"Why are you here?" Wendy walked out her car, while combing her hair with her fingers, turning back to gather her backpack.

 

"Lunch with my coursemates, we have class at 3pm, they decided to eat outside." Joohyun waited and helped her with her backpack.

 

"Oh, same, Joy and I have class around that time too. Where are your coursemates?" Wendy looked around, trying to search for Irene's coursemates.

 

"They're already in there, you know how crowded it can be during lunch hour." Joohyun pointed toward the restaurant.

 

"Ya, I told Seulgi and Joy to go in first too." Wendy didn't realize the hairs behind her branched out.

 

"What happened in there?" Joohyun stopped and stretched out her hand to help Seungwan with the branched out hairs.

 

Wendy stood there and let Irene did her thing,  Today, Irene had no round glass and ponytail. She was wearing lens and letting her hair down, the dark brown silk was darkened by the sunlight, it appeared to be black. Wendy knew Irene didn't need much accessory or extra items, just simple make up and casual wear were enough for Joohyun to stand out in a crowd.

 

Wendy wasn't sure if Joohyun wore make up at all, she wasn't a fan of make up, she called Yerim to help her with the make up. She had problem with differentiating the type of make up.

 

She even once thought mascara was used for the face, hence her friend mentioned she only used mascara for make up.

 

This was still brought up by Yerim to have a good laugh.

 

She rather not to embarass herself in front of Irene.

 

"Anything in my face?" Joohyun was aware that Seungwan was staring for quite sometime.

 

"Nothing, it's just that you look good with lens, giving a more hipster vibe, but wearing glasses makes you more of study type. Both suit you." Wendy just voiced out her praise nonchalantly, turned to walk toward restaurant.

 

Wendy really admired Irene's beauty.

 

Joohyun kept her face straight, pretending not to flustered by Seungwan's praise, though her face was already applied with another layer of natural blusher, repeating the question again. "You looked stressed in your car, what happened?"

 

"Oh, Yerim just striked my nerve by avoiding my questions again.  She always did this, deflecting my questions." Wendy rolled her eyes while her frustration behind Yerim's back.

 

"It's frustrating sometime, people around me can't be honest and they always want to avoid the confrontation, hoping the problem will magically vanish ." Then, she huffed out a sigh of frustration, messing up her fringe. She quickly brought up her hand to arrange it.

 

"But, the thing is problem won't be solved until they talk it out." The frown on Seungwan's face was terrifying. 

 

Joohyun never saw Seungwan wore the stern expression on her face before.

 

Seungwan was always smiling, bubbly and bright.

 

Joohyun gulped upon hearing the words.

 

A sudden rebuke from Seungwan which was ironically applicable to her own situation too.

 

"What takes you so long to walk a 50m to the restaurant?" Yerim opened the door and shouted, noticing Joohyun who was walking beside her sister.

 

Finally.

 

Yerim met this special guest of her sister, the one who caused all these between the sisters.

 

She raised her eyebrow at what she saw, instinctly the hold on the handle got stronger, then bowed her head toward the guest.

 

Praising herself for still remembering to show her manners.

 

Of course, she couldn't just ignore the person.

 

Her sister was there.

 

So, the game was on.

 

Curving her lips upward, forming a taut smile.

 

"I wouldn't let you hurt my sister again."

 

"Not a chance."

 

"Hi, Irene-unnie, it's been a long time." She did not initate a handshake or a hug, just stood there to greet the one who broke her sister's heart.

 

Not once, but twice.

 

"Yes, Yerim. It's been a long time." Joohyun greeted back, with a more relaxed, welcoming warm smile.

 

Joohyun was happy to see Seungwan's younger sister to grow up into a beautiful young adolescent like Seungwan. 

 

Joohyun didn't seem to notice the barrier set by Yerim.

 

Or, she decided to disregard Yerim being withdrawn.

 

Yerim had the right to be.

 

Wendy stood in the middle of the two, observing the greeting, squinting at Yerim's sudden politeness. 

 

Yerim was faking her manners.

 

Yerim was only polite to strangers.

 

The steely cold tone in her voice.

 

The warningly fake smile hanging on Yerim's face.

 

And Yerim made no effort of hiding it.

 

Wanting Irene to know. 

 

Yerim was distancing herself from Irene.

 

Yerim had her guard up with Irene.

 

So, they knew each other.

