Over a year had passed since Seulgi had moved in with Rosie.

Irene was back where she started: single, curmudgeonly, Netflix and mukbanging by herself on a Friday night. 

Her best friend didn’t live too far away, but life often got in the way of them hanging out. In the beginning, they tried to make time, but were lucky if they saw each other once a week, and then they started hanging out less frequently, resorting to calls and video chats instead, and then it was down to texting random memes, until the last three months, where it had been radio silence. 

Suddenly, Irene’s phone lit up, an obnoxious ringtone going off. 

“Ugh… what do you want?” she groaned when she picked up the call.

“You ungrateful , maybe I shouldn’t tell you the juicy piece of news I have that is extremely relevant to your interests,” Jisoo announced on the other line.

“Whatever it is, I don’t care,” Irene said flatly.

“Oh, believe me, you do,” Jisoo insisted.

“Can you just tell me? I don’t have time for this,” the older Bae said impatiently.

“I’m sorry, am I interrupting your hectic evening of impersonating a root vegetable waiting to be julienned into deliciousness on your couch?” 

“That... sounds ual and inappropriate.”

“I called you a potato. Even your brain is slow tonight.” 

Irene was so disinterested she just grunted in response.

“Say I’m the best sister in the world,” her dongsaeng needled. 

“Chu, I gave you back Mr. Snuggles out of the kindness of my heart. I’m the best sister in the world.”

“Okay, reparations are not kindness, but I’ll agree to disagree just because you did return my love to me. So… guess who I ran into today?”

“Do you really think I’m going to guess?”

“This is why we call you Nofunrene behind your back.”

“You call me that to my face. I’m gonna hang up now.”

“Jennie Kim! I ran into Jennie Kim.”

Silence.

“Is she still hot? Why the hell would I care that you ran into Jennie Kim? I haven’t seen her in two decades. , I’m old.”

“First of all, yes you are. Second, she very recently got married, and introduced me to her wife.”

“Again, why would I care?”

“Joohyun, it’s Rosie. She’s married to Rosie.”

Silence again.

“Okay, I’m confused.”

“Yeah, ya stupid ! In your face! I’m not random at all! Jennie Kim is married to your teddy bear’s apparently ex-girlfriend!”

“Jesus Christ! When did this happen? I had dinner with them just…” Irene paused to do math in her head. “They took me out to dinner for my birthday… five months ago?”

“Okay, listen, so Rosie was super embarrassed that they ran into me, and ended up kind of defensively explaining. So apparently, Jennie was the Notoriou.G before Seulgi. Y'know, the one who went into an emotional tailspin, and ran off to be a monk or something? They were engaged and everything, and were apparently together for years.”

“So that's why Rosie kept Seul at arm’s length for such a long time…”

“Did she actually keep Seulgi at arm’s length?”

“Well, it took them a long time to finally have .”

Jisoo snorted. “Okay, you mean literal arm’s length. You do realize people don’t need to to form emotional connections, right?”

“Ugh, spare me the lecture, Jisoo. You know what I mean!”

“Well, anyway, the first second Jendeuk got back to Seoul, Rosie left the bear and ran off with her.”

“I’m sure Jennie appreciated you calling her by her childhood nickname.”

“She deserves it for all the times she tried to marry me when we were kids,” Jisoo huffed.

“Holy, is Seulgi okay?”

“I don’t know. Shouldn’t you know? You’re her best friend. Apparently, she took off right after the breakup, and Rosie hasn’t heard from since. Man, apparently you and the blonde chipmunk have the same taste in women,” Jisoo cackled. 

*

Knock knock.

“Did someone order Chinese food?” Seulgi said with a smirk when Irene opened the door.

“Seulgi!” Irene threw her arms around the bear. “You fell off the face of the earth! Wait… did you actually bring Chinese food?”

“Yeah, weirdo," Seulgi said, holding up the bag. "The first time we met you were so disappointed that I didn’t have Chinese food on me, so this time I came prepared,” the younger teased. “You never know when a hot girl is gonna want Chinese food from you."

"Seul, it's almost midnight. It's way past dinner time."

"Can I come in?” the bear said sheepishly.

