Yonghee stared at her younger sister and let out a sigh of frustration. Last Monday, Yongsun had refused to attend any classes; instead, she had suddenly announced that she was going to help out at their crepe stall. At first, Yonghee thought that her sister would be only working part-time to help pay off their debt, but after a week, she realised that Yongsun had no intentions of attending any of her classes.

Yonghee looked around, ensuring that there were no customers in close proximity, before confronting her sister. “Hey, when are you going to start going to classes again? Aren’t your friends worried about you?” she asked, pointing accusingly with a spatula in hand. 

Yongsun paused, a box of julienned ingredients in hand. “Well, maybe…” she muttered, shrugging her shoulders. “But I said I was going to help you with the business, didn’t I? I won’t go back on my promises.”

“Yongsun, have you looked around lately? Business has slowed down, and there’s really no need for you to be here in this small stall.” Yongsun opened to reply, but Yonghee continued on: “And don’t say that you’re trying to pay off our parents’ debts by skipping classes. We’ve paid the tuition fees for the rest of the semester, so you’re actually not doing anyone any favours by wasting all that money.”

At a loss for words, Yongsun could not formulate any excuses, knowing that her sister made a fair point. But at the same time, she didn’t want to step foot into campus. What if Byulyi was there? Yongsun didn’t dare to meet the slim dancer after messing up their relationship, and she was certain that Wheein and Hyejin would be equally disappointed in her. 

She was angry at herself for using their family’s debts and her sister’s workplace as a way of avoiding her friends. As the guilt sank in, Yongsun decided to explain herself to her sister, hoping that Yonghee would know what to do, like she always had.

“Oh, hello! What can I get you?” 

Yongsun looked up at Yonghee’s greeting, and her eyes fell upon a couple of familiar faces, and the two customers stared back at her in surprise. “Yongsun!” The shorter one of the duo exclaimed. “I haven't seen you in so long!”

“Hey, Irene, Seulgi,” Yongsun waved awkwardly. “How have you been?”

“We're doing fine,” Seulgi replied. “Are you? I heard you haven't been going to any classes lately.” 

“Wait, what?” Irene’s mouth dropped open. She turned to Yongsun, a concerned frown on her face. “Why not?”

Yongsun shrugged, unwilling to divulge her family’s predicament. “But Seulgi,” she asked, “how did you find out?” Seulgi just gave her a look, as if the answer was more than obvious.

Together, they simultaneously answered her question. “Byulyi.”

*

Yongsun peered through the frosted glass panels that contain one of the university’s many dance studios, observing a group of hip-hop dancers practice their latest routine. It was extremely obvious which one of the dancers was Byulyi, for her steel-coloured hair was the most unique among the other dancers, and she had the smoothest movements. She exuded a natural swagger that no other dance student could copy, and Yongsun’s eyes were so fixated on her that she didn’t notice Irene appearing next to her.

“Go in!” Irene urged, startling Yongsun. 

“I can’t!” Yongsun hissed back. “They’re practising!” Both women peeked in at the dancers, and Yongsun’s gaze naturally gravitated back to Byulyi. How could a woman move like that?, she wondered. It certainly made one wonder how elegantly she would move under different circumstances, or rather, under (or on top of) someone.

“Snap out of it, Kim Yongsun!” She slapped the top of her head, making Irene wince. She glanced in again, then quickly pushed Yongsun’s head down before she herself crouched. She gestured in simple signs: They’ve finished their practice, do you want to go in?

Yongsun shook her head desperately, ignoring Irene’s encouragements to do otherwise. They failed to notice the door opening behind them as they hid under the window. 

“Yongsun-unnie? What are you doing here?”

She would recognise that voice anywhere. Her cheeks burning with mortification, Yongsun forced herself to look up into Byulyi’s querying eyes. “No reason, just, uh, hanging with Irene here.”

“Right.” Byulyi scratched the back of her neck as her gaze shifted between Irene and Yongsun. It seemed to Irene as if she was going to ask a question, but before she could, Yongsun stood up and brushed off imaginary dust off her jeans. 

“We should go, Irene. Nice seeing you, Byulyi-sshi.” Yongsun grabbed Irene’s hand and dashed off, leaving Byulyi alone where she stood. Gritting her teeth, Byulyi ran a hand through her hair. She was annoyed at both Yongsun and herself, especially since she failed to initiate a proper conversation with Yongsun.

