Seulgi can’t stand it.

 

Neon flashes bounced off from walls to even longer walls from the makeshift strobe lights. The house’s cramped and rowdy and it reeked of alcohol and sweat but everyone doesn’t seem to mind. Voices drown into the loud bass and everyone on the cramped makeshift stage were dancing and shouting in each other’s ears and, even more dancing.

 

Seulgi turns down another offer of a drink as she makes a show of sipping from a flask, indicating that she has had a drink already.

 

“You’ve been fooling everyone with that.” Wendy says. Seulgi shrugs, taking another sip from her fruit punch-filled flask.

“I wasn’t here to drink, Wan. You know that.” Seulgi shrugs again, a habit. “This is a popular people’s party.” She says slowly and watches popular students like Irene Bae from a distance, dancing the night away with other popular people.

“We’re graduating soon, you should learn to loosen up, Chuggie. This party’s for us. Maybe you should hang out with…” Wendy remarks with a knowing smile as she glances around and settles her eyes on where Irene Bae was. “…that girl, Irene. She was my seatmate in Ethics. She’s actually cool, you know. Not at all y and…”

 

Seulgi wasn’t really paying attention as she looks around the room, trying to find the ones that actually dragged her out here. She heaved a deep sigh when she finds Joy somewhere in one corner with a popular sophomore, Yeri and a bunch of other popular kids from both business and engineering courses chanting Joy’s name.

 

Joy seemed to be pushing the wall and everyone was chanting her name to probably encourage her in whatever she was doing (everyone was too drunk to pay attention, really, and Joy was such a mood-maker that everyone just joins her in whatever she was doing).

 

“The wall is moving, the wall is moving! Hey look at that!” Joy screams and everyone gathered around was howling.

 

Seulgi thinks it’s stupid. She just wants everyone to pass out already, so she can take Joy back and so she could sleep.

 

It was a graduation party solely made for popular people (although it turned out to be the exact opposite of it since loud mouth Joy teamed up with that Yeri kid and broadcasted the party in public). And being Joy’s roommate, Seulgi was forced to attend with an amused Wendy agreeing to the idea of Seulgi finally reconciling with society.

 

“I’m so, so drunkkkkk” Joy murmurs and Seulgi nods, refilling another cup of tequila and coke and made sure that coke’s content was quite lesser than the alcohol.

“Do you wanna go home?” Seulgi hopes with glimmering eyes and Joy smiles a dopey smile at her and shakes her head which looked a little mocking to Seulgi.

“Let’s dance, Seulgi-yah, let’s drink and dance and party all night and then I can drin—”

 

Seulgi rolls her eyes and pours the alcohol mix down Joy’s throat without a second thought and the latter happily downs the cup. She chokes a second later.

 

Damn it. Joy isn’t drunk enough to go home yet.

 

The chestnut brown-haired bear begrudgingly pours all of the remaining contents of an expensive tequila bottle into the red cup and made no thought of mixing it with any fruit-punch or soda like chasers. She thought of alcohol poisoning and might have felt guilty doing that if Joy wasn’t circling her arms around Seulgi’s shoulders and dancing ily as if she could seduce her. It’s like second nature. Seulgi almost pukes at the thought. The taller girl always makes fun of Seulgi’s reactions to her failed seductions and drunk Joy was a lot worse.

 

Maybe, hospital’s a lot better than this rich kid party.

 

So Seulgi smiles as she turns to Joy, ready to pour down another round of tequila waterfall and burn Joy’s throat so she could puke and pass out and probably would want to go home already. But God probably has other plans than turning Seulgi into a murderer because when she turned, she closes her eyes as she felt her own alcohol poison damp her shirt.

 

God ing damn it.

 

Her eyes met a pair of deep dark brown pools, and it felt magnetic and Seulgi gulps down the curses she prepared at the tip of her tongue.

 

Irene Bae.

