From this point on, I will be referring to Vivi as Kahei. I have already updated the first chapter with this change.

As always, thank you my beta readers, and especially K.Morpho, who was more than a major part in this chapter's completion.

EDIT: 9/2/18 - I lied. Every instance of Kahei changed to Ara. Last name change, I promise.

Flour is the backbone of food.

It’s truly a loaded statement, but Hyunjin’s had 18 or so odd years to come to this conclusion. Most every country in the world probably has some sort of flour based dish. Just flour and water alone could make pasta, soba, tortillas, and who knows how many other staple foods. But the most important food of all, of course―

―is bread.

To be specific, triple chocolate pumpkin bread: topped with a drizzle of sweet cacao syrup and a sprinkle of white chocolate shavings. It’s a culmination that could only be described as mouth-watering perfection.

Whiskers swallows at the crinkling of the wrapper being peeled back, already anticipating the first taste.

The woman across from her takes a bite. And once the delicious treat hits her palate, she hums a chocolate coated note of delight.

“This tastes incredible,” sounds the wide-eyed, stuffed cheek reaction from Heejin, free hand shooting a thumbs up at the mascot.

Finally! A genuine connoisseur.

Whiskers, satisfied with the review, nods firmly with her own two thumbs up. She ignores the way her stomach growls.

Heejin fishes a coin from their to-go bag, flicking it into the fountain with a neat little ‘ping.’ Like always, Whiskers watches it sink to the bottom to rest along with the others before returning her interests to her lively companion.

It’s been almost a week and a half after the dunk-a-Hansol incident, and their strange song and dance has since been well-rehearsed and perfected. Not that it took them that long to learn its rhythm.

Once Heejin rounds the corner and takes a seat at a table, Hyunjin calls for a break from her manager. If she marches back with money clamped in between her paws― given to her by a gracious Ara, who fishes the bills out of Hyunjin’s wallet― they head off to the bakery. Regardless of whether they buy sweets or not, Heejin spares a couple of minutes of her time to talk to Whiskers about her day.

“Wuh fin’shed uhp r’cordin,” her words are still muffled until she remembers to swallow, “and the upperclassmen aren’t as fussy anymore after I showed them I could finish it.”

Heejin peels back the plastic wrapping some more with a little pout. “They still don’t like talking to me though.”

There are crumbs speckled on the corner of her lips. Whiskers pushes the napkins on the table towards her.

Heejin dabs at , careful not to smudge away her pink glitter lip gloss. “But I bumped into them the other day while I was heading to the science building with a friend, and you won’t believe what they did.”

Whiskers doesn’t flinch when Heejin’s hand dramatically meets the table.

“I would have been fine if they just kept on pretending that I didn’t exist. It shouldn’t have been a problem seeing as they already expend much more energy acknowledging the dust mites on the recording equipment than they do with me.”

That must be some really dusty equipment. What kind of company can’t even afford Lysol wipes?

“But when they saw me, those sunbaes―“ Heejin takes a vicious chomp of bread, “―tuhrned ‘n thehr heels uhnd stuhrted whulking in thu uhther direc’sun,” a low chuckle rumbles from her chest after she hastily gulps. “Obviously, I had to say hello. So I ran up to them, cornering them by calling their names. You should’ve seen it, Whiskers. The look on their faces! Priceless!”

It’s good that Heejin mentioned that, because Hyunjin remembers running by too fast to get to class to catch their expressions.

(Ara’s offhand advice had turned out to be more helpful than either of them expected. After going out of her way to modify her walking routine around the arts building, Hyunjin was genuinely prepared to play several rounds of ‘Where’s Waldo’ trying to spot Heejin. Luckily, Heejin frequents the building enough that seeing her became more of a matter of patience or good timing than rarity.)

“Because my friend was there, I had the pleasure of introducing her to everyone else for 20 minutes straight.” Heejin nods twice, solemnly, “It’s a wonder how a bit of social pressure can push people into acting differently. That was the nicest they’ve ever been to me; I thought their faces would get stuck smiling.”

