Irene’s eyelids felt like it was 50kg or something as she struggled to keep them open. She drank the spoonful of soup slowly, fatigue still weighing her arms down. She couldn’t even tell whether the soup was good or not as her taste buds weren’t awake yet, just like her. She looked at the other two across the table who seemed to have no problem enjoying their really early breakfast. Irene definitely wasn’t a morning person, and being up at 7.15am just to have breakfast was killing her. However Wendy and Joy seemed to be just fine with it, digging into their food deliciously. She stifled a yawn. “How the hell are you guys so awake at 7.15?!” The oldest girl grumbled.

“Probably because you are old already.” Joy joked.

Irene shot the youngest girl a death glare and held the fork in a threatening position close to the latter’s face. Wendy laughed. “That’s just cos we have school and we already got used to waking up early.”

“Ah as always, Wendy is the only one who is nice to me. Do you want to date me?” Irene placed her hand on her face while pretending to look at Wendy with a love-struck expression. Joy choked on her soup before wiping roughly on the back of her hands.

“YAH!” The youngest girl exclaimed.

“Aish, you are so dirty.” Irene said, picking up a napkin to help the younger girl wipe , argument already forgotten. Joy smiled at Irene’s gesture and gave her a wink. “Gomawo-yo unnie.”

Wendy shuddered looking at the two interact. It was so painful to sit through all the finger-curling shows of expressions while maintaining a neutral expression. Turning away to avoid looking at the two hormone filled teenagers, she watched as a man approached them with a smirk. The man strangely reminded her of Seulgi, with the small and mono lids eyes. He stopped in front of their table, casting a glance at Joy and Wendy before fixating his attention on Irene.

“Annyeonghaseyo Irene-noona.” He greeted.

Irene’s expression turned grim immediately upon noticing the presence of the guy. “Kang Seungyoon.”

The guy’s smirk grew. “I’m glad to see you too Noona. And I’m glad to see that you have replaced my ugly dongsaeng with these two pretty ladies over here.”

He still managed to look the two up and down even though they were sitting down and Irene was trying to not to punch Seungyoon until the man was disfigured. She didn’t know whether to be angry that he was hitting on her girlfriend (and her best friend’s girlfriend) or that he was insulting her best friend. Throwing a towel napkin over Joy’s exposed thighs; she tried to address him as calmly as she could. “Seulgi is actually sick right now, that’s why she’s not with us. And I didn’t know you care about her so much.”

“Oh rest assured I absolutely do not give a about Kang Seulgi. But I was just thinking if one of your friends would like to go with me to Kang’s Group company function tonight as my partner.” He looked at Joy and Wendy as he would while shopping for clothes.

“And I’m sorry to say that they are both not free tonight. I will be attending the function with her,” Irene said and held up her hand that was entwined with Joy’s under the table, and then pointed at Wendy, “and she will be going with Seulgi.”

Seungyoon laughed, clutching both of his hands on his stomach, unable to stop. Whizzing, he commented while wiping his tears, “I’m sorry, where were my manners?” Smoothing out his suit, he straightened his back. “Well then I guess, see you later? You’d better make sure my precious little sister does come though. I kinda miss her. If she doesn’t, I’m going to invite this lady to go as my partner.” He lifted Wendy’s head up by grabbing her by the chin. “See you tonight, partner.” He snorted, turned around and strutted off.

--

Seulgi was slurping on her congee as she watched Irene rant animatedly about their encounter with her step brother. As usual, Kang Seungyoon was being an and Seulgi didn’t understand why Irene was making a big fuss out of it when she knew he had always been like that. The oldest girl diverted her attention to the youngest girl. “And you! Why are you wearing such short shorts?! It barely covered anything!”

Seulgi finally understood why Irene was pissed as she watched the older girl throw a blanket over the younger’s legs. The story still didn’t seem to interest Seulgi in any way as she continued listening to the oldest girl talk about it, all the while going, ‘Meh, typical Kang Seungyoon.’ in her head. She nodded at the appropriate times, making it look like she was paying attention.

“… and then he said he’s going to the function with Wendy if you are not going.” Irene ranted, Seulgi nodded.

Seulgi’s head shot up. “Wait, what? What did you say?”

She knew exactly what Irene had said but Seulgi just couldn’t help herself from asking. She casted a glance at Wendy, who was twiddling with her shirt’s edges and knew in that instant that it was true. She clenched her fist and slammed it on the table, ignoring the jarring pain it brought. The other three flinched at the sudden outburst from the bear-like girl who had been unexceptionally calm throughout the whole story telling.