 

Seulgi opens but no words came out, so she closes it and contorts an uncomfortable smile. She was never comfortable around popular people, much less if they are beautiful and smart and has to be Irene Bae. Irene’s eyes never left her and she seemed to be evaluating her next movement.

 

“Oh sorry.” Seulgi says. Irene blinks and seemed to be pulled out of her trance.

“Oh, no. I should be sorry.” Irene’s eyes trail down Seulgi’s shirt. “Should I go get you another drink?”

 

Or another shirt. Seulgi shakes her head at the thought. She wasn’t planning on drinking anything alcoholic anyway. She never drank alcohol before, god knows what she would do. It probably would be embarrassing and won’t at all be appropriate since the prettiest girl in school was actually in front of her and offering her a drink.

 

“No.” Seulgi says and walks past Irene without looking back, leaving the latter a little stunned. No one has ever refused a drink from her. Irene pouts.

 

Seulgi refused the drink but there she was, slumped in the kitchen and scavenging through the cupboards for bottles of alcohol so she could concoct a poison for Joy. She finally finds two bottles of whisky and tequila and immediately mixed it without a second thought.

 

She skips back to where she just left Joy and gapes when she sees Joy making out with Wendy, of all the people! All those times Wendy’s ditched her from lunch which coincides with Joy’s dance practices clicked. The gears turned and Seulgi never felt so betrayed. Her nostrils flared.

 

“OOOH, what is this! Thank you!” A short pink-haired girl lazily takes the glasses off of Seulgi’s grasp and took a sip from one. “Hey iz Soljugi’s mix, who wants one!”

 

Soljugi????

 

“Who the ’s Soljugi. But that looks good, gimme one, Am!” a raven-haired girl, which Seulgi recognizes as Krystal skips toward the pink-haired girl.

 

Seulgi doesn’t know who she should get mad at more, the ones making out in front of her or the ones who just took her concoction without her consent—or maybe, at Irene Bae who just saw the entire thing happen but did nothing and just smiled through the rim of her whisky glass.

 

She huffs and stomps upstairs instead.

 

----

 

Seulgi slams the door shut when she barged into Moonbyul and that girl that was always around Irene, making out in bed. It was not a nice sight to see so she rinses her eyes and deletes the scene from her memory.

 

When she finally finds an empty room, she climbs out of the window and into the rooftop. Whoever owns this house sure is rich af, you could actually get lost if you weren’t paying much attention to your surroundings.

 

Seulgi lays on her back against the cold slate rooftop and stares at the sky. She was quite far from where the main party was, the booming bass and loud cheers already felt like echoes from a distant memory. She sighs and closes her eyes for a moment. At least this place feel a little peaceful.

 

---

 

It felt like a moment, but when Seulgi opened her eyes, the sky was a little darker and she jolts up with an aching back. She pulls out her phone and realized that it was half-past twelve. The party started six hours ago already. Joy might be either puking or passed out already.

 

She climbs back into the house and felt like the house was a little too quiet, a little too creepy. The booming bass sound before was replaced by relaxing LoFi beats. When she reached downstairs where the main party was, she sees almost everyone passed out on the floor, on the couch, behind the wide 4K TV, on the kitchen table, under the table, hugging the table, or between the makeshift stage risers. Jesus, it was just midnight and everyone was already this wasted? Seulgi glanced back to the person wedged between the stage risers and frowned. It was the same girl who stole her drink who she now recognizes as Amber a while ago. How the hell did she end up there?

 

She hears someone hurling from the bathroom and sees Wendy dragging out a passed-out Joy from the toilet.

 

“Seulgi?” she calls out and squints.

 

Seulgi was yet to reply when Wendy slumps into the couch and passed out a few moments later.

 

“I’m puke, puke… ugh.” Joy murmurs in her sleep but didn’t puke anyway.

 

The monolid decides it’s best to let sleep Joy for a while. Besides she’s got Wendy with her. She instead walks into the kitchen to grab a glass of water and into the front porch to sit.

