Ever since that day, the nightmares that Seulgi experienced occurred more often, haunting her every single second she spent awake, haunting her every single second she spent asleep. She wanted to apologise to Wendy.

She needed to apologise to her.

But Wendy seemingly vanished, no one saw any trace of her ever since that day. Yeri said she rarely saw Wendy in class, only appearing now and then before quickly disappearing. Visits to her apartment only ended up in dead silence, pointless waiting and useless knocks. Any message to her was left unseen, every call refused.

The days without being able to see Wendy only made her more anxious, the desperation to see her again festering and eating away at her logical thoughts. She didn't know what to do anymore, she just wanted to see her.

The finals blew by without any incident, all of them doing well, but Wendy was still nowhere to be seen. She did sit for the exams, and Yeri did see her, but she always seemed to up and vanish before she could confront her.

It was hell for Seulgi. The original point of keeping up with this charade of hating her was so she could still see her and not creep her out. But there's no point now, is there? With their finals over, every second she spent was trying to contact Wendy or figuring out how to apologise to her. Every second became about her. Every second was hell.

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours, hours to days, days to weeks.

It was time for graduation. an event that was supposed to commemorate their completion of college. It was to acknowledge what they've done.

But what has she done?

The graduation was a celebratory event, but Seulgi was solemn throughout the entire day, only thinking about Wendy. Wendy had to be here, right? She knew what to say, she's spent days coming up with exactly what to say, but she was afraid of what comes after. What next? She certainly had no idea, but despite being afraid, she didn't exactly dread it. She just wanted to see Wendy and apologise to her.

That's what everything had been about these past few weeks.

"Son Seung-wan," a voice said, grabbing Seulgi's attention and yanking it to the stage.

There she was.

She accepted her degree, snapped her photo.

And then she left.

That's it. She's gone.

There she goes.

"Aren't you going to go after her?" Yeri asked, nudging her side gently without looking at her.

"You already went up, right? Just go and find her," Irene said, handing her a rose from the bouquet she held in her hands.

"I–" Seulgi said, her feet frozen to the ground as she felt their hands grab her by the shoulders and waist.

"Just go find her already, she disappears if you don't manage to find her," Joy said as the three of them dragged and shoved her out of the hall.

"Remember what I said," Irene said as she nudged Seulgi forward.

"How do you feel about her? Do you want her to know that you love her?"

"W–well yeah."

The tiny exchange that Seulgi and Irene had echoed in her head as she felt her fingers clench tight around the rose, her feet propelling her off at a speed she found surprising.

It took her a moment for her to realise that she was dashing through the halls, her regret and love which seemed to always disagree with each other suddenly driving her body forwards, she didn't know where she was going, but she somehow knew exactly where to go.

A few seconds later, she saw the all-too-familiar back at the far end of the hallway.

She didn't even know what to say anymore, her feet bringing her closer to her.

Everything she wanted to say was–

What did she want to say?

Well, no time to think about that anymore.

She screeched to a halt behind her, her hand instinctively grabbing onto her shoulder as Wendy turned back, surprised as she looked at Seulgi

"W–what do you want?" Wendy asked, pulling her hand off her shoulder.

"I–" Seulgi panted, the words she planned all fading away as she looked at an annoyed Wendy, the words she wanted to say stuck in as she gave her the rose wordlessly.

Wendy looked at her with a confused expression, taking the rose from her as she looked up at her.

"Just go away already, we hate each other right? Why bother even looking at each other anymore?" Wendy said to Seulgi, her expression indifferent as she reached out to push her away.

Her nightmare came true. The scene that haunted her every second of the day came true.

' that' Seulgi thought as she looked at Wendy. 'I've had this nightmare for weeks, and I always can't move. But not now.'

She grabbed Wendy's wrist, maintaining her balance as she looked at her, still catching her breath as she pulled her into a hug. This felt nice.

"G–get off of me," Wendy said, clearly flustered as she held onto Seulgi's shoulders, pushing her back as she looked at her. "Did you hit your head or something? It's me, the one you hate?" Wendy asked, her entire body trembling as she looked away.

"No, you're not the one I hate," Seulgi blurted out.

'What am I saying? I can't just–' she thought as she sighed. 'Or maybe that's what I need to do?'

"Never for a single day have I ever hated you. Never for a single second did I wish I wasn't with you," Seulgi said, the love she felt for her finally being let free, overflowing from her heart into her words as her arms wrapped around Wendy's waist.

"S–shut up," Wendy said as she clenched her fist, punching her shoulder as she bit her lower lip.

