Mijoo tugs on the red leash lightly, careful not to choke the large golden retriever on the other end, “Come on, Brody.” She urges the dog under her breath, using her other hand to wipe the sweat starting to accumulate on her forehead due to the hot sun blazing down on her.

She watches as the dog stops and sniffs a spot near a tree before getting in position. Mijoo groans and closes her eyes for a couple of seconds. Mijoo swore she picked up after the dog only a few minutes ago. When she opens her eyes, she sees the dog walking back towards her with a seemingly content look on his face. Mijoo scowls and walks over to the spot near the tree where the dog decided to poop. She makes a face as she picks up the dung with a plastic bag.

“Gross.” She complains, throwing the bag into the nearest waste bucket. She loops around the park then returns to the shelter. Upon entering the building, not only did the cool air conditioning hit her, but the strong stench of canines hit her as well. She scrunches up her nose. She’d been working at this shelter for a few days and she’s still not used to the stench- and she’s sure she never will be.

“You’re back early, newbie.” One of the workers, Kei, laughs. Mijoo mumbles something under her breath about the dog being a pain in the and another round of laughter comes from Kei, “That’s Brody for you.”

“Next time, let me walk a smaller dog, please.” Mijoo says with a hint of annoyance in her voice. Kei rolls her eyes and opens the cage for Mijoo to let Brody into.

“No can do, Mijoo. The small dogs are for the owner’s niece. Cute dogs for a cute girl.”

“The owner’s niece? Cute? What?” Mijoo asks as she kneels down and takes the leash off of Brody’s collar.

“She usually visits when you’re out walking one of the dogs. She hasn’t come by today yet. Maybe you’ll get to meet her today.” Kei shrugs, closing the cage door as Mijoo walks out. Mijoo uses the back of her hand to wipe the sweat off her forehead.

“Is she really cute?”

Kei doesn’t answer, her attention veering off towards the kennel where the small dogs are located.

“Maybe you can check for yourself.” Kei says, pointing towards the figure of a girl kneel down in front of a cage, “She’s right there.” Mijoo turns her head and sees a skinny, fair-skinned girl with long brown hair petting one of the terriers through the bars of the cage.

Mijoo sees the girl turn her head and she’s like a deer caught in the headlights when she connects eyes with the other. Kei whistles quietly, “Looks like it’s love at first sight, eh?” The nudge Kei gives to Mijoo’s side is what makes Mijoo snap back to reality. She blushes.

(Though it’s not that noticeable, considering she was already red and sweaty from dragging Brody around the park all morning.)

She lets out a breath of disbelief, “Love at first sight? What are you? Six?” Mijoo rolls her eyes and Kei quirks an eyebrow. She starts smiling as the pretty girl starts to walk their way.

“Yein! Good evening.” Kei greets comfortably, reaching upwards to pat the girl’s head in a fond way. The tall girl smiles a smile that takes Mijoo’s breath away.

“Sorry I came a bit late. My dad needed help cutting the grass at home.”

“It’s fine! As long as you came.” Kei smiles, noticing the way Yein’s eyes slid over to Mijoo while she spoke, “This is Mijoo!” Kei pulls Mijoo closer by the wrist, “She’s here this summer because she failed in getting all thirty hours of community service and if she wants to graduate, she needs to stay here all summer.”

Mijoo grumbles under her breath, “Way to tell my whole life story.” She seemed a bit embarrassed.

Yein tilts her head to the side, staring at the girl with curious eyes. Kei decides to sneak away, using ‘I need to go give Brody a bath.’ as an excuse to leave the two girls alone. As she walked away, she whispered to Mijoo, “She’s sixteen and single. Don’t have too much fun with her.” Mijoo mentally curses Kei in her head.

For a moment, all Mijoo could hear was the various barks of the dogs in the shelter and the pounding of her own heart, before Yein spoke, “The smaller dogs need their cages cleaned.” She states and Mijoo looks up at her, confused. Yein continues, “Wanna help me clean them?”

A small smile becomes apparent on Mijoo’s face, “Sure.”

Mijoo stands by the entrance of the kennel and watches Yein carefully pick up the small creatures. Yein glances over her shoulder, holding a small shizhu in her hand, “Are you gonna come in?”

“I’ve never handled small dogs before.” Mijoo admits, taking small steps closer and nearly having a heart attack as one dog nips at her ankle. Yein giggles and Mijoo swears it’s the cutest thing she’s ever heard. She wouldn’t mind getting trampled by little dogs more often if it meant she could hear that laugh again.

“They aren’t that much different from large dogs. Except.. they’re just.. smaller.” Yein tries to explain, laughing at herself when she realizes it was lame. Mijoo smiles and is being extra careful not to step on any of the little ones.

