"Get it together, Kang." Seulgi whispered to herself for the nth time tonight.

It had now been fifteen minutes since she was barged through the glass doors of the store. (against her own will, might she add!)

She felt betrayed.

...and a little violated, to be honest.

So far, she had grabbed herself a can of pringles, a few chips, and had rounded the store a total of four times in search for the anti-babymakers, but to no avail.

At first she thought that maybe they were out of stock. Maybe the universe wasn't so mean after all and decided to give her a break.

She hummed in content, a stupid smile plastered on her face. Seulgi liked this thought.

With a bounce to her step, Seulgi confidently started to make her way to the counter, anticipating the look on her friends' faces when she tells them that the dreaded contraceptives were nowhere to be seen.

Her newfound giddiness, however, didn't last long. Because when she got a little closer and looked ahead, her shoulders slumped. She had found them, sitting mockingly on the shelf behind the last person she wanted to buy them from.

Which brings us back to the present. Here Seulgi was, watching the droplets of water fall from the ice machine as she curses the person who thought that placing condoms somewhere out of customer reach was a good idea. Stupid store people.

She had scurried back to the beverage area after the realization that she actually had to talk to the girl in order to complete her mission. Seulgi can't do that! She barely even made it inside when she saw her behind the register, and now she's supposed to freaking talk to her?

Might as well rip her heart out.

She's not usually like this, though. On the contrary, Seulgi was quite confident. Not in a proud way, of course, but in a way that she held herself so surely. You could put her in the middle of a crowd and watch the people automatically gravitate towards her the moment she speaks. She had this undeniable charisma about her that allows her to be genuine but also interesting at the same time. It's one of her many gifts.

That's why her friends were pleasantly surprised when they found out about the effect the girl from the convenience store had on her. They wanted to see even the tiniest of interactions between them but Seulgi never gave them a chance.

She was pulled out of her sulking when her phone rang. Wendy's caller ID flashed on the screen and she answered the call, meekly bringing the phone to her ear. "Help me." Seulgi breathed out, eyes staring off into the distance.

"Oh good, you're still alive." Wendy yawns.

"The condoms are on the shelf behind her."

"Well, duh. That's where condoms usually are."

"How was I supposed to know? Now I even have to ask her for them!" Seulgi whines. "I can't do it, Wan."

Someone snorts in the background and Seulgi can hear a faint sound of someone toppling over on the other line, followed by incessant laughter.

"Sure you can! It's past 2am, Seul, she's probably already disoriented. She's not going to remember some random chick buying condoms past midnight." Wendy reassures her and to her surprise, it actually helps.

"You're right." She answers after a while.

"I am?" Wendy asks in disbelief, earning her a slap to the shoulder, probably from Moonbyul. "I mean of course, I am! Now hurry up, we've got another bottle to finish once we get back."

"Okay."

"Okay. Send smoke signals." And with that, the line went dead.

Seulgi closes her eyes and lets out another shaky breath as she starts walking towards the counter one last time.

Despite it being 2 in the morning, the convenience store was pretty much alive—unlike every other time she went in the middle of the night.

There were probably about seven more people in there with her. Three of which were just sitting at the tables, each nursing a nearly empty cup of coffee while talking amongst themselves. Seulgi believes that this had something to do with the girl on duty.

Come to think of it, this is her first time seeing the girl working a night shift since she usually works during the day.

Seulgi knows this because there's a reason why she, despite the decent amount of parking spaces that the university has, chooses to park her car a few blocks away from campus. She convinces her friends that it's merely part of her fitness routine, but in reality, it's really just so she can pass by the convenience store everyday.

She doesn't walk in, of course. Her weak, beating heart could never allow her to. Instead, she just passes by, risking glances once in a while in hopes to acquire a tiny dose of serotonin and store it in her pocket. Save it for a rainy day, maybe.

Besides, she doesn't really mind the extra twelve minutes it takes for her to walk from her car to the university gates. The occasional four seconds of warmth from getting a glimpse of the girl makes all the unnecessary leg work worth it.

She was currently next in line at the cashier and boy was she nervous. She feels as if she were in the Great Hall at Hogwarts, waiting for the Sorting Hat to decide whether she was going to be forced to have a new favorite color or she'd be put in Hufflepuff just because she really liked the color yellow.

Sometimes Seulgi doesn't understand her thoughts, herself.

After a moment of trying to recall how some things work in the fictional world of Harry Potter, the man in front of her shifts on his feet and gathers his change, meaning that it was her turn to pay now.

