"Noodles."

"Noodles?" Seulgi repeats with her eyebrows raised.

"Why? Don't you like noodles?" Irene pouts, looking incredibly adorable as she crosses her arms over her chest.

"No, unnie! I'm just surprised that you and I have the same cravings!" Seulgi says, laughs, feels like she wants to put the older girl in her pocket right now.

Wow.

Even their cravings are the same. Irene takes that as a good sign. She smiles as she links arms with Seulgi.

"Let's go?" She says, starts pulling her to the direction of the noodle restaurant she likes. Seulgi doesn't object.

She watches her while they walk, looking for any signs of left over outbursts from yesterday's drama. She's just about to breathe a sigh of relief when she finds none but ends tensing up because Irene catches her watching.

How cute.

Irene bites her lip, fails to hide her smile. She's off to a good start. Things will go well today, she can feel it.

They reach the restaurant and order in a flash. Irene starts feeling a little nervous. She knows she has to up her game if she wants to keep up with the competition. She's gonna have to know Seulgi better. Now.

"Why did you order beef ramen?" 

Really, Joohyun? She wants to hit herself for such a lame opening question but she decides against it because she has to keep her cool.

"I don't know. I just feel like eating it at the moment. What about you? Why did you order seafood ramen?" Seulgi asks, looking a bit enthusiastic. Another good sign.

"Same. I guess." She laughs awkwardly, plays with her chopsticks as she thinks of another question.

"You're a student, aren't you? What's your major?" Irene asks, suddenly remembering her first meeting with Seulgi. 

"I'm an art major. Kinda boring."

"Why is it boring?"

"It just is. My friend, Soojung, majors in music and my other friend, Sulli, majors in film. They're doing much more interesting stuff than me at the moment." Seulgi replies, her face getting all stony.

Irene knows she's touching a nerve there and she wonders if she should push it, get Seulgi to open up.

"You said you weren't in school now?" She risks it, wants to know what's bothering her because she cares about her.

"Yeah." Seulgi says. "What about you?" 

"Me?" Irene looks back at her with wide eyes, not sure if Seulgi's asking about her schooling or what not.

"Yeah. Can't we talk about you? I wanna hear things about you, unnie." Seulgi leans forward, face on her palms as she props her elbows on the table, grins widely like the cute teddy bear she is.

The sudden aegyo catches Irene off guard and she spits whatever is on the forefront of her mind. 

Within five minutes, they've covered a brief story about her high school years and how she got to Seoul from Daegu. She thinks of telling her a story about taking the achievement exam for seniors and how there were many people who came to see her just because she was pretty but realization suddenly hits her.

Seulgi is the first person to ever ask her to talk about herself in that way. And it's not just today. It happened before with her too, the first time they talked, when she first realized she was crushing on her.

It doesn't take her long to figure out the answer as to why this fact makes her heart do somersaults in her chest. It's easy and oh so endearing. And it makes her want to kiss Seulgi right then and there.

Unlike all those people, Seulgi sees past her facade. She doesn't see her as just a pretty girl to be admired and worshipped and sought after just for her looks. She knows there's more beyond that smiling face, so much more. She didn't put her in a pedestal like everybody did, instead she saw her as a person with feelings and dreams and fears, a person who needs someone to talk to despite her being shy and quiet.

Seulgi's looking at her in a way no one else had. It stirs something inside of her, makes her feel so important, so alive. It all feels good and she doesn't want it to disappear.

"Seulgi, what is Wendy to you?" She catches herself asking.

"Seungwan? She's my best friend. Well, childhood best friend because Soojung is my best friend now and-"

"Just that?" She doesn't let her finish.

"Yeah. I mean, we've been apart for fifteen years and that's a really long time." She starts getting hopeful, smiles at Seulgi.

"I see." She mumbles.

"But even if we were, I still care about her. She pretty much kept me alive all these years." Seulgi says.

"She did?" She can feel that hope wavering.

