SEULGI felt like her heart was about to explode when Joohyun came down from the building that they are living in. It is a Saturday, the very next day right after the final night of the festival, the night of the fireworks… the night of the—

"What are you shaking your head for like a drenched dog?" Joohyun nonchalantly asked, looking so pretty with her frilly, autumn, purple dress paired with black loafers. She was carrying a mini bag, her hair tied up in a high ponytail and she had a bit of makeup on. She even ditched her glasses with contact lenses.

"N-Nothing!" Seulgi answered with the last syllable's note rising up because Joohyun suddenly stood really close to her. That earned her an eyebrow raise from Joohyun.

"Now you just sounded like a cat that got run over by a speeding kid on a bicycle." Joohyun crossed her arms and put her weight on one foot. "Is this another hangover symptom?"

"I-It's not like that, Sunbae…" Seulgi scratched the back of her head. "It's just that you look extra beautiful today… I feel like fainting."

Joohyun blushed a little but she didn’t let that line ruin her cool. "You better not. You still have to go on a date with me, remember?"

Seulgi's eyes widened, even the tip of her ears felt like they were burning. She took one look at Joohyun and saw her sneering at her.

'What on earth just happened?' She asked herself. 'All I remember was drinking with Wendy and Joy then I woke up in Sunbae's bed and now our roles are reversed!'

Yes, Kang Seulgi the Great, couldn't remember what happened last night between her and Joohyun. When she woke up, she couldn't even properly open her eyes because of hangover but her grumbling stomach was already responding to the smell of Joohyun's cooking. Joohyun sweetly smiled at her when she noticed that Seulgi was already awake. She was even making her favourite dish, how would her stomach stay asleep?

Seulgi slapped herself to see if she was just dreaming. She had never seen Joohyun give her an alluring smile like that.

"Are you okay?" Joohyun rushed towards Seulgi with half-opened eyes and held her hand that she used to slap herself. "What are you doing?"

Seulgi gave her a goofy wide smile. "The slap hurt a little but I am dreaming, right?" She then gave Joohyun a light pinch on her cheek. "I am dreaming about domestic life with Sunbae, right?"

Joohyun sweetly chuckled and gave Seulgi light taps on her cheek. "What are you even talking about?"

"I mean…" Seulgi forcefully opened her eyes only for them to close back. "I was just drinking with my friends… heavily… and now I am at your house and you're so sweet to me... I guess I passed out while drinking and dreaming about you now, Sunbae~"

Seulgi then rubbed her cheek on Joohyun's hand but the facial expression of the other girl had already changed. She pulled her hand back, making Seulgi look back at her.

"Sunbae–-"

"You… don't remember?"

"Remember what?" Seulgi asked, still wearing that goofy bear smile of hers.

The sweetness on Joohyun's expression completely faded away. She looked away with her eyes filling up with frustration.

"Dream Joohyun-sunbae?" Seulgi called, her smile also fading. "Sunbae?"

With a deep, deep sigh, Joohyun stood up and went back to cooking. She didn't even say a word to Seulgi.

"S-Sunbae?" Seulgi's goofy smile was overtaken with worry. "D-Don't tell me this isn't a dream…"

Joohyun didn't answer verbally but her actions were speaking for her. She didn’t care whether the next door neighbour would be angry but she was doing things with unnecessary force. Seulgi shrieked in shock when Joohyun lost hold of the knife and it struck on the ground. Joohyun, as if she was King Arthur, pulled the knife effortlessly before looking down at Seulgi.

“I can’t believe you don’t remember anything, Kang Seulgi.” Joohyun felt like she was speaking in growls. “Tell me the truth or you will be my chopping board…”

“S-Sunbae!?” Seulgi frantically looked around and saw the time. “T-T-This is a dream, right!? If this is reality then you should be already at work, Sunbae!”

Joohyun chopped the spam placed on top of the chopping board as if it was some kind of meat. Her scary expression then disappeared and was changed by a cute frustrated face that’s close to crying.

“S-Sunbae!? Why are you–” Seulgi was about to jump out of the bed when she removed the blanket covering her. She almost fainted when she saw what’s under that blanket. Her jaw almost locked from staring at her own body.

