When Minjoo wakes up one morning, she’s determined to stop thinking all these silly thoughts about Chaewon. This woman was in a gang for God’s sake; nothing good could come out of her. Minjoo’s seen stuff like this--where they act all nice and innocent until they decide they need something from you, or you need to be disposed of.

Minjoo wasn’t going to fall for any of it.

Sure, the girl had walked her home, but surely there were ulterior motives. There must have been.

She sighs thinking about why exactly she had been out that night (and pretty much any other night she’s found alone and drunk).

That stupid, stupid Minhyun. She had happily agreed to move in with him (shortly after she had met Chaewon, actually) a while ago, thinking that this would be the start of something new and great. But, lord, he could really push her buttons. It was especially hard to sympathize with him when he was constantly cancelling plans and whatnot all because of his oh-so-important job. Sometimes she wonders what she saw in him, but other times she didn’t; that’s probably why she stayed.

She couldn’t believe she ran into Chaewon again while she was in another drunken stupor. It was ridiculous, really. Minjoo figures that she’ll never meet Chaewon unless she’s drunk and alone in the middle of the night. It doesn’t matter, anyways, that girl was cruel, ruthless, dangerous--

--and currently buying ice cream for a little kid.

Minjoo stopped in her tracks as she watched the scene with wide, unblinking eyes.

A little kid was playing around in the park with an ice cream cone in her hand. Clearly, she was having too much fun, as the treat fell to the ground after she had tried to jump from one of the steps on the playground. And, of course, she started to cry heavily while mourning the loss of her ice cream.

Until Chaewon handed her another one.

Seriously.

She had just turned to the stall right there and paid for another ice cream cone. And then she just--

--she just gave it to this crying kid.

Minjoo looked on as Chaewon knelt down and gently (gently?) nudged the cone towards the little girl, mumbling to stop crying. In the back of her mind, Minjoo snorted at how awkward Chaewon looked as she scratched her neck with one hand and tried to put on some sort of tight-lipped smile as to not scare the kid.

After the kid gasped and eagerly took the treat from her hand, she gave Chaewon a quick hug and a loud thank you before running off. Minjoo actually snorted this time looking at how shocked Chaewon looked at the hug (she looks so awkward). After shaking herself out of her surprised daze, Chaewon scratched her neck again with an embarrassed look as she slowly rose back up.

“Ah, geez, kids these days,” Chaewon mumbles as she watches the kid run around again despite what had happened earlier. She seems to be taking better care of her ice cream, at least.

“I know, right?”

Chaewon jumps slightly and whirls around to meet Minjoo’s amused, smirking face.

“Hi.”

Chaewon blinks at her, not knowing what to say or do.

Just pretend like nothing happened.

“Hi,” she responds coolly, putting on her calm expression again.

“If I start crying, will you buy me ice cream too?” Minjoo teases despite telling herself earlier to stay away from this girl. Yet here she is, teasing the scary gang member.

“I--no, you see, I was just--” Chaewon stammers as she begins to rub her neck again in embarrassment.

In the middle of Chaewon’s fumbling, Minjoo notices something that had only come to her attention now and was quite contrary to what she had thought before. She doesn’t know how she hadn’t realized it before, but it was probably because she was either drunk, cautious, scared, or some combination of the three.

“You’re shorter than me,” Minjoo says in astonishment.

“I--what?” Chaewon replies at the interruption (although, the only thing Minjoo had interrupted was a mess of words and noises).

“You’re shorter than me! I thought you were taller for some reason. I guess the scