"So, what's up, Slug?"

Trying to force her eyes open, she peeked through her lidded gaze as Joy took the vacant seat infront of her. "Nothing much."

Joy snickered and scrutinized her face with a frown. "Yeah, looks like it."

Seulgi sat up straighter and started to shake her head to remove any sign of drowsiness from her body, which helped her a little. She frowned, "I look... that bad?"

"No. Not much. But you look like a panda more than you look like a bear."

The tired girl's hand then went to the bottom of her eyes and felt the huge swollen bags under it. "I'm just so... tired."

"Care to share why?"

"Complicated."

Resting her face on her upright palm, Joy rolled her eyes at what she said. "By complicated, you mean it comes with a name, right?"

She didn't speak but Joy pushed more. "So... I'm right. What happened now?"

Seulgi slumped again on the stack of books infront of her and sighed. "Your friend... she's just very complicated. I don't understand-" she squeezed her eyes shut and continued, "I just don't get her."

When she came home that night Irene dropped her off, Seulgi wasn't able to get a wink of sleep. Despite being so tired, rest eluded her like she drank 4 cups of iced americano making her stay awake all night just trying to figure out the said girl.

That Bae girl was an enigma.

Seulgi didn't know who was who anymore. She didn't know if it's Irene she's talking to, who's sharp and defensive and utterly cold and brutal. Irene who has that signature smirk and dead eyes.

Or if she was seeing Joohyun. Joohyun who was silent and crying and always looking down at her feet while hugging her knees. Joohyun who was timid, and... would offer you a ride home or her purple umbrella. Joohyun who had her signature scowl and red eyes and runny nose.

Seulgi was just... so utterly confused.

She heard a snicker and when she glanced at Joy, her eyes were glinting under the library's light. "Irene? She's not complicated, Seulgi. She likes doing the laundry and get high with fabric softeners. She hates animals and likes red bean ice cream or the yogurt flavored one. She laughs like an old lady and she smacks you when you annoy her. So, no. She isn't complicated."

"You're just saying that because you are her friend. You know her."

"Exactly my point. I know her. She isn't like what you think she is," her eyes seemed to be glazed when she looked up. "She's just has some issues that makes her hard to... be with."

She closed her eyes for a moment and think of what Joy said. What issues could she be going through to be someone she is now?

How could it be that bad that between Irene and Joohyun, she doesn't know who's the real one and who's the one being used as a facade?

Which one was real and which one was used as a coping mechanism?

Is Joohyun the person she becomes when she's out of sight and sad and scared? That when she's alone, she becomes an entirely different person and she becomes nice?

Or that she becomes Irene because she was seen and known by a lot of people? Just because she has a reputation to uphold, an image to maintain?

"You shouldn't think much,"

Her eyes snapped open. "What?"

Joy was now holding a book and her eyes lazily scan the page, not bothering to look at Seulgi while speaking. "Just go with the flow. See where the current will take you, then you'll know."

But does she want to know?

Does she want to go with the flow and be swept away by the current and... drown once again?

"You know a lot about her, right?" Seulgi asked instead of answering the questions in her mind. "Then help me. What are her hobbies, Joy?"

A phone beeped on the table, catching both their attention. Seulgi peeked at the device and it was a message from Jisoo, saying that she's on her way to the library. She informed Joy who only nodded absentmindedly.

She let the other girl think of her answer when Jisoo spotted them and sat beside her.

"What's up?" Jisoo looked at the table and turned to Seulgi, who was waiting for Joy to speak. "What's with the mess? You're finishing the plates this early on?"

Joy seemed to snap out from her daze and grinned. "Seulgi, the answer might've been staring at you from the beginning."

"Huh?"

Joy smirked and picked up her bag, ready to leave for her next class. "Think, Slug. Where are we good at? Where are you good at?" Then she left it like that. Seulgi could only turn to Jisoo who was looking at her.

"What does she mean?"

Jisoo nodded her head and grinned in return, understanding what Joy was implying. "What's the common thing about us three, Seulgi?"

She thought for a moment and her eyes landed at the scattered paper infront of her. She found Jisoo's eyes when she looked up and Seulgi grinned in return.

Of course.

//

"I figured something out." She started while approaching the girl with curious eyes.

Irene eyes immediately lit up and she clapped her hands slowly. A gesture to show that she was truly impressed. "I knew you were the right choice."

No, I'm not and neither-

Seulgi ignored her. "Okay, Mrs. Lee is an art teacher, right?" She asked while emphasizing the word art. Irene tilted her head in question but nodded not soon after.

"Okay so, when you think of art, what's the first thing that comes to your mind?"

"Drawing?"

Seulgi nodded, and looked for the pamphlet inside her bag. When she found it, she gave it to Irene. "Bingo. That's what you're going to do."

Irene took it and examined the yellow paper with information on where to go and what she'll do. "What?"

"You'll draw. Paint. Illustrate."

Rolling her eyes, Irene gave her back the paper. "I know its synonyms, Seulgi."

