Before Irene could fully indulge herself into the kiss, Seulgi’s face suddenly crossed her mind, making her abruptly pull away from Wendy.

“What’s wrong?” Wendy asked.

“N-Nothing. I think a mosquito bit me or something,” Irene lied.

“Your blood must be delicious then. I’ve never gotten bit before,” Wendy teased. Irene could only let out a nervous chuckle, scared that she’d get found out if she keeps talking. “Let’s head down then, I don’t want you to be the mosquitoes’ dinner.”

The nagging feeling wouldn’t leave Irene’s mind the rest of the night. As much as she wanted to push thoughts of Seulgi aside, they always find their way back to occupy her mind. Everything was going so well before, and Irene would very much like to focus on just Wendy, yet she can’t even hold the girl’s hand anymore without Seulgi’s face popping up.

“Thanks for walking me home.”

Wendy’s words brought back Irene’s attention as she noticed that they were already in front of Wendy’s house.

“Of course. I wouldn’t want anyone to kidnap you,” Irene joked, “I hope you had as much fun as I did.”

“I had a lot of fun, thanks for tonight,” Wendy said and leaned to give Irene a peck on the cheek.

Irene froze a bit at the gesture before smiling and waving at Wendy. “Good night, Wendy.”

“Good night. Get home safely!”

---

Laying down on her bed, Irene places an arm over her head, feeling exhausted and drained. It’s not a lie to say that she’s fond of Wendy and genuinely did have fun on their date together. But it bothers Irene that at the back of her mind, she kept thinking about Seulgi. They haven’t seen each other since their last encounter, which was 5 days ago. Irene pulls her phone out from her back pocket and held it high above her head, contemplating whether to text Seulgi or not. Would it be weird to text her right now at 1 in the morning? What would she even say to her?

The sudden flash on her phone scared the bejesus out of Irene, making her drop the device flat on her face. After exclaiming in pain, she checked her phone and saw two new messages. One from Seulgi, one from Wendy…. Of course life would always and make her choose between those two. Letting out a sigh, she chose.

“Hey, are you still awake?”

“Yeah, I am. What’s up?”

“Can we meet? There’s something I want to talk to you about.”

Irene weighted out all the pros and cons before replying. But even though there were more cons than pros, she still replied,

“Sure. Same place?”

“Yeah, same place.”

---

This always happens whenever it comes to Seulgi. Although Irene knew it would’ve been right to click on Wendy’s text, she clicked Seulgi’s. Although she knows she should have said no to meeting up, she said yes. And although she knows she should keep a stern expression, she can’t help but smile when she sees Seulgi waving at her.

“Hey,” Seulgi greeted before situating herself onto the swing next to Irene’s.

“Hey,” Irene greeted back. “So what prompted this sleepyhead of a bear to call me out at 1 in the morning instead of sleeping?” she said while swinging back and forth.

“Maybe that bear just wants to see you because she misses you.” The statement made Irene stop her swinging and turn over to look at Seulgi.

Sensing eyes on her, Seulgi realized that she might have voiced her thoughts out loud. “I mean, can’t I just want to talk to you because I haven’t seen you in a few days?” she corrected herself.

But Irene was unfazed. “Seulgi, what did you want to talk about?”

“I guess you caught me,” Seulgi tried to lighten the mood. But it didn’t do much to dissolve the thic