Summary: Twenty-six words that sum up Wendy and Irene's relationship, starting from A to Z. (Part 1)

 

 

 

 

A is for Awkward.

 

Their first meeting was pretty awkward, almost embarrassing, Wendy could say. It was a fine Saturday night when Yeri and Joy decided to bother her peace.

 

"I said no!"

 

“But Wendy,” Yeri said, nearly groveling on Wendy’s feet, “It’s going to be really fun. And if you get bored, you can just leave! But you won’t! Because you’ll have lots of fun!” Yeri gripped Wendy’s hand tightly, pleading her. Joy, who seemingly did not care for Wendy’s wishes, walked over, slinging an arm over her shoulders.

 

“Oh Wannie, why the long face? Yeri is right, the party will be great!” Joy leaned into her, her face disturbingly close to Wendy's.

 

“Ugh fine. I’ll go,” Wendy finally gave up, rolling her eyes while Yeri and Joy let out a cheer. She brushed Joy’s arm aside and pushing Yeri away. “But I’m not going to be happy about it. And we are not staying late.”

 

Joy brushed a strand of hair out of her gorgeous face, “Wendy, you are so lame. But! You have agreed to join us this fine evening so I have no complaints.”

 

Yeri stood up, raising her arms to the sky. “Yes! Wendy is going to the party! Best day ever!” The girls all laughed and Wendy only complained a little but more when Seulgi arrived a few hours later to pick them up.

 

And so Wendy found herself in the corner of the living room, against it like some kind of wallflower, one hand inside her pocket and the other gripping the plastic cup that had previously been given to her. She raised the cup to her lips, scanning the room in front of her for someone she might recognize. Joy and Yeri had left her nearly as soon as they had walked through the door. Wendy was a little angry that she was left behind, but she had Seulgi to keep her company. That was, until Seulgi’s friend, Jessica, had arrived, almost immediately dragging Seulgi away. Wendy remembered the apologetic look Seulgi had shot her while being carted away by Jessica, however Wendy still couldn’t help but feel a little upset. Wendy had always hated parties. Seulgi knew it, Yeri knew it, Joy knew it. So how did she find herself lost in a completely unknown house on a Saturday night? She felt painfully out of place, like a pepperoni that had mistakenly made its way onto a vegetarian pizza.

 

As Wendy brought the cup down from her lips, eyes still scanning the crowd in front of her, she felt something bump against her shoulder. A bit of her drink sloshed over the side of the cup, hitting the ground with a soft drop. Wendy’s eyes traced the unknown force up from where the liquid had dropped.

 

First she saw a pair of tiny black vans. Whoever owned these shoes had kept them clean - or they were just new shoes. Her eyes then flitted quickly over comfortable jeans and a white oversized long-sleeved shirt. Wendy wondered how the person wasn’t dying to death because of the heat while she herself felt like she was melting in her t-shirt. Her gaze paused only slightly as it caught sight of fidgeting hands in front of the person's chest. Wendy felt her breath hitch for a moment. Finally, her eyes met another pair looking back at hers with somewhat of a sparkle in them and a bit of hesitance. All Wendy could focus on was those eyes. And for real this time, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

 

She watched the look in the woman’s eyes turn into one of concern and briefly saw her eyes widen. Wendy blinked once, twice, and felt her face grow red.

 

“Uh. Sorry. I-uh, didn't mean to bump on you,” the woman said with her eyes flickering around Wendy’s own head, refusing to make eye contact, “Did I hurt you?”

 

Wendy replied with a shake of her head instead of replying with her voice. She felt like her voice would crack and she would embarrass herself. The room was too loud after all and she didn’t feel like yelling.

 

“That's good,” the stranger said after a while, looking relieved, “I was wondering what you’re doing hidden away in this corner.”

 

Wendy let out an embarrassed little giggle, her face still red from before. Her hand came up from her pocket to lightly scratch the back of her neck.

