Seungwan has been working at the cotton candy stand in her local amusement park for (9 months? 10 months?) well, a long time, but she never seems to get tired of it. Sure, it can be grueling, especially during the summer when she had to work under the scorching sun, spinning hundreds of sticks of cotton candy for disgruntled customers. But it’s fun! Seungwan never tires of pulling threads of thinly spun sugar out of seemingly thin air, nor does she think she’ll ever get tired of seeing the happy smiles that brighten up on people’s faces once she hands them their order. But today is a rainy day, and like all other rainy days, business is slow.

    “I’m so bored,” Seungwan complains to her coworker who mans the cotton candy stand with her.

Naeun shrugs back, blatantly texting on her phone even though the park has an explicit policy against using phones while working. (Seungwan is a good, upright person who makes sure to stash her phone in her locker before she clocks in for work.) “Then go wander around the park,” Naeun suggests, eyes still glued on her phone screen. Seungwan doesn’t mean to, but Naeun’s phone screen is very much within her line of sight, and she can see that the taller girl is already making plans to ditch work tomorrow for a date.

“But we’re supposed to stay here until our break,” Seungwan retorts back, but even then her heart’s not in it. She may be a stickler to the rules, but she’s at that point where she’s desperate enough to do anything to escape from boredom.

Naeun turns her attention away from her phone and gives Seungwan an exasperated look. “Seungwan, look around you,” she starts, gesturing to the empty amusement park. Seungwan thinks she sees a tumbleweed roll toward the white water rapids ride. “Literally no one cares, so just do whatever.” And usually, Seungwan would protest a bit more but today, all she does is nod. “Why don’t you check out the souvenir shop?” Naeun suggests. “Isn’t your little sister’s birthday coming up soon?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Seungwan whines. “Yerim will probably accuse me of being cheap and unimaginative if I end up buying her something from here.” But Seungwan heads off to the souvenir shop anyways.

.

    It’s not Seungwan’s first visit to the amusement park gift shop per se. She has been in here before, but it was usually in passing while running errands for her manager. This was probably the first time that Seungwan has had time to actually take her time while being in the shop, and she spins around in a circle, taking in the walls of plushies and cute headbands with wide eyes before a worker notices her.

    “Welcome to the Gilded Ca- Oh!” Seungwan turns around to see a (really cute) worker dorning a (really cute) pink polka dot apron and a headband that had (the absolutely cutest) bear ears on them. “You work for the cotton candy stand, right?” the shop worker asks, eyes curving upwards as a her professional smile transitions into something more warm and genuine.

    “Y-yeah,” Seungwan replies.

    “I’m Seulgi,” the worker introduces herself as, sticking her hand out for a handshake.

    “Seungwan,” the cotton candy maker responds. She moves to accept Seulgi’s handshake when she gasps as she sees the colorful splashes of sugar specking her hands. Seungwan tries to pull her hand back to wipe it on her apron, but Seulgi only giggles and gently takes Seungwan’s hand into hers, and if the shorter girl wasn’t so worried about Seulgi being grossed out by how sticky her hand was, she’d marvel in beautiful Seulgi’s laugh sounds.

    “So do you need help with anything?” Seulgi asks once they were done with introductions.

    “Uh, kind of.” Seungwan scratches the back of her neck sheepishly. “It’s been a slow day and I’ve been dying a slow death from boredom so I’m just kind of exploring right now. But my little sister’s birthday is coming up soon so I might as well try to look for her birthday gift,” Seungwan shrugs.

    “Yeah, I know what you mean,” Seulgi agrees. “It’s been pretty slow in here too. You’re like the first customer I’ve seen all day,” she says, giving the store a sweeping glance. “I’m glad you came,” Seulgi eventually concludes, shooting Seungwan a warm smile. And if Seulgi notices that Seungwan’s face is currently exploding with red, she doesn’t say anything, and only pulls the shorter girl towards clothing section. “So do you have anything in mind for your gift for your little sister?”