 

So, Yerim really just hid Irene from Wendy, even after she asked Yerim about Irene.

 

Curling her hand into a fist, struggling to keep her emotion in check, took a deep breath to calm down the flame inside her.

 

She, then, walked through the door which Yerim opened for them.

 

"She sounds like a sweet kid to me." Joohyun said.

 

Wendy wanted to laugh out loud at Irene's praise at Yerim.

 

"Irene, she just hid you from me."

 

"After I asked her about you."

 

Wendy breathed out heavily before replying, hoping it would diffuse the irritation clasping onto .

 

Threatening to escape through .

 

"So, you know Irene, guess I don't have to introduce you two then." The sarcasm was still evident in Wendy's tone, with dagger shooting out from her eyes.

 

The underlying growl in Wendy's tone after saying the words.

 

Yerim and Joohyun heard it too.

 

Joohyun widened her eyes at Seungwan's sudden outburst, quickly glanced toward Seungwan, knowing she needed to calm Seungwan.

 

Now.

 

She never heard Seungwan sounded this vicious.

 

Not even when they talked in the phone for the last time before Joohyun left to Japan.

 

When she rejected Seungwan the second time.

 

Yeri involuntarily recoiled a little bit at the tone, knowing her sister was definitely pissed off now.

 

Yeri didn't back down though. 

 

She wanted to clarify her suspicion, thinking her sister might invite Irene over to lunch, hence the previous interrogation few minutes ago. 

 

Her sister would use her own way to know the truth.

 

Hoping Yeri would tell her the truth.

 

Giving a second chance for Yeri to come clean before meeting Irene.

 

Yeri wanted to protect Seungwan unnie but she won't let her.

 

How could Yeri control her fury, while her sister still chose Irene.

 

After the phonecall.

 

When Irene brought Seungwan unnie nothing but misery and sorrow.

 

Seungwan unnie still chased after her.

 

"Did you invite Irene-unnie?" She snapped back.

 

"I am here with my coursemates." Joohyun quickly answered the question, wanting to soften the taunting atmosphere circling the sisters.

 

"J-joohyun unnie?" Seulgi widened her eyes while she saw two of her friends walking in, hearing the whole conversation.

 

She tightened her grip at the chopsticks, gulping down her saliva, could only sit there to watch her worst fear coming true.

 

This was the worst scenario, which she detested the most to happen.

 

Yeri met Irene in person.

 

After all these years.

 

What made it worse was, that, Wendy was there too.

 

Why, in the actual world, did all these happen.

 

The following lunch hour would be torturous.

 

She just wanted to enjoy her favourite curry rice without any interruption.

 

She lost all her appetite already. 

 

Joy stepped out of the toilet, seeing the historical moment of the reunion too.

 

Great, just great.

 

They would always appear at the right place, at the right time.

 

The protective younger sister met the elder sister's previous heartbreaker.

 

Knowing there was nothing she could do.

 

She grimaced with a sigh and a shake of her head at the universe's plan.

 

She, then, walked toward their table and settled down beside Seulgi whose eyes were dilated in horror. 

 

"What takes you so long, Irene?" Sooyoung waved her hand to get Irene's attention.

 

She saw Irene who was standing there beside a stranger. She figured Irene must know the people who sat at the the other side of the restaurant since they were conversing.

 

And they must be close, judging them all called her Joohyun, instead of Irene.

 

"There they are." Joohyun pointed toward them and excused herself. Before leaving, she turned to Seungwan, reaching out to grab Seungwan's hand, hoping it would alleivate Seungwan's anger. 

 

Even though she didn't know what caused this.

 

She didn't want Seungwan to fight with her sister.

 

Knowing Seungwan loved her sister.

 

As she was aware of the presence of Yerim, so she only held Seungwan's wrist.

 

Joohyun looked into Seungwan's eyes, seeing the flame in the once-clear orbs, wanted to see the warm sparks again.

 

Not the burning sparks.

 

Brushing her thumb across Seungwan's wrist.

 

"Text me, okay?"

 

Irene's soothing voice and the caress on her wrist slowly had the effect.

 

Wendy turned toward Irene and nodded.

 

Of course, Joohyun didn't forget to address Yerim.  "It was nice to see you again, Yerim-ah."

 

Her tone remained when she spoke to Yerim.

 

Hoping it would do the same to the youngster.

