[Honeymoon Phase]

 

The couple was sitting on their couch, Sooyoung’s head on her wife’s lap as she grabbed popcorn from the coffee table. She grabs Jiwoo’s drink as well and hands it to the smaller. Jiwoo grabs it and looks down at the older with a loving smile on her face.

 

She swears this is the happiest time of her life. Sooyoung meets her eyes and averts them because she was shy. “You know what?” the younger says, putting a hand on Sooyoung’s hair to run it through.

 

Sooyoung hums for her to continue “We already used this month’s living expenses. We have to be frugal.”

 

The older sits up and stares at Jiwoo with furrowed eyebrows “Really? Already?” Jiwoo takes a sip from her drink and Sooyoung sighs “It’s only the beginning of the month.” She sits back into the couch pillows, pulling one out from behind her to hug on her lap.

 

“How are we going to get by?”

 

Jiwoo turns to look at her wife, her wife. Gosh she doesn’t think she’s going to get over calling Sooyoung her wife. She gives a small pout and points to her lips with her finger, going for a cute attack “We’ll get by with my love.”

 

The older smiles smugly, proud of Jiwoo’s flirting and nudges her with her shoulder “You’re right.”

 

Jiwoo pushes Sooyoung’s face away once she goes in for a kiss, teasing her. Sooyoung whines but continues her attack until she got what she wanted. She places small kisses on her cheek and the younger laughs “What was that for?”

 

The smaller girl pulls Sooyoung’s head closer to her and pecks her lips. Sooyoung smiles into the kiss, asking “What did you do today?”

 

Jiwoo pulls away, taking another sip from her drink as she thought “I cleaned..cooked...and organized the room a little bit. And you?”

 

“Me?”

 

A hum and Sooyoung sits up from seat, puffing out her chest slightly “I accomplished something big today.” getting excited, she starts to move her hands as she talked “They said no newbie ever got so many contracts like me. I did good, right?”

 

Sooyoung leans over on one side, showing her to her wife and looks at her expectantly. Jiwoo gives a proud smile and pats her softly “You’ll be the best salesperson.” smaller pats “Good job.” The older shimmies around before sitting back down.

 

The younger gives a small sigh “By the way…” she puts her drink down on the table “..what would we be doing if we weren’t married?”

 

Sooyoung leans her head on her wife’s shoulder “What do you think? We’d probably be spending frivolously and wasting money like the others.”

 

“You think so? I kind of want to live frivolously for once”

 

The older looks up and pecks her chin “Why? Is there something you want to do?” she feels her nod. “What about you?” Jiwoo asks.

 

Sooyoung seems to be thinking for a moment before deciding “Let’s both say it at once.”

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

“Clubbing!”

 

 

 

Sooyoung couldn’t get his face out from her head, the smirk he threw at Jiwoo’s way. He was a pig and she still couldn’t believe that Jiwoo would be associated with the likes of him. She sighs and crosses her arms as she sits back into her seat.

 

“Yah, Ha S-Sooyoung…” Jiwoo slurs as she takes a seat in front of her ex wife. She’s probably had way too much to drink, it was almost disgusting at the way the smaller girl smelt of alcohol. And Sooyoung was starting to wonder why Jiwoo had drank so much to begin with.

 

“Y-You aren’t the only young thing, I’m young too.” Jiwoo squints both her eyes before trying to keep them open again. She then digs into her pocket and pulls out the familiar paper out “Someone gave me his number because he thought I was pretty.”

 

The older griminces, remembering Dr. Kim once more. Jiwoo waves the paper sloppily in front of her face “My life was the worst when I was with you…” and Sooyoung rolls her eyes at this repeated conversation. Jiwoo starts to blink fast again but this time trying to blink away the tears that were starting to form “..but..what about Yerim..?”

 

Sooyoung’s face drops instantly, her stomach following along with it. Her hands start to get clammy but Jiwoo continues her drunken talk “Y-Yerim.” she stares Sooyoung in the eyes “What are you going to do?”

 

Jiwoo watched at the older’s eyes start to gloss over “What are you going to do?” she repeats over.

 

 

-

 

 

[note* italics are the announcements from the intercom]

 

“Dear fellow students, are you having a good morning?” the voice making the announcement says throughout the whole school “Spring is here. I wonder what this year’s summer will be like. Today’s song is ‘Gee’ by Girls’ Generation.”

