~~

“Wendy!”

She heard her name echoing off the walls over the music playing through her earphones. At first, she thought she was imagining things.

However, the people she passed by were giving her odd looks. If that wasn’t enough, the heavy footfalls on the shiny floors were an indication that she was either being chased by someone, or in the way of a sprinter. If it was Kang Seulgi, both choices were probably not too far from the truth. Wendy had lowered the volume and slowed her pace just as she heard another yell.

“She wrote back!”

Well, seems like Irene Bae is full of surprises, Wendy thought.

“She did?” At that point, the dancer strode up alongside her, eyes wide with excitement.

“Yes! I found a note in my locker this morning!” Seulgi took a sniff of the paper and sighed dreamily. “It even smells like her perfume.”

“Okay, I don’t even want to know how you know that.” Distractedly, Wendy reached for it with one hand, while she took out her earphones with the other. The wires were probably going to get tangled up but that was a problem for later.

“I see her during dance committee meetings and we have practice together.” Seulgi retorted.

The paper was a light shade of purple and there were neat scrawls in black ink written on the centre of the page. It was too neat for Wendy’s taste, so it was a good thing she had no interest in the object of Seulgi’s affections.

“Also, who is Neruda and why did you cheat off of him?” Seulgi asked, her eyes scanning over the page.

“Cheat? I don’t cheat.” At the allegation, Wendy snatched the paper from the other girl defensively. She may give the weaker students an extra boost to improve their scores but she herself didn’t cheat.

“Unnie said you did.”

Waving at Seulgi in a dismissive manner, she turned her attention to the paper in her hand. She felt the bench shift as Seulgi plopped herself down next to her but she didn’t let the movement distract her as she focused on the lines of ink on the page.

I like Neruda too. He has a way of making the reader feel lonely even when he’s describing love. But borrowing his words seems a bit complacent, doesn’t it? The merit of originality is not novelty; it is sincerity.

It was short and not very sweet, but it was a start. Wendy almost wondered if Irene had kept it short deliberately. It seemed like something the older girl would do. Some would call it playing hard to get, Wendy just called it troublesome.

“What does that last line mean? Is she upset?”

“No...” Wendy said carefully. It sounded like a challenge.

“So, what do you think it means?” The other girl had gotten up and started pacing back and forth. It was endearing to see how important this was to her, but also distracting.

“She didn’t actually reject you, you know.” Wendy pointed out.

“So does that mean we’ve still got a chance?” Seulgi’s eyes lit up in glee before Wendy could point out that she had used a plural form instead of referring to just herself. However, she thought better of it. Wendy was the one writing the letter anyway. She deserved a bit of credit at least.

“Yes, Seulgi, we’re still in the game.”

“YES! Thank you!” Wendy ducked as the brunette nearly hit her in her excitement.

She stifled her laughter. “Well, now we need a game plan.”

“No.” Seulgi shook her head, interrupting her. “Now, I’m going to get a muffin to celebrate and you’re going to share it with me. Then, we’ll think about what should happen next.”

She turned to Wendy with a determined gleam in her eyes. “It’ll be my treat. No arguments. Which flavour do you want?”

Wendy waited a beat before answering. Kang Seulgi was something else.

“Blueberry.”

~~

“Who’s Seungwan?” Seulgi asked out of the blue.

They had finally exchanged Kakaotalk IDs. Seulgi had said that friends should have one another’s contacts, and Wendy didn’t have a reason to argue with that logic. Instead, she searched for the teddy bear emoji to add to Seulgi’s contact name. It seemed fitting. “Do you have a brother?”

“Seungwan is my Korean name.” She replied, saving her changes as she did so.

She had gotten used to people calling her Wendy, but her parents didn’t want her to lose touch with her Korean roots.

“Mom and dad were sure that their next child was going to be a boy, so they prepared the name Seungwan, but they got me instead. The name stuck though.” She shrugged. She had been teased for having a masculine name as a child, but the older she got, the less it bothered her.

She’d been called “Hyung” and “Oppa” as a joke for a number of years so part of her had grown numb to jabs like that. People could think what they wanted. It had finally stopped when she went to Canada and started going by Wendy.

“I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. I like the name Seungwan. You’re accepting and supportive, so it suits you well.” Seulgi frowned. It was rare to see such an expression of her face. Seulgi was always smiling in public, which made her wonder if she had been privy to other sides of Seulgi that most of the other students didn’t see. The thought made her feel happy. “In fact, I’m glad your parents had you. If not, we wouldn’t be able to meet and become friends!”

