The following week after Seulgi and Irene reconciled went by in the blur. As the days passed, they felt more and more at ease with each other. Agreeing to try and be friends was not easy, but it was manageable. At least they were more comfortable with each other's company now. The dark days were finally over.

"Hey." Seulgi called as she came home from a shoot. The Red Velvet dorm had been quiet for the past several days because everyone had different commitments on top of their group schedule.

“Anybody home?” Seulgi called again.

No one seemed to answer so the girl just shrugged and headed over to her room to change. When Seulgi was finally clad in her favorite combination of sweatpants and a hoodie, she wandered off to the kitchen to find a snack.

Right in the middle of a huge bite of her sandwich, a sudden noise made Seulgi jump.

 She inspected the source of the noise which came from Irene’s room.

“Joohyun-unnie?” Seulgi called. “Are you there?”

“Seulgi!” Irene called from her room. “Are you alone?”

“Yes, are you all right?” Seulgi said as she hovered by the door.

“No. Come in, I need your help.”

Seulgi opened the door and peeked in cautiously.

“What the hell?”

Irene’s room was a mess. Paint was everywhere: on the carpet, on Irene’s bed, on her table, the chair, and Irene herself looked like she upturned the whole paint can on her body.

“So.. I had a little accident.” Irene said in a small voice and they both burst out laughing.

“What did you do?” Seulgi rushed over to help clean up the mess.

“I wanted a splash of color in my room and my hand slipped.” Irene explained. “Ugh, everything is a mess!”

“Why don’t you wash that paint off first and I’ll try to mop up here.” Seulgi scrunched her nose because the strong smell of paint was making her lightheaded. “Why did you even think this was a good idea, unnie? Do you even know anything about painting your walls?”

“Truth be told, I was supposed to paint my ceiling. Well, now I know that it makes a huge mess if I spill it.” Irene grumbled as she headed out of the room.

It took an hour for Irene to get rid of the smell of paint from her body. When she got out of the bathroom, Seulgi was still scrubbing the floor.

“It won’t—” Seulgi grunted as she scrubbed. “Come—out!”

“Just leave it.” Irene sighed. “It’s hopeless, I’ll just throw everything out.”

“Okay.” Seulgi finally gave up. “But you can’t stay here, unnie. I’m feeling woozy already and I haven’t even spent that much time here.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Irene offered her hand and Seulgi took it.

The other members arrived after the sun had set since the girls agreed they would at spend three dinners a week together.

“What is that smell?” Wendy said as soon as she passed by Irene's room. 

"I kinda like it." Yeri said as she sniffed a couple of times.

"I'll have it fixed on the weekend, I'm sorry, you guys." Irene said. 

"It's fine." Joy said reassuringly.

Irene opted to sleep on the couch, just to let the paint smell air out. At midnight, after everyone was asleep, Seulgi got out of her room because she needed to pee.

She peeked over the couch to check how Irene's doing but was surprised to see it empty. Seulgi wandered over to the kitchen and found the leader drinking a glass of water. 

“Unnie.”

Irene let out a small shriek. “Yah!” She whispered angrily. “Don’t sneak up on me like that!”

“I’m sorry!” Seulgi giggled. “I was just wondering how you were doing out here.”

“It’s so cold.” Irene’s brows furrowed. “I miss my heated bed.”

“Oh,” Seulgi nodded. “Good. Because honestly, I thought you would be scared to sleep alone in the living room.”

“Why would I be scared to sleep here?” Irene asked suspiciously.

“Nothing.”

“Kang Seulgi!” Irene said in a stern voice.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Yah!”

“Okay.” Seulgi looked around. “The other night, Seungwan heard some kind of noise out here."

"What kind of noise?" Irene asked worriedly. 

"Like.. laughter? Creepy laughter." Seulgi shrugged. "But she said everyone was asleep, so it was kind of scary."

"Omo." Irene bit her nails. "Now I'm scared to sleep out here."

Seulgi rolled her eyes. "I told you, you don't want to know."

"I was curious, okay?" Irene was looking reproachfully at the couch. 

“Well, good night.” Seulgi turned around and walked briskly back to her bedroom, leaving Irene alone with her thoughts.

"W-wait!"

Irene let out a whimper and slowly walked back to the couch. Then she covered herself from head to toe with her blanket, cowering and failing to stop herself from imagining lots of scary scenarios.

Then something poked her side and she jumped up like a cat. 

Seulgi's smiling face was the first thing Irene saw.

"You didn't really think I'd let you sleep out here alone, did you?"

Irene rolled her eyes and punched Seulgi several times. "You're a jerk, you know?"

"I know, you keep reminding me. Now, scoot over. I wanna watch a movie before I sleep."

The following night, Seulgi waited until the members were in their rooms before she came out to sleep next to Irene. Only they didn't sleep much because they spent almost all night talking and laughing. 

The next day, they both sported deep bags under their eyes but still, the conversations never stopped. 

The two decided to sleep from the afternoon until right before midnight. When she woke up, Seulgi groggily went to the kitchen to cook sujebi. Irene woke up just as the younger one was doing some finishing touches on the dish and the two ate quietly, still shaking off sleep. 

Later, when they were both on the couch and Irene was fluffing up her pillow, Seulgi suddenly said, 

"Why don't we just sleep in my room?" 

Irene considered it for a moment. "Okay."