takachi:
allow me a stupid question... Min-Jeong is Seol-a's friend, right? If that's the case... I'm just... why would Seol-a suddenly be so frustrated about having friends among girls? Or is it that she's lonely in the uni?
Allow me to give a stupid answer. :3
As you mentioned, Min-jeong doesn't go to the same university, so Seol-a only sees her occasionally. And it seems that when they meet, at least sometimes, it's to hang out with guys -- probably guys that they barely know or even just met -- to drink, flirt, so on, like in chapter 20.
As an aside, Min-jeong is probably the kind of girl that everybody thinks Seol-a is: a party girl who is really flirty with guys. Seol-a on the other hand seems to "go along with it" just out of... boredom or something, as thought she's thinking, "Eh, why not?" In chapter 23, she says, "It's true that I've met a lot of guys. I didn't turn away anyone who seemed decent, and I didn't chase after those who left me." Doesn't sound she was really into it.
But yeah, basically, Seol-a seems to hang out with Min-jeong only once in a while for that kind of stuff. And it's not at all not the close relationship that many college or high school girls tend to develop. You know, like No-rae and Hye-gyeong. Or No-rae and Hee-jin before university.
I don't think that Seol-a is "frustrated about having friends among girls" per se. I don't think she was really really longing for this kind of relationship; it's just that she didn't even know what it's like to have this kind of close friend, as she has never made that kind of close friend in university and heck, probably not even in high school.
Think about it. Her "legendary" status really made it difficult for any girl to approach as well as for her to approach any girl. For example, take Hye-gyeong. We know she's a nice person, and she isn't the type to be mean to people. But even she took part in the gossip about Seol-a, because she is just that (in)famous. If you hear so much and talk so much about a person, she becomes almost like a "celebrity" and you won't even think about going up and talk to her.
No-rae is the first to really get close to her, partly due to circumstances but also because of No-rae's personality, which attracted Seol-a. No-rae gave her a taste of what it was like to have a really close girl friend in school/university. (Not only that, but No-rae also acted as a bridge for Seol-a to be able to be friends with other people such as Hye-gyeong; without No-rae, it is very unlikely they would have ever interacted.)
So naturally, she really liked No-rae and wanted to be around her, because it gave her a sense of friendship that she was never able to experience before. And as we already know, with time, those feelings grew to... whatever they are now.
Essay over./Q.E.D.
I really like this wrap up you did, whether intended or not. It gives a really good perspective how Seol-a is still in the beginning stages of understanding her own feelings for No-rae. Because she's never had a close female friend, the lines of friendship and love are blurry at the moment. I hope we get to see more development in their feelings for each other.
