in which old memories are brought up and new ones are made.

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"welcome to on the rise café!" 

jiwon sighs as she slumps onto the cafe's counter after serving the twentieth customer in the last hour. it's not that she doesn't want more customers coming in (she does, in all actuality, because more customers meant a raise in salary after all), but today had been a particularly tiring day so who could blame her?

just shy of rush hour, a customer decided that today would be jiwon's worst nightmare as they tripped on absolutely nothing and proceeded to knock down their display of books and figurines ('thank god those figurines were plastic,').

needless to say, jiwon was the one who had to clean the mess up as she was the only one without anything to do at that time. the customer had apologized profusely and offered to help clean up, but jiwon declined, because what sensible service staff lets a customer clean up? was jiwon's line of thought, but looking back on it now, maybe she should have taken up the customer's offer.

why? simply because rush hour had started while she was cleaning up the mess. the staff at the bar were stretched thin as dozens of people came pouring in through the doors of the café.

her co-workers (a total of three people) were rushing behind the counter, and they were calling for her to hurry up, so hurry up she did. they served customer after customer, jiwon helping the other barista make the drinks, and finally got a break once 7 pm rolled around. 

which brings her back to where she is now, slumped over on the rise café's counter nursing a steaming cup of herbal tea. 

her co-worker, chaeyeon, just laughs. "rough day today, huh?"

jiwon heaves a big sigh, "tell me about it... manager had a field day with me. hope he raises my pay a bit to make up for this."

chaeyeon laughs again, her laugh echoing through the now empty café, "don't keep your hopes up on that, unnie. manager is a bit stingy with anything that's not food."

jiwon sighs, quietly sipping her herbal tea as she hears chaeyeon tidying up in the back room. just as she's finished her cup, chaeyeon's voice pipes up from behind her. 

"looks like we have another customer, unnie." she could hear the smirk in chaeyeon's voice. 

grumbling, she sets her cup down and faces the café's doors, not bothering to hide her contempt at serving another customer close to closing time. that contempt melts away as she sees who's at the door. 

"yo, jiwonnie," hayoung says, smiling goofily while holding up a peace sign.

jiwon sports the same goofy smile as she all but runs to hug hayoung. she collides with the musician, taking care to not damage the guitar slung on her shoulder. (god knows how much that costs, jiwon's savings would all go down the drain if she had to replace it.)

"habbang!" jiwon exclaims as she breaks their hug, holding hayoung by the shoulders. "why are you here? aren't you supposed to be in gwang-ju right now?"

hayoung chuckles at the younger girl's energy, "i decided to take a little break before going back on the road, and what better place to rest at than back home?" 

jiwon's smile grows even wider at the statement, hayoung mirroring it with one of her own. they move over to the counter where jiwon's forgotten cup resides, jiwon going behind the counter to finish cleaning up the bar. hayoung helps herself to one of the stools by the counter, guitar placed on the ground by her side. 

"anything to order, unnie?" 

hayoung looks up at the menu boards situated above the bar, a hand coming up to her chin in deep thought. the sight makes jiwon laugh, because even now when they're practically adults, hayoung has always remained the same girl she knew from way back then.

"i think... i'll take a dark mocha frappe with mint, and also a croissant." 

jiwon doesn't hide the scrunch of her nose as she hears the other woman's order; hayoung must have also noticed as she gives a light laugh at the face she's making. 

"not a big fan of mint, jiwon-ah?" hayoung says, amusement evident in her voice. jiwon watches as she leans back on the barstool, hands reaching for the guitar leaning next to her. hayoung takes it out off the case and proceeds to play a soft melody. 

with hayoung's playing as her bgm, jiwon proceeds to the other side of the bar to start making the accursed drink. after hearing a lull in the musician's plucking, jiwon decides to defend herself against hayoung's obvious mirth from earlier.

"it's not that i don't like mint," jiwon begins. "it's just... you know," she pauses to focus on getting the whipped cream just right. "it brings up not-so-pleasant memories."

she hears the guitar stop, and turns to meet hayoung's gaze, warm brown intently looking at jiwon's own. her breath hitches as hayoung smiles at her warmly, eyes softening as she places her guitar down. she leans forward on the counter, head placed down on her arms, and never once breaks eye contact.

and jiwon just stares at the other woman, stares as if she was in a trance; she remembers how to breathe (when had she held her breath?) when she hears hayoung start to speak.

"you're still not over her?" 

she breaks her gaze away from the other woman, going over to the display case and taking the lone croissant from its place on a tray; just to have something to do with her hands. they wait for the croissant to heat in a blanket of silence jiwon's not fond of at all (and that says something, because even silences with hayoung give jiwon a sense of warmth and comfort; this one just felt stifling and murky and just too uncomfortable).

(jiwon wishes that chaeyeon would just pop out of the back room and break the silence, but she highly doubts the younger girl hadn't left through the back the moment hayoung showed up at the doors.)

"jiwonnie?" 

jiwon doesn't take her eyes off the machine heating the croissant and idly wonders why hayoung's voice sounds so much closer than it had before. before she could pursue the train of thought any further, she feels a pair of callused hands grab her own, prompting her to turn around.

she meets hayoung's gaze again, but this time she doesn't think she has it in herself to look away.

"jiwon-ah..." hayoung whispers, "it's been so long, you know?" her hands move to cup her face, "you've been holding onto this for seven, no, maybe more years. don't you think it's time to let go?"

jiwon brings her own hands up, covering hayoung's. "it's not that simple, unnie." she closes her eyes, leaning in to the other's touch. "trust me; if i could get my feelings to disappear by just saying a magic word, i would have done so the moment i knew it was hopeless." 

"then, would you allow me to help you?" 

her eyes immediately open, staring at the older girl. "unnie... are you saying..."

a determination jiwon has seen countless times before sets in hayoung's eyes. "i love you, park jiwon. and i want you to be happy. as much as possible, i want to help you with your happiness; that is, if you'd let me?"

and jiwon sees it, sees how much hayoung truly cares for her, and without her knowledge, her heart has finally begun to beat for someone else.

"of course, hayoung-unnie. i wouldn't have wanted it to be anyone else." 

jiwon doesn't know when she'll be able to say those three words back, but if it was with hayoung, she doesn't doubt that she'll be able to.

and she doesn't know who started to lean in first, but they found themselves inching closer all the same. just as their lips were about to touch,

BEEP BEEP BEEP 

they jump apart so fast like they had both been caught doing something inappropriate that jiwon almost laughs out loud. she turns to face the offending machine, gingerly taking out a croissant just as fresh as if it were just baked.

she looks over to the recipient of the baked good, eyes looking anywhere but at her, face considerably flushed. jiwon thinks it's absolutely adorable.

brandishing the tray of dark mocha with mint and a croissant, jiwon turns to place into hayoung's hands. this time, she lets out a loud laugh when she sees her unnie eye the croissant with such contempt.

"why are you glaring at the croissant like it murdered your whole family?" jiwon manages to say between laughs.

hayoung pouts at her (jiwon won't admit that she died just a little seeing it), "im not glaring."

letting one final chuckle slip through, jiwon rests her forehead against the other woman's, "don't worry," she whispers. "we have all the time in the world, song hayoung-ssi."

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it's all up to you guys on who you imagine jiwon's former crush is (though i think its pretty obvious). not yet proofread since i just finished this in a burst of inspiration at 1 am.