What a conniving little jerk. Hyunjin can’t help but feel a swell of pride.

Heejin’s voice suddenly pitches two octaves higher, “‘Eh!? Heejin-ah! We didn’t see you there!’” She supplies the imitation with an over-exaggerated face of fake surprise. The facade holds only for a split second, before she’s laughing and trying not to choke at the same time.

Whiskers alternates punching the air with her paws to cheer for her friend. With a quick flourish, Heejin takes a curtsy.

“Also, something else really funny happened in my music class on Tuesday...”

Whiskers rests her chin in her arms, admiring the way Heejin excitedly launches into yet another story― crumbs flying as her hands arch through the air, pantomimed with the intrepid tale.

Heejin’s interrupted by her phone vibrating on the table. Her face lights up brighter than sunlight for a second until she resumes on the mascot.

“I gotta go,” Heejin says, smile dropping a couple of molars in apology, “Hansol wants to catch a movie with me today.”

…

Ah. Yes, that’s right…

Hansol.

Lee Hansol.

Hyunjin feels something leave her as she flashes back to the nightmarish reality she’s experienced over the past week.

-

Hyunjin had it all planned out for how she’ll finally talk to Heejin outside of work. She’d practiced every suave greeting, compliment, and unmasking conjured up from dozing daydreams― cherry-picked the best contenders and humbly waited for the ripest of opportunities to just talk to the other woman.

To just walk up and say hello.

Without being too freaky.

Hyunjin took another deep breath, achieving a state of total zen.

Yes, she had it all figured out. Down to the moment where she would bump into the girl, and drop her things. They’d both bend down to pick up all of her scattered worksheets, class notes, textbooks, and she would say something like ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were so pretty while I was in the mascot costume,’ or ‘Come by any Build-A-Bear’s recently?’ or…

Or she would somehow be ridden utterly speechless when she hears a voice that’s way deeper than Heejin’s―

“I didn’t see you there,” Hansol said, dropping to a knee to help her pick up her belongings.

Hyunjin felt her insides harden, her mind go blank, her flow of zen transforming from a river into a stone. A quick glance to the left revealed Heejin on a phone call, barely blinking at the scene before turning back away.

“It’s my fault,” Hyunjin said. It was impossible to control how stiff her entire body had become.

And ew, oh my god, their hands touched when he handed her her things back.

Hyunjin just barely bit back the grimace, shooting back up to her full height once everything was collected. She gave him a mechanical, creaking 90 degree bow; mumbling a barely audible ‘thank you’ as she staggered off.

When she snuck a glimpse behind her, she saw Hansol reaching for Heejin’s hand. He looked terribly wistful, holding onto her and rubbing a thumb over her knuckles.

She sighed and looked away.

-

The following attempt, if it could even be considered an attempt, was pure accident.

There were a flock of birds at the scene, and Hyunjin was holding a bag full of croissants, thoroughly too creeped out by the pack of beady eyes following her that she hadn’t even noticed Heejin from a few dozen feet away, chatting with a woman in a lab coat.

She had fed the birds a single piece of bread, breaking off a chunk from the one held in and tossing it towards the feathery masses.

One of the birds Hyunjin should have sworn as a troublemaker immediately. The roughed up wing, the way it kept hopping and blinking at her. That evil glint in its eyes. It had decided that splitting bread between 20 or so odd birds would be too generous. Before the piece of croissant could even hit the ground, the bird took flight, snapping it out of the air, and zipping across the courtyard.

Hyunjin had never seen more aggressive birds in her life. The rest of the flock gleamed, wingspans spreading wide and swooping after the thief.

She watched in muted interest, then belated horror when the bird lost its grip on the bread and dropped it right in front of Heejin.

Oh, the high pitched, wailing screams that could be heard throughout campus echoed through Seoul...

Before Hyunjin realized it, she’d dropped her bag of croissants, grabbing one as it fell. She lowered into a baseball pitching stance: cranked her arm back, raised her leg, and pitched the croissant nearly straight into Hansol’s face with a neat little screwball spin as he dove in to save his girlfriend.

