“I think it’s gonna flood tonight, we better hurry to get home.”

“Uh?” Chaeyoung blinked away from the blaring monitor, she looked outside the window. Yep, it's the rainy season and on this particular day, rain has poured surprisingly heavy all day.

“Can I do this report at home, then?”

“Which part?” Her manager looked at her monitor, “Hmm sure, make sure you send that to me first thing in the morning tomorrow.”

“Sure! Thanks, sir!”

Chaeyoung had just started to work under this manager for two months, but she found herself liking his compassion. He was cold on the outside but Chaeyoung could feel deep down he’s a nice family person. “Hurry, Chaeyoung-ssi. You’d miss the bus and if it’s flooded, your sister will be alone again today.” “Alright, sir. You want to fetch your brother too at his school?” “Yes, that’s why I’m hurrying everybody home, perks of being the manager,” he smirked.

Chaeyoung had a light conversation with her team during the elevator ride. She was offered a ride back home, but Chaeyoung knew she lived on the opposite side of the town from the rest of the team. “Don’t you want to eat first? Buy take outs, at least? The traffic will be so bad,” Im Nayeon from PR nudged her once they arrived at the main lobby. “It’s okay, I promised my sister I’ll cook tonight. Bye!”

Chaeyoung opened up her umbrella. It was embarrassingly yellow with too much tiger cartoon graphics, but she used it with a bubbly feeling since it was a gift.

son chaeyoung 5.21pm: i’m waiting for the bus now!

son chaeyoung 5.21pm: please wait for me :DDDD

👶🏻🐧 5.22pm: Take care! Is it raining? :(

son chaeyoung 5.22pm: yep yep, is it raining there? 😗

son chaeyoung 5.22pm: ive bought LOTTTSSSS of fresh salmon!

son chaeyoung 5.22pm: ttyl, the bus is coming hehe

TTYL since the bus would be so packed she would need both her hands holding the railing tight. She knew it would be annoying if she kept on swaying because she texted, so Chaeyoung really avoided using her phone in the bus. She missed her girlfriend so bad, though. Chaeyoung was out of the city for a week because of her job (the one she had to prepare a report for). She was used to always seeing her every day so the brief separation was quite suffocating.

Chaeyoung looked at the moving droplets on the bus window. It was raining harder. Alone time like this on the bus always made her mind wander.

“Bro, you need to watch this YouTuber!”

“What’s with her?” Chaeyoung lazily peeked at her friend’s phone screen. She was doing her school assignment and this friend of hers really liked distracting her.

“She’s famous for her ASMR videos but these days, she likes to vlog about her daily life too.”

Just like all the other YouTuber. “Okay, and?” Chaeyoung waited for a punchline.

“And it seemed like she lived in our area and visited our store often!”

“So???”

Dahyun sighed, “Bro, you are seriously no fun. Okay, so she hasn’t done her face reveal. I’m curious, who among our customers is THE Dancing Miguin???”

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes at her friend’s weird obsession with some internet persona. She was about to continue doing her homework when a customer came to their booth.

“Hello, I’d like to order two poke bowls, please.”

“Good afternoon! Sure, any additional topping?”

“Hmm, 2 additional salmon extra to one of the bowls, then.”

“That’d be 10,000 won.”

“Here.”

“Thanks! What name should I put your order in?”

“Sana.”

Chaeyoung inputted the order and gestured to Dahyun to make the order. She noticed then that the customer still stood in front of the cashier. “We will get your order delivered to your table,” she smiled at the customer. She's probably new.

“Oh, yes, thank you. I’m just wondering, will it be okay for you if I shoot some shots here?”

Probably she’s some daily-life vlogger that Dahyun liked, “Is this for a YouTube video?”

“Yes, will I get you in trouble?”

“No, it’s okay. Make sure to censor the faces that appear in your videos.”

“Got it!”

Chaeyoung continued to do her homework. She found the part time position in the poke bowl stall enjoyable. Other than it offered good money, Chaeyoung could have some free time to do her school obligations.