 

Seulgi basked into the silence and in the late winter’s night breeze. She closes her eyes and breathes in the night.

 

When the world sleeps, Seulgi would feel alive.

 

“Best part of the night.” She says and smiles into nothing.

 

“Yeah?”

 

Her head snaps into the unwanted, unsolicited opinion of an intruder. Dark brown orbs meet hers for the second time. Seulgi immediately stares back into nothing and Irene takes this as an invitation and proceeds to stand next to her and slump against the wooden railings.

 

“I live for these kind of nights too.” Irene says.

“You mean the rowdy one? One that involves heavy alcohol-induced college students that pass out right after midnight?”

 

Irene laughs. And Seulgi refuses to look at her.

 

The raven-haired girl already looked like a goddess with her signature pokerface. And if she laughed? Seulgi might just have a heart attack right then and there.

 

Of course, Irene was a popular student—student council vice president and with those topnotch grades and astounding dancing skills—so it wasn’t surprising that more than half the population of the student body would have crush on her. That included Seulgi, too. But for four years, Irene remained as Seulgi’s happy crush and she wouldn’t even dare approach the beauty as there doesn’t seem to be any reason to do so.

 

Maybe it just felt surreal to have her finally stand so close to Seulgi and breathing the same night’s air as her. It was easier to look at her from a distance.

 

“I meant the silence after a fun night.” Irene continues and tilts her head towards Seulgi. “And it’s actually you who poisoned everyone with that mix.”

 

“huh?” Seulgi turned and sees Irene with a soft smile directed at no one else but her. She’s seen it from afar before and admired it, it looked even more beautiful up close she could paint a portrait from it and probably hang it in the Louvre.

 

Irene shrugs. “Not technically you, of course. Right after Amber and Krystal drank it, they thought it tasted great and mixed everything from the kitchen. Everyone thought they were doing alcohol tasting and joined in.”

 

“It’s whiskey and tequila. Maybe I put some lime in it. But aside from that, it’s basically poison to knock you out quick. It was intended for Joy.”

 

Irene laughs again and Seulgi didn’t have a chance to look away. She sees the laugh in all its glory and beauty and she finds herself smiling, too.

 

“You really hate parties that much?” Irene smirks when she sees Seulgi smile. The latter looks away and clears .

 

“I just want to get away from here, really.”

 

Irene hums and Seulgi feels her shift. It was silent for a few moments, Seulgi could hear the soft ticking of her wristwatch and if she listened closer, she swears she could hear her bloodflow.

 

 “Hey, Seulgi.”

 

Seulgi wonders, when did Irene learn her name? But the question gets stuck in Seulgi’s throat when she looks at Irene and sees the older resting her chin on her hand and grinning at her so wide it scares her. Irene rarely smiles, let alone grin that grin that seemed to glimmer with mischief.

 

“Want to get away with me?” she says it with so much confidence it made Seulgi’s face color an immediate red. But the red dissipated as swiftly as it came when Irene holds out a car key jingling in the wind, and it was so familiar that it made Seulgi frown. She quickly tapped her pockets in hopes that she could feel the familiar jingle in her pants but deep down she already knew that Irene has it.

 

“When did you get that?”

 

Irene grins and shrugs as she took Seulgi’s hands in hers (it happened so quickly it didn’t even let Seulgi take a quick breath) and then they were in Joy’s car and Irene happily turns on the engine as they pull out of the large garage.

 

“We’re leaving Joy.” Seulgi murmurs and Irene hums again, Seulgi notices she does that a lot. “We’re leaving Joy with her car.”

 

“What about it?”

 

Seulgi shrugs and sighs in defeat. It doesn’t matter anyway, she’s leaving with the person she’s been crushing on and she barely even knew her. What if Irene was secretly a psychopath who sells body parts in black markets? What if Irene takes her kidneys out and name them Kevin? God no.

 

But when she sees Irene grinning and driving to god knows where, it made her smile too.

 

“You can take my kidneys.”

