Everything went downhill for her after that text. It was like deja-vu, just a bunch of days spent with her head in the clouds—no, scratch that. Her head was in a ring of fire. A tight one. And she didn’t exactly know if the ring could be put out.

The new text didn’t help much either. The only thing that ran through Yeri’s mind when Jinyoung asked her who the hell Seulgi was and why she was fighting with Minhyuk over his sister was a four letter word that she only reserved for very special occasions:

.

Wendy and Joy seemed to have caught onto her weird mood again and the couple cornered her into a booth at one of the on-campus eateries, crossing their arms in a like manner and giving twin glares. Yeri didn’t want to bother them again, and she really didn’t know how she’d bring up this new issue without exposing Irene as Joohyun. She was sure that Irene didn’t know anything either, which came at the cost of bribing Jinyoung with a new guitar to keep his mouth shut until Yeri explained everything. God, she was a mess.

Thankfully, Wendy and Joy seemed to have caught on that Yeri wasn’t ready to talk, so they bought her a strawberry milkshake and watched as the maknae blabbered about her week, anything but the stressful situation she was in, really, giving the the appropriate reactions to Yeri’s story about encountering the fangirls at a guest lecture starring the actor Jisung. They were surprisingly friendly, she quipped, given that she wasn’t taking up their oppas’ attention.

“Sungjae has always loved attention,” Joy revealed. “He’s actually a pretty lonely dude, because his parents weren’t around most of the time.” Her and Wendy gave each other a look. They were trying to find the appropriate timing to tell Yeri everything they knew and enlist her help.

“Oh, why is that? Do they travel?”

“He’s...known in some spheres.” Joy stopped, wondering if she should tell Yeri the truth. “Oppa’s the heir to KimShin Corporation.”

Yeri’s jaw dropped open. “You mean the company that produces over seventy percent of the world’s vocal microphones and provides almost all the audio systems for the concerts in thirty plus countries?”

“Uh, I think? Anyway, he’s rich.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“That sounds about right,” Joy chuckled. “Except he usually just uses money to make bread multiply.”

“What the hell is he doing majoring in performance arts?”

“It’s supposed to be a hobby, I think. He’s actually a double-major in business.”

“Insane.”

“Yeah.”

They waited as Yeri composed herself. The younger girl was pleasantly surprised to know that she’d been hanging out with a second-generation chaebol, and she was low-key starting to regret turning down all of his advances. Of course though, she knew that he wasn’t seriously pursuing anyone, because Yeri saw how he still looked longingly at Joy from time to time. Absolutely tragic, if anyone asked her. A love triangle worthy enough to be in a k-drama.

“Uhh...Yeri?” Yeri looked up at Wendy, who looked like she wanted to cry. “We actually wanted to tell you something important.”

It felt familiar, this situation. Yeri was sure that she was on the opposite end the last time though. “Oh, yeah. What’s up?”

Joy and Wendy exchanged looks again. “We know everything.”

Yeri looked at them, perplexed. She wasn’t sure if her brain didn’t have enough energy to function properly, but they weren’t making any sense. “What.” She went back to sipping her milkshake.

Joy sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Joohyun. We know who she is.”

Yeri spewed her milkshake onto the table, getting a lot of concerned and disgusted looks from the students nearby. Wendy calmly wiped the table and Joy’s shirt as the latter complained the entire time.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry, unnie. I didn’t mean—”

“I told you not to call me unnie,” Joy groaned, swatting Wendy’s hand as she dabbed at her chest.

“I’m sorry.” Yeri slumped into her seat. “How did you find out?”

Joy grimaced, not really liking how defeated the younger girl looked. She was probably blaming herself for something out of her control. “It’s a bit complicated, but somehow I met all the key figures myself, and everything clicked.”

She explained to Yeri how Seulgi had also used the name Joohyun to explain the disastrous circumstances and how Jinyoung had bumped into her, clarifying everything unintentionally. Yeri watched with a face akin to that of a kicked puppy, large eyes drooping more and more at the corners as Joy confessed the entirety of the situation. It turned out that Irene’s part of the story was just the tip of the iceberg. They had a full-on revenge saga happening, and Yeri didn’t think she was anywhere near protagonist material. Maybe if her name was Diana and she was good at archery, but alas, Yeri was a mere mortal.

“I don’t know how much this’ll help, but I know Seulgi’s brother.”

Two pairs of eyes snapped to hers. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah...he’s actually at the institution Irene unnie and I volunteer at.”

Wendy looked like she wanted to faint. Yeri thought there wasn’t a more appropriate reaction, because she too did not feel like staying conscious for this ordeal.

Joy snapped her fingers, feeling her friend and girlfriend’s souls about to ascend to the heavens. “Well, where is it? Do you know where Irene is?”

Yeri shook her head. “The place is about an hour away via subway, but I don’t know where Irene unnie is. She didn’t work the rotation at the institution with me last week, so it’s possible that she switched it out for this week, but I don’t know if she’s there yet. Most likely not, because we head over together in the evening.”

“Well, that’s a bummer.” Joy pulled out her phone. “Look,” she rapped her fist on the table. “We’re going to have to find Seulgi’s brother and see what he knows. If he’s truly the angel you make him out to be, then he’ll help us rein Seulgi in.”

“Uhh,” Yeri trailed off. “I’ll call him.”

“Huh? What do you mean? Have you seen him at the institution before?”

Yeri rubbed her temples. “I mean, he’s one of my friends there. He’s really close to Jinyoung too. I