Chapter 1

It Was You All Along

    Irene sighs, again and again, she feels like everything just goes wrong with her today, her concentration, her mood, her thoughts. She doesn’t know what was troubling her, she just feels empty, she feels as if there is something missing. A part of her feels missing. And it has actually been a while since she felt this emptiness. 

    “And that’s the end of our lecture today, don’t forget to study for your quiz next week. Goodbye.” Ms Kim says as she ends the lecture session. 

    Irene sighs again, but this time out of relief, she finally can go back to her dorm and lie down on her bed and scroll through her social media and listen to some sad songs. A perfect way to end the day. She shoves her things into her bag and dashes out of the lecture hall. The commotion outside was nothing much of a help to her headache. She clutches her bag closer to her chest and makes her way past the crowd. 

    Little did Irene know, her tiny little body would never go unnoticed by Kang Seulgi. 

    “Irene!” 

    Irene stops on her tracks. That voice sounds awfully familiar. 

    “Irene unnie!” And again, that voice. Irene turns her head around towards the source of the voice. 

    “Irene unnie! Irene unnie! I’m here!” 

    “Kang Seulgi?” Irene finally saw her. Seulgi runs towards Juhyun and pulls her into a hug. She is not gonna lie, but it feels odd. After all that happened, and now a tight hug? But Seulgi can’t deny she missed the warmth from Irene. 

    “Seulgi, you’re back?” 

    “Aren't I, obviously?” Seulgi detaches herself from the hug and cups Irene’s face into her palms. She studies Irene’s face, from her eyes to her nose, to her lips, and back to her eyes. She can’t actually believe that she is now holding Irene’s face and being so close to her like nothing has happened.

  “I’ve missed you so much.” 

    Irene can feel the corner of her lips lift up as Seulgi embraces her into a hug again. “I’ve missed you too.” 

    Irene reluctantly pulls out from the hug but keeps her hands around Seulgi. Things are a little awkward, well, they have not seen or talked with each other for two years so how are they able to act like everything is fine? This fragile thing called friendship really confuses Irene sometimes. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?” 

    “I wanted to surprise you.” Seulgi says just like how she has practiced inside the plane. She has pictured and imagined Irene asking her these few questions and she thanks God that the journey is long from the US, she was able to come up with answers that she intends to tell Irene to tell her everything is fine. She just hopes that she sounds confident and not like she was actually expecting Irene to ask her that specific question. 

    “Well, you succeeded. Do you have any plans for today?” 

    Seulgi looks around and makes eye contact with her group of friends who just came back from the student exchange programme with her. They plan to have dinner together at the famous kimchi stew shop across the campus but she thinks spending time with Irene sounds nice as well.

    “Nope, I don’t. I want to catch up with you and tell you stories!” 

    “Alright then. Let’s go to my dorm.” Irene actually did not expect herself to suggest that so blatantly. What are they even going to talk about? Two years of being out of contact and she thought that their friendship was done for, but here they are now pretending like nothing has happened and are best friends again.

    Seulgi nods and she excuses herself first to talk with her friends. A lot of thoughts are going through her mind, things will be just fine, right? They will just have to talk like they used to because they are back being best friends again. Seulgi approaches her friends and she shyly tells them that she cannot join them for dinner as she draws circles with her foot. 

    “Hey guys…”

    “We know, alright, you can go with your girlfriend.” 

    Seulgi got her eyes wide open, “Wh-what are you talking about?! She’s not my g-girlfriend!” 

    “Whatever, Seul.” Her friends give her looks of tease and they part ways. Seulgi walks back to where Irene is waiting for her. Looking at Irene waiting for her like that made her wonder if Irene really has waited for her for the past two years. She hopes so. Just like how she was not able to get rid of Irene in her thoughts and how Irene was constantly eating up her fears, she just hoped that the least Irene could do was to wait for her. And with Irene still there waiting for her and did not chicken out and ran away, she thinks she has the answer. 

    “What happened? Why is your face so red?” 

    Seulgi tries to brush off the topic, she is so not going to tell what her friends have with. “It’s nothing. The weather’s kinda hot.” 

    Irene thinks it’s not a big deal as she doesn’t have to know what exactly Seulgi and her friends were talking about. She doesn’t have the rights to pry more, not after what she had done and said to Seulgi two years ago. 

 


 

    “This is your dorm? It’s so...” Seulgi pauses for a while to think of appropriate words to say, she really is not going to ruin this golden time they have. 

    “It’s so adorable and cosy.” 

    “Yeah, I like it cosy. I have to have a nice place to stay if I am staying away from home.” 

    Irene then offers Seulgi to sit on the couch as she prepares hot chocolate for both of them. Seulgi sits on the couch and her eyes wander around to scan the dorm. She likes how it has the “Juhyun” feel at every corner of the room. But her eyes just stop when she notices there’s a polaroid photo of them on Irene’s desk. She looks away after a while because the sound of Irene stirring the hot chocolate brings her back from all her thoughts. She brings her eyes to look at Irene moving around in the small kitchen.