Hyunjin walked behind a tree and sank to her hands and knees.

“Heejin, Heejin-ah, are you crying?” Hyunjin heard Hansol ask.

There was a silence. A quiet, shivering sniffle.

“N-No.”

And an adamant denial.

-

Someone was running up from behind Hyunjin, tapping on her left shoulder. Before she could turn around, they were already in front of her, beaming down with a toothy grin.

“Hey! Thank you for throwing me the bread the other day!” Hansol says. “I would have never gotten the pigeons off of my friend and girlfriend otherwise. I’m Hansol!” He stuck out a hand.

“I’m― I’m Hyunjin.” He reached down and took her hand anyway when she failed to reciprocate.

She kind of wanted to cry at the face of his naivete, unaware of the crime she’d committed against him. And she was still shaking his hand until someone threw an arm around her shoulder. Hyunjin stumbled forward with a yelp, almost losing her balance before the arm tugged her back.

“Hyunjin-ah! We never see you anymore! Let’s go play basketball!” There was a familiar chorus of voices of the basketball club members now, pulling her in the opposite direction.

-

Every time they’ve met, Hansol’s smile had never once faltered. In fact, it only seemed to bloom with each encounter. Hyunjin could always tell from the intonation of his voice alone, especially since she refuses to look at him.

-

“Hyunjin-ssi! You play basketball!?”

-

“Hyunjin-ssi! I didn’t know you ate here!”

-

“Hyunjin-ssi! Hyunjin-ssi!”

Hyunjin leapt over a fence, breaking into an all out sprint at the sound of Hansol’s voice.

“Hyunjin-ssi!!!”

-

Hyunjin can’t really stop the involuntary twitch that runs through her at the slightest whisper of his name like a Pavlovian dog reflex.

It’s a relief that Heejin doesn’t catch the gesture, moreso focused on texting a confirmation for her date.

Hyunjin has nothing against the guy, honestly, but the guilt still resurfaces every time he so much as strays his eyes at her. And the amount of times Hyunjin has seen him around has done little to help with the trauma.

It’s alright in the end, Hyunjin supposes, because somehow, Hyunjin has become qualified as Heejin’s de facto therapy cat.

And even though she hasn’t been able to talk to her yet, Hyunjin enjoys the small snippets of life she’s able to experience when listening to Heejin relay her stories.

Hyunjin is satisfied with this.

Being around you is enough.

“Okay, bye Whiskers!” Whiskers brings up both her palms. Heejin high fives her twice, before tilting Whiskers hands upwards, grabbing the rest of the coins and money from the to-go bakery bag and pressing them into Whiskers’ palms.

“Make a wish, or buy something nice.” With that and a wink, Heejin bounds off.

Hyunjin stares at her hands.

-

Hyunjin pushes in yet another 100 won coin into the self-checkout machine, a sharp metallic clang as it hits the bottom. As of present, the clanging is ingrained in Hyunjin’s subconscious; endless, with all the monotony of a metronome. There’s another sharp clank a beat after she slides in the next coin.

“You’re doing great, sweetie,” Ara says for the umpteenth time. Hyunjin’s grip on her hand tightens.

(Hyunjin has a brown bag full of change that she’s been collecting since the beginning of the school year. Coins that she’s meticulously hoarded from bread purchases, from vending machine change, from careless hands, from bursting pockets―

“I have a bag full of coins,” Hyunjin says to Ara after their work shift, a sound like crashing waves when she shakes the bag. “And today is the day I spend them all.” A blissful, ignorant fool.

They walk, practically run, to the nearest big-box store and grab every snack off the aisles; Ara is the happiest Hyunjin has ever seen her, taking dozens of pocky boxes off the shelves and shoving them inside the cart.

Their total came out to 175000 won.

Hyunjin slides in another coin.

85000 won to go.)

Hyunjin realizes the power of man’s hubris around the 10 minute mark, when they’ve ticked down the counter to 164000 won.

Hyunjin starts holding on to Ara’s hand at the 17 minute mark, after she makes one too many insinuations about heading back to grab just one last item.

