~~

Oscar Wilde once wrote that “the truth is rarely pure and never simple”.

As a kid, she had believed it. However, in her own experience, Irene found that the phrase applied more to people than the truth. People tended to complicate matters because they see what they want to see. Hence, instead of forcing the truth out, Irene learned to see if and when people offered it.

She would be lying if she said she wasn’t at all suspicious.

As much as Irene wanted to test Seulgi’s intentions, she also knew that the younger girl couldn't lie to save her life. From the day she received the first letter to their first meeting, Seulgi lied to her a total of two times. 

The first time was when she asked if the other girl was alright. Seulgi had answered in the affirmative, but the tall girl was shifting uncomfortably and she looked as though she would rather be anywhere else. It had been a disappointing start since they seemed to get along quite well in their letters. She had been looking forward to hearing more about some of Seulgi’s opinions. However, there wasn't a good time to discuss them.

She had almost faked an emergency to cut the date short, if not for their exchanges of messages that reminded her of how other people saw her. It was a partially sad realization to find that Seulgi wasn't much different from every other person who had confessed, but at least she was genuine in her intentions. Hence, she agreed to meet her for dinner again sometime.

The second and most recent time, Irene had walked up to her after dance practice and asked about the kind of food she wanted to eat for dinner. It was probably an awkward conversation to begin with, since they rarely talked about anything other than dance when they met in person. In any case, Seulgi had told her that she would eat whatever Irene was craving, which on that day, happened to be tteokbokki. The reply was reasonable in the sense that she wanted to be accommodating. However, it made Irene worry whether Seulgi was actually able to be herself around her.

Those were the thoughts running through her mind when she made the impulsive decision to message Seulgi in the middle of the night. Part of her assumed that the other girl would be sleeping, seeing as she had never been shy about her love for naps. Yet, her message was read almost immediately.

Irene stared at her screen. Compared to how it had been in the afternoon, there was now more words than empty space on the page. It was good progress, but she needed a break. Hence, she opened up her messaging application and scrolled through her contacts, settling on one name in particular. She started the conversation by asking if she was awake. It was a casual question that didn’t reveal too much.

Thankfully, unlike in person, Seulgi seemed more relaxed over text. Their conversation flowed swiftly back and forth, giving her something else to think about.

It had started as a moment of weakness, but it felt nice to finally have someone she could reach out to; someone she was becoming relatively more comfortable with. All she could hope for was that Seulgi would eventually get comfortable enough with her to be herself.

She wasn't sure how they ended up talking about philosophy, but she found herself admiring this girl more and more. After discovering someone who was able to challenge her mindset, tt made her more fascinated by how Seulgi viewed the world.

Embracing absurdity, she thought. Maybe she should give it a try.

Although in person, Seulgi seemed like a completely different person as compared to the girl she wrote to, she was still Seulgi. Perhaps she didn't really know the other dancer before. In that sense, she wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt.

Before she knew it, texting Seulgi became a habit. It started with random messages over the course of the week, but it became more of a daily occurrence. She didn’t usually have the presence of mind to sustain a conversation online for very long, but her conversations with Seulgi always ended up being more entertaining than she expected.

There were times where she would text in the evening, when she needed a break or a distraction. Sometimes Seulgi talked about articles she had read on the internet, or random things she thought about over the course of the day. If she was in a good mood, she would share her opinions. If she wasn’t, she would listen.

‘The sky is really blue today.’ She sent to her once. Irene had taken a detour on the way home just to stop by the park where she played as a child. It was her favorite place in the world; her escape.

She had taken a picture of the blue sky from her seat on the swing. There was not a cloud to be seen, so it felt like she was staring at the reflection of the ocean above her.

‘Do you know why the sky is blue?’

‘That sounds like a philosophical question.’

‘Sadly the explanation is more scientific than literary, but I can make it sound more thought provoking.’

She grinned. ‘Give it your best shot.’

‘Well, the phenomenon is caused when sunlight is scattered by particles of the atmosphere and the light falls back to Earth. Essentially, the shorter wavelengths of light scatter more easily, and these wavelengths correspond to blue hues, so we see the sky as blue.’

‘Should I bother to ask about sunrise and sunset then?’

‘At sunrise and sunset, when the sunlight travels through the atmosphere at an angle to reach our eyes, the blue light has been mostly removed, so that leaves mostly red and yellow light remaining because they are scattered the least.’

Irene smiled at her screen.

Seulgi was like a walking encyclopedia, always ready to share tons of information that Irene would never need to use in real life. Yet, it was tidbits of information like this that made Irene grow just a bit in appreciation for the world around her. She had no doubt that she would appreciate the sky more after this conversation. In that sense, conversing with the younger girl brought her a sense of accomplishment and fulfilment.

‘If that’s your idea of being thought provoking, I would be concerned for the state of your English essays.’

‘You wound me. My English is fine.’ Seulgi replied.

‘Thanks for the physics lesson.’ She teased.

‘Don’t forget your homework assignments. We’re covering light refractions next week.’ Granted, that message made her laugh. It was refreshing to be able to laugh freely without worrying about what other people would think.

‘You’re funny. See you at practice.’

~~

“In essence, the paper should be divided into love for self, family, romantic and society, don’t you think?” Irene thought about it. A lot of people falsely term “Great Expectations” as a love story, which it wasn't. To her, it was better to take an angle that people were less likely to talk about.