“This is the bowl for order number 29. Wait. What is that girl doing with her camera?”

“Oh, well just some Youtuber. She asked permission earlier to shoot and I said it’s okay.” Dahyun’s face looked horrified so Chaeyoung tried to confirm, “..which is alright, right?”

“CHAEYOUNG!”

“..What?”

“Did you even listen to me earlier!? Gosh itmustbethedancingmiguinaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa imdeliveringthisorder!” and off she scurried to the customer’s table. Apparently the Sana girl came with another girl who seemed to be more on the quiet side. Chaeyoung didn’t know a thing about Youtubers, probably the quiet girl was the content manager or something.

The next day, Sana came again to order the exact same menu. She came again and again and again for the following days, to the point Chaeyoung memorized her order with extra salmon already. By the nth time, Chaeyoung decided to go out of her robotical response, “You like our menu and salmon so much, huh?”

Unexpectedly, Sana groaned. “Ughh you cannot imagine how sick I actually am,” she peered at Chaeyoung's name tag, “Chaeyoung-ssi.”

“Oh, is it for your friend?”

“Yeah.. She’s a Youtuber and she keeps on saying she hasn’t gotten the perfect shot for your poke bowl. That and another weird reason. I’m sorry, I hope we didn’t scurry away your visitors because we kept using cameras here.”

Chaeyoung laughed it off, “Don’t worry! If you’re the Dancing Miguin on YouTube, people will like coming here more.”

“Do you watch our content?”

“Hmmmm yeah after Dahyun, my friend who was your groupie (Dahyun was waving while making the poke in the kitchen), told me, somehow it’s on my recommendation.”

“Cool. Which one is your favorite content?”

“Where you knitted! But your voice is so soft there, I cannot believe it’s you!”

“That wasn’t me, it was my friend there,” Sana pointed at the table. Chaeyoung looked at her and she swore the girl was looking Chaeyoung’s way just earlier.

“Oh! She came here with you everyday. Both of you ran the channel?”

“You can say that. She provided the content while I helped do the basic administration stuff. Anyway Chaeyoung-ssi, why are you never the one to deliver our order?”

“Dahyun liked your channel so I let her be.”

“This time, please deliver us our order. I like your menu but I really can’t go here for another day.”

“Ah, sure no problem,” weird request but okay.

Many people have gotten off the bus so now Chaeyoung could have a seat. She used the chance to open her phone and looked at the map. It wasn’t looking good, it was all red. It was 7 pm already and she still had a long way to go.

👶🏻🐧 5.25pm: just doing edit as usual, i also had a satisfactory nap today hehe 😴

👶🏻🐧6.10pm: Chaengie, we can have the salmon for breakfast. I saw the maps and it’s traffic jam everywhere. I’ll make us warm bone soup, tell me when you’re in our stop

son chaeyoung 7.11pm: sorry 😭 it’s our stop in 10 minutes

Mina had always wanted Chaeyoung to make a cover for her YouTube channel. Mina saw Chaeyoung’s artwork in the school magazine and she liked her art style. However, Mina 4 years ago was a completely awkward introvert. Since Chaeyoung didn’t have any SNS account, she used the dumbest thing ever to contact Chaeyoung: stalk her.

Mina found out about Chaeyoung’s habit and daily activities before they got to know each other. This made some of their early dating experience really awkward for Mina, because she felt like a creep. Chaeyoung just laughed it off, however. Chaeyoung said she understood. After all, Chaeyoung saw how Mina handled their first meeting together.

“Here is yo—“

“Son Chaeyoung.”

“—ur order.. Eh, do we know each other?” Chaeyoung looked at her name tag to make sure that they didn’t put last name on it.

Sana face-palmed, “Mittan, that’s not how you do it. Let me repeat, hi turned-out-to-be-Son Chaeyoung, I am Sana. This is Mina.”

“Uh, yes, hi Sana and Mina. Anything I can help you with?”

