"How many are we singing for today?" Seulgi asks, as she polishes the wooden acoustic guitar hung around her neck with a white cotton cloth. She's been rubbing it for quite a while now despite knowing it won't shine because it's so beaten down. It was a hand-me-down from the restaurant owner that the 23-year-old thinks should be sitting in an antique collection instead of being played in her arms. Seulgi stares in disgust at the map of dust she’s cleaned off.  

Seungwan scans her eyes over the pink pad paper on her palm, flipping it over a few times before concluding. "I think it's about 8 for this shift."

"Hallelujah." Seulgi sighed, tossing the dirty rag below the cashier counter. It used to be a lot more than a single digit number. Ever since the restaurant owner decided to hold an 'unlimited meat' promo for birthday celebrants, Seulgi and Seungwan had to sing "Happy Birthday" to at least 15 customers every shift, leaving her to wonder since then how long her ancient guitar was going to last.

"We're starting with those kids over there." Seungwan interrupts Seulgi's thoughts, pointing her black pen’s cap at a pair of customers seated at the rear end of the restaurant. "That table with a redhead and a blondie."

Seulgi tiptoes from the granite table top to check as far as her slightly bad eyesight could see. The customers look like a cheerful bunch. She notes as she catches them laughing rambunctiously over the stories they were telling each other. At least, they were probably going to get some audience participation. She consoles herself. The guitarist scrubs her instrument one last time with her sleeves and gives Seungwan a thumbs up.

"Alright, let’s go!"

------

Seulgi always feels ten times cooler when she has a guitar slung on her. Well…she already looked pretty awesome in her fit white button down, black bowtie & slacks, gray apron uniform but the body of the instrument leaning on her tall, slender frame and her bulging arm muscles as her fingers clutched the frets cranked all the waitress' charms to full blast.

However, today is an exception.

Waitress Kang’s confident strides are put to a halt when she heads to the back of the room and discovers that the customers aren’t actually a pair but a trio. The redhead is the tallest and the bubbliest - tossing and turning her fire colored hair on her bare shoulders every time she spoke. The blonde one, on the other hand, looks younger in her sunshine yellow dress -  attentively listening to the redhead while sipping on her iced tea. And lastly, smack in the middle of the table, is a doe-eyed girl with honey brown hair, blowing her hands and placing them near the grill to keep them warm.

While this doesn't seem to be a problem, it is to Kang Seulgi because these girls were pretty - so pretty that you'd mistake them for girl group members. Especially the brunette. Seulgi notices. Her heart hurting in a good way as she silently watches the brown-haired girl shrink her fists back into the long sleeves of her navy blue knitted sweater, her tall nose scrunching from the cold.

The crook of Seulgi’s neck hurt and she wasn’t quite sure if it was the heavy weight of the guitar or the whiplash she was getting from such a visual. Either way, she knows she’s done for. Her knees are already buckling, and her tongue has disconnected itself from her brain.

You must know that Kang Seulgi is an absolute loser for pretty girls.   

"Oh, they’re here!" The redhead squeals excitedly, clapping her hands to when she accidentally whips her head to Seulgi and Seungwan's direction. Without a word, the blondie whips her phone out of her dress pocket and begins filming. The two of them giggle in unison while the brown-haired girl stares at them, her soup ladle hovering in mid-air.

Much like a baby bunny, she has this adorable, bewildered look on her face with her ears out and her eyes wide open when a little mango cream cake smoothly emerges from Seungwan’s back and is carefully laid down on the trio's table.

“Surprise, unnie!” The brunette’s companions yell along with some random party-like woohoos and yays. The latter finally reads the situation and her expression switches from confused to mortified. She's about to raise her hands in protest but Seungwan beats her to it by singing the first line at the top of her lungs.

"Saeng il chuk ha ham ni da!"

