Suzy knows that Rosé is trying to make amends.

The latter must've been guilty on her slip-ups last week, since the week after that, Rosé has been punctual on their guitar lesson meetings in her house. In fact, Rosé would sometimes show up at her doorstep fifteen minutes early from their agreed time with full make-up on, a fixed hair, and an outfit that looks like she just came back from fashion week or something.

She came to know later on that Rosé immediately went straight to her house from her magazine shoot.

This has all been going on for almost three weeks now, and Suzy’s somewhat concerned. Note— somewhat. She’s worried that the idol must have taken her said “disappointment” the other day to heart, that’s why she’s doing this. At the same time though, she is relieved because she gets to spend time with the idol.

In total, she gets to know more about Rosé as a friend and a guitar lesson.

So who’s really winning here?

Is that selfish? It must be, but Suzy is going to ignore and pretend it isn’t for the time being.

With each passing week, their "guitar" lessons had become less and less of a guitar lesson. Most of the time, they'd wrap up earlier than usual (since Suzy is a "natural," according to Rosé), leaving them with nothing else to do. Rosé’s manager won’t be picking her up either because of some errands in the company, while Suzy has finished up her actress schedules in the morning. This implies that she's entirely free by the afternoon and that the both of them normally have an hour or two to do...whatever it is they would like.

Suzy is indeed pleased with the rapid development of their friendship.

Within these two hours of vacant time in their guitar lessons, the actress, at some point, would ask the idol if she could play a random song for her on the guitar. Rosé would agree without hesitation, and sooner or later, she’d get carried away and start singing by herself. Suzy on the other hand, can only sit there in utter shock at the idol's great voice and talent.

There are even times where she would join Rosé in the singing.

It’s impressive, really, on how far they’ve gone.

Sometimes, if not a mini-concert, Suzy would insist to Rosé that she should stay for dinner. If not, she'd offer to bake some bread for the idol to consume when she returns in her dorm (since baking is apparently one of the actress's strong suits). At some point though, Rosé would feel bad because all she does is eat, so in the end, she’d ask the actress if she can teach her how to bake.

Well— not really, though. It’s mostly just the both of them being goofy and playful. Apparently, Suzy doesn’t have the patience like Rosé has in teaching, so their baking lesson would end up with Suzy throwing flour into Rosé’s direction, and with Rosé throwing it back to her, just... a lot more than what Suzy threw.

The mess in her kitchen that day indeed troubled Suzy, but the new memories that she created with the idol and the blissful feeling that she hasn’t felt in years were what made it all worth it.

Rosé, on the other hand, went back to her dorms with a bit of flour on her styled hair, a croissant, and a smile on her face.

Unbeknownst to the two, it was the start of something deeper than just a simple guitar lesson between friends.

—

Suzy is upset. She's not sure if Rosé can tell.

They've been preoccupied with their careers for the past two months, but that hasn't stopped them from meeting up. In fact, their friendship has grown stronger, and their activities together have developed. From basic guitar lessons to cooking to baking, watering Suzy’s plants, playing video games, until Rosé would just go and hang out in Suzy’s house for no particular reason after her schedules. This time though, it’s a sleepover... but it’s not just the two of them.

Hyeri has decided to join in.

Unsurprisingly, Suzy has been telling Hyeri about her and Rosé’s hangouts, chatting about how fun it really was to be with the latter. At a certain point in their talk, Suzy has disclosed that she and Rosé will be having a sleepovernext.

“Ooh! Can I join?”

Suzy's whole being screamed no, but her rational side asked her, "Why would you say no? Isn’t Hyeri your friend?”

She, too, didn't quite understand why she wanted to say no. Hyeri can set the mood in case of any awkwardness, not that she’s still awkward with Rosé because they already passed that stage, but still... just in case.

Plus, Rosé loved and admired her friend. The idol literally looks up to Hyeri, and she was the bridge of their friendship. Hyeri introduced her to such an amazing person as Rosé. It is completely alright for her to join them.

That is until now.

“Hahaha! No way, no way! “What did he say after that?” Rosé inquired.