 

“Oh, I just don’t really want to be here right now,” she said sheepishly, her hand once again returning to the seclusion of her pocket. The stranger furrowed her eyebrows, and Wendy could feel how intensely the woman’s eyes were on her.

 

“Really? Why?”

 

Wendy let out a sigh, shrugging, and took a small sip from her cup. She cringed a little at the taste, the bitterness being a little worse than she had expected.

 

“I didn’t want to come in the first place. My friends just dragged me along. There's nothing really to do when you don’t know anyone so I’m standing here until my friends are ready to leave.”

 

“Did you try meeting new people?”

 

Wendy scoffed, “I don’t know anything about these people. They could be killers or want to drug me or something. Besides, everyone here already knows each other."

 

The stranger - if Wendy could even keep calling her that; they’d been talking for a few minutes now, they were probably more like acquaintances - nodded and turned her head, facing back out into the crowd. They stood in awkward silence for a while and Wendy didn’t know what to do about it. She wasn’t good at striking up conversations.

 

“Don’t you think I’m one of those strange people?” The woman suddenly spoke. Wendy followed her gaze into the crowd, flicking her eyes across it with no rhyme or reason.

 

“No, I don’t think so. You seem... Different.” Wendy kept her eyes in the crowd even though she could feel the woman’s energy focused on her. She was being honest. The woman next to her had a much more delightful aura than any other person in the room. Everyone seemed so unapproachable, unlike her.

 

“Different how?”

 

“I don’t know. Just. Different.”

 

Wendy looked at the woman and their eyes locked. The moment felt like it lasted for hours and Wendy wasn’t entirely sure if it was ever going to end until the woman jutted back a little, shaking Wendy out of her stupor. The no-longer-stranger quickly extended a hand. Wendy swore she saw the small hand shaking slightly.

 

“My name is Irene.”

 

Wendy hesitated for a moment before pulling her hand out of her pocket again and reaching for the hand.

 

“I’m Wendy.”

 

The pair shook hands for a moment, small smiles gracing their faces. Like before, Irene was the one to break the tension.

 

“Do you want a refill?” She said, pointing to the cup in Wendy’s hand. Wendy quickly looked down to the drink and back up to Irene’s face.

 

“I actually was handed this and don’t know what it is but I’ll take something else.”

 

Irene's smile grew and she turned toward the crowd.

 

“Follow me and I’ll make you a drink.”

 

Wendy nodded as Irene began to walk towards the kitchen. Wendy followed behind closely, avoiding the moving bodies as best as she could. She stumbled through the confined hallway, trying not to lose Irene in the crowd. The constant bumps against her reminded her of the first bump that Irene had given her when their conversation first started.

 

As they entered the kitchen, Wendy could barely breathe. It felt like everyone at the party was crowded into one room. Irene stopped on the far side of the counter, looking down at the array of drinks set in front of her. Wendy made her way to stand next to her, feeling like she had just made some form of physical contact with every person in the room. The air was thick and the music was too loud. Wendy felt like she couldn’t even hear herself think. She turned to face Irene and saw moving but heard no words come out.

 

“What?” She said, her volume just below that of a yell. Irene spoke again, but her words were still lost on Wendy.

 

“I’m sorry, what?” Wendy said again with a point to her ear, “I can’t hear you.”

 

Irene made an ‘oh’ shape with and nodded. Before Wendy could process it, Irene had leaned forward and put directly next to her ear. Her hand was pressed against Wendy’s back, tugging her even closer. Wendy closed her eyes and relaxed into the touch.

 

“I said, what do you want me to make you?” Irene’s voice was hot and loud against Wendy’s ear. She shivered and nearly forgot what Irene had asked her. She opened her eyes to tilt her head to Irene’s ear.

