Irene’s vision was blurry and her head was spinning out of control. Her heart was thumping so hard. She was scared.

“Unnie! Get yourself together! Let’s go!”

Irene turned her head and found Wendy was reloading her gun.

“We-Wendy?! What the hell?!” Irene panicked. She was on the floor, back against a wall, breath rushing. She didn't know where she was, or what was she doing.

"Get up!" Wendy yelled at her.

Irene stood up and watched Wendy cocked her gun. She put the gun close to her chest and signalled Irene to follow her.

"Where are we going?"

"Just stay close."

Irene trailed Wendy so closely behind as they walked slowly along the dark corridor. Wendy had a long black coat and she was bleeding on the arm.

"Your arm...."

"Yeah, well... it's better me than you."

"You took a hit for me?"

A man came out of a corner, gun at the ready. Wendy knocked the man's gun, elbowed his face and put two bullets on his head. Another man came rushing from the other side. Wendy spun on her heels, ducked down when the man opened fire. Wendy shot the man on the chest twice.

"Oh, my God! What is happening?!" Irene screamed.

Wendy looked around the area before turning her head to Irene and said, "Don't ask me. You're the one keeping secret. If you'd just be honest to yourself than we won't be in this mess."

"Secret? What secret?"

A bullet hit Wendy's temple and girl crumbled to the floor. Her crimson blood got on Irene's face and when she saw how lifeless Wendy was, Irene screamed her heart out.

**

Irene snapped her eyes open. She was on the plane heading to L.A. The small monitor in front of her was playing the movie John Wick. Irene fell asleep watching it with her earphones in. Irenw turned the movie off, tidied the earphones and lookes to her side where Wendy was sleeping. The younger girl had her head hung low, hair covering up most of her face.

"Your head still intact," she mumbled. It was just a bad dream.

Irene tucked some of Wendy's hair behind the ear and yawned. Irene put her head on Wendy's shoulder, made herself comfortable and went back to sleep.

**

It was the first day of K-Con in L.A. and it was such a blast. Red Velvet was performing with Super Junior and a bunch of other groups from other agency. Irene was having fun but she had trouble with keeping her distance from the males on stage during the all performers session.

Irene stayed close within the circle of her group at all the time. The Super Junior members were way at the other end of the stage so she couldn’t seek for their ‘protection’ too. When the music was getting louder and more upbeat, the people were bouncing up and down. Irene was pushed to the edge of her group and about to enter the man zone when Wendy made a gap in between. She was singing, cheering, and jumping, and everything. Irene let out a relieved sigh and returned to her comfort zone.

The MC took over the stage and everyone retreated to back stage. Wendy got in front of her and Irene quickly grabbed her by the arm as they went down the stairs to the corridor and into the waiting hall. Wendy broke away and went to the bathroom. She never returned to Irene, instead, she was chatting with another rookie girl group at the other side of the hall.

Irene saw the food cart being wheeled in and she took it upon herself to pack the dinner for her group. Like usual. She took one boxed meal for Wendy, grabbed another for Yeri, for Seulgi, and then Joy. She put four on an empty table and brought one for Wendy. When Irene turned, she saw Wendy was walking toward her. Irene gave her the meal.

“Ooh! Thank you, Unnie,” said Wendy. She took the meal, turned around, and then gave it to Yeri. Then, she went around Irene and grabbed her own box. She sat on a chair and dug in. Irene nodded alone and took her own box to eat. Right next to Wendy.

**

After the meal, Red Velvet had to go on standby behind the stage. Irene prepped everyone and they got up on stage. They did two songs and returned to the waiting hall. Then they opened up a room for them to rest before the next performance.

Yeri came up to Irene and they talked for a long time she didn’t realize that not all of her members were present. She saw Joy and Seulgi were playing games on their phone, giggling, and laughing. Yeri was with her. But no Wendy.

“Where’s Wendy?” asked Irene.

“She’s in Super Junior’s room,” said Seulgi.

Being the perfectionist, Irene glanced at the clock, timed the next performance, and decided to pick Wendy up. She stood up, walked to the door, and the door opened from the outside. Wendy walked into the room.