"Up to some extent, I guess."  Seulgi shrugs. "I really looked forward to seeing her again." Her eyebrows knot together in confusion, as if she doesn't find the statement true anymore.

Irene takes that as a good sign. She now knows she has a chance. She swears that she won't let it go to waste. She's going to fight for Seulgi because she knows that she'll be worth it.

--

"Unnie, from this point on, you're not only fighting for Seulgi anymore. You're supposed to fight for her friends' vote as well."

Irene hears Yeri's voice loud and clear in her head. It's scaring her, to be honest, but she keeps her calm. She walks up the alley with her ball of choice. She hears Seulgi and Sulli cheer for her as she makes the play, doesn't miss Soojung telling off the latter for cheering for the opposing team.

It's a two versus two friendly match between her and Seulgi and Soojung and Sulli in bowling. 

Under normal circumstances, she would say no to Seulgi's suggestion of meeting her friends but it was a perfect opportunity to 'win their votes', as Yeri puts it. Needless to say, Yeri gave her another pep talk last night.

"Why would I want to win their votes? I'm not running for president."

"Yes, that's true. But you're running for her heart, aren't you? You have to get on her friends' good side because they all have a say on who she dates!" Yeri explains.

"Friends' opinions matter the most when it comes to dating. Everybody knows that, unnie!"

She doesn't know. So, she kept shut because she didn't want Yeri laughing at her. 

And so, here she is now, jumping up and down at her score of spare. 

"Waaah. Unnie, you're so cool!" Seulgi says to her, hi-fives her when she's close enough.

Irene smiles, takes the seat next to her. Both Sulli and Soojung praise her for her score and everything feels in place for some reason. She's glad that she took Yeri's advace, again. She should buy her some bread.

She feels Seulgi's hand find hers under the table and the girl smiles at her shyly.

"Thanks for agreeing to meet my friends, unnie." Seulgi whispers as Soojung stands up for her turn.

"I'm the one who should be thanking you. They're really great people." Irene whispers back. She turns to Sulli who's watching their interaction at the corner of her eye.

"Are you good at bowling, Sulli?"

"Me? Oh, no. Soojung's the pro bowler among us. She's good at all the sports." Sulli's quick to reply. 

"So, she's the hipster and the athlete?"

"Something like that. Sulli, here, is the fangirl and the actress." Seulgi says. Sulli just smiles back, scratches the back of her head.

"Do you really like Red Velvet?" Irene asks with a laugh.

"Of course, I do!" Sulli replies, stands up, wants so much to prove her loyalty. Seulgi, however, extends her arms on either side, as if protecting Irene from Sulli.

"Ooh, someone's possessive." Soojung teases. She goes to write down her score and misses Seulgi's blush. Irene doesn't and she loves every minute of it.

"C'mon, Seul. You know who I like in RV." Sulli says, defends herself.

"Who is it?" Irene asks, eagerly wanting to know.

"Wendy." Sulli smiles.

Irene's face becomes blank and Seulgi becomes nervous. Silence falls but Sulli doesn't seem to notice a thing. She pretty much killed the atmosphere at the mere mention of the name and she's oblivious to this fact.

"Your turn Seulgi." Soojung says. 

Seulgi gets up from her seat hesitantly. With shaking hands, she chooses her ball and sends it to the gutter without even trying.

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

A/N: Hi again. Firstly, I'm sorry for the delay. My internet connection got all messed up and I also had to do some revisions because I wasn't satisfied with where things are going. I saw how you liked the last update and I didn't want to disappoint with this one. I hope I didn't.

So, Seulrene for y'all. Again, hang in there, Seuldy people. Hang in there.

Thanks everyone for reading! And for the comments! Thank you to at5478, Keamai, charryjay, sweeterthejuice, aidappo, frozenbear, and the qzyx. Thank you all so much for the support. Hope you all enjoyed this update! 

 - Bluekimchi