A/n: Hi all, so this is inspired by an old tv show that aired in the US here during the late 1980s, a very funny comedy show that has serious moments too called the golden girls that does still stream on hulu, but I took inspiration from the episode where one of the main characters participates in this charity auction where people are bid on for dates, and the person who ends up her date is her ex-husband, so with that in mind and some obvious changes here we have this so I think it’s an improvement from my prior writings, Happy Seulrene Day. 

Son Seungwan was swamped and overwhelmed. You wouldn’t know it to look at her, as she appeared calm, cool, and collected as anyone looking over spreadsheets, seating arrangements, and lists of caterers for an upcoming charity event she was not only planning but in charge of hosting.

“Shouldn’t have taken on so much this year.” The blonde sighed and ran her hands through her hair. 

There was still a lot to get down before the event this weekend, but come hell or high water Seungwan would get this done. She had yet to not follow through with any of her obligations before, so she was determined to make sure this would not be a first time occasion.

“Are you still here?”

“Really, Wan. We left you here at least an hour ago.” 

Seungwan looked up instantly when she heard the two voices belonging to the younger women. Park Sooyoung and Kim Yerim, both of whom she had to convince to help her out with the charity event, and convince by offering them a lot of baked goods to help sweeten the deal. One of which, she feels she shouldn’t have had to bribe since she happens to be dating. But that was a different story. Seungwan needed all the help she could get and if it would take a few extra brownies or cakes to get the help. She would do so.

“Oh, you’ve bought coffee.” Seungwan notices Yerim has coffee in her hands, and practically tries to grab the cup out of the pink-haired woman’s hand, only to have Yerim gently swat her hands away.

“This isn’t for you, you crazy old woman.”

“Crazy old woman!” Seungwan’s eyes get huge suddenly. “Is this how you talk to the love of your life?”

“Who says you’re the love of my life, hm?” Yerim grins, like she’s kidding.

Sooyoung rolls her eyes and pretends to gag. “You two are so gross. I didn’t come here for this . 

“Eh-hem..” The older of the three clears . “If you two aren’t going to actually help me then what are you doing here?”

“Here, Wan. It’s for you, don’t worry.” Yerim does proceed to hand over the very warm coffee and Sooyoung does show her that she has a bag with a sandwich too. 

“Well thank you, finally some love around here.”

“It’s not our fault you decided to do all this work for this charity event.” Sooyoung sighs and plops down on the empty seat across from her. “Don’t get me wrong I understand it’s for a good cause but you’re going to run yourself ragged.”

“She already is. Look at all these bags under her eyes.” Yerim inspects her face.

“I think those were already there.” Sooyoung whispers to Yerim, to which Seungwan is very thankful she has not drank her coffee or bit into the sandwich yet. 

“I swear, Park Sooyoung, I thought you loved me.”

Sooyoung smiles, and shrugs. “It’s Yerimie’s job to love you, not mine. I have only friend obligations and those only go so far when you have me waking up and sacrificing my weekends like this. Do you have any idea what I could be doing right now?” The younger woman is just exaggerating and both Seungwan and Yerim know that. They know when to take her seriously and this is no such time.

“Yeah, yeah. I love you too, but really thank you both for helping me. I know it’s a lot I’m asking for.”

Yerim frowns in concern and affectionately pokes Seungwan’s cheek before hugging her. She knows how overwhelmed her girlfriend is with this charity event. There are after all a lot of components to it. 

“We don’t mind, what’s left? Talk to us.”

Seungwan goes into detail about how she feels confident about most aspects. The caterers will be the least of her concerns. She always has a few go-to caterers she always uses that never fail. The seating arrangements are color-coordinated and she spent a lot of time making sure they were accurate. The entertainment for the event had been handled, thanks to Sooyoung and Yerim. Thankfully the younger women both knew people in the music industry and had connections there. In truth, there was only one thing at the moment Seungwan worried about.

“It looks like you have a lot done, so why are you worried?” Sooyoung wonders. 

“It’s the event portion. You know how I told you guys that there’s an auction part, where people donate money for the cause. Well as you know people are bidding on dates for the evening, all friendly, nothing overly romantic, well at least it shouldn’t be that’ll be completely up to the people involved of course.”

