The aroma of coffee tickled her nose and helped to wake her. She didn’t drink coffee but the smell of it was always pleasant. Though they had a coffee machine, but it was seldom ever used. Sunny stretched out a bit in bed and noticed her door had been open. Usually someone would open the door to the room of whoever was still asleep if they were the first one up. Neither were sure why or how it started, but seemed like a good policy, this way they could see if everyone who was there in the night was still there in the morning. More or less.

“What time are you meeting the girl with your phone?” Jessica asked as Sunny walked into the kitchen. Sunny answered to her nonchalantly as she joined the Jessica and Tiffany at the table to eat breakfast. “Will you be taking Hyunah with you as well?”

Sunny had actually not thought of Hyunah, they did not have plans for her today and it is very possible she could get bored. Tiffany was off today she thought to herself; maybe Hyunah would want to spend time with her. Of course it was just a maybe.

“I don’t know, we should ask her when she gets up,” said Sunny.

Tiffany offered that she could take Hyunah to the mall. Hyunah walked into the kitchen looking for breakfast. She greeted everyone good morning helping herself to orange juice and a croissant. Tiffany had a small pout on her face as it was the last croissant and she had wanted it, but she didn’t strike any claim to it.

Jessica had return her room dressed in a pant suit, announcing that she was leaving for work and that it was Sunny’s turn to handle dinner tonight. Sunny had attempted to protest but Jessica had already walked out the door, leaving the 3 girls at the breakfast table sitting in silence except for the crunching of cereal.

“Hyunah, do you want to go shopping today?” Tiffany asked filling the void.

Hyunah smiled, she had to take a moment to swallow the food and said that she would love to go. She still wanted to see more of the city a bit too. The three spend the next few minutes making brief plans of their day. Sunny would come back to see them later in the day after she got her phone back. Hyunah had scrambled to the room to get changed for the trip.

Everyone was dressed and ready to go, Sunny was the last one out the door and ran to Hyunah before she got into Tiffany’s car.

“Hyunah, I forgot to tell you, if you ever come into the home and no one is here. The code to the alarm is 22012. Okay?” Sunny said to Hyunah in Korean, Hyunah nodded and got into the car. Tiffany waved bye to Sunny as she pulled out and drove off.

“Why did I tell her in Korean? No one else is out there but us. Oh I must be going crazy,” Sunny said to herself in Korean after realizing she had outlandish with her perceived paranoia. She looked at her watch after climbing into the car. “I can’t be late!”

**************

The girl sat off to the wall inside the coffee shop. She had an Ikea catalogue and was flipping through the pages. Occasionally some guy would ask her if the seat in front of hers was taken, but she told all potential suitors that she was meeting someone. She had even arrived early, possibly too early actually. Time had ticked away, and she had nearly finish going through the catalog when finally the tiny girl she was waiting on came into the shop.

She scanned the place and spotted Hyomin and ran up to her. She apologized for being a bit late, she even gave a little bow. She again apologized and sat down in the empty chair. Hyomin pulled out Sunny’s cell phone from her purse and gave it Sunny.

“I noticed it uses the micro USB so I charged the phone for you too,” Hyomin said.

“Again thank you. I’m really thankful, can I repay you? I feel bad. Can I make it up to you?” Sunny asked.

Hyomin again told Sunny it was quite alright until she asked her if she was hungry. Hyomin had not eaten since breakfast and Sunny offered to treat Hyomin out to lunch. Sunny wouldn’t take no for an answer, Sunny asked Hyomin to pick the place. The two had even exchanged numbers in case one got lost. The both exited the coffee shop; the drive would be less than ten minutes to the restaurant.

Hyomin had arrived first and waited outside the door of the casual dining restaurant for Sunny to arrive. The two walked in and were seated to a booth. At first there was a bit of an awkward silence. Sunny asked the first question about what Hyomin did. Soon it came to discovery that both attended the same college and were both juniors. They talked about places on campus the liked, about traffic, parking and other small talk.

Hyomin learned that Sunny was a business major, with large focus in management and international business and had already obtained an entrepreneur certificate from the college. Hyomin told Sunny that she was studying production and media design, along with a minor in business. Sunny told Hyomin that she would help her get the entrepreneur certificate, it was rather simple, it was only 2 classes and she didn’t even have to be a business major.

The news lit up a bit of excitement. She told Sunny that Soyeon, her unnie, had just graduated and would start working very soon. She also learned that Sunny was a natural born American citizen even though she lived in Korea for a good majority of her life. She and her parents had decided upon it would be nice to have that citizenshp, and so through the legalities of the US system, she maintained it.

“So you can speak Korean too right?” Hyomin asked.

“I can read and write it very well too,” Sunny answered in Korean. Hyomin laughed.

Hyomin and her house sisters had obtained their green cards through a relatives living in America. She told Sunny she wasn’t quite sure if she would go home to Korea after school or not, but they got green cards so they could work part time and what not. Student Visas were tricky since you couldn’t stay the whole year in the country and if you ever got in trouble bad things could happen to you.

“Oh so I dated this American guy once, he was a firefighter,” Hyomin begins in Korean. “I guess he had the whole Asian girls are cute thing. It only last a like 3 weeks. Firefighters have a lot of drama. A lot of drama. I mean it got too much for me, and it wasn’t even about me. Not that it should be about me. Hehe. How can a firefighter drink and smoke? They should make that into a drama.”

“Rescue Me?” Sunny asked. Referencing the only American Firefighter drama she could think of.

“No, I mean a Korean drama. Gosh. Still loves her, misses her. Dead people. This and that. It was all so crazy. I was in the middle of something strange. So glad that was over. He was good person, I guess.”

