“I think I’m going to be sick.”

Mirae was gripping her stomach, looking slightly green. Hana glanced to the side at her best friend, then went back to watching a video on her phone. They were sitting in front of a large window at the airport, looking out onto their plane which had just arrived at the gate.

“It’s all in your head, we’ll be fine.” Hana said calmly. Mirae on the other hand, looked far away from calm.

“I’m too young to die.” Mirae said while whimpering, Hana smacked her behind the head and told her to woman up, that there were no chances of anything happening to them. Mirae wasn’t convinced, and started fidgeting in her seat. She jumped up when they were called to board the plane.

“You know,” Mirae suddenly said, “We can always turn back. It’s not too late.”

Hana smacked her again. “PLEASE. This has been our dream for years, no time to back down now.”

“You don’t think we’ll miss our homes?” Mirae asked.

“Nah, think of it as an adventure. The bunny and llama leaving home and exploring the world.” The other responded. Mirae bit the inside of her cheek, and the two friends made their way towards the booth, where a woman in a uniform scanned their tickets and bid them a good flight. Both girls made their way through the tunnel and finally boarded the plane.

They were seated apart from each other, and both began praying for a safe flight as the plane set off. Mirae on the other hand, looked as if she was converting into a nun for life.

Every time the plane so much as shook gently Mirae grabbed the arm rests of her seat and dug her nails into them, like a cat refusing to go to the vet. Hana on the other hand was enjoying her time, eating the meal casually while laughing at a movie she was watching. But she too was worried about how their new life was going to turn out, and whether they would have a hard time in a new country. Both she and Mirae were never apart from their families, and even though they were practically like sisters, more than ever before they had to support each other with everything. Hana glanced back at her friend, questioning her state with a thumbs up. Mirae responded with the same gesture shakily, only to grab her seat and close her eyes, eliciting a laugh from the calmer girl.

The lights turning back on awoke Hana from her sleep, and she quickly looked for her friend. Mirae was sleeping with open, drooling a little onto her red neck pillow. She wasn’t sure if she was actually sleeping, or she just fainted from the stress. Hana glanced onto her watch, and it was almost time to land. Breakfast was served, and though Hana didn’t have much of an appetite she still managed to eat something.

Mirae on the other hand jumped up as if she was dreaming of falling down the stairs. Wiping off the trail of drool, she scratched her arm and looked out the window.

And her breath fell short as she saw land in the far off distance. She quietly called over to Hana, which took her a few tries because sometimes her best friend was clinically deaf, and with small movements with her hands she showed her excitement, a large smile stretching onto her lips. But quickly resumed her gripping cat position as she felt the plane lose altitude. Hana got up from her seat and went over to Mirae, leaning on the top of the seat in front of her.

“How you holding up?” Hana asked with a laugh.

“I have prayed to every saint I know, to God and to my mom. I’m pretty sure I can join the Pope’s inner circle at this point.” Mirae was one to joke when she was nervous beyond recognition. Hana laughed and patted her best friend on the head like a cat, pulling at her hair and elongating her forehead just to annoy her.

Their talk was short as the carts started passing through the alleys, and soon enough the seatbelt sign . Mirae began praying again for a safe landing, Hana on the other hand was listening to music with her eyes closed and head resting against the seat.

The plane touched down in less than an hour, and Mirae could finally breathe normally again. She was about to cry, as there was no turning back now. The plane finally arrived at its gate and as Mirae got up to fetch her bag form the upper compartment, she flashed a look of relief to Hana who was doing the same.

***

It took them an entire month to set up their apartment, as well as their own café. Their apartment was located in the North of the Gangnam district where they had everything at hand such as marketplaces and malls. Their apartment was located on the last floor of the building, giving them access to a large private balcony covered in forest green flooring. Per month they had to pay 1 700 000 won for a little over 1000 square feet, two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The price was perfect as it was already furnished with the basic necessities, and all they had to do was turn it into a living environment. They each had their own room which they transformed to look a little like their rooms back home, complete with posters and pictures. This was their life now, and sooner or later they were going to get used to it, and hopefully, hopefully they would love it here.