Seulgi winced in slight pain and surprise as she smiled. "I'm sorry, for all those years ago, and for the past few weeks. I've never meant to hurt you. I've never meant to make you mad. I–" Seulgi said, her entire body tensing as she sighed softly. "I've never meant to hate you, or to make you hate me."

"Please, shut up," Wendy repeated, softer this time as her punches weakened, her other hand gripping tight onto Seulgi's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, for not telling you the truth all those years ago," Seulgi said, taking a deep breath as her nervousness escalated exponentially. But not fast enough.

"I love you. I've always loved you, I'm sorry if you find it creepy or weird. I know you hate me. I know that it's my fault that you hate me. But I could never hate you, never in my lifetime," Seulgi said gently, tears welling up ever so slightly as a wave of relief washed over her.

"Why? Why can't you just shut up?" Wendy croaked as her fists dissolved, her hands holding onto her shoulders as she leaned her head against her chest. "I told myself that it was over, that it wasn't possible for you to not hate me anymore, and yet here you are. Telling me you love me?" Wendy said, her tears staining Seulgi's clothes.

"I'm sorry, someone told me that shutting up is the one thing I can't do," Seulgi chuckled as she hugged Wendy tightly, letting her cry into her.

"Do you know how long I've wanted to tell you that?" Wendy asked as she sniffed, burying her face into Seulgi's clothes, "Every single day when you talked to me in that cold tone, I've hated hearing it, I hated myself every single day because I always felt that it was my fault, and even after knowing it was your fault, I still couldn't bring myself to hate you."

"I've never hated you. I could never hate you. Because you're the one I love the most." Wendy said as she looked up at her, a soft smile on her lips.

At that point in time, both of them looked at each other, like they were the most precious persons in each other's lives, and they both fought back tears as a huge wave of relief washed over them, as the realisation hit.

The realisation that they could stop playing this game of charades.

The immense feeling of love for each other was set free, overflowing from their hearts as Seulgi held Wendy's shoulders, pressing her lips against hers, squeezing her eyes shut. Was she going too fast? Was it not the right time? She was nervous until she felt Wendy's grip on her clothes tighten, her hands trembling slightly as she felt her lips respond, the both of them sharing a tender kiss for a few seconds before pulling away to catch their breath, their cheeks and their ears burning red as they looked at each other.

"D–do you want to see the rest of them?" Seulgi asked, clearly flustered as she let go of Wendy.

"One more," Wendy said as she grabbed Seulgi's shoulders, her arms trembling, "I wasn't ready," She mumbled as she pressed her lips against Seulgi's once again, wrapping her arms around her neck as she felt Seulgi's back hit the lockers.

Seulgi responded the way she knew how to, wrapping her arms around Wendy's waist as she closed her eyes, pouring her passion and her love for her into their kiss, the both of them not caring about anything else as they indulged in each other.

"Not to interrupt a tender moment between you two," Irene said as the three of them watched the new couple make out in the hallway.

Hearing her voice dragged the two of them back down, both of their eyes popping open as they let go of each other, their cheeks discovering a deep shade of red as they looked at the trio.

"How long were you there?" Seulgi asked, rubbing her cheeks as she caught her breath.

"Long enough to know that you two are going out," Yeri said with a shrug, "So about two minutes? You've been making out for two minutes and we didn't want to interrupt whatever you two were doing, but being able to ignore our presence for two minutes is unbelievable."

"We–" Wendy started as she felt Seulgi hold her hand, clearly trembling as she looked at her then back to the three of them. "Yeah, we, we are going out," Wendy sheepishly announced to the three before she sighed. "I'm sorry the three of you had to put up with our childish fighting."

"It's fine to fight, as long as you make up." Joy said, scrolling through her phone, "Now I gotta buy the lottery, I did not expect the two of you to even make up, let along make out with each other."

"Please stop saying 'make out'" Seulgi and Wendy said at the same time.

"Alright, I did not expect the two of you to get handsy with each other."

"Not that either," they said as they wanted to hide their faces.

"Alright, let's stop teasing them. It's graduation day, and I still haven't gotten a picture with my best friends," Irene said as she gripped Joy's shoulder, pulling Yeri to them as they stood in front of the pair, Irene handing Joy her phone.

'Yeah, yeah we were best friends' Seulgi thought as she gently interlocked her fingers with Wendy's.

'But I could never mind being more than that' Wendy smiled as Joy took a picture of the five of them.

'Because my best friend is you, the one I love the most'