The way she spoke was so manner of fact, as if everything was so simple. In some ways, maybe it was.

She didn’t really know Kang Seulgi before this unexpected partnership. She still didn’t know whether what they had was really considered “friendship”, but at least for now, they were on the same team. That had to count for something.

“So, what is it that you’d like to say to her?”

The crease in her forehead smoothed out as Seulgi thought about it.

“Dear unnie, you’re very beautiful-“

“No.” She interjected firmly. Seulgi looked at her as though she was about to whine like a puppy.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s the same thing you asked me to write in your last letter!”

“It’s still true!”

“But we’re writing a reply to her last letter so I repeat- we’re not starting with that.” She reiterated sternly. She already had to convince Seulgi to accept her “edited” draft, which was essentially a complete re-write of her letter.

“It’s not like she gave us a lot to work with in the first place…” Seulgi mumbled. Wendy didn’t argue with that.

She looked back at the purple sheet of paper lying flat on the table. It looked so clean; not a smudge of ink in sight, or a crinkle of the page. Even the fold had been neatly pressed in a straight line. She wondered whether Irene’s personality was like that, or whether she was secretly messy and disorganised behind her tidy exterior. In comparison, her notebook page was filled with scribbled notes in the margins of the reply she was drafting.

“Who’s Thomas?” The other girl asked, changing the subject. “Why are you bringing up a random guy?”

Wendy blinked, trying to catch up to her train of thought. “Thomas Carlyle was a philosopher.”

“Why are you teaching her philosophy?”

“She blatantly accused us of plagiarism. I’m defending our dignity.” Wendy paused. “And also pointing out that she is no better.”

“Mm-mm. Technically, she accused you.” Seulgi said, over a mouthful of cupcake.

Wendy stared at her with as much judgement as she could muster.

“So it’s my letter now?”

There was a moment of hesitation before Seulgi replied innocently.

“I’m paying you to write a letter for me, so technically…yes?”

Wendy almost rolled her eyes as she took a bite of the cupcake. She turned back to the paper in front of her.

“Alright, Romeo.”

Game on, Irene Bae.

~~

Wendy wasn’t sure when or how it got established, but Seulgi somehow became a fixture in her daily life.

After the first letters were exchanged, it became more or less established that neither party was going to stop replying the other anytime soon.

It was good, at least for Seulgi. Wendy, however, needed some time to get used to having someone freely waltz into her practice rooms or interrupt her lunch.

“Why haven’t we asked her to hang out yet?”

“It’s not the right time.”

“We’ve already been exchanging letters for a week and we haven’t even asked for her phone number.”

“Irene’s not the kind of person you want to rush things with, right?” Seulgi nodded. “So we should take things slow.”

“Then we should ask her to hang out next week.”

Wendy sighed at the piano. She had already messed up the chord she was playing earlier and it seemed like she wouldn't be getting much practice now that Seulgi was here.

“No.”

The other girl didn’t seem to mind her annoyed tone. “Why not?”

“I’m in the middle of practice, Seulgi.”

“Okay? I’m in the middle of lunch.”

She punctuated her sentence with another munch. Wendy had half a mind to push the other girl off the piano bench, her reputation be damned. “Besides, you always spend lunch alone. You should be thankful that I’m giving you company since you don’t really have friends.”

“I have friends!” Wendy spluttered out defensively.

“Other than me, dummy.” Seulgi rolled her eyes. Wendy’s mouth dropped open indignantly.

She was about to name a few people before she realised that she didn’t really spend time with people outside of class. She had classmates she worked with for projects and students that she helped during peer-coaching but they had their own friend circles so they didn’t really count. Most of her time in school was spent doing solitary activities. Aside from practicing in the music rooms, she normally spent her time listening to music in the courtyard or writing in the library.

Seulgi hummed and continued chewing her food, as if she didn’t believe her but didn’t want to offend her further.

Annoying. She thought.

Was Seulgi even considered her friend? They’d just met. Before that, they had never spoke a word to one another. Then again, this was someone who claimed they were in love without even getting to know their crush. 

“I mean, there’s nothing wrong with spending time alone.” Seulgi finally said. “It’s...”

