Series: chapter 1 - Fall
Word count: 510
AU: High school, College/University, Modern setting
Author: @fated_addiction on AO3
Additional information: romance, friendship, adulthood, growing pains
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it's a musty closet in the music room.
or, wendy, irene, and the pains of growing up together.
➿➿➿
-
sometimes to
self-discover
you must
self-destruct.
rm drake
it's a musty closet in the music room.
"i'm a stereotype," wendy complains from the floor.
her heels rest against the doorframe. she stares at the ceiling. there's a leak; the tiles have a water stain. next to her, irene laughs. she's sitting neatly, pressing her palms into her uniform. making sure it's still pressed.
"you're not," she answers. "and since when do you worry about these things?"
"these things?"
irene rolls her eyes. "why are you looking for a fight?"
"i'm not." wendy pouts. stares at the leak some more. she then sighs, dramatically. shifts and sits up. her hair skews itself; wisps framing her face. "i'm just... moody. can't i just be moody, unnie?"
there is math homework in another corner. wendy finished hers. she stretches her arms over her head. sighs loudly. is this it, she wonders. then stops. because saying the words are still really, really scary.
"you could talk about it," irene replies gently.
"i don't think it'll do anything."
"how do you know?"
wendy looks up. bites her lip. she studies irene. then shifts and reaches out, flicking her nose. "i know," she repeats. "i also know that if i bring it up that nothing is going to happen. not because i don't want it to, but because these are the way things go... nowhere."
irene is beautiful. always has been. since they were in kindergarten and hair in twin braids. it was always a thing. "bae joohyun, now she's going to grow up." and that's something, somewhere between intimidating and awful to someone else, especially looking from the outside in. these feelings don't make it any easier. wendy will confess: she is doomed to feel these things from bottom of her belly, they crawl into butterflies and knots, all the way into the back of her throat. wendy is good at a lot of things. but trusting herself to be vulnerable is not one of them.
"you're way too serious, seungwan-ah." irene shifts. crosses her knees to one side. her palms press into the floor. "it's not good to be this serious."
"someone has to be," she mutters. but can't look away.
it's because irene is close. and the air is sort of stifling. it's heavy in a way that it doesn't need to be; her breathing comes out in short, painful tufts of air. crawls into her throat. sits snug. and then jumps and expands and startles her. irene is too close, her brain says. too, too close.
she will not take responsibility for this: jerking forward, slipping a tongue into irene's mouth, waiting until she sighs or moans because this isn't a first kiss for either of them. they are nothing but clumsy hands; not touching each other, but failing to understand each other too. wendy tries to be taller. irene scoots closer. bites her lip. and honestly, it's the end of a kiss that feels like it should have never happened.
after, wendy's mouth is hot and heavy. it dries. "see?" she says.
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https://archiveofourown.org/works/13707681/chapters/31488102
