All Because Of her || A WenRene Novel

Stay Here With Me - [Wendy]

I get up as soon as Irene leaves the room. People were making videos of the situation, so I'm sure it'll be all over the internet by tonight. I'm assuming that Irene went to the bathroom because that's where everyone goes when they're having a crisis.

You go to the bathroom to cry, you go there to escape class for a few minutes, and you go there to, well, go to the bathroom.

I enter the girls' bathroom that's closest to the cafeteria. "Irene?"

The bathroom is silent. "Are you in here?"

Still nothing. Is she in another bathroom? Maybe she didn't want anyone to come looking for her so she went to a farther bathroom on purpose. Or, she knew that I would think that, and that's precisely why she decided to go to the closest bathroom. Maybe she's not even in the bathroom, did she leave school property?

As I turn around to leave, I hear a sniffle coming from one of the stalls. "Irene?" I ask. "Is that you?"

"Go away," Irene says, her voice cracking. "Please."

"Are you okay?" I ask. "Don't listen to what Jennie says, okay? She's just being a-"

"I'm already struggling so much," she says. "And Jennie added on to my pile of stress."

"Why are you stressed?" I ask," leaning on the bathroom wall. "You seem full of energy to me, at least."

"My family barely has any money, Wendy," she says, sort of harshly. "My dad left us for some stupid American woman. He was our source of money. When he left, we lost our house, we lost everything. My mom hasn't been the same since. Hell, we couldn't even afford the apartment. The landlord is a close friend of my mom's cousin, he gave us a huge discount on the place. It would've been ₩87235, but he lowered it to ₩21808."

I stay silent. I didn't know that. Well, I've only known Irene for so long, and she doesn't usually open up about family, so how could I?

She continues, "When my mom found out you and I were friends, she wanted me to ask you to get your dad to fund my university. I didn't ask you, obviously, but I know she could never pay for it herself. I stay up studying almost every night to get straight A's so I can get a scholarship. I know you have a lot on your shoulders, too, and I'm sorry if you disagree, but I think there's more pressure on me."

"There is," I say. "My family is well-known. We can get in anywhere. I don't even have to work for success. You, on the other hand, you need to work as hard as you can just to get noticed, and I respect you for that. Don't tell the others, but I respect you the most."

Irene laughs. "Thank you."

I smile, although I know she can't see me. "Is there anything else you want to talk about, or can I go?"

"Stay," Irene says. "I'll feel better if there's someone with me. You don't have to talk about anything. Just stay until the end of lunch, please."

"Okay," I say softly. 

I slide down the wall and sit down. I don't take out my phone or anything to make the time go faster. I don't need to make time go faster, because then this will be over. I hear Irene's short breaths as she tries to stop crying and I want to run over there and hug her like I did yesterday when she called me.

Eventually, the bell rings. "You can go, now," Irene says.

"Are you going to stay here?" I ask. 

"I don't want everyone to stare at me for the rest of the day," she says. "Do you think I could say I'm sick and go back to your house?"

"That could work," I say. "You still have to get out of the stall to go to the office and call."

"I guess I do," Irene says. "I'll go a bit late when everyone's already in class. Could you run over to the science lab and tell the professor I won't be there? Tell Soobin, too."

"Okay," I say. "I won't be home right away, I need to go over to Joy's for a project. Just call me if you need anything."

I leave the bathroom and jog to the science room. I explain what happened and why Irene won't be showing up to the teacher, and then I go up to Soobin. Before I say anything, he asks, "Irene's not coming, is she?"

"Um, yeah, she doesn't feel very well," I say.

"I wouldn't either, after what happened," Soobin says. "Now I have to dissect this frog on my own. Tell her she better be here on Monday, or I'm going to kill her."

"Sure," I say. "Have a nice day."

As I walk in the hallway, people go silent again. They're not looking at me, they're looking at someone else. I brace myself as Jennie walks down the hallway once again. She sees me and laughs. "Where's your friend?"

"Why would you do that?" I ask, ignoring her. "I mean, we all know you're a bitch, but kicking her out of her house?"

"What? She talked down to me," Jennie says.

"Do you know how much struggle she goes through every day?" I ask. "If you could switch lives with here for a day, you'd regret every single thing you've ever done in your life."

"Bet," Jennie rolls her eyes. "Whatever. Like I said, the rats are out of the apartment, and there's no way she can buy it back since the price went up double."

"I can't believe you," I say. 

"Not many can," Jennie says. "We're done here, okay? Let me get to class."

"Since when did you care about grades?" I ask.

Jennie scoffs. "I don't. But my daddy does, and I need to please him." She opens her purse full of won. She's going to pay the teachers just to give her straight A's, is that it? She'll never survive a day in university.

***

Joy sits on her bed, typing furiously on her laptop. "You're not even typing anything."

"What?" I say, looking up from my phone screen. "Oh. Sorry."

"What are you doing?" Joy says. "You haven't stopped looking at your phone since you got here."

"Well," I begin, trying to figure out how to word this in a way Joy wouldn't get suspicious. "I'm just worried about Irene. She hasn't sent me a single text yet! Do you know how many times we text each other in a day?"

Joy snickers, looking at me. "You've been quite clingy to Irene for the past few days. The others and I are worrying that you like her more than us."

I bite my lip and look down. Do I? I like them all equally, but Irene just... she stands out to me in a way I can't explain. 

"You're not answering," Joy looks back at her computer screen. "I guess you do."

"No, it's not like that," I say. "I just don't know- She makes me feel all weird sometimes."

"What do you mean?" Joy asks. 

"Sometimes I just want to hug her randomly and grab her hand and just run away where nobody can see us," I say truthfully.

Joy's eyes widen. "Really? You feel like that?"

I nod, looking back up at her. "Why? Do you feel like that about me or the others?"

She shakes her head. "I feel like that with Sungjae, Wendy."

"What are you saying?" I ask.

Joy rolls her eyes. "You're an idiot."

"What?" I ask.