 

Jiwoo and Joowon walk up the stairs going to their classroom. Two people from the audio room rushing out to the restroom, almost bumping into the two girls.

 

“Kim Jiwoo.” Jiwoo tenses up at the voice calling out to her and she feels a grip on her wrist, catching her by surprise.

 

“What are you doing?” she looks up to Sooyoung and tries to pull away from her. Sooyoung ignores her, her attention elsewhere as she’s looking around the hall. “Gosh, what are you doing.” Joowon throws her a confused look that makes Jiwoo shrug her shoulders.

 

“Follow me.” Sooyoung tugs her somewhere else, an empty room she sees with the door open. The older peeking her head in just to make sure that nobody was there and hears Jiwoo’s favorite song being played in there. After confirming the room was clear, she drags Jiwoo in with her and closes the door.

 

“Hey.” Jiwoo huffs and puts her hands on her hips “You said let’s go separate ways. Why are you acting like you know me?”

 

“Why am I acting like this?” Sooyoung scoffs “You…” she looks away, clicking her tongue “You don’t know what he’s really like.”

 

Jiwoo frowns and takes a step closer to her “What?”

 

Sooyoung’s gaze is still not on Jiwoo and she puts her arm out, palm up and wiggles her fingers “Give it to me.”

 

“Give you what?”

 

Sooyoung finally looks at her “His number you got last night in the club.” her voice slightly raises just a tad bit “Do you really think you’re 20 years old?”

 

Offended, Jiwoo tilts her head up “Huh? Why are you trying to take his number? It’s none of your business whether or not I get a number from a guy.”

 

Sooyoung gives her a pitiful look, feeling bad for her ex wife “You’re a woman with a kid. How can you get drunk and cause a ruckus?” she then nods her head as if she was thinking but gives a warning anyways “Don’t call him. He really is a piece of trash.”

 

“And you aren’t?”

 

Sooyoung furrows her eyebrows at the low blow Jiwoo struck her with “You shouldn’t care if I drink or dance or meet trashy people. It’s none of your business anymore.”

 

Sooyoung takes a deep breath, trying to control her temper “Okay, fine. We’re strangers but why do you keep talking about me? Are you trying to advertise out divorce? Why don’t you put a poster saying we have a kid too?”

 

Jiwoo looks down “Well, it was because I was drunk...you don’t think I can do that? That’s a fact!”

 

“A fact, my . You’re too soft for that. Besides if that gets out, you and I both will be doomed.”

 

Jiwoo laughs sarcastically “It won’t be the both of us. You’re a married woman chasing after your first love.” Jiwoo tilts her head, challenging “Does she know that you’re married with a kid?”

 

“Married? I’m a divorced woman. Nobody here knows that I’ve been married.” a scoff “And what about you? You’re a married woman with a kid but you were so happy about getting some pig’s number at the club. You’re worse than me.”

 

Jiwoo rolls her eyes “I seriously can’t be in the same room as you.” she rubs her stomach and scrunches her face as she walked away “Ah my stomach hurts.”

 

“Of course it does, you drank so much.” the older mutters before turning to face her ex’s leaving figure “Excuse me, lady. Only people who’ve partied know how to party. You’ll ruin yourself if you doing something that’s not yourself.”

 

The smaller snaps her head in Sooyoung’s direction with a glare, she didn’t need such nagging especially if it was coming from someone like Sooyoung. The older nods her head, in a challenging way “What?”

 

Jiwoo raises a fist and Sooyoung flinches, the younger scoffing at her reaction before leaving the room completely.

 

Sooyoung holds a hand to her chest “Gosh, she startled me.” she looks out the door before doing a light jog to catch up with her “Kim Jiwoo!” she calls out.

 

Frustrated Jiwoo does a little stomp and turns around “What do you want?”

 

The taller readjusts her bag straps and looks at her seriously “Stop talking to the you guy met at the club yesterday. Don’t get involved with him.” Sooyoung puts a hand on her waist and gives Jiwoo a cocky smile “You must be excited that a guy gave you his number, but that doctor jerk is just toying with you. Okay?”

 

Jiwoo raises an eyebrow with a satisfied look “Oh? Is he a doctor?”

 

Taken aback Sooyoung stands in silence and Jiwoo points at nothing “On the other side? The future? He’s going to be a doctor at the hospital?” she looks extremely happy at this realization.

