Seulgi's feet lands heavy on the porch steps as she staggers slightly because of the guitar case she was carrying on her back. She leans against the door while she searches for her keys in her pockets, struggling with fitting it in the keyhole when she finds it.

The door creaks when she pushes it open. The living room is dark and she wonders if her mom stayed up all night waiting for her or if she even is at home. She pauses at the threshold to take her shoes off, just clumsily dropping it on the floor. She lets the guitar case straps slide past her shoulders and leans the instrument on the wall. She pads through carpeted floors, wincing at the coldness of tiled flooring as she steps into the kitchen, heading for the fridge. She spots a note taped to refrigerator and squints in the dark to read the familiar handwriting.

My dear daughter,

Mom's gone on a skiing holiday with your aunts. I'll be back in three days. I left you some money inside your dresser. Take care! And don't stay out too late.

P.S. The new tenants are moving in this morning. I'm leaving you in-charge of my landlady duties for the time being.

- Umma

Seulgi sighs, crumpling the note and throwing it somewhere over her shoulder. She pulls the fridge door open and grabs her water bottle from inside. She walks back to the living room, turning on the lights as she goes, collapsing on the couch face down. She groans loudly, not sure if she should feel betrayed that she's left alone in the house again or feel grateful for the three days of freedom she's been given. Three days without her mom to nag her about going back to school. Three days without her having to feel guilty for being a burden to her mom for doing what she wants to do. Three days to think things over because she's not really sure of what she wants now.

She sits up and drinks half of what's in her bottle before dropping down on the couch again to look at the ceiling. Her mind wanders off to what the morning will bring, if she'll find that she wants to start making art again, if she'll be able to start writing songs of her own again, or if she'll end up busking on the streets at 2AM because that's all she can do at the moment. She thinks she'll be doing the last and she hates it.

--

"Ah, yes, unnie. We've arrived." The oldest of the four girls said as she walks around the spacious living room of their new dorm, well it's more of a house than a dorm, really. "I think it's so much better than the last one. It's huge and homey!"

"Joohyun unnie!" The second oldest bounces in the room, the maknaes following her closely, dragging suitcases and bags behind them.

Irene puts a hand up to silence the younger ones so she could hear what their manager unnie was saying through the phone.

"No schedules until tomorrow? Oh, I see. Yes, unnie. I'll make sure that they'll all unpack their stuff and rest up. Bye." She ends the call and looks up at her dongsaengs.

"We've no schedules?" Joy asks, a look of excitement in her eyes.

"Yes, but we're using that for unpacking, right, unnie?" Wendy says, stern. Joy pouts at her, mouthing 'kill joy' to Yeri who giggles.

"Wendy's right. C'mon, let's decide on the room assignments." Irene gathers everyone to sit on the couch first before she continues. "So, there are four rooms. Two on the ground floor and two on the second floor."

"I say we let Wendy unnie take one of the rooms upstairs since she was the one who recommended this house to us." Joy suggests.

"And let Irene unnie take the other one upstairs. She's the leader after all." Yeri pipes up, throwing Joy a look only she can understand.

"You two sound a little too eager, don't you?" Irene says, looking at the maknaes suspiciously.

"What? No, we're not. We're just letting you guys have the better rooms. What's wrong with that?" Joy replies, forgetting to use honorifics.

"Oh, is it Yaja time now?" Yeri asks.

"What? No! No one is doing Yaja time." Wendy exclaims, glaring at Joy, beating Irene to it. Joy only sticks her tongue out in reply.

"So is it settled then?" Irene asks, wanting to stop the fight even before it begins. They all nod.

 "Good. I'll be in my room. You go unpack your stuff." She grabs her suitcase and drags it up the stairs, pretending to be deaf to the maknaes plans of a best of four games on that brand new Xbox in the living room because honestly, there isn't anything she can do about them. They're stubborn and pretty much unstoppable.

She's at her door when Wendy pauses at the landing, looking out the huge window to the house next door.

"Wendy?"

"Hmm?"

"Is something wrong? Did you forget to bring something from the old dorm?"

"Uh, no, unnie. I was just... I was just remembering some things." Wendy replies, smiling at her. "You should go in. You're probably tired from the move."

"Hmm, not really. The house is already fully furnished and we didn't have to bring a lot of stuff with us so I'm not tired. I was actually planning on ironing all of my shirts."

Wendy laughs and Irene feels her worries for her member disappear.

"Alright. You better get to it then." Wendy walks to her room and smiles one more time before disappearing behind her door. Irene smiles back and does the same.

--

Seulgi wakes up with her neck aching for sleeping on the hard couch and feeling as dry as sandpaper. She reaches for her water bottle on the coffee table where she placed it last night. Due to her drowsiness, however, she fails to realize that she forgot to replace the cap on it and so, the water she was to drink ends up on her body.

She bolts upright, swearing. She runs to her bedroom and doesn't think twice when she pulls her soaked t-shirt over her head. She ignores the fact that the curtains were drawn because she knows that there isn't anyone staying in that house so she doesn't have to worry about being seen in her underwear by anyone. The said house has been empty for months.

And so Seulgi finds herself paralyzed with shock when she sees a young woman from the house next door, face red and looking right at her. Her brain lags and it takes her a full ten seconds to react and by that time, the girl has pretty much seen everything. She tries to cover up her body but she knows it's too late when another girl appears, sees her, and covers the first girl's eyes, pointing and shouting at Seulgi, outraged, making her feel like she just robbed the first girl of her innocence because she looks like she could be in middle school standing next to the other girl who towered over her.

Seulgi can't be sure of what the other girl's saying to her because her screams were muffled by the walls separating them. She was trying to comprehend what she's saying but it didn't take long for two more girls to appear, both with blonde hair, running into the room and then looking at Seulgi with curious and surprised looks.

For a pregnant moment, not one of the girls or Seulgi  moves. They just all stare at Seulgi for a good minute as if trying to make sense of the sight of her covering her torso with her shirt before one of the blonde girls realizes what she is seeing, blushes and draws the curtains close, leaving a very flustered Seulgi on the other side.

"Umma!!!" Seulgi wails a long and drawn out cry that has birds flying off the treetops.

A/N: Hi there! I'd like to thank everyone for subscribing. Thank you so much! :) I felt really pressured to give you guys a good chaper and I don't know if I did a decent job but please tell me what you guys think so I'd know what you guys would like to read about in the following chapters. Also, let me know if you're on team seuldy or team seulrene. Thanks again for subscribing and for taking the time to read my fic. - Bluekimchi