01.

“Jinae-yah! Over here!”

Jinae beamed. This was what she really needed after the long day she had had at her work cubicle. She made her way to the bench towards the back of the tent. She could practically taste the sizzling meat from the grill with just one inhalation, and she loved it. Here she could pay 15000 won and be more than content. She could drink from the bottle, and talk with full, and throw her head back to laugh with her friends without being scolded. Not to mention the food here honestly tasted ten times better than her parents’ favourite, uptight ‘Restaurant Hoon’ – but she would never tell them that. They would make her visit the doctor’s clinic again if they knew she was back at a pojangmacha.

“Long day?” Areum mocked cheerily as Jinae pulled out a plastic chair and slumped down onto it with a sigh.

“Oh god, I don’t even want to think about it,” Jinae rubbed her face roughly with both palms. “Where’s Baekhyun? I thought he was coming too.”

“Ahh, that guy's running even later than you. Apparently a coworker miscalculated the budget for the next ad concept and now the whole team needs to do overtime to make up for it. That company of yours is overworking the two of you” Jakyung clicked her tongue in disapproval.

“Hey, hey. Not everyone is lucky enough to own a business like the two of you ok?”

“True,” Areum laughed before placing some beef onto a plate for Jinae and urging her to dig in. Jinae complied happily. Her job had exhausted her, but the accomplished feeling of working from the bottom without any shortcuts always filled her with a sense of pride; enough pride for her not to go groveling to her dad for a management position. Unfortunately the legal department had been the most overworked sector of the company lately and she was rarely able to leave the office until long past dinnertime. Usually Baekhyun would be out of the office before her, never forgetting to inform her he was doing so to rub it in her face. So she guessed he deserved a longer day for once; the entire advertising department did. Jinae shuddered. She was starting to sound like her dad, firm fisted and unsympathetic. Shaking away the thought, she piled the beef slices into .

“Slow down you pig! There’s plenty to go around!” Jakyung passed her a glass of soju right as she began to choke.

“She does look like a pig, doesn’t she?” Jinae glared in the direction of the voice before throwing a scrunched up tissue in his face.

“You’re a pig, Baekhyun.” Baekhyun wiped his face in disgust before asking Areum and Jakyung how business had been that day. Areum recounted her day with much animation.

Jinae, Areum and Jakyung had been the best of friends since elementary school. Upon starting high school, Jinae’s father’s once struggling business began to skyrocket and he had insisted that Jinae and her brother be moved to an elite private high school, but Jinae had cried and refused to leave her friends. Hwang Jinwoo however, was so keen to go he threw out his peasant-school uniform that very evening.

Baekhyun is Areum cousin who had moved up to Seoul during their second year at high school. They took his country bumkin loser-self under their wing, but it soon became apparent that he was most comfortable there, because he never made any effort to find some new, male, friends. Baekhyun was the epitome of a loser in high school, it wasn’t until a couple of years after graduating that he realised his haircut was atrocious and fell in love with exercise. After college he applied to Jinae’s family business and has been working there ever since.

Once high school ended Jakyung took over the family florist business, which allowed her mother to gain more bed rest. Jakyung’s mother, who had always had problems with her health, seemed to regain the colour in her cheeks with Jakyung’s help around the store. They all adored her and referred to her as ‘Jin Omma’. Areum’s mother passed when she was a toddler, so her lack of a mother’s affection drew her closest to Jakyung’s mother. Areum went on to complete a degree in Finance at college but decided to help run the florist business with Jakyung because that made her happiest.

Jinae was the boring one. She had spent more time struggling to keep up with her Law degree in college than forging any real relationships with anybody. When graduation came, she had no college best friends to account for and was thrown immediately into the legal department of Hwang Enterprise as an intern. Jinae decided she wasn’t privileged to fun.

“Do you girls want to come to the company’s Easter fundraiser ball? We’re allowed one date each. I can take Areum and Jinae can take Jakyung. I really doubt Jinae has anyone else to take anyway… Except maybe her cat.” That merited him another dirty tissue to the face.

“So what if I love my cat! You’re just bitter because even with Lee Minho’s hair-do and a six-pack you still can’t get girls!” Jinae retorted causing Jakyung to snort on her drink, failing to suppress her laugh.

“That’s disgusting Jakyung!” Baekhyun threw her a disgusted glance before taking a soju bottle for himself.

“I’d love to go to a ball! Jinae-yah can we use your make up?” Areum batted her eyelashes. Jinae waved her hand dismissively and continued stuffing her face. Jinae didn’t wear much make up but her mother felt that as a woman, having 35 different options for just mascara alone was completely necessary. Jinae swears she has more makeup than a makeup artist and more clothes than a heavily endorsed model. Her mother had taken to this wealthy lifestyle a little too well. 

“Yah Yoon Areum, no amount of make up is going to mend that face of yours.”

“Why are we even friends with you Byun Baekhyun.”