Welcome to the Guesthouse

"AHHH!:
"AHHH!"
"WHO ARE YOU??? WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?"
"What's wrong Jiae?"
"There's a thief in our house!!!"

The morning couldn't get more chaotic as soon as Jiae woke up in the morning. Her loud shrieking voice not only startling Soojung as the host in the guesthouse, but also her fellow residents who were still asleep in respective bedrooms, causing them to stir awake.

Soojung scurried over to the source of the scream and found Jiae, still in her moomin pajama, sitting up on the bed. Also stood near the doorway of the bedroom should be their new resident, Seo Jisoo.

"That's not a thief, Jiae! Jisoo is our new boarder from now on!" Soojung informed, much to Jiae's mental breakdown. Jisoo gave her sheepish toothy smile at Jiae before awkwardly waving her hand. "Hello..."

Jiae didn't wait to say hi back, stomped her feet and locked herself in the bathroom with a loud slam, openly showing her protest.

***

Jiae didn't show up for breakfast that morning, which was so unlikely of the former since they all knew how that girl loved eating so much. Seeing Jiae skipping the morning meals made Soojung worried.

"Don't worry Soojung unnie. She'll show up sooner or later. Jiae unnie and food cannot be separated," said the youngest resident, Myungeun while  was busily chewing the meat she was eating.

The latest resident listened to their conversations while eating quietly in her seat. Jisoo tilted her head to see her best friend was practically devouring the whole food in her wide mouth in a manner that...Jisoo didn't know how to describe with words, to be honest. "Slow down Mijoo or you'll get choked later!"

Soon after she said that, reality hit fast as Mijoo choked on the food that she swallowed one after another impatiently. Quickly attending to the guest's necassity, Soojung poured water into a glass before handing it over to the girl named Mijoo. "Here!"

The tall girl swallowed the water in a blink and a surge of relief hit upon her as she finished gulping down the drink. "Thank you so much," she uttered to the short host and beamed gratefully, Soojung found herself blushing after seeing the gorgeous gummy smile.

Jisoo watched their antics with poker-faced, unamused with the way the both of them literally flirt in front of her, face flushed just by they stared at each other. In the end, Jisoo snorted in annoyance and rolled her eyes.

Soon Jisoo saw her best friend off and thanked her for the company. Mijoo helped her a lot to move into the guesthouse so she was grateful for that. On the other side, Soojung followed Mijoo stepped out of the house with her eyes as the younger residents suppresed their snickers at the host's antic.

***

The guesthouse belonged to Soojung's family was large enough to fit more than 10 residents with rooms that were just perfectly fit, not too spacious nor too small.

After ensuring the other residents plus Soojung had dismissed from the dining table, Jiae finally stepped out from her room and headed to the kitchen. For some reason she didn't know of why, she seemed to avoid being in the same space as Jisoo, explained why she didn't come out during breakfast.

To her luck, Jisoo happened to appear from the steps and headed over to her own room, which was right next to hers. Jiae sighed in silent.

Then their eyes met! Jiae suddenly felt the chill and could see a dark aura surrounded Jisoo, scaring her somehow. With expressionless face and emotionless eyes, Jisoo turned away after like having 10 seconds of eye contacts with Yoo Jiae.

Jiae's body remained frozen in her spot, gasped not too loudly after Jisoo disappeared behind the door of her room. What just happened?

Looking back at Jisoo's closed door, Jiae felt the need to avoid Jisoo at any cost from then on, because who knows the latter might cause trouble for her in the future.

***

She wished she didn't feel anything back then. Everything turned for the worst for her ever since Jisoo came in her life.

Jiae worked part-time at a bookstore in the town, taking only walking distance from the guesthouse. She was arranging new book stocks with assistance from another staff according to their labels when she was called over to the counter.

"Please help show this customer where business related books' aisle is at!" Jiae had a look at the customer and recognized who it was right away. "Oh, it's you..." she said dryly after realizing it's just Jisoo. 

"You know each other?" The counter girl's eyes glistened in amusement and she looked excited. Jiae smiled faintly at the former. "She's a new resident in our guesthouse!"

"I see!" the girl said after giggled joyously when Jisoo waved hand at her. Annoyed at their antics, Jiae wasted no time and told Jisoo to follow her. She led the way to the back of the bookstore where business, management, financial and even down to investment stuffs related was located. "Here they are."