 

“I’m not sure. Whatever you think I’ll like.” Wendy spoke loudly so that Irene could hear her over the noise. Her voice felt harsh against their soft and quiet bubble. Irene leaned away and Wendy felt herself grow cold at the lack of heat. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding and watched as Irene pondered the bottles at the countertop in front of her. Her hand reached out to hover over a blue bottle, before quickly darting to the left to grab a clear one. Wendy had no clue what the bottles contained but she was bewitched by Irene’s mesmerizing movements. Wendy felt like no time had passed at all before Irene held the cup out to her with a small smile on her face. Wendy smiled back shyly and took the drink, quickly raising it to . She couldn’t quite place the taste, but it was sort of fruity. She brought the cup down to rest at mid-chest level. Irene looked at her in anticipation.

 

“So?” Irene said, raising an eyebrow.

 

Wendy nodded and smiled, “It's good! I’m not a big fan of alcohol but this is good! It's nice!”

 

Irene’s smile grew and Wendy felt like she was staring straight into the sun. Her eyes crinkled and Wendy melted. Not unlike before, Wendy felt as though they were in their own little bubble, away from the rest of the world. Much to her disappointment, the moment was broken by a rough shove to her back. Wendy stumbled forward, her drink fumbling in her hands. Irene’s arms came up to steady her, her hands grabbing at Wendy’s biceps, grounding her. Unfortunately, between the sudden push and the shock of Irene’s hands, Wendy’s cup was unable to stay completely unaffected. About half of the cup spilled onto Irene's shoes.

 

“Oh, no! I’m so sorry!” Wendy said frantically, staring down at Irene’s once pristine shoes. “, I feel so awful.”

 

Irene’s hands were still on her. “Hey, it's fine! It's not your fault! I can just clean them.”

 

“No, they were so nice and clean! And I spilled all my drink all over them!”

 

Irene released her and took the cup from her hands. She set it on the counter and, to Wendy’s surprise, immediately grabbed both of her hands.

 

“It is actually fine,” Irene said, voice steady and persistent, “It does not matter.”

 

Wendy’s eyes were wide as they made contact with Irene’s, the latter’s immediately softening. Another bump to Wendy’s back broke the connection. At this point, Wendy was starting to think that the world hated her.

 

She sighed, “I hate this party.”

 

Irene let out a small laugh at Wendy’s misfortune and released only one of her hands, “Come on, let's go back to your corner. It's quieter over there.” Wendy nodded and allowed herself to be pulled across the house by the woman. The walk back to the living room seemed more difficult than their earlier trek. The hallways seemed smaller, or maybe there were just more people. Either way, Wendy felt gross being rubbed against all these people. When they reached their designated spot on the wall, Irene dropped Wendy’s hand from her clutch. Wendy missed her touch but tried not to show it. The two stood side by side, their backs resting leisurely against the wall, their eyes watching the crowd as a group of people jumped up and down with the music. Wendy thought she saw Yeri’s head bouncing among them, but it was gone before she could be sure. They stood in silence for a while, taking in the party around. The silence was quite uncomfortable, for Wendy at least. She didn’t know what to do or say. Pretty women always made her loose her mind and this woman was no exception. She could tell that Irene was tense by the way her body was completely stiff next to hers and she wondered why. She probably didn’t like the party either. What was a woman like her doing at a party like this anyways? She belonged at a royal family ball or something.

 

They watched the group of people knock into each other, pushing people over and just being a nuisance, in Wendy's opinion at least. It took all of Wendy's effort and communication skills to speak first this time.

 

“This is another reason why I hate parties,” she was referring to the mess in front of them. Irene jumped slightly. She seemed surprised by Wendy's voice even though the room was no silent.

 

“Well, I mean, this one can’t be that bad.”

 

Wendy looked at her and crossed her arms. “I’ve been hit like seven times in the last five minutes. My friends left me and I didn’t want to be here in the first place. This one really isn’t very good.”

 

Irene paused, looking at her. She looked hesitant before she decided to speak, “But you have me.”

 

Wendy stilled for a moment, letting Irene's words sink in. She uncrossed her arms and unceremoniously shoved both hands into her pockets. She shook her head, “You make it better but it still might be the worst party I’ve ever been to.”

