YongSun was having one of the worst days of her life. First she fell asleep in class, then she lost the girl, then her second teacher threw a group presentation at them. She had just spent the last three hours in the library with students she barely knew, trying to figure out who was going to research what.
When the finally settled on that, they began to do a rough outline of it, but it seemed that they were all going to have to do a lot more research on the topic before they could continue so they split up for the night. YongSun dragged herself to the store she visited the night before, she needed to stock up on junk food to keep her going for most of the weekend.
The girl behind the counter didn’t even look at her as she entered, she threw a quick welcome at her but then went back to whatever she was reading. YongSun didn’t blame her, she herself had a huge workload, and she didn’t have to juggle a job. She kept it quick, trying to grab all of her favourites, she wanted to get started right away when she got home. 

The cashier was a different one than she was use to, then again she was never here this late. The girl wore a worn blue baseball cap under her hood, she began to ring up YongSun’s stuff as her mind wandered to the topic she should start researching when she got home.
“Will this be all?” The cashier’s deep voice asked her, snapping her out of her mind.
YongSun looked up at the girl, face slowly connecting in her head. “You!” She said as she pointed. It was her, the girl from last night and class this morning, she had found her.
A charming smile started spreading over the girl’s face. “Long time no see.” She said as she handed YongSun the bag. YongSun was at a loss for words after that, she opened to say something but nothing came out. The girl behind the counter seemed to find something amusing about it. “Seven dollars please.” She said almost laughing now.
YongSun felt like she was laughing at her but she said nothing as she handed over her card. The girl swiped it and gave it back to her. The girl looked like she was over the interaction and went to turn back to her book after a polite bow to her. YongSun wracked her brain for something to say, how many times had she imagined having this conversation, and now that it was happening she couldn’t speak.
“Dinner!” She blurted out a little too loudly, making the other girl jump.
“What?” She asked now looking at her again.
YongSun cleared and took a breath. “I’d like to treat you to something, for… last night.”
The girl’s smile returned. “Don’t worry about it.” She said with a small wave of her hand.
YongSun shook her head. “No I want to. Really, please?” She pleaded.
The girl shrugged. “I guess.”
“Great!” YongSun said a little too enthusiastically. “Are you free this weekend?”
The girl’s face fell a bit “No, I have another part time job on the weekends.” She must have seen the disappointment on YongSun’s face because she quickly continued. “Don’t worry, we will work something out eventually.” She gestured around the store. “You know where I work.” She smiled.
YongSun didn’t want to admit she was more upset then she should have been. “I guess it can’t be helped.” She was trying to think of something to continue the conversation, but unfortunately for her and group of people walked in, taking the cashier’s attention. “Your name,” YongSun pulled her attention back. “Can I at least know your name?”
The girl gave a real smile now. “ByulYi, Moon ByulYi.” She said putting her hand out.
YongSun quickly grasped it in both hands, bag of treats swinging on her wrist. “Kim YongSun.” She said shaking it. “It was nice to meet you.” She could feel herself blushing.
“Nice to meet you YongSun ssi, be careful on your way home.” She said with a nod to the door, the other customers were coming to the front now and YongSun really should be on her way home.
The girls said their goodbyes and YongSun left for home. Moon ByulYI, she smiled to herself all the way home.

YongSun was on her way to the library early Sunday morning. She was annoyed that she had to go all the way to the school to get a reference book she needed but the teacher specifically said that they were not to use anything off the internet.
On her way there she wondered if she would run into ByulYi at school. She was more embarrassed with the fact she did revisit the convenience store last night in hopes she would see the cute blonde cashier, but true to her word she was not there. No matter how much YongSun wanted to, she was not going to risk going back tonight, so her only hope was that for some reason ByulYi needed to visit the library. She knew she was being stupid of course, the chances of that were far to great.
YongSun walked into the large glass building and it was like a wall of silence hit her. That was not for the lack of students, in fact, most of the tables appeared to be full, but everyone was concentrating very hard. She made her way to the stacks of book, she had already looked the book before she got here to save herself some time looking.
She was immersed in the stacks of books, collecting more than just one book for reference. A hand tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to jump and almost drop all of her books on the floor. 

