Chapter Text
"I'm gay."
Those few words hung in the air, suspended for all to stare at. Some marveled, some looked on horrified, and others were just plain surprised.
Irene wasn't sure exactly how her face looked, her resting bitch face a widely known phenomenon, but she was sure that inside her mind, a gay panic button had revealed itself and she, being the gay panic she is, smashed the gigantic rainbow button to her heart's content.
Wee woo! Wee woo!
Sirens blared in the distance for only Irene. She knitted her brows and stared at her best friend. Seulgi.
Seulgi was gay?
Irene wasn't surprised, per say, but she certainly hadn't expected the girl to announce it to the school. Well, announce it loud enough for anyone near to hear and no doubt spread like wildfire until even the principal's aunt's cousin's hoobae had found out about it. Irene continued rolling the scrap piece of paper in between her pointer finger and thumb.
"Are you going to say something?" Seulgi sounded shy. She looked at the ground and held her left bicep.
"Wow..." Wendy's mouth formed a big "O" and slowly formed more words. "Now you can join those two!"
"Yah, unnie!" Yeri smacked Wendy's arm.
"You can join us, all right," Joy said with a wink.
"You can shut up!" Yeri smacked Joy's arm.
Seulgi, playing with her fingers, began to warm up, seeing that her friends were reacting quite nicely. However, there was still one person left.
"Hyun-ah?" Seulgi said her name carefully, the fragile object rolling off her tongue and falling out of her mouth with a plop before shattering on the floor, bringing Irene back to reality. Irene blinked.
"What?"
"Are you going to say something?" Seulgi balled her shirt in one fist. No doubt there would be wrinkles later. Irene made a mental note to iron the shirt out for Seulgi later.
"Um..."
"Please say something."
Seulgi's pleading eyes dug into Irene's heart, squeezing hard. Wendy, Yeri, and Joy stood to the side bickering, leaving the two alone. Irene was at a loss for words. She didn't really know what to tell Seulgi. Hey, I'm happy for you? Good job? I'm so proud? Irene wasn't sure.
"Seulgi... I'm happy so proud of you."
Fuck.
Seulgi looked confused.
"I mean, I'm happy for you. And I'm proud. it must have taken a lot of courage for you to tell me, err, us." Irene cursed at her awkwardness. How could the school's sweetheart fall apart? Not even in front of a stranger, but just a friend.
"Ah... yeah." Seulgi relaxed. "I just felt like I couldn't hide it any longer, you know?"
"Yeah," Irene said automatically, before correcting herself, "I mean, no I don't know, but I know."
Seulgi laughed good-naturedly. Irene couldn't help but smile back. "Okay, Hyun. I'm glad you aren't mad at me."
"Mad?"
"Well, you weren't saying anything... I thought maybe you didn't want to be friends or something."
"Of course not, Seul! I could never." Irene smiled her best smile.
"Okay," said Seulgi happily, hugging Irene tight. "I'm so glad we're friends."
"Yeah," Irene agreed, her tone flat. "Friends."
Irene wasn't sure when the term began to feel heavy, like a burden she didn't want to carry. The word began to feel wrong, for reasons Irene didn't know. "Friends" pricked at her skin and made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end, poking up like meerkats from their burrows. When did it all begin?
Some underclassmen walked by and waved shyly to Irene before bowing to Seulgi.
Seulgi already got a lot of attention from boys and girls and would undoubtedly. Boys could stop seeing her as competition, and girls could start writing love confessions with the hope in their hearts a little more full than before.
Seulgi was used to the attention. She'd been at the school for a couple years already, anyway.
Irene absentmindedly rubbed Seulgi's bicep, feeling the strong muscle resist the squeeze of her fingers.
"You're so strong!" Irene's jaw dropped, amazed. When had her cute bear gotten so jacked?
"Ah, Hyun," said an embarrassed Seulgi. She snatched her arm back from Irene's grasp. "No, I'm not."
"Um, yes, you are." Irene tried to grab at Seulgi again. She just wanted to touch Seulgi one more time.
"You're being like my fangirls," chuckled Seulgi, fending off Irene's invasive hand.
"What?" Irene's hand froze mid-air before dropping in defeat.
"My fangirls," repeated Seulgi. "They always try things like that."
Irene didn't like how that sounded.
"They shouldn't do things like that to you, Seul. Not if you don't like it."
Seulgi smiled and shrugged before answering cheekily, "Who said I didn't like it?"
"Ah..." Irene pursed her lips. "Nothing less for popular Kang!" She nudged Seulgi with a fist to the shoulder.
"I'm not that popular," Seulgi said.
"You're so humble."
"I try to be."
"Wow, how can someone like you exist?" Irene mused. "The perfect package."
"I know you're just dying to find someone like me, Hyun," Seulgi teased.
"You wish I was," retorted Irene.
"You two done over there?" Wendy raised an eyebrow and looked at Irene, who pretended not to notice.
"Done doing what?" Seulgi asked.
"...Whatever that was."
"I don't know, Wendy." Seulgi pretended to think. "Am I done?"
"Oh, go to hell, Seulgi."
"I'll meet you there."
Wendy rolled her eyes. "Lunch is almost over."
Wendy, Yeri, and Joy left Seulgi and Irene.
"So you're sure that you're okay with me being... me?" Seulgi asked seriously.
"Yes, of course!" Irene wasn't sure why Seulgi kept asking. It almost annoyed her. "Do you think I can't stand people like you or something?"
"People like me?" Seulgi knitted her brows.
"That's not what I mean. You know that."
"...You're really okay with me?"
"I am, Seul. I promise. Pinky promise. Okay?" Irene hooked her pinky around Seulgi's and shook it. "Pinky promise."
Seulgi gave in. "Okay."
That night, Irene lay in bed staring at her ceiling. She'd just finished calling her boyfriend, Park Bo Gum. He was the sweetest guy, and Irene loved him a lot. He normally was able to calm Irene's mind and put her at ease, but not today. After hanging up, she was still rattled, her heart thumping in her chest. Seulgi was gay? Irene didn't know what to make of it. She wasn't homophobic or anything. Was she? It was just that... Seulgi? Seulgi Kang? Irene never would have guessed.
Irene resolved to do some research and figure out how to treat her gay friend. Did you need to treat them any differently? Seulgi was still Seulgi, right? Irene decided she was overthinking. After looking through two articles -- one was titled "Is your friend gay?" and the other "Gays: Still People" -- she gave up.
Irene felt honored that Seulgi decided to come out to her and their friends. That meant Seulgi trusted her. Trust felt good.
That was the last thing to cross Irene's mind before she gave in to the sweet beckoning call of sleep.
Homework was overrated, anyway.