“Yah. Stop blowing. It’s gonna explode.” Joy shrill, terrified by the expanding balloon. 

Seulgi smirk at her, huffing more air into the balloon, disregard Joy completely. 

“Stop, stop, stop!” Joy exclaimed, running over and snatch the balloon away. 

“Hey! I work hard on that.” Seulgi beef. 

“It’s about to explode.” Joy vociferate loudly, eyes widening comically. 

“No, it’s not! I wasted my breath and you just-“flailing her arms around, “That’s rude.” 

“How was that rude?” 

“You didn’t change at all, do you?” 

Joy brows wrinkle. “Hey! I changed, all right. It’s proven fact. You can ask Miss Irene here.” 

Irene quickly put her hands up, does not want to get involved while Yerim guffawed at the two. 

“I think you’re the one that has change Seulbear.” Yerim says, giggling.

“Yes, thank you Yerim ssi.” Joy says. “What happened to your fluffiness, Seulbear?” 

 “I still have some left in me.” Seulgi muttered, pouting. 

Irene giggled. “Do you guys remember? Back then, Seulgi was so scared of Joy. She can’t even look at her directly in the eye.” 

“That was then. She was pretty harsh and well- you know the rest.” The two nods in agreement, which the taller one protest strongly. 

“Yah! I am a loveable individual.”  

“Uh-hu.” Seulgi take the balloon back. “Thanks to Wendy, I got to know the inner child in you.” She smile. 

“Yes. Thanks to that Son Wendy, you got to know my weakness.” 

Three months has pass and Seulgi felt the whole situation was still bizarre. Meeting these girls and hanging out with them, their friendship was something Seulgi can’t fully grasp in her mind. After being with them almost everyday for the past three months, Seulgi got a sneak peek of their personalities. 

She and Wendy hit it off pretty well. Wendy is her source of strength. The girl is full of energy and has this positive vibe around her. Seulgi was quite timid. She’s a trainee in a well-known company and although she already trained for four years, her confidence to be an idol, a performer is pretty low. She thinks she isn’t good enough and that’s the reason why her company hasn’t debuted her yet. However, after Wendy came into her life, she slowly getting some courage, gaining confidence of her ability as a performer.     

Wendy always praised her, constantly telling Seulgi she has beautiful voice, complimenting her dancing skill and Wendy mouth never miss a day without calling her a dancing goddess. Wendy always there for her, rooting for her at her lowest point. Giving away her opinion when needed, especially when it’s about singing. Wendy flair in that particular category astonished Seulgi that it baffled her why the girl didn’t become a trainee herself. To sum up, Wendy is that kind of friend where she can make you feel good about yourself. 

She and Irene are okay. They barely talk because Irene, well, rarely speak. With Irene, Seulgi have a hard time to connect with her. It’s like Irene put up a big wall around her. She doesn’t understand why Irene even want to hang out with them. Irene is quite scary to be frank. Why Wendy is not afraid of her somewhat perplexing and how Irene doesn’t exploded yet is sort of prodigious. Perhaps Irene grew tired of Wendy being too persistent about the whole ‘rooftop buddies’ kind of situation, she finally give in. 

Nevertheless, Irene is a good listener. She doesn’t talk much but when she did, her words, her advice felt like multiple slaps on her face, a powerful punch in her gut. Everything she says make sense. Irene is a friend that support you silently. Always knew what to say and somehow whatever she said helps to calm you down. Silent strength is what Seulgi needs too.  

When she first met Yerim, she thought the girl was too matured for her age. Their age. The girl is a bookworm. Seulgi can’t remember a day without Yerim face planting herself against those books and Seulgi would not be surprised if Yerim tied a knot with a thick dictionary in the future. 

For all Seulgi knows, Yerim mother is a strict woman because of the girl tight schedule. Yerim have this timetable, which they saw by accident. Reading, studying, revising, reviewing fill up that timetable. It’s like Yerim existent in this world is for one purpose only, studying. The girl could even set a tent inside the library, camping if she wanted to. Yerim sometimes forgot to eat and Wendy habitually had to drag her out from her cave. Although Yerim complained, they had to make sure the girl eat something. 

