Irene recieved a few concerned messages from her friends since they hadn't seen each other. She already sent them thank you cards for their gifts and thought it would be enough to deter them, but she should have known that they would be concerned about her wellbeing when she went M.I.A for a while. 

It was kind of them to think of her and she was blessed to have such great friends, but she really didn't want them to know about what happened to her and Wendy. Luckily, her wounds were healed up so there was no trace left of the damage.

However she also knew she couldn't avoid facing them forever and decided to have them over for dinner some time before the school year would start for the second semester.

Irene pondered if it should be a book club dinner to simply discuss what books they would like to read next or just have a casual hangout.

She wondered if she should invite Wendy too although she remembered that the younger girl was a little nervous around the others during the one time they had dinner together. 

But it wasn't nice to keep Wendy out of the circle when she was one of them. 

And Irene did want to see her again.

--

Seulgi's mouth watered as she watched Wendy take out the third baking pan of chocolate chip cookies from the oven. There were already two cooling deliciously on the stove top, and she couldn't wait to sink her teeth into a soft and freshly baked gooey cookie made by the master baker herself. 

Wendy made the cookies for the book club dinner Irene had planned, and everyone was requested to bring something from dinner to dessert. 

She made made sure to save some for Seulgi as thanks for driving her all the time to Irene's house. 

The others were already there when Wendy arrived to Irene's house. The warm plate of cookie comforted her for a little until it went all cold from the winter air. Irene greeted her at the door as usual, and she led Wendy into the kitchen to drop off the dessert on the counter for after dinner.

"You can pick what you like," IRene got her a plate and a fork. "I made tteokbeokki if you want to have some. Taeyeon brought chicken."

Wendy nodded eaferly and took the tteokbeokki first. She took a litte of everythign so she would have something to chew on while the others talked at the table.

"Wendy!" Taeyeon and hani chorused. "How have you been kiddo?" Taeyeon beamed.

"I'm alright."

Wendy sat down in the seat next to Irene's. Sehun was seated on Irene's other side - why did this feel like deja vu?

"Something to drink?" Sehun offered a bottle of wine from which the others were having in their glasses.

Wendy glanced at Irene's cup which was also half filled with the red liquid. "Uh...sure, thanks." And she gulped nervously as she watched Sehun pour the contents into a glass for her. She had never drunk before, mainly for health reasons. But she felt sort of like a sore thumb here refusing a dirnk while the others were partaking in it.

While everyone else was busy conversing about waht they did for Christmas and New Year's, Wendy took the glass in her hand and lifted it to her nose to smell. Ugh. The pungent smell almost made her gag, and she put it back down. 

When she glanced to the side, she made eye contact with Irene, who had an amused expression on her face. 

She saw me do that...Wendy felt immediately embarassed, and stuffed with food to distract herself. 

Wait. Irene was watching me.

"I think we should read some old classics," Sehun was telling the eithers while discussing what books to read when the club would start again. "I'm sure Irene knows a good list since you are the resident literature genius." He looked to Irene expectantly.

"There are many," Irene replied in affirmative.

"What do you think, Wendy?" Seohyun asked. "Anything you like in particular?"

Wendy thougth about it a little, but shrugged. She really had no preference. Reading wasn't exactly somethign she did on a usual basis unless she needed to study or research. "I'll read anything," she told them.

"I'll make a list of the books we can start reading," Irene said. "Since they're long, maybe we'll meet every couple weeks or so."

"Sounds good," Sehun agreed. 

After dinner, everyone exclaimed that Wendy's cookies were better than the ones from the bakery. There was also a pie that Seohyun brought, and some baked sweet potatoes.

"So when's the next meeting?" Seohyun asked because she's responsible.

"Maybe the first Friday of February," Irene told her. "I have some things to attend to until then."

"You gonna drink that?" Sehun pointed out the stil full glass of wine he poured fro Wendy.

The younger girl gulped nevously and stared at the scarily red drink that smelled awful. "Oh yeah," she took the glass and chugged it in one big gulp much to her and everyone else's horror.

The taste was as bad as she imagined. 

At the end of their book club dinner, they cleaned up the room and table of the untensils and any fallen food. Whiel the others were conversing about something Wendy didn't know anything about, Wendy was trying to keep her sanity. She hadn't drunk wine (or any alcohol for that matter) before and her head was a little woozy Not wanting to stay with the others, she went to the kitchen where Irene was slaving away cleaning the dishes.

