Chapter 4: Discomfort in Comfort

Drenched in sweat, Yoona let her arms hung limply after her fifth set on the lat pull down machine. After she was beaten up by a gang of street thug two days ago, she was more than alarmed about her waning strength. Her weakening muscles become more evident as she decided to have some work out today. In every machine she had to decrease the weight by one weight plate less than she used to, and even more she hesitated to do any weight training.

Mens sana in corpore sano, in healthy body dwells a strong soul.

Now that her soul was on lowest strength, she didn’t want to make it worse with her weakened physique.

She took a set of deep breaths before resting herself on a nearby bench. The air conditioner rapidly and pleasantly cooled down the hot sweat. She was still amazed by state-of-art fitness machines and sporty luxury interior. This was her first visit to this high-end fitness center, since the cheap and humble gym she used to work out at since her university days had been closed. She wondered why she never found this place earlier, considering it was not far from her apartment. With high class facility and comfort the gym offered, the membership fee was really exquisite. She didn’t plan to apply for membership, but the unexpectedly sumptuous amount of money on her bank account tempted her to apply for a year of membership.

Not that she regretted wasting a load of money for buff up her muscles, but her bank account that was mysteriously bloated compared to the last amount she remembered. How and when she got all the money?

 A pat landed on her shoulder and Yoona raised her eyebrows when she saw who it was.            

“Yuri?”

“I never know you work out here too, Yoong,” said Yuri. The tan soldier hauled a duffel bag while sporting a pair of gym shorts and camouflage army t-shirt. She dumped herself beside Yoona and fished out a bottle of Gatorade and gave it to her. Yoona quickly popped he cap and drank as much as the half of the bottle in series of rapid gulps.

“Jeez, drink easy and slowly. It’s either you’ll choke or you get an overhydration,” Yuri chuckled. ”Woah, you’re sweating like a freaking pig. You’re really out of shape compared to yourself five years ago.”

“Tsk, thanks for stating the obvious. And thanks for the Gatorade.”

“You’re welcome bud. Anyway, how’s your family life doing?”

Yoona paused, her facial muscles tensed. She put the Gatorade aside with a sigh. “Really bad,” she murmured with her head hanging low. “Seohyun’s leaving me for another man.”

Yuri widened her eyes slightly before bobbing her head in slow nod. Her lips and tongue flexed, but before any words formed, Yoona cut her. “Before you say something bad about her, please don’t forget that I left her for five years without any news.” Yoona glanced to her, curling a grin while wiping her sweaty forehead. “I’m screwed huh?”

Soft chuckles that echoed from sounded askew between her heavy breaths. They sounded even more crooked in Yuri’s ears due the irony impregnated inside them. There was a dash of fatigue shone really stark behind Yoona’s faked wide smile. And it was definitely not just physical fatigue.

If there was something Yuri hated the most from her doe-eyed friend, it’d be the fabricated smile masking her sadness. Just like the one reflected on her eyes at the moment.

Yoona noticed the stare her friend gave and sneered. “I know I’m gorgeous, no need to stare.”

“Ew, your disgusting deer face, gorgeous?” Yuri made a face and acted like throwing up.

“Bastard,” Yoona chuckled and punched Yuri’s shoulder playfully.

“I know you love me still, ,” the tan woman laughed and tugged the doe-eyed woman’s waist-length black hair. “And will you get a haircut? You look like a homeless hippie hobo!” she grinned and played Yoona’s hair as her moustache.

Yoona groaned when Yuri tugged her hair again and swatted away her hand. She rose and stretched her arms, giving her tan friend a nod befoe endng her work out session. “Catch you later, Yul.”

She went home straight after showering and refreshing up her body. Right when her feet touched the pavement, the snow started descending. Usually, she would pause to catch a lone snowflake for a moment of appreciation. This time, she didn’t. There was some snow landed upon her shoulder and she just heartlessly swept it away. Winter graced people with soft snow sprinkle as if reaching a pale hand of comfort, although for Yoona that pale hand slapped her hard in heart instead.