“In the Victorian era, women were treated as objects. Even Dickens had a penchant for portraying love in a cynical manner. I don’t think there’s much to be mentioned about romantic love.” She replied. They couldn't afford to waste so much time researching topics and creating a scope that was too broad. “We should be focusing on social expectations and how it affected the morals of love and hate.”

“But that’s exactly why we should discuss it. One of Pip’s biggest traits is his romantic idealism, which affected his outlook on life, but Dickens was trying to show that people are the product of their surroundings.”  Wendy hissed. They were sitting in the corner of the library, trying to get some work done before the end of the day. Irene could already tell that she was going to need to take a walk after this.

“We need to delve into the historical aspect instead of just plainly talking about the book.” Wendy gestured to the page in front of them. “I’m telling you, it makes more sense to start with an examination of social class norms in English society, so that we can contrast the ideas of love and hate against them.”

“That would be a waste of time!” She argued. “We have enough to analyze as it is. We don’t need to use our word count for a history lesson.”

The corner of her lips twitched. It was rare to see Seungwan annoyed, but Irene could tell she was reaching the limits of her patience. “Without a historical background, the paper has no basis, Irene-ssi.”

“There are loads of images and contrasting motifs which create irony, and all of them alludes to Dickens’ critiques of the British society. At the end, hate and prejudice are part of society’s unjust values that continue to flourish even though some characters are redeemed by love.” Even so, Irene continued. She looked at the notes she had on her screen as well as the articles she had been reading. “Existing class structure and wealth disparity are partly the foundations of why there is always an element of resentment. Even though the author tries to bring hope by introducing individuals who remedy the unjust treatment, even Dickens knew that the cycle of destruction would continue.”

She paused. Her opinionated groupmate hadn’t said so much as a word since she started making her case. She looked up from her computer to see Seungwan distractedly staring at her own screen, typing.

The audacity of this girl. She was the one who wanted to strive to do the project properly.

“Hey. Are you listening?”

The other girl looked up from her notes. “Yep, do you want the last brownie piece?”

“Seungwan-ssi, we have less than two weeks left before we need to submit our paper. I don't need you sabotaging my grades because of your stubbornness.” She glared. She knew she was probably overreacting but she was stressed and Seungwan wasn't helping at the moment. The other girl was barely listening to her. “No, I don't want a brownie. Why do you keep wasting my time with trivial things? You said you could finish the paper in a week on your own, but we haven’t even completed a first draft yet. If you don’t plan ahead, you’ll just be a failure.”

“Wow.” The younger girl commented. She looked slightly taken aback at her outburst. She rubbed the side of her arm awkwardly. “Okay.”

Seungwan’s uncomfortable look suddenly reminded Irene of herself when her father gave her the same lecture. She had gone too far.

Instantly, she felt guilty for snapping at the younger girl. Since the previous weekend, her father had been pressuring her every night to choose between programs and specialisations even before she reached her last semester. It frustrated her to the point where she dreaded going home.

She was well aware that despite how Seungwan looked, anyone would be annoyed if someone else were to take their anger out on them. It wasn't as though Irene had been treating her that nicely before this anyway.

Irene shrank back in her seat, wondering if Seungwan would get up and leave. If she were in her position, she probably would have. However, when she expected to hear the scraping of a chair, all she heard was the flipping of pages and the books snapping shut. Then, there was silence.

“You hungry?” The other girl asked suddenly.

“What-”

“Well, Irene-sunbaenim. I don’t know you very well, but I know you’ve not eaten yet. I’m hungry. So, let’s go eat!” Whatever expression that had been on her face earlier had been replaced by Seungwan’s usual bright countenance. Much to Irene’s surprise, the other girl acted as though they were friends, and the past few minutes never happened.

As if she sensed her hesitation, Seungwan grinned. It was even more disconcerting because Irene found herself packing up her things before the other girl could finish her next sentence. “The work will still be here tomorrow, and we can always discuss over food if you’re worried.”

However, there was something she had to do first.

“I-“

“You still want to protest against food?” The short haired girl looked so affronted that Irene actually rolled her eyes.

“If you were to stop interrupting me, you would find out that I’m trying to apologise to you.” She watched as Seungwan’s jaw instantly shut obediently. It would have been cute if Irene wasn't trying to be serious.

“What I wanted to say was,” She cleared . Now it was awkward because Seungwan expected her to apologise. She shouldn't have said anything. “I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier. It’s been a bad week.”

“It’s normal to have bad weeks.” Seungwan shrugged. “It doesn’t make you a bad person. All the more, we should get nice food to make up for it.”

Food wouldn't solve the issue, she wanted to say as they walked out of the school compounds. Then again, upon hearing her group mate’s excited chatter and seeing her smile, Irene could see why Seungwan felt that way.

The place Seungwan brought her to was small and cramped. They were ushered in by an elderly lady who immediately addressed her group mate.

The people who asked her out for dinner always chose fine dining and proper restaurants, assuming it was what she wanted. The only people who dared to do otherwise were essentially, Sooyoung and Yeri, and now, Seungwan.

It wasn’t exactly conducive for studying, but between the hustle of servers whooshing to the door whenever there were new customers and Seungwan animatedly conversing with the owner, she found that the place had its own rhythm and charm. This was the first time she was spending this much time with her project mate outside of school. Saying that Irene was a bit out of her element felt like an understatement.

Of course, once a platter of tteokbokki appeared on the table, Irene forgot about their paper and the uneasy feelings entirely. She didn’t even wait for Seungwan to serve her before she sc