“Ugh, like you have to ask,” Irene pulls her inside and they sat on the couch. Irene fought the urge to accusingly pummel the bear for disappearing without a word, because she was more concerned for her friend, and also wanted answers. “Hey… what’s going on, Seul? You just… poof, vanished into thin air.”

“Yeah, I um… I’m sorry I did that…” Seulgi scratched her head awkwardly.

“I mean, Jisoo had just told me about um… Rosie, although I still don’t quite understand what happened. This whole time I just thought you were really busy, y’know? I thought things were going really well with you two… where are you even living now?” 

Seulgi took a deep breath. “I moved back to Ansan just for a bit, so I'm currently living with the folks. I also did a little bit of travelling to clear my head… Y'know, things were actually going really well with me and Rosie until they suddenly weren’t…”

“Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve been there for you. I should’ve been there for you! I thought I was your best friend,” Irene frowned.

“Joohyunah…” Seulgi said gently. “Of course, you’re my best friend. But I couldn’t do that to you. I couldn’t run to you for that kind of emotional support. Not after… things were just… I hurt you.”

Irene narrowed her eyes at the bear, grabbed the fleshy part of the younger’s arm and pinched, making Seulgi howl like an anguished husky. “You feel that, you idiot? That’s me hurting you! You didn’t hurt me. You made a choice that for me, but I would never hold that against you! Do you think I’m that petty and vindictive?” Irene demanded, not letting go of her death grip.

“Owwww, no ma’am, you’re the most forgiving, understanding person ever… let go juseyo!!!!” 

Irene laughed cruelly as she released Seulgi, who had tears in her eyes, and was whimpering and rubbing her arm. 

“Mianhae, mianhae,” Irene relented, taking Seulgi’s arm and leaning to plant a soft kiss on the bright red spot where she had pinched her friend. 

The bear was now blushing furiously. 

“I just… I want you to be happy,” Irene said quietly. 

“And I just… well… I mean… okay, let me tell you what happened,” Seulgi started. “So about... four months ago, Rosie’s ex showed up out of nowhere-“

“Yeah, Jisoo told me that part. Apparently, I went to high school with her.”

“Oh, no ? With Jennie?” 

Irene nodded. 

“Anyway, Rosie was a mess. She wouldn’t stop crying for a whole month. Y’know, she would just randomly breakdown over everything. I knew I couldn’t make her happy anymore, and she felt so guilty, like she didn’t want to hurt me, but I knew she wasn’t even close to being over Jennie. I mean, I knew when we got together that she wasn’t over her. It was probably partly why we got along so well. Y’know, neither of us pressured the other for more than what we could give, because we were both… hung up on someone else-“

“You were seriously still hung up on Tzuyu? That was a billion years ago.”

Seulgi stared at Irene like she was stupid. “Joohyun,” she said pointedly.

“Oh,” Irene said, turning bright red. 

“Anyway, when Rosie and I broke up, I found myself devastated, just… not about her. I was just constantly thinking about… you, so I… just took off.”

“But… I don’t get it, Seul. You could’ve talked to me. Why didn’t you come see me? You ignored all my texts and calls.”

“I was a wreck, Hyun. I had to sort through my feelings, I had to sort through everything that happened. I mean, I was homeless at this point. I felt so stupid and I had so much resentment. I didn’t want to hate Rosie, because on the one hand, you can’t help who you love, right? Feelings have a mind of their own. And she didn’t technically leave me for Jennie, she just fell apart and couldn't pull herself together and I let her go so she could try to be happy. But on the other hand, I ing… chose her. Despite my feelings for… I’m so ing stupid.”

“Hey, don’t do that. Don’t be that way, bear,” Irene said, her cheek. “You were happy with Rosie. You said so. Maybe it didn’t work out in the end, but it was good when it was good. It wasn’t a stupid choice.” 

“Joohyun, it was a stupid choice,” Seulgi said, her voice cracking.

“Hey, no,” Irene wrapped her arms around her friend, who snuggled into her embrace.

“That’s why I ran away, Hyun. I couldn’t stand the thought that I had missed my shot with you…”

“Seulgi,” Irene broke off the hug to look at the bear. “I didn’t go anywhere.”

“Well, yeah, you’re right here. You’