Without thanks or anything, Jisoo walked pass her shoulder and gave a look at every book in the shelf carefully. Jiae snorted at the taller's rudeness and spun around, set to move away but unfortunately half of her body included her right leg bumped into the edge of one shelf, causing a long scratch on her arm and throbbing pain on her knee.

Jisoo watched the scene nonchalantly and shook her head. Her hands were empty, didn't hold any of the books but still moved towards Jiae, the latter hoped the former would help her somehow but to no avail. She just stood sideway, one hand in her jeans pocket and stared dryly at Jiae. "You should have been more careful," Jisoo's voice sounded no better than a complete enemy's mock on her and Jiae managed to spot the smirk grew on the corner of the former's lips.

Jaw dropped and stared blankly into the air as Jisoo disappeared in a blink of an eye, not forgetting the pain on her arm and knee, Jiae was ensured Jisoo's motive in life was just to torture her.

***

Incoming the guesthouse was Jiae, dead tired and sullen look. The girl was known as the grumpiest in the house and got sulking easily even at tiniest matter, so the long face she showed that night didn't surprise her fellow residents. They were having dinner at that time as Jiae finished her shift.

"Jiae, come and eat with us!" Soojung hollered digging in the chicken and other food served on the table. Mijoo came again that night, the one who bought two boxes of chicken, three of jokbal and another large box of pizza. At this point Jiae was sure the tall girl should be the co-host of the guesthouse, if not the resident, considering how often she showed up in the place. 

"No, thanks Soojung unnie. I've eaten before I come home!" Jiae answered lazily, dragging her feet to the steps when Myungeun's voice stopped her.

"But we got a lot of food tonight. Soojung and Jiyeon unnie even cooked dakgalbi and we mixed with rice!"

Jiae scrunched her nose, closed her eyes briefly and gritted her lips. They were so tempting to Jiae, but she didn't want to see Jisoo while she's eating. Not after what happened in the daylight.

Soojung watched the younger stood frozen by the steps, back on their faces. Curiously approaching Jiae, she wanted to know what disturbed her mind. "Jiae, you're alright?"

To her surprise, she saw the long scratch and red line on the girl's arm. Surely the cut was still fresh on Jiae's flesh, because just this morning Soojung saw her clean and completely fine. "What happened to your arm?"

Jiae attempted to hide the scratch but Soojung was faster to grab her arm. Looking up, again she made eye-contact with Jisoo and saw how the latter narrowed her eyes, scaring Jiae away. Swallowed her lump, Jiae breathed in deeply and recovered from the feeling quickly as she turned to Soojung. "It's just a scratch, no big deal unnie." She tried to be as convince as possible, and fortunately Soojung bought it.

The elder nodded her head before whispering further, just after Jiae wanted to move. "I'll leave some food for you. Who knows you might get hungry later?!" Jiae thanked the host and ascended the stairs back, limping for a few times as the pain from where her leg bumped into the shelf was still affecting her.

Jisoo eyed Jiae's move from afar, so intensely until the latter was out of her sight.

***

Break time for Jiae, something she badly needed after spending few hours in bookstore, once again arranging the heavy new stocks of books. Without anyone keeping her company, she went to the nearest coffee shop in the town to make her feel awake with the caffeine drink and eat some sweet like a slice cake or cookies.

What a fortune, when Jisoo also came stepping in the coffee shop when she just retrieved the order. The latter had a company and much to Jiae's surprise, it's her colleague, the one who worked in the counter when Jisoo first visited the bookstore.

"Oh, hi Jiae!" It was Jisoo who first greeted her, trying to sound as friendly as she could, but Jiae knew better it was fake and forced. Jiae however returned the same manner and greeted her housemate as well. "Hi!" dryly.

"Jiae-yah, Jisoo came to our bookstore again and ask me to have a drink with her. And our name are almost similar too, Jisoo-Sooji, sweet aren't we?" Jiae's colleague slash Jisoo's company started to speak nonesense that Jiae couldn't comprehend in her head, but nodded anyway. Jisoo excused from the two girls with reason to go and make her order first.

"I tell you the last time I wanted to know more about her. Why don't you just let me have my way?" Sooji began to act her usual self, an arrogant brat and over-dramatic. Jiae could never get along well with her.