Seulgi's hands instinctively strum the guitar to the happy birthday song. She’s trying to focus on the chords, believe her, but the girl with the sunkissed hair seems to have a magnetic field of her own. Seulgi can’t seem to pry her eyes off her and now they’re forced to alternate at hitting the frets correctly and at admiring the view.

Ah, she’s the birthday girl. Seulgi muses, her heart swelling at the sight of the cute customer surrendering to her fate and mustering up a flustered toothless smile on her face instead. She looks even smaller sinking her head into her cupped hands as she shyly nods to the song. Kang Seulgi ponders if the chefs were wrong about putting the huge ‘26’ candle on her free birthday cake. She could easily pass as a 16-year-old.

The celebrant's bright eyes crinkle into crescents as she nervously laughs and looks away when her friends stand to dance and sing loudly along with Seungwan. Seulgi wishes the song could go a little longer so she would have a reason to stare but a minute more of it would probably kill the girl of embarrassment. She's already pursing her lip and bowing around worriedly at the other customers as the song went along for the second time.

Finally, Seungwan wraps up the song with a high note and the table bursts in a noisy applause.

“Now, it’s time to make the wish!” The blonde girl announces as she attempts to shoot the cake in flattering angles. Seungwan fishes out a lighter from her pocket and flicks it to light the brunette’s number candles. The latter looks at her kindly and mumbles a very meek thank you that makes Seulgi almost envious. The birthday girl waits for her friends to be satisfied with their camera work before she clasps her hands together and closes her eyes.

Seulgi her head to the side, thinking what this girl who looks like she’s been made from the finest stardust of the universe could possibly dream of.   

"I wish for unnie to stop being motae solo!" The redhead shamelessly exclaims, satisfying Seulgi’s curiosity and causing the brown-haired girl's forehead to crease in the middle of wishing.

The blonde one cackles obnoxiously behind the camera. "Me too! Me too!"

"Ya, Sooyoung-ah, Kim Yerim." The brunette sternly says in a strong unnie voice that shuts them all up. Her eyes remain close for a few more seconds until she ultimately bobs her head and blows the candles. The group claps once more including Seungwan and Seulgi.

"Ah, that was great! Thanks, unnies!" The girl named Sooyoung shoots ‘okay’ signs at the two performers.

“Yeah…” Yerim says, clicking her phone dead. “You're the best!”

"Sorry for tiring you out on your first round." The brunette smiles apologetically first at Seungwan and her warm gaze lands at Seulgi next.

Seulgi knows that this is her chance to speak. She wants to tell her she hopes she has a nice day. Or compliment her that she looks a lot younger than her age. Or even ask her if she was really motae solo but then she realizes she didn’t catch what her name was so she contemplates on asking that first until… 

"It's nothing really! We like it when people react to our singing.” Seungwan replies enthusiastically instead to make up from Seulgi’s speechless dumb-dumb state. “We hope you enjoy your time here and come back a lot, right? Hmm?”

Seungwan prods Seulgi to speak again, bumping her elbow ever so slightly.

“Y-yeah.” Seulgi blurts out without thought, adrenaline rushing into her. At last, she finds strength to talk. She pulls herself together to meet stares with the customer and in one final appeal, an uneven grin cracks into her face.

“P-please come back a lot.”

It sounds earnest.

“Why does it sound like she really means it?” Yerim murmurs quite audibly, smirking at her friends. 

Too earnest.

 The request turns both parties bashful with the brunette brushing her already perfectly fixed hair into her ear, Yerim and Sooyoung snickering and Kang Seulgi sending her companion SOS signals with her eyes whilst trying not to bolt out of the restaurant.

“Well, we gotta go fetch the other customers’ cakes now.” Seungwan declares, grabbing Seulgi by the shoulder to steady her. She’s feeling secondhand embarrassment as the weird atmosphere continues to hang around and she’s not sure how long Seulgi was going to last, standing in the same space.

