Truth be told, Irene is worried sick about Seulgi too, so worried that she feels like she'll get the flu if she doesn't see for herself how Seulgi is doing. She thinks it's because she got used to having her around and spending time with her whenever she was there. Seulgi is pretty much the only person she talks to aside from her members, her family, and the people at work. 

Irene tries to ignore the nagging thought that she shouldn't be feeling so strongly for someone she has known for less than two weeks but she argues that there's something about Seulgi that outweighs everything. It's true that she doesn't know a lot about the other girl but she isn't going to deny that she wants to know everything there is to know about her. She really meant what she said to Seulgi about being friends.

Yeah, that's right. They're friends, or at least in the process of becoming friends. That gives her every right to be worried about Seulgi. She gets up from her bed which is now messy because of all the rolling she has done on it while she was thinking and heads to the kitchen. She should make something for Seulgi. Porridge would be nice. And she thinks she has some vitamins kept in her closet. Yeah, that'll do.  

--

Goddess.

Is the first thing that came to Sulli's mind when she opened the door for the second time, only to have her jaw drop to the floor yet again at the sight of Red Velvet's gorgeous, flawless leader, Irene Bae.

She steps back to let Irene come in, allowing herself to stick to the wall because she needs it for support. She thinks she's gasping for air when Soojung joins them in the hallway, closely followed by Wendy.

"Sulli! I thought I told you to get towels? Oh." Soojung stops her assault on her friend when she notices the newcomer.

"Guys, keep it down. Seulgi's sleeping." Wendy addresses the two, at first not seeing Irene standing there until she coughs. "Unnie?"

"How's Seulgi?" It comes out weird, constricted and close to a hiss when Irene says it that Wendy looks at her with eyebrows raised.

"She has a fever but she's resting now." Wendy answers when she's recovered.

"That's good to hear. You've checked on her already, right? Are you staying around?"

"Yeah, I did. And I have to. I promised Seulgi."

"Promised Seulgi? You're on promising terms?"

Sulli's eyes dart back and forth between the two singers, deeming the confrontation 'hot' and thinking how lucky Seulgi is to be the subject of her idols' fight. She nearly wolf-whistles if it weren't for Soojung elbowing her in the gut.

The cry of pain from Sulli is enough to wake Irene up from her little episode. She shakes her head and clears .

"I mean, I need to talk you, Wendy. Will you help me prepare this for Seulgi?" Irene asks, this time with a neutral voice, lifting the food containers she was carrying to show Wendy. Wendy hesitates but leads the way to the kitchen anyway.

"Did I do something wrong, unnie?" Wendy asks as soon as they step in the kitchen.

"I need an explanation, Seungwan." Irene says, placing the food container down on the table a bit harshly. "I don't understand why you have been so hard on Seulgi to the point that she's sick. And now you're worried about her and you're staying over until she wakes up? What's going on?"

Wendy blushes, looks away because Irene's gaze is too intense. 

"Seulgi and I... we've known each other since we were kids." Wendy says. Irene stares at her for a long time, swallows.

"Oh. That's... that's great news. But I still don't get it." Irene's voice drops to a whisper.

"She didn't recognize me right away and I was mad at her for that so... Yeah, I was hard on her. But I regret that now and I'm making it up to her." Wendy says. "Are you okay, unnie?"

"Y-yeah. I'm just, you know, a little surprised. Why didn't you tell us?"

"I dunno. I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Is it?"

"I don't know. It's just that... Seulgi and I are-"

"Friends. Yes. There should be no problem. We're friends. You guys are friends. Seulgi and I are friends. Should be fun, right?" Wendy grins at her but Irene can't return the smile with the same enthusiasm so she gives her a half-hearted one instead.

--

Seulgi wakes up not remembering what her dream was about but her head hurts so much and she must have cried out loud because people come rushing to her and crowd her vision all at once.

"What is it, Seul?" Soojung is the first to ask.

"Do you need something?" Wendy asks.

"Does your head hurt? I have some painkillers here." Irene says. Seulgi wonders where she came from and how long she's been around.

"Are you hungry? You've been sleeping for hours." Sulli mutters. She seems to have gotten over the shock of seeing Red Velvet, enough to mind Seulgi again.

"I... yeah, I'm kind of hungry." She sits up while Soojung touches her forehead, checking her temperature.

"Your temperature's closer to normal now." Irene and Wendy give Soojung weird looks, like they were annoyed that she was touching Seulgi and they weren't. "You should eat."

"I made you some porridge! I'll go heat it up." Irene speaks up, suddenly very enthusiastic.

"I'll pour you some tea, Seulgi!" Wendy says, voice loud, matching Irene's enthusiasm. 

Her and Irene's eyes meet for a split second and she can't tell how or why but suddenly, everything feels like a competition and no one has any intention of backing down.

--

It took Seulgi two days before she was able to work again. And even though she kept on insisting that she was fine now, Irene and Wendy still won't stop fussing over her. Joy and Yeri seem to have very different takes on the whole situation. Today is a Sunday and they don't have schedules until the afternoon.

"Seulgi looks all right now." Joy mutters.

"Aren't we supposed to call her 'unnie', unnie?" Yeri says to her. 

"I'll call her Seulgi until the day I can't." Joy gestures to the three, watches as Irene and Wendy stare each other off without Seulgi noticing. She leans forward on the railings, amused at what she's witnessing from their vantage point by the staircase landing.

"Are we seriously placing bets on who gets to have her?" Yeri asks.

"Yes, we are. Unless you're too chicken to." Joy teases. Yeri brings their faces close together and stares right into the older girl's eyes.

"Bring it on, unnie." Joy swallows, blinks and slowly backs away, her heart racing at the close proximity. "Who's the chicken now?" Yeri giggles and pushes herself away from the  railings.

Joy coughs, hand on her chest, trying to get her heart to settle.

"G-good. My money's on Wendy unnie." She says when she's sure she can talk.

"Okay. Are you sure? You can't change out when you see that I'm winning, alright?"

"Yeah. I'm sure."

"Loser buys the winner a week's supply of chicken?" Joy raises her eyebrow at her. "Not good enough for you?"

"How about this, the winner gets to have the loser do whatever they want?" She suggests.

"Call! I'll still have you buy me chicken though." Yeri skips off down the stares. Joy sighs and watches her jump on the couch to watch the three older girls up close.

"We'll see about that, Yerim." Joy mutters, hand still on her chest.

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

A/N: I'd like to apologize to everyone who's asking for Seulrene. I'm gonna have to make you wait for a little bit more because this chapter is more of a build up for all three ships. It's a short update so expect another one soon. 

And I forgot to do the upvote roll call in the last two updates. Sorry. So thanks to GhostlyRae, Jinyoung18, klem04, kty_ktr, aservorova, and ilikecheese for the upvote! Thank you everyone for reading and subscribing and commenting. I hope you enjoyed this update. Comment if you can. Thanks again! - Bluekimchi