    “You’re still as small as I remember you to be.”

    What was that, Kang Seulgi?! Seulgi mentally slaps herself for that. She can’t really be saying that when all it sounds like she was longing for Irene. She really does, but really, Seulgi ‘pretends to be fine’ challenge has failed. 

    “Would I have grown bigger at this age?” Irene replies with a smile on her face. She hasn’t heard Seulgi teasing her in ages and she can’t deny that she misses it. 

    Seulgi chuckles at her reply. Seulgi continues to stare with a smile plastered on her face. It has been too long since she saw Irene. If her fate from two years ago allowed, she would have run up to Irene right now to hug her and to shower her with kisses. Fate was not on her side though. So all she could do right now is just to stare and to be content with whatever this thing called fate is allowing her to do. At least Irene is not ignoring her. At least Irene still talks to her like how they were before, two years ago. 

    Irene is done with the hot chocolate and she brings them over to the living room. She gives one cup to Seulgi and holds the other one, lightly blowing off the steam. 

    “And you’re still pretty.” This time Seulgi is trying to get bolder. Since Irene was fine with her teasing, she wants to say something that might be a taboo to both her and Irene after the darnful night two years ago. But saying Irene is pretty is not a tease to Seulgi, she’s just stating an obvious fact. She has actually said it a lot of times to Irene before and Irene always gets flustered every single time. So that’s why Seulgi thinks it’s a tease. 

    Irene almost chokes on her drink. This is bad. Irene can feel her face getting red and warm. “W-what are you talking about?” Irene puts down her cup and looks at Seulgi. “And you’re always saying that.” 

    “Say what?” Seulgi shuffles on her seat and she adjusts herself to fully face Irene, “that you’re pretty?” 

    “S-stop it.” 

    Seulgi laughs at that, “and you’re still flustered every time I tell you.” 

    “You catch me off guard, all the time.” 

    “Do I have to remind you first, then?” 

    Irene laughs and lowers down her head in defeat. They sit again in silence as they enjoy each other’s company in the small room. Irene wants to start small talks to get rid of the silence, she wants to talk to Seulgi. 

    “So how was the US?” 

    Yes, starting slow and smooth. 

    “Are you curious if I found a boyfriend?” 

    Irene knows that Seulgi purposely gave her that answer so she rolls her eyes, “no, stupid. How did you find your life there?” 

    Seulgi hums and thinks for a while. 

    “Not bad.” 

    And Seulgi fell silent. She honestly doesn't know what else to tell Irene, because life in the US wasn’t as beautiful as she imagined it would be. 

    Irene turns to look at Seulgi because of the short reply. “That’s all? You’ve been there for two years but it’s just ‘not bad’?”

    Seulgi hums for a while while she thinks. It really wasn’t that great, actually. Sure, she has met new friends along the way and has walked on the streets she has dreamt of walking and she has tried food from the fast-food chains that are not available in South Korea, but honestly, it was not that exciting as she thought it would be. 

    “The US was great, of course. A new experience, a new life. But if given a choice, I wouldn’t go there again.” 

    “Why?” Irene asks curiously as she brings her mug closer to her lips. 

    “Because,” Seulgi thinks again for a while, as she doesn’t want her answer to put pressure on Irene. 

    “I just like Korea more,” Seulgi turns to look at Irene with a warm smile, “it’s home, after all. A home that has everything I want in one place.” 

    But Irene’s the real home to her, she just did not say that out. She doesn’t want to ruin things again for them. She wants them to stay just like this because she really can’t afford to lose her best friend anymore. She will just it up and pretend that everything is okay to her. Whatever this is. 

    Irene listens to Seulgi’s answer to her question and wonders if Seulgi has put double meaning in her answer. But Irene is thankful that Seulgi still treats her like a best friend even after what she did to her. 

    But Irene also wonders if Seulgi still feels the same.

 

 

Author's Note: I'll update this story once a week. See y'all in a week's time! :D

 

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Kimchi43 #1
Chapter 14: Cute oh my gawd!
Oct_13_wen_03 35 streak #2
Chapter 5: update seulrene more please 🥺🥺
Oct_13_wen_03 35 streak #3
Chapter 14: so cute 😭❤❤❤❤
dtaylorz
#4
Chapter 14: Sweet <3
_rtempest
1001 streak #5
Chapter 14: 🥰🧡
Freathien
#6
Chapter 14: my heart literally squeezed while reading this :'). so cute!
Moonnim_Ot5
#7
Chapter 14: this so adorable 🥺
seulrene_daze #8
Chapter 14: aaawwwwwwwwwwwwww they be so cute 🥺🥺🥺🥺
_m3owrene
1023 streak #9
Chapter 14: This is so sweet 🤍🥺
jackisfrost #10
Chapter 14: awww🥺❤️