“This is the modern equivalent of sitting under a waterfall,” Hyunjin muses, feeling Ara’s thumb sliding over the back of her knuckles in acknowledgement. It’s been 25 minutes.

36 minutes in, they hit a snag. The lull of the coins clacking together stops entirely when it spits back out the coin Hyunjin tried to insert in. Frowning, she tries again; the same issue occurs.

She tries again.

“Ara, how do you get the wrinkles out of a coin. Why isn’t this working?”

“Hyunjin… That’s a ing euro.”

By the 45 minute mark the same employee has passed them 10 times. Every time he looks more and more confused, but more and more awed. A person who left before them applauded on the way out. Ara had laughed, bowing slightly to the elder. Hyunjin was too close to Nirvana to hear the applause.

How many lifetimes have passed, in this moment. How many gods have died and how many more have been reborn? Hyunjin’s certain that when this is all over, she will still hear the phantom, capitalistic whispers of coins reverberating in her eardrums.

And at the 65 minute mark she’s greeted with no fresh cold metal at her fingertips.

She freezes, breaking from Ara’s hand to yank open the bag, peering down into it.

It’s empty.

She whips her head back up to see the 400 won amount left on the mocking machine.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Hyunjin whispers, voice hoarse with disbelief.

“Wow. A shakespearean level of tragedy,” Ara whispers in response.

“Quick, Ara, look for some change.” Hyunjin drops to her knees and searches around the machine for coins. She slaps at Ara’s ankle when the brunette doesn’t move. With a sigh, Ara lowers herself dutifully to the ground. She searches the other side of the machine, then makes a noise of surprise.

“Oh! I actually found one. Here.” Hyunjin rams her head against the counter in her rush to get back up, blinking back the stars in her eyes and ignoring the gasps of patrons at the resulting bang. The coin trades hands.

A 500 won coin. Hyunjin’s hands tremble.

The pyrrhic victory smells and tastes like metal, when Hyunjin slots the last coin into the machine. The machine spits back out the coin difference of change, and Hyunjin takes the receipt with as much dignity as she can muster.

They take their leave, sporting pairs of sunglasses they picked up arbitrarily on the way to the self-checkout session from hell. Each of them carry a few plastic bags, lugging everything they’ve bought down the streets. Hyunjin hums Heejin’s song under her breath, enjoying the chill night air.

“So why the impromptu shopping session?” Ara asks, once they’ve covered a good distance back to campus.

“You’re leaving soon! I wanted you to have snacks while on the trip.”

“Oh.” Ara’s face does something complicated. Exasperated and endeared all at the same time. “I’m leaving for a couple of days, not a month.”

“We can have some of these when you get back then,” Hyunjin acquises easily. Her stomach echos an agreement.

“Maybe we should head somewhere to eat now.”

“I really don’t think I should spend anything for the next year.”

“It’ll be my treat. I haven’t had the chance to check out the cute cafe that just opened up yet.”

“Oh, the one that’s right over there?”

“Yeah… I heard they had good― “ Ara stops talking entirely, pulling Hyunjin and herself aside.

“…Ara?”

The older women points at the lackluster, sad and dying shrubbery in front of the cafe.

There’s a woman in a strikingly white lab coat hiding in the bushes.

…Uh, okay. Sure.

Ara points from the woman to the cafe window.

Heejin and Hansol were sitting inside the cafe.

The woman in the lab coat is watching Heejin and Hansol have a date through the window.

“Ara, I’m a little concerned.”

For some reason Ara suddenly looks like her birthday came around again.

“I’m going to sit down next to her,” she announces, looking both ways and jaywalking across the street. Hyunjin splutters, pivoting on her heels and haltingly catching up.

“Has your mom ever given you a pep talk that goes something like, ‘Don’t approach strange people lurking in bushes?’ There’s a couple of reasons that I can list off the top of my head as to why this is a bad idea.”

“Don’t worry, I know her.”

Hyunjin relaxes marginably, the bundle of hard tension rising in her shoulders loosening.