“What’s wrong, unnie?” Seulgi’s head popped up from around the door frame, slightly worried. 

Byulyi shook her head and walked back into the studio to grab her water bottle. How could I have messed it up this badly?, she scolded herself. All she needed was to greet the woman and maybe attempt to inform Yongsun that she wasn’t actually angry with her, that she was just confused and was now actually willing to help her out financially or physically if required. But she couldn’t even do that. Letting out a growl of frustration, she scrubbed at her face with both hands before heaving a resigned sigh.

“Damn it, Byulyi, stop being so awkward. You can do it,” she whispered to herself. “Next time you see her, you will talk to her properly.” Knowing Yongsun, the older girl would probably deliberately avoid Byulyi at any cost now, and that was not something that she would want to happen at any point in time. She gritted her teeth and stood up. “Hey, Seul.” 

Seulgi glanced towards her. “Yeah?”

“After this, let’s go get some food. I’m dying for some crepes.”

*

Byulyi and Seulgi hovered around the crêperie as they waited for their meals to be prepared. As she tossed ingredients onto the hot, plain crepes, Yongsun noticed Byulyi grinning as she conversed with Yonghee in her peripheral vision. For a second, Byulyi’s gaze flickered towards her, and Yongsun immediately averted her eyes. Don’t think about anything, she told herself, staring determinedly at the crepes before her. If you just told her you liked her, this nonsense wouldn’t have happened, she berated herself inwardly.

“Yongsun!” Yonghee called out. “Are the crepes done yet? They should be done by now!”

Startled, Yongsun reached for the spatula sitting next to the crepe makers and accidentally touched one of the griddles. She hissed and flinched, her hand twitching as she grabbed the utensil and folded the crepes over. Fitting both savoury crepes into their paper-plate holders, she quickly handed them to Byulyi and Seulgi before rushing to the stall’s icebox and plunging her burnt hand into the little pool of cold water inside. The numbing chill soothed the part of her hand that pulsated with heat, making her sigh in relief.  

“Hey, you okay?” Yongsun looked up to see Byulyi leaning over her, crepe still in one hand.

“Yeah, just wanted to cool myself down,” she answered through gritted teeth. 

Byulyi snorted disbelievingly and pulled Yongsun’s hand out. She whistled, impressed by the huge red splotch on the older woman’s hand. “That’s one hell of a burn. Here, hold this,” she handed her crepe over to Yongsun, “and I’ll get some ointment for you.” Before Yongsun can stop her, Byulyi dashed off.

“Why…”

“Byulyi-unnie still likes you, you know.” Seulgi ambled over to accompany Yongsun, taking large bites out of her galette. “I saw you and Joohyun-unnie leaving just now, at the studio, and Byul-unnie just looked so sad when you ran away from her.”

Yongsun bit her lip guiltily. “Really?” That would explain Byulyi’s worry when she noticed her burn, she admitted to herself. But Yongsun didn’t understand. How could the younger woman still even have the slightest interest in her after she had lied to her - and a big lie at that? It was all just so baffling.

Seulgi must have seen the confusion on her face as she laughed into her crepe. “Byul-unnie’s not one to hold grudges. When she likes or wants something, I think she’d chase after them with all her strength until the very end.” She grinned and tilted her head to look at her senior. “That might have been one of the reasons I had a crush on her before.”

“One of the reasons?”

“That, and she just looks really cool when dancing. Don’t you think so?” Seulgi nudged Yongsun and winked playfully. “But anyway, I have Joohyun-unnie now, so you can have Byul-unnie all to yourself. Oh, speaking of…”

Just as Seulgi mentioned Byulyi’s name, the woman herself came running back up with a small white plastic bag swinging in her hand. She whipped out a tube of cooling ointment, a triumphant look on her face as she broke its seal. Taking Yongsun’s burnt hand in hers, she gently dabbed the medicine onto raw skin with a clean earbud, taking care not to apply too much pressure on the wound to not cause the older woman any unnecessary pain. As she did so, Yongsun’s gaze drifted towards Byulyi, watching as a frown carved itself into her face as she completely focused on her task at hand.