Yerim was always the first one to leave and they make a quick guess that Yerim needs to get home on time to none other than studying again. She’s not saying Yerim’s mother is control freak, but… It felt like Yerim was force to grow up, to become matured and she felt bad for her. The way Yerim gushing over a pudding speaks a lot. That’s why she had this urge to protect her because Yerim is still a kid, a normal teenager just like them. 

Lastly, there’s Joy. How should she describe Joy? Where do she begin? Park Sooyoung or she insist everyone calls her Joy, she’s quite intimidating. Whom is she kidding? She’s scared of her. Perhaps, she’s the only who find the tall girl’s scary cause the other three girls can joke around with her, except for Irene of course. They always fought for a smallest thing. As for her, she cannot even look at Joy directly in eye and she can’t even talk without making a fool out of herself. Joy made her like that, like she’s disable, a person who have speech problem. 

The tall girl is too blunt, too honest. She speaks whatever it was inside her mind and she didn’t filter her words before saying it. Wendy scold her for that. Wendy keeps reminding the tall girl to think carefully and to be considerate other people’s feelings before blurting out her thought. Howbeit, she found Joy blunt character is endearing. She likes Joy honesty because she know Joy would never lie. Joy is not a hypocrite, pretending to be nice and all. She needs that in her cycle of friends. The truth may hurt sometimes but it’s better than being lied to. 

Today like many other days, the girls (mostly Wendy) decide to hang out at Joy family mansion. They have been to the mansion multiple times already, but Seulgi is still amaze by the enormous luxurious home belongs to the Park’s family. Every time she visited the mansion, every single time she get a surprised. She discovered more rooms and place she never seen before and Seulgi felt like she visited an amusement park with so many attraction. 

As always, Irene didn’t join them because she has a part time job and Yerim will be the first one to leave because of her curfew. And that leaves only the three of them. Wendy insist they have a movie night today and the genre is horror which Joy against profusely. Apparently, every time those two have an argument Wendy will always win. These repeated situations astound Seulgi somehow. How come Joy give in easily when Seulgi knew the tall girl is hardheaded. 

“I need my blankie. I’ll be back.” Joy shot another sharp glare at the red hair girl before leaving the theater room. 

“Are sure it’s okay if we watch horror film tonight? Joy seems uncomfortable.” 

Wendy hoist her shoulder indicate it’s not her problem, eyes fix at the device in her hand. 

Few seconds pass, Wendy smile, suddenly standing up. 

“Err...what are you doing?” Seulgi asks, puzzled as Wendy put on her coat. 

“I’m going out.” 

Seulgi eyebrows shot up immediately, scrambling up from her seat. “W-what? You’re leaving?” 

“Just for a little while.” 

Seulgi quickly run up to her, clutching Wendy arm desperately. “You can’t leave. No! Not with Joy – alone.” 

To her despair, Wendy only laughed at her. “Aww...I’ll be back. Promise.” 

“Can I come with you?” 

“As much love for you to come...” Wendy pull her desperate hands, ruffling her hair. 

“But I need you to stay here with Joy. Trust me, she’s gonna need you.” 

“B-but, but...” 

“I’ll be back in no time. You wouldn’t even notice I’m gone. Bye!” Just like that, Wendy was gone.  

Seulgi mind went hazy, she was freaking out. It’s bad enough she is already scared of the tall girl and now being with the same room with her, completely alone without Wendy between them, Seulgi visualize the sequence of them spending time together and she don’t think she would survive. She will probably pee in her pants if Joy decide to yell at her tonight. 

“I got my blankie. Let’s watch –“Joy stop her pace, eyes wandering around the room and when Joy brows met, Seulgi legs trembled. 

“Where’s Wendy?” 

“S-she – she, she went - out.” Seulgi consider herself already dead. Preparing herself for some deafening terror when Joy sharp gaze embed on her. 

“Oh. Guess we should start the movie or else we’re going to sleep late tonight if we wait for her.” 

To her surprised, Joy doesn