 

Sooyoung can’t find her words, she opened but nothing wanted to come out while Jiwoo kept rambling “I knew he had great taste. Now that I’m at it, I should turn my life around.” wanting to throw the older’s words back at her “Thanks for the information.” and with that Jiwoo walks away.

 

 

 

-

 

 

Sooyoung walks down the steps to her shared table with Jinsol. Her conscious was clear, if Jiwoo wanted to ruin her life again then that was on her. The older gave her a warning and it was up to her ex on whether or not she was actually going to listen.

 

The class was loud, everyone chattering super loud that she couldn’t help but pick up on some of the conversations as she walked down  “She left her wife and kid to chase after her first love…”

 

“And she doesn’t know she’s married.”

 

“Really?”

 

Sooyoung finds her seat and pulls it out, looking around the room before meeting Jinsol’s eyes. “Hey, what’s going on? What’s with all the gossip?”

 

Jinsol leans back and props her arm behind her chair as she was thinking “Amazing people have shown up?”

 

“Amazing?”

 

Jinsol nods her head and purse her lips together, her eyebrows even doing the thing it always does “There’s a student in our school who has been through a divorce.”

 

Sooyoung tilts her head “Really?” a tsk of her tongue “If they’re still a student, when did they get married and divorced?”

 

Jinsol slaps her hand on the brown head girl’s shoulder a couple of time “That’s not the good part. The thing is that both of them are having affairs. Well they’re divorced, so technically it’s not an affair.” at this point Jinsol is trying to get her story straight “But the thing is, they have a kid together.”

 

Sooyoung shakes head in total disbelief “A kid? Wow, kids these days are scary.”

 

Jinsol nods her head agreeing “Yeah and apparently one of the girls has stomach problems because she’s an alcoholic and the other one is trash.”

 

Sooyoung freezes in her spot at the sudden comparison of her best friends gossip and her conversation with Jiwoo earlier “W-What? Sol, who told you about them?” her stomach dropped and got nervous as she waited for Jinsol to speak.

 

The blonde looks around the room before pointing to the speaker that was hung up on the wall “That thing. It was broadcasted live from the studio. I’m sure everyone on campus heard them.”

 

 

-

 

 

“If she has a kid, she should be raising them.” Jiwoo gripped her pencil tighter as she heard the group of boys talk about what was broadcasted earlier without her knowledge “Why is she at school chasing after young men?”

 

“The world is coming to an end. It’s gone completely crazy.”

 

Jiwoo doesn’t even want to look at Jungeun and Joowon right now, scared that they would take interest in talking about this too. “That means they could’ve had the kid while in high school. The woman is something”

 

No. No. That’s not what happened at all! Jiwoo was in her late twenties! Jiwoo jumps in surprised at how hard Jungeun had slammed her hands on the desk before standing up and facing the boys that were talking “Who keeps on bashing on the woman? Why are you bashing her?”

 

Jiwoo smiles at this, yes! Jungeun was defending her without even knowing they were talking about Jiwoo herself. One of the guys rolls his eyes “And? Who are you?”

 

“‘Who are you?’” Jungeun runs her hand through her hair, annoyed “Are you challenging me right now?” Jiwoo takes a hold her best friend’s shirt, tugging her to sit down. She didn’t want her to get in trouble.

 

The guy starts to stand up before his friend pulls her back down “Settle down.” he says in a hushed whisper, although everyone could still hear him clearly “She’s the lunatic history major. Don’t mess with her.”

 

Jiwoo finally gets Jungeun to sit down, the girl settling back into her seat and puts both of her elbows on the desk. She cups her face and looked dreamily into space “How cool it that?” Jungeun then turns to face Jiwoo “Getting divorced, isn’t that so cool? Why does a woman always need to sacrifice? She wanted to live her life, she’s so cool.”

 

Jiwoo gives her a funny look but Jungeun didn’t care as she kept on but snaps her fingers “Maybe that was a drama script written by the broadcasting club.” Jiwoo sits up at this, hope. She has hope. “They sometimes put on a radio drama, you know.”

 

The intercom makes a loud screeching noise before someone spoke through it “We have an announcement. The accident that happened was not caused by the broadcasting club. We are investigating the outline of the incident.”

 

Screwed, Jiwoo was so screwed.

