” 

 

“You described her as if she’s the devil’s child, but she seems to be a sweet angel after all.” Irene smiles, thinking about Yeri’s sweet disposition. 

 

“Angel?” Seulgi scoffs and mutters under her own breath, “Wait till you know more about her.”

 

“What did you say?”

 

“Oh, nothing! Be prepared for later, Hyun.” Seulgi suddenly warns Irene. 

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

“You’re going to meet my club members later,” Seulgi walks towards Irene with an inconspicuous smile and she stops in front of her, “Be prepared.” 

 

“Why? Are they going to suddenly break out into a dance routine again?” Irene raises an eyebrow. 

 

The dance captain chuckles, “You’ll see.”

 

 

—-

 

 

If each dance club member alone can be described as bursting with energy, all of them gathered together is like a supernova, the explosion of a massive supergiant star, with energy enough to shine with the brightness of 10 billion suns! 

 

Sitting in the middle of the infamous red tables, all of the members are huddled in a circle surrounding Irene and Seulgi. Many tongues are speaking at once and it is so chaotic that Irene can barely even focus on anyone talking. 

 

“You went to get milk and came back with a beautiful girlfriend instead. As expected of our Captain!” Lisa praises her and the rest chorused in agreement. 

 

“She’s seriously so pretty!” 

 

“A Goddess is a Goddess indeed.”

 

“Unnie is seriously an angel fallen from heaven!” 

 

All this while, Irene can only hide behind Seulgi’s arm and she held onto it tight because it is really scary to have so many people literally gawking at her openly, without any boundaries. 

 

While Seulgi gets lost in the midst of all the attention and happily entertains all of their praises, she finally notices the person who has been gripping on her arm tightly after a while. 

 

She looks at Irene, who has her lips pressed into a firm line, eyes facing the ground and her body stuck closely to Seulgi’s. 

 

Seulgi lifts Irene’s chin up with a finger and asks, “Are you okay?” 

 

“I’m not. I don’t like so many people staring at me.” Irene quickly mutters back and pushes her finger away. 

 

Sensing Irene’s displeasure, Seulgi clears abruptly and claps her hands together in a way that immediately commands all of the members’ attention and make them stay quiet to await for her instructions. Normally, she uses this tactic only for practice sessions but now, it seems to have far more use than just for dancing. 

 

Seulgi stands up on the bench and instructs all of them severely, “Okay, all of you disperse and go for lunch now.” 

 

“Captain, we haven’t even seen enough of Irene yet. She hasn’t even spoken a word!” Jackson complains. 

 

Seulgi lets out a frustrated sigh, “Now, all of them stop embarrassing me and stop gawking at my girlfriend! Don’t act like you’ve never seen good looking people before.”

 

“Yes, Captain.” All of them replied together and followed their captain’s instructions. When the crowd finally disappears, Irene feels like she can suddenly breath again. 

 

“Thanks.” Irene tells Seulgi in a quiet voice, the latter nods and beams, “You’re welcome. Come, this is the bench I always sit at.” She guides Irene to one of the red benches in the middle, where there are already four other people seated around it. 

 

She recognises one of them as Yeri, who greets her happily and demands Irene to sit beside her. The tall girl seated beside Yeri, just looks at her with wide eyes and gasps, “Oh my god Irene unnie, you’re really beau-ouch! Seulgi unnie!” The girl looks at Seulgi with a pout, as Seulgi just used her hotdog bun to smack the girl on her head. 

 

Seulgi warns her, “Didn’t I just say not to act this way?” 

 

“I’m sorry, unnie.” The girl apologises and then takes another look at Irene shyly. “Irene unnie, I’m sorry too.”

 

“It’s alright,” Irene smiles. Judging from the way the girl addresses her as unnie, Irene guesses that this must be the other of the Tom and Jerry duo. 

 

“Unnie, my name is Sooyoung by the way. You can call me “Joy” too.” The girl introduces herself with a coy smile, while tucking her hair behind her ear. 

 

“Yah, Park Sooyoung! Stop being so gross.” Yeri elbows Sooyoung, sending a sharp jab to the latter’s stomach. 

 

“Yah Kim Yerim! How dare you!” Sooyoung suddenly stares at Yeri with deadly eyes and launches a tickling attack on the latter, as both of them started to attack one another simultaneously like cat and mouse. 

 

“H-Hey stop fighting!” Irene tries to pull Yeri back to break the fight, but Seulgi simply pulls her back and tells her casually, “Don’t interfere with their fight or you may get hurt. Don’t worry, they fight like this all the time.”

 

“They’re the Tom and Jerr