“W-What…?” She then slowly looked at Joohyun who was already murdering the spam. “W-Why am I only in my undies…?”

“I don’t know…” Joohyun shrugged her shoulders. The spam will soon be like minced garlic.

Seulgi quickly ran to the restroom, grabbing whatever she could clothe herself along the way. She splashed water on her face and the hangover instantly departed from her body as if she was exorcised. She stared at herself blankly at the mirror, panting after her life threatening escape from Joohyun’s presence.

“What on earth happened!?” She slapped her cheeks twice. “This isn’t a dream! This is reality!”

“Why do you even think you’re dreaming?” Joohyun asked from the outside. Seulgi could still hear the endless murder chopping of the spam.

Seulgi started shaking. She even scratched her head as if doing so would bring back the film of her memories that director alcohol edited from her system. “W-Why can’t I remember anything!?”

An idea then suddenly popped into her mind.

“Wendy! Right, Wendy should know what happened!” After aggressively drying her face with the towel, Seulgi carefully came out of the restroom and found Joohyun lying on the bed. She was lying on her stomach, facing the wall.

“J-Joohyun-sunbae?” Seulgi called before turning to the kitchen. She gasped when she saw the outcome of the poor spam. In the end, Joohyun didn’t cook it and just put it on display for Seulgi to see.

“Food is ready. I made some soup for your hangover as well.” Joohyun said monotonously. “Your stomach was rampaging really loudly. Go ahead and eat without me, I just want to take a quick nap.”

Seulgi then heard Joohyun yawn. “S-Sunbae? Will you tell me what happened first?”

There was cold silence. Seulgi suddenly felt like the snow glows white on the mountain tonight. “E-Elsa–I mean, Sunbae…?”

Joohyun pulled her blanket and tucked herself in. “How dare you forget about it, Kang Seulgi…”

Seulgi’s head hung low. She’s so frustrated. She hated it that she couldn’t remember anything. The huge pillow that they use as Wall Maria between them caught her attention. It was just lying there on the floor. “D-Did we… Did something–”

“Let me sleep first.” Joohyun coldly answered but her voice actually cracked, making Seulgi jerk. “After I wake up, promise me you’ll take me on a date…”

“A d-d-d-date!?” Seulgi heavily stammered.

The younger girl instantly froze when Joohyun’s head turned to her. The older girl was giving her that cute, pouty look. “That’s your payment for forgetting whatever happened between us last night. You better take me out.”

Joohyun faced the wall again and shut her eyes. She’s really, really tired and sleepy. Joohyun was already asleep when Seulgi finally thawed and quickly, yet quietly, grabbed her phone to call Wendy.

She went outside and waited anxiously for Wendy to pick the call up but however she tried to reach her, whether through facetime, kkt or line, Wendy didn’t pick the call up. Already going crazy, she started typing her message to Wendy when she saw that Wendy was also actually typing a message for her.

Seulgi gulped, she stared at those three dots jumping up and down as if she was being hypnotised. She waited for a good three minutes only to see a smirking sticker from Wendy.

She hurriedly re-typed her message again. “Wendy, what on earth happened last night? Please, please, please… Tell me what happened last night! You’re my best friend, right”

Into which Wendy replied (after another good three minutes), “I won’t tell you~”

Seulgi sent a voice message of her pleading but it didn’t work on Wendy.

“Last night you made me realise that there are things that you can’t share even with your best friend so I won’t tell you what happened last night~~ Anyway, good luck to you, Seulgi~ Now, don’t disturb my precious weekend! BYE!”

“Wendy…” Seulgi dramatically slid down to her knees. She went back inside, walking on her knees, praying that the heavens would answer her and give back her memories of last night.

Thinking that filling her stomach might do the trick, she munched the food prepared by Joohyun for her. She was almost tearing up every spoonful of food. She savoured every sip of the hangover soup as well.

But it was futile, no memory came back.

So, Kang Seulgi took a shower, fixed herself and searched for a good place to go. She also observed her body when she was showering and nothing seemed weird. Her body did feel painful but there were no signs that something hot might’ve happened between her and Joohyun.

She gave up trying to remember so she just waited for Joohyun to wake up and ask her everything on their date. It’s a date! Joohyun was even the one who asked her on a date! It’s definitely a win for her.