 

Irene copied Wendy’s movement, leaning closer, “I think you’re lying. You’re secretly having a great time.” She said in a teasing tone, sounding bold, yet her ears flashed red.

 

Wendy rolled her eyes, barely noticing the cute blush, “That's not true. This party is terrible, awful even–”

 

“Wendy!”

 

Wendy jerked back from the closeness of Irene, feeling a fiery blush begin to cover her face. She hoped it would be unrecognizable against the dark light of the room. Irene, too, leaned away from her. Both girls looked towards the voice to identify who disrupted their moment. Seulgi had returned from her adventure with Jessica. She was alone now, standing in front of both her and Irene, creating a triangle within the three of them.

 

“Hey Seul,” Wendy smiled weakly, still reeling from her most recent interaction with Irene.

 

Seulgi nodded towards her companion, “So, I see you’ve met Irene?”

Wendy looked at Seulgi in confusion, “Uh, yeah. You know Irene?”

Seulgi laughed, “Wendy! You muffin-head! Of course I know Irene! Don’t you?”

 

Wendy was extremely confused now. She looked over at Irene, who was looking down at her feet with somewhat of a smirk on her face.

 

“I met Irene today, here. A little bit after you went off with Jessica.”

 

Seulgi laughed once again and shook her head, “Wendy! This is Irene’s house! This is her party!”

 

Wendy’s mouth dropped open as she turned her head to look at Irene, then back to Seulgi and back to Irene again. She gasped and her hands flew to , her eyes wide.

 

“Oh my god! I literally spent half the night complaining to you about your own party!” Irene was laughing cutely now, "I insulted you so many times!” Wendy panicked. She hated herself. She should have expected something like this though. Everything was going suspiciously smooth with Irene. Irene laughed even harder as Wendy tried to hide her face in her hands.

 

Wendy groaned loudly, “This is so embarrassing.”

 

Seulgi shuffled over and patted Wendy’s shoulder, but Wendy could feel her hand vibrating, revealing to her that Seulgi was also laughing and finding humor in her humiliation and misfortune. Irene got a hold of herself long enough to choke out, “It's fine! It was really funny once I realized you had no idea who I was!”

 

Wendy groaned again as Seulgi and Irene laughed. Their laughter slowly died down as they looked into the crowd.

“Oh my god, what are they doing?” Seulgi said with a hand on her face.

 

In the center of the crowd stood Yeri and Joy. Arms slung around each other's shoulders, the two seemed to be the life of the party. Both had sunglasses and beanies on. Where they got the glasses or how they could see with them on in the dark room was lost on Wendy. The girls were swaying and singing at the top of their lungs. Wendy couldn’t tell what words they were saying, only that it was definitely improvised in the moment. While they were hyping each other up, the rest of the people around them seemed to be confused and giving them strange looks.

 

“Someone should probably stop them before they get hurt,” Seulgi continued and turned to Wendy, “I hate to say this but are you ready to leave? They really should get home and sleep this off.”

 

Wendy nodded, “Yeah that's fine. Um, let me just– just give me a minute and I’ll meet you out in the car.”

 

Seulgi smiled and turned to say bye to Irene, walking off after Joy and Yeri. Wendy looked at Irene, who was looking back at her with a small smile on her face.

 

“Well Wendy,” she said, eyes sparkling in the faint light, “It was nice meeting you.”

 

Wendy smiled back, “I can’t believe you’re so nice to me after I constantly insulted you and got your shoes and socks soaked with alcohol.”

 

Irene’s smile grew and her hand came up to grab Wendy’s softly, “Don't worry about it.”

 

Wendy bit her lip before turning her head back to the crowd, “I should probably go now, I don’t want to leave Seulgi alone with them for too long.”

 

Irene’s thumb brushed against Wendy’s hand, “I understand. See you soon?”

 

Wendy mirrored her smile, “See you soon.” She let go of Irene’s hand and marched off into the crowd. She was only gone for a moment before she heard her name being called.

