Seulgi shifted in bed, her eyes bleary with sleep. She found herself awake at a time she usually never even thought about. Daring a glance at the clock, she didn’t like the number she saw staring back at her. A delicious smell and rustling in the kitchen was what woke her up, so even though her only schedule didn’t start until 1:00 in the afternoon, and though she really wanted to go back to sleep, she rolled out of bed, slipped on a pair of shorts, and went to investigate the already known culprit making the racket.

Standing in front of the oven, Wendy hummed to herself, unaware that a certain someone was watching her from not too far away, “Wendy,” Seulgi said, with raspy voice. Wendy startled at the sound of her name but turned around smiling only to see a dreary, sleepy, cute bear in front of her.

“Did I wake you up?” Wendy asked, “I really tried not to make too much noise.”

“Yes, you did,” Seulgi whispered, “But it smells great in here, so it doesn’t matter, what are you making?” Seulgi walked to the kitchen island and leaned against it.

“I-I wanted to surprise you with cinnamon rolls, but looks like the surprise is ruined. I have to leave soon, for work, but I wanted to make sure you had something for breakfast. I was going to write you a cute note and everything,” Wendy said, disappointed.

Seulgi smiled, “I almost forgot how much you love to bake.”

“I didn’t forget how much you love to sleep,” Wendy said, “Sorry.”

Seulgi walked closer, close enough to reach for Wendy’s hand, “Don’t worry, once you’re gone I’ll go back to sleep. When I come back out, I’ll pretend that this never happened.”

“You just want the cute not, am I right?”

“Yeah,” Seulgi said, “I really want that note. I’m kind of glad you woke me up though, I won’t be able to see you when you get home this afternoon.”

“Oh, will you be busy?”

“Yeah,” Seulgi replied, “I’ll be downstairs in the studio for a few hours. I have a magazine shoot to do, and they want to do it here.”

“Oh, that sounds exciting. I’d love to see the studio sometime,” Wendy said. She wriggled her hand, “Let me check the rolls.”

Seulgi let go of Wendy’s hand so she could open the oven and thought for a moment, “If you want to stop by you can, I mean if you want to see the studio.”

Wendy closed the oven half-way and searched for the oven mitt on the counter, “I’d like to stop by, but won’t that bother you?”

“Of course it won’t, I want you to see what I do.”

“Okay,” Wendy said, “I’ll drop off my stuff here and go down to the studio floor when I get home,” She turned back to the oven and pulled out the tray, “Done.”

“They smell so good, really,” Seulgi said, then yawned.

“Go back to bed, I’ll finish these after I change for work. Just need to put the icing on them.”

“But I can help you if you need me.”

“Go sleep, Seul. When you wake up, you can eat the finished product.”

Seulgi laughed lightly and grabbed Wendy’s mitted hand, “Okay, thanks for making them, you went out this morning and got some groceries, right?”

Wendy nodded.

“Let me go with you next time, I want to watch you shop,” Seulgi said.

Wendy chuckled, “We’ll go back to the store on Sunday and pick out some food for next week.”

“Good. Thanks for making these, I know they’ll be amazing.

“No problem.”

I’ll see you when you get back home this afternoon, okay? After the shoot, I’m all yours.”

“Thanks,” Wendy said, taking off the mitt. She leaned in and kissed Seulgi’s cheek.

“For?” Seulgi blushed.

“For calling this my home, enjoy these,” Wendy pointed to the rolls then walked away, “See you later.”

Seulgi yawned again and watched as Wendy left her alone in the kitchen. Once she was safely in her room, Seulgi turned to the cinnamon rolls and spoke , “See you guys later, I know you’ll be delicious once Wendy is finished with you,” She waved to them and left the kitchen, thinking of beautiful Wendy, and the beautiful cinnamon rolls.

===

After work, Wendy found herself nervous as she rode the service elevator up to the studio floor. She was ready to see Seulgi again after her own tough day at work, but knew she would need to stay in the background until the shoot was finished and Seulgi was done working. In any case, despite the nerves, she looked forward to seeing Seulgi in action again. With camera in hand, Seulgi morphed from a kind and laidback kid into a woman confident and competent with her skills.

When the elevator stopped and the door slid open, Wendy’s ears were greeted with the loud sounds of guitar and drums, the rock music Seulgi loved most, and the rumbling voices of people at work. Turning the corner from the hall she opened another door and entered the studio. The music banged louder, and a sudden flash of light startled Wendy’s eyes.

Then she heard a voice speak, “Who are you?” A young woman asked through the roar of a guitar solo.

Still recovering from the daze of the flashing light, Wendy tried to speak, “I’m here to meet—“

“—Only magazine employees and studio employees are supposed to be in here now. You don’t seem to have credentials,” the young lady said shyly, as though she had memorized what to say.