As for their café, it was a 25 minute walk from where they lived, and was in a peaceful area which was always buzzing with people. Ideally, it was on a small plot of land, excluded from all the shops and their competitors. On a hot day, it seemed like an oasis to all who passed by. The exterior was of a modern design: a flat roof, four large inclined windows, aligned in front of them were three potted trees separated by two small benches, and a double entry glass door. Over the windows was a few feet of grey marble, and on it were embedded the letters forming the word “Sunrise” in a bright crème colour.

And the color scheme of the interior was light wood and plants along the edges of the large room. The walls were covered in dimly lit Christmas lights, as well as inspirational quotes and pictures of famous land marks in black and white. As you walked in, lightbulbs hung from the ceiling, a counter aligned the windows with high stools, and round tables were scattered in the café. A small walkway was made in the middle of them, which led to the very large counter where there was a single cash register, a glass case with all kinds of pastries and sandwiches.  All kinds of machines were placed in that area against the cornsilk coloured wall that separated the main room with their small kitchen where they would bake and prepare everything.

It was exactly how the two imagined it, and even more. Though their down payment was tugging at their ears, they assumed they would pay it off gradually if business was good.

And the response during their first week was beyond anything they were expecting.  People flooded in morning, noon and night, making the two girls barely able to catch their breaths. It was probably because of a good marketing idea Mirae had when they were setting up the business, and that was to give a small flower with every purchase. The idea seemed to be loved by everyone, especially women.

There was no way to describe just how happy the two were. It took months to prepare everything before their arrival, and their hard work and money paid off for them to have a good and fresh start in a new country. And though Mirae appreciated everything she had, she seemed to wonder if it were too good to be true. She was reminded that it was her reality as Hana slapped her face with a paper.

Looking slightly disheveled, Mirae grabbed the paper in her hands, jumping up on the counter. After a long and overly successful week, she was beginning to have bags under her eyes, as her Friday night shifts were worse than she hoped. The writing on the paper seemed blurry at first, and her eyes soon adjusted.

“Guess what?” Hana said, excitement in her voice.

“WE’RE BEING EVICTED AREN’T WE?” Mirae screamed. “I knew it was too good to be true.”

Hana slapped her on the nose. “Let me finish, stupid.” She groaned. “I made the calculations. This is a list of our earnings this week, and I calculated that if we have a margin of more or less 10% of these earnings for the next four weeks we will have enough for rent, taxes, paying off our down payment, AND ingredients for the café.”

Mirae raised her eyebrows and started looking over the numbers on the paper.

“Wait, this means nothing comes out of our pockets.” She stated, looking back up at Hana.

“Yep.” Hana affirmed.

“And this means…?” Mirae wasn’t sure where her friend was going with this. Sure it was amazing that they were supposed to make enough money for all of those things but she didn’t think that Hana would be so excited about this.

“Guess who’s playing in four months at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena.” Hana said.

“Turbo.” Mirae said flatly, earning herself another smack on the nose.

“EXO.”  Hana said with a squeal.

Mirae’s face lit up and they both started jumping around. One of the things they’ve always wanted to do was go see a concert in Korea, and it so happened that one of their mutual favorites was having a concert.

“I hate my life. I am cry.” Hana banged her head on the table repeatedly, the screen of her laptop shaking. She was sitting in their empty café, looking at online ticketing booths.

Unfortunately for them, their incredible start came to a halting stop as the following week started with two coffee machines jamming, her burning half of her hand while making cupcakes and Mirae catching a cold from the air conditioning.

With the broken coffee machines, they had to close up the store. Mirae took it upon herself to dismantle both appliances to fix them, though she was definitely not even close to a mechanic or whoever you called to fix these things. For 2 hours now she was on the phone with her father, who so happened to be the one in the household that knew how to fix everything, and unfortunately for her wasn’t there to fix it for her. Her conversation was mixed with screaming, swearing and tears as she couldn’t do anything right to make it work. Hana was useless in this situation as one hand was bandaged, and she was too scared to get involved with Mirae who looked like a ticking time bomb.