She leans her forward so they can bow together without another word to the three customers. The shorter girl steers a mentally collapsed, soulless Seulgi to the kitchen without turning back

-----

"Ya, Kkang Seul! WHY. ARE. YOU. SUCH. A. LOSER. FOR. PRETTY. GIRLS.” Seungwan taunts, when they’re out of all the customers’ earshots. She punctuates her sentence by splashing stale, cold sink water into Seulgi’s face.

Seulgi doesn't answer as she tries to peer from the kitchen glass to catch a glimpse of the brown-haired girl who’s now taking solo pictures with her cake.

"You’re going to bore a hole into Irene-ssi if you stare at her that hard." Seungwan snaps, tossing a towel at Seulgi’s face and blocking her sight.

“Mmmm…” The latter rubs her face down and proceeds to peep. "Wait –“

“Irene-ssi? Is that her name?" Seulgi questions, finally tearing her eyes off the girl to face Seungwan.

 “Saeng il chuk ha ham ni da, saeng il chuk ha ham ni da, sarang ha neun Irene-ssi.” An annoyed Seungwan repeats the song to prove her point. “Gosh, Seul. If you were actually singing the birthday song with me and not sounding the wedding bells inside your head, you probably would have gotten that."

The latter sighs in exasperation but nothing is getting through Seulgi’s brain. The poor girl is already way ahead of herself – daydreaming in the middle of their dinner shift. She looks out the window again.

Irene.

She bends her sight a little - putting her head down - trying not to catch the customer’s eyes but even Irene’s fingertips make Seulgi’s heartbeat.

"Her friend said she was motae solo, right?" The 23-year-old chirps hopefully, absent-mindedly combing through her dark hair. “I wonder if she’d find it okay if I ask for her number when she pays…”

"As expected, you only remembered her saying she's single." Seungwan slaps Seulgi’s back and the guitar fretboard slams onto the kitchen glass.

The whole screen thuds, making the customers throw worried expressions at the sound but instead they find Seulgi biting her lip and rubbing her sleeves at the scratched glass. When the latter notices all the guests she’s bothered, the waitress automatically bows her head down repeatedly like a machine while Seungwan mouths sorry. Fortunately, they all return to eating as if they were waiting for the apology.  Seulgi is too embarrassed to lift her head up again so she sinks into the kitchen floor instead, rocking her guitar like a baby.

“CAN THE GROUND JUST EAT ME WHOLE RIGHT NOW!?” Seulgi mumbles, hiding her face behind the instrument.

“Sorry.” Seungwan winces, acknowledging she’s half the reason why her bestfriend was being a mess on the floor, whispering nonsense. Seeing her sour mood, Seungwan lets out a tired huff and decides to let out a little secret to cheer the dumb bear up.  

“Well, on the bright side…” Seungwan trails off. “I think I saw Irene smiling at you.”

“She did what!?” Seulgi’s tone picks up and she’s suddenly on her foot. “You said smiling, right? What kind of smile???”    

“She was looking at you quite endearingly while you were in chaotic panic.” Seungwan rolls her eyes, cringing at her own words. She wants to take them back but how could she, really, when they set Kang Seulgi into such high spirits. The tall girl is impishly grinning at her now and bombarding her with more questions like everything in the world was good and that absolutely nothing could go wrong.  

Too bad that isn’t true. Seungwan’s mental voice warns, as she spots a lanky figure come out of the manager’s room. The shorter girl gulps. “Seulgi…”

"I'm totally going to ask her number later and I'm not going to chicken out." Seulgi babbles.

"Kang Seulgi." Seungwan repeats more seriously and finally, Seulgi’s monolidded eyes focus again.

“What?”   

"Before you seduce Irene-ssi with your awkwardness and make it your life's personal mission to be her first girlfriend…I think we gotta get ourselves out of trouble first.” 

“SON SEUNGWAAAAAN! KANG SEULGIIIIIIII!”

End.

A/N: I hope this isn't too bad...I decided to release this drabble from the dungeon a.k.a. my phone's notes in exchange for not updating for MONTHS.  Your thoughts? Feel free to talk to me at the comments!!!