“Of course.” Yerim nods. “Babe, you’re rambling. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is I don’t know if I’ll have enough volunteers, plenty of rich donors but I’m worried about the potential people who are being offered up for the dates. I specifically said it’s not anything sleazy or anything, that it’s all for charity, but you know I’m a little worried.”

Sooyoung stands up suddenly and flips her hair. “Well, am I standing here or what? I’ll do it!”

Yerim looks at her and chuckles. “You, what for?”

“Excuse me, Kim Yerim but the people must have their eye-candy and I bet I can get lots of rich people to bid on me.”

“Well, alright.” The blonde nods. “That will really help me out, Soo.” Seungwan looks relieved. 

“Alright, what the hell. I’ll volunteer too, it’s for a good cause and….” Before Yerim can even get the sentence out Seungwan is grabbing her hand so fast. With a look on her face that suggests Yerim better not even finish that sentence, which has Sooyoung cracking up in loud laughter. She may live to tease the couple but at the same time she finds them absolutely hilarious.

“You are dating me, remember?”

“But it’s for charity, Wan. It’s not like I’m going to run off with whoever it is, unless they’re really really rich.”

“Oh, geez…” Seungwan sighs. “You’re a comedian today. But seriously, I still need at least one more volunteer.”

Sooyoung and Yerim look at the list of names and with the recent addition of Sooyoung’s name. Seungwan only needs one more person. The two younger women look at each other and without words they nod. As they have been friends a hell of a long time they automatically know what the other is thinking.

“Get Seulgi to do it.” Yerim tells her.

“W-What?” Seungwan’s eyes land on Yerim so fast. “Did you just say that I should ask Seulgi?”

“Yeah, get Seulgi.” Sooyoung agrees. “It’s what Yerim and I do anytime we want someone to do something we don’t want…. I mean someone to help us out.” The younger woman tries to save, though the damage is already done. Seungwan can’t even believe they would suggest such a thing.

“Are you really telling me to go to my best friend in the entire world and ask her to do this favor for me?”

“Uh-huh.” Both women nod eagerly as they are sure that’s pretty much what they said.

“I-I can’t. She’s my best friend. I can't ask her to volunteer for this.”

“All the more reason you can ask her. Seulgi is a good person, she'll help you because you are her best friend, and once you tell her what the charity is for there’s no way Seulgi won’t help.”

Seungwan looks reluctant. On the one hand she does need one more person and Seulgi could indeed be that one person. Still, could she really ask for such a favor? Truly, it’s not for anything bad and it is a charity event. Sooyoung isn’t wrong in the sense that Seulgi would help out because it’s for charity. Despite the whole oddness of being auctioned off to the highest bidder part, though it’s really just one date.

“I don’t know…”

“Well, if you’re so worried about it. I’ll do it.” Yerim mentions again that Seungwan grabs her phone and runs off screaming she needs to call Seulgi right now. The two younger women just look at her and try not to laugh. Sooyoung pretends like she is reprimanding Yerim after.

“You’re going to give her gray hairs before she’s even fourty, Yerimie.”

“What, we had to help her out otherwise she would never call Seulgi. And let’s face it she doesn’t have very many options here.”

And no one knew that better than Seungwan. As she stared down at Seulgi’s contact number having an internal meltdown over whether to call or not. Truthfully, she needed Seulgi’s help. But what Seungwan would not do is spring this on her friend over the phone, no that didn’t seem appropriate. The best thing to do was text Seulgi and do the sensible thing of inviting her to lunch first. Everything works out when there’s food involved.

“Hey, Seul…” Seungwan begins texting.

Meanwhile, the very woman in question, Kang Seulgi had just found the perfect spot to relax. With it being Thursday and her having a day off. She took full advantage of the beautiful weather and found a nice quiet spot in a park, with it’s gorgeous mountain view behind her. Seulgi told herself at least once a week she’d find the time to get out and enjoy nature. Seulgi was moments away from pulling out one of her favorite checkered blankets from her knapsack when she heard buzzing in her pocket, which could only mean one thing. Someone was trying to interrupt her relaxation time by attempting to contact her.

Seulgi had two options. She could ignore the text completely by shutting off her phone, or get it over with by at least looking and seeing who it was. Seulgi sighed and reluctantly took out her phone.

“Oh, it’s Wan.”