 

“Wendy! Wait!” She stopped and turned around, seeing Irene push through the crowd to catch up to her. Before Wendy could even notice, Irene’s hand came down to grab hers, opening it up and placing a small piece of paper inside.

 

“That's my number,” Irene said, breathlessly, "Call me anytime."

 

Wendy nodded, face red. Irene smiled once more, her face equally red, before turning and heading off. Wendy took another moment to catch her breath, soon continuing her journey out of the house and to Seulgi’s car. At the car, Seulgi sat in the driver’s seat with Joy and Yeri out against each other in the back seat. As Wendy climbed into the vehicle, door shutting behind her, Yeri stirred.

 

“Hello Wannie,” Yeri croaked out, her voice sore, “Did you have a good time?”

 

Wendy looked down at the strip of paper clutched in her palm.

 

“I did,” She said, smiling, “I did.”

 

 

(…)

 

 

B is for Baking.

 

Wendy thought it was a great idea to bake a cake for her new friend, Irene, who was coming over later tonight for a movie night. She had begged her roommate, Seulgi, to stay with them because she felt extremely nervous when she was left alone with Irene. Thankfully, Seulgi had agreed, however she was dealing with another problem right now.

 

"I'm stuck, Joy," Wendy sighed. She leaned over the counter to squint at the recipe that kept fading too quickly off her phone's screen. She considered turning off the display time-out, but was distracted by the shrill beep of the microwave timer. "Hold on–!"

 

She flashed over to the stove and turned the burner off, removing the saucepan of bubbling heavy cream. "I can't decide between a butter cream frosting and whipped cream."

 

"Can't you do both? What's the difference?" Joy’s voice sounded much smaller and Wendy realized it was because she’d gotten frosting on her phone. She glanced around the empty kitchen before the speaker clean.

 

"I can tell I called the wrong person about this. There is a huge difference between them!"

 

"If you're going get snippy with me, Wendy Shon, I can just hang up and leave you alone with your cake decorating woes."

 

"Okay, alright!" Wendy moved the phone closer to the stove and poured the boiling cream over a bowl of chopped, dark chocolate. "I'm doing a ganache, too, just in case, you know, she prefers chocolate."

 

"Who doesn't prefer chocolate?"

 

Wendy chuckled as she whisked, careful to keep her speed in check, lest she paint the backsplash again. "Maybe I can just make many cakes? All single layers-"

 

"Do you have time for that? You know your oven doesn't operate at Bolt speeds."

 

"I've already made a few and I've been working with Seulgi on something–"

 

"Focus up, Wendy! Pick one thing to do– what's Irene's favorite kind of cake?"

 

Her silence damned her and Joy let out a low whistle. Wendy hung her head and set the ganache aside. "I, uh, I never thought to ask her. Figured that'd give the surprise away."

 

"…Okay," Joy replied slowly. "Have you thought about asking Seulgi?"

 

"Ask me what?" Seulgi appeared behind the kitchen island, almost giving Wendy a heart attack.

 

"What Irene's favorite– Wendy, stop screaming, I can't hear. What's Irene's favorite kind of cake?"

 

"She just dropped the whole bowl on the floor, that's why she's screaming." Seulgi surveyed the kitchen from the island. "Irene's either going to love it or hate it."

 

"Irene always– hey, no!" Wendy slapped Seulgi's hand out of the bowl of orange butter cream frosting.

 

"And I swear, I'm going to put a bell on you– didn't we talk about not sneaking up on people?" Wendy scolded her roommate.

 

"Did we?"

 

Heaving a long-suffering sigh, Wendy pulled as many bowls out of Seulgi's reach as she could, "Could you please answer the question? Irene's favorite cake? You've known her since you were kids."

 

Seulgi lowered herself onto one of the stools outside the island and draped her upper body on top of the counter. She studied the dishes, bowls and three 9 inch round cakes cooling on nearby racks. "Doesn't have a favorite," she replied with a lazy shrug. "I like chocolate. With the butter frosting."

