Happiness

(pt1)

Tiffany was a social butterfly.

No woder why she always managed to get the jobs where she had to be sociable and interact with people. It was something she thoroughly enjoyed doing anyway.

This summer, she got a part-time job at an ice cream stand in Myeongdong.

They normally required employees to speak either a really good Chinese or Japanese there, neither of which Tiffany was capable of, but she got the job anyway because English was good enough for selling ice cream, and she impressed her boss on her first trial day by selling almost double the amount than usual.

Tiffany sometimes wondered how she was able to make friends so easily, too, since people have asked her for advice many times before and she concluded that it was probably because she just loved people. That's not to say she didn't get disappointed with some occasionally, but generally, she just tried to understand and see the good in everyone, even if it wasn't so easy at times.

She just liked people, and that applied to her romantic life too, regardless of age (within reasonable boundraries, of course), look, background, or even ... All that mattered was that there were mutual feelings between them, that there was an understanding, trust and attraction, and Tiffany would be happy with that.

She loved loving people, and loved being loved, no matter how cheesy that may have sounded.

And she took every opportunity she could to meet people, get to know them better, and if she could, try to give them a reason to smile.

She attributed her success at her jobs so far, and her current job as well, due to this desire. She realized that some people hated her for her ability to attract others to herself this way, but the love and smiles she recieved from the rest compensated her greatly for any bull that she had to take.

It was one of the hottest days in the summer when she first met Taeyeon.

She immediately noticed the girl's sour expression and yet cute face, eyes covered by a pair of sunglasses, her blonde hair and simple yet cool outfit swiftly catching Tiffany's attention as she walked by the stand. Tiffany stood there, behind the ice cream display that was open to the street, yelling "Delicious ice cream! 16 special flavors and fun shapes! Get some ice cream on this hot summer day!" interchangably in different languages. (Her loud voice was probably also a contributing factor when it came to hiring her.)

This was her rehearsed line that she repeated so many times a day, she was even yelling that some nights in her dreams. But whenever she caught someone eyeing the ice creams, or if someone just caught her attention, she would jump on the opportunity to make eye contact and speak to them personally.

Her best weapon was her eye smile and the kind words that followed along, like "Oppa, you look like you're getting a heat , come and cool down with some ice cream." or "Ahjumma, wow, you have a wonderful outfit on today! Let me give you an ice cream 500 wons off."

Of course, some people would hit on her, and some would just frown at her random remarks, but she didn't mind either that much. She understood.

Taeyeon was no different the first time she saw her.

"Pretty unnie with the blonde hair, come, have a sweet ice cream here on this awfully hot summer day!"

The girl seemed to be taken aback for a moment as she just passed the ice cream stand, froze for a quarter of a second then looked back, frowning as if unsure if she was the one being talked to.

"Hi!" Tiffany quipped right away, "Would you like an ice cream, maybe? We've got 16 special flavors--"

"Uh, no, sorry, not right now," she said, turned back around and walked away while Tiffany yelled an "Okay! Next time then!" after her, then went back to her rehearsed line and people-watching.

The next day, she was watching out to see if she could find the girl anywhere in the crowd again.

This sort of thing happened more often than she'd like to admit.

It was only about a week ago that she saw a guy who she found really attractive and kept trying to spot him again after the first time, but after three days with no success, she decided to give up.

One time, she did go out with an Australian guy who bought ice cream there and asked her out, but that didn't work out so well in the end, probably because he was just looking for a summer fling as he was just vacationing there. Tiffany was not really into that...

This was the first time in a while that a girl caught her attention though, and she was really hoping to see her again. She was looking for that blonde head in the crowd all afternoon while she stood behind her counter.

She didn't see her that day, but on the next, she did... only, she was currently serving two people when the girl passed by, and she couldn't just suddenly yell at her while she was handing out ice cream to her customers. So she just ended up having to watch her walk by without saying a word.

That, at least, gave her hope that she would probably see her on another day, too.

And she was right. She did see her again two days later, but the girl had her earphones in which Tiffany only noticed after not getting a reaction from her once she tried to yell after her.

She had two off days after that, but luckily, the day she returned, she was able to spot the girl again.

In case she was wearing an earphone again, this time, she tried to catch her attention by waving at her.

"Hello, unnie! Your hair looks super cute today!" she complimented, referring to the girl's braids. "How about we find an ice cream with a cute shape for you?" she gestured at their various patterned ice creams.

The girl just gave a short, polite smile in refusal and walked on.

Eventually, Tiffany decided it was probably in vain trying to get that girl to come over, so she didn't bother her for several days after that, even though she spotted her almost every single day in the next week.

On a sunny afternoon, like many others that summer, suddenly the rain started pouring heavily from the sky.

And just when it did, as if by God's command, Tiffany saw the blonde girl walk by again, no umbrella, head down, trying to protect her face from the pouring rain, and Tiffany decided to give it one more try:

"Oh, unnie, don't get soaked in the rain, come and have an ice cream under the roof here," she called her, and to her surprise, the girl glanced up at her and made her way to the stand almost immediately.

Tiffany's heart suddenly gave a strong beat.

'Whoa there.'

She was surprised with the sudden intensity of it.

"Hi," the girl greeted, and Tiffany noticed immediately what she couldn't the first time in the big noise: how pretty the girl's voice sounded.

"Hello, so you finally decided to come and try our ice cream?"

"You remembered me?"

"Yeah, of course," Tiffany smiled but almost blushed as she said so. It was not so obvious that she did remember her. There were plenty of people she saw and served every day. "Your blonde hair is easy to remember," she explained.

The girl laughed, and Tiffany thought it was really adorable.

That girl was so pretty... but her laugh was kinda boisterous.

Tiffany loved it.

"Yeah, I suppose so." She had a strange accent though... "Anyway, since it's raining, I guess it's time that I made a stop here. Is it okay if I eat here as well?"

"Of course!" 'More than okay,' Tiffany thought.

"Hopefully the rain will pass in the meanwhile."

"Well, we have 16 flavors and shapes you can pick from so feel free to take your time and choose according to your taste."

"Wow. 16's a lot. Maybe the rain will pass just by the time I pick one," she joked.

Tiffany laughed.

'Cute.'

"Maybe, but you can stay however long you need to finish your ice cream, too, if you want."

Taeyeon smiled at her again.

Tiffany listed some of the options while Taeyeon looked around in c