Sunny explained to Hyomin she never really dated much in America or Korea, she had always worked with school and not. Hyunah was coming in on a student visa, and they would be watching after for her. Hyomin thought that was sweet, of them to take care of another friend in such a way and they share a bed. Hyunah and Jiyeon were comparable in age, both were the youngest of their household.

As time progressed, the more Hyomin couldn’t help but felt as the lunch seemed like a first date. She couldn’t figure out why, maybe it was the mood lighting these restaurants always had or the calm atmosphere. Something, some sort of feeling that she couldn’t quite explain. There was a sense of ease and comfort during the lunch, she was learning more about a complete stranger but at the same time felt as if she had already made quite a connection with a new dear friend.

Click.

“You don’t mind to you? You’re a pretty girl, you’re used to pictures right?” she asked Sunny playfully.

“Oh no, I’m not a pretty girl or anything”

Click

“You maybe right, that does not look pretty,” Hyomin said with a laugh showing the screen of a picture capturing Sunny mid-sentence.

“Yah! Not funny! I told you I wasn’t pretty, but you don’t need to make me any worst. I’m still young you know!”

“Kidding, Kidding. Deleted! Happy?”

The two had been talking what seemed like hours, they had each a strawberry margarita, and Sunny asked if Hyomin wanted dessert, because Sunny really liked the cheesecake there. Hyomin had said cheesecake at the same time Sunny did. They ordered a cheesecake. Just one, since it was rather large. Hyomin had been taking pictures all during lunch, of the food, of the drinks, and with permission even of Sunny. They finished dessert and Hyomin asked Sunny if they could get a photo together at their booth. After they both walked outside, Hyomin asked sweetly for one more photo outside so they can see the sign of the restaurant. Sunny by now knew Hyomin love of photography.

Click.

Hyomin thanked Sunny repeatedly for lunch and would have to make it up to her sometime. Sunny said there was no need. Being friends would be just as good she told her. No need to worry about debts to repay one another. The two agreed that they had lots of fun and would like to do it again sometime. With a brief wave to one another they parted ways.

Getting into her car Hyomin thought, maybe they should have shook hands or hugged, a wave seemed just so off.

********************

Sunny walked through the door, a long beep tone let out as she punched in the security code to turn off the tone. Tiffany and Hyunah were both sleeping. Taking a nap from what must have been a long day for them all with shopping and fun. Sunny too wanted to take a nap. She had fun and was full and could use a little recharge time. She carefully worked her way onto the bed, she would have just flopped down onto the bed but that would have woken Hyunah. Just an hour, or so, that was all she needed.

Sunny woke up much more relaxed, Hyunah was still napping but she walked to find Tiffany in her room singing. She waved hi to Sunny and stopped, and asked what was going on. Sunny said they still had some time before dinner and Jessica gets home, they should go the store. Tiffany agreed.

They both double teamed to wake up Hyunah. She woke up, but whined that they always did this to her. Her attitude was declining and followed them out with Sunny and Tiffany tugging at her hands. They put on shoes and went out the door, Sunny offered to drive, Tiffany was polite enough to give Hyunah the front seat while she climbed into the back of the Mini, Hyunah was the tallest but said that because Tiffany was an unnie she should sit in the front. Sunny was already in the driver seat, okay Hyunah decide to sit in the front but only if Tiffany rode in the front on the way home.

They first went to Best Buy. Hyunah would need a cellphone so they could keep in contact with her. Jessica, Tiffany and Sunny were all on a shared family plan, and they were planning to add Hyunah to it. Their plan was massive in cost but they had every service and feature available in a plan, and thanks to unlimited minutes they didn’t worry about anything.

Next the girls needed to pick up groceries for dinner. It was Sunny’s turn for dinner, and she knew Jessica could get scary mad sometimes too. She needed something she could do simply and be fun to make. She bought chicken, and various other things, Hyunah and Tiffany had also stuffed the cart with things to their liking.

When they returned home, Sunny started on dinner with the help of Hyunah, who volunteered. It would simple tonight, some shake and bake chicken, rice and vegetables. Jessica returned and hour later with dinner already set being set on the table. Jessica expressed subtle thanks as she welcomed everyone and walked to her room to change. She returned later ready for dinner. Each girl discussed their day in various details. Sunny just said she had lunch with Hyomin and then shopped with Tiffany and Hyunah. Tiffany was still disappointed even though she did have a fun day, she mumbled a bit during dinner in a pout.

“Tiffany, if you had tried to kiss me, even I wouldn’t be talking to you right now,” Jessica said in almost a icy way while eating her food.

This only made Tiffany sank lower into her seat and put a larger frown on her face. Sunny sort of chuckled at the situation and patted Tiffany’s hand. In an attempt to cheer Tiffany up, Hyunah started telling her that she had some much fun hanging out with her today. It worked. Tiffany slowly began to feel better, and announced that Taeyeon was mostly likely just busy today. Everyone at the table agree.

After dinner Sunny had washed the dishes and had cleaned the table, everyone had set off to do their own thing. Sunny was in the shower, when her phone buzzed.

“Thanks again for lunch today! I promise I will make it up to you! ”

Sunny came out of the shower after some short minutes later to join the rest of her housemates on the couch watching TV. Hyunah had told her that her phone buzzed. She fell into the cushion next to Jessica and checked her phone. She typed out a reply.

“I told you, you don’t have to. You’re welcome.”

There was a brief squeal of excitement from the girl on the recliner. Tiffany proclaimed that Taeyeon had gotten back to her.

“Have a great night Sunny. I’ll talk to you soon. Promise!”

**********************