 

"Butter cream–"

 

"No one cares, Wendy."

 

"Don't be like that, Joy," Seulgi chimed in.

 

"Maybe if Wendy wasn't being so rude about this whole cake issue–"

 

"Okay, I'll just take it from here!" Wendy shouted and snatched up her phone. "Thanks for nothing, Joy! I'll call you later!"

 

"If you hang up on me, I swear to-"

 

Wendy winced as she tapped the ‘End Call’ icon. She would just have to deal with Joy’s wrath later. She kept her eyes on the pureed and diced strawberries as she gently folded them into the whipped cream frosting, asking over her shoulder, "You're absolutely sure Irene doesn't prefer one specific kind of cake? You're not just being a jerk?"

 

"Joy wasn't kidding– you are being rude."

 

"Seriously? If you aren't going help, you can hang out…somewhere…else…wait a minute," Wendy turned away from the counter to fix her friend with a horrified look. Seulgi's head rested on her folded hands and she smiled benignly up at her.

 

"Seulgi."

 

"Wendy."

 

"What time is it?"

 

"Nine o'clock."

 

Wendy closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was screwed. "So, that means Irene is–"

 

The sound of the doorbell boomed from the living room, making Wendy shriek and jump a foot into the air.

 

"Right here," Seulgi helpfully replied to Wendy's question. Wendy panicked, looking at the mess in front of her, "Go open the door! Wait! Do I look okay? Damn, I hope she will like them. If she doesn’t then I'll bake a new one right on the spot." She mostly spoke to herself as she quickly fixed her hair and cleaned her flour covered hands.

 

Seulgi chuckled, "Simp."

 

"What?"

 

"I said you look great!"

 

It turned out that Irene really didn't have a particular favorite cake flavor. She helped Wendy decorate the yellow cake with chocolate ganache and expertly smoothed the orange butter cream over the black forest one. Irene then watched Wendy pipe strawberry whipped cream over the almond cake; chin propped in her hands and perched on the stool next to Seulgi. Together, they ate all three cakes while sitting shoulder to shoulder at the island- though Seulgi hoarded the majority of the chocolate ganache one. Later that night, Wendy fell asleep on Irene's shoulder while they were watching a movie and Irene revealed to Seulgi that her favorite cake was carrot cake but she didn’t want to make Wendy sad. Seulgi smirked, knowing pretty well that these two were extremely whipped for each other.

 

 

(…)

 

 

C is for Chicken.

 

Irene hated chicken with a passion and Wendy had to find that out the hard way.

 

One day Wendy felt bold enough to ask Irene if she wanted to come over her place so they could have dinner together. She never said the word 'date' but that was what she was implying. When Irene agreed to come through a text message, Wendy immediately panicked and ran to her roommate for help. She couldn't help herself but feel nervous. It wasn't like they never had dinner before but things were different now. This time they would be completely alone. Also, this time Wendy's feelings were even more intense. Every time Irene was around her she became extremely nervous.

 

Seulgi helped her clean the messy house and prepare food for her dinner date. Her roommate kept teasing her and telling her that if Irene asked for a dessert after dinner it meant that she wanted to do the nasty. Wendy slapped her arm every time she said vile things like that. After all, she didn’t think that Irene was the type of person to do something like that on the first date.

 

After making sure everything was perfectly ready, Wendy made Seulgi help her choose an outfit. An hour later, she came out of her bedroom, dressed in a blouse that exposed her collarbones and tight pants that made her feel incredibly self-conscious. Her usual wardrobe consisted mostly of baggy jeans, T-shirts and hoodies, but Seulgi had convinced her to buy it one day when they went shopping, claiming it made her look like a movie star. Wendy wasn't so sure about that, but she was certain of one thing. She hated strapless bras with a passion.

 

"Whoever invented these things obviously hated women," she muttered, adjusting the bra for the third time since putting it on.