Seulgi's reply isn't what Wendy was expecting. She had expected her to text her back with affirmation as soon as she had received the message and not take all night to reply, much less be rejected. And now, she certainly wasn't expecting the girl to be at their house this morning, dressed prettily, like she was going somewhere. It annoys Wendy to see her like that because she had turned her down just yesterday and here she was, looking ready for a date. Is she playing a joke on her?

Seulgi, on the other hand, feels awkward and uncomfortable, shifting her position on the couch every now and then. Like Wendy, there are things that are happening that she wasn't expecting. For one, she wasn't expecting Wendy to be at home. She was quite sure she heard Yeri say that Wendy wasn't around when she ran into her earlier. She's scared as now because Wendy is giving her a weird look and she has no idea what to say to her. How will she take it if she finds out that the reason she turned her down was because she has a date with Irene? 

The door to the maknaes' room opens and Joy marches right through it, notices the two in the living room - Seulgi avoiding Wendy's gaze and Wendy looking hard at her like she's boring holes in her skull.

This can't be.

She clears and approaches Wendy, casually throwing an arm over her shoulder.

"Oh, my dear unnie, it's quite a lovely day today, isn't it?" Joy starts, trying to divert Wendy's attention. "Should we go out and exercise? It's a good day for a run, huh?" 

Wendy just moves out of the tall girl's reach, making it quite clear that she's not interested in anything Joy has to say.

"Ey, unnie. Exercise is good for you! Let's go! C'mon!" Joy pulls at her hand, hurries because she thinks she heard Irene's bedroom door open.

"Oh, Seulgi!" Too late. Joy's plan to keep Wendy in the dark has failed. Irene has already come down the stairs and is talking up Seulgi who seems very much attentive now as compared to earlier.

"Did you wait long? Sorry. I'm just... nervous. A little." Irene says, tries to laugh it off.

"It's okay, unnie. You look pretty... by the way. You always do. S-shall we go?" She stutters.

"Go? Go where?" Wendy finally speaks up, takes a step towards the other two girls. Joy catches her by the elbow and holds her in place.

"Oh, um, Seulgi didn't tell you? We have a date today." Irene replies, side eyes her.

Stone cold. Joy feels goosebumps crawl up her arms and she almost shivers. She's known Irene for so long but because she's their kid leader, she's forgotten how much of an ice princess she can be. She feels sorry for Wendy. Even more so when Seulgi didn't even say anything to Wendy when she was looking at her desperately for confirmation. 

This is bad, really bad.

--

"Are you sure you're fine taking public transport?" Seulgi whispers to Irene, her eyebrows knotted together, an indication of just how worried she is for her. Irene only smiles at her behind the face mask she's wearing, pulls at her hand.

"I'm totally fine, Seulgi. Stop asking that every two minutes." Irene replies. Seulgi sighs, pulls the hood of Irene's jacket more securely on her head. 

"Okay."

Their bus pulls over at a stop and a bunch of people board, filling the already full bus with more passengers, how that was possible, nobody knew. Seulgi and Irene aren't left with any choice but to be sandwiched together at the very back.

Seulgi's mind has gone completely blank as she tries to make some space between the two of them because she doesn't want to, never wants to, make Irene feel uncomfortable but her efforts are futile - she's pretty much hugging her. And when the bus skids to a sudden stop, she has to wrap her arms around the shorter girl for support to keep herself from falling over.

She hears a giggle and forgets everything else, everyone else around her except for this girl in front of her, in her arms and whose hands are now gripping the hem of her shirt.

Seulgi's too busy trying to calm her racing heart that she fails to notice that they're at their stop. Irene drags her by the hand, past all the people standing in the aisle so they can get off. And if she's going to be honest, she doesn't mind this, doesn't mind having to ride crowded buses and enduring weekend traffic so she can be with Irene for a day. She's starting to think that she's gone crazy because she likes this and she could get used to it. She shouldn't feel guilty about anything. She really shouldn't.