There were few cars rolling on the avenue and no many people in sight, but she could spot a couple sharing ice cream on a bench. They were obviously having a sweet date enjoying the cold sweet treat together. Her steps found a gap of rest between her rhythm of walk as her eyes was fixed to the couple in curiosity and nostalgia.

Xxxx

“I don’t understand! What kind of people who eat ice cream in winter?”

Yoona glanced with mix of amusement and mischief to her girlfriend while younger girl scoffed at her question. The chubby-cheeked girl looked away but pushing her body snuggled closer to the doe-eyed girl’s warmth. Yoona couldn’t hold her chuckle and wrapped her arm around Seohyun’s waist, pulling themselves for close-knitted cuddle.    

“The winter makes ice cream taste the best!” Seohyun muttered and ate her ice cream slowly.

Yoona laughed softly and leaned to the ice cream on where Seohyun’s lips were. “Hehe, an indirect kiss,” she snickered

Seohyun was dumbfounded and blood quickly rushed to her face. Her lips parted with scolding Yoona as her first intention, but she piped a small squeal instead. Seeing Yoona grinned with victory she leaned closer, wiping the grin and substitute it with blush that colored Yoona’s cheeks. Now it was Seohyun’s turn to grin as the victor.

“Why an indirect kiss when you can kiss me directly, Yoongie?” she spoke softly, her lips almost touching Yoona’s.

Chuckling at Seohyun’s creative not-so-implicit invitation, Yoona cut the last distance between them and pressed their lips together. The exerted pressure was soft yet firm enough to exchange their sweet sentiment in such intimate gesture. Her tongue poked from the cleft of her lips, tracing the lingering delicate vanilla chocochip flavor on Seohyun’s lips. A soft whimper was sung out between their kiss, signaling Yoona to pull away softly. 

“You’re right, ice cream tastes better in winter,” the doe-eyed girl winked. ”…especially on your lips.”

Xxxxx

A soft bump on her shoulder brought her out from her trance. She rubbed her shoulder and frowned slightly at the man.

“Im Yoona-ssi, right?”

Yoona didn’t register his voice but quickly recognized his figure. “Byun Baekhyun.”

“Good evening. Where have you been, if I may know?” Baekhyun asked with a smile.

“Just finished from some work out and heading home. Yourself?”

“I’ve just been back from an errand.”

Yoona even didn’t spare him a nod before walking away to the bus stop. Not long after the bus arrived and she was surprised to find Baekhyun beside her when she climbed into the bus. There were other empty seats since it wasn’t busy hours, but he voluntarily chose to sit beside her. Such an inconvenient coincidence to have him riding the same bus with her, let alone having him seated beside her. If only he wasn’t Taeyeon’s colleague—the dearest colleague—she would’ve shot snide chides to him.

“You’ve been in NIS for five years. How’s those five years of yours there?” The doe-eyed woman asked, eyes looking outside the window.

“It’s hard, but what you expect from working in South Korea’s national intelligence agency?” He chuckled softly. ”Taeyeon helped me a lot, very lot to be honest.”

“Yeah, right,” Yoona replied holding herself from scoffing, which wasn’t very successful.

“And Yoona-ssi, have you try to work on finding the lead?”

“Yes, I’ve been doing that from sometime and I’ve found some leads. I’ll talk to her to discuss about it and ask for more documents soon.“

“I see. If you have any documents or related information for Taeyeon, I can gladly help you informing her when she is off-limits.”

“Hm, thanks. I’ll remember that. “

Suddenly offering to play courier, Yoona was quite taken aback at that. She wasn’t not appreciative of his good intention, but that good intention itself was too off to make her feel thankful. Besides being NIS agent colleagues formally, he had literally zero motives or backgrounds that moved him enough to help her—and somehow she was beyond skeptic of him helping her from a pure goodwill. His incentive must’ve been as cheap as gaining more attention and recognition from Taeyeon.

To Yoona’s contentment, the bus finally arrived at her stop.  “I’ll be going first. Nice to meet you, Byun Baekhyun-ssi.” She smiled