9:51 AM // present day 

wendy squints her eyes from the glare of the building in front of her, trusting it was the right place since irene gave her the address. her small bouquet of hyacinth, which the florist said to be a symbol of forgiveness, was tucked in her hand, daintly arranged. if it was up to her, she’ll bring her hyacinths everyday, even the last hyacinth on earth if that means she’ll be able to be with joy again. 

she on her teeth every 5 minutes that pass without the one person she was looking for appearing. 

“eh, excuse me?” the musician turns her head to her right. a tall, slender woman, almost taller than joy, with bright purple hair and a slim face was looking at her expectantly. “it’s open! you can come in if you want?” she points her head to the glass doors in front of them. 

“uh, yes. of course, thank you.” wendy says as she follows the girl behind. she takes her chance and shoots the kind lady a question once they were inside. “do you know a Park Joy, by any chance? i’m here for her. we’re…friends.” she almost murmurs the last word. it was just a very dishonest statement especially from how they ended. hopefully, it goes unnoticed. 

the woman turns so quick to her, almost hitting wendy’s face with her long hair, causing the other to stop in surprise. “Joy?! Yes! come with me!” she takes her by the arm and drags her along the hallway. 

“JOY! someone’s looking for you!” the woman merrily announces once they turn to a small room with four office cubicles. joy raises her head from where she’s seated, lack of care evident in her face.  seeing wendy at her new workplace that she shouldn’t know about woke her up. this could only be the work of her dearest irene-unnie. once their gazes met again, wendy could only brace for the worst. 

instead of going to wendy, joy hastily reaches for the arm of the girl in front of her, walking off to a small distance, talking to her in gritted teeth. 

“rosé, what the ? why is she here? why did you bring her here? how the hell do you know her?” 

“well,” rosé begins to answer in her normal speaking voice and joy is quick to shush her, so she tones it down. “she was outside, looking lost so i decided to lend a hand. she said she was looking for you. how do you know her anyway?” 

“and you just brought her here?! that girl, she...” joy takes a deep breath. mentioning her name feels a lot like touching an open wound. oh god, she already had a terrible day yesterday. it must be going to be like this as long as she’s here, joy thinks. “she’s wendy. the...pest.” saying the last word — a code assertively. it was the code she came up it when she first started opening up to her work friend. 

“what?!” rosé covers in shock. she looks back at wendy, who was looking curiously at the ceilings even though there was nothing there. rosé eyes the bouquet she was holding. and mentally snickers. “no way, but she’s so cute!” she squeals. “you didn’t tell me the pest was so cute.” she says so teasingly to rile her friend up. 

joy rolls her eyes at this, remembering exactly why she didn’t show her pictures to rosé, for this very reason. yes, wendy is cute. she is beautiful. with the kindest smile and the warmest voice. but she also ripped her heart out of her. “shut up. damn it, rosie!” she hushes. she looks back again this time to talk to wendy, rosé following shortly after. 

“hi, i’m rosé! a friend of joy’s.” wendy’s saviour bows to her, bumping joy’s arm as she does. “sorry, we haven’t properly met. joy told me about you!” 

before wendy could even open to speak, joy takes her by her sleeve and drags her out of the room. no way they were going to bond right now. 

“hey, i’m sorry for that. i just really wanted to drop by and give you this.” wendy shows her the bouquet when they were only the two of them in the hallway. she looks at joy’s tired expression; assumes she must not be sleeping well. she wanted to caress her face and tell her everything will be okay. 

the taller girl ignores the gesture, running a hand through her hair. “please leave. while i’m still being nice.” she demands curtly instead.

truthfully, she didn’t think she would get this far, so she shrugs at her coldness like sh