There’s something all too easy about the way Chorong sits across from Eunji in a coffee shop with Hayoung beside her, happily sipping at her hot cocoa. It almost feels like any other weekend, except for the fact that Chorong’s heart feels like it’s about to beat out of her chest every time Eunji looks at her. 

Chorong isn’t sure when Eunji went from ‘that playgirl soccer player that she wants nothing to do with’ to ‘the really pretty and kind soccer player that both her and her daughter are kind of falling for’. Probably somewhere between when she told Hayoung that she’d beat her at soccer one day and when she’d given Hayoung a piggyback ride on the way to the coffee shop. Considering Hayoung is basically her whole world, there’s something about how lovingly Eunji treats her that strikes a chord with Chorong. 

“Was it good?” Eunji asks as Hayoung finishes off her hot cocoa in record time.

Hayoung wipes off some of the whipped cream off her upper lip and nods, “That was the best hot cocoa I’ve ever had!” She automatically turns to Chorong and asks, “Can we come here again?”

“Sure, we can start coming here on the days we go to the park,” Chorong says. 

Hayoung smiles happily at the answer then asks, “Can I go color?” She points to a table a few feet away, set up with blank sheets of paper and crayons. It’s clearly put there for kids, given the colorful rug it sits on and toys scattered around. “Pleeeeease,” Hayoung adds when Chorong doesn’t answer immediately.

“Fine, but you know the rules?” Chorong says, running a hand over Hayoung’s hair. 

“Don’t talk to strangers and come get you if anything is wrong,” Hayoung recites to her. She wiggles impatiently and glares at Chorong when she doesn’t say anything. “Can I go now?”

Chorong waits another long moment just to , trying not to smile when Hayoung looks like she’s about to fall out of the booth she’s bouncing so much. “Okay, go,” Chorong finally says. She laughs when Hayoung takes off like a rocket, speeding off to the table like someone’s going to steal it. “Sorry about that,” she says to Eunji as she turns back to her. 

“No worries,” Eunji says. She smiles fondly in Hayoung’s direction and says, “I miss being that age.”

“I bet you were just as much of a handful as she is,” Chorong says before snapping shut. Did she really just say that to a famous soccer player she’s met twice?

Eunji just laughs though and says, “Oh, I definitely was. My mom never lets me forget it.”

“Please don’t tell Hayoung that,” Chorong says as she takes a sip of her latte. She laughs a little and says, “I can just picture it. She’ll tell me she has to be just like you to become a good soccer player and become even more troublesome.”

“My lips are sealed,” Eunji says, miming zipping her lips. Her eyes curve into crescents as she playfully adds, “I’ll make sure not to tell her about the time I set three pigs loose in my high school.”

Chorong’s jaw drops just before she bursts into giggles. “Well, now I have to hear this story, even if Hayoung can’t.”

That’s how Chorong ends up spending almost three hours at the coffee shop, just talking to Eunji. They talk about their youth, their jobs, their friends. It’s almost frighteningly easy to talk to Eunji. She just listens so attentively and talks so expressively. Choron