She pushed the crates out of the way of the door. It took longer than usual to stock the shelves since there were so many college students celebrating the end of finals with a huge binge of soju and, well, whatever else they could find, so the manager had ordered extra stock to prevent what happened a few years before.

“You seriously ran out of everything?”

“Can we stop talking about this?”

“No, like, the store was empty, though?”

Her manager didn’t really like telling the story, but she loved hearing it. As much as it would to explain to a bunch of drunk college students that she didn’t have anything to help their buzz, she figured it might mean she could call it a night early and not worry about those fools for too long.

“Welcome to GS25,” she said when she heard the bell on the door jingle.

She adjusted her vest and checked the clock before going back to the counter from the back room. Three more hours and she could close up.

When she made it back to the register, she could see a head of dark hair gliding by the kimbap display toward the drinks fridge. None of those drinks were cold. She knew this. She had just restocked everything after 22 people in Korea University jackets stopped in and cleared the store of anything with alcohol.

Sure enough, dark hair opened the fridge and took out a warm bottle soju. Sorry, guy.

“Excuse me,” he said holding up the bottle. He didn’t bother looking to the front. He stared straight into the depths of the drinks fridge’s soul. “This is warm.”

She stayed at her post near the register. “I’m sorry, sir. I just restocked the fridge.”

“I don’t like warm soju.”

That since that is all I can offer you here. “I’m so sorry. You could try a different convenience store. None of the drinks are cold yet.”

He dropped his hand and turned to her, but he still didn’t look quite at her. “This is the fourth store I’ve been to, and all you people have told me the same thing.”

“You...you realize we aren’t all the same person, right?” she huffed. Luckily, it seemed he didn’t hear her. “Again, I’m sorry. There’s not much I can do short of giving you a cup of ice. The students around here have been celebrating the end of finals all week.”

“Ack, soju in ice? Why would you even suggest something so vile?”

He looked down at the bottle in his hands, sighed, and walked to the register. He practically dropped the bottle in front of her.

“I guess since this is the best you can do that it’s the best I can expect from someone spending their time working at a convenience store.”

And then he looked up.

She didn’t know he’d looked up. She was staring down at his bottle of soju and bag of onion chips mouthing the insults she knew she couldn’t say out loud. Her hair had fallen in a kind of curtain over her shoulder. It was like a movie, except that her exhaustion from working while studying for finals made her extremely aware that this was actually real life.

“That’ll be 5000 won,” she said as she looked up.

They locked eyes.

He couldn’t look away. She was struggling to keep a neutral expression on her face as he continued to stare at her. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to creepy guys staring at her. She worked the night shift at a convenience store next to a university.

“Five thousand won, sir,” she repeated.

He shook his head as if to try to come to his senses and handed her a card.

“HelloI’mCNU,” he blurted as she turned to swipe his card.

She could hear that it was stylized the way he said it. It wasn’t Shin Woo. It wasn’t even Sinu in some weird mistake of a romanization. She heard it was made of three letters. C. N. U. Like he was trying to be a trendsetter.

She has to make a conscious effort not roll her eyes as she handed him his card.

“Do you need a bag?”

“I could use your number.”

HA!

She looked up at him and raised her eyebrows. “Do you need a bag for this, sir?”

CNU nodded and leaned forward on the counter between them, closing the gap by taking her personal space.

“Sure, a bag.” He looked her over, or at least as much of her as he could look at from across the counter. “And your number.”

She put his items in a bag and slid it across the counter.

“Have a great night. Sorry again about the soju. Please come again.”

She her heels and walked into the back to get snacks to restock the shelves. She tried to wait until she heard the sound of the door, but it never came. When she checked the CCTV, he was still standing at the counter, leaning forward and craning his neck toward the back room.

“What the is he doing?”

“I really could use your number!” he yelled back to her.

She stomped out and stared at him with her arms crossed. “And what exactly could you use my number for?”

“Only good, dear. The best good you can ever know.”

“What?”

“Come out with me.”

“Please leave.”

“Only if you’re coming too.”

She swore she saw him wink as he said that. His crisp black coat and his deep maroon turtleneck made him look like a vampire.

“Get out. You’re clearly drunk, and I’m happy to call the police.”

He held up the bag she had just packed for him. “I haven’t had anything to drink. This was my first of the night, and it’s still closed.” He smiled, his teeth a little too even. Maybe the fangs only came out when he was ready to feed. “Let me have your number.”

