Prompt #25 — wenrene au where irene is new in town and seem very intimidating but as it turns out they have an awful sense of direction even with a map and wendy finds irene actually adorkable so wendy decided to help irene. -prompt credit: origami-teacup on tumblr

This story is for Prompt #25 of #WRFicFest2021 on Twitter.

I was inspired by Taemin's "MARS" (and yes, it's one of my favorite songs). And since South Korea no longer uses the traditional method to calculate age, I won't use it in my new AUs either.

When Wendy looks out of the window again, she sees the same woman for the third time this afternoon, and she's quite sure that raven haired woman gets lost. People usually won't go back to the same place for so many times in the same day, unless they have a certain purpose or yes, they just get lost.

And that woman looks familiar. Before she stands up and turns her attention to that mystery woman once again, the brunette looks at a certain picture from the newspaper in her hands one last time — it says that the popular illustrator Irene has been holding exhibitions in the country, and Seoul is this tour's third stop. It's her first time staging exhibitions in the capital because the works of this 25-year-old illustrator were only exhibited in her hometown Daegu and the areas which were around it.

However, her room is on the first floor of this building, and she can't see Irene's face clearly. Plus this raven haired woman is wearing a pair of round glasses, so it's possible that she only mistakes this woman for that illustrator. People may not look the same when they wear glasses.

Wendy takes off her glasses and then puts it on the newspaper, just beside the photo that has Irene standing beside a female reporter. There is a faint smile on the raven haired woman's face.

She glances at the clock. It's now ten past two. It's snowing outside, but Irene doesn't bring an umbrella. She dresses in all black — black coat, trouser and boots — and snowflakes already pile up on the top of her head and her shoulders. Wendy starts to worry if Irene will catch a cold.

Or maybe the illustrator doesn't get lost but waiting for someone to pick her up there, but they didn't come at the appointed time and thus she walked the streets to check if she came to the wrong place.

Wendy puts on her favorite navy coat, then takes a deep breath before she approaches her room's door. Perhaps Irene will meet that person soon and it's not her business. Nonetheless she feels she needs to go outside to check what's happening. The brunette takes her black umbrella and then goes down stairs. She walks a bit faster than she usually does, as if that raven haired woman will disappear anytime.

When she leaves the apartment, thankfully, Irene is still there. 

"Hi, miss."

Irene stands with her back to Wendy. She immerses herself in checking her destination to the extent that Wendy's voice almost makes her jump. There is a map in her hands, which can be seen on rare occasions in modern society since only few people still use them.

Irene turns around to find who is the voice's owner and makes eye contact with the short-haired woman. She then glances around the streets to make sure the person Wendy is calling is her. However, the next moment, Irene takes a step back while frowns, which makes her look intimidating.

The streets are quite because today is a workday, not to mention the fact that no one wants to be outside in this freezing weather. She can't figure out why and how this short-haired woman suddenly appears behind her.

"Em, sorry. Please know that I'm not a stalker." Wendy scratches the back of her neck while pointing at her room, "I live in the apartment behind you, and I saw you when I looked out of the window. It seems that you got lost?"

She watches Irene flushing red, but she's not sure which part of her speech makes her become shy — the raven haired woman bites her lip while nodding. The end of her nose is red because of the weather. Wendy also suddenly gets shy, but the way they stand in the middle of the road while staring at each other looks quite weird, thus, the brunette has to force herself to continue.

"Where do you want to go?"

Irene still doesn't speak, and Wendy remembers that she hasn't introduced herself yet. Perhaps Irene just doesn't know how to call her. 

"I'm Wendy."

"Wendy ssi, do you know this florist's?" The raven haired woman relaxes a bit, fishing a scrap of paper out of her coat's left pocket and hands it to the brunette, "I want to go there to buy some flowers."

Wendy smiles when she sees the shop's name, "Oh, 'The Purple Diamond'? I know that florist's owner. She is my mother's best friend, and her eldest daughter is my best friend."

Irene blinks several times. But rather than commenting on the exact information, she just listens to Wendy talking quietly.

"But, em," Wendy then gives the other woman a wry smile, "Actually, this shop is not in this direction."

"Really?"

She can't believe what she just heard. She literally followed the signs and reached this apartment, but the citizen in front of her says the shop is not around here.

"Yes. Can you please give me your map?"

Irene nods, passing the map to Wendy. Noticing it's a bit hard for the brunette to hold the umbrella and the map at the same time, she signals the brunette to give the umbrella to her. Wendy thanks her but then rejects her offer of help. She tells Irene that the umbrella is quite heavy, and the latter nods while pouting. 

Being curious about the route, she approaches the brunette and hopes them can check the map together. Wendy now can smell the elder woman's perfume. She stands there stiffly, but she pretends everything is normal.

She then points at a certain area of the map, "We're in the east of the city. However, 'The Purple Diamond' is here and it's in the west of the city."

Irene watches Wendy drawing an invisible line on the map in silence. When the brunette finishes her speech, Irene suddenly squats down while groaning. She folds her arms, and then buries her head in the space they create.

"Hello? Are you okay?" Wendy gets flustered and also squats down. 

Is she going to faint? Should I call an ambulance or something?

She folds the map in half and is ready to reach for her phone. However, before she can do it, Wendy hears Irene laugh. Her laughter gets louder when she finally raises her head, "I can't stand myself. I can't believe I walked for half an hour, but only to find myself heading in the wrong direction." 

She will stay in Seoul for a whole week. After having a meeting with the staff and the curator of Seoul City Gallery this morning, Irene and them agreed to separate the whole gallery into two parts. One of the rooms is for displaying her works while they will set an overhead projector up in the other room to show how she worked on this project. She wanted the exhibitions in every city to be a bit different from each other.

The staff is now arranging her works in the gallery, and tomorrow, she will check the lighting and set-up with them once again. Thus, today is one of the few days she's free for the next two months.

Whenever she visits another city due to staging exhibitions, one thing she will definitely do is buy some flowers for herself. It's more like a ritual to give herself the strength to overcome the difficulties she might face in the next few months and pray everything will go smoothly.

The streets of Seoul are not that different from the ones which are in her hometown. Therefore, Irene thought she wouldn't get lost even if she nearly had no sense of direction. However, when she saw the same building for the third time today, she knew she got lost. The worst part of the situation was, she was not even sure where she was at now, even if she had a map and she could read everything on it. The map said that the florist was in an alley, but there were only several main streets here and that alley was nowhere to be seen.

She didn't know if she should enter a random shop to ask the staff there for help. To be honest, she was a bit scared about doing this because who on earth could get lost in their own country while there were so many signs here?

There is a healthy glow in Irene's cheeks. Seeing the elder woman's eye smile, Wendy makes a decision — she'll take Irene to where she wants to go. She stretches out her right hand while smiling, "Follow me, please." 

Irene grabs Wendy's hand and manages to stand up, "To where?"

"To Mars." When she finds Irene's eyes widen, her smile broadens, "Yes, I can take you there."

Irene then laughs heartily, "Okay, then let's go, I suppose."

But maybe, the woman in front of her is a miracle — she is someone who can turn getting lost to an adventure to another planet. 

When they are waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, Wendy tries to make conversation, "Oh, I forgot to ask your name."

"My name is Irene." 

"You're an illustrator, right?" Wendy now can say her assumption earlier is actually the truth.

"You know me?"

"Yes." Wendy glances at the sky, "The local newspapers said you've been hold exhibitions in the country this year. You're famous."

"I'm not as famous as you think. Usually, only people from the same industry are familiar with each other. Illustrators know illustrators, designers know designers, photographers know photographers. For people who don't like il