Well, seeing as how it’s her best friend, Seulgi felt maybe she didn’t have to worry so much. Still, she read the text anyways.

SonSeungwannieBFF: Hey, Seul. How are you? I know today is your day off, so hopefully I’m not disturbing you if you’re sleeping in or busy. I was hoping you’d have some time for us to meet? How about lunch at Ms. Yuri’s restaurant? It will be my treat.

“Uh-oh….” Seulgi knew for sure that something was up when Seungwan offered to treat her to one of her most favorite restaurants, and a great place that their older friend Kwon Yuri owns. It tells Seulgi that Seungwan must want something and is probably trying to sweeten the deal by offering food. Seulgi doesn’t even bother to text back and calls so she can hear this excuse.

Seungwan freaks out when her phone rings, so much so that she tries to get Yerim to answer it. Yerim, who is naturally a good girlfriend, politely takes the phone and answers.

“Yo, this is Son Seungwan’s phone. Whom may I ask is calling her?”

“Oh, no…” Seungwan facepalms.  “Maybe I should have answered.”

Seulgi groans on the phone and realizes she should have probably not called. “Come on, Yerim. Please put Seungwan on, why are you answering her phone anyways?”

“She’s my girlfriend and that’s a legally binding contract last I checked. Answering phones is a part of it.”

“Legally binding contract?” Seulgi mouths, like Yerim must be confusing dating with marriage. Luckily, there seems to be an exchange in the background and Seungwan getting her phone from Yerim.

“Thanks, babe. Now please finish up with those invitations like I asked, so they can be mailed. Thanks, love you.” Seungwan sighs and gets ready to brace herself, though she knows Seulgi. Her best friend isn’t the type to yell or scream at her. Even if it’s more than likely Seulgi is suspicious. 

“What’s going on, Wan?”

“Seul!” Seungwan has a cheerful tone in her voice. “Hey, did you not see my text? Are you calling because you’re free for lunch? Want to meet now?”

So many questions and funnily there’s not one answer to Seulgi’s question. “Are you going to tell me what it is that you want?”

“Damn…” Naturally, Seulgi knows she’s up to something, why wouldn’t she? “Alright, fine I might need a favor. But let’s meet for lunch, it’ll be my treat. Let’s say in an hour?”

“Okay, Wan. I’ll meet you in an hour. See you soon.”

“Bye, buddy. See you soon.”

With their phone conversation over. Seulgi didn’t think she’d be able to relax much now if she wanted to. Still, she had an hour to meet Seungwan and so what she would do is drop her art bag off to her studio. The bag she had brought with her in case she saw anything interesting and felt like drawing. There was no sense in dragging her art supplies to Yuri’s restaurant. A short detour to her studio would be in her best interest. As she made her way out of the park, Seulgi couldn’t help but wonder what Seungwan wanted.

It must be big because Seungwan hardly ever asked for anything. And in short it was making Seulgi nervous.

“Oh, well no sense in worrying about something now.”

She’d find out soon enough.

At the same time, Seulgi made her way back to her art studio. A black limo had just pulled up and came to a complete stop. The driver inside turned to his boss and barely had his mouth open to ask a question, when the question he wanted to ask had been answered for him.

“I’ll be back shortly.” 

“Yes, ma’am.” He nods, knowing better than to question her.

The limo door opened and out walked a stunning dark-haired woman dressed in white blouse and pinstripe slacks. Her big brown eyes focused on the building before her where she knew for a fact Kang Seulgi had an art studio here. Just as she is imagining the passionate artist standing in front of her canvas, with paintbrush in hand, or how cute Seulgi always looked when particularly focused with a lip bite that somehow looked attractive. The woman turned when she heard someone calling out to her.

“Ma’am, do you need some help?”

It was a friendly looking blonde girl, with a book bag on her back looking like she probably is around university age.

“Oh, no. I’m not lost, thank you.”

“Are you looking for Seulgi?”

The question has the nicely dressed woman turn sharply toward her. Does this college-aged girl know Seulgi?

“I….” She pauses, and doesn’t answer only because her business cell starts ringing and that reminds her that she needs to be back at the office. “I should be going.”

“Oh, but I can tell Seulgi you stopped by. What’s your name, Ma’am?”