She pulled out her phone, and CNU’s whole face brightened with hope.

“I will call the police.”

And his face fell again.

“Fine, fine. I’ll leave this time, but I’ll remember you.”

She seriously considered locking the door after he left, but if she closed early without a really good reason, there would be hell to pay.

*     *     *

For the next few nights, she had a regular visitor. CNU stuck to buying mineral water rather than soju, but he kept staring at her. The more he looked, the more she felt like she needed to shower to get all the grease off.

“Just let me have your number, and I’ll leave you alone,” he said one night.

“I feel like that is the opposite of what you plan to do with my number.”

“How can you know that if you’ve never given me your number before?” he said as he smiled.

CNU had been following her around the store all week as she stocked snacks and checked dates on perishable food, and it was getting to the point where she was considering just putting him to work. If he was going to spend all his time watching what she was doing, she might as well let him help her put things up on the shelves that she couldn’t reach without a stepladder. But then again, that might give him hope.

“What if I gave you the number of a good psychologist rather than mine?”

“Are you a psychology major?”

“ off.”

Maybe she wouldn’t ask him to help after all.

*     *     *

She finally had a day off from the convenience store (and CNU) after a solid week of endless come ons and requests for her number, and she was tempted to not even go out in case he somehow found out where she lived. The trouble was that her fridge was empty except for an expired bottle of banana milk, and she was so not in the mood to risk that. So she bundled up and went out into the cold and holiday cheer of the Christmas dating season.

This is always when it began, the endless reminder that she was single. From the beginning of December until the end of March, she had to look forward to Christmas, New Year, Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day, and White Day, selling cheap chocolates to the people who forgot the holidays were coming and needed to get something for their boyfriends or girlfriends or people they liked but had no courage to confess to, and it was never not exhausting to watch girls squeal over a 3000 won box of candy that she could tell they were disappointed at.

But today, she didn’t have to hide her scorn for these couples in the name of customer service. It didn’t matter if they complained that her look was sour or that she didn’t wish them a nice day. She would be able to—

I sayyyyyyy dashi mal hajima~

Who the hell was calling her?

“Hello?”

“Your manager finally gave me your number.”

Click.

She saved CNU’s number as “Creep From the Store,” and he immediately called back.

“Lose my number,” she said before hanging up again.

But he called back.

She realized she should probably just stop answering. This could be pretty good evidence against him if she took a phone record with a million missed calls to the police, but she wanted to make sure he got the point without destroying her phone battery.

“Can you please leave me alone?”

“Not until you agree to see me.”

“Hmph. You see me literally everyday.”

CNU chuckled. “Not because you agree to it.”

Well, at least he realized that much. “It’s my first day off since finals.”

“Then give me the afternoon.” His pause was full of expectation for her answer, but she stayed silent. “We could go ice skating.”

She still didn’t answer. It had been a while since she had been able to afford to have meat in anything other than soup, and based on how he dressed, she figured CNU could probably swing a nice BBQ restaurant after ice skating. That’s one less meal she’d have to pay for herself. Or eat by herself.

“I’ll meet you at Korea University in an hour,” CNU said, as if she had actually said yes.

“No,” she said when he seemed he was going to hang up on her silence.

“Come on. Just one afternoon. You might actually have fun.”

“No, I mean—” She relaxed her shoulders into the idea that she was going to voluntarily spend time with this guy. “I mean, I go to Korea University. I’m a student there. I don’t want to spend my day off at school.”

“Well then,” CNU said. She could hear his smile over the phone. She could feel the grease of it down her spine. She was already regretting this. “We can meet at LotteWorld.”

“Sure. Sure, I’ll see you there.”

She heard him end the call, and she fell to the ground, losing all strength in her legs.

“.”

*     *     *

When she got off the train at LotteWorld, she considered just going to the LotteMart, getting her groceries, and heading back, but she knew that that would just lead to a lot of phone calls and questions about where she went and when she’d get there and—

“You actually came.”

CNU looked shocked, but he was holding two headbands, so he clearly wasn’t too shocked.

Or he was cocky.

He walked over and put one of the headbands on her head, smoothing her hair. And winked.

Clearly cocky.

“Let’s go.”