Yongsun reached out a hand and smoothed out Byulyi’s furrowed brows with her thumb. “Don’t frown, Byul-ah, or else you’ll get wrinkles.” Byulyi froze at her touch, then slowly capped the ointment tube and tucked it back into the plastic pharmaceutical bag. Seulgi stared at both women for the briefest of moments before quickly reading the situation and absconding.

“Yongsun-unnie, can… can we talk?” Byulyi asked, hesitant.

“Yeah.” Yongsun patted the now-empty spot next to her, inviting Byulyi to sit down. “Before you say anything,” she started as Byulyi began to speak, “I really need to apologise. For everything. I just… I was so stupid, and it all started because I wanted your attention and so that you won’t be thinking of Krystal all the time. And I-”

“Hey.” Byulyi placed her hand on Yongsun’s shoulder and squeezed it. “Don’t worry about it. I totally agree with you, it was a very, very stupid move on your part, and i’m still not feeling too forgiving yet. But, I have to admit, it was probably partly my fault as well. I did like Krystal - even though she’s already dating someone else - but now I’m over it, and it’s more like a comfortable friendship, and I’m cool with that. Anyway, you have bigger things to worry about now, right?”

Byulyi chuckled at Yongsun’s flustered face. “Did you forget about that huge sum of money you owe to that gangster guy? What’s-his-name, Eric-sunbae’s brother?” Yongsun nodded tentatively. “Just asking, but… couldn’t you maybe go to Eric-sunbae, ask him to call his brother off or something?”

Yongsun sighed heavily. It could never be as simple as that, she explained to Byulyi. Back when they were still a normal, cohesive family, her father was unemployed while her mother had to work many part-time jobs to feed them. Then, against her mother’s wishes, her father took out a loan from a respectable bank to open a food business which folded after a few months. “He couldn’t even break even,” Yongsun grumbled, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. “And it’s not like he could take out another loan from the bank to ‘try again’, as he used to say.”

So he did the only thing he thought he could do: gamble whatever little money they had saved up at casinos to hopefully regain enough money to pay off the bank loan.

“And your mother didn’t know about this?” Byulyi was in disbelief at the irresponsibility of Yongsun and Yonghee’s father.

“Nope, not a thing. She was way too busy with her many jobs and having to take care of us to even notice when our dad would sneak out with a few extra dollars.” But like all classic gamblers, she added in frustration, he became addicted, and soon the family of four went bankrupt. Her mother turned to the lenders to pay for Yongsun and Yonghee’s tuition fees; her father continued stealing money to gamble away. Not long after, they found themselves in debt, owing the loan sharks a lot of money but completely unable to repay them. 

“Dad fled first,” Yongsun commented, bitterness exuded through clenched teeth. “He ran away and left us alone. Mom used the last of the money she borrowed to send us here to stay with a relative of ours before leaving herself. Then, when Yonghee was old enough, she started working part-time, earned enough money for us to rent a small place for ourselves, and started a creperie. When Ed - Eric’s brother - found us, we requested to pay it off slowly, and they agreed. Probably because we were just two teenagers at the time, really. And then we’d be free.” Yongsun buried her head into her hands. “But now I’ve messed it all up again. It’s my fault we’re screwed.”

She yelped as someone flicked her forehead, and both girls looked up to see Yonghee standing over them with her arms crossed. “Idiot, you weren’t the one borrowing money, were you? So it’s not your fault at all. We’re in this situation because of that damned bastard father of ours - no, don’t look at me like that,” she pointed at Yongsun, “because it’s true, and you know it yourself.”

Byulyi took a deep breath and tilted her head to look up at Yonghee. “Hey, unnie, I actually wanted to ask… Can I help at the creperie? I’ll do it for free, so you don’t have to pay me anything.” 

“Byulyi, I can’t just expect you to work for me and not get anything in return.”

Byulyi hummed and considered the statement, then let a cheeky grin spread across her face. “I’ll take Yongsun-unnie as payment.”

Yongsun whirled around to face her, bewildered and delighted. “Wait, what?”

Yonghee caught a flash of Yongsun’s small smile before it was hidden under a layer of surprise and smirked herself. If this didn’t bring Yongsun out of her school-skipping, depressed funk, nothing would, Yonghee thought. She stuck out her hand, and Byulyi grasped it in a handshake. “Done.”