One, Two, Three

Sunhwa held the warm cup of hot chocolate tighter as she walked along the streets, Kim Suho next to her. He had his hand in his pocket, a cup of coffee in his other hand.

“So you’re telling me that your friend, Minseok, had no clue we met earlier?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy next to her.

It seemed too innocent, too clean, being out with a boy named Kim Suho. He was very unlike what most men who came to her were like. He was good, inside and out, too innocent and too naïve to the ways of the world. He had no idea how other people lived, like it was on the other side of the wall, a wall that he couldn’t cross over.

But there he was, with a girl who was practically his opposite.

Suho chuckled, looking down at the brunette girl. “Yeah, I didn’t exactly tell them about my little visit to your… um…” He paused, not wanting to offend the girl next to him.

“ house?” she asked sarcastically. He looked at her, surprised that she would refer to it that way. Sunhwa just shrugged in response, a little too nonchalant for Suho’s liking. “It’s what I’ve heard it called. People on the streets, they pass us all the time, call us s, .” She looked up at him, her coffee-colored eyes peering into his. “It’s just something they call us. It doesn’t mean anything, they’re just too scared of us, the girls who are what they want to be.”

He nearly started laughing in disbelief. Most girls he knew would be attacking whoever dared to call her a or a . Those words were taboo in the world of females, but this girl, Sunhwa, merely accepted it, in fact, she lived it.

Looking back down at her, Suho responded, “I wouldn’t go that far. When I stumbled into that place, drunk as hell, you could’ve done so much to me. Money, , you could’ve taken either of those things while I was asleep. But you didn’t.”

She laughed a little, shaking her head. Taking another sip of the hot chocolate, she kept walking by his side, pulling her thin hooded sweatshirt a little tighter. “Alright, then. How about… place of living?”

“You live there?”

“In Red Midnight?” she asked. “Yeah.”

To say Suho was shocked was an understatement. Not only did this girl, who was probably no older than him, work in the Red Light District, but she lived in the building she worked in. He wondered just how long she’d been working in that place.

Suho suddenly pulled his phone from his pocket. He cast an apologetic look at Sunhwa, who was watching him curiously. “Sorry, it’s my friend. He’s probably wondering where I am.” He pressed something on the screen, and asked, “Hello?” Pause. “Yes, hyung, I’m fine… I’m with a friend, yes… yes, it’s her… nah, I’m just going to walk her home… sure… I’ll meet you outside the club in an hour or so.” He let out a soft chuckle. “Yes, yes, hyung. You make sure the others aren’t completely drunk.”

Staring up at him, Sunhwa asked, “Do you need to get back to your friend now?”

He put his phone back in his pocket, grinning. “No, not just yet. It’s getting late though, so why don’t I walk you home? Back to Red Midnight?”

Sunhwa shook her head. “No, I’ll be okay. I do know the streets of my city like the back of my hand.” A she smiled, not widely, but a smile. Suho knew, just by witnessing it, that it was a real smile.

Just seeing her smile made him wish he could show one of his own.

Not one of the fake ones that people love so much.

But a real one, full of emotion and life.

“Keep an eye out, Kim Suho. Maybe we’ll see each other around.”

 With those words, she turned and walked away, her heels clicking along the pavement as she walked.

Suho watched her walk away, the smallest hint of a true smile washing over his face.

Kris’ jaw nearly dropped to the floor, almost spitting out his precious green tea latte, when Joonmyeon recounted his night at the club – or rather, night outside of the club with the girl named Sunhwa.

“You know, for a e… she seemed… normal. She was a little more confident than most girls, but she spoke just like any other person.”

A scoff came from the older Chinese-Canadian. “What did you expect? Did you expect her to speak another language or something?” he drawled, the disbelief practically seeping from his lips.

Joonmyeon laughed sheepishly, smiling apologetically as he shook his head. He flipped another page in his book, his mind attempting to translate the English words into something he could understand. “No… but the stories I’ve heard…” he trailed off. “You know, I just thought girls from the Red Lights were only hungry for and money… but Sunhwa is almost like any other girl you’d meet,” he explained.

It was Kris’ turn to let out a small snicker.

“They say that the first time you meet someone, it’s chance. The second time is coincidence. But the third time… the third time’s fate.”

Joonmyeon eyed K