“Here, go put these in the extra cages outside for a bit. I’ll gather the rest.” Yein hands three squirming dogs to Mijoo. The older girl cautiously wraps all three up in her arms and goes to the outside kennel, setting them down. Yein follows suite a few seconds later, “See? Not that hard.”

Mijoo reaches a hand up to her ponytail and tightens it, moving strand pieces out of her face, “I guess.” She shrugs.

Yein looks up at the girl as they walk back into the building, “I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you new?”

Mijoo reaches in one of the empty cages and takes out the two bowls in there, answering back, “I started not too long ago. Kei told me that whenever I went to go walk one of the big dogs that you would come and you would leave before I got back.” She takes out the blanket in the cage. Yein empties out the cage next to the one Mijoo’s doing.

“You asked about me?”

“Kei told me the owner of this place had a cute niece so,” Mijoo shrugs. She doesn’t notice the pink tinge on Yein’s cheeks, “Cute?” Yein asks, her voice a couple octaves higher than usual.

Mijoo freezes mid-way in folding up a new blanket for the cage, “Yeah. That’s what Kei said you were.” She answers, not looking at the younger girl.

“Do you agree?” Yein asks straight-forwardly, yet her voice still as innocent and pure as ever. Mijoo pretends to be busy filling the bowls with food and water while her mind frantically tries to think of a reply that doesn’t make it seem obvious that she’s already head over heels for the girl she barely knows.

Yein took Mijoo’s silence as a ‘No’ and her mood visibly dimmed. She folded blankets and cleaned out food bowls in silence. Mijoo feels a heavy void filling up her chest when she hears Yein excuse herself before she walked out the back door. Mijoo sighs and sets down the blanket she was folding. She felt a light tap on her shoulder. Turning, she saw Kei.

“She’s down at that tree near the park looking pretty down. Did you say anything to her that might’ve made her upset?”

Mijoo shakes her head, “No, I didn’t say anything.”

Kei nudges her, “Go talk to her.” She commands, taking the blanket from Mijoo. The taller one takes a deep breath and exits the building, looking around before walking towards the park. Almost immediately she can see a girl sitting down at the base of a large tree off the trail. Mijoo trudges over and speaks to let her presence be known, “You never know how many bugs are on the ground. Wouldn’t want to get your pretty skirt get dirty.”

Yein glances up at her with wide eyes before looking back down, “Don’t you have some cages to clean?”

“I did,” Mijoo huffs, sitting down next to Yein, “Until my cleaning partner up and left.”

“Sorry.” Yein murmurs.

“Did I say something wrong?” Mijoo lowers her head, trying to catch Yein’s eyes. Yein shakes her head, “No, I’m just being stupid.” She closes her eyes and Mijoo continues to gaze at her.

“How so?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Try me.”

Yein opens her eyes and sees Mijoo staring at her intently.

“I… Nothing.”

Mijoo decides to take a very big risk, “Is it because I didn’t call you cute?”

Yein’s cheeks flare up and Mijoo couldn’t help but feel giddy inside.

“This is embarrassing,” Yein stands up abruptly, “Let’s go back.”

Mijoo stands as well, taking hold of Yein’s wrist as the girl attempts to walk back to the shelter.

“The only reason I didn’t call you cute is because I thought you were much more than just ‘cute’, and I wanted to see what else you were before I’d call you anything positive.” Mijoo smiles as she says this, “But, yes, I have to admit, you’re pretty cute.”

“You went to my high school.” Yein suddenly says. Mijoo looks at her in surprise, “Did I?”

Yein nods, humming, “Yeah. And I had the biggest crush on you.”

“Past tense?” Mijoo mumbles under her breath, not bothering to hide her disappointment. Yein suddenly breaks out into a silly grin and interlocks her hand with Mijoo, pulling them farther away from the park’s trail before lightly pushing Mijoo against a tree. Yein stands on her toes and places a gentle kiss onto Mijoo’s lips.

“Present tense?” Mijoo was smiling as Yein leaned out a bit. Her arms wrapped around Yein’s waist and Yein placed her hands on Mijoo’s shoulder. Yein giggles and nods and Mijoo kisses her once more. And one more. And another.

Yein suddenly laughs between the kisses and pulls away, “We both smell like wet dog.” She states as if it were normal to say. Mijoo smiles even wider, “True.” She agrees.

“I’ll race you back to the shelter.” And without another word, Yein pulls away from Mijoo’s arms and runs back to the shelter. Mijoo lets out a gasp and screams a, “Not fair!” before taking off in full sprint behind the girl.

As Mijoo ran, she started to think that forgetting to do her thirty hours of community service was definitely something she won’t regret.

http://baejuhyexns.livejournal.com