“Oh,” Irene said.

“Hey, Unnie.”

“I was going to pick you up.”

“I’m here,” Wendy said with a smile and she joined Joy and Seulgi.

Irene nodded. She sat back down.

**

The show came to an end. Hugs were everywhere. Irene stayed away from all the skinships. When the event finished and Red Velvet was escorted to the vehicles taking them to the hotel, Irene thanked God that the day went without any glitch. In the car, the manager told them that there will be a late night interview with two separate locations. Irene and Wendy will be at the hotel lobby, and Joy, Seulgi, and Yeri will do the interview with the other performers at the hotel ballroom.

All nodded and went separate ways when their reach the hotel.

Irene and Wendy went to the designated interview area. Three cameras were aimed and the interview went on for a full ten minutes. They were shown the finished recording in a laptop and Irene found herself smiling looking at her own image with Wendy.

After the interview wrapped up, Wendy and Irene went up the elevator to their rooms. Irene was holding two keys for two rooms. She looked at Wendy. “Where do you want to sleep?”

“Where do you want to sleep?”

“Um, 909… I guess.”

“Okay, I’ll take 908,” Wendy took the key from Irene’s hand.

“Uh… okay.”

The elevator reached the ninth floor and Wendy went inside her room.

Irene stayed in the corridor for a while. She was not feeling good. Something was wrong with Wendy. But she didn’t know what. Wendy acted normal, like usual, but why did Irene feel something was off?

**

Back in Korea, Irene announced that the girls will have a two day free time before they went to bed. The next day, Yeri ordered a lot of take outs because she would like to stay in for the day. Seulgi was down with her while Joy invited her family to Seoul.

Irene had no plan for the day so she knocked on Wendy’s room to ask her out on a movie. Wendy said yes. So they left the dorm on a taxi.

They got off on a mall and went up the escalator to the movie theater. There were some fansites members following them closely behind but they were courteous enough to get to intruding. Irene and Wendy appreciated those people. They waved at them at times to return the courtesy.

“What do you want to watch?” asked Wendy.

“Not action movies. I want to relax.”

“There’s a drama movie right there.”

“Sure, let’s get that.”

They bought two tickets, a bucket of popcorns, and a couple of sodas. They sat right in the middle seat and the theater was quite empty, which was nice because Irene wanted to talk to Wendy.

“Wendy….”

“Yes?”

“Did I do something to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Did I offend you in any way?”

“No. Why?”

“You’re different.”

“Really?”

“On screen and off screen.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You’re nice and warm when there are cameras pointed at us but when we’re together, I feel like you’ve been ignoring me.”

“I’m here with you right now, Unnie.”

“Today. But lately you’ve been, I don’t know, kind of avoiding me.”

Wendy smiled. “I’m not. I’m sorry if I made you think that way but I have no intention of being cold to you or anything. I could tell you this though: I have a lot on my mind lately. It has nothing to do with work or the girls, so… I’m sorry. And you don’t have to worry about me.”

“You want to talk about that?”

“No. It’s nothing. Let’s just watch the movie.”

Irene had to leave it at that because the movie started. Besides, she thought, Wendy looked like she really didn’t want to talk about it at all.

It was a Hollywood movie about a girl who had a longtime crush. But then the guy she liked dated her sister and they decided to get marry. The ending was a heartfelt scene where the girl had to let go of the only man she ever loved.

                “I’m happy that you’re happy.”

                                “I am. And thank you for not making this weird. She’s your sister after all.”

                “It is kind of awkward but the good thing is I will always have my best friend around.”

                                “Now that I’m family.”

                “Now that you’re family.”

The male gone off screen, leaving the female protagonist looking at the distance - at nothingness - and reflected on her life. A second later, tear escaped her eyes, a tear of thousand meanings and millions of feelings.

Irene felt her own tears forming in her eyes and she had to wipe them up with her hands. When the movie cut to black and the credit rolled, Irene turned to Wendy. She held her breath when she saw Wendy cried. She was crying like the whole movie was her story. Irene put her hand on Wendy’s but the latter girl pulled back. She stood up and left the theater.

--