He slid his hand from her shoulder to her hand and laced his fingers through hers. CNU pulled her along before she could pull away.

“Hey!”

“Walk faster,” he said without looking back.

“Give me my hand back!”

“I can’t risk that.”

They ran toward the skating rink, and CNU pulled out their tickets. She didn’t know how long he’d been there, standing, waiting, getting headbands and skating tickets.

“I already paid for your skates,” he told her, handing her a slip of paper. “You can store your bag with them. They’ll put it with your shoes.” He looked down at their hands and slowly loosened his grip. “I guess you’ll need that to change your shoes.”

She wiped her newly freed hand on her jeans. She watched as he walked away to switch out his leather oxfords for skates. She kept watching as he insisted that his skates be black because the white ones ruined his outfit.

When they made it to the ice, he tried to hold both her hands to help her, but she was able to glide out on her own and into the oncoming traffic of other skaters.

Admittedly, she had left CNU behind, but it wasn’t like she wouldn’t come back around to the entrance he was stuck at. Maybe he was trying to grab hold of her because he couldn’t actually skate. She dodged around some people to speed around the rink because, judging by the panicked look on his face, CNU did not appreciate being left alone.

“Sorry,” she panted as she got back to him. “I didn’t know you couldn’t skate.”

His eyes were wide. “I didn’t know you could.”

“Well, we don’t really know anything about one another.” She looked over his shoulder at the skate rental place. “We could get you the walker-thing those kids are using to stay up.”

“No!” He smoothed his coat. “No, I’m fine.”

He linked arms with her and tried to lead her away.

“I’d rather we get you one of those walkers.”

He looked down at her and shook his head. It seemed like now that she was finally next to him, there was no chance he was going to let her go.

“You can’t let me fall,” CNU whispered.

“Why not?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “It isn’t like you’d get terribly injured.” She pointed around the skating rink. “We’re surrounded by ice.”

CNU shook his head and tightened his grip. “If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”

“I’m not sure if you meant for that to be romantic, but it definitely came off a little murdery.”

“Whatever.”

They went around the rink a few times until CNU got his balance. By the fourth round, he was able to relax his death grip on her arm and hold onto her hand instead. It wasn’t a huge improvement from her point of view, but she was hoping if he gained more confidence, he might let go altogether.

“How long have you been skating?” he asked, interrupting her hopes he’d leave her alone.

“Um, we used to go every winter to the local rink,” she said, trying to pull away.

He pulled back.

“That means you can teach me.”

She looked down at his feet, gliding pretty easily through the ice. Ankles straight. Her gaze traveled up his long body. Everything was fine.

“Do you dance?” she asked.

He gave her that creepy, too-even smile.

“A bit. I guess. I’m more of a singer.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think the singing helps your balance in skating.”

She pulled her hand away and skated ahead. It didn’t take long for CNU to catch up to her because he had fallen on his face and slid all the way forward. He looked up at her like a disappointed puppy from the ice.

“I think it’s time for hot chocolate.”

She helped him up, and they made their way back to the safety of the outside of the rink. There were a bunch of kids sitting on the benches watching CNU struggle to walk in his skates. It was clear CNU was trying to keep his head up through sheer force of will, but she doubted he didn’t notice that some of the kids were pointing and laughing at the ice all over his coat.

“I’m going to—” he paused as he looked around. “I’m going to go find my real shoes. The ones I can walk in.”

“All right.”

He looked down at her and smiled. “Unless you want to keep holding me up.”

“No no. Definitely get your shoes.”

She made her way to a bench to take off her skates before walking in her socks to get her shoes and purse. This definitely wasn’t the kind of day she had in mind when she started out for the grocery store this morning. The person with her shoes handed her some coupons as she threw her purse over her shoulder.

“What are these?”

“We saw your boyfriend fall.” The clerk cocked her head to indicate CNU, and the girl had to take a moment to remember to control her face at the word “boyfriend.” “We found some free hot chocolate coupons to treat you.”

“Oh, well, thanks.” She slipped the coupons into her purse and bowed slightly.

“Be sure to ask for marshmallows!”

She walked toward CNU as he laced up his boots. He put his hand into his hair, and his face dropped.

“My headband is gone.”

She reached up and took hers off to hand to him, but he pushed it away.

“You’re keeping that. It’s for you.”

“But you seem sad you lost yours.”