Seeing as she wasn’t doing anything special she went over onto the Internet to look for concert tickets, attempting to cheer her friend up. But as she began to search, the inevitable happened: the moment they announced the online ticket booth as opened, the tickets sold out in the space of 2 minutes. Six days ago.

“Yes I turned the valve. Yes did that too. Yeah. The red thing no?” Mirae tried to speak calmly as she seemed to have been starting to actually fix the machine.

Hana got up and dragged her feet towards the counter where Mirae was, her phone pressed between her face and shoulder because apparently she didn’t think of turning on the speaker. Hana looked over and began to speak, only to get shushed by the other.

Mirae closed the backdoor of the machine, flicked a button, and all three people waited, tension in the room arising.

The machine made an ugly sound as it started up, and turns out, by some horrible miracle and her father’s somewhat clear instructions, the machine began to work. Mirae screamed of joy and began to celebrate with a small dance, making Hana laugh. She thanked her father and quickly hung up, fearing the phone bill that will arrive at the end of the month.

“Yeah sorry, what’s wrong?” Mirae said, sighing of relief that there was at least one machine working. Hopefully she could fix the second one the same way, and she began repairing it as she listened to Hana.

“The concert is sold out.” Hana said, sadness in her voice.

Mirae accidentally slammed the machine door on her finger, swearing like a sailor.

“Well… What did we expect with EXO, right?” she laughed, blowing at her thumb and shaking her hand. “We’ll catch the next one, yeah?”

Hana nodded slowly. “Hopefully no one else leaves by then.”

And just like Hana predicted, they really did make enough money to pay off everything, and still have some left. But with whatever was left over, they decided to pay off their down payment, and they were serving up the last wave of customers of the night.

“That’ll be 10 000 won, please.” Hana said, accepting the bills and gesturing towards an empty seat. Mirae was busy preparing their pumpkin spice lattes, as Hana grabbed two of her famous cupcakes. Placing everything on a tray, Mirae grabbed two tulips and placed them next to the two mugs, and set out to serve the customers. She told them to enjoy their drinks, and shuffled her way back to complete the next round of orders.

“Mirae, table 7 has left.” Hana said, punching in an order into the computer. Mirae lifted her head up from an espresso, and as she delivered that to the customer she quickly went to clean up the table in question.

The way both girls worked in synch was amazing. While Mirae was cleaning up, Hana was completing orders and serving people, and they’d switch unknowingly but efficiently. It was the kind of teamwork anyone envied, and they were lucky to have it. On some days it was hard, but they were still thankful that they had each other.

Mirae made her way into the kitchen, slumping against the wall and drinking a cup of water while trying to catch her breath. Thankfully, Hana only had one more person in line to serve, and she was soon joined by her.

And slowly, the customers began to leave. The clock 1, and no one was left. Since it was Friday night, the café was open until 2 in the morning and the girls were happy that it was their alone time, as people didn’t usually fall in around that time.

Hana paused their usual café playlist, and began to play some old favourites like Team H’s “What Is Your Name”.

They were supposed to take the rest of the night off, but as Mirae noticed people passing by, she immediately switched the music back to their usual playlist, their night off shortly lived. Mirae told the other that she was going to clean up the kitchen and do an inventory check. But Hana’s eyebrows furrowed as she noticed it was more than just one person outside of the café, 9 hooded figures actually.

“Mirae.” She whispered, and the girl in question appeared in the kitchen door. “Pass me the kitchen knife.”

If they were going to get attacked by some drunkards, Hana wasn’t going out without a fight. But before Mirae was back, the mysterious silhouettes entered the café, taking their hoods off as they passed through the doors. They were walking straight, and they seemed normal enough. Hana was going to tell the other that it wasn’t necessary.