 

 

 

[Winter of 2009, 19 years old Ha Sooyoung]

 

Sooyoung had her cold hands in her pockets, leaning back and forth on the heels of her shoes. Standing beside her mother, she mumbles “I don’t feel like majoring in Civil Construction..”

 

Her mom shakes her head, an annoyed look on her face “You did terrible on your entrance exam. You don’t feel like it? You can’t be choosy right now.” her mom walks away from her.

 

A man comes from behind Sooyoung, his voice loud as he makes an announcement “Registration hours are over! The doors will be closed.” he walks back into the building.

 

“Please wait!” a voice calls out and Sooyoung looks in the direction of the voice calling out. A pretty girl with a braid, running towards her. She’s never seen someone more prettier than this girl.

 

Sooyoung quickly turns around “Wait.” she pushes the door open as the man was trying to lock it. Sooyoung turns her head, the girl finally reaching them, out of breath.

 

She smiles at Sooyoung and bows her head slightly “Thank you.” and the taller feels like her soul flew out of her body by the girl’s beauty.

 

 

Jiwoo is walking down the hallway and passes someone who seems to recognize her “Excuse me.” he grabs her by the wrist that makes the girl turn to face him. He points at her “The club.”

 

Jiwoo looks him up and down, not really remembering where he was from “Doctor..” it finally hit her. She quickly covers at her slip up and he blinks at her. “The note.”

 

Yugyeom smiles at her “You remember, I see you go to my school.” he puts a hand in his pocket “I had a really fun time with you last time.” he looks down “Well...I think I made a mistake the other day…”

 

Jiwoo tilts her head, was he taking back his number? It was too late, she was already bragging to Sooyoung about how other people wanted her too. Yugyeom meets her eyes “I should’ve gotten your number instead of giving you mine. I guess this is fate because we met again.”

 

He then slings his backpack around, digging through and pulls out a small notebook “Will you..” he hands it out to her “..give me you number?”

 

Jiwoo blushes, it really had been a long time someone else has taken interest in her “U-Ugh, yeah! Of course.” she takes his notepad and writes her number. Jiwoo hands it back to him and he waves it around.

 

“I’ll call you, okay?”

 

 

-

 

 

Jiwoo is sitting down in library when someone takes a seat in front of her. It was Doyeon.

 

Doyeon is staring at her with her her arms crossed and Jiwoo suddenly felt small under her gaze. Why was she here? Was she going to embarrass Jiwoo like the girl had did to her?

 

The shorter looks at Doyeon’s arms and drools. Goodness, Doyeon had lost weight but still looked toned. Jiwoo feels bad, it was probably because she had given the taller false hope after she had rejected her.

 

Jiwoo furrows her eyebrows, did this beautiful girl really stay single for 10 years because she couldn’t get over her?

 

“Hey.”

 

Jiwoo looks up to her, meeting Doyeon’s stern eyes “Huh?”

 

The taller leans into the table “I’m asking you this just in case.” she squints at Jiwoo “You don’t think I like you, do you?”

 

Jiwoo is taken aback by her harsh words, the taller used a tone that Jiwoo didn’t like “Well I mean-”

 

“You do.” Doyeon shakes her head and leans back “You though so, didn’t you?” Jiwoo was seriously confused. Her random confrontation with the taller was throwing her off and she didn’t understand why she was being so aggressive towards her.

 

“Well, it’s because you said you liked me.” this was a given, no? Why wouldn’t Jiwoo think that Doyeon had a thing for her?

 

“I never did.”

 

This was turning into such a mess “You asked me out on a date.”

 

Doyeon’s face was never changing as she kept a cold look “I asked you out but I never said I liked you.” What was with her? Was she trying to get back at Jiwoo for rejecting her? This had to be it.

 

Dumbfounded, she was absolutely dumbfounded “You have to like someone to go on a date. Then why did you ask me out?” she closes the book she was reading, too distracted by the girl sitting in front of her to concentrate.

 

“Because you were in front of me.”

 

The shorter scoffs in disbelief and pointed to herself “Because I was in front of you?” she frowns and places her hands on her lap “What if someone else was in front of you?”

 

Doyeon’s face is still flat “I would’ve asked her out.” and she says this as if this was obvious and Jiwoo’s mouth was hanging open, too shocked that this was happening “Now that this was settled, let’s not be clingy. Don’t do it.” Doyeon get’s up and wipes her hands as if there anything there in the first place “Bye.”

