Chapter 2

The next morning, she woke up earlier than her alarm, which never happened before, and her mind immediately flashed back to yesterday's dinner with the cute pup.

"Ah, is that so? I'm sorry for bumping into you earlier. Once I became hyper, I cannot see my surroundings," the rude woman apologized.

"Your friend apologized for you. It's fine," she shrugged it off, content that at least the woman acknowledge her mistake.

"Oh! I haven't introduced myself. I'm Wheein, Jung Wheein. My friend's Hyejin."

"Wheein-ssi. I'm Moonbyul."

"No need to address me so politely. Just Wheein is fine," she said as she took some noodles in between her chopsticks and brought it closer to her lips.

"I'll try, Wheein-ss, Wheein."

She smiled and there was the dimple again, very prominent and very attractive. Moonbyul found herself staring too intently so she shook her head and distracted herself by eating some of her own noodle.

Wheein was right. Her friend's really a good cook.

Her alarm finally beeped and brought her back to her reality - she needed to get ready for her morning shift at the café and she still need to save money for college - so she slapped herself with both hands to wake herself up and headed for the bathroom, still half-dazed and half-reminiscing their dinner last night.

When she was done, she had to rush down three flights of stairs because the elevator broke down and she had exactly 15 minutes before her shift started and just as she ran out of her apartment building, she bumped into someone; someone familiar and someone who went by the name Wheein.

"Moonbyul!! Good morning!"

"Wheein-ssi, morning. Gotta go, bye!"

In her frenzy, she had attached the honorifics to the younger girl's name and ran across the street, with only 7 seconds remaining for pedestrians to cross the road, leaving Wheein to look at her back with a confused expression.

Was I supposed to be saying sorry to her?

Moonbyul felt bad that she had to leave her without any proper greeting but she didn't want to be late for work. She had never been late to work before. Never. And she's not going to be late now because of one rude but cute not-really-stranger person. She'll never be late to work, not for anyone.

As soon as she reached the front door, she took a few deep breaths and made sure to fix her appearance before pushing open the glass door, which in turn will jingle the bell to inform the people inside of newcomers, in this case a part-timer. As usual, her manager nodded at her and she went to the back to change into her work uniform in the changing room.

Same old, same old.

Just like any other day, she worked the cashier and sometimes the waitress and she did coffee refills and whatever work that was assigned to her so she was throwing the garbage out back at the small alleyway when she heard wolf-whistling and someone, a woman, resisting whoever that was whistling. One fact about Moon Byul Yi was that she's a very curious woman, as curious as the feline creature, and so she approached the scene and found herself looking at Wheein pinned to the wall by a well-built man.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

"Get out of here woman. It's none of your business," the man barked.

"It is mine when that girl's uncomfortable by your advances," she walked closer, gathering what little courage she have to possibly rescue her.

"Why are you so nosy? We're just having fun, right babe?"

Wheein, visibly disgusted by him, spit into his face, successfully provoking the man and his pride as his face reddened and the veins in his arms bulged as he squeezed her shoulders. Pained, her face scrunched and her knees began to buckle from the intense pain, prompting Moonbyul to grab ahold of whatever she can and threw it to the man. It only made him angrier that he shoved Wheein out of the way and went for her and for a second there, Moonbyul saw her life flashing by her. There's no way she can bring down a man nearly twice her size so she braced for the impact and when the man rammed his body weight onto her, she was thrown back at least 2 meters from where she had been standing.

The wind was knocked out of her, her lungs felt like it's going to collapse, her arms were heavy as lead because she had used them to shield herself and thus absorbing most of the impact of the attack and her right shoulder was dislocated when it hit the hard ground. It was a total KO and for the first time in her life, Moonbyul was in her most painful state lying at the dirty cold floor. It felt like she had been hit by a truck or run over by an elephant. From her peripheral sight, she could see Wheein trembling at the corner, sobbing with soot covering her face.

That doesn't fit you. A smile, a dimpled one fits you better, Wheein-ah. It's going to be okay.

She almost snickered dryly at her own thoughts, even at this critical moment, she's still thinking about the dimpled smile. Through the ringing in her ears, she barely heard the echoing footsteps getting closer to her and for some reason, her memories flashed back to their dinner last night.

Her friend, Hyejin, woke up completely sober, opposite to how she was 30 minutes ago when Moonbyul helped carried her home, and started questioning the identity of the familiar-but-stranger woman.

"So, Moonbyul. That's your name. Thanks for carrying me back home. Nice to meet you, I'm Ahn Hyejin, Wheein's guardian."

"What guardian? We're the same age!"

"Not in that way! I'm your guardian! Your protector! You know, the one who watches over you and keeps you safe?"

"I get it! Then, will you be there when I'm in a pinch?"

"Always, Wheepup, always!"