Touch- Little Mix

“Can we go grab a churro?” 

Irene was snapped from her haze with Seulgi’s question. It was after school Monday and she was at the mall with Seulgi and Yeri. Irene was not someone who particularly liked wasting her time roaming the various shops, she thought of herself as an essential shopper. So when the invitation came from the two girls it caught Irene off guard. Did they ask her on the chance she would reject? Probably. Did she use this as a means to stalk Joy and Wendy but “running into them”... Yes. Irene and Yeri led Seulgi to a churro stand that was housed in the middle of the mall’s quad. 

“Irene?” A surprised voice asked. It wasn’t too often that Irene had people she would ‘run into’ as she was very selective about her interactions. But to her surprise a childhood friend had been the one to grasp her attention away from Seulgi’s churro craving. Before her stood Sunmi, a friend from her summers abroad with her sister Taeyeon. They had vacationed together plenty of times, always keeping in contact. If it wasn’t for Taeyeon’s recent summer success with her glee club, Irene was sure she would’ve met with Sunmi again these  past two summers. “It has been a while!”

Irene walked over to her and embraced her old friend. “It has.” 

“So concise, guess you haven’t changed. I sent you an email this weekend letting you know I was coming!” 

“Sorry, I have been busy.” Irene gave an apologetic look. Her version of busy had everything to do with Wendy. Their amazing Friday date was followed by constant communication, including a mutual homework study session just yesterday that ended with a sweet kiss. In light of all that, Irene’s emails had been the last thing on her mind. “What does bring you here though?” 

“We moved here! I’m joining your school tomorrow. that it is such a late transfer, but Dad wanted to have the house fully completed before we stepped foot inside.” Sunmi let out a chuckle. “You know him, always wanting everything to be absolutely perfect.” 

Irene laughed at Sunmi’s sigh. She loved Sunmi’s Dad, he was such a kind soul who always spoiled the girls when they went out with him on his days in town. Mr. Lee loved to spend the days wandering about as the girls dragged him around all the small town shops by the beach town they visited every summer. “Well, I hope to come over when you are all done moving in.” 

“When the boxes are gone, you will be the first person I call!” Irene smiled at Sunmi’s promise. She suddenly saw a spark of interest come across Sunmi’s face. “Ah! The girl! What happened with your crush!” Irene’s eyes went wide as her cheeks flushed. Irene could tell that Sunmi was bouncing with excitement at the potential answer. 

“Irene has a crush?” Irene realized that Yeri had now been within listening distance when Sunmi asked. She could see the panic on Sunmi’s face, thinking that she had blown Irene’s secret. By the sudden sound of Yeri’s cackle, it seemed that she had also seen the face of worry. “Totally kidding, they are totally into each other. Kind of sickening really.” 

“Hey!” Irene exclaimed. The response caused a mutual giggle from Sunmi and Yeri. Before Irene could come back with a  good defense. 

“Oh no!” The girls all turned to the distraught voice. Seulgi looked down sadly at her fallen churro. “Guys!” Irene walked over to her, prompting Yeri and Sunmi to follow. Picking up the dirty churro, Irene tossed in the trash with a sigh before taking one of the two left in Seulgi’s hands and splitting it in two. Irene kept the smaller chunk before handing the larger one over to the sad girl offering her a comforting smile. 

“You wanted the churro, I just wanted a piece but you insisted.” Irene reminded her when she tried to exchange the sizes. Seulgi looked at Irene touched beyond belief at the rare show of warmth. “Here, I’ll get you a coffee later too.” She turned to see Yeri looking at her, puppy eyes already unleashed. “You too,” Irene said with an eye roll. The news seemed to have put their damp moods into  higher spirits because Yeri and Seulgi both gave her wide smiles in return. She saw Sunmi look slightly confused at her before realizing they didn’t know each other.  “Oh yes, where are my manners, Sunmi this Yeri and that’s Seulgi,” Irene said gesturing to the girls, “Guys, this is my friend Sunmi. She will be joining us at school starting tomorrow.” 

Irene saw Yeri give a warm hello and launched into several questions with Sunmi. They seemed to warm up to each other rather quickly. Her eyes slowly shifted to Seulgi however, who had an expression on her face that she hadn’t seen before. The usual Seulgi smile was increased tenfold. Her eyes pouring out fictitious hearts at her friend. She knew that look, she’d warn that look enough times to note what it meant. Her adorable best friend had the hots for her childhood friend. It was kind of cute to see Seulgi become so enamored so quickly, kind of dopey like. 

