“Seungwan, what are you doing here?” Irene stared wide-eyed at Wendy, who was standing in front of her doorstep.

“I’m here to pick you up,” Wendy chirped brightly.

“Why?”

“Let’s go to the arcade. I’m a master at air hockey, bet you I can beat you.”

Irene let out an exasperated scoff. “You’re on.”

***

“And the undefeated champion is Son Wendy!” Wendy announced as she circled and danced around the pouting Irene.

“One more time, pleeease!” Irene whined, intending to put another token into the machine.

“No way! I already beat you five times.”

“I had dust go in my eye, so I couldn’t see the puck clearly. If it wasn’t for my vision disability, I would’ve creamed you.” Irene puffed her cheeks out, not wanting to admit defeat because she was a sore loser.

“Don’t lie, I beat you fair and square.” Wendy unknowingly reached for Irene’s hand and led her to the other games in the arcade. To her surprise, Irene was no longer talking. “Why are you so quiet?” Wendy turned her head to see a deeply blushing Irene. When her eyes followed where Irene was looking, Wendy let out a gasp and released their hands.

“S-sorry.” Wendy cleared . “Let’s play the claw machine.”

Friends hold hands. Seulgi and I hold hands too.

Then why does your face feel hot, Wendy?

“To the left, up more, make a u-turn!” Irene said excitedly, giving Wendy conflicting directions and occasionally hitting her shoulder.

“What do you mean u-turn?!”

“Just move to the right a little more! Hurry, hurry, time is almost up!”

And immediately, Wendy moved the lever to the right, watching in anticipation as the claw grabbed the fluffy brown bear and dropped it in the hole.

“We did it!” Irene squealed with Wendy as they both jumped up and down.

“Here, you can keep it.” Wendy placed the stuffed teddy into Irene’s hands.

“Are you sure? T-Thank y-you… Seungwa—“ Irene suddenly turned teary-eyed, hugging the bear tightly, “I mean Wendy.”

“You can continue to call me Seungwan,” Wendy giggled, wiping the big crybaby’s tears, “As long as I can call you Joohyun.”

Red-nosed Irene nodded enthusiastically.

Once the overly sensitive Irene had calmed down, they headed over to the food court.

“I’ll get us some ice cream.” Irene offered, not waiting for Wendy to offer to pay as she ran to the ice cream shop.

“Such a kid.” Wendy said as she stared at the skipping Irene.

“Hey… What’s a pretty little thing like you doing alone?” A male said as his other friend chuckled.

“None of your business.” Wendy cautiously looked away to ignore them.

“Ooh, feisty. Hey, how about you and I get out of here?” The obnoxious friend chimed in, leaning over the table.

“How about both you losers leave my friend alone?” Irene suddenly appeared, and didn’t waste time to dunk the two ice cream cones over their heads.

The two boys cursed loudly and ran to clean their heads of the freezing chocolate and vanilla swirl.

Irene huffed, but the sound of clapping could be heard from her crush.

“Nice job, Joohyun! You were so cool!” Wendy brightly said as she gave her a thumbs up, not realizing that Irene was still fuming mad.

“And you, Seungwan!” Irene threw her anger at the astonished Wendy. 

“W-what?” Wendy questioned hesitantly as she grew smaller in stature. An angry Irene looked intimidating, much more so than those two boys.

“Learn to grow a backbone and tell them off!” Irene growled and flicked her supposed crush’s forehead.

“Ow…” Wendy whimpered and rubbed her forehead. “Sorry, Joohyun.” She apologized, staring regretfully at Irene.

***

“Jooooooohyuuuuun…” Wendy hollered over and over as Irene fast-walked away from her. Clearly, Irene was still mad at Wendy, and clearly, Irene was avoiding her.

“Yaaah!” Wendy sprinted after the girl when she saw her cross the street without her. “Stop ignoring me, please.” Wendy pouted, grabbing tightly onto Irene’s hand before lacing their fingers together.

Wendy knew Irene couldn’t stay mad at her for long when the girl finally slowed down her pace as they continued to walk hand in hand.

You’re playing with my heart, Seungwan.

But Irene wasn’t willing to do anything about it as long as she could continue to hold hands with Wendy.

Irene being unable to resist Wendy was obvious because she was in love with her, but it didn’t explain why Wendy was also floating in cloud nine right now.

“Would you like me to buy you another ice cream cone?” Wendy offered as she turned her head to the bubbly-looking girl beside her.

Irene shook her head, letting out a soft sigh. “This is sweet enough for me.” She said, leaning into Wendy until her head was resting snugly on her shoulder.

Aw, so sweet!

How about some cookies with extra sprinkles or maybe a completely frosted red velvet cupcake?

No, because WenRene is sweet enough.

If Irene moved her head any lower, she’d be able to feel the rapid pounding of Wendy’s perplexed heart.

The sudden realization hit her like a ton of bricks.

