That weekend, Seulgi showed up at Irene’s front door at seven am.

“Good morning, neighbour!” the bear said brightly, and handed the tiny, grumpy woman, who was rocking mussed up hair and was rubbing the sleep from her eyes, a bottle of apple juice. The fancy, overpriced, not-from-concentrate kind, made from apples that were blessed with baby unicorn giggles and the first seven hiccups of a newborn panda, who-knows-why-this-is-important-it’s-apple-juice, what was Seulgi trying to prove, hmmn? “I know you don’t like coffee but that should wake you up,” she said, again flashing Irene her most dazzling smile, like she had woken up with the happiest of sunbeams. 

Irene wanted to slam the door on her ridiculous friend. “Mom, it’s a Saturday, let me sleep,” she said groggily. 

“I just wanted to ask if you wanted to maybe go for a run with me?” Seulgi asked, running her fingers through her hair, a move that was so y it should be illegal. 

Irene stared, bewildered at Seulgi, for a whole minute, again contemplating slamming the door on this strange, y creature. “A run? Wait, you woke me up at seven on a Saturday to make me run?? The closest I’ve ever gotten to something like that is trying to brisk walk away from a territorial raccoon, and even then, the most I could muster was an aggressive waddle.”

Seulgi laughed good-naturedly. “You hanging out today with Wendy?”

Irene yawned. “Yeah, last weekend we were at her place, this weekend she’s coming over.” 

“Oh wow, weekend buddies. Okay, well, I won’t keep you. Go back to sleep and have a good day,” Seulgi said, with a playful nudge to the half asleep bunny.

“Thanks, weirdo, and thanks for this,” Irene said, holding up the bottle of juice, and then poking Seulgi’s stomach with it. “Enjoy your run if that is a thing that happens, cute, ing weirdo.” 

*

That afternoon:

“Wendy?”

“Yeah?”

“I think you’re super cute…”

“Oh, thank you.”

“But what the are we listening to?”

Wendy had come bearing homemade churros and Spanish hot chocolate, and was now puttering around Irene’s kitchen, making paella and garlic prawns, while Irene was lounging brattily on the couch with a bottle of wine. 

“You’re not into it?” Wendy laughed. 

“It’s weird!” 

“Sure, but it’s good, right?”

Irene grimaced. “It’s weird. It’s gonna give me nightmares.”

“Whaaat? It’s really awesome music! Miracle Musical!”

Irene made another face. “It has a very unsettling quality to it, like a dream. Y’know, ‘cause even if it’s a good dream, there’s always something off about it, like Alice in Wonderland.”

“Okay, point taken, but Alice in Wonderland is not a good dream either, it’s a harrowing acid trip.”

“You could be a sweet dream or a beautiful nightmare,” Irene crooned as she hopped over to Wendy to kiss her cheek. “Gimme a taste.”

Wendy smiled as she scooped up a bit of rice and chorizo onto a wooden spatula, blowing softly on it to cool it before moving it towards Irene, who happily ate it. 

“Mmm, omg, this is amazing!” Irene gushed, eyes widening. 

Wendy grinned. “Yeah?"

Irene nodded eagerly, still chewing.

"I’m so happy you like it,” Wendy said, putting down the spatula. She took Irene’s hand in hers and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close, and carefully but sure-footedly guided her into a box step before spinning and dipping her. 

Irene shrieked in surprise, and then giggled. “You’re cute but this music is still nightmarish and not y,” she said, but continued to foxtrot around the room with Wendy, all smiles. 

“What is y music to you then?” Wendy asked, as Irene freed her hand from the other woman’s grasp to hug her neck. They now started slow-dancing. 

“Bone Thugs-N-Harmony,” Irene replied without a hint of irony, making Wendy laugh. “What? They’re super y! I used to make out with this really cute girl in high school-“ 

“I hope you were in high school too,” Wendy teased, making Irene pinch her side. 

“Yeah, yeah with the cradle robbing jokes, but seriously, I used to make out with this girl in her car to Bone Thugs. Good times, but she turned out to be straight.”

Wendy laughed. “Did you turn a lesbian straight?!” she asked incredulously.

“No! She was always straight! I was just too pretty not to make out with,” Irene said with a hairflip.

“I can’t argue with that,” Wendy said earnestly, making Irene blush a little. “But should I be offended that you’re thinking of someone else while you’re on a date with me?”

“Ohgosh no, this girl was so dreamy, you should be flattered!”

*

Seulgi suppressed all her instincts, and tried to respectfully give Wendy and Irene space, and avoid bothering her neighbour that day. She really, really, really tried. 

But the universe decided that this was the day that Seulgi, the noob who lived off air fryer chicken nuggets and microwaved convenience store prepared food section offerings, would attempt to scallop potatoes and e