"Okay. Breathe." Seulgi whispers to herself, taking in large breaths to calm her beating heart. She could practically hear the thrumming in her ear, as if there were drums being struck from within her. It didn't help that when she looked at the door, she could clearly see her friends with their phones out, gleefully filming a moment that's going to haunt her forever.

This time, the man ducks his head and steps to the side, giving Seulgi an unobstructed view of the girl up front and dear god was she breathtaking.

Seulgi kept repeating in her head that god really did have his favorites. One being the girl in front of her. 

When their eyes finally met, the girl seemed a bit surprised. For whatever reason, Seulgi didn't know.

Or maybe she did.

Perhaps it's because of her constant aversion of this particular moment. You see, Seulgi has never paid with the girl behind the register before. She always makes it a point to either make the person she's with (mostly Moonbyul) pay for the items or she checks out at the other available counter instead.

She had never ever been face-to-face with the beauty before after that first time. She physically just couldn't do it. She fears her heart just might give out, like it seems to be doing right now.

They looked at each other for a while before the girl's features softened, cracking a smile. "Hi." She politely greets, making Seulgi bow her head in attempts of hiding her continuously reddening face.

She takes a tentative step forward and exhales. Mustering up all of what was left of the alcohol-induced courage in her system, she lifts her head and gently places the items in front of her for the girl to ring up.

"H-hey." She manages to squeak out, earning her a warm smile from the raven-haired girl.

She ducks her head. Figuring that looking at the girl's face for longer than two seconds was something she simply cannot do, Seulgi watches the girl's hands instead as they shift from item to item with each beep from the scanner.

This, however, meant that Seulgi doesn't notice how the girl's eyes were also trained on her, a curious expression on her face as she takes in the shy brunette's features, lingering a little longer on her lips. She also doesn't notice how her friends were completely freaking out outside the store, getting everything on camera.

"Will this be all?" The girl asks after a while.

"Um, no." Seulgi brings a hand up to rub the back of her neck, a nervous tick she's acquired growing up. "C-Can I please get a...um, banana and...er...those? " She stammers, briefly pointing to the shelf on the wall behind the other girl.

She follows the direction of where her customer pointed at and

oh.

There was a flash of something unkown in the girl's eyes, fast and unreadable. An emotion that Seulgi couldn't quite put her finger on. Was it shock? Disgust? Disappointment?

Seulgi snorts.
Disappointment.

Yeah, right. She's not that delusional.

"Oh. Sure, what kind?" The girl asks after a while, lifting a stool from under the counter and positions it by the shelf, stepping on it gingerly to reach the top.

"Anything's fine."

"Okay, and how many?"

"20...please."

The girl's eyes go wide as she looks at Seulgi over her shoulder. She couldn't contain the giggles coming out of as she grabs a box and brings it down. "Date night?" The girl asks as she sets the item on the counter.

Seulgi's eyebrows shot up in panic. "What? Oh god, no. I'm gay." She mindlessly blurts out, the unnecessary explanation out of before she could even think and take them back.

The girl raises her eyebrow at her, surprised at the new information. Her whole demeanor from a while ago completely out of sight.

"I should've known." The raven-haired girl smirked.

Seulgi blinks.

Once.

Twice.

"Excuse me?" She asks, not sure if she should be offended or not.

The girl simply shrugs. "No straight girl is that pretty in a hoodie and chucks at 2am." She explains, giving Seulgi a once-over, unaware of the effect it had on the younger girl. Was the pretty girl indirectly complimenting her? Was she getting punked? Where are the cameras? "Plus, I'm assuming that those are your friends?" She tilts her head to the side, amusement evident as she points towards the direction of the glass doors.

Seulgi's face falls. She has half a mind to run her friends over when she turns around and sees them happily waving at her, holding up a cardboard sign that says "she likes girls", written in large red letters.

She wonders what kind of back story she's going to make up when she inevitably takes on a new identity and moves halfway across the globe.

Soft, adorable laughter cuts her murderous thoughts short, reminding her of the pickle she was in. "It's nice to know that we have one thing in common." The girl smiles at her knowingly.

Wait... 

She's gay? 

Seulgi wanted to scream.

"That'll be ₩14,000." She states simply, like she just didn't tell Seulgi a few seconds ago that she was attracted to the female anatomy as well. Seulgi's head was spinning.

Her crush liked girls too.

No big deal.