"I told you I'm not that close to her. We rarely see each other because I'm busy on my own, and we haven't had time to talk to each other yet!" Jiae was the best at acting tough and emotionless, purposely trying to take down Sooji. 

The latter however scoffed at her words. "You're funny!" she remarked, of course it was a sarcasm. "Luckily Jisoo is attracted to be my friend like I do, and then we can proceed to be the most fabulous couple. While you...just a trash!"

Jisoo came back, Jiae's building rage slowly vanishing because there was no use to show her temper to two of the people she despised the most (so far). The former had two drinks with her, one be a hot coffee and another is mango juice. Surely Sooji was confident either one was for her, until Jisoo spoke up, shattering her dream. "Jiae, take this juice. You should drink more healthily from now!"

Stunned at her antic, Jiae stared with mouth gaping a little. What is this? Is she playing trick on me? Why does she act nice around me so sudden?

Not waiting for any words coming out of Jiae's mouth, Jisoo then left the shop, leaving both Jiae and Sooji dumbfounded at her action.

***  

"Yah Yoo Jiae!" Sooji came looking for her, anger shown on her face and Jiae had never seen the former that furious with her. It wasn't that long after the coffee shop scene and Jiae was just chilling in the back of the store, with both her coffee and the mango juice Jisoo gave on the table.

"The mango juice is supposed to be for me, not you!" the girl enraged, the scene from earlier was hard for her to erase from her mind. She should be Jisoo's company, but why did Jisoo bought coffee for herself and mango juice for Jiae while she got nothing?!

Jiae rolled her eyes. "Surely Jisoo should buy for you and not me, but why did she give it to me and not you?" she retorted and from her tone, it was obvious she was mocking Sooji.

Unbelievably shrugging off the fact, she shook her head profusely. "Give me the mango juice back!"

Scoffing at the childish nature of her colleague, Jiae lifted up the cup and decided to play with the fire more. "You want this back?" She then sipped the untouched drink from the straw, the cup which was filled with the juice had vanished its content in a blink of an eye as Jiae finished the them, only making Sooji more furious.

"YAH!" The latter yelled, heart boiling at Jiae for playing fun of her. Out of anger and insanely furious, her hand proceeded to reach whichever object was close to her so she could throw them at Jiae, and the first one that came to her reach was Jiae's still hot coffee.

She didn't realize it; truly, that the cup was still warm and filled, but it was too late to take back her action when the coffee already spilled out, the hot liquid poured on Jiae's arm and body, her uniform stained with the coffee. But the crucial part was, Jiae's skin was burned.

"AHHH!"

Out of fear, Sooji dropped the now empty cup as her palms quickly cupped against . Other colleagues and the manager rushed in rapidly upon the commotion, wondering what happened.

"Oh my goodness Jiae!" Her manager was appalled at the girl's drenched uniform and the flush red growing on her arm. "What did you do, Sooji?"

"She messed around with me, she deserves it!" Sooji wouldn't back down, not when she felt she was at the lowest and nobody else would defend her. She was absolutely insecure.

"Surely that doesn't justify you could burn Jiae's skin like that!" One of her colleagues interrupted, siding with Jiae obviously. The subject however was in too much pain to care about their argument, whole body was trembling greatly as it was taking its toll on her.

Knowing it would be no use to argue anymore, the manager let Jiae had the day off, presumably for few days more because who knew when would the pain heal. He then took her to the nearby clinic first, treating the wound firstly before dropping her at the guesthouse.

Jisoo saw who sent her back from inside the glass window of the house, her fist balled subconsciously.

***

When the front door creak opened, Soojung thought it'll be Jiyeon and Myungeun but turned out wrong when Jiae appeared. "Oh Jiae, you're earl-WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?"

The elder was absolutely freaked out when she saw the younger stepped into the house with bandaged arm. It felt like nowadays Jiae often came home wounded more than she could imagine. Did she become some kind of like a thug or what?

Soojung's loud scream drew Jisoo's attention that her eyes quickly searched for Jiae. The moment her gaze landed on the latter's arm, wrapped in a bandage that they didn't what caused them, something tugged her heart that her anger from earlier vanished completely.

