Irene is on her bed scrolling through her Instagram one last time for the day before she goes to sleep. She's actually very sleepy and her eyes are almost closing as she yawns for the fifth time in about 3 minutes. After looking at a few more of her following's stories on Instagram, she decides to just turn off her phone to finally get herself some beauty sleep. 

     And just when she is about to drift off to dreamland, the loud notification from her phone wakes her up completely. Screw her beauty sleep and screw the person texting her. She wants to just ignore the text for her sleep but her mind is already kept awake because of the loud notification tone just now. 

     " YOU!" Irene loudly curses as she is now forced to turn on her phone again to look at whatever the text is about from whoever that is. She presses on her phone screen so hard as if she is hammering a nail in it, but her muscles and the tension on her brows soften after she finally realizes who was actually texting her. It's Seulgi. 

     "Why is she texting so late at night?" Irene asks herself with a smile on her face as she is typing a reply to Seulgi, who was asking if she has slept. Irene is barely typing a 'no' but Seulgi's incoming call is quicker than her pressing on the reply button. 

     "Are you sleeping already?"

     Irene hears how impatient Seulgi is and she giggles quietly. If Irene hears correctly, she can somewhat hear ruffling sounds of plastic. 

     "I was just about to send you a text back." Irene sits up on her bed as she hugs her knee up. Irene hears a soft 'oh' from Seulgi when she asks, "So what's up? Why are you calling?" 

     "Do you want some spicy rice cakes?" 

     "Seul, it's lat-"

     "Open your door."

     Irene mummed for a while. She stutters because she doesn't know what to say. Is Seulgi really outside?

     "H-huh?"

     Irene hears Seulgi giggle on the other side of the phone, or is it outside the door? Irene then hears Seulgi softly knock on the door as she says, "Open the door. The food will get cold." 

     Irene rapidly ends the call as she jumps out of her bed and dashes to the door. She doesn't even care if she looks messy right now because really, what the hell is Seulgi doing outside her dorm right now?

     Irene unlocks the door and there Seulgi is, with the sickeningly adorable smile on her face, showing off the white plastic bag that might contain the spicy rice cakes she mentioned. 

     "What in the hell are you doing here, Kang Seulgi?" Irene asks, trying hard to sound and look like she's irritated but the smile on her face states otherwise. Too many times Seulgi has shown up unannounced, but still the smile on her face whenever Seulgi does so never fades away. Seulgi loves giving her surprises and so does she loves receiving them. 

     "Spicy rice cakes!!" Seulgi exclaims excitedly and she shoves the white plastic bag in front of Irene's face. Irene chuckles lightly at how happy Seulgi looks and she steps back for Seulgi to come in. Seulgi walks directly to the kitchen to get the plates. She hears Irene closes and locks the door and she thinks to herself, is this what normal best friends do with each other? She shrugs off the thought and brings the plates over to the dining table. 

     Irene sits as she waits for Seulgi to finish setting up the table. She stares at how Seulgi looks like the most excited right now to have the spicy rice cakes with her, and Seulgi is looking even more excited than her who loves spicy rice cakes. She chuckles a bit as she notices how the smile on Seulgi's face did not fade even though it has been a good few minutes she stepped into her dorm. 

     "Why are you even bringing this here?" 

     Seulgi hands over a pair of chopsticks to Irene and she settles herself on the chair, "I had dinner outside with my parents and we passed by a spicy rice cake stall." 

     Seulgi scoops some of the spicy rice cakes to put on Irene's plate and then to hers as she tells Irene, "I remembered you love spicy rice cakes so my mom told me to get some and to bring them over to eat with you." 

     Seulgi smiles as she motions for Irene to start eating the rice cakes. Seulgi herself starts eating first when Irene is just sitting there not moving. Seulgi thinks that Irene might feel burdened by this so she doesn't look at Irene for a while to make Irene feel comfortable with the food she brought for her. 

     "Thank you, Seul." Irene says after a while and she starts taking a piece of the rice cake and she shoves it inside . Irene remembers this taste, a nostalgic taste she used to eat back when she frequented the Kang's house. 

     "Isn't it nice? This one's the best selling one near my house." Seulgi says in gibberish as she is still chewing a rice cake in . 

     "I know," Irene chuckles as she shakes her head because Seulgi truly never changed since before, she still talks while chewing food in , "we used to get them whenever I went over to your house." 

     Seulgi nods her head and smiles a little at how Irene remembers the memories of her eating it at her house. They eat in silence as they both are trying to reminisce about those days back then. Irene starts to wonder how long it has been since she last visited the Kang's, she feels like she needs to go visit Seulgi's parents soon. Irene is still deep in her thoughts when Seulgi starts talking again. 

     "So I heard you cursed at me just now." Seulgi says nonchalantly as she scoops more rice cakes onto her plate. 

     "I did?"

     "Yeah," Seulgi shoves one rice cake into and she spares one look at Irene, "when my text came." 

     Irene widens her eyes as she now remembers and she tries to defend herself, "I didn't know it was from you! I swear." 