“Oh, good! Good. I’m glad you’re keeping good company around.“

Barely sparing a glance in Hyunjin’s direction, Ara shrugs. “I talk to you, don’t I?”

With that, Ara sinks to a crouch behind the woman. Hesitantly, Hyunjin flanks the lab coat’s other side.

“Riveting hobby you have here, Haseul,” Ara says.

The woman swivels around so she’s facing the both of them. Her pristine lab coat is off-colored at the very edges, stained with grass. A pair of warm, brown eyes blink in astonishment behind her large, circular spectacles, before a confused but cheerful grin takes hold.

“Oh! Hello, Ara. I like your glasses.”

Oh. Wait a minute.

Haseul absentmindedly brushes her brown hair away from her eyes.

…Ohhhh. The jigsaw puzzle pieces click into place.

Hyunjin appraises the situation in a new light, watching how Ara subtly shifts her body towards Haseul. When she pushes her sunglasses to the top of her head, her eyes are just as focused as the woman’s.

Fascinating. Almost as fascinating as how Haseul’s head jerks to Hyunjin the split second Ara moves to adjust her shades.

“I like your glasses too,” Haseul says quickly.

“Thank you. They’re matching,” Hyunjin fiddles with her neon yellow frames. “I also like your glasses, too.”

“Thank you. They help me see.” The streetlamp glints off her lenses when she adjusts them.

There’s an extended moment of comedic novelty where they all just stare at each other, the silence dragging by with metaphysical friction.

“This isn’t usually one of my hobbies,” Haseul clarifies at last, with a small, awkward laugh.

Ara asks, “Watching people through windows or hiding in shrubbery?”

“Both, if I can help it.” The joke falls several notes too flat and several beats too late. She coughs.

“My friends invited me to dinner after bombarding me with poorly hinted suggestions that I should take a break away from the lab. I arrived a little later than planned, so I’ve been trying to debate whether or not I want to join them.”

Hyunjin risks a peek. The couple’s food looks delicious, yet sadly forgotten. The palpable tension in the air in between the couple permeates even to the outside, an uncomfortable stink that takes a hold of Hyunjin’s breath and smothers it.

The once confident Hansol is nearly folded over the entire table, bending down to eye-level, guilt nestled like broken glass in between his shoulder blades.

He moves in closer.

Heejin pulls away.

She’s tucked inward, arms folded, legs crossed, back and shoulders pressed against the seat. Posture on the uncanny brink of nonchalance were it not for the muscles in her jaw pulled bowstring taut, her eyes fiercely dark of glossy obsidian baring into him from the opposing side.

Her pretty pink, pale lips part.

His entire body reels from the force of his flinch, pulling away from her entirely.

It becomes too hard to watch.

“No. You really don’t want to get in between that,” Ara mutters. Hyunjin rips her eyes from the scene, exhaling shakily. Suddenly she could move again.

Heejin is angry.

“I agree,” Haseul says, eyeing the scene with a brief cringe and pulling out her phone. There’s no point in doing so, but she shrinks down lower in the bushes to hide herself. “I think they need a little breathing room.”

Her thumbs fly across the phone’s screen.

“We were looking for a place to eat, but saw you and some people we know at the cafe,” Ara starts.

Haseul pockets her phone, looking up to meet her acquaintances’ eyes. Hyunjin sees Heejin steal a glance down at the table and frown.

“If you’re hungry,” Ara continues, “why don’t you join us for dinner instead? It would be my treat.”

“I’m the one that still owes you,” Haseul glistens with amusement at her proposal, barely finishing the statement before Hyunjin’s stomach growls loudly again. “I know just the place.”

 

---

 

Haseul takes them just off campus, taking so many turns into unknown alleyways that she seems to have memorized like the back of her hand. Whether consciously or not, Haseul frequently double-checks to make sure that she doesn’t lose anyone in the midst of navigating her complicated route. Something about the older woman makes Hyunjin relax as she guides the two through with backward glances and candid touches.