“No, I don’t,” Wendy looked around and finally spotted her friend, “But I’m with her.” She said over the banging of drums, pointing to Seulgi who seemed to be busy instructing a pair of models for the next shot.

“Let me get my manager and see what to do,” The young worker walked away and came back with a much older woman.

“Are you trying to sneak in, Miss?” The older woman asked.

“No, of course not, I live in this building.”

“Are you sure?” She asked, doubting Wendy’s words.

“Yes I’m here to meet with—“ Wendy couldn’t seem to get a word in edgewise, and found herself being pushed out by the overzealous older worker.

The woman opened the door that led back into the hall, clearly asking for Wendy to leave. The younger of the two looked at her with sad eyes, unable to help. Upset but not wanting to cause an interruption in the studio, Wendy was about to walk out when she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

“Wendy-ah, what’s wrong?”

Wendy turned and saw Seulgi walking their way, with a very attractive but puzzled look on her face.

The older manager looked confused as Seulgi walked straight up to Wendy and grabbed her hand.

“Hey, I just saw you come in, why are you leaving?”

“I-I was getting kicked out,” Wendy stuttered quietly, feeling tears forming, she didn’t let them out, not wanting to cause a scene.

“What?” Seulgi asked, looking at Wendy trying hard not to be upset, she turned to the woman, “Did you ask her to leave? She’s my guest.”

The manager blushed realizing she’d made a huge mistake, “Miss Kang, I’m afraid I did ask her to leave. I didn’t know your friend was allowed in without credentials. She doesn’t seem to have any with her.”

Seulgi held Wendy’s hand tighter, “You should have asked me first, I told everyone that I had a special person coming, she will never need a credential to step foot in this studio, did you not know?”

“No, I wasn’t aware,” The woman then looked to Wendy and apologized. Wendy nodded and used her free hand to wipe the spare tears away that had snuck through.

Seulgi called one of her assistants over and described the situation, “I need ten minutes,”  Seulgi said to her, “Tell everyone to relax for a while,” Seulgi looked at the older of the two magazine workers who still stood in front of them, “I really thought you knew my friend was coming today.”

“I apologize again, this won’t happen anymore. I’ll get someone else for the door.” She bowed then walked away in a huff, and went searching for a replacement to guard the door.

Wendy watched as the younger girl blanched, knowing she was in big trouble. Realizing she was just trying to do her job, Wendy spoke gently to her, “I know you didn’t mean to offend Miss Kang or I. Someone, namely that manager that just left us, put you here at the door to make sure no one could sneak in. You were just trying to follow orders, and besides, it wasn’t you who wanted to kick me out, anyway.” The young lady nodded.

“It wasn’t her fault, Seul,” Wendy whispered.

Seulgi smiled wryly and spoke to the young girl, “Are you interning for the magazine?”

She nodded.

“Luckily, Miss Son here is pretty forgiving, and so am I. Sometimes when you’re working your way up, you get the grunt work, and all the blame, even if you didn’t create the problem. What do you want to do after this internship?”

“Maybe….go into design? But I’m still in school.”

“They’re not letting you design at the magazine?” Seulgi asked, baffled.

“No,” the young lady whispered, “I’ve—“ she hesitated to speak.

“You can tell Miss Kang,” Wendy said.

“They won’t let me near a computer or camera or anything. I’ve been working underneath, Manager-nim for two months now. They told me I need more experience but they—”

“They won’t let you do anything…how old are you?”  Seulgi asked.

“19, I take my other classes in the morning, and work on design at night plus other assignments.”

“How much longer is the internship?”  Wendy asked.

“Another month, since it’s summer classes,” she answered.

“Once you’re done at the magazine, come back here, and I’ll help you find something for next semester, alright? I know some good graphic designers. Maybe you can even help me. Stop by sometime soon with your portfolio and I’ll see what you’ve done. You have a portfolio, right?”

The young lady nodded, and bowed, “Thank you, Miss Kang, thank you, thank you.”

Seulgi smiled, and waved her assistant back over to them, “Go with my assistant, she’ll help you find something to do for the rest of the day. She’ll give you my information too, okay? Give me a call when you want to stop by, and we’ll work out a time, alright?”

The young girl seemed delighted at the prospects she’d just been given.

Seulgi’s assistant smiled at the young girl, then looked at Wendy, “I’m Joy, sorry about this. I should have done something before it got out of hand.” The two shook hands.

Wendy smiled back and waved it off, “I’ll be alright.”

“Come on kid,” Joy said, let’s find something for you to do.”

“Thank you again Miss Kang, I’ll work hard,” the young lady bowed and walked away with Joy.

