Hayoung blankly stares at the young woman in front of her, an awkward half-smile gracing her face, and fidgets in her seat. She fixes her fringe and takes a nervous look around the cafe. The woman sitting across the table from her (Choring? Chorang? Chorong. It was most definitely Chorong. She thinks.) mirrors Hayoung’s expression and absentmindedly toys with her napkin. The silence is suffocating.

Hayoung holds back a sigh. She knew giving in to Namjoo’s egging for her to try online dating was a bad idea. (“C’mon!” Namjoo had urged enthusiastically, nudging Hayoung’s shoulder with her own as they both sat in front of the older girl’s laptop, an online dating site pulled up on the screen. “It’s a great chance to explore the newly discovered lesbian side of your soul! I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?”) Apparently this. To be honest, the date isn’t going that badly (and Hayoung supposes there are worst things that can happen like the cafe burning down or Hayoung punching herself in the face or Chorong punching her in the face); it was awkward. Incredibly awkward. Hayoung isn’t exactly the most social person- in fact, she’s the complete opposite- but even for her, this is awkward at a record-breaking level. She holds back another sigh. If she ever survives being asphyxiated with the awkwardness swirling around this Greek tragedy of a blind date, she’s firing Namjoo as her wingman. The absolute worst.

.

    She lied about her age, Chorong thinks as she stares at the woman across from her, a forced smile on her face. There’s no way that this Oh Hayoung can possibly be five years younger than her. She looks like she’s Chorong’s aunt’s age. And Chorong’s aunt is old. Like, probably served in the Korean War old. And that’s way older than Chorong is willing to date, no matter how hot Hayoung is. Chorong gazes briefly out the window before turning back to Hayoung, shooting her another smile. She wants to leave.

.

    But still curiosity ends up winning out and Chorong leans forward. Hayoung does so as well. “Excuse me, but you didn’t by any chance-” How does one go about this in a polite manner? Is that even possible? Chorong decides to give up and just rip the bandaid off. “-lie about your age on your profile, right?” Chorong internally winces as Hayoung’s eyes widen in surprise. There was probably a better way of going at that.

    Hayoung waves her hand profusely, leaning back into her chair, a soft, husky laughter bubbling in . “Oh, no! The age on the profile was true. I’ll even show you my driver’s license! Here!” Chorong immediately refuses- politely- and retreatss back into her seat, an apologetic expression on her face. “Don’t worry about offending me about how old I look or anything,” Hayoung says bluntly, noticing the look on Chorong’s face. “People always think I look at least seven years older than I actually am. One time, a middle-aged foreigner accidentally mistook me for his lost foreign wife.” They both share a chuckle that quickly dissolves into twin sighs. The silence returns and the awkwardness soon follows. Chorong looks out the window. Well, that takes care of that. (She still wants to leave.)

   She also still believes Hayoung lied about her age.

.

    Hayoung leans forward and Chorong follows suit as soon as she notices. “Um,” Hayoung hesitates. Is this considered rude? Well, Chorong did it so why can’t she? “This probably isn’t the greatest question to ask, but did you lie about your height on your profile?”

    Chorong blushes and Hayoung gears up to flail her hands all over the place to distract the older girl as she takes the question back. “Ah, yeah,” Chorong confesses, a sheepish look on her face. “My friend- Bomi- she made the profile for me and said that adding two centimeters to my height would make me seem ier. As if that makes a difference, right?” They both laugh. It wasn’t two centimeters, but Hayoung doesn’t have to know that. The silence returns. (They both want to leave. Separately.)

.

    Chorong is about to politely excuse herself to go to the bathroom and maybe escape out through an air duct or something before a cheerful voice interrupts her attempt to flee. “Your drinks are read-Ahhh!” The next thing either of them knows, they’re completely drenched in trendy fruit drinks and Chorong turns around angrily, ready to complain to the manager about how expensive her clothes are and how this clumsy h- oh. Wow, she’s super cute. Apparently, Hayoung thinks the same thing because they’re both just standing there, staring at the cute, clumsy waitress with hearts practically shooting out of their eyes, spilled trendy fruit drinks dripping from their clothes and hair and it’s just literally everywhere.