 

Yeri noticed her temper, toning it down, nodded to Irene.

 

Joohyun, then, walked toward Sooyoung and sat opposite her.

 

"They are your friends? It seems like you guys are close."

 

Joohyun nodded, "Highschool juniors." She decided not to disclose Seungwan as the main source of her dilemma.

 

"Why can't we all call you Joohyun?" Tiffany bickered with a pout.

 

"Ya, I thought we are closer than that." Sooyoung used her chopstick to point at Irene, sounding hurt as her coursmate being so cold to them.

 

"You guys never asked." Joohyun shrugged at her friends' exaggerated reaction.

 

"How could we ask it out loud? Irene, can we call you Joohyun, because we wanna get closer to you?" Sooyoung put the chopstick down and used her hand to form a pleading gesture, along with her puppy eyes throwing to Joohyun's direction.

 

"Like this? We are no beggars, I'm not begging for your friendship!" Sooyoung exclaimed.

 

Joohyun and Tiffany laughed at Sooyoung's acting.

 

"Okay, you guys can call me Joohyun if you want." Joohyun rolled her eyes and gave in.

 

"You sounded like I'm putting a knife on your neck and force you to say it." Sooyoung was obviously unsatisfied by Joohyun's tone.

 

"My lovely friends, can you please call me Joohyun, this means a lot to me! This shows our friendship exceeded another level." Joohyun, then, gave it all in her acting.

 

It successfully caused Tiffany to laugh out loud and Sooyoung nodding her approvement.

 

She, then, glared at the two friends of hers, throwing glance toward Seungwan's table, hoping Seungwan didn't see her embarrassing acting.

 

Though, the universe wasn't at Joohyun's side.

 

Seungwan was, in fact, looking at her way, smiling amusely at what she saw, with her eyebrows quirking up.

 

Joohyun widened her eyes as her heart stopped beating for a second and then went all pounding. She quickly darted her gaze to the sushi train, trying to decide which sushi to choose by using her palm to cover her chin, hoping it would cover the flush on her cheek.

 

Wendy chuckled at the disoriented Joohyun and directed her attention back to her menu. Flipping through the pages, she asked. "What do you wanna eat?"

 

"Salmon sushi and potato salad." Yeri's eyes were fixated on the sushi train, seriously pondering the lucky sushi to be selected to fill her tummy.

 

She would only be this focused when it comes to food.

 

Wendy wished she could be more concentrated in studying.

 

"You want me to write it out for you?" Wendy wanted to write down her order.

 

Yeri quickly snatched the order paper and pencil away, "Your writings are too artistic for people to comprehend."

 

"Why can't I write the order ?" Wendy pouted.

 

"Ask your own writing. No one understands a single word you write." Joohyun critcised with a serious expression.

 

Wendy blinked at the flashback, managed to recover from it immediately, shrugging and said, "I want one set of inari mentai, kappamaki and takoyaki."

 

Seulgi and Joy ordered one set of soba noodles and katsu curry rice, they usually shared their food. Occasionally, Wendy would steal their food, much to their unwillingness.

 

"So, how did you know Irene unnie?" Wendy directly asked Yeri.

 

She didn't even want to hide her anger in her tone.

 

Not when she lied to her.

 

Seulgi sat opposite her gulped at the sight of it, even though she wasn't the one who was in trouble. 

 

And, that didn't mean she wanted to witness it.

 

Angry Seungwan was too scary.

 

She quickly pulling her phone to text her girlfriend beside her.

 

"1.42pm:

Bear <3 : What are we gonna do? D:"

 

Joy who was busy studying the menu, though they came to this restaurant quite often. She didn't want to get into the soap drama which was currently premiering live in front of her and the menu appeared to be the best resort, and she felt her phone vibrated on the table. She picked it up and saw the message, glanced to the side.

 

"1.43pm

Joy of my life <3 : There's nothing we can do, just eat our lunch."

 

Joy put down her phone and sneaked her hand below the table. She patted her girlfriend's leg to show her support. Then, she resumed reading the menu.

 

"I thought you were talking about another Irene." Yerim acted nonchalant, continued to fake her innocence.

 

"Kim Yerim, you know I hated this attitude of yours." Wendy gave out her last warning and grunted.

 

"Ok, we will talk it out tonight, just not with your friends here. Look at how awkward they are, Joy-unnie is reading menu and bear unnie