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The President Game 
Limited Series 

The Aftermath: Ep. 11
Tensions rise between the couple while the students of Velour Academy face the repercussions of the weekend. Also, Wendy has a crush.

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bright and early on monday morning, the students of velour academy arrived at their peaceful campus in their dry-cleaned and ironed uniforms with their designer bags and polished leather shoes. 

excited chatter and gossip about the party last weekend was all that could be heard throughout the hallways before class. 

irene walked down the hallway to get to her classroom, greeting students politely and giving awkward smiles whenever someone brought up her attendance at the party. 

“hi irene.” sehun waved, moving into her path so she had to stop and greet him. “you left the party early last week.”

“yes, i…” irene’s voice faltered. “was tired so i wanted to go home.” she finished. 

“right, that’s fair enough. did you have a fun time?” he asked, looking happy to just be in conversation with her. 

irene smiled, nodding. “yes, what about you?” 

somewhere nearby, a locker slammed shut and made irene turn to look over her shoulder. she locked gazes with seulgi who was the person responsible for the loud noise and seulgi just smiled tightly before turning back to her friends. 

“um, i should get to class now.” irene said to sehun, side stepping so that she could continue her path down the hallway and he barely finished saying goodbye when irene already hurried off. 

yeri tipped her sunglasses down to look at seulgi with unobstructed eyes. “so, what is going on with you two?” she asked.

“what? nothing.” seulgi replied, leaning against the lockers. 

“it’s not nothing. usually you’ll be all over each other until class forces you to be apart.” joy pointed out. “things have been very weird the moment you came to school separately.” 

“agreed.” yeri said. “what happened at the afterparty?” she smirked, but seulgi kept shut and pretended not to hear. 

joy gasped a little when she was reminded of something, making the other two turn to look at her questioningly. “wait, did you guys hear? apparently eunjung hit someone with her car after the party that night.” 

seulgi tilted her head, intrigued while yeri nodded, eyes widening. “yes, i heard! she drove while she was high as hell and hit a pedestrian but her parents are top lawyers and rich so they’re probably not going to be able to charge her guilty.” 

“that’s so terrible!” joy responded, horrified. “the world is so unfair.” she said and yeri nodded solemnly.

“also apparently jiyeon cheated on her boyfriend at the party.” yeri said with her voice lowered and joy’s eyes widened. “someone took a video of it but it got deleted before it could get sent around.” 

“what a crazy night.” she said with a shake of her head. 

seulgi didn’t say anything else and only stared in the direction that irene walked off to. 

>>

“how was your weekend?” wendy asked, sitting down beside irene who already had her notebooks and pencil case out neatly on the desk. 

“it was fine. you?”

“well…” wendy said, making irene raise an eyebrow. “i have something to confess.” she said with a shy smile and irene looked curious. “i think i like someone.” 

“you have a crush?” irene asked, a little too loudly because wendy panicked and almost slapped her hand over to keep her quiet. 

“it’s just- yes. okay, yes, i do.” wendy admitted, lowering her voice because more students were entering the classroom. 

“who is it?”

wendy looked shy, voice coming out a whisper. “it's joy. and i mean, i always found her really pretty but then at the party we talked, like properly talked, for almost the whole night. and i really like her personality and we get along so well, she’s so smart and i love the way she thinks.” she gushed, making the smile grow wider on irene’s face. “and then we texted over the weekend so i feel like maybe…just maybe there’s a chance…” wendy trailed off, blushing. 

“wendy, that’s so cute.” irene said with a small laugh. “i’ve never seen you like this before but i’m happy to see you so happy.” 

“thanks.” wendy said bashfully. “but what about you? i heard you and seulgi left early that night. we never even got to hang out much.” she nudged her.

“you were too busy with your new friend anyway.” irene teased and wendy groaned, rolling her eyes. 

“so what happened?” it was wendy’s turn to tease. 

“nothing.” irene said, turning back to face the front and avoiding eye contact. “like, actually nothing.” she muttered.

“what do you mean?” wendy asked and irene let out a small sigh, glancing around the room and making sure everyone was occupied in their own conversations. she leaned in and wendy got the hint, moving closer so they could talk quietly out of earshot. 

“so we got home and we were kissing on her bed and we were about to- i mean, we were meant to…” irene said and wendy gasped quietly in excitement. “but then she just stopped suddenly and decided not to continue. and i have no idea why and i’m worried i did something or something is wrong with me.” 

“what? no! there is nothing wrong with you.” wendy said with a crease in her brows. “did you talk about it and ask her why?”

