Irene has always been one to have her priorities straight; plans in place to achieve her goals. Irene has her future envisioned, and how she’ll get there. That means college activities all planned out, being in student government body, and a few clubs, preferably being elected in roles that will look good on her resume one day.

With that in mind, Irene finds herself sitting idly in a café down town, waiting for her group mates to arrive in their agreed meeting place. She’s waiting for two of her friends and a newly recruited member who joined their committee. They needed all the extra help and she trust Wendy’s judgment on whoever it is she let her in.

Sunny’s Daily Brew was one of those ultra-hipster spots popular these days, it is not Irene’s typical café of choice to visit. The interior is of brick walls with lots of leather couches, a tall bar with stools on the glass wall facing the outside and high ceiling that made the café feel spacious. The place is packed with mostly students with their laptops and notes sipping on lattes or iced Americanos. There’s some jazz music playing through the speakers coupled with chatters of the patrons.

Sipping on a tea she ordered prior, she heard more than see Jennie and Wendy walking towards her with the way they chatter away in their distinct English exchanges. She’s chosen a table with two big couches facing one another, tucked in the corner of the café where there’s lesser crowd and noise, and sat on the couch facing away from the entrance where there’s too much distraction. The two ladies slipped in the couch opposite her.

“Did you wait long unnie? Sorry had to dodge my mom who’s begging to go shopping.” Jennie huffs as she settles herself.

“It’s okay, I wasn’t here long.” Irene answers with a smile.

And Wendy jumps in too excitingly. “It’s true! Guess what? I even saw her mom getting off the car with her, trying to stop Jennie from going.” She snickers.

Jennie just rolled her eyes good-naturedly at Wendy. “She’s taken persuasiveness at a whole new level, my mom.” And the three of them shared a good laugh.

“So anyways, Jen and I have some ideas while walking to here. I bumped on her two blocks from here, where her mom dropped her off. Plenty of time to exchange some ideas. We’ll lay them all out later, we can use some more brains to help finessing the ideas.” Wendy says.

“And look who’s finally arrived? Here comes more of that said help.” Jennie says as she inclined her head in the direction of the door. Irene turns her head just in time to witness the Kang Seulgi kissing the cheek of the smiling barista, who whispered something in her ear that made Seulgi laugh. They look cozy. Irene is feeling irritated.

As Seulgi strolled towards them in confident strides, Irene’s stomach lurches weirdly. Must be the tea, she’s never having one here again.

Irene faced her two friends, with eyebrows meeting in a frown. “What is that troublemaker doing here?” She hissed. Irene can’t believe her eyes, seeing Seulgi joining them. As the coordinator of their organization that aims to help raise awareness on the LGBT community and extend a helping hand to the less fortunate, Irene is not one to judge, it’s just that Seulgi never strike her to be one who is interested to help some causes. Especially not one that involves social work at times.

Their team is only composed of twelve active members and three committees. Irene makes sure to screen those who are interested to join them thoroughly, and she trusts Wendy’s judgment on personal character just as much as hers. So what is Seulgi doing here? Being a member of their team, and a member of her committee at that.

What Irene knew about Seulgi is that she’s so full of herself, she spends most of her time hanging out anywhere and everywhere. Seulgi is known in their school as someone who goes out a lot, everyone knows her because she’s everywhere, and even the barista in the counter seems to know her well. So Irene has doubts, she doubts Seulgi is fit to join them, doubting she can make time for their organization.

Despite Irene’s obvious dislike, Seulgi slips on the empty space beside her with a grin. “Sorry to keep you girls waiting, drinks’ on me.”

Irene snaps, her annoyance directed to Seulgi as she spat. “What are you doing here?” Every word heavily punctuated to make it known her dislike.

“Why Irene, thank you for the warm welcome, it’s so nice to see you too. And just so you know, I passed Wendy’s evaluation and met the qualification.” Seulgi answers coolly.

“Well, we need dedication here.” Irene can’t help but to jab.

Monolid eyes rounded in mock surprise as Seulgi looked at her. “Know what? Your just insulting me, your annoyance towards me is so obvious I can feel it from a kilometer radius. I passed the evaluations, that means Wendy thinks that I am dedicated, right Seungwan?”

Seungwan, of course, Irene thinks to herself. With how polar opposites the two are, Irene sometimes forget that Wendy and Seulgi are best of friends.

But Irene’s not going to let this go just like that. “Dedicated? For someone dedicated you sure dedicate so much of your time trying to peek on my papers during exams.”

“Now, now let’s not go there. That’s another story.” Seulgi has managed to keep her cool still, “I’m not the only one struggling with math, I share the same sentiments with majority of the student body.” Seulgi reasons. “You can even try conducting a survey on what’s the most hated subject of students’” She grins, knowing Irene can’t tell otherwise.

“Well, this is hard work. We’ll consume a lot of your time, we don’t want someone who’d be complaining because they need their time to hang out.”

Seulgi one perfectly trimmed eyebrow, a bit of an annoyance finally showing. “Look at you, you’re really out to get me. Is it a norm here to insult your new members or is it an exclusive treatment just for me?”

And Irene was taken aback slightly, maybe she’s going overboard and insulting. She takes a deep breath to calm down, to still her heart she’s noticed is now beating rapidly, must be the anger.

“But you love nightlife and hanging out.” Irene says, as mild as she can, with no malice or insult in her voice, just simply laying out the fact.

And Seulgi’s demeanor has changed, her frown fading and replaced by a teasing smile playing on her lips.

“What are you grinning at?”

“You don’t know me, do you Bae? And here I thought you’re allergic to me? Why does it seem like you know what I’ve been up to?” And Irene has to look away, she can’t stand the teasing smile on Seulgi’s lips. “Are you following me?”

“Of course not!” Irene answers immediately. “I-I just happen to know the likes of you.” She defends.

“And may I ask what you think of me?”

Irene looks at Seulgi straight in the eyes “You’re the type who gets all you want no matter how unreasonable, you waste your time hanging out, a er for attention, and has nothing better to do with your life.” she says determined. But Irene almost wanted to take all her words back the moment it left her lips. She’s expecting Seulgi to answer back, reason with her, but she didn’t.

Irene wasn’t prepared for the look in Seulgi’s eyes the moment her words sank. The pain she saw in her eyes can’t be mistaken. Even if she wanted to, she can no longer take her words back. Harm was already done.

Irene is accustomed to Seulgi annoying her; she always made her lose her temper; always pushing her to the edge. That’s how Seulgi always affected her.

The pain in her eyes was unnerving, there was silence between them. Jennie and Wendy are at a loss for word as they witness the heated exchange. It felt like they’d be intruding to say a word, so they kept their mouths shut not knowing how to pacify Irene and Seulgi.

After the silence that settled, Seulgi is the first one to break the ice. “I will prove you wrong Irene. I will make you fall in love with me, and you will eat your words because you are going to love this woman. This attention seeking woman who has nothing better to do with her life.”

And just like that, Seulgi stood and bolted to the exit door without looking back leaving a shocked Irene, Jennie and Wendy with her words.

Irene was left speechless, tea cold, and a thudding heart that’s beating wildly.

Was she threatened? Most certainly not. Kang Seulgi is not her type, and will never be. Irene convinces herself.

-

I write to express what I feel and make it out to stories, it's been a good therapy.

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