“It’s not important. But thank you, I’ll try and catch Seulgi another time.” And to make sure there are no further questions. She turns around and heads back into the limo leaving behind one very stunned younger woman.

“What the heck was that about?” Park Chaeyoung shook her head in disbelief at what just happened. She could barely believe it herself but she knew for certain she had to tell Seulgi about it, just who was that beautiful, clearly rich woman standing outside of Seulgi’s studio looking for her.

As the limo took off and headed back to her office. Bae Joohyun took the opportunity to look through her personal phone, make a few calls, and send some texts. Anything to distract her mind from the small detour she had just made. Out of the corner of her eye, Joohyun can see her limo driver sending worried glances her way. 

“I’m alright.” She tries to calm him down, more so that he can keep his eyes on the road than anything else. 

“Ms. Bae, ma’am. I know it’s not my place to comment on your personal matters.”

“But you will anyway.” Joohyun thinks to herself, and waits for his comments. She chooses not to say anything because deep down she knows her driver will only be coming from a place of concern, just as he always does.

“It’s just, ma’am. You often drive past that particular building, get out, and never go in to meet the person you wish to see. I only worry about what that sort of stress will do to you, Ms. Bae.”

He is not wrong in the sense that she does have him drive past Seulgi’s studio often enough, or at least suggest making certain turns knowing full well the routes will always take them over this way. But she never gets further than out of the limo. Joohyun has never gotten the courage to actually try and knock on the door and talk to the woman herself.

“You forget I run a company. I deal with stress on a regular basis. I will be fine, not that I don’t appreciate your concern, thank you.” 

That’s the end of that conversation and the drive back to her office is relatively silent. Though all of Joohyun’s thoughts are not so much on the work that’s waiting for her when she gets there. But on one specific person.

One specific person who has just finished dropping off her art supplies and is getting ready to head over to meet Seungwan for lunch. She notices the nice daughter of the landlord of whom Seulgi rents her studio space from, Park Chaeyoung standing outside, looking like she’s in a trance or possibly like she has a lot on her mind. 

“Chaeng?” She waves over the younger girl’s face. “Did you forget to go to school or go home?” Seulgi teases slightly and that snaps the girl out of her thoughts.

“Seulgi!” Chaeyoung realizes it’s exactly who she wants to talk to. “It’s you.”

Seulgi looks worried then. Because this is very unusual behavior for Chaeyoung. “Chaeng, are you alright? Do you want me to call Jennie?”

“No, don’t call Jennie. She’ll think I’m overworking myself and then she’ll be worried.” Now she looks concerned about her girlfriend, but then snaps out of that to remember why she wants to talk to Seulgi in the first place. “Hey, do you have a minute? I need to tell you something.”

Seulgi is on the way to meet Seungwan, who is no doubt either on her way to the restaurant or already waiting for her now. Seulgi sees that Chaeyoung looks like she really does need to tell her something, and so Seulgi will spare the time.

“What’s going on, Chaeng?”

“Earlier this woman came by your studio. A really beautiful woman too, but you could tell she was rich. She had that rich woman energy, you know? I asked her if she was looking for you, even though it was obvious she was. She didn’t leave her name. It was really strange, Seulgi.”

Seulgi’s face didn’t give anything away but Chaeyoung could see in her body language that the older woman did appear tense, in a way she wasn’t really used to seeing. She wanted to ask if everything was alright, but Seulgi only smiled cheerfully and told her not to worry.
 

“Don’t worry, Chaeng. I’m sure that woman must have been lost or mistaken.”

“Oh, but…” Chaeyoung knew enough that she should not pursue this. More than that, she had to respect Seulgi’s privacy on this matter. “Alright, Seulgi. I understand. I’ll see you around okay. You’re still teaching your art class this weekend, right?”

“I am, and you definitely will see me.”

With that potential situation avoided for now, Seulgi sent a quick text to Seungwan to let her friend know she would be on her way to the restaurant. She needed a distraction more than ever to deal with this unexpected news from Chaeyoung. It was certainly not anything she wanted to deal with, and Seulgi hoped she wouldn’t have to deal with it for a long time to come.

As Seungwan waited for Seulgi to join her for lunch. She felt less nervous than she had earlier, mostly because of the fact Yerim and Sooyoung were sitting with her for what they called moral support.