--

It's a cold day and Seulgi would have preferred to be somewhere warm, maybe a nice cafe, not on an ice skating rink. But Irene looks so excited, so happy at the thought of going skating with her. She couldn't really say no.

She thinks that this is okay. They've already had tea together and had pretty much talked about everything that a first date covers. They should do something fun to bond. 

"Seulgi, hurry up! C'mon!" Seulgi looks up from having just laced up her skates to see Irene jumping up and down. "C'mon, c'mon." She lets herself be dragged towards the rink and hears the most beautiful laughter she's ever heard as Irene starts to glide on the ice. 

She slowly moves toward her, not really trusting her own feet at the moment because her head and heart are elsewhere.

"See? I told you it's fun. And you're not a bad skater at all." Irene comments, skates backward while she talks so she can look at Seulgi. She pulls her face mask down and smiles at Seulgi.

"U-unnie! Don't lower your mask! People might see you!" Seulgi moves forward, attempts to grab Irene's mask to cover her face but Irene catches her hand and laces their fingers together.

"It's fine! How are you going to enjoy our date if you can't see my face, huh?" She takes a deep breath, feels how cold Seulgi's hand is so she wraps it in both of hers.

"U-unnie,"

"Does skinship bother you? I didn't mean to-"

"It's not that! I... it's nothing." Seulgi stammers, hates herself for making the atmosphere awkward. "I thought you said you were a champion skater in Daegu."

"I am."

"Well, show me." Seulgi says. Irene smirks at her.

"I've a better idea. I'll teach you!" She takes both of Seulgi's hands and pulls her along, skating on the ice smoothly. 

Seulgi breathes the air, breathes the sight, breathes everything deeply. She listens to Irene talk, notices how she occassionally stutters on some words and laughs in the middle of her sentences.

"You know what, Seulgi, I'd love to see you perform too."

"You do?" She wasn't sure how they got to the topic.

"Of course! I'm sure that you're good. I've heard you sing before." Irene reveals.

"You have?"

"Yeah, once in the laundry room." Irene looks closely at her. "Is something wrong?"

Seulgi takes a few seconds to think. Can she tell Irene what she feels? Can she tell her just how lost and hopeless she is with her music at the moment? Can she be honest with her?

"No, nothing's wrong. I was just trying to recall if I have any upcoming gigs. I don't think I do. But I'll let you know if something comes up." Seulgi says, laughs to hide her bluff.

"That's good. Can you skate alone with confidence now?" Irene asks, let her go and backs away, laughing.

"Unnie, hey! Don't leave me here." Seulgi protests, seeing that Irene has reached one side of the rink and she's stranded in the middle.

"C'mon. You can do it, Seulgi. Just try not to look at your feet too much." Irene yells at her, laughs at the cute pout on her lips.

She up her courage and counts. 

One, two, three. One, two, three. 

She lets her feet slide in time with her counts, slowly at first then with more confidence after a while. She's a meter away from Irene when something catches her eye. She double takes and out of nowhere, her feet slide from under her and she's falling forwards, crashing into Irene, pinning her down on the ice, and the older girl is laughing again. 

She pushes herself up with her hands, apologizes to Irene over and over before she helps her up. 

"It's okay, Seulgi." Irene says, hand on the younger girl's forearm but she's looking somewhere else. "What are you looking at?" She follows her line of sight and Seulgi starts stammering.

"I thought I saw... Uh... It must have been my imagination. Never mind. Are you alright?" She asks. Irene smiles at her, nods.

"You were doing so well. See? Skating isn't so hard."

"Skating may not be but that ice is. I don't like falling." Seulgi replies, rubs her knees where she put her weight when she fell. Irene giggles, clears before replying.

"You don't? Maybe you should give it a try. I'll always be here to catch you. You know you can fall into me, right?" She covers her face with both of her hands, blushes hard from what she just said.

