From afar, Irene squints her eyes a little and she can see that a certain tall girl is walking towards her. 

     "Joy!" Irene's face lights up as she greets her friend. 

     Joy waves her hand aggressively. "Irene!" 

     Joy then takes bigger steps to stride forward to get to Irene faster. She is half excited and half nervous to ask Irene to join her, Wendy and Yeri for a 'meal'. Each of the trios was actually reluctant to ask Irene because they were worried about making it obvious that they have other plans instead of just having a normal meal with her, but Joy lost a game of rock, paper and scissor to both Wendy and Yeri so she holds the responsibility to ask Irene out for the said meal. What a big responsibility she has on her hands right now, she just hopes she doesn't make it obvious and doesn't mess this up. 

     "You're early for your class at 11, I suppose." Irene says as she looks at the time on her wristwatch that reads 10:56am, "So what's up?" 

     Joy smiles awkwardly, she knows her smile looks and feels weird right now because of how unnatural it is. Her heart is beating so fast because of how nervous she is. 

     "I have something to ask you." Joy puts her arm around Irene's shoulder, making Irene groan, "I'm thinking of getting lunch together with you today. Or dinner. Whichever you prefer." 

     Irene looks at Joy with confusion written all over her face, because did Joy came to the campus earlier just to ask her this? 

     Joy then realizes that maybe the way she asked sounded a bit suspicious, and she kinds of panicked inside but she doesn't let it show. Her acting class really helped her this time. 

     "I feel like I want to catch up with you and stuff. We're not taking any classes together this semester if you noticed." Joy tries to explain and she just hopes that Irene buys it and just says yes to the invited hangout. 

     "I kinda," Joy says again as she smiles sheepishly and she honestly says, 'I kinda miss talking to you." 

     Irene stops on their tracks as she turns to look at Joy and she removes Joy's arm that was around her shoulder. 

     "Joy?" Irene calls to Joy in a very serious tone that Joy had thought that she had done something wrong. Joy shifts her eyes around and she gulps in nervousness. But she can feel the weight on her shoulder lifts off when Irene just laughs at her. She supposes she's still in the safe zone. 

     "You could've just texted me. Did you really came to look for me just to ask me out for a meal?" 

     Joy chuckles in relief. She really thought she had to dig a hole to hide just now. 

     "Just want a reason to see your face on this beautiful morning, can't I?" 

     Irene jokingly punches on Joy's stomach and they both just laugh in unison. 

     "So when is this date of ours?" 

     "I'm thinking of today. Can you make it to either lunch or dinner time today?" 

     "Lunch sounds great." 

     "Cool." Joy says shortly and decides whether to tell Irene that Wendy and Yeri will be joining them. 

     "Oh," Joy says as if she had just remembered something important, "Wendy can come with us too right?" 

     Joy decides that she will only mention Wendy first, and not Yeri because she thinks that Irene might feel uneasy if she mentions Yeri that Irene ends up not wanting to hangout. She does not want to provoke Irene just yet. 

     "Sure, why not." 

     Irene is just about to remind Joy that the time is now 10 minutes past 11, but Joy is quicker to throw another question at her. Joy knows she is late for her class, but she can't just leave without asking the most important question to Irene. 

     "Can that cute friend of yours join us as well?" Joy asks in doe eyes. 

     "You mean Seulgi?" 

     "Yes, that cute girl." Joy insists on calling Seulgi the cute girl and Irene just chuckles a little. Surely, Seulgi is cute even to those that haven't met her yet. 

     "Yeah, I'll bring her." 

     "Cool," Joy looks at her phone which has been vibrating every 5 seconds for the past 10 minutes, furious spam texts from Wendy are coming in non-stop to tell her that the class has started. She shoves her phone in her bag and she tells Irene, "I'll text you the place later. I need to go now." 

     They parted ways with Joy running to the lecture hall and Irene smiling looking at her. Irene then decides to go to the library while waiting for the lunch hangout since she will not be having classes until later in the afternoon. 

   Irene almost sleeps in the library if it is not the vibration from her phone that wakes her up. She rubs her eyes and fixes her hair a little. She yawns halfway and a smile just naturally creeps up her face when she sees that a text came from Seulgi. Her eyes sparkle as if the genie has granted one of her three wishes. 

     Seulgi has asked her if she's free for lunch and Irene is only now reminded that she has forgotten to tell Seulgi about their lunch meet up with Joy and Wendy. Irene leaves Seulgi's text on read first and she quickly packs all her stuff and dashes out of the library. Irene immediately gives a call to Seulgi once she was out. She has always thought that calling is the better option to explain things faster, plus, what's better than being able to hear Seulgi's voice after such a lazy and tiring morning. 

     Seulgi, being just on her phone while waiting for Irene to give a reply to her text, answers Irene's call immediately after the thrid beep on Irene's side of the phone. 