The woman is also able to engage in soft, amicable background chatter that’s never disruptive, while knowing exactly when to let the curtains of silence down for company.

Hyunjin finds out in between the gaps that Jo Haseul is a third year like Ara, double majoring in mechanical engineering and biochemistry. She met Ara in a psychology class, and they helped each other struggle through terrible powerpoint lectures and even worse review sessions. Ara once ‘saved her life’ when she shared notes with Haseul while she was absent for a week.

Which explains the promised dinner.

And in return, Haseul finds out about their hour long coin adventure, laughing until she’s doubled over in the streets at their shared commentary of the event.

Hyunjin likes her.

As friendly as Hyunjin can be, it’s still hard to instantly like people who approach her. Well, particularly when half of them are vying for her to join their sports team, and the other half are grubby- children demanding for her to entertain them at their whim.

The way Haseul’s lab coat consistently billows behind her is also very cool. Maybe that has something to do with it…?

Hyunjin tries to signal that she approves of Ara’s crush, and gets a soft thwack to her thighs with snack bags for the trouble.

Haseul makes another, final sharp turn, and ushers them into the most obscure restaurant Hyunjin’s ever stepped foot in.

She takes each girl by the arm, tugging them into a booth with a beaming smile aimed at one of the employees. He nearly drops the glass he’s holding at his enthusiasm to greet her back. Hyunjin spots the pink coloring his cheeks. Oh dear, how would he ever compete with Ara?

They drop their bags of snacks underneath the table. Haseul is about to sit across from a wall mirror before she reconsiders, and sits facing away from it. Ara ends up directly across from Haseul, with Hyunjin to her left. Hyunjin hides her smirk behind a cup of tea when Ara leans in closer than strictly necessary to ask Haseul for recommendations.

“The tonkotsu miso ramen is really good. I-I always choose it as my go-to.” Haseul stumbles just a tad over her words, tongue twisting with the other woman so close.

They order three bowls of tonkotsu ramen with little fuss, the man from earlier coming by to grab the menus off their table. Hyunjin listens to the acoustic guitar playing over head, helplessly drawn in by the way Haseul’s voice glides right along with the instrumentals when she speaks. From next to her, Ara looks just as immersed.

They’re interrupted by the waiter coming by with their food, placing bowls of steamy noodles and broth down in front of them.

Hyunjin digs in immediately, squealing when she burns her tongue in the process. Rolling her eyes, Ara is much more careful and blows on her noodles before taking a bite. Haseul is visibly amused by the duo’s antics as she thoroughly mixes the contents of her own bowl.

“Thanks for bringing us here,” Ara says.

“The ramen is really good,” Hyunjin tacks on, slurping up her noodles.

“Of course. I wanted to eat dinner with people today, but Heejin and Hansol… How familiar are you two with them?”

Hyunjin scrunches up her nose at the egg swimming in her soup, and passes it to Ara.

“Hyunjin and I are coworkers at the nearby Build-A-Bear,” Ara says after a beat. “Hyunjin is the yellow cat mascot.”

The spoon that was almost to Haseul’s lips hesitates momentarily. “I see.”

Ara intercepts Hyunjin’s chopsticks trying to take her fish cake from her bowl.

“Do you know anything about what Hansol and Heejin were arguing about in the cafe?” Hyunjin asks.

Haseul studies her reflection in the shiny broth before her chopsticks meets the bowl and scatters it.

“Well,” she starts slowly, “It could have been an accumulation of different variables leading up to the hostile encounter at the cafe, but the most notable element in the equation is undoubtedly Hansol hiding his military enlistment from Heejin for two months.” She takes a slurp before deciding to add a measure of uncertainty, “Give or take.”

Hyunjin blinks slowly.

“They argued because he hid his military enlistment,” Ara translates.

Thank God, someone speaks Haseul.

Hyunjin in air through her teeth.

Haseul’s smile is a touch wryer around the edges. “I’ll be providing damage control with an angry Heejin and a moping Hansol later, I’m sure. But that asides.” Her eyes glance thoughtfully at Hyunjin. “I hope that… the cat is able to cheer Heejin up, whenever it sees her. It brightens up her day.”