Seulgi scratches the back of her head, her ears turning red. Irene's advances are really so cute and irresistible but she also can't seem to ignore the fact that she just saw Wendy standing a few feet away from the rink just now. She swears she just saw her. Or maybe it's her conscience getting the best of her. But there's no reason for her to feel guilty about this, right? Does she feel guilty?

--

Target sighted.

"Are you in position?"

"Remind me why we're doing this again?"

"It's to help Wendy unnie get your dumb friend! Stop asking questions."

"But why would I want Wendy to have Seulgi?" Sulli asks, adjusting the bluetooth earpiece she's wearing.

"I thought I told you to stop asking questions? Aish. It's to make her happy! You want that for her, don't you?" Joy says, appealing to Sulli's kind fangirl heart.

"O-of course," Sulli replies.

"Now get right to it!" Joy barks at her through the earpiece.

Sulli shakes her head, wonders why she lets herself be bossed around by Joy who's younger than her but nonetheless does what she's told. She follows the unsuspecting couple without a sound, hiding behind a long piece of cardboard, something that Joy insists would be the best weapon in their arsenal, a standee of no other than Wendy Son herself. It's all starting to feel like it came out of a spy film except that the mission is petty.  

"Listen carefully, unnie. Our plan is to make Seulgi really guilty of her choice to go out with Irene unnie. For rejecting Wendy unnie. So you have to make sure that she sees the standee every now and then. We have to creep her out." Joy laughs at the brilliance of her plan. She can't believe she even got Seulgi's friend to help her.

"Okay, okay. I got it. Leave it to me. Where are you anyway?" Sulli asks, wonders were the mastermind is.

"Somewhere close. Don't worry. I'm watching over you." Joy replies from the other line.

"Yah, don't you think it's unfair that-"

"Duck! She's looking!" Joy warns. 

Sulli drops down to the ground and rolls sideways to hide behind a nearby trash bin, leaving the standee in plain sight. She sneaks a peek at Seulgi, sees that the look on her face - mouth dropped in shock and eyes wide - is priceless. She actually looks like she's seen a ghost.

"Whoa. It actually works." Sulli mutters.

"Irene unnie is about to look. Hide the standee!"

"Done!" Sulli pulls the stand out of sight with subtly so that when Seulgi looks back, it gives off the effect that it vanished into thin air.

"Great job, Sulli unnie! Wah. We make a pretty good team, don't we?" Joy says.

"I guess so." Sulli shrugs.

"Keep on following them all the way to the cafe then find a good spot where you can leave the standee. Just make sure that Seulgi sees it." Joy orders her again.

"I got it." 

--

There's a weird prickly feeling at the back of Seulgi's neck. It's as if she feels like they're being followed. She looks over her shoulder once to check and, holy , Wendy's standing a good five meter distance from them. It takes a her five seconds to realize that it's just a standee and she should feel relieved but she doesn't because she remembers the incident at the skating rink earlier and she knows she's in trouble now.

"What's the matter, Seulgi?" Irene asks. Seulgi looks at her, shakes her head but then looks away again. Irene follows her line of sight, not really sure what she's looking at. "I don't see anything. What are we looking at?"

"It's nothing, unnie. I just thought I saw someone I knew."

"Oh, okay. Shall we get going?" Seulgi just nods, takes Irene's hand and hopes she doesn't notice anything. She looks over her shoulder every now and then and like she fears, Wendy's smiling face looks back at her and it's haunting her. She really shouldn't be feeling guilty about anything but why does she?

----------------------

A/N: Fluffy Seulrene and evil Joy. Seuldy in the next update! Thanks for the upvotes genuineness, sharnlinzi, BOFA9995, qwerty01, and SarahNea_ ! Thanks for reading! And keep the comments coming because it's giving me life. Hope you enjoyed this update! (Word count is above the average of all my updates. LOL)

P.S. prepare for angst. 

- Bluekimchi