 

Jiwoo still couldn’t believe it, she huffs in her seat. Doyeon had asked her out back then because she was in front of her? Then had had been mistaken all these years, she never liked Jiwoo in the past. Why did she tell her this now after 10 years?

 

Jiwoo pouts, her lower lip hanging out and she looks down at her lap. She shouldn’t have told her that “I was happier not knowing…”

 

 

Jinsol walks down the hallway, her hands in her yellow jacket and furrowed her eyebrows as she looked for a specific room. She had received a text from Jungeun ‘hey its jungeun, come to student hall room 201 by 2pm!’

 

The blonde has a goofy smile just remembering the shorter girl, she was crushing bad. She stops in front of the room, her heart beat starting to pick up as she stood outside nervously.

 

Jinsol gives herself a little pep talk before opening the door and stands frozen after noticing a group of people practicing in the room. Did Jungeun give her the wrong room number?

 

She spots Jungeun, practicing in their school’s performance outfit. Their coach instructing them “With more power. Arms. Arms.” their coach then making eye contact with the peeking blonde “Who are you?” he calls out and Jungeun turns around.

 

Jungeun leads her into their dressing room, with a utterly confused Jinsol following after. The younger pulls a sheet out from her locker and hands it to her.

 

Asura Cheerleading Squad Application Form.

 

The blonde looks in disbelief at her signature and fingerprint at the bottom of the paper “Y-You got to be kidding me.” she looks up from the paper to meet Jungeun’s gaze “I’m not fit to do something like this.” she gives her a nervous smile “There’s no way I filled this out.”

 

Jinsol tries to hand back the application and the shorter girl doesn’t budge “Yes, you did. That’s your handwriting.” she nods her head towards the paper.

 

Jinsol’s hands are shaking as she looked back down at the paper “It is, but…” she mumbles “..fingerprint..” and looks back up, fingers fumbling with the sides “Is this mine?”

 

Jungeun leans forward and slaps her shoulder playfully “Hey I’m not a weirdo who forces drunk people to do stuff.” she tucks a piece of hair behind her ear.

 

Jungeun is going through her bag, a drunk Jinsol trying to keep her head up “What’s that?” the drunken girl asks and the younger pulls out the forms “This? It’s an application form for my club.”

 

Jungeun looks at her date, who had a goofy look to her face. The younger girl smiles and thinks to herself “Do you want to join?”

 

“Me?” the blonde points to herself.

 

Jungeun gives her a charming smile, fluttering her eyelashes and moves her hair out of her face “If you join...you can practice with me everyday.” she says this as she leans closer towards Jinsol.

 

“Really?” a nod was given and Jinsol digs through her own bag to pull out a pen “Okay!”

 

Jinsol doesn’t know how she found herself in this mess, she knew she was stupid when it came to pretty girls but was she willing to do this all for a girl that might be interested in her?

 

The blonde was sweating bullets, huffing and puffing as she transitioned from one foot to another “..3..4..” she turns around to continue the motion “..1..2..to the rhythm!” her new coach yells out, a clap of his hands at the same time.

 

“Hey you over there!” this was directed towards Jinsol but the girl pays no mind because she feels like she’s going to pass out “Why are you so tired over there.” because the girl has never played a sport in her life. “Start over.”

 

At one point during the practice Jinsol sighs in relief at getting a small break as she watched the rest of cheerleading team practice a certain performance. Her eyes followed Jungeun and Jinsol swears she’s in love. Jungeun looked sharp and elegant at the same time. The younger even gets lifted up by a man and is spun around.

 

Jinsol looks in awe, yup it was definitely love.

 

 

 

Mina stumbles during her practice and tries to control her facial expression at the big mistake she made. Her coach giving a stern look, calling her out “Mina, get a hold of yourself. See me during the break.”

 

Her coach walks away and Mina follows her with her head hanging low “You’re the main soloist, yet your body looks heavy.” she says once they enter her office “Are you going to manage your weight like that?”

 

Mina finally looks up and swallows down the lump she had “I’m trying my hardest, but I don’t get fat or thin easily.” she crosses her hands.

 

Her coach shakes her head, disappointed “Is that your excuse?” Mina doesn’t say anything as the woman gave her the rest of the talk and heads back to the practice room, her hands sweaty.

 

She hears the voice from inside “You can drink these.”

