“SEULGI UNNIE!"

The girl in question, Seulgi, blinked hearing the loud voice she would recognize anywhere. She turned to her left, not surprised seeing her favourite dongseng Yerim, approaching and seeing another girl with a slightly familiar cap and short honey blonde hair. Seulgi immediately knew who the girl was, she had the same cap in different colour. It was the transferee and newest Theatre Club member, Wendy, trailing behind.

Seeing the excited, almost mischievous smile on Yerim's face, Seulgi suddenly wanted to be left alone. But then again, they are in a bookstore, she can’t police who can come and go.

Seulgi is pretty sure Wendy is that girl Yerim was crushing on when the younger heard the other girl sing at her auditions. She also knows that her dongseng confessed to this girl and got rejected but interestingly, they became close friends after that.

Yerim seemed like she's over that little crush and moved on since she's now dating some guy from the photography club, but somehow, Seulgi feels a bit unconvinced. Her "Unnie Instinct" has this narrative in her head that maybe Yerim is secretly hurting. Yerim's cousin, Joohyun, told her "Unnie Instict" is broken because she's not actually natural Unnie she's being paranoid but she can't help but worry.

She knew it was a bit unfair to Wendy, but she can't help it if she feels a bit hesitant to initiate friendship with the new girl (like how her natural instinct always does) even if everyone thinks they'd click together, being the same age and all.

Abandoning all the thoughts to hurriedly bid goodbye to the approaching duo, Seulgi sighed, hopefully, Yeri just approached her for a quick greeting and they'd be on their merry way.

"Yerim, this may not be a library, but people still read here," she saw the younger girl roll her eyes, "What do you need," she asked flatly, not turning her eyes away from the book she's scanning.

The display of disinterest didn't deter the younger girl, "Yeah, whatever," Yeri said dismissively, Seulgi chanced a swift look on the quiet girl beside them who (surprisingly) already had her eyes on her but quickly turned away (with.. is that a blush?). "And I told you to call me Yeri!"

"What is it, Yerim?" Seulgi asked, smiling mischievously at Yerim who rolled her eyes on her childishness.

"Anyways, you told me before something about piercings,"

Burrowing her eyebrows, Seulgi tried to recall what Yeri is talking about, "Piercings? What.." her words hanged for a bit because she got distracted by Wendy's movement beside them. It was weird because it gave her the impression that Wendy is eagerly listening to the conversation even though she can't see the importance of Yerim's stupid question.

"You talked on and on about piercings the last time, but did you mean that you like them on you or you meant you like them on other people, like on guys..or girls?"

The inquiry made Seulgi lift an eyebrow on the weird inquiry. The shimmer on the younger's eyes anticipating her answer made her feel a bit antsy. Suddenly, she felt alert that maybe Yeri was targeting her for one of her pranks. Either that, or she's really anticipating her answer, which is weird. Nonetheless, Seulgi thinks that the sooner she gives Yeri the answer, the sooner she'll know what's up.

"Hmm, when we were talking the last time, I think we talked about it because I thought Jackson's new piercing looks cool," Seulgi answered, "But I am thinking about getting new piercings though, I'm just worried it may not be my style, you know?" she said, "Maybe I should get clip-ons first, don't you think?"

"Yeah?" Yeri asked, smiling, "What about someone you'd date? Do piercings make someone attractive to you?"

Seulgi hummed, picturing her friends Jackson, Jisoo and Jennie, even her previous flings, Jimin, Chungha and Yuta, and suddenly realizing that maybe she did have an undiscovered preference on it. "Well, I suppose I do like them on other people," she said, vaguely feeling weirded out seeing Yeri smile so big hearing that.

"Reaaaally?" Yeri asked, still with that big smile.

"But, it still depends, I guess," Seulgi added.

This made Yeri's smile freeze, "What do you mean, 'it depends'? Depends on what?"

Eyes briefly flicked to the stiff movement of the quiet third girl with them but turned back quickly to the youngest shrugging before returning her focus on the book in her hand.

"Well, I just hope no one gets a piercing just to impress me to get me to date them," she said simply.

Yeri looked so amused and very ready to laugh out loud but Wendy suddenly spoke. "Come on, Yeri, we need to go,"

Seulgi totally missed the blush on Wendy's face because of the cap.

"Sure, Unnie~" Yeri said, "Well, I'll see you later Seulgi unnie," she bid before turning to Wendy again. "Unnie, don't you think it's kinda impolite to wear a cap indoors," then she suddenly took the cap before sprinting away.

Stunned, Seulgi watched as Wendy took a moment to recover. Suddenly the latter turned and their eyes met.

For a long second, they just looked at each other before a blush started to bloom on Wendy's cheeks which made Seulgi turn her eyes away elsewhere and realize that it landed on the other girl's ear, finally noticing the shiny small chain earrings from the earlobe to the curl of her ear.

Suddenly, Seulgi vaguely feels her own cheeks heat up so she turns her eyes to the book on her hand, again.

"Um, See you later, S-seulgi,"

Nodding, Seulgi chanced a look on Wendy mumbling "Yeah, s-sure. Bye, Wendy,"

When she was left alone again, Seulgi kept thinking that she could've sworn that she knew Wendy had piercings all along; it's just that she never really noticed it until today. That's probably the reason why she can't stop thinking about how attractive Wendy is with the piercings.

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A/N: Yes, Wendy did get piercings because a reliable source said Seulgi would like it.