“We can eat too, right?” Sooyoung whispers from across the table. “I mean if not I can still leave.”

“Oh my god..” Seungwan sighs and rubs her temples. “I swear, Sooyoung. Are you trying to make me lose my mind or…”

“Hey, I have to have clarification.”

“Calm down, Soo. Wan already said it was her treat. But seriously, are you feeling better?” Yerim asked her. “We will give you back up if you feel like you can’t ask Seulgi when she gets here. Though I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Yerim knows how nice a person Seulgi is, even if she wants to say no. Most likely she will agree to help because she won’t want to abandon one of her friends. Not only that this is an event for charity and that matters too.

“I’m good, thanks, Yerimie.” The older of the three promises and gives her hand a quick squeeze. “Did you guys send out all the invitations before we left?”

“Yes, we did, your majesty. God, do you think we’re incompetent?” It is Sooyoung’s turn to sigh.

“Do you really want me to answer that question?”

“Now, see here!”

“Ladies, ladies.” Yerim intervenes, by tapping the fork against her glass. “You all need a drink to relax or something, all this charity event planning is getting to your heads. Now order something with booze or don’t.”

Well, at that suggestion what can they do except order some wine at least. A bottle of wine for the table as they wait for Seulgi. At Seungwan’s insistence she wants to wait until Seulgi gets here until they order food and actually drink the wine. The younger woman seems to understand though they do look longingly at the bottle when it arrives. In order to distract themselves from thinking about being hungry or how suddenly good that wine looks. Yerim and Sooyoung ask Seungwan how she’s going to approach Seulgi about being a volunteer for the charity event. 

“What’s the approach, Wan? Are you going for ‘help me I’m your best friend, it’s hopeless without you’ or are you going for a more confident badass woman in charge thing?” Yerim wondered from beside her, and honestly Seungwan hadn’t thought much about it.

“Well…” The blonde looked thoughtful. “I figured I would talk to Seulgi like the rational and logical adults we are, and if that doesn’t work good old fashioned begging and bribery.”

“That would completely work for me.” Sooyoung mentions and starts looking over the menu to pass the time. She said she was here for food, but she’s mostly here for entertainment. There’s no way this wasn’t going to be one hell of a show once Seulgi got here. However entertaining it would be, Sooyoung genuinely hoped for the best. It wasn’t as if Seungwan hadn’t been busting her for this charity event. 

“Is she still coming or…”

“I’ll call her, maybe she got held up.” Just as Seungwan had been getting ready to call Seulgi. She could see the woman herself just walking in and talking to Yuri, the owner of the restaurant. The conversation doesn’t last long as Yuri nicely points Seulgi toward their table.

“She’s coming.”

Seulgi expected to see Seungwan waiting for her. She didn’t necessarily expect to see Yerim and Sooyoung, but it didn’t surprise her. Seulgi still walked over to the table and greeted everyone just as warmly.

“The whole gang’s here, huh?” Seulgi smiled, with monolid eyes forming crescent shapes.

“Hey, Seul. Yep, the whole gang’s here. Come on, sit down so that we can finally order.” Sooyoung tells her, and though Seulgi has tons of questions. She knows sooner or later before she leaves her everything should be more or less answered. 

“I promise we’ll talk soon.” Seulgi can hear Seungwan speak. “But thank you for coming Seul, I know it was sudden.”

“That’s okay, Wan. I’m sure it must be important.”

“Oh, you have no idea.” Yerim uses her chance to sip some water because it’s only a matter of time before Seulgi finds out why she’s here. It should be interesting if nothing else. 

Fortunately, Seungwan doesn’t have to think about what she wants to say to Seulgi exactly as a waitress comes over to take their orders. She knows that since she said it was her treat everyone would take full advantage of it, meaning there would be one hell of a big bill by the time they leave.

“Ooh, and I want the grilled prawns, rice with extra beef, I mean tons of beef! None of that cheap stuff either.” She hears Sooyoung ordering now.

“Oh …” The blonde mentally sighs. She really should have re-thought this entire plan.

She zones out by the time everyone finally puts their complete orders in and when the waitress leaves. Yerim nudges her gently in the arm as a way to get Seungwan’s attention. It’s a subtle way to find out if Seungwan is going to wait or try to talk to Seulgi now.