 

“Sure.”

 

The ballerina walks in and is surprise by someone else being in there besides her friends “And have some of this.” the group sitting down in the middle of the room. Her friends were smiling at the girl who came to visit them last time.

 

“But I’m on a diet.”

 

Sooyoung waves her off “Just this once.”

 

Her friend smiles “I’ll start tomorrow then.” her friend then notices her standing by the door and waves her over “Mina, come over here.” she pats the empty spot next to her and the construction major. “She brought you snacks.”

 

Mina walks over and Sooyoung greets her with a smile pushing the box of donuts as the girl took her seat “I bought sweet stuff because I thought you could use some sugar.”

 

The girls sitting around the circle gushes “You’re so considerate. After we practice for a long time we really crave sweets. How did you know?”

 

Sooyoung makes a face as if this was nothing “I read something like this, it was something like ‘Life is bitter and practice is bitter too. You need something sweet from time to time to endure the bitter times looking forward to the sweets.’”

 

“You have a point.”

 

“You’re so funny.”

 

Noticing the girl not eating anything, Sooyoung grabs a napkin and grabs a donut, stretching her arm out for Mina to take “Here. This way, you won’t get it on your fingers.”

 

Mina blinks “No, I’m fine.” putting a hand to her shoulder “I think my stomach is upset.”

 

Sooyoung makes a face “Ah, really?” she puts the donut down, not wanting to push her to eat if she didn’t want it.

 

It didn’t take long for them to finish the snack, everyone wanting to jump back into practice and Mina starting her stretching “I hope this practice goes well.” the civil construction major says to everyone “I’ll return with something sweet before you forget me.” she flashes a charming smile to the ballerinas.

 

She looks down to her crush “Hey.” the girls looks up “I’ll see you next time.” and Mina gives her a small smile and nods her head slightly. She waves the rest of them goodbye and she walked away she could hear them talk about her.

 

“I never noticed her but she’s really cool.”

 

Sooyoung smiles to herself, her cheeks hurting. It was a perfect plan in getting the approval of her friends first “She must really like you. She’s nice to us too.”

 

“Do you think so?” Mina mumbles.

 

 

 

 

Sooyoung holds the strap of her bag tighter as she stood beside Mina, the both of them waiting on her bus. The night was pretty, it wasn’t as cold as it had been the past couple of day and Sooyoung didn’t want this night to end “If you ever feel like doing something again, let me know.”

 

Mina smiles “Thanks for today, but please don’t ever do that again. I never missed first place during youth competitions.”

 

Sooyoung’s face slightly drops but let her talk “I got this far because I held back no matter how hard it was. It didn’t just happen because I was lucky.” Mina still has a grateful look nonetheless “Anyways, thank you.”

 

Mina looks up to meet her eyes “I’d like to know more about you.” Sooyoung looks at her in surprise, not expecting her to come around so quickly. The ballerina has a smile that makes Sooyoung giddy and her own shy smile coming.

 

“There’s my bus.” Mina points out and Sooyoung turns around to see the bus coming closer before stopping in front of them. “Goodbye, then.”

 

Sooyoung waves her off “Sure, goodbye.” keeping her waving as she saw the girl take a seat closest to the window. The bus departs and Sooyoung pumps her fist in the air once it was out of sight “Yes, yes, yes!”

 

This was such good progress with her crush and she couldn’t believe how well this was turning out for her. She holds her hand on her chest, patting it slightly “Great job, great job.”

 

Her patting stops and her smile slowly drops as she watches two familiar figures walking in her direction. Her eyes widen once her eyes land on Jiwoo’s mom, her father walking closely beside her.

 

It’s been years since she’s last seen the woman and Sooyoung couldn’t help but bite her bottom lip as she kept her eyes on the approaching mom.

 

“It’s still very hot.” her mom says, grabbing her collar and tries to air it out “Summer really is coming now.” they pass Sooyoung’s frozen body.

 

The young girl feels her breath hitch and her eyes start to water once she laid eyes on a healthy Mrs. Kim but Sooyoung didn’t dare try to meet eyes with the woman as she passed by.

 

“Honey.” Jiwoo’s dad tries to put an arm around her.

 

“Goodness, I said it’s hot.” she tries to push him away “It’s hot, it’s too hot.”