     Seulgi decides to get a little cheeky so she starts to tease Irene a little. 

     "So you will not curse if you know it's from me?" 

     "Yeah." Irene eyes Seulgi suspiciously for that question. 

     "But you'll still curse if it's from someone else?" 

     "...yeah, I guess." Irene puts down her chopsticks as she glares at Seulgi, "Why?" 

     "That's cute." 

     Irene threatens to throw her chopstick at Seulgi but Seulgi is quick to avoid the attack. Seulgi chokes a little as she laughs hard at Irene. She can see pink tints colouring Irene's cheeks if her eyes don't deceive her. Is it because of what she said or is it because of the spicy rice cakes?

     "I mean," Seulgi tries to explain herself after wiping off the tears from laughing too hard, "it's cute that your curse at anyone else but me." 

     Irene pokes and picks up one piece of rice cake with one of her chopsticks as she points it to Seulgi, again threatening to smear it on Seulgi's face. But Seulgi brings forward Irene's hand a little and eats the rice cake 'given' to her by Irene. 

     "Maybe you can stop being cute next time." Seulgi jokingly says as she continues to chew on the rice cake. She can see that the glare in Irene's eyes is still fierce, but still cute. She knew she would never get sick of teasing Irene since the first time she started teasing her, Irene's reactions were always explosive and adorable and she has always loved to see that side of Irene that she has never shown to anyone else but her. 

     "I. Am. Not." Irene emphasizes each word to sound fierce, but of course, to Seulgi, she has failed to sound so. Irene just sounds cute. 

     "Let me finish my sentence first, Irene." Seulgi puts down her chopsticks as she stares right into Irene's eyes, "Maybe you can stop being cute by cursing at me just like you do to anyone else." 

     "Really?" Irene's tone changes from fierce to concern now. She questions in her head why would Seulgi ever want her to talk to her with curses? 

     "Why not?" 

     "I don't know." 

     Seulgi scoops the last few pieces of the rice cake and puts them on Irene's plate. She then stares at Irene with her left palm supporting her head, her face tilting a little. Her eyes follow suit when Irene shoves one rice cake into . 

     "I don't know," Irene repeats after a while, "I just feel like bad words would not come out whenever I see or think of you." 

     Seulgi's mind stops working at that sentence there. Does Irene sometimes think of Seulgi? Seulgi knows she should not put too much meaning into that, she still can't help but wonder in what situation and context were Irene thinking of her? 

     "Like you just don't deserve hearing those words being said to you." 

     "And why not?" 

     "I- I don't know?" Irene stutters a bit as she herself tries to think of the reason why she said and feels so. She really doesn't have a definite reason for that actually, she just wants Seulgi to only hear pretty words.

     "I think," Irene says as she plays with the one remaining rice cake on her plate, "because you're my best friend and I don't want to let you hear those words coming out from me?" 

     "But you saying '' sounded hot." Seulgi blurted out unknowingly. She doesn't even know what she was thinking by saying that, it must have been a slip of words from her mind. She was too late to realize that she was supposed to keep that thought in her mind, and not say it out loud. 

     Irene stops chewing on the last piece of rice cake in as again, she glares at Seulgi. Did Seulgi really just say that out loud?! She knows Seulgi was actually just saying what's on her mind, but Irene really doesn't have to know about how Seulgi thinks of her saying the word ''. 

     "Oops, sorry," Seulgi chuckles sheepishly, clearing once before she continues, "maybe you should've heard yourself cursing." 

     "I won't." Irene says quickly, and she tries to change the topic of their conversation. 

     "Anyways," she starts off, "I enjoyed the spicy rice cakes. I was kinda craving for it and you just showed up with one."

     "You know you can always call me up for food, you know I never reject invitations to get food. Especially if it's with you." 

     Irene can feel her cheeks are starting to feel hot after Seulgi said that. She wonders how does Seulgi able to easily make her feel things nowadays, especially with how she said those sweet words calmly like it wasn't a big deal? It might not be a big deal to Seulgi, but Irene feels like she might explode soon if Seulgi continues with this habit of hers. 

     "So you'll come whenever I call you to come?" Irene asks, trying to sound as calm as possible, trying to sound nonchalant just like Seulgi does. But actually, she means it, she wants Seulgi to come whenever she calls. 

     "Of course. Whenever it is, whatever the occasion is for, I'll come whenever you call." 

     And Irene is not sure why or how, but she starts to sweat a little as her heartbeat is picking up its speed.

     And she is not sure when and how, but she is actually starting to feel these weird feelings in her lately. Feelings incomprehensible by words, feelings she has never felt before. She is confused as to why she has started feeling these feelings recently, like when Seulgi gets a little bit too close, or when Seulgi says those sweet words, or when she is starting to admit that what she felt was maybe jealousy when Yeri asked her if Seulgi was seeing someone. 

     It should not be what she thinks it is, right?

     It should not be. 

 

 

Author's note:

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Have a lovely week ahead, see y'all on the next update! :D