Seulgi folded the paper in half and tucked it inside her back pocket. "Good. Let's go."

"Where are we going?"

She grinned. "Paint class."

//

"What the..." was all Seulgi could say in that moment, looking wide eye at the offensive gem in the canvas.

"It isn't that bad," Irene tried to reason out, holding her canvass and examining her masterpiece.

"Are you aiming for an abstract face? Surrealism?"

Irene only glared at her but she wasn't deterred, she was still gaping at the art she was holding.

"Ma'am, you're in a pop art class." Seulgi incredulously said while eyeing the canvas where a large red dot was placed haphazardly.

Irene argued more that it's a dimple and the main attraction of the whole painting and that it completes it look. Seulgi could think none of those but that it looked like a swollen red pimple on the face she painted.

Irene looked at it some more, then she got quiet and sighed, putting down her canvass with a loud thud. "It's not gonna work. I at this."

Seulgi snickered and whispered to herself, "Not so perfect now, are you?"

While removing her apron, Irene flipped her hair and rolled her eyes at her, apparently hearing Seulgi's mockery.  "Excuse me if I'm not artistic like you. God can only give so much in one person."

Seulgi only rolled her eyes as a response and watched the red zit on the face Irene painted glow like it was on fire.

Then her mind transported her back to the past...

She heard the slight ruffling beside her, but couldn't see much since her eyes were glued on her sketchbook. A voice then startled her, making her look at the person beside her. "What are you doing?"

Seulgi blushed when Irene tried to peek but she quickly hid it by closing it, feeling her cheeks blush crimson. "I- err... I'm drawing something."

At the blatant gesture of closing and hiding her sketchpad,  she saw how Irene's eyes changed from being curious to the passive look it usually holds. Irene only hummed and hugged her knees closer to her chest then it was quiet again.

There was something that compelled Seulgi to bring back the slight shimmer in the older's eyes and so, without thinking, she asked, "Do you want to see it?"

Her voice was barely a whisper, scared and unsure. She wasn't sure if Irene heard her but after another beat of silence, Irene looked up and nodded her head.

Seulgi's hands were shaking when she handed Irene her most priced possession. She gulped when the latter's eyes travelled down the pad of paper, examining the slight messy sketch of a girl. "It's pretty."

Without thinking once again, she replied. 

"T-That's you."

Seulgi immediately clamped shut at her very honest statement. She glanced at Irene to see if she was shocked or weirded out that someone was sketching her without her knowing. Noticing the small smile on Irene's lips, Seulgi released the breath she didn't know she was holding.

After looking at it once more, Irene nodded her head and returned her sketchpad. 

"I see. Maybe that's why it's pretty."

Seulgi lowered her head in a bashful manner, while opening her sketchbook again. She was trying so hard not to smile but Irene's slight playful tone made her break into a wide grin, her eyes turning into crescents. And the silence wasn't so bad anymore.

Seulgi took her time in removing her apron, while keeping shut and crossed arts in the choices. She looked at the upsetting mess Irene made and sighed.

Since this idea of hers didn't work out, she needed to come up with another one before the month ends.

The faster she figures something out, the better. Seulgi didn't want to use the whole two months just for this project. One month or less will be enough.

And she promised herself that she'll never stay beside Irene that long to let her remember everything.

//

"It didn't work," she said, letting her body plop on the hard chair in the cafeteria.

"It didn't?"

"No."

"Really?" Joy asked incredulously.

Seulgi looked at her and raised her brow. "What? Why? Did she say it worked?"

"She liked it."

Seulgi felt her self stiffen at the announcement. "H-huh?" 

"Irene. She liked it. What you did? She enjoyed it and was gushing about her masterpiece back at her home."

The one who witnessed the said masterpiece only frowned at the memory of the red zit on the canvas. 

Joy's face fell at that. "I didn't see the final result but assuming your reaction, it must've , right?"

Seulgi didn't answer her but the glint in her eyes or the way her lips tugged upward gave the answer away.

Jisoo turned to Joy this time. "If she liked it then why is Seulgi still here, looking so utterly lost?"

"She only liked and enjoyed it, Jisoo but that didn't mean she was good at it. You can still enjoy things you're bad at, I guess."

"Why did you suggest it in the first place, then?"

"She's been really open to a lot of things now compared before and I saw her experimenting on her iPad or something. But I didn't know her works are... that bad."

Seulgi was just listening to the two bicker and converse while still trying to think of a plan. Thankfully, Jisoo asked the very crucial question again, though it was a little flippant.

"What's she good at, then? Like really good at." 

Joy's answer was immediate, "Doing laundry."

Seulgi almost choked on air and looked at Joy's expression to see if she was kidding but she wasn't. She was wearing this poker face while looking at the both of them.

"What? I told you, she's really good at that. She chooses the most amazing fabric softeners and she folds clothes like a boss." Joy stated proudly while tilting her head upward.

Overcoming the bizzarness of that information, Seulgi sighed in defeat. "As