Seulgi… what do I do? I think I like Irene.

***

It wasn’t long before Wendy had Seulgi meet her current crush Irene. Only Seulgi knew about her developed feelings for the past bully, and because of that, Seulgi had no choice but to give this girl a chance.

A best friend’s approval is a must, but Seulgi knew it wasn’t like that for them, because Wendy would sulk and annoy her if she didn’t accept Irene.

“Seungwan told me you like chocolate chip cookies, so I thought I’d bake you some. It’s nothing fancy, but please take them, Seulgi-ssi.”

A peace offering? Seulgi eyed the bag of perfectly uniformed cookies suspiciously before popping a cookie in .

“What the eff is this?!” Seulgi’s outburst caused the both of them to flinch in surprise.

“I-is it n-not good?” Irene nervously asked.

To answer her question, Seulgi snatched the bag out of Irene’s hands and shoveled the rest of the cookies into . “It’s so freaking delicious! Seriously, can I marry you just so you can bake me more cookies?”

“Yah, Seulgi! Let go of her!” Wendy demanded, yanking Seulgi off of Irene when the cookie monster decided to suddenly hug her crush. Not even Wendy got to first base yet, so how dare Seulgi hug her first!

“Wendy, we’re all friends here. Am I not allowed to hug my new friend?” Seulgi questioned with a smirk, causing her blushing friend to stop trying to pull her away from Irene.

“Would you guys like to come over to my house? I can teach you how to bake those cookies if you’d like.” Irene asked in a bubbly tone. She was in a super good mood now that it’s been established that they’re all friends.

“Ye—“

“Sorry, but Seulgi can’t. She’s busy.”

“What! No, I’m no—“ Before she could get her last word in, Seulgi was dragged away by Wendy.

“You’re busy.” Wendy spoke through her teeth in a threatening tone.

“You better bring me back some cookies then.”

With a handshake to seal the deal, Seulgi followed through with Wendy’s lie so the two could have some alone time together.

Days passed and Wendy would still hang out at Irene’s place.

Before they knew it, six days had passed.

Dreadfully, there was only one more day to go.

***

Wendy had set her alarm the night before. She wasn’t going to wake up late and miss seeing Irene off.

Yet she did wake up late that morning. One hour late.

“!” Wendy quickly threw on her clothes and ran out that door with her guitar carelessly flopping back and forth against her back.

“Joohyun!” Wendy called after the moving truck, desperately chasing after the vehicle with her short legs.

Wendy was still panting and running until the truck finally stopped and out came Irene.

“I’m sorry I’m late.” Replied the exhausted Wendy.

Irene crossed her arms, staring grumpily at the girl. She should’ve been gone an hour ago but she begged her parents to stay just an hour longer.

“What’s your excuse?”

“I didn’t get much sleep last night. I couldn’t stop thinking about you leaving me. I even spent hours trying to come up with ways to keep you here with me. My best idea was to kidnap you and then run away with you.” Wendy confessed, and it instantly broke down Irene’s barrier. “Because I… Joohyun, I…. lov— okay, wait, let me start over.“ Wendy took deep breaths.

It was pretty obvious what Wendy’s answer to Irene’s confession was.

“I love you, too, Seungwan.” Irene declared, not waiting for the girl to verbally say what was physically apparent to the both of them.

“Yeah, that.” Wendy smiled and walked up to Irene to hold her in her arms.

“Stay with me?” Wendy asked shyly into Irene’s ear.

Irene hesitantly leaned back to smile sadly at Wendy. “As cheesy as this may sound, I’d go anywhere with you, Seungwan. But for right now, I have to go with my parents. But we’ll always have other ways to contact each other, won’t we?”

Despite Wendy wanting to only see Irene by having her physically here with her, she nodded her head.

“Then before you leave, I want you to have this.” Wendy handed the girl her baby.

“Your guitar?” Irene promised herself she wouldn’t cry, and right now, she was on the brink of it.

“Open it.”

When she opened the case, it wasn’t the guitar that made Irene gasp.

What finally made her burst into tears was the extra two letters that were carved underneath her initials.

BJ

+

SS

“Damn you, Seungwan!” The puffy-eyed Irene huffed, pulling Wendy in and kissing her right smack on the lips.

***

“Hey, nerd!” Seulgi caught the genius named Joy’s attention. “Do my Stats homework.”

Even from this distance, Wendy could tell that the younger girl was annoyed and possibly trying to hold herself back from strangling her annoying friend.

“Choy! Yo, Choy!” Seulgi persisted, catching the attention of nearby students and further embarrassing Joy.

With a groan, ‘Choy’ looked back at Seulgi.

“Choy Seulgi wuvs!” Seulgi stated in very bad English and then made a heart by curving her arms over her head.

Being the studious bookworm whose goal was to perfect every subject, Joy couldn’t stop herself from correcting the idiot. “It’s Joy loves Seulgi, you illiterate piece of !”