Seulgi pats at her pockets quickly, only to realize that she didn't have any cash on her. "Shoot, my wallet's in the car. Do you take credit cards?" She hopefully asks, eyebrows scrunched together as she bites on her bottom lip anxiously.

"Yes, ma'am." The shorter girl replies with a nod, eyes focused on the space between Seulgi's teeth.

Seulgi hastily brought out her card from her phone case and slid it across the counter, too scared to risk skin-on-skin contact with the girl in fear that she might actually faint.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you just wanted me to know your name." She eyes Seulgi briefly, a teasing lilt to her tone.

Seulgi suddenly felt like she was on fire. She quickly reacts. "N-no, it's not like that, I really just left my car in the wallet! I mean my wallet in the car! I-" A hand encircles her wrist, stopping her from saying any more.

"Relax." The girl chuckles, immediately retracting her hand after seeing the brunette visibly stiffen. "I'm just messing with you.. Seulgi."

And Seulgi swears that she's not that kind of person, but the way that her name sounded so different on the girls lips made the hair on her arms stand on end and unbelievably dry. She her lips. 

"R-right." She nervously replies, retrieving her card from the girl's hands and shoving it back in her pocket.

She was about to bid her goodbyes when a firm hand squeezed her shoulder, preventing her from turning around. She looked to the side and her eyes went wide. 

"Good evening, miss. I'm Lisa, a friend of Seulgi's. Our friends and I were wondering if you would be so kind to pose for a picture with her." Lisa grins cheekily at the girl behind the register, eyes not even daring to look at Seulgi whose jaw looked like it was going to fall off. "It's for science."

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Seulgi whisper-yells at the blonde who was grinning from ear to ear.

"I'm here to take your picture, silly. The miss doesn't seem to mind, right miss?" Lisa smiles sweetly at the raven-haired girl who was clearly amused at the group's antics before turning her attention back to her fuming friend. "See? She doesn't mind. Now get your over there and smile." She says through gritted teeth and shoves Seulgi forward.

"Oh dear, you guys look so cute together." Lisa claps her hands together, wiping her eyes like a proud mother as she watches Seulgi send daggers her way.

"I swear to god, Lalisa."

"Oh shush." Lisa waves a hand dismissively and lifts her camera to her face. "Come on, Seul, give us a smile."

Seulgi brings a hand up to her temple in attempts to calm herself down when she hears giggling beside her. She turns around and faces the raven-haired girl, eyes deeply apologetic.

"I'm really sorry about this. My friends are mentally unstable."

The girl snorts. "Aren't we all, sometimes?" She answers, rounding the counter and moving to stand next to the brunette, an easy smile on her face. "Now won't you smile for the camera? It's for science, anyway."

Seulgi stands there, frozen, as her blonde-haired friend kept snapping pictures of the two like paparazzi on new year's eve.

When she felt like she'd taken enough, Lisa thanked the girl and giddily walked out the door, welcomed by their friends like the hero that she was.

She was definitely going to get an earful from Seulgi later on.

"Your friends seem like a lot of fun." The girl chuckles next to her, bringing her back to her senses.

"I think 'annoying' would be a better term to describe them." Seulgi offers, causing the girl to tip her head back laughing, and Seulgi swears she could listen to that laugh everyday.

She stares at the girl a beat too long and gets herself caught, a faint shade of crimson spreading through the raven-haired girl's cheeks. Seulgi looks away, of course, unable to handle the beating of her heart.

She clears and gathers the paper bag containing her purchase. It occurs to her that she still doesn't know the girl's name. Not that that's so surprising, considering that she couldn't even look at the girl a while ago for more than two seconds. Now, she claims that she can at least handle four.

She shifts on her feet, contemplating whether or not to ask the girl's name when she suddenly hears her speak.

"Thank you for shopping with us, please come again." came the girl's routine goodbye.

Seulgi's shoulders slumped. She had contemplated too long, it seems. 

She smiles weakly, masking the disappointment in her voice. "T-Thanks. Have a good night."

"You, too."

With one last nod, Seulgi turns around and walks away, a heavy feeling in her chest. Why couldn't she ask such a simple question?

As her fingers gripped the cold steel of the entrance door handles, a voice called out.

"Seulgi?"

She looked back, eyes landing on the raven-haired girl staring back at her, biting her lip nervously.

Seulgi gulped. "Yeah?" Seulgi answered breathlessly, her heart pounding like crazy against her rib cage.

"Irene." The girl smiled softly at her, voice clear as the summer sky. "My name's Irene."