“—And then Key said, 'No, , this is limited edition Prada!' Hyeri continues animatedly, making exaggerated gestures here and there. And to Suzy, it looked like she was trying to mimic Key from SHINee.

“Oh my God, that’s hilarious! Hahahahaha!!”

Suzy felt like an outsider with the two. She knows that they are discussing something that had occurred on Amazing Saturday, a show to which Rosé had been invited to numerous times and where Hyeri is a regular host. She on the other hand, had only appeared there once so she’s clueless. Still, the very least they could do in her ownhome was to fill her in.

The actress lets out a long sigh and downs her full glass of Rubino Marsala in one go, its fruity, strong, and tannic taste running down while doing so.

That’s better.

Suzy is perplexed about what's really going on. All she understands is that the two have been switching from subject to subject in her sofa for sometime now, while she sits on the other side, clearly excluded from them. She then looked directly at the film they had all agreed to watch, which was running in the background, and thought, 'They're not even watching it.'

She could only frown and roll her eyes. It was all too easy. Hyeri and Rosé could simply fill her in to alllow her to engage in their conversation or discuss a topic she is familiar with, but no. She's been attempting to insert herself into their talk previously, but it's been difficult, and they're clearly too engrossed with each other.

It’s funny because she invited Hyeri to get to know Rosé better, so she could be their bridge. So Rosé would be comfortable.

Not leave her out like this.

Hyeri didn’t have to rub it in my face that she knew about Chaeyoung first... Suzy thought, but then, she started shaking her head strongly.

Stop it! This is the alcohol talking! She thought, What am I thinking? They’re both my friends... Chaeyoung and I have been hanging out a lot lately. They’re just trying to catch up because I’ve been taking Chaeyoung from her...

In the end, Suzy could only give up.

I’m going crazy.

—

Hyeri keeps talking, and Rosé keeps responding, but her eyes aren’t focused on the elder.

Instead, they’re focused on the actress.

“So then I told him, ‘Whozzat ...girl you were with jusssow?’, and then heeez like, ‘Oh, that was my—“

Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah. Rosé doesn’t know what their topic is anymore. They went from wanting to accompany Rosé in adopting a dog to Hyeri’s boyfriend caught lying in front of her face one time.

“— but the next thing I did, I...”

Hyeri’s drunk, and so is Suzy.

Okay, maybe Suzy is tipsy. Rosé is unsure, but yeah. She figured that the two should just go to bed.

“Unnie,” Rosé interrupts Hyeri’s blabbing gently, “Junyeol oppa must have texted you. Don’t you want to check your phone in our room?”

It seemed to worked, because Hyeri stopped talking and her eyes widened in realization, “Oh yeah! I forgot, I swear nntext him after dinner!”

Errr… “Yes, unnie…”

“Okay, lemme just go right noww, bye Chaeng!” Hyeri said abruptly and her right side to address Suzy, who’s now holding her wine glass sloppily, “Good night Suz!”

Suzy didn’t answer back and continued to space out on the television. Rosé, on the other hand, replied, “Bye unnie, goodnight!”

With that, Hyeri vanished like a bubble, and it's now just the two of them.

Rosé then scooched over to Suzy’s side of the sofa and took her wine glass away without warning.

“Heyy! I was drinking that!” Suzy helplessly says.

“No, you’ve had enough, unnie. I’m turning the tv off,” Rosé said firmly, grabbing the remote by the small table in front of them and pressing the red button.

“I was watching that too!” grumbled the actress.

“Not at all. Nobody was paying attention.”

“But—“

“Unnie, why don’t you sleep as well? Hyeri has gone off to our room. It's almost one o'clock in the morning.” Rosé stated calmly, staring directly into Suzy's dark eyes and witnessing the actress’s pupils dilate gently as she faced her.

Rosé wanted to look away almost immediately. She doesn’t get it. They’re comfortable— well, not thatcomfortable. But they’re decent with each other, and they’re actually friends now, so why does this friend of hers still manage to make her red like a tomato and make her heart skip a beat with just a look?