Oh.

Hyunjin can’t help the mild flush that brightens up her cheeks, or her wobbly, elated smile. “She brightens up the cat’s day, too.”

Haseul smiles, and passes Hyunjin her fish cake.

For the rest of the meal Hyunjin is content to listen and only hop in the conversation when she could. Ara has her thigh against hers for the duration of dinner. She never really feels excluded from the conversation despite her quietness, and she appreciates the other two giving her room to think.

Besides, she wouldn’t want to interrupt when Ara and Haseul are trying to rekindle a familiar flame. Hyunjin eyes them over her cup of tea, taking a sip and savoring a tang that tastes too much like third-wheeling.

“Hey, I think I’m going to head back first. I have a lot of work and studying to do for some of my classes.”

Ara sets the menu back down on the table. “Are you going to be okay walking by yourself?”

If there’s one thing that Ara and Haseul have in common, it’s that they’re both very good at making people feel looked after and cared for.

Hyunjin shakes her head, touched. “Yeah, I think I’ll be fine. It was nice meeting you, Haseul. We’ll talk again soon?”

Haseul beams at Hyunjin.

“It was a pleasure to have you as well! I’d like to get to know you better the next time around.”

“Yeah! Let’s hang out sometime!”

Hyunjin bids her final farewells to the duo, before heading back down the winding path to the campus with the assistance of her smartphone gps.

And accusing her of purposefully forgetting the snacks at the table is preposterous. She would never do such a thing like lie about her workload so that Ara and Haseul could be alone, or forget the snacks just so Ara and Haseul could spend a little more time together.

Ridiculous, if the cryptic text she wakes up to is any indication:

“I’ll buy you bread for a straight week.”

 

---

 

Heejin doesn’t actually come the next day.

The pain in her neck is a testament to Hyunjin’s disappointment. It’s born from just staring at the left corner of the mall and willing Heejin into existence, even after Heejin’s usual window of arrival comes and goes. Hyunjin sighs when her shift finally ends, walking back into the Build-A-Bear and dropping her helmet on the ground.

Rolling her shoulders does nothing to alleviate the tension in her neck. She’s resigned to the dull pain of failure as she helps Ara close up shop.

And as she squeezes Ara for the juicy details.

“Nothing much actually happened, Hyunjin. We just shared the drinks and she helped me carry everything home.” Ara sweeps away the remaining fluff and dumps it in the trash. But she wears her ‘Yes, I’m irritating you and enjoying it’ smile that she sometimes wears with overly entitled parents, and it’s maddening trying to figure out the meaning.

“What does ‘nothing much’ mean though? You told me you got her number!”

“Yeah, I did.” Her grin gets wider.

“Aaaaaaarrra,” Hyunjin whines. “I’m dying here. Feed the poor and desperate.”

Before Ara has the chance to say something else just as aggravating, she’s interrupted by a rapid succession of loud knocks against the window pane of the Build-A-Bear.

Hyunjin whirls to look at the window and back so fast it gives her whiplash.

“Hyun~jin-ssi~!” comes the muffled voice of someone Hyunjin knows unfortunately too well.

“What is he doing here?” Hyunjin hisses, using her hand to block Hansol from her sight. Ara raises a brow when he waves in big motions from the window. She ignores Hyunjin’s question entirely.

“Woow, when did you two get so familiar?” Ara’s eating grin from earlier is back.

Hyunjin glares daggers. “Now is not the time. Why is he here?”

“In all honesty, he could have been looking for Heejin instead. He could have just seen you through the window or something.” Ara points out.

Hyunjin frowns. The knocks pick up again, more incessant.

“I think you should talk to him,” Ara says, resting her chin on the broom.

“Do I have to? I already feel so awkward when I run into him out of costume. Now that he knows I work here as Whiskers he’s going to be twice as―” She cuts herself off.

“Annoying?”

“Nice.” She throws her hands up in the air.