“Pathetic?” Wendy asked wryly.

“No, it’s... calming.” The way she said it was non-judgmental and it made the quieter girl feel understood. She watched the taller girl swing her legs back and forth like a kid on a high seat. The longer she knew Seulgi, the more convinced she was that the dancer was an oversized child.

“What do people do when they hang out?”

“Talk mostly.” The other brunette replied.

“About?”

“Themselves, I guess? They can talk about anything.” Wiping with a paper napkin, she shut her lunchbox and placed it on the floor beside them. “Usually, there’s an activity involved, like a meal or a movie, but it doesn’t always have to be like that.”

Wendy frowned. “It doesn’t sound much different from what we do.”

The other girl sat silently for a few seconds after that before turning to her with a grin. “Yeah, I guess it’s not.”

The bell rang before she could continue. Seulgi grabbed her bag and stood to leave, when Wendy realised her lunchbox was still on the floor.

“Wait, your lunchbox!” She called out.

“The rest is yours since you always forget to eat lunch when you practice.” Seulgi said from the door. “See you later, Seungwan-ah!”

Wendy looked at the lunchbox sitting in her lap and smiled.

She could get used to having a friend like Seulgi.

~~

There was a distinct thump as her head fell on the table, along with a muffled complaint. “I’m going to fail.”

Wendy turned to the girl sitting beside her. Her student had been staring at the same mathematics question for the last ten minutes. The first time it happened, she had raced to her side and asked if she was alright. However, after tutoring the same girl for months, the effect had worn off. She coined it off as a Yeri thing.

“No, you’re not.” She replied without hesitation. Their peer-coaching session was due to end in a few minutes. As much as she would like to continue helping her until she was done with her questions, as she usually did, she had plans that evening.

“It’s no use. I have accepted my fate, Wendy unnie. I have to ready myself to be slaughtered by my family.” The younger girl groaned as she lifted her head up, then allowed it to fall back on the table dramatically.

“You should have taken drama.” Wendy commented dryly, as she flipped a page of her own research.

“Right?!” Her words seemed to perk the girl up because Yeri shot back to her sitting position. “If this school offered it, I would have taken it immediately.”

“There’s always college.” Wendy pointed out. “If you get in, that is.”

“Hey! You’re supposed to encourage me!”

The older girl smirked. “Didn’t you just say that you’ve already accepted your fate?”

Yeri frowned when she realised she didn’t have an appropriate comeback. The only way she could turn the tables was to admit that she actually wanted to study and get into college, something that her stubbornness wouldn't let her admit.

“Kim Yerim!”

“Oh .”

“Language.” Wendy reminded her instinctively. Truthfully, she wasn’t really bothered by her choice of words. After all, she had heard worse.  

However, like a petulant teenager, the younger girl rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. Joohyun-unnie already tried that with me.”

At the abrupt mention of her classmate, Wendy jerked her head towards her. It couldn’t be the same Joohyun she was thinking about.

“Who did you just say it was?”

“Joohyun-unnie?” Yeri repeated. “What’s with that look? Do you know her?”

There was a clatter of chairs that startled the younger girl into shoving her books into her bag. “You know what? We can talk about unnie later. Right now, I need you to pretend you didn’t just spend the last hour here with me.”

“Huh?” Before she could ask further, her student vanished behind a row of shelves. “I’ll be seeing you then.”

 “Who will you be seeing?” A coy voice cut into the silence. Embarrassed that her comment had been heard, Wendy felt her cheeks flush.

In front of her table stood a tall brunette with jet black hair, a mischievous gleam dancing over her features. Wendy recognised her as the girl who had called Irene “unnie” in the hallway. At the time, the girl hadn’t so much as given her a glance.

“Hi.” The stranger repeated.

“Hi?” She cringed internally at how her greeting sounded more like a question. She really needed to get used to random people addressing her. The smirk on her face seemed to widen a tinge before she spoke again.

“Oh good. For a moment I thought you were spacing out on me, and I wasn’t sure if I should be offended or flattered.”

Well, she was certainly blunt with her words, Wendy thought. It was no wonder that Yeri and her were acquainted.

 “As much as I’d enjoy a couple of minutes more sitting in silence with a cute girl, I actually have a mission to accomplish.” The other girl winked at her before Wendy realised that the comment had been directed at her. “But we will continue our conversation some other time, yeah? See you around!”