Meeting you | LisRene AU [BOOK 1]

4

"Oh hey," Junmyeon said, causing Irene to look up and notice his surprised expression. "When did you finish all this?"

"Last night," Irene answered, feeling a little bit of heat creeping up to her cheeks. She wouldn't admit that Lisa had been here with her, even though that name wouldn't mean anything to Junmyeon. She felt somewhat bad that she'd let the girl that Jackson almost slept with – against Irene's no-date policy – come into the warehouse again and actually do stuff. "I had some time, so I stayed up a while and finished."

"Looks good," Junmyeon commented. He nodded in approval as he looked at the well-organized room. It was Sunday afternoon, and Irene had just brought over all of her completed paintings and drawings. They were currently stacked on the table, and Irene had every intention of hanging them up as soon as she needed a break from the painting she was currently working on. As she spoke to Junmyeon, she was standing poised like any artist, her paintbrush in hand and with stray paint surely covering parts of her face and clothes. "And you're clearly already comfortable with this place."

Irene grinned, nodding. "Yeah, I quite like it. Did you need something, by the way?"

"Oh, yeah," Junmyeon recalled. "Actually I wanted to know if you wanted to take a break and have a beer? Seulgi and Kai are in my room right now, and we're chilling."

Irene nodded, despite herself, and dropped her paintbrush into her water bucket. "Yeah, sure." As she stepped away from the easel, she smiled at the start of her next piece. She'd gotten into abstract paintings lately, so she wasn't quite sure what was going to happen with it, but she was sure she'd figure it out at some point during the process.

She followed Junmyeon through the warehouse to his room. It was set up like a lounge, and no one had really been surprised when he picked this setup. There was a flat-screen TV against one wall, with a relatively large couch facing it, and a mini fridge in the corner. "Irene!" Seulgi exclaimed, a wide grin on her face. "Happy Sunday!"

Irene smirked, dropping onto the couch next to her brunette friend as Junmyeon grabbed her a beer. "When do your classes start again, Seul? You've been entirely too happy recently."

"Ugh, a week after tomorrow," Seulgi answered, sighing. "But you know, I can't say that I wish I was like you, taking classes all fucking year round."

"At least I'm graduating in November."

"With a half degree."

Irene scoffed, graciously accepting the beer that was being handed to her. "An associate's degree is not half of a degree."

Kai laughed and shrugged. "It kinda is, I mean, it takes half of the time to get it as it does to get a bachelor's degree."

"Shut up," Irene huffed in annoyance, her lips falling into a pout. "I'll get my half degree if I want to, and I don't need you asses judging me."

Junmyeon grinned. "You guys got her to lighten up, wow, I'm impressed."

"I'm not rigid, Suho," Irene snapped, taking a swig of her beer. "I'm loads of fun."

"Irene, in our little band of misfits, you are most definitely the most responsible and well... yeah, you could stand to loosen up every now and then," Seulgi admitted, shrugging.

Kai nodded. "Jackson says it's because you haven't gotten laid since that hot chick you dated a few months back."

"Jackson's an asshole," Irene snapped, taking a drink of her beer in order to partially hide the scowl appearing on her face.

"An asshole who's right," Seulgi argued, her eyebrows raised. "There's no way that you somehow have secretly been getting yourself laid since then. You have gotten way more boring since then."