“Oh, the travesty.” There’s an utter lack of inflection in Ara’s voice. “But my skull is throbbing. It makes recollecting last night’s dinner so much harder with the pain...”

Hyunjin walks away from Ara, already feeling a throb in her head of her own as she approaches the door. A rush of cool air leaks from inside the store when she peeks her head out through a gap only narrow enough for her face to greet her main source of cranial pain.

“Hello. We’re actually closing right now,” she says flatly.

He glides right over her statement. “Ahhh, Hyunjin-ssi! I didn’t know you worked here! Your uniform suits you a lot!”

She fights a losing battle against the grimace threatening to show on her face. “I… I’m still sorry.”

“I don’t know what you’re sorry for.” His smile doesn’t waver but there’s a new glint in his eyes.

Hyunjin hears Ara cough in the back.

“Anyway,” he says, snapping his fingers, “I know it’s late, but I need a favor.”

When there isn’t a verbal response, he continues, “Heekkie really likes the pink bunny Whiskers gave her. She keeps it on her bed, now. I was wondering if I could get some sort of friend for it.”

Carefully, she tries not to react to his pointed stare when he says ‘Whiskers.’ She opens the door wide enough for him to slip in.

“Are you looking for anything in particular?” Hyunjin asks. Hansol looks at the Whiskers mascot head, gaze lingering too long to be comfortable.

“I was thinking about a cat.”

Hyunjin moves to toss a stuffing-less cat towards Ara who catches it with ease. She motions for Hansol to come closer to the stuffing station, going through the same process she did with the pink bunny.

Ara grabs a heart from the container before glancing back at Hansol.

“Kiss the heart to give the cat a heartbeat.”

He kisses the heart, handing it back to Ara with a gentle care.

Ara sews up the back of the cat, handing it to Hansol. Though the cat is dwarfed in his hands, he treats it as delicately as he can.

“That’ll be 13500 won.”

“Thank you, for this.” He looks from Ara to Hyunjin, while handing Ara the money. “I know it’s terrible when people come in just before or after closing time.”

“I…” Hyunjin tries to find the words. Hope everything turns out okay? Hope she forgives you? She’s not sure if either are completely honest.

“I hope she likes the bunny’s new friend.” She finally settles on.

Hansol’s smile looks out of practice when he runs a thumb over the cat’s nose. “Yeah. Me too.” He physically shakes himself out of it. ”And Hyunjin!” He exclaims suddenly, enthusiastically hopping over to her, one hand pointed like a pistol and the other still cradling the cat.

She recoils at his unforeseen rise in volume and mood change. “Yes?”

“You should play basketball with me sometime~!”

“Absolutely not.”

He pouts. “But aren’t you sorry that you knocked me into the fountain? I was very cold.”

Hyunjin is horrified. “I― I’m so sorry.”

She glances desperately to Ara for help but she’s already escaped to the backroom with her mangas.

“I got a cold from the walk home after the fountain, too,” he continues right along. “I was soaked, and sneezing, and spluttering, and Heejin didn’t want to come near me anymore― “

“Okay! Okay,” Hyunjin says quickly, already knowing she would regret this. “Sometime, sometime, but not today. Or tomorrow. And try not to talk to me for the rest of this week.”

It’s a horrible promise.

He’s terribly delighted even with all of the conditions, and for someone who just guilt-tripped her into playing with him, the bags under his eyes lightening up for just a second when he laughs.

“I’m holding you to that. I’ve heard a lot of things about you so I’ve been wanting to know if I could beat you at basketball for a while now. If you win, then you can stop feeling guilty for something that was my mistake to begin with.”

Hyunjin shifts her weight from one foot to the other.

“And if you win?”

“I’ll come up with something by the time we have the game.”

“Fun,” she deadpans.

“The suspense is half the battle.” He spares a quick glance at his watch, grimacing when he notices the time. “But I really have to get going.” He bows slightly at Ara, and tosses a wave at Hyunjin.

“I’ll see you around, okay?”

“Not for another week. No.”

“Haha, for sure.”

And with a final wave, he leaves the shop with a yellow cat in hand.