Well, Joohyun’s nap took three hours to finish which made her restless the whole time.

“So, where are we going?” Joohyun asked her, she was even looking up at Seulgi so cutely.

“A-Ah…” Seulgi rummaged through her pocket for her phone. “Let’s go here, Sunbae. It’s an art exhibit from one of the students in our school. She’s a very famous artist.”

Joohyun was actually surprised. “Ahn Yujin?”

“Yeah…” Seulgi scratched her cheek. “I kinda admire this person. She manages to take the major her parents want her to do while she also pursues her own talent at the same time.”

Joohyun gave her a meaningful smile. “Okay, let’s go then. But Seulgi…”

“Yes, Sunbae?” Seulgi’s neck almost twisted when she looked back at Joohyun. ‘When did she even start calling me without -ssi?’

“I’m… I’m a little afraid of riding cars… Can we just take public transport?”

“Oh…” that was new for Seulgi. She didn’t know that Joohyun was afraid of that trivial thing. “Sure, it’s near here anyway. I think it is thirty minutes by subway.”

“Great!” The smaller girl then held her by the hand. Seulgi’s eyes almost rolled backwards when she stiffened. “Let’s go now, Seulgi~”

THE two arrived at the venue with hands still clasped. Joohyun wasn’t letting go completely of Seulgi and though it was weird for her at first, Seulgi grew accustomed to Joohyun’s hand that she hurriedly seeks for her at times when she needs to free her hand for something.

“This person is really incredible.” Seulgi sighed while looking at Yujin’s sculptures. “Who would believe that she’s also the top student of both majors?”

Joohyun chuckled. “She’s probably studying triple time.”

“Yeah…” Seulgi sighed once more. “I wish I was like her…”

“Ahn Yujin?” Joohyun asked. “She’s in a huge trouble though since she’s going to inherit such a fortune. If she wasn’t an heir then she probably would spend all her days sculpting but she has to work triple time just to be able to keep sculpting.”

Seulgi looked at Joohyun, her lips were smiling but her eyes weren’t. “At least, her family still supports her talent. I believe her parents were just doing that to push her abilities even more while on the other hand…”

Joohyun looked worriedly at the taller girl. She watched Seulgi pressed her lips together as if contemplating about opening up to her.

“It’s okay, you can tell me anything.” Joohyun assured her, giving a bit of pressure to their clasped hands.

“Hmm…” Seulgi then led her to continue walking before she decided to open up her situation to Joohyun.

“I… I actually really want to be an artist.” Seulgi started which actually didn’t surprise Joohyun at all. For the whole time that Seulgi is staying at her house, she already figured out that the girl has a passion for drawing. “I used to do oil painting… but my father… he burnt all my paintings when I told him I want to take fine arts.”

“He did what?” Joohyun stopped in her tracks with what she just heard. “Did he really have to do that!?”

Seulgi just faintly smiled at her. “He threw my painting stuff away too. The teacher who was encouraging me about painting… he also had her transfer to another school. I couldn’t do anything, I tried appealing but he kept on belittling my talent. He would always ask me ‘You consider this art!? You think you’ll earn money with this?’”

Seulgi then led Joohyun to the biggest sculpture in the venue. The exhibit was canine-themed and the biggest one there was a Siberian husky sculpture that was named Goowon. Knowing the actual dog that it was based on, Joohyun greeted the sculpture with a secret wave.

“My father would always compare me to my brothers, to Joy and Wendy… to Ahn Yujin. He would never forget reminding me how talentless I am…”

‘Strange…’ Joohyun thought. ‘We’ve been living in the same house for quite some time but this is the first time she actually opened up to me…’

Well, it wasn’t that strange because she knows the reason so well. ‘It was because I was running away from her…’

She then took a peek of their clasped hands. ‘She has been waiting for me to go to her… All this time… She has been waiting for me to actually listen to her.’

“I tried convincing him but,” Seulgi forced a laugh. “He said how would I be able to do two majors when he had to pay my teachers just to tweak my grades. I am just… really defective.”

“Stop saying that…” Joohyun said, her heart heavy for Seulgi. “You know you aren’t…”