===

Seulgi waited a moment, taking a deep breath.

“That was sweet,” Wendy said.

“Sometimes we all need a chance to prove ourselves.”

The moment over, Seulgi led Wendy back into the studio where everyone was hanging out, “Cut the music,” Seulgi shouted.

The music stopped.

“I want to introduce everyone to Wendy, she can show up here anytime she wants to be here, got it? She doesn’t need credentials or official papers, or a passport, or an I.D.”

Seulgi’s employees smiled, “Got it boss!”

The older manager from the magazine looked miffed but could only nod her head in agreement, she would only be working here today anyway, so Seulgi was unfazed by her expression.

“Let’s go to the lounge for a minute and talk,” Seulgi whispered to Wendy.

===

Seulgi led Wendy to the lounge room—a place where Seulgi liked to edit photos and relax during shoots—and sat down with Wendy on one of the comfortable couches.

“I’m so sorry about that, I can’t believe that woman did that to you,” She still held Wendy’s hand.

Wendy smiled then, seeing the adorable look on Seulgi face, “Don’t worry, even that woman was trying to protect the shoot…I think. She must have thought I would spill secrets from the set.”

“She did that at your expense,” Seulgi whispered.

“It’s okay, I had hoped I could sneak in and stay at the back, but that poor kid caught me as soon as I walked in. What you said to that girl and offered her was really awesome by the way. She looked so nervous when she went to get the manager. She clearly just wants to work hard and hasn’t been given a fair shot.”

“It’s not alright, what happened to you,” Seulgi said, rubbing Wendy’s thumb with her own, “And that girl was about to be in trouble as well even though it wasn’t her fault. The blame would have been on her. I know how hard it is to work for someone like that. I wish there was something I could do about the manager, but since she works for the magazine there’s not much I can do about it. Maybe I’ll have a word with the editor when we meet to pick photos, or maybe—” Seulgi rambled on and on about the woman for a while until Wendy interrupted her.

“Seulgi-ah,” Wendy leaned in and kissed Seulgi’s cheek like she had in the morning, “How were the cinnamon rolls?” She tried to distract Seulgi from thinking about what had happened.

“Delicious,” Seulgi smiled, “I’m rambling, I’ll stop now.”

“Good, when we leave the lounge, I’m going to go to the back of the studio and watch you work, then later, we’ll go upstairs together, and I’ll cook dinner, okay?”

“Okay, but I really am sorry. You’re important to me, and I want them to know.”

“Thanks for helping me, and that girl.”

“You come first, it’s my job to help you,” Seulgi said.

===

After the shoot, after everyone had gone, after Seulgi gave Wendy a tour of the studio, and after they rode the elevator up to the apartment, hand in hand, Wendy and Seulgi found themselves in the kitchen. Wendy cooking, and Seulgi watching her.

“You were so cool today,” Wendy said, “So intense and focused when you were shooting.”

“Sometimes I think I’m a completely different person when I shoot. Often, only after I look back at my shots can I remember the shoot in its entirety.”

“You looked so engrossed. I’m glad I got to see you working like that. You really did seem different, it was y!”

Seulgi’s eyes lit up, “Really?”

“Really!” Wendy said as she checked the rice, chicken, and vegetables she was cooking for a stir fry, “I don’t think I was the only person that thought so though. Other….people from the magazine were staring at you too, and making comments from what I could hear.”

“I don’t care about anyone else or how they look at me. You’re the only person that matters to me.” Seulgi stood up from the bar seat and went to hug Wendy from behind as she cooked.

Wendy smiled, not used to the skinship, “It’s the same for me,” she whispered.

“Good, and also forget about the other mess from today, I won’t let it happen again. I still can’t believe that woman…”

“It’s not your fault, it’s already forgotten,” Wendy said.

“Cool, you haven’t changed, you’re quick to forgive and so gentle with people. I love that about you,” Seulgi used her fingertips to brush up and down Wendy’s arms.

Wendy could feel goose bumps forming, and the hair on her arms standing up at the sensation of Seulgi’s fingertips, she felt herself reddening and sighed, content.

Seulgi leaned in, her head in the crook of Wendy’s neck, she whispered in her ear, “After dinner we need to…take care…of something…..there are still some cinnamon rolls left, can we have those for dessert?” Seulgi asked in mock innocence, knowing what she had done to Wendy.

“Too good, too pure,” Wendy murmured in English, her ears sensitive to Seulgi’s whisper.

“What?” Seulgi asked, smiling.

“Nothing, of course we can finish the cinnamon rolls."

===

Thanks for checking out the first chapter and for subsribing. Let me know what you think of this chapter too! I really appreciate feedback. Be back soon with chapter three.