Jiae didn't mean to tell the truth, not when Jisoo was with them but she explained briefly somehow. "It's just hot water ran down on my skin, that's why I came home early. My manager sent me back!"

The host shook her head. "To have hot water burned your skin like that isn't a 'just', Yoo Jiae!" To have the elder nagged her like this only made Jiae felt small and lowered her head in shame. Soojung sighed. "Go up to your room. I'll be there with ice pack and put the ointment for you!"

Worried washed her entire self about her fellow resident. Among all, Jiae was the least she had spoken to, then again it might had something to do with her cold self. Jiae never treated her like she thought she deserved, so Jisoo was just returning the same treatment. But now things were slowly twisted.

"I'll do it instead of you, Soojung unnie!" She then volunteered to aid Jiae with the ice pack and ointment instead of the host. Soojung narrowed her eyes in concern. "Will the both of you be fine with that?"
 
"Well, this could be my chance to be close to her. Ever since I first stepped into this house and mistakenly thought her room as mine, we never had the chance to be in good terms!"

After acquiring the elder's approval, Jisoo showed up in Jiae's room with a bucket of ice and first aid kit in hands. Jiae never expected to see the former, but kept her composure and didn't show her nervousness having Jisoo around. "What are you doing here?"

"I can help you too," she replied, proceeding to sit on Jiae's bed even without her permission. Slowly, she uncovered the bandage and saw the burn mark, a foreign feeling seeping inside her.

Without further words exchanged between the both of them, Jisoo wasted no time to cool the pain with the ice, Jiae whimpered at times at the cold sensation. It was pleasing to Jisoo's ears, Jiae didn't tell her to go off but showed her weakness in front of her.

"Didn't I tell you the last time to be more careful?" Jisoo spoke that broke the silence in the room. Jiae glared at the former as her rage grew.

"Do you have the right to say that to me now? After what you did?" Eyes enlarged, breath uneven and volume raised that had Jisoo looked up as her face reflected confusion. "Huh?"

"Because of your stupid mango juice I had this scar! Because of you Sooji had a hatred against me! Because of you Sooji spilled the hot coffee on me! It's all because of you!"

Jisoo gritted her teeth, jaw tightened and lips quivered at Jiae's outburst. So Jiae had this bandage on her arm thanks to her?

"From the first time I saw you, I know there's something not right! And now I know you want to get rid of me, but then do you have to use someone else to harrass me for you? Even if I don't like Sooji that much from the beginning, we never had a fit on each other until you came!"

Never had once she shook from having people blaming her for the consequences, but this time was different. Jisoo never wished for something like this to happen, especially after she had taken more interest in Jiae.

"If you want me out of your sight so much, I'll disappear! I'll leave this house and never come back again just to please you. Are you happy now?"

They were too much for Jisoo to take in. Jiae's constant attack made her weak, and Jiae's tears made her weaker. A minute later, Jisoo stood on her feet and turned around, didn't have the guts to see Jiae's face. "Don't go. I don't want you to go, so just stay. I'll leave." Her voice whispered, slowly touching Jiae's tiny heart.

Jisoo's behaviour around her nowadays were so...different and a complete twist from the earlier days they met. Jisoo just told her to stay and don't leave. But that didn't assure Jiae's security.

However still...something about Jisoo's last words made her changed her mind. Warmth, peace and gratefulness, all sorts of the same category engulfed her entire being at the moment. Maybe, she should stop having ill thoughts and gave Jisoo a chance to atone to what she had done.

***

Jisoo showed up at the bookstore again, searched for her this time. Sooji was of course enthusiastic to see her crush again, after the last time they parted and Jisoo didn't contact her or anything.

They saw each other outside of the shop lot to the corner hallway, Jisoo made sure nobody was in sight to spot them. Safe in place, Jisoo proceeded to pulled Sooji's uniform collar, causing the girl to jolt in front in a hitch, shock and fear assaulted her entirely.

"J-Jisoo, what are you doing?" She couldn't help but stammerring when Jisoo was this scary.

"You..." Jisoo's deep voice turned her on, but it wasn't the time for that. "You know the other day I came here was to see Jiae before you told me she went into the coffee shop, then stop acting like I did it for you. Stop harassing Jiae and you should just quit your job! I see you between us once again, I will do even worse than what you did to her!" Deep and husky, Jisoo warned her regarding the incident happened to Jiae and it was a major lost to Sooji.

