There is nothing Sooyoung hates more than working in her parents' cafe. That goddamn jumpy night shift cashier dude quit and her parents refuse to hire a new one, causing Sooyoung to get stuck behind the cash register. It is her second year in high school, for god's sake. She should be playing with Hayoung and Yerin at Myeongdong right now. Eats sweets, giggles at boys, buys some make up, tries on cute clothes and shoes, you know, things high school girls usually do.

Sooyoung doesn't even like all the things school girls do —mainly the giggling at boys part— but those things are definitely better than ringing up cheap orders from cheap es and flattening crumpled money. Sooyoung has no interest in crumpled money with remnants of cookie crumbs coming from boys pockets and given to her by some What-Did-He-Do-With-That-Earlier hands.

Actually, it was either this or after school tutor class. Sooyoung had no choice but to choose handling simple money over late night study. She is already a genius, dammit.

So here she is, ringing yet another order from a bunch of obnoxious college dudes.

The work at the cafe isn't hard, actually. The night shift is pretty short and she mostly just stares at people's weird behaviors. She actually doesn't hate observing people all night long. Although, in her vocabulary, observe means make up backstories of strangers and judge the out of them.

The worst part about night shift is how it is sometimes visited by college students "doing homework" —if that's what they call throwing food at each other into a pile of mess studying nowadays— and beat up employees. It is depressing to look at.

Sooyoung is half relieved it was the cashier who quit, not the waiter-slash-cleaning staff.

She’s pretty sure the waiter won’t quit anytime soon since he’s dating the cook. Gross couple. Sooyoung caught them stealing a kiss once.

Basically, everything is coming up Sooyoung.

Not.

*

It is a quiet night. Aside from the couple sitting on the furthest booth from the cashier doing god knows what, there is the regular nerd sitting on four person booth with his laptop and books. This is a good night, Sooyoung decides. She can probably talk Kyungsoo and Chanyeol into closing early, she knows they’ll eat up some sweet talk. You guys can go home and finger each other’s buttholes earlier wink wink. Something like that. Sooyoung is smooth.

Sooyoung is dozing off on the display counter when a familiar voice wakes her up.

“Sooyoung?”

Sooyoung knocks a real life sized plastic parfait replica down and almost gets a heart attack at the thought of the replica breaking, but then she realizes plastic cannot break. She really should’ve taken the after school tutor class.

Then she looks up and puts a face to the voice. “Jinri Unnie!!” And a name to the face.

“You remember me!” Jinri looks surprised.

Sooyoung snorts. Of course she remembers Jinri. It is kind of hard to forget the senior girl who made you realize how gay you are as well as the first girl to break your heart. Sooyoung already half forgets how she almost confessed to Jinri at her graduation last year. Sooyoung was holding the flowers she bought especially for Jinri when she found Jinri hugging some guy Sooyoung couldn’t recognize (Sooyoung jumped into conclusion and assumed he was her boyfriend). It was pretty dumb and heartbreaking. Sooyoung made one of the flowers into a bookmark to remind her of the mistake she should not repeat.

Whatever, it is in the past.

“Sooyoung?” Jinri looks at her, concerned. Sooyoung has been too busy reminiscing her first heartbreak that she forgets the real Jinri is standing in front of her. Probably wanting to order.

“Oh, yes, hi! Can I take your order?” Sooyoung snaps up from her half-awake state and remembers she is a cashier. She curses inside. She was so sure this was gonna be a good night.

“Wait, where is the usual weirdo cashier guy? Why are you in such a rush? How are you?” Jinri vomits questions at her excitedly. How does she look better than ever? The shoulder length hair looks incredible on her. Sooyoung is going to look this dazzling when she gets into college.

“He quit. His parents gave him more allowance for getting scholarship or something. Also, well, I’m ringing up your order instead of laying on my bed under my comfortable blanket at home. So I’m pretty much better than ever.” Jinri laughs at her sarcasm. “How about you, Unnie?”

“I’m great! Although, maybe not really. Since I’ve got a particularly hard class project and have to pull an all nighter here. Just the usual It is not really crowded around here.” Jinri takes a look at the menu and thinks for a few seconds. “One green tea latte, four americano, one large fries, please!” She flashes Sooyoung a smile and Sooyoung knows better to not fall for it.

“Green tea latte will not make you stay up all night, Unnie.” Sooyoung teases.

Jinri laughs, “It's not for me! It’s for Sehun.”

Sooyoung looks up from the cash register so fast she is pretty sure she broke her neck. But she doesn’t really care. “You’re with Sehun Oppa????” Sooyoung tries not to yell too loudly.

“Yeah.” Sehun is the dumbest dude she knows, how does he manage to score Jinri? Life is unfair. “We are in the same study group. See, that booth right there?”

Right. Study group. Sehun will not be able to charm Jinri ever. Sooyoung is stupid.

“Oh.” Sooyoung sighs. ”That would be 40,000 won.” Jinri gives her the money and Sooyoung gives Jinri the receipt and changes. “The waiter will deliver your orders to your table. Thank you!” Sooyoung talks with practiced words. It is the standard procedure. What can she do.

“Thank you! See you around. We should catch up sometimes.” Jinri winks at her as she walks to her booth. Okay. She is still horrible.

Sooyoung finally takes a good look at Jinri's booth. Everyone’s face is familiar. There’s Soojung —Jinri’s long time bff—, Sehun —the dumb—, Jongin —Sehun’s equally dumb bff—, and the other girl Sooyoung can’t put a name on. She is pretty sure that girl went to Sooyoung’s high school too. Was she in the dance club with Sehun and Jongin? Was she in the track team with Soojung? Was she in some band who performed at school? Sooyoung can’t believe she forgot a name of a cute girl. This is the true failure.

