Jiyeon’s POV:

I remembered when the bell rang and I rushed out of class along with my best friend – Lee Haneul and heading straight to our usual hideout. A store quaintly hidden in a corner right around the alley near our school.

A small crooked smile came to form on my lips and I turned around, scanning my surroundings. Ah, so she finally made it.
I spotted Haneul who had just entered the store with her hands leaned against her knees, smiling.

“How could you get here first when we just got off the same time the bell rang?!”
Wearing her same smile and pleading eyes, she slung an arm around me.
“Tell me your secret, my one and only best friend Park Jiyeon!”

I rolled my eyes and chuckled at her before shrugging off her arms that were hanging around me.
“There’s no secret. I’m just a better runner than you.”

I looked around the store, inhaling it’s the homely scent that came along with it.
The store was built upon rustic red bricks with outdoorsy tables outside for the patrons.
Vintage secondhand items were fashionably tucked into different corners and walls of the shop giving it a slightly more authentic rustic vibe, a more humanely touch.

We went to the store so often that it seemed like we owned the little hideout. Why we went there so often, you ask? Well, I guess we weren’t the type of students who loved staying back for remedial classes, neither were we part of the rebellious ones. We simply studied topics we liked and well were average at best for the ones we didn’t. Since we were just students, we couldn’t afford anything that weren’t cheap anyways. Hence the store was always the place that we go to.

A madam named Mrs. Kwon owned the shop, but we call her Ahjumma instead. She wasn’t a typical gentle demure aunty, instead she was quite the opposite of that.
She had wild pink hair and a dash of mean streak and grumpiness embedded in her personality instead of the normal motherly vibes aunties generally had.
But never judge a book by its cover though, she's really all bark and no bite. As long as people don't get on her wrong side.

“Yah, you two brats! Why are you two here again instead of eating some healthy food or going home to do your homework?! Or even so, go to the mall and shop and watch some movies! For goodness sake, you are both eighteen so go have a normal life and date like normal people your age do!”
The ahjumma nagged towards our direction.

“Yah ahjumma! Arent you happy that we’re here? Don’t you miss us? You can’t chase us out anyways, no no no! Besides, its not like anyone would want to date us anyways! And movies are expensive for us, don’t chase us out.”

Haneul was trying her best to give her puppy eyes to the Ahjumma while giving me a side eye, and I just chuckled. It’s always been like this, Ahjumma would nag at us to stop us from coming over that seemingly defined our lack of social life while the other would whine and grumble back. It was hilarious really despite how many times this has happened already.

“Yah brats, my legs aren’t very good. Could you two girls help me stick up these posters at the alley and at the noticeboard outside? I need to get these out by today.”

“Of course, Ahjumma, are your legs okay? And don't worry, we'll get it done now!” As always, Haneul was being hyper, and probably too enthusiastic.

Sometimes I wonder how a girl like her and a girl like me ended up being best friends. After all, she was always outgoing and happy, she loved changes, she loved challenges and she was a cat person. I was all the opposite of her, I was gloomier, I hated changes, I was calmer, more reserved