[✔] Make A Wish • Seulrene

Chapter 8

Mortal Enemies?

The following day after Lisa's first run of experiments was a busy one.

Seulgi had work to do, she needed to meet a few new artists, but all she could think about was vampire Irene.

Stupid seductive, naked, alluring vampire Irene.

All courtesy of Lisa's scientific genius and 'instrument'.

Sometime in the late afternoon, Seulgi found herself once again being pulled by Jennie in one of their 'People Gathering' missions.

"Why are you taking me with you every time you have to round up the cavalry?"

"Two reasons," Jennie said as she drove around town, picking Seulgi up from her studio that late afternoon. "One, you seem to be having quite an effect on Everyone. Yeri, Joy and Jisoo are changing quite rapidly and for the better. Two, I might actually need your help with the two we're visiting today."

"The two? Who are we visiting?"

"Look, here me out Seulgi. I tried talking to them separately, but you know, I might need your charm to get them to how they are from all your stories about your world."

"Who are we talking about here, Jen?"

"Mina and Chaeyoung."

"But they're the best of friends! Totally inseparable!"

"Not in this world, Kang. Not in this world." Jennie tutted, shaking her head.

"Why?"

"They just never got along I guess."

Seulgi had no response to that as she sat thoughtfully throughout the rest of the car ride to some fancy looking Japanese restaurant for an early dinner.

The pair soon found themselves sitting at a private booth waiting for the two Twice members from Seulgi's alternate universe to join them. Mina was the first to arrive instantly settling in a conversation within Jennie and instantly recognizing who Seulgi was.

Chaeyoung soon arrived and Seulgi couldn't help but notice the sudden change in the atmosphere.

Seulgi was sitting next to Jennie, which by now she had realized was actually a mistake.

Because that forced Mina and Chaeyoung to sit with each other.

Which then turned into a chopstick battle of who's getting which sushi as soon as the food was served.

It took only five minutes before things escalated into a verbal battle and in an attempt to get the two to settle down or else they'll get kicked out.

"She started it!" The two chorused.

And that was all it took.

Seulgi took a deep breath to calm herself before she gets her turn, Jennie was doing well on the onslaught of words to reprimand the two, but even in between the two still manage to slip an insult or two. She couldn't believe that in her world, her reality, the two bickering Twice members were even hard to tear apart from each other.

They were that close.

And yet that much apart with each other in this world.

But underneath the tension, the fighting, the almost screaming match, Seulgi hoped that it was there.

Just a little lost under the rubble of whatever it was that tore them apart.

The real strength of their friendship.

"Enough!" The former idol commanded. She kept her voice low but tone unmistakably sharp.

Jennie immediately cease trying to get the two to calm down.

She didn't have to.

Seulgi's glare seems to be doing the job well on its own.

"You two are both a Twice members in MY world, one of the most aspiring and huge girl groups out there if I dare say. You two spent years of being trainees and idols in a group, and living in the same house. Tell me, how did you manage to keep it together then and lose it now?" Seulgi continued but both Chaeyoung and Mina stayed silent.

Secret admiration?

Jealousy?

Resentment?

Hidden truths?

Whatever it was, Seulgi knew that the two of them were thick as thieves.

So whatever it was that caused the rift between them didn't matter.

Surely the fact that they've been constantly bickering is because they cared for each other, right?

That they've always cared all along.

They just couldn't express themselves properly.

And all the meaning got lost in translation of the words they said and their very own actions.

Seulgi was one to talk.

She had too many "Almost" and too many lost moments with Irene. Too many of them she let slip away.

Too many moments when she almost caved but she tried to be blind to it.

Too much meaning lost in translations.

Maybe that's why she understands.

And maybe that's why she's getting through Mina and Chaeyoung as she took over the reprimanding from Jennie.

Because she knew from her own experience, the pain of taking the stitches off your own eyes to see what is truly there.

And the pain of stitching them shut in the first place.

Because to choose to feel nothing, to choose to push away what you were truly feeling, and maybe possibly hurting the one we were afraid might hurt us, was far worse than the pain of getting hurt because we chose to experience and live.

Seulgi never knew she had it in her to give such an eloquent speech about friendship, about forgiving, about understanding the miscommunication happening between the two.

Even Jennie was a little surprised.

The evening ended with Jennie's expected results, that is, with Chaeyoung and Mina sorting themselves out.

Too easy.

Seulgi found herself alone in her penthouse that night staring at the picture she had of her mom with Irene's mom and Irene herself.

And she couldn't help but wonder what the memories of those days were like.

What playing with the visual goddess as a little girl was like and how they met in the first place.

And why she fell out of contact with her dad in this reality.

If only she could access this world's Seulgi's memories.

But maybe she didn't have to.

If she fixed one rift, who's to say she can't fix another one?

She picked up the phone, dialed a number she found through some digging and personal research.

And with every ring she waited for the person on the other end of the line to pick up with abated breath.

What was she going to say if he answers?

It didn't matter.

Maybe the fact that she was calling was enough.

At the very least she could start with, "Hi."