Nayeon was not a shy person. She was bold and brash. At least that’s what she tells herself. For the most part, she was right. She was bright, intelligent, and resourceful. These were all things that made her Seulgi’s right-hand woman. She re-confirmed all of these things because even Jackson asked her advice once. That was years ago, but she was still smug about it.

  He has forgotten all about it. This was well pre-Gillian and all he wanted to know was what color would work best between a particur shirt and tie. Amusingly enough, this was for the date between him and Gillian. Nayeon thought that she was the reason that Jackson was successful in bringing them together. Jackson thought that it was more that he caught Gillian, not Nayeon. As it turned out, Gillian, who was still unaware of this question, agreed that Jackson did most of the heavy work in courting her. Still, if she knew, Gillian would have to admit that the first night, he did look pretty sharp.

  She would also say that contrary to the old adage of ‘The clothes make the man.” It was the other way for her husband. For Jackson, he made the clothes look good.

  They were both right. But, as she married him, Gillian was more right.

  Despite all of this brilliance, there were occasionally gaping blind spots in her situational awareness. She was just a single, singur human, after all. She will get so wrapped up in her whatever she was obsessed with in that particur five-minute span that she missed the she missed some very rge big-picture stuff.

  Like when she was huffing out to her car from the taunting of Soo-young, she did not see the fairly rge man waiting. Granted, he was fairly rge, in a dark jacket, in dark pants, wearing a bck mask and a bck ball cap. To make it more difficult, he was also in a shadow, so he was even harder to see in her agitated state. But, he saw her. And he stilled even further, waiting for Seulgi to appear while Nayeon stalked off to the car.

  She started the car, turned on the lights, and then drove to the restaurant entrance, waiting for the grinning idiot that she came with. She was still grinding her teeth a bit. Still mumbling some invectives.

  If she had looked in her rearview mirror at that point, she would have seen a shadow flitting, leaving the parking lot on foot, looking none too happy. With the way he was dressed and in the dark, he would have been difficult to see, but there are some times that seeing that someone was angry is not too difficult.

  At this point, Seulgi came out of the front doors, looking over her shoulder and in a full roar of ughter. Nayeon, ever the narcissist, assumed that it was at her expense. But that was only in her own mind. Still, there was a mental image mirroring Seulgi from the inside. And a particurly all too beautiful young waitress who was still full of annoyance and spite. Again, if only in her mind.

  Still ughing, Seulgi climbed into the car.

  Nayeon, gring. “Having fun are we?”

  “Of course. You would have too if you took that stick out of your butt.”

  “That stick out of my butt? What do you mean?”

  “You know exactly what I mean. You’ve been in a mood all night. What’s wrong, Nayeon?” There was genuine concern in her voice. Which, oddly enough, made it worse.

  “What do you mean, ‘What’s wrong’? That, that, that gamine waitress, that’s what’s wrong. She was taunting me all night. And then there is you.”

  Insert shocked Seulgi. “Me?”

  “You. You didn’t help at all. You ughed.”

  That was the most damning charge. Seulgi had ughed at her, not with her. She was used to people ughing at her when she did something like walk into a door or something equally dumb. That’s fine, everyone in their group was used to things like that. But tonight, she felt attacked and her friend had not backed her up. That part was not acceptable.

  At this point, Seulgi was not sure if her friend was actually, really upset, or if she was trying to prank her. Again. With Nayeon, it was 50/50 one way or the other.

  Seulgi decided that Nayeon may actually be bothered if only a little bit. So, she took the path to soothe her best friend. Good thing too, it was the right choice.

  She took Nayeon’s hand. “I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, dear.” This was the second time she ever called Nayeon ‘dear’ so she knew that Seulgi meant it.

  Mollified, Nayeon turned her hand over to grip Seulgi’s. They had a moment of companionable silence and holding hands. Seulgi looked at Nayeon’s profile while Nayeon looked forward, out the windscreen of the car.

  Nayeon broke the silence by saying “I know you didn’t. But, that girl was nearly out of line She pushed the edge a few times and I nearly got angry for real.”

  Seulgi nodded while listening.

  “I know that…Sooyoung?” Seulgi nodded. “Was trying to be fun, trying to be ingratiating, and was showing how much she was looking forward to being with you. Possibly, even ‘us’. If we can reach an equilibrium, I might be able to tolerate her, too. At this point, it’s doubtful, even if just maybe.”

  Seulgi smiled. It was rare for Nayeon to be so open, honest, and vulnerable. She was the group's clown, so she had to keep her heart and real thoughts guarded. If she let her ask slip, someone might find out that she had real feelings and could actually be hurt. So, her willingness to take off her mask for Seulgi was an enormous compliment.

  Seulgi squeezed her hand and did not let go when she tried to pull her hand away. “I am sorry.”

  She didn’t say for what because she didn’t have to. She was sorry for anything and everything that she was involved in that had upset Nayeon. Nayeon understood this, accepted the apology, and immediately forgave her. She was able to hold grudges, but not with Seulgi.

  Nayeon squeezed her hand back, then gently pulled it away, and put the car into gear.