“Umm I am a YouTuber,” Mina might have said that with a volume too high to her liking. Sana coughed from the other side of the table, it’s like she’s reminding her friend to follow a previously memorized script. “Sorry, I mean, I have a YouTube channel. It’s nothing big but I want to have an artsy cover on it, I can use it for my opening bumper as well, and then we go to the same school, and..yeah, that’s it.”

“Oh, wow! So my schoolmate is a famous YouTuber! I also subscribed to your YouTube channel, it’s cute!”

There was a visible red tint of Mina’s face, but Mina sure had a weird way to cope with stress because in a sudden she became fluent with her words, “My YouTube channel needs a new cover and probably new opening as well. Okay, sorry I’m repeating. I like your artwork in our school magazine so I’d like to hire you to make one.” Mina stopped and took a deep breath, “..so, would you like to help me make the cover?”

“Why, of course I want to!”

“How much should I pay you?”

“Ah, no need to pay. I’m only doing it as a hobby so I don’t think I can charge you.”

“I cannot do that.. My channel is commercialized, I feel bad. It feels like I’m taking advantage of you.”

“Please, I insist. It would be a good portfolio for me to appear in your channel.”

“Son Chaeyoung-ssi, I wouldn’t be paying you a lot if that is your concern.”

“Mina, right? It’s completely okay, Min..”

“Guys guys guys,” Sana interrupted both of them. “Let’s meet halfway. Chaeyoung will do it for Mina, Mina will brief Chaeyoung, during the briefing and art development, Mina will treat Chaeyoung. Deal?”

They both agreed to the terms proposed by Sana. Chaeyoung made an appointment with Mina on the weekend at a non-seafood restaurant (because Sana was really sick of any type of raw fish at that point).

“Hi! I’m sorry for being late,” Chaeyoung waved at Mina and then picked a seat across from her. “It’s okay. Sana just told me that she’s not coming. Please order whatever you want, I insist you pick the most expensive menu, okay?”

(Un)fortunately, Sana ditched them for a date with Dahyun. So, it became only the two of them. Mina seemed worried that the situation would be awkward, so Chaeyoung made sure she felt at ease. Mina warmed up quickly and then they had a very productive meeting to discuss their collaboration.

It took them 2-3 other meetings to finish their work. During those meetings, Chaeyoung found out that Mina was a very interesting person. She’s quiet and shy but she ran an incredibly growing YouTube account. She may seem laid back but she had a clear vision on what she wanted to do. Mina’s softness also triggered Chaeyoung to do the same (she was usually on the bolder side) and Chaeyoung liked who she was when she’s with Mina.

After their work meetings ended, Chaeyoung asked Mina on a date and Mina said yes. Not many people knew this. They didn’t hide it but didn’t show it publicly either and they felt so content with how things work. Eventually, Sana and Dahyun connected the dots themselves because both of them seemed to be always unavailable at the same time. Mina asked Chaeyoung to move in with her in their third year and Chaeyoung had never felt happier before. Her Mina rarely initiated things but so when she did, Chaeyoung felt like she’s on Cloud 9.

After a journey that took 20 instead of 10 minutes to her stop, she got off the bus. Chaeyoung walked tiredly towards her apartment gate. She couldn’t wait to be in her warm apartment and see Mina, but her week was so tiring so she tried to preserve some energy. Otherwise, she would be running through the rain.

From a distance, however, she saw someone standing with an embarrassing blue umbrella. Chaeyoung gasped at that view, a big smile grew on her face and then she started running.

“Don’t run!” The girl with shoulder-length black hair scolded her but opened her arms wide anyway. Chaeyoung ran to her embrace, “I miss you, Mina!”

“I miss you too, baby. Now don’t run and use the umbrella properly.”

“I want to be under the same umbrella with you,” she mumbled to her girlfriend’s neck, sniffing the scent she missed the whole week.

“Okay okay, that tickles! Let’s go inside soon, your shoes are soaked! We should dry them fast.”

“My bag is also wet,” Chaeyoung reported.

“We’ll dry that