“Jungok! Get me the car!”

--

Irene got out of the changing room and saw Seulgi already ready in a high ponytail, a white translucent see-through top and a black tight skirt, pressing her phone furiously. She settled herself down beside the bear-like girl, looking down at herself and the grey checkered dress she had on. “How do I look?”

Seulgi only looked up for a fraction of a second, then turning back to her phone. “Good.”

Another changing room’s door flew open and Joy walked out confidently as if she was a model and was on a runway. Stopping right in front of Irene, she placed one hand on her waist and another on her head. “How do I look?” The youngest asked, asking more of Irene than Seulgi.

Irene’s retort for Seulgi was instantly forgotten as she stared flabbergasted at Joy. The youngest always had on loose tee shirts and exercise shorts that didn’t do justice to her figure. The dress she had on now did, a white blouse underneath and a black sleeveless dress on top, complementing the girl in the right places but still making her look innocent and young.

“You look… amazing…” Irene choked out. Joy giggled and did a little twirl before plopping herself down beside Irene. “Really?”

Irene nodded furiously and Seulgi smirked at the sight. Only Park Sooyoung could melt the usually confident Bae Joohyun into a puddle of goo, like now. The last changing room door opened and Wendy stepped out, small, unconfident steps one at a time. Seulgi looked up and cursed herself inwardly. It seems like it wasn’t only Irene who will be melted into a puddle of goo today. The Canadian girl was in a black dress with sleeves but it was body hugging and ended way too high for Seulgi’s liking (and sanity). Irene and Joy instantly shot compliments at the girl and she gave a small grin before looking at Seulgi expectantly.

Irene nudged her a little too hard at her ribs and she coughed a little. “You… you look great.” Seulgi mumbled and immediately looked anywhere but at the girl. She only wanted to look at Wendy, look at the way her hair flowed down perfectly on one side, look at the way she gave a small but unsure smile, she really wanted to look at the girl, but it was the only goddamn thing her brain didn’t allow her to do as her eyes darted left and right and she was sure her ears were burning red now.

Jungok comes in and announces that their ride is here, just in time to save Seulgi’s .

--

In the car, Seulgi was even more nervous. She was sitting beside Wendy and it took all of Seulgi’s will not to touch the other girl’s legs that seemed to stretch forever. Also, the thought of having to face the annoyingly arrogant Kang Seungyoon and his endless taunting for the whole night didn’t seem like it would be the most fun thing to do. She was supposed to drive them back to the hotel, but she couldn’t, didn’t trust herself to be clear minded enough to drive at this moment in time. Irene and Joy were in another car, heading separately to the hotel. Seulgi suddenly misses Joy’s random blabbering as she tried to ignore the awkward silence in the car.

As they got nearer to the hotel, Seulgi kept drumming her fingers against the hand rest. She hoped Wendy didn’t notice it, but who was she kidding, it’s Wendy we are talking about. Seulgi was startled to feel another hand grab hers, effectively stopping her drumming motion, and then slipping in to entwine their hands. She knew the other girl was waiting, for a confirmation, for a denial, anything but Seulgi just couldn’t bring herself to say anything, so she just stared at their hands that fit so well with each other intensely.

After a few seconds, she could feel Wendy starting to let go of her hand and that was when Seulgi knew she took too long. Hastily gripping onto Wendy’s hand, she made sure she had an iron clad grip so that the other girl couldn’t get out of it. “No,” she said, finally turning to look at Wendy, “please keep holding my hand.”

Seulgi felt like she was five again, desperately holding onto her mother’s hands and asking her mom not to let go, not to leave her alone at the kindergarten, not to leave her somewhere without her. Wendy blushed and it was her turn to avoid the bear-like girl’s gaze. Wendy didn’t reply, but she gave Seulgi’s hand a small squeeze and the latter knew, they both knew that no one is going to let go for the rest of the night. 

A/N: HOW WAS IT GUYS ASDFGHJKL

sorry this took so long i was procrastinating (meh what's new haha)

very slight seuldy scattered throughout the chapter, but better than nothing right? keke

really glad there had been so many seuldy moment recently like did you see the one where they had the meokbang and seuldy were just being so asdfghjkl, fixing each other's hair, laughing at each other, seulgi helping wendy to rub her elbow which she hit against the table... MAN THEY ARE SAILING LIKE A SPEED BOAT AND I LUV IT. 

thanks for all the subs and stuff guys really appreciate it!! (more comments pls!!)