The friendly and kind vibe Jisoo gave before had turned completely different after showing her true colour. Sooji was left numb and dumbfounded, soon regretted putting hope Jisoo would give them a chance together.

***

Quiet.

Jiae sneaked out to see where all the residents had gone to but found nobody. It's on the weekend so impossible for the younger ones to be out for school. Soojung probably went out on a date with Mijoo, while Jisoo...

"Jiae-ya..."

Suddenly appeared from nowhere could Jiae detect, Jisoo showed her cutest toothy smile. "Do you want to eat with me?"

Jiae wasn't sure if it was genuine, but she turned down the offer anyway. "Thanks, but sorry I've eaten!"

Jisoo just crept her out for some reason.

***

"Jiae-ya, do you want to eat lunch?"

Once again Jisoo asked the question, left Jiae caught off guard. Why did she want to eat with her so desperately like this?

"Uhm sorry Jisoo, I ate lunch earlier so I'm still full."

Jisoo was turned down again. The taller looked at her watch. "It's just 11 now. You really ate early!"

Guilty of being caught with the lie, Jiae bit her lower lips in shame and lowered her head. Jisoo nevertheless didn't force Jiae further.

"Maybe next time," she uttered before leaving the bookstore.

***

"Hi Jiae!"

Jisoo came to the bookstore for yet the nth time, with Mijoo as her company. "Mijoo will leave with Soojung in a while so I'll be alone. Do you want to keep me company and go eat together?"

Was she obsessed with eating or something? Jiae just couldn't understand. 

Jisoo's taller friend shot her a strange look, bewildered at Jisoo's overly friendly self as she blatantly asked Jiae out.

Since Jiae rejected Jisoo's offer to eat together so frequently, she gave it a thought to consider the latter's feelings this time. "Sure!"

A grin immediately grew on her face, so widely that made Jiae pondered just why all these times she had the guts to turn them down. "Cool! It's still early now, so I'll be back at 6 and we'll go eat dinner together!"

The two friends stepped out of the bookstore with Jisoo being overjoyed still. Mijoo furrowed her eyebrows and threw her shorter friend a look. "Why are you so happy?"

"I've asked her for many times, just this one she agreed to eat with me. Just like how you're so happy to go out with just you and Soojung unnie together, it's just the same thing for me!"

Stunned at her words, Mijoo left her mouth agap opened before giggling in amusement. She then set to lock Jisoo's head in her arm and the two best friends left with laughter of joy.

***

"Guess who?"

Jiae almost screamed and kicked the culprit that surprised her by suddenly covering her eyes and whispered in her ears. She dismissed the thought after hearing the familiar voice. "Jisoo.".

The former waited for her in front of the bookstore, ready to go eat dinner with her. Jisoo grinned when she realized them and let go of Jiae's head.

Jiae timidly showed her smile at Jisoo before the pair moved in sync to nearby store. If not for Jisoo's request, Jiae wanted to have real meal for dinner, but they ended up in convenience store to eat triangular kimbap and ramen.

If Jisoo was so eager to eat dinner with her, why she had to choose these cheap food to feed their hunger? Jiae cursed the former internally.

Nonetheless, Jiae still hungrily devoured the triangular kimbap after uncovering the wrapper. But  stopped munching the food after realizing Jisoo was struggling with something and occassionally glanced at her. Jiae scanned carefully what's disturbing the taller girl so much and finally realized she couldn't unwrap the triangular kimbap.

"Jiae, can you help me uncover this? It's my first time eating it!" She sounded so pure and innocent like a child who knew nothing but to eat candy, but then again she couldn't even unwrap the sweet by herself. That was how Jisoo like.

Falling sympathy on her, Jiae took the triangular kimbap from Jisoo's hand and unwrapped the food for her. Jisoo took it back and started munching happily. In the end, Jiae thought this was comfortable enough too.

"Thank you for spending your time with me," Jisoo said so gently, somehow making Jiae's stomach dancing weirdly inside. And she didn't think her face would turn flush red either.

***

The worst feeling was when you woke up in the morning feeling headache. Jiae could relate.

Calling in her colleague at the bookstore, she informed to have asked a day leave, which wasn't a problem fortunately. Soojung tended to her in