FINALE | Thank You For Waiting For Me

The birds chirped soundly at the front gate of the SM building. Not too far from the gate sat a black-haired woman who silently scrolled through her handphone. Occasionally, she would glance at her watch which placed neatly on her left wrist and stared at the gate.

‘Late again.’ The woman thought to herself and heaved a little sigh. It was nearly the end of summer but the weather that evening was humid. She brought the small electronic fan she carried with her closer to her face. Maybe she should have joined the rest of the members and waited inside the building, she thought again as the little breeze from the fan swayed her locks.

Soon after, a black SUV entered the gate and caught Irene’s attention. ‘Thank goodness she’s okay.’ She got up from the bench she was sitting on and had her arms locked as she stared at the car’s door. Coming out of it was a slightly shorter girl with black hair and a mixture of blue and white coloured beret. She was wearing a short with similarly coloured denim as the beret. The girl looked pretty but Irene remembered she should not be smiling when the other girl inched closer with clear nervousness in her demeanour.

“You are late again, Seungwan.” Irene’s voice sounded cold which pierced through Wendy’s eardrums. She had been bowing repeatedly in sorry towards the elder and hadn’t lifted her head once ever since she got out of the car. She mustered up her courage and finally looked at Irene in the eyes.

“I’m sorry to make you wait for me.”

As usual, Irene shrugged Wendy’s words off nonchalantly. “Not a problem” she replied.

But that day, instead of walking next to her into the building, Wendy stayed at the same spot with her head lowered. Irene who realised that Wendy wasn’t walking beside her, stopped on the track. She glanced back at the girl who stood a metre away from her. Heaving a light sigh, Irene turned her body slightly.

“If you don’t hurry, we might make everyone wait long-“

“Thank you.” Irene’s remaining words evaporated into the thin air upon hearing the same words coming from Wendy. She got slightly worried for Wendy’s sudden silence earlier. The younger girl fidgeted slightly, looking uncomfortable and guilty.

It reminded Irene of the times Wendy would be ridiculously apologetic when she had not created a social media account like the rest of the members. She claimed that Irene did not follow the rest of the members because she hadn’t created hers. Irene shrugged her words off when confronted but there were truth in those words, yet Wendy didn’t have to know that.

Wendy said sorry even when it was unnecessary. She just came back after more than a year of physical rehabilitation because of the unforeseen injuries at one of their stages back then. It wasn’t her mistake and neither did she ask Irene to wait for her today too.

Irene never understood why Wendy would apologise to her sometimes. But she liked it when Wendy thanked her like this.

“Seungwan.” Irene declared, breaking the momentary silence between them. Wendy raised her head back up to look at the leader. Upon setting her gaze on whom she called the best woman of this generation, Wendy met with Irene’s softened look. Her worries and guilt felt so little, and she was comforted with how Irene looked at her.

She was reminded of those