“i tried to but she brushed it off as being tired since it was late at night. which i don’t think makes sense because she literally switched in one second.” irene said. “but anyway, things just have been awkward since then. we’re not fighting or anything but we’re weird around each other. it’s mainly her acting differently so i’m just clueless what she wants me to do or not do.” 

“that is strange.” wendy agreed, putting her hand under her chin and thinking to herself. “maybe she’s just not comfortable doing anything more yet.” 

“and that’s fine, i just wish she would tell me.” irene said with a sigh, slumping forward on the desk. 

“good morning class!” mr jung greeted cheerfully as he entered the classroom and irene quickly sat back up, straightening her posture while the rest of the class stopped their chatter and faced the front of the class. 

“firstly, well done on submitting your essays on time last week.” mr jung said, adjusting his glasses as he looked around the classroom. “they’re all looking very promising.” he added and the students smiled in relief. “so, today we continue with our analysis into chapter five…”

the teacher’s talking faded to the background as irene’s thoughts drifted back to the night with seulgi and she furrowed her brows in deep thought as she recalled the look in seulgi’s eyes when she suddenly backed off for no reason. what was the emotion in those pretty eyes that irene liked so much? 

was it regret? fear? guilt? irene couldn’t quite put her finger on it but she wished she could understand her girlfriend better. 

“irene?” 

said girl jumped a little when she realized her teacher was standing beside her, calling for her and she looked up at him apologetically, but instead of being annoyed, he just smiled. 

“is everything alright?” he asked kindly. 

“yes sir.” irene replied, glancing around and realizing everyone else was diligently reading the excerpt that had been handed out. she quickly grabbed her sheet to read, pretending like she knew what they were instructed to do. 

mr jung leaned forward, putting his hand on her desk to support his weight. “can you stay back after class? i want to talk to you about your essay.” he said in a quiet voice. he chuckled when irene looked at him worriedly and shook his head. “don’t worry you’re not in trouble. it’s a great essay.” 

irene sagged in relief, “yes sir, i can stay back.” she nodded and he smiled. 

“great.” he said as he straightened up and returned to the front of the classroom. 

>>

the smell of the early morning air was always pleasant and the warm sun on her skin alleviated the looming emptiness inside of her. but the peace and silence on the rooftop was exactly what she needed when she wanted to be alone and be with her thoughts. 

“what are you doing not in class?” a voice sounded behind her and seulgi groaned internally. 

“i could ask the same, choi seyoung.” seulgi replied without turning around. “are you stalking me?” 

the other girl scoffed, stopping when she was standing in line with seulgi near the ledge of the rooftop but neither of them looked at each other and just looked out over the school campus. 

“you protected her.” seyoung stated. 

“i don’t cheat.” seulgi responded. “i don’t frame people for things they aren’t.” 

seyoung shrugged. “i gave you an easy way out, you didn’t take it.” 

seulgi let out a short laugh. “an easy way.” she repeated as her eyes darkened and she turned her head to look at seyoung. “what do you take me for?” 

seyoung looked back at her bravely, “i take you for someone i don’t trust to do this task.” she said. “because you actually like her.” 

there was a beat of silence before seulgi laughed. 

“what are you laughing at?” seyoung asked warily as seulgi continued laughing. 

“do you really think…” seulgi stopped laughing and looked at her with a sharp gaze that had seyoung feeling uneasy. “that you would know me better than i myself?” 

“i-”

“if i can’t convince even you that i like her, how am i meant to convince her that i like her?” seulgi asked. “don’t be so confident in yourself, seyoung. you don’t know the first thing about me.” she turned back to look in front of her, keeping her chin up. 

seyoung was lost for words, face growing hot with humiliation and she didn’t have the words to retort. 

“fine. if you really don’t have feelings for her, then i expect some results soon.” seyoung said. 

seulgi stretched her arms high over her head, yawning. 

“in time, seyoung, in time.” she said. “be patient.” she smirked. 

seyoung felt her phone buzz in her blazer pocket and she reached to pull out her phone, seeing a text from an unknown sender. she glanced at seulgi warily, who was looking unfazed and distracted by the view before unlocking her phone to see a message containing a folder. she opened the folder and a long list of files were displayed, some of them videos and some appearing to be screenshots of texts. 

seyoung opened one image and already knew what the content of the rest of the folder would be. 

“you work fast.” she said, looking up at seulgi. the sound of police sirens in the distance grew closer. 

“not my proudest work. lacking creativity these days.” seu