“We haven’t even eaten yet…” Seungwan weighs her options, as telling Seulgi why she needs her help before they eat food could end in disaster. However, delaying this further will only stress her out too. Thankfully, Seulgi is the direct sort who wants answers.

“So do you want to tell me what’s going on, Wan?”

“Well….” She takes a breath. “I was going to wait until we were drinking but…”

“I can still open up the wine,” and does actually try to open the bottle for the table in case it’s necessary. 

“No, there’s no need for that. What’s going on?” Now, Seulgi is getting concerned, because it's getting odder by the moment.

“Okay, but don’t look at us when you could have had wine.” Yerim mentions.

“What?” Seulgi is more than just a bit concerned now, and that strange feeling she had earlier comes back in full force. She starts imagining all kinds of scenarios, and none of them are particularly good. 

“So, you know how I’m organizing this upcoming charity event.” Seungwan begins. There’s no time like the present.

“Yea, you might have mentioned it briefly.”

The waitress comes back with a second one behind her and they begin placing some of their dishes on the table. Well, this could very well ruin appetites but Seungwan has come too far now.

“Everything’s going well with the planning, Yerimie and Soo have been helping and it’s all going fairly smoothly.”

“I’m sensing a but coming.” The monolid woman mentions as she pours herself a glass of water from the table. Seulgi has known Seungwan a long time, certainly long enough to know when something is wrong.

“Okay, there’s nothing wrong, really. I just kind of need your help with something, Seul. So there’s an event portion to the night where rich donors will bid on dates and I need one more volunteer.”

Seulgi nearly spits out her water when she sees the hopeful way Seungwan is looking at her. 

“She’s not about to….”

“So I could really use an extra volunteer, Seul. I was hoping you’d help me out?”

Yerim and Sooyoung look at Seulgi who is just sort of sitting there with a soulless expression of sorts. They hope Seulgi hasn’t fallen apart mentally or lost her mind in that short of time.

“Is she okay?” Yerim asks.

“Seulgi?” Sooyoung is moments away from taking her plate of grilled shrimp and putting it under Seulgi’s nose to try and bring her out of her stupor, when Seulgi finally does react. It goes more or less like Seungwan thought it would.

“You want me to do what?” Seulgi blinks. “Let me be sure I heard this correctly, you want me to get up on stage and be auctioned off for a date with some rich possible creep. Are you trying to me out, Son Seungwan.” 

“WHAT!” Seungwan screams so loud that several people in the restaurant look at their table with looks of curiosity and shock. “N-NO! There will be none of that! This is all for charity, no one is being a .”

“Wan, calm down. It’s going to be alright.” Yerim is the first to grab her girlfriend and try to calm her down before she goes off on a tangent. But it appears to be too late.

“I would never do that, Seul. I mean, it’s certainly not up to me what happens between two consenting adults, but I specifically stated friendly dates for charity!” The poor woman is so red-faced that Sooyoung, who was already filming the whole exchange, paused only to ask if she was okay.

“Are you filming this?” The blonde asked Sooyoung nods eagerly.

“Of course, I knew this would be funny! Now, seriously, Seul. Listen to Wan because she has to finish talking and I’m doing it too so it won’t be all bad.”

“Well that doesn’t surprise me.” Seulgi sighs and that does make everyone laugh except for Sooyoung who looks offended for all of a moment, until she agrees that of course she would be game for this. Seungwan thanks both the younger women for the support and proceeds to tell Seulgi what the charity is for.

“You’re my best friend, Seul. I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t very important and this is a charity that all the proceeds are going to juvenile cancer patients. It’s for a good cause. So just think about it.”

Seulgi looks thoughtful and of course when she hears the reason it’s not like she’s heartless. She has spent time teaching art classes to sick children for work in her college days, so this is a personal thing to her. There’s very little reason for her to say no.

“Think about it this way, Seul. If you can’t be a quote-on-quote for a night for lots of sick kids, then who will you do it for?” Sooyoung jokes in a way to lighten the mood which has everyone looking at her like she has absolutely lost her mind.

“Yeah, thanks, Sooyoung.” Seulgi frowns and sighs. There was no way she wasn’t going to volunteer to help for this charity event. Besides, Seun