Wendy grunted as she did the nth set of sit ups. The soccer coach seriously wasn't gonna let them leave without a few battle scars. After a long hard practice, the coach was making them do a miliion sets of workout excercises to remind them of the hard pain they needed to experience to win the first set of games that would land them in a spot in the big leagues.

"DON'T SLOW DOWN!" The coach roared.

The soccer captain called out numbers in a consistent tempo to keep them all together, and WEndy's abs were screaming by the end of the exercise.

At water break, she flopped down on the grass and stared up at the evening sky. Only the stadium lights were on to allow them to see on the field. It was actually relaxing right now, but then the coach blew on the whistle loudly for the next exercise.

Irene's friends came over early as per usual to enjoy dinner together. Each person brought something so that she would not be overwhelmed with all the cooking, but she still made homecooked meals.

This time she made a large vat of kimchi fried rice because it was simple and she had less time than usual due to grading and meeting deadlines as a professor on tenure track at the university. (Irene is not yet full time professor but is a candidate for getting hired full time with more pay and lots of benefits). Everyone loved her cooking since the rest of the group ate out most of the time.

"I brought us something to drink," Sehun said. "My supervisor gave it to me in celebration of my anniversary working there."

"That's so nice. Congrats," Seohyun said and Sehun gave her a grateful smile.

"Wendy won't be here tonight," Irene announced casually as she helped herself to some Chinese takeout Taeyeon had brought. "Her soccer practice is running late."

"Must be for the game next week," Hani concluded. "That's too bad. Where does she go to school again?"

"She goes to the same school as my friend. University of (insert name)," Taeyeon said. "Oh, yeah, Irene you teach there don't you?"

Irene nodded while she took a mouthful of the chow mein.

"You haven't seen Wendy there have you?" Taeyeon asked.

"No. She's from a different department so we definitely won't have crossed paths before."

"She's kind of cute, don't you think?" Hani added.

"Ok, thanks for reminding us how gay you are!" Taeyeon slapped her shoulder. "Don't go scaring away our youngest member."

Hani cackled, and that part of the conversation was over. But it made Irene wonder if Hani might be interested in Wendy. Hani was a jokester, though, so it was probably just a failed jab at humor.

After that, Taeyeon changed the subject - thankfully.

The book club session went by quickly. Evne though it had been a couple weeks, it was wierd having just the original five again.

As usual, her friends helped her clean up and she walked them to the door to send them off for the night.

--

Wendy felt bad about having to send yet another email to Irene about missing another session of the book club. She really did try to finish all her assignments while prepping for the game, and read the book for the week. There just didn't seem to be enough time no matter waht she did.

And it didn't help that the coach was working them extra hard so she was phsycially exhausted to the point that she was simply falling asleep while reading.

No, she decided and deleted the email. I'm going to try to make it.

It was midweek now and she was still behind in her assignments and the reading. She went to the kitchen to make some coffee, and continued to study into the night.

Unfortunately, it didn't go in her favor. Whiel she did get a lot of work done pulling that all nighter, she was tired as hell and wanted to sleep more than anything else in the world. Luckily, Seulgi was there to wake her up with bad pancakes and drive her to school in less than ten minutes and counting.

Wendy stumbled down the hallways and into her first class, and had a hard time staying awake. Fortunately, this lecture class didn't require class discussion so she was ok in the end, but she couldn't read her jumbled notes to save her life.

After class ended, she realized with joy that there was a large gap between now and her next class so she happily headed to the library and took the elevator to the fourth floor where it was super quiet and no one would notice her sleeping there.

She found a quiet place in the corner and took off her jacket to use as a pillow, and instantly dozed off into a dreamless sleep.

But it was cut short when she felt someone gently shaking her shoulder.

! She almost jumped up out of her seat when she realized she had been caught.

"it's just me," Seulgi said. "I was looking all over for you. I got you lunch and coffee."

"Oh. Thanks." Wendy took them gratefully. This is waht she loved about Seulgi - how she knew when Wendy was in dire need of saving. The fresh scent of coffee helped wake her up and the sandwich in the bag looked yummy.

"Y'know, I'm sure Irene woudl understand if you can't make it again this week," SEulgi pointed out worriedly. "At this rate, you'll pass out during the game, and/or pass out at Irene's house. We woudln't want either of that."

"That is the most sense you've made all year," Wendy joked.

Seulgi scoffed and shoved her playfully. "You love me."

"Pfft. Sure."

"Come on. You need to get your blood flowing," Seulgi dragged her out of the library. "Also I need help with math."

"What? Algebra?"

"No you doofus. I passed that in grade school!"

As they walked to the student center to find a place to study, neither of them noticed Irene passing by with her colleagues.

She didn't heard their conversation, but it looked like they were having fun. Irene wondered what it woudl be like to be friends with Wendy, and that's when she noticed Seulgi's hand wrapped around Wendy's wrist.

What would it feel like to do that with someone? she wondered.

"Irene, everything ok?" the chair of the Literature Department asked.

She hadn't noticed that her colleagues were ahead of her. "Yes, I'm fine. I...thought I forgot something back in the meeting room."

"Did you?"

"No."

She rejoined them, but zoned out of the conversation as she wondered why she was being like this ever since Wendy came into her life. It wasn't causing her major disruptions in her life but she hadn't thought about dating anyone for a while  

Ah, geez. I really need to focus or I will get into some trouble, she scolded herself.

--

"Today's the day, girls!" the soccer captain announced. "We'll go for a light jog and then it's showtime, baby!"

Wendy made sure to sleep better last night, at Seulgi's urging - actually, Seulgi forced her to and stole all her homework and books from her. Except for the book club book.

"Read that to sleep!" Seulgi cried and shut the door.

With that said, Wendy got through halfway the book before falling asleep into the pages.

 So now, she was dressed in her soccer uniform standing among her team an hour before the first game, and they were trying to get pumped up and get their blood running.

"We worked hard for this. So let's start with a bang! Together!" the soccer captain said triumphantly and the rest of them cheered in agreement.

They lightly jogged a lap and then went to the gym room to hydrate and stretch a few more minutes.

Wendy did a couple breath exercises and bounced on her heels. Focus, focus...

Irene sat in her office staring at the university calendar adversiting the first soccer game of the year. She spun her pen absently while wondering whether or not it was ok to go to a sports event. There was nothing wrong in showing support for the university's team.

Would it be wierd if Wendy saw her?

If she went to the game, she wouldn't have time to make dinner for her friends.

Would they think it was wierd if she didn't make homecooked food?

It was fifteen minutes to the game start.

Irene let her pen fall to the desk and she clenched her fist. Skip the game, she said to herself. I don't have time.

There are plenty others to go to.

--

will she go? Who knows ???

uwu