‘Wow,’ Hayoung thinks, the words ‘pretty’ and ‘adorable’ running laps in her mind. Pretty lips, twinkling eyes, super nice body. Hayoung thinks she’s in love.

‘Holy ,’ Chorong thinks, a lovestruck expression gracing her face as the waitress flips her hair out of her face. The girl is clumsy- yet adorably so- and seems to be a bit awkward- but not in an uncomfortable way, not in the way Hayoung had been. It leaves Chorong a bit charmed. (It leaves Hayoung a lot charmed.) Chorong wishes that this waitress had been her blind date instead.

The waitress still hasn’t looked at them properly yet, scrambling to clear the drinks and slipping on the spilled mess on the floor in the process. Hayoung is the first to spring into action, rushing to the waitress’s aid, and Chorong is only slightly envious until the younger girl slips on the drinks as well and ends up in a mess of flailing limbs right next to the cute girl.

    The waitress then turns to Hayoung- and both Hayoung and Chorong can read her name tag stating “Naeun” (‘How cute,’ they both think.)- apologizing profusely. “Please don’t complain about this to my manager!” Naeun pleads, grasping Hayoung’s hand in both of her own. And now Chorong’s jealous again. “Eunji’s been having a bad day and I-”

    Hayoung cuts her off, now grasping Naeun’s hand in both of hers. “Don’t worry!” She blurts out loudly. “I like having drinks spilled on me!” What? Chorong, along with the rest of the cafe patrons, stares at Hayoung judgingly. The excited look on Hayoung’s face melts away as she finally realizes what she had just said. Naeun just looks at her blankly, conflicted between feeling thankful that the Hayoung isn't mad and not knowing how to react to the customer just confessing her kink to her (and the entire cafe).

    Chorong decides to step up to fill in the awkward silence and snatches a couple of dry napkins from a nearby table and slowly walks to the other two girls, both still on the floor. (She feels kind of bad for this-taking advantage of Hayoung’s blunder- but Hayoung’s no longer her blind date. She’s now a rival in love and all’s fair in love and war.) She extends out a hand and pulls Naeun up when the waitress accepts it. “Don’t worry about this,” Chorong smiles, voice soft and tone sweet, as she gently wipes Naeun’s face. Hayoung stares up at them from the floor, a hurt look in her wide eyes at how her first love was just snatched away. “I think we can keep this a secret between us,” she says, lifting a finger to her lips in a shushing motion and shooting Naeun a conspiratory wink. She tucks a wet strand of hair behind Naeun’s ear and smiles as the younger girl’s eyes sparkle with gratefulness.

“Really?” Naeun asks, the obvious hopefulness in her voice making Chorong’s heart ache a little. (Hayoung’s does as well. She feels like she might need a double bypass soon.) At Chorong’s small nod, a bright smile spreads across Naeun’s face, lip curling beautifully between her teeth, before she hugs the older girl. Chorong widens her eyes in surprise at the hug, but soon settles her arms around Naeun’s delicate waist, smiling victoriously to herself. (And at Hayoung.)

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up,” she says, pulling out of the hug and taking hold of Naeun’s hand. She tugs the waitress towards the direction of the bathroom, leaving Hayoung behind, still sitting pathetically on the floor.

    From the floor, Hayoung stares in disbelief as the both of them leave the room. The cafe is silent, save for the drip, drip of the trendy fruit drinks dripping from Hayoung’s clothes. Namjoo walks up to Hayoung from the spot she had strategically placed herself in order to spy on Hayoung’s blind date and crouches beside her, sympathetically patting the younger girl’s drenched shoulder. “Tough luck. That Chorong person is smooth,” she comments. “Even from the other side of the cafe, I could practically see her crush your little lesbian heart in her lesbian hands.” She then stands up to leave. Hayoung’s still sitting on the floor.

    Hayoung glares in the direction of the bathroom, a fiery determination in her gaze. She’ll definitely steal back her first love from Chorong’s lesbian clutches. Definitely.