"Do you need any help?" Wendy asked.

Irene did not hear Wendy come in so it startled her hearing the unexpected visitor. "Oh, I'm fine. I just need to pack the food so the others can take them home."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Ok." Wendy glanced to the doorway, not really wanting to go bakc to the others because she would just be an awkward bystander. But here, she wasn't doing anything either, simply another awkward bystander while Irene cleaned.

Wendy began to feel a little dizzy again and  leaned on the counter..

"Wendy, are you ok?" Irene stopped what she was doing and reached for the girl's arm.

The latter frowned. "I think it was the wine."

"Was that your first time drinking?" Irene demanded.

"Y-yeah..." 

"Oh, Wendy..." Irene gave her a sympathetic look. "You're not supposed to chug it like that the first time."

"Too late to tell me that." Wendy laughed. "I think I'll call Seulgi now." She fumbled for her phone and dropped it. "oops..."

Irene picked it up for her and led her into the front sitting room away from the others.

"Everything ok?" Sehun appeared.

"Yes, she's just a little lightheaded," Irene told him. She decided not to humiliate Wendy by saying it was the wine, but she figured that as already experienced, Sehun might be able to tell anyway.

"Poor kid. I remember my first drink. Got super wasted."

Irene sighed and turned to Wendy to reassure her that everything was alright, but the girl was asleep in the soft chair. 

"Damn, she really has no tolerance," Sehun commented. 

"If you're not going to be helpful, then leave," Irene said in exasperation.

"Sorry, but she shouldn't have drank," he pointed out. 

He was probably right. Wendy caved in to peer pressure and got herself in this sitaution, but at least she was in a safe place. 

A few moments later, everyone was gone leaving only Wendy and Irene together. Seulgi called, as expected, and Irene answered since Wendy was currently out of commission.

"OH HI!" Seulgi beamed through the other side. "HOW ARE YOU?"

"I'm fine. Wendy got a little drunk and passed out," Irene replied calmly.

"Oh. Oh my...she can't drink. Why did she do that?"

Irene smiled at how Seulgi fretted over her friend. "She can stay over tonight. I don't think it would be easy to carry her up a few floors."

"OH yes! Please, hang on to her!" Seulgi agreed quickly. "It would be much MUCH safer if she stayed with you."

"Alright. I'll take good care of her."

"YES THANK YOU!"

Once she hung up the line, Irene sighed and stared at Wendy. "I'm gonna have to carry you." She looked over her arms, which probably weren't as packed with muscle as Wendy's.

Irene took Wendy's arms and wrapped them around her neck before attempting to pick her up bridal style. For a small person, Wendy was heavy, and Irene almost collapsed before she dumped the girl on the bed.

"...shut up Seul..." Wendy muttered and curled into herself on the bed. " 'rene'll never l-like me more than ..."

The older woman barely understood the slurred speech, and she felt a rush of blood surge through her. She waited for Wendy to say something again to confirm, but it seemed like she was really asleep now.

Irene tucked her into bed before going to take a shower. When she returned, she quietly climbed into bed and checked on WEndy to make sure she was still alive. It was too quiet. What would she do if she hd a corpse beside her all night?

As she watched her, she really could confrim that Wendy was cute, just liek the little hamster. 

Oh Wendy...if its true, you can't imagine how confused I am because of you. How can you come into my life and just exist like this? making me want...you?

--

Meanwhile, Seulgi was busy playing Valorant wtih some strangers and was busy telling them how excited she was for her friend's relationship development on voice chat. (She had very strong EQ and did not care about the toxic players at all)

"DUDE SHUT UP!" her teammate screamed when he died. "You're distracting me!"

"HAH FOR YOU BISSSH!" Seulgi cackled and destroyed the enemy that killed her teammate. "I CAN TAKE EM DOWN BY MYSELF!"

And that's exactly what she did.

She single-handedly annihilated the enemy team with glee, the wenrene story development granting her intense skill.

--

hey guys, hope you liked the chapter. FINALLY MORE WENREN?!!!

I just realized that I am eligible to apply for crowdfunding. I was wondering what you guys think about it, is it legit/safe/do other people use it?

I'm not sure that I would use it since the nature of fanfics are using names/people who are employed under a big company so I'm not sure about the legality of things.

Thanks for your support uwu!