“I love you, too!” Seulgi laughed, watching as the younger girl turn red from realizing she’s been tricked to declare ‘her love’ for the immature Seulgi.

“ off! My dad’s a cop!” Joy angrily announced from across the field.

“If that’s your way of asking me to meet your parents, then yes I’ll go.”

“Uh, Seulgi, I don’t think Joy giving you the middle finger means she wants you anywhere near her.” Wendy informs her lovesick friend.

“Nonsense, she’s just playing hard to get. The chasing is what makes it fun, Wendy. Anyways, I’ll see you back at the dorm.” Seulgi ran off to catch up to her 'Choy.'

Watching the way Seulgi interacted with Joy reminded her of Irene and herself. Hopefully, those two would end up with a happy ending.

It’s been three months since they graduated high school, and now they were back at school, well college, starting a new chapter in their life.

To her dismay, Wendy’s new chapter didn’t have Irene in it.

“Excuse me.”

When Wendy turned around, her eyes expanded like an owl’s. “J-Joohyun?”

“Wow. I’m actually surprised you still remember my name.” Irene laughed at her own joke.

“What are you doing here? I thought you moved.” If she weren’t so stunned by the presence of Irene, Wendy would’ve hugged the girl straight away.

“I did move, but I still have to go to college, Seungwan.” Irene playfully rolled her eyes as she recalled back when Wendy chased after her car, thinking they would never see each other again.

Well, three months did seem like forever to Irene.

An embarrassed groan escaped Wendy’s lips as she buried her face in her hands.

Wendy had said so many cheesy and dramatic lines in front of this girl, thinking Irene was leaving forever. Yet here she was in the flesh, attending the same university and making her feel like an idiot for what she had said in the beginning of summer.

“I want my baby back.” Wendy demanded as she huffed in annoyance.

“But baby, I am back.” Irene teased as she wrapped her arms around Wendy’s neck before placing a chaste kiss on her cheek.

Looks like Irene has gotten bold lately.

Bold Irene = Wendy likey… secretly.

“N-not you!” Wendy pulled away, ignoring that fluttery feeling in her stomach and cheek, “I meant my guitar, I want it back.”

“No. It’s mine. It has my initials on it.” Irene spoke with her chin up in the air, acting like an entitled princess.

“It has my initials on it too!” Wendy retorted in disbelief.

“Then it’s ours,” Irene gently said, linking their hands together, “and I get first dibs on it, because I’m your girlfriend.”

Wendy laughed lightheartedly, “I never asked you to be my girlfriend, Bae Joohyun, so technically you don’t get any girlfriend privileges.”

“Yah!” Irene pouted, tugging on Wendy’s hand like a frustrated child, “Ask me to be your girlfriend then.”

Did Irene seriously just demand to be given the position as Wendy’s girlfriend?

“Nah… I can already tell you’re a handful.”

“Seungwan!”Irene stomped her foot, hissing at her… girlfriend? Friend? Classmate?

Screw it! It’s girlfriend, damn it!

“Yes, Joohyun?” Wendy asked innocently as she tried to hold back her smile and laughter because Irene looks so undeniably adorable when she’s upset.

“Will you…” Irene mumbled under her breath, eyes shying away from Wendy.

“Will I what?” Wendy finally grinned.

“Aish!” Irene threw herself at the obviously smug-looking Wendy, “Be my girlfriend, you !”

“What?! Did you just call me a ? Joohyun, are you going back to your old childish ways? It’s not nice to pick on your girlfriend.”

Irene let out a delightful squeal after hearing the word girlfriend. “What if it comes with a kiss?”

“Pick on me as much as you want, my baby Joohyun.” Wendy says, cupping Irene’s rosy cheeks and pressing their lips together.

***

“Do you want to know a secret?”

“Hm?” Irene moved closer to Wendy to hear her better.

“The truth is that back in fifth grade I always knew your name. I just liked to see your reaction whenever I called you ‘Girl.’”

Irene’s mouth dropped. “W-wait… wha—“

“Bye-bye, Bae-by, Bae Joohyun, Bae Irene—“ She paused, debating on whether she should say this despite their still-young relationship, “Mrs. Future Son Joohyun!” Wendy waved her hands like a choding and started running away.

A deep blush was prominent on Irene’s face as she chased after her girlfriend, er future wifey. “You jerk, get back here!”

Son Joohyun had a nice ring to it, but in Irene’s opinion, Bae Seungwan sounds better.

In the unforeseeable future, the debate on who was going to take whose last name might consist of many arguments, maybe add in some immature pranks, but one thing's for sure is that they’ll still be childishly in love. 

And that wraps up this story :) Thanks for taking the time to read it. Please subscribe, actually there's no point in subscribing to this since it's completed, haha. But do vote and comment if you guys liked it :D