“You’re drooling,” Irene teased. Seulgi snapped out of her love induced gaze and looked to Irene with a guilty expression. “Don’t feel bad, she is very pretty.” 

“How would your knight in shining sunshine feel about you throwing eyes at a girl at the mall?” Seulgi teased back. Irene looked at her friend with a disinterested look on her face before smacking her upside the head, resulting in a yelp from Seulgi. 

“She is my childhood friend, you stale potato chip,” Irene reminded her, “Essentially equivalent to a sibling. Besides, if I do fancy her you wouldn’t stand a chance.” Irene laughed at Seulgi’s look of indignance before noticing a smirk overtake her usually sweet friend. 

“I’ve seen you try to woo the people you like, Irene, I wouldn’t be as worried as you think,” Seulgi said with a laugh. “Wendy just may be the only person crazy enough to fall for it.” 

Irene bit back a laugh at the image of Wendy blushing at Irene’s early attempts of flirting. “While that may be the case, you seem to forget that people have literally cheered at the sight of me breathing. Don’t you remember Cheer Camp last year?” 

“You mean when the s from Camp Thunder decided to join in on our end of the year relays? What a compliment,” Seulgi snorted. “Besides, confidence is my middle name Irene. I can swoop anyone of their feet with just a-”

“Oh hey there is something in your hair,” Sunmi suddenly said. Irene and Seulgi hadn’t realized that Yeri and Sunmi had stopped to let them catch up. Sunmi leaned in close to Seulgi, pulling off a piece of leaf that had fallen on her head before offering her a beaming smile. 

The look of shock in her face said it all. Confident Seulgi was a complete pile of mush. Irene could see Sunmi’s eyes wandering between Seulgi and herself before landing on Seulgi with a warm expression. It seemed that despite Seulgi’s lack of smooth moves Sunmi was still mildly interested at the very least. Maybe Irene could prolong this interaction just a bit more.

“Sunmi, would you like to join us?” Irene asked her old friend. Yeri gave a squeal of an agreement to Irene’s question and she hoped that Yeri’s warm reception was enough to talk her friend into spending the afternoon with them. Irene saw Sunmi’s eyes drift over to Seulgi again who was stunned yet again. Sunmi’s smile turned fatal as she let out a solid yes before being dragged off by Yeri, making Irene drag statue-like Seulgi to catch with the other two. 

They weaved through stores and Seulgi finally broke the ice with Sunmi. The four girls were having such a good time that Irene had almost forgotten about her secret mission to spy. They were all inside a costume store now, browsing through the clothes that could even remotely resemble a vampire theme. 

“So you’re telling me that these costumes are for an assignment?” Sunmi asked. The girls gave her a collective yes in response. “Wow,” Sunmi said. Irene struggled to take her seriously with the star-shaped glasses and bright pink feathered boa around her neck. “And you need them by Thursday?” Once again the girls gave her a grunt of confirmation. “Well, anything counts as a vampire outfit these days. You guys should all get fangs though!” 

“You should get some too, Sunmi!” Yeri said with excitement. “You are planning on joining the club anyway so I’m sure Advisor Kim would appreciate you getting your costume as well.” 

“Alright,” Sunmi said in agreement. She reached over to the teeth before picking out a pack. “Would you let me your neck if I wore these?” She flashed the pointed teeth before running her tongue over them, staring straight at Seulgi.

Irene was used to Sunmi’s statements by now so she gave nothing more than a laugh and eye roll as a response. Yeri was of a similar mind, laughing at Sunmi for saying something so scandalous to them. Seulgi however… “Of course,” Seulgi said nodding her head. The laughter died down as Sunmi was shocked to get a response in general. It took Seulgi all of four seconds before realizing what she was implying. “Oh! I mean! Hypothetically speaking I would let you bite me! Wait that didn’t sound any better…” 

Yeri and Irene looked at each other before bursting out with laughter. Sunmi, however, recovered from her shocked state to give Seulgi a sultry smile. “Why Seulgi,” she said, cutting off Irene and Yeri’s laughter. “How sweet are you! I promise I won’t bite too hard.” She left off with a wink before walking down the aisle of pirate’s gear. Seulgi looked absolutely red as she processed what was said. 

“Damn,” Yeri said before clapping. “If only you were like that Irene.” Irene gave an incredulous look causing Yeri to continue her thought. “Well if you were as seductive as Sunmi,” Yeri paused slightly, letting her smirk come in slowly, “You might have already gotten in Wendy’s pants.” Irene quickly threw the fake parrot she was holding at Yeri, who was now cackling at Irene’s blush. “It’s okay Irene, good things come to those who wait!” 

Irene scoffed at Yeri who was running away f