 

“What?” Irene furrows her eyebrows at Seulgi.

 

“Um… what happens to Joy then?”

 

Irene hums again. Seulgi swears she could record it and play it in a loop for years and never get tired. She could use it as an alarm. Goddamn she sounded so creepy.

 

“I’ll have the caretakers, well… take care of her and all of them?”

 

Irene sounded not so sure but Seulgi brushes it off when she realizes something.

 

“Your what?”

“Caretakers?”

“You own the house?”

 

Irene hums. And then it was silent. And she was perfect. How can someone just grin and drive and look like that without worries and be perfect like Irene does? Seulgi doesn’t seem to be breathing for minutes now and when she did, she rolls down the window to breathe in the night. It was almost one in the morning and they’re basically driving through the sleeping city and cutting through the gentle breeze. Irene plays her lofi beats playlist as they silently drove around.

 

It felt simple, really. From the outside it looked as simple as how it played out. There isn’t any tension or any kind of uncomfortable atmosphere between them. Seulgi liked it like that, and she realizes she liked staring at Irene. She’s so perfect just like that.

 

Then Seulgi frowns when Irene doesn’t stop on a red light and breezed across the empty streets instead.

 

“Oh my god did you just?????”

 

“Did I just? I don’t know, Seulgi maybe I did.” Irene says and Seulgi was panicking. She thinks Irene wasn’t as perfect as she thought her out moments ago after all.

 

“If the cops pull us over, I’m out.”

 

“The street’s literally empty.”

 

“Doesn’t mean you could just break the rules!”

 

And Irene laughs again.

 

“Calm your oos, Seulgi-yah.” and Seulgi defensively covers her almost nonexistent chest in mock offense and Irene laughs again. Seulgi tries to ignore the fact that Irene just ‘Seulgi-yah-ed’ her.

 

They pulled over a familiar place, one they have known by heart for years now. And Irene steps out into the cold.

 

“What are we doing in the campus, Irene?”

 

Irene peeks from the other side as she pulls open the door for Seulgi and mocks a bow for her.

 

“We’re breaking the rules before we leave.”

 

“I don’t wanna.”

 

“Don’t be a baby, Seulgiiiii.” And then Seulgi was out of the car. It’s such a wonder how someone so small could have so much strength in her bones. But Irene never fails to surprise Seulgi at all.

 

Seulgi whines all the way but she still trailed closely behind Irene and before she knew it, they were climbing up the campus gates and picking the locks of the campus pool’s back door. She wonders when Irene did learn how to lock pick and when did she even know about the old back door and why they are even there. But as how Seulgi’s getting used to, Irene just hums again that low and quiet hum that could probably rival the twilight breeze against her hair. It reminded Seulgi of her late strolls in the empty streets on nights she couldn’t sleep, just listening to her soft beats playlist.

 

When the door clicks open, Irene pulls Seulgi in without sparing her a second, also pulling her out of her late night daydreams.

 

“Let’s take a swim?” Irene says quietly, Seulgi has to strain her ears to hear her. Irene even had a faint blush when she said it but Seulgi didn’t have enough time to evaluate it as Irene quickly turned her back on her.

 

“It’s cold, I don’t want to swim.” Seulgi mutters but Irene ignores her when she takes off her top without hesitation and Seulgi looks away in embarrassment. “What the hell, Irene?!”

 

She hears the raven’s soft chuckle and a few heartbeats later, she hears a soft splash. When Seulgi looks back, Irene only has her head above the water. And she was shivering with teeth clacking harshly and loudly, Seulgi bites back a laugh. She looks like a bunny. She was actually cute.

 

“Y-yah! Don’t l-laugh!” Irene does her best to glare at Seulgi but the bear was too caught up into gushing over Irene being adorable to notice the glare.

 

Seulgi sits at the edge of the pool and rolls her pants up to dip her feet. When she did, Irene quickly pulls her leg down towards the water. And Seulgi came with a loud splash, the older’s laugh echoed