“Mirae.” Hana repeated. Mirae reappeared, a giant kitchen knife in hand and a murderous look. Hana began to laugh and shook her hand telling her everything was okay. Mirae shrugged and disappeared back into the kitchen, resuming her inventory count.

Hana noticed that all of the figures had sunglasses on, and asked herself, what kind of pretentious s wear sunglasses at night?

All of the figures were men, and for some reason, Hana recognized their voices. They were talking on top of each other, but she still managed to place all the orders. Gesturing them to take a seat, she called over Mirae to help her out.

Unfortunately, Mirae emerged from the kitchen with flour all over her face and hair, having accidentally knocked over a bag of it while trying to see if there were any ingredients hidden behind it.  Hana began laughing hysterically, gaining the attention of the men who seemed to be having a lively conversation.

“No comment.” Mirae hissed, only making Hana laugh even more as she prepared an iced Americano. Mirae took a look at the order, then glanced at the figures at the tables. They seemed awfully familiar.

Cleaning up most of the flour on her, she still looked like a Geisha. Completing the order, they both set out and distributed the drinks which were either hot or cold. When Hana told them to enjoy, she overheard one of them say, “The concert was awesome.”

And she couldn’t help but join the conversation. “Are you guys talking about the EXO concert by any chance?” she asked.

They all exchanged looks through their tinted lenses, and one of them flashed her a mischievous smile. “Yes,” he began, “you weren’t there by any chance, were you?”

A small laugh escaped her lips. “Us? Nah. We were planning to go though. We just moved into the neighborhood and since it’s been our dream to see a concert, we wanted to attend that one. Unfortunately it was sold out so… We decided to spend the night here. As if we had any other choice.”

“Ah I knew it!” one of them exclaimed. Hana, and Mirae who was busy cleaning up the counter, turned their attention to the one who had a round face, a gummy smile and his two front teeth a little longer than the rest in the row. “I came here a few days ago, thought this was new.” Hana raised an eyebrow. She had a good photographic memory, and thought she would have recognized him. Alas she wasn’t able to.

“See, this place is different.” The squirrel-like man continued, turning to the others. “When you buy something, they give you little flowers. The pastries are fresh and you can smell them for a few blocks. The coffee is brewed perfectly here, nothing is instant or burned or bland.”

“Are you some kind of coffee expert?” Hana laughed.

“You could say that.” He said proudly, making the others laugh. Hana excused herself, not wanting to bother the customers anymore. She walked around the café to gather up the remaining cups and headed back into the kitchen.

Suddenly, the sound of breaking dishes made the entire café fall silent. Mirae whirled around, only to see her best friend sprawled on the ground, pieces of ceramic mugs scattered all over. She let out a small whimper and slowly got up into a sitting position.

Mirae was about to jump over the counter to see if she was alright, but one of the men sprung from his seat and went over to her, kneeling next to her.

“Are you alright?” he asked, one hand placed on her back.

“Oh ya this happens often.” She said, slightly embarrassed that she tripped over nothing and managed to create such a huge mess. She began to gather up as many pieces as she could, trying to be careful but it was all in vain as she cut herself multiple times. Mirae walked over to the corner of the café to grab the broom that was laying against the wall.

The man next to Hana took off his sunglasses and slipped them into his pocket.

“Don’t you watch Korean dramas? You’re not supposed to grab the pieces of anything broken or else you’ll cut yourself.” Hana’s laugh was cut short when she looked up from her hands, and met the man’s gaze.

Her eyes widened, and her first reflex was to back away from him, only to bang her head on the edge of a table. He was startled by her reaction, and asked if she was alright.

“Do Kyungsoo?” Mirae breathed, then her eyes fell onto the other men. Her heart sank to her stomach as she realized who the 9 men really were: EXO. The broom in her hand dropped to the ground with a small clank.

“Yah, we only wanted one night out without anyone recognizing us.” Xiumin took his glasses off, chastising Kyungsoo. The rest followed soon after, seeming uncomfortable with wearing sunglasses at night.