     "Irene, where are you?"

     "I just walked out of the library," Irene says while catching her breath as she is speed walking, "where are you? I'll go to you." 

     Hearing Irene saying she'll go to her makes Seulgi feel ticklish in her stomach and her heart starts to pick up its beating. Damn, the things Irene can do to her and her poor little heart. 

     "I'm at the cafeteria," Seulgi says to Irene and she can hear her stomach make growling noises as she pats it a little, "Let's have lunch here. I'm starving." 

     Irene speeds up her steps, almost running, to the cafeteria which is about a block away from the library as she raps out to Seulgi in a single breath, "Wait! Don't eat first. Joy invited us to have lunch with her and Wendy. Are you fine with that?" 

     Irene does not need to see to know that Seulgi is smiling while nodding her head with excitement on the other side of the phone. She just knows too well that Seulgi is excited to meet her friends while being able to make new friends to herself. 

     "Of course!" Seulgi chirps excitedly as expected, "I've always wanted to meet and hang out with them." 

     "Cool. I'm near the cafeteria, wait for me." Irene says with a smile on her face that doesn't seem like it is going to fade away soon. She hangs up the call to focus on her speed walk, or rather, run, trying not to bump into anyone while walking so fast. She asks Seulgi to wait for her, and she knows Seulgi will, but she cannot have Seulgi waiting for her too long. 

     Irene is not able to say that she was not surprised when she sees Yeri tailing behind Joy and Wendy as they enter the cafe. She is fine with Yeri coming together and joining them, but the thought of Yeri has shown liking towards Seulgi makes her feel a bit protective towards Seulgi. And to protect Seulgi from what exactly, she doesn't know. Yeri is a nice girl, kind and funny, so what's wrong with Yeri getting together with Seulgi? 

     Yeri getting together with Seulgi. That is what Irene doesn't want to happen. And for what exact reason, Irene has no clue. And Irene starts to feel herself getting irritated and annoyed at the scenario she made up in her mind. 

     'We saw Yeri by the hallway and talked a bit and I will feel bad if we just leave her behind telling her that we are having lunch with you and Seulgi, so I told her to join us." Joy explains in a breath, breaking Irene's train of thoughts. Irene shifts her eyes to Joy and maybe it's just Joy, but she can feel the fire that is burning in Irene's eyes that are glaring at her right now. 

     "Y-yes!" Wendy adds in, hoping that she did not just act awkwardly. 

     'It's fine," Irene tells her friends, and perhaps to herself too, "It's not like Yeri and I are strangers." 

     Seulgi, on the other hand, is very excited and happy that they have another companion with them to their lunch hangout. She really doesn't mind that Yeri has come to join them, and she doesn't know why but she can see that Irene was looking a bit tense soon as she saw Yeri in sight, she thought they were friends. But Seulgi brushes off the thought soon after. 

     The trio sits around the table, and Irene just knows that Yeri is purposely choosing the seat beside Seulgi. Irene pulls Seulgi's chair closer to her, as to look like she's giving space to Yeri but really, she just does not want yeri to get too close to Seulgi. Irene may or may have not noticed, but the trio gives knowing looks to each other when Irene starts to look protective towards Seulgi. 

     Their plan might just be working. As of now. 

     They ordered their food when a waitress came over to their table. Seulgi is surprised that they have similar preferences in food and Seulgi uses this opportunity to open up the conversation to get to know her new friends. They talk about this and that, catching up with each other and just finding out about how much they really click with each other. 

     As they were talking, Yeri thought to herself that she is more than glad that she has decided to dump the idea of dating Seulgi because she feels like they will go better off being best friends instead, just like how Irene and Seulgi are right now, minus the liking each other part. 

     Irene with her softest gaze looking at Seulgi who is talking animatedly to Joy and she really is glad that Seulgi can get along well with anyone she talks to and of course she is glad that her friends can get along with Seulgi too. The way the three of them react so well to whatever Seulgi is saying is such a sight to see. 

     Irene's gaze initially changes from Seulgi to Wendy to Joy to Yeri and back to Seulgi, but somehow after a while, her gaze just stops on Seulgi. She is not even realizing that she has actually made it obvious that she has been staring at Seulgi, and the trio has already caught on. But of course, the trio pretends they see and know nothing, they are just going to continue talking to Seulgi. 

     The way Seulgi's eyes sparkle when their topic is about music, the way Seulgi's nose scrunches when she smiles, the way Seulgi would occasionally cover when she laughs, and the way Seulgi would her lips every now and then as she talks, everything is just so mesmerizing to Irene. Staring and watching Seulgi like she's her favourite movie, Irene has never found anything more fascinating to watch. 

Author's note: 

It's almost there guys, we'll get there soon. The real 'plan' is not in the works yet in this chapter ;) 

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See y'all on the next update. Have a lovely week ahead and Merry Christmas in advance :D