A young woman with long wavy, dirty blonde hair stood smiling at her; face lit up like a happy puppy. “Unnie!” She whispered as loud as she dared. YongSun collected herself. “WheenIn Ah.” She replied, smile of her own spreading.
“What are you doing?” WheeIn looked at the books in her hand. “You writing a paper or something?”
YongSun nodded. “Yeah, they didn’t have the books I needed at the library by my house so I had to come here.” She motioned for the girl to start walking toward the front. “What brings you here, do you have a project?” Though she was a good student, you wouldn’t generally see Jung WheeIn hanging around school on the weekend.
WheeIn shook her head. “HyeJin-Ie had to pick up a book for class.” She said pointing to a girl standing by the doors, she had long black hair and was wearing a lot of makeup; her face was in her phone.
“Is she a classmate?” YongSun walked up to the self scan and swiped her student card.
WheeIn shook her head. “She is my girlfriend.”
YongSun whipped her head back to WheeIn. “Really?”
YongSun had originally met WheeIn at an LGBTQ+ mixer, the only one YongSun worked up the courage to attend last year when she was coming to terms with her uality. She stayed there for all of a minute before she left, she met WheeIn on the steps. WheeIn asked her out for coffee the next day, they immediately realized that they were not into each other but they did become good friends over the year.
“Yeah, we’ve been together for two months now.” She said with a glance over at the girl waiting.
YongSun shoved her shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me?” They didn’t cross paths much this semester but they did try to keep in touch.
WheeIn shrugged. “I didn’t want to jump the gun incase it didn’t work out.”
YongSun smiled. “But it did?”
She smiled shyly. “Yes, it did.”
YongSun was proud of WheeIn, it wasn’t easy meeting girls in their society. They’d both been burned by people who have not come out yet and were ashamed to be who they were. She didn’t blame them, but she wasn’t going to hide who she was for the sake of a relationship, she couldn’t date a girl who wasn’t okay with holding her hand in the street.
YongSun grabbed her books. “Well why don’t you introduce me to this HyeJin-Ah.” She slid one arm around the younger girl’s shoulder and lead her over to the door. 

The girls went to a nearby cafe to chat for a bit. YongSun learned that HyeJin was the same age as WheeIn, which was just a few years younger than she was. HyeJin also told her that she was a lesbian, not biual like she and WheeIn were. That conversation of course they talked about on the way to the cafe, away from others ears. YongSun may not be ashamed of who she was but that did not mean that others would not intentionally hurt the girls for it, it was a sick world they lived in. YongSun was just lucky her parents accepted her, though they were far from flying a rainbow flag on their porch, they didn’t disown her, not like HyeJin’s family. YongSun didn’t get the full details, she didn’t want to, but HyeJin moved in with WheeIn last month after coming out to her parents, they didn’t take it well. 

The girls sat down with their drinks at a corner table. They had already covered all the standard topics, hometowns, majors, dream jobs; HyeJin was doing fashion and WheeIn was going to be a vet, it was way different from YongSun’s business management courses. They had since moved on to lighter topics.
“So,” HyeJin said after taking a large sip of her latte. “Have you met anyone lately? I could set you up with someone.” Apparently she had an extensive list of girls, and guys, who would be interested in dating someone like YongSun, she felt her face going red.
She put her hands up, waving off the suggestion. “Don’t worry about it, I am not looking right now.”
HyeJin shrugged but WheeIn picked up on something. “Since when are you not interested in meeting someone?” She took a sip of her ice coffee, eyeing her suspiciously. “You met someone.” It wasn’t a question.
YongSun’s face now felt like fire, a very specific blonde coming to mind. “No, I didn’t.”
“Look HyeJin-Ah, she is going red.” WheeIn said it with a bit more joy then she should have. “Come on Unnie, what is their name? Girl or boy?” They both looked over at her intently.
YongSun took a few breaths. “Someone saved be the other day, a cashier at one of the convenience store by my house.” WheeIn made a motion for her to continue. “Her name is Moon ByulYi, and nothing has come of it, it is just a crush, she probably doesn’t even like girls.” She said the last bit very fast. HyeJin raised her very nicely shaped eyebrow but said nothing. It was WheeIn who went nuts. “Oh my gosh Unnie, this is great!” She looked like she had a bit too much sugar, while YongSun just wanted to sink down further in her chair. “Do you want our help? I could go feel her out?”
YongSun jumped up and waved her arms frantically. “No, no, that is okay WheeIn. I’ve got it under control.” Which was a lie. The last thing she needed was WheeIn practically forcing ByulYi on a date with her, it had happened before.
WheeIn looked very disappointed. “Fine.” She said arms crossed. “But if nothing comes of it, I am going to step in, mark my words.” YongSun nodded, she knew WheeIn only meant well.
YongSun quickly tried to move the topic along, bringing up anything to take the girl’s mind off YongSun’s love life. Lucky for her they didn’t bring it up again for the rest of the visit. 

YongSun collapsed on her bed. After a long afternoon of typing out her paper she was ready for bed, but was not ready for the weekend to be over, she didn’t want to go to class the next day.
She rolled over and looked at her phone on the floor. On the bright side, she might get to see ByulYi tomorrow, that was if she stopped by the store. She had been wondering if she should. She very badly wanted to, but she was concerned that she was forcing herself upon the girl, any time she thinks the girl seems to enjoy her company, some part of her brain tells her she is being too much by showing up at the store everyday. She sighed. Why was this so hard. YongSun gave up and rolled back over so she was laying on her back. She guessed only time would tell if the girl was interested in her. It was going to be a long night of over thinking again.