Mirae began to shake, but in her moment of confusion she made her way to Hana, who looked paralyzed on the ground. Kyungsoo waved his hand in front of her eyes, but no response. Mirae grabbed Hana by the shoulders and gave her a small shake, snapping her out of it.

“I’ll clean this up, you go treat that.” She said, and Hana carefully got up, and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Ah please don’t mind us, we won’t bother you. I promise. Please enjoy your time.” Mirae said, becoming extremely dry. Too many emotions and thoughts ran through her head. She walked back to her broom and began sweeping everything up, Kyungsoo returned to his group and a quiet conversation followed.

Mirae rushed back into the kitchen to check up on her friend, only to have Hana smack her arm repeatedly.

“Yah yah yah EXO are sitting in our café!” Hana said, squealing silently and moving in place.

“Bro, you were practically a living corpse two seconds ago and now you’re fangirling?” Mirae asked, sighing of relief.

“This isn’t the time to be lecturing me.” Hana retorted, grabbing Mirae by the arm and dragging her to the kitchen window which gave off onto the café. Both girls began to stare at the men who seemed immersed in a conversation, but when Baekhyun’s gaze met theirs they quickly fell to the ground, and began giggling like little girls, slapping each other on the arm repeatedly.

“Think they like the drinks?” Hana asked.

“Not the issue right now. Did you see how Kyungsoo jumped to his feet to help you?!” Mirae exclaimed in a whisper.

“Oh god really? My face was flat against the floor so no, I didn’t notice.” She sighed, rubbing at her knees.

“You okay though?” Mirae asked. Hana brushed it off by saying it wasn’t the first time she hurt herself, and that with rubbing alcohol and band-aids she would be fine.

“Excuse me?”

Both girls jumped up, their faces appearing in the window again. Suho was at the cash register while the other guys were making their way out.

Hana pushed Mirae out the door, and was eavesdropping by the window while hunched up.

“It seems we over-stayed the opening hours.” Suho laughed awkwardly, giving Mirae his black card. She glanced at the clock, and noticed it was well past 2 in the morning.

“A-Ah… It’s perfectly fine don’t worry about it.” Mirae smiled, her cheeks going bright pink.
She swiped the card, and as she waited for the transaction, Suho asked, “Is your friend alright?”

Mirae nodded fervently. “Yeah that girl is made of steel. Well, ish.” She laughed nervously, and handed him his card back. “I hope everything was alright!”

He nodded. “It was great thank you. You have a beautiful café by the way.” Mirae’s face flushed a darker shade of red.

No coherent word came out of , so she just decided to bow multiple times, hearing Hana slap herself in the face. Suho’s eyebrows knitted together and he gestured towards Mirae’s face.

“You have… Uh you have a little something.” He said.

Mirae quickly began rubbing at her face, thinking it was probably the flour. She thought she had got it, but Suho leaned over the counter and rubbed the area under her right eye.

He flashed her a gentle smile and began to make his way out. Mirae turned to Hana, mouthing the words “Oh my God” and making a distressed face, when suddenly Suho spoke from the other side of the room.

“By the way…” he held up a violet tulip. “Awesome idea.” He said, and left. The men disappeared into the late night, leaving Hana and Mirae alone.

Hana joined the other at staring blankly at the door.

“Did that really just happen?” Hana asked. Mirae nodded slowly, trying hard to convince herself that there must have been something in that flour bag that wasn’t exactly flour.

“Wah, he really does pay for everyone.” Hana said, amazed. “Think they’ll be back?”

Mirae shrugged. “Our first impression on them was half half. HOW THE HELL DO YOU MANAGE TOO TRIP OVER NOTHING WOMAN.” They both laughed. Hana rested her head onto Mirae’s shoulder, and the other patted her hair.

“Yah, you should write 50 Shades of Red.” Hana said, and Mirae elbowed her in the ribs.

“Come on, before Big Bang show up.” Mirae said while laughing, and they closed up the café for the night.