“I am, but that one is yours.” He shook his hair out and stood up. “Let’s go. I’ll buy you lunch.”

She stopped him by putting a hand on his chest and pulled the coupons from her purse.

“I have coupons for hot chocolate.”

“Oh. That’s better. Let’s get hot chocolate.”

As they walked to the cafe, CNU draped his arm across her shoulders, and she let him. She decided she’d put him through enough so far today that she could give him this. Maybe not much more than this, but this was his.

“Can we have two hot chocolates, please?” CNU said as they got to the counter.

“With marshmallows,” she added.

She handed the cashier the coupons.

“Do you want to have those here?”

“Sure.”

They went to a table in the corner and sat down. CNU sat a little lower than she expected someone of his pride to sit.

“.”

Not language she expected either.

“What?”

CNU rested his forehead on the table and didn’t move. She wasn’t really sure what to do at this point because she didn’t actually know this guy very well. She knew he had time in the evenings to pester her, he could afford stuff around LotteWorld, and he couldn’t ice skate, but she hadn’t really taken time to know what he was about.

But if she was being fair, he hadn’t taken the time to get to know her either, so why should she feel bad?

He turned his head so he was looking out at the rest of the cafe and sighed.

“What?”

He looked up at her through his eyebrows and seemed to decide he had to be sitting up for this conversation.

“That isn’t how I wanted any of this to go,” he said.

Their hot chocolates came, and she was glad to have something in her hands. And glad to have asked for marshmallows because this definitely seemed like a marshmallows kind of situation.

She looked up at him. “What to go how?”

“This. Any of this.” He indicated the whole ice rink with a kind of hopeless gesture. “It took so much effort just to see you outside the convenience store. You showed up. You look great. Well, you always look great, but you look like you aren’t busy thinking about stocking the drinks or cleaning the floors, and I thought...I thought this could be something fun.”

CNU took a drink of his hot chocolate, found out it was still too hot to drink, and swore.

“This is the polar opposite of fun.”

She shrugged and pushed the marshmallows around in her mug with a spoon. Would it be inappropriate to scoop out the marshmallows and eat them first? Would she burn like CNU just had on the actual hot chocolate? How much did she care about the pain when there are marshmallows floating in front of her?

She scooped up a marshmallow and popped it in .

It wasn’t too hot.

CNU smiled.

“Stop doing that.”

She looked down at her cup, full of marshmallow, and considered walking away to be alone with her treat.

Instead she asked, “Doing what?”

CNU reached out and took the hand that wasn’t currently fishing for another marshmallow.

“Doing things that make me want to kiss you.”

She spit-laughed. She laughed so hard. She almost choked on her marshmallow, but she was lucky enough to swallow before she caused a Stay Puff disaster on par with the original Ghostbusters.

“My eating marshmallows out of a mug of hot chocolate is no reason to want to kiss me. Stop taking your lines from weird romance novels.”

He held tighter to her hand. “Just being her.” His thumb her palm. “Being here makes me want to kiss you.”

“Well.” She picked up another marshmallow. “Don’t.”

He let go of her hand and sat back in his chair. She could tell he was a little disappointed, but she had to give him credit where credit was due for not leaning across and kissing her instead.

“What are the odds we can do this again sometime?” CNU asked as he tested if his hot chocolate would melt his tongue.

“Do what? Kind of ice skate and get pity hot chocolate from the shoe counter?” She considered the idea. “Pretty slim. These places don’t give out freebies often.”

CNU sighed and pushed his hot chocolate to the side.

“I meant meet up again. Would you put up with me again?” He bit his lip. “Maybe I overstayed my welcome before I realized.”

She took a sip of her now marshmallow-less hot chocolate. CNU still had all his marshmallows. Maybe she could switch cups.

“If I’m honest,” she said, “I don’t think you ever had a welcome to begin with.”

CNU nodded. Maybe he knew the whole time.

“I guess I realized that.” He stood up and buttoned his coat. “I appreciate you never outright hitting me.” He looked her in the eye. “I’m sorry I took up your time.”

He stood waiting for a few more moments, but she wasn’t sure what she should say. She couldn’t lie and say she was sad to see him go. She really wasn’t. She had things to do.

CNU looked passed her to the other side of the table.

“You can have my marshmallows.”

And then he walked away.

And she did eat the marshmallows. She would never be ashamed to admit that.