    “Not really,” Seungwan responds as they both browse through the shelves of clothes with the park’s logo branded onto it together. They’re all really cute and nicely designed, but nothing really stands out to Seungwan. “But I think if I buy one of these t-shirts for Yerim, she’ll complain that I’m only using her as an advertising model for the park.”

    Seulgi lets out a soft laugh before leading Seungwan towards the souvenirs. “How about a snow globe? This one’s my favorite!” the worker exclaims as she picks up a fairly decent-sized snow globe depicting the Ghostrider — the amusement park’s main attraction — as its centerpoint.

    Seungwan vetoes the idea immediately. “Yerim thinks snowglobes are tacky,” she says apologetically, guilty that she has to reject Seulgi’s enthusiastic suggestion.

    “Man, your sister’s one hard customer,” Seulgi comments, a good natured grin on her face. “Ah!” she suddenly exclaims, startling Seungwan into almost dropping the snowglobe Seulgi had placed in her hand. “Plushies! Everyone loves plushies!”

    And Seungwan immediately latches onto Seulgi’s contagious excitement. “Yeah, Yerimmie loves plushies!” They both run over to the plushies section of the store, giggling at how ridiculously excited they are over a plushie that’s not even for them.

    And then Seungwan runs into another dilemma. “Oh, this one is cute!” she exclaims, picking up a pristine white rabbit plushie. “Oh, this one too!” she says, using her other arm to grab a golden baby chick plushie. “Oh no, they’re all so cute. What am I going to do?” she mumbles to herself, stressed out at all of the options that have suddenly opened up to her. From behind her, Seulgi only laughs, fondly staring at the cotton candy maker who’s making the most expressive faces as she struggles in her quest to find the cutest plushie for her little sister.

    Seungwan thinks her vision is spinning as she tries to quickly catalogue the plushies from cutest to least cutest when she lets out a gasp, and drops the seven plushies that she was hoarding in her arms. “That one,” she whispers, eyes glued onto a shark plushie resting on the highest shelf. It’s a cute shade of pink (“It’s pastel coral,” Seulgi helpfully supplies from behind her.) and had the cutest blush marking its cheeks. It’s perfect. Yerim had been obsessed with that shark song as of late, making Seungwan sing it with her whenever she’s home before the kid’s bedtime, and this shark plushie — Yerim’s going to absolutely love it.

    Seungwan heads towards the shelf, and tiptoes in order to reach it, but alas, she’s too short. Her fingers barely graze the fin that’s hanging off the shelf, and she struggles for a couple of silence before she feels a gentle hand on her shoulder pushing her back onto her feet. “Here, let me get that,” Seungwan hears Seulgi’s husky voice whisper, warm breath fanning against the shorter girl’s ear. She’s suddenly grateful for the fact that she has her back turned to Seulgi because Seungwan’s pretty sure that her face is as red as her lipstick right now.

    Seulgi’s not that much taller than Seungwan, but she’s still tall enough to reach the shark plushie with relative ease. The shop worker sets the shark plushie into Seungwan’s arms before giving the cotton candy maker another smile that results in an unfamiliar warmth blooming inside Seungwan’s chest.

.

    “Ah, wait!” Seulgi calls out, gently pulling Seungwan by her arm over to the wall of headbands while they were on their way to the cash register. Seulgi reaches upward, grabs a headband, and places it on Seungwan’s head.

    “What is it?” Seungwan manages to get out while simultaneously trying not to explode as Seulgi stares intently at her, fixing the headband until it sits just right on Seungwan’s head.

    “Chipmunk ears!” Seulgi grins. “I think they suit you.”

    “Thank you..?” Seungwan replies, a confused smile making its way onto her face. She’s not sure whether to take that as a compliment or-

    “Chipmunks are cute!” Seulgi says, removing any traces of self-doubt lingering in Seungwan’s mind. “Their cheeks are so soft and fluffy, just like yours,” the taller girl giggles, reaching out to one of the soft ears on the headband. And if Seungwan has trouble making coherent sentences after that — well, it’s not her fault.

A/N: No proofreading, we die like men.