Sooyoung watches the group study and forgets her plan to close the cafe early.

*

Jinri's crew goes to her cafe a lot since then. Aside from having to listen to Sehun's dumb whiny voice, Sooyoung mostly enjoys their presence. Their, as in the girl in Jinri's study group. She eventually finds out that her name is Seulgi by nonchalantly asking her name for Sooyoung to write on the coffee cups when it was Seulgi's turn to order.

Seulgi turns out to be in all the clubs Sooyoung thinks she was in. She was in the dance club with Sehun and Jongin, in the track team with Soojung, and a guitarist in her batch’s school band.

Seulgi is interesting, Sooyoung thinks. She is the only one who ever asked Sooyoung about the cafe's name, The Diner. Sooyoung tells Seulgi her parents wanted it to sound "meta". Seulgi laughed and said they should've named it The Cafe then. Sooyoung told Seulgi that was exactly what she said to her parents and they laughed together. Sooyoung swooned a little.

(A lot.)

Sooyoung knows Seulgi is an easy sleeper. She once slept when the group was arguing about probably dumb thing. Scratch it, Sooyoung knows they were arguing about some dumb thing because Sehun seemed like he was winning the argument. But despite the study group's loudness, Seulgi can sleep through the storm.

Sooyoung knows how Seulgi's face lights up when the caffeine kicks in. Her eyes —which are really narrow and cute, but fierce with eyeliner— would open wide, as wide as they could be. Her voice would get louder and higher and everyone would shut up and listen to what she has to say. It is quite charming.

Sooyoung knows Seulgi likes red velvet cake, which Sooyoung always saves one in case it runs out before they come.

(Her parents told her to not play favoritism to customers. They will never find out.)

Most of the time the rest of the group shame Seulgi for eating too sweet sweets late night, but she doesn't seem to care. She doesn't really gain weight, not that Sooyoung pays attention to her body.

Well, that was completely a lie. Sooyoung pays great attention to Seulgi's body. She thinks Seulgi's hip to waist ratio is really ideal. Totally her type.

Sooyoung knows she has developed a crush on Seulgi.

*

It is another quiet night, kinda reminds Sooyoung of that day on the first week Sooyoung started working the night shift, the first time she met the study group. Maybe this night will actually be a quiet one. It is way past the time the group usually arrive.

Sooyoung hears the door clicks and she sighs. "Welcome to The Diner! Can I take your order?"

"You seem weary tonight."

What do I do, an angel just came.

"Oh. I. Hi?" What are words? How do normal people engage in a conversation with another people? Mouth, words. Mouth, kissing.

Wow. This is embarrassing. Sooyoung is embarrassed by her own thought process.

"...Your jaw is hanging?" Seulgi's voice interrupts Sooyoung from her inside monologue.

"Yes! Unnie. Seulgi. Seulgi unnie. Hi. Your order?" Dammit Park Sooyoung. Get yourself together. Jesus.

Seulgi laughs and Sooyoung mentally pats her own shoulder for being a earlier, anything to get a close up laugh from possibly the cutest girl on earth. Undebatable. Sooyoung is a very unbiased professional judge in the world of cute girls.

"One ice americano and a slice of red velvet cake, please."

"Only one each?" Sooyoung looks around, trying to find the group in their usual half circle booth. There is no one there.

"Playing solo today. They're having a double date again and I'm just not feeling like being the 5th wheel tonight."

What the . "I thought Jinri unnie wasn't dating Sehun? Wait. Or is it Jongin? This makes no sense. I'm pretty sure I saw Jongin grabbing Sehun's crotch more than once. Has anyone warned Unnie abou-"

Sooyoung's outrage is cut short by Seulgi's burst of laughter. Seulgi is practically leaning her body on the display counter for support. Her whole body is shaking and tears start coming out of her eyes.

"I," Seulgi tries to catch her breath and stop laughing, "I thought you knew." She wipes her tears.

"Knew what?" Sooyoung looks at Seulgi weird. What is going on right now, exactly.

"Well, you are not wrong about Sehun and Jongin. Jinri is dating Soojung. She said you knew?"

Oh.

Oh.

"Oh?" Sooyoung is dumbfounded. "I. I didn't know. Oh my god. Since when?"

"11th grade? I mean it's pretty subtle. They've been practically joined at the hip since forever so it doesn't look very different than they were when they weren't dating." Seulgi explains it like it's nothing.

The next second, however, Seulgi looks like she's just hit by epiphany. She looks guilty. "I.. I'm sorry if you're not comfortable with this."

Sooyoung snickers. "It's alright. I'm comfortable. I'm gay as hell."

The pink on Seulgi's cheeks afterwards seems impossible to be just Sooyoung's imagination, because it is coloring the pale of Seulgi's cheeks beautifully. Sooyoung likes it.

Hold up. Seulgi is blushing?

"I'm sorry. Did I make you uncomfortable?" Sooyoung feels sorry because she just assumed Seulgi is... one of them too. "Being the only straight one in the group must be hard, right?"

Seulgi shakes her head. "I guess I will never know the answer." She snickers. "My receipt?"

Seulgi will never know. Because she's not straight? Seulgi. Is not straight?

"Oh. Oh yeah. That'd be 15,000 won." Sooyoung stutters.

Their fingers touch when Seulgi hands Sooyoung the money, and again when Sooyoung hands Seulgi the receipt and change.

They spend the night trying to get as much eye contacts as they can.

Sooyoung counts.

(39.)

*