The bus had broken down on their way back, so Irene was sprinting to the meeting, cursing herself for staying behind until Monday morning instead of returning Sunday night with the rest of the volunteers. She clumsily pulled out her phone to see how late she was, almost dropping it, and checked to see seven new texts from Wendy.

She stumbled as said person started calling her.

“Irene!”

Irene held the phone away from her face, wincing at the ringing in her ears and rolling her ankle to make sure nothing was sprained. Her white shoes were splattered in an unidentifiable black funk from where she tripped on the curb. Good thing she didn’t faceplant.

“Hey,” she said, dragging out the word. “I’m almost there, I promise.”

She heard Wendy sigh on the other side of the line. “The others already left, Yeri too. We were supposed to be discussing class events for spring break, but they didn’t want to leave you out.”

Irene winced again, this time because she felt bad. “Sorry. I’ll still head over, and we can grab a bite together. Sound good?”

Irene slowed down as she realized that her destination was in front of her, and she snuck into the door, ready to scare Wendy, who was still on the phone, back facing her. She was about to jump, but a third person in the room brought her to a halt.

“Oh, you’re finally here!”

Wendy ended the call and hurried to drag Irene in, bringing her to the stranger leaning against the desk. Irene looked at Wendy, wondering what was happening, before turning her attention back towards the new girl.

“Irene, meet Seulgi. She’s a sophomore transfer. Wanted to ask if it was too late to join the council this semester.”

Seulgi gave a cool nod before standing upright and offering her hand. “Kang Seulgi. Wendy told me you’re her roommate.”

Irene nodded dumbly as she shook Seulgi’s hand. The girl was insanely attractive, almost to the point that Irene wanted to drop down and kiss her feet. Her face was sharply defined with large monolid eyes, tall nose, and high cheekbones, and her lips were painted a very pretty red colour. She was a few inches taller than Irene and had an impeccable sense of fashion from what Irene could tell, really rocking the semi-casual, indie look. Her hair was dark brown and thick, washing over her shoulders in pretty waves that Irene suddenly felt her fingers twitching to run her hands through. Oh god, she probably looked like a creep with her staring right now.

“Irene, stop staring, it’s creepy,” Wendy affirmed.

“Uh…” Irene snapped out of her reverie. “Hi, I’m Irene.”

Seulgi smirked, and it made Irene’s heart rate skyrocket. “Yes, so I’ve been told.”

“I’m…” Irene mentally slapped herself from doing another introduction. “Nice to meet you, Seulgi.”

“Ditto.”

“So, what brings you here?” Irene shook her head. “I mean, not that I don’t want you here or anything, but I was just asking if you specifically needed something, although Wendy did just tell me that you wanted to join the student council.”

“Correct.”

“Well, that’s great to hear that you want to be involved! We generally don’t accept board members in the middle of the semester, but lucky for us, I mean, you, our communications chair is on leave, so the secretary has been dealing with sending the student body emails and doing outreach. If you are down for it, and we’d love to have you on board, I mean, if you know Wendy, you’re probably very responsible, haha, then you can submit an application and the board will review it, you’ll probably get the position even without it, but if not, we also have general body meetings where anyone affiliated with the university can pitch in with their own concerns.”

Irene panted slightly after her long explanation, noticing Wendy looking at her weirdly. Not surprising at all, considering that Irene usually was not this verbose and was often praised for her straightforward, eloquent public speaking.

“No, I wouldn’t mind submitting an application for review. When should I get it in by?”

“Oh, huh?” Irene laughed nervously. “Anytime is fine, but the sooner you get it in, the so