 

It was the next day and Sooyoung knew it was a terrible idea, absolutely terrible. But she couldn’t help herself once she saw Jiwoo’s mom last night. She was beyond grateful for the woman and was even more grateful that she got the chance to see her again in this lifetime.

 

She was hiding behind a light pole and waited for her mom to come back home.

 

The woman coming back with a bag in one hand and a watermelon in the other. She stops in front of her gate door and looks down at the basket of grapes placed in front of it. “Huh? Who left this?”

 

Jiwoo’s mom then turns around, looking around to see if anyone was around. Sooyoung then takes a step back, scared that the older woman would see her.

 

She hears a yelp come from Mrs. Kim “Goodness!” and Sooyoung pokes her head back out to see what had happened. Her mother in law’s basket on the ground with her groceries spilled over.

 

A man on his phone had bumped into her, not even picking his head up from his phone to apologize.

 

“Mister. You should say sorry if you bumped into someone.” Mrs. Kim nags the man who made her drop her bag. She points to it “Can’t you see I dropped these because of you?”

 

The man gives her a dirty look, not looking apologetic at all “You should’ve held on to them better.” he says this, putting both hands on his hips as she walked towards her.

 

“What?” she then points to her door “I was just standing in front of my house. You’re the one who bumped into me, not the other way.”

 

The man looks annoyed “Gosh, what is this old lady? What bad luck..so what do you want me to do?” he uses his tall figure to intimidate her “What do you want me to do?”

 

Sooyoung steps in and puts a hand to his chest, pushing him away from Jiwoo’s mom “What’s wrong with you?” Sooyoung’s nose flaring in anger, her eyes glaring at the man “How dare you speak to her like that?”

 

Mrs. Kim is startled by the random girl stepping in but doesn’t say anything as she watched the two argue it out “What? ‘How dare you?’ he laughs at Sooyoung’s face “Wah, what a day. What’s with this neighborhood?”

 

Sooyoung keeps her frown on her face, the two of them locking eyes “If you bump into someone you should apologize or pay her for ruining her groceries. You should do something, you little punk.”

 

“That’s right, you little punk.” Jiwoo’s mom, mimicking Sooyoung and raises her fist at the guy.

 

“I can’t believe this.” he scoffs “Who are you? Why are you butting in as if this is your business?”

 

“Me?” and there’s a pause as Sooyoung her lips, thinking “I’m her daughter. What’s that to you?”

 

“Her daughter?” he shakes his head “I knew it.” he starts to walk away “Consider yourselves lucky.” he points at Sooyoung.

 

“That rude brat.” the younger mutters under her breath before turning to face Jiwoo’s mom “Are you okay?”

 

Mrs. Kim gives her a polite smile and a slight bow “Yes.” Sooyoung instantly drops down to the ground to help pick up the items that she had dropped earlier. She puts them back into the bags and hands them to the older woman.

 

“Thank you.” and looks at Sooyoung up and down “Your mom must feel so reassured to have a daughter like you. I have two daughter too.” she laughs bends over to help pick up too.

 

Sooyoung couldn’t help but frown, upset that this had happened to someone as nice as the woman bent down in front of her.

 

 

 

 

[The Day of Their Wedding]

 

The couple walked around, following Jiwoo’s mom as they greeted each guest sitting at the tables. “Why do you look so happy? Your daughter’s getting married!” one the older guest says playfully to her mom. “How can you look so happy?”

 

Mrs. Kim just jumps her spot, excited “Of course I’m happy.” she then turns to Sooyoung, putting a hand on her arm to cross it with her “I’ve always wanted another daughter and now I have one.”

 

The table laughs and Sooyoung somehow feels shy after being bragged about in front of Jiwoo’s family members “She’s so beautiful and treats my daughter so well. I’m happy that my daughter married her!”

 

 

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Hey sorry for this super late update….again lmaoo

But listen..i have a good excuse...kinda..ya girl has been out in basically the woods for the past two weeks, dying in the heat with no service but you know i lived.

 

The next chapter is basically going to be a filler chapter from this one (a part 2) since I didn’t cover some things like what happened between mina and sooyoung, and then more with doyeon and jiwoo and lastly mrs. kim sooyoung and jiwoo.

Next chapter should come sooner since its’ shorter but just understand that I’m also busy with work too..

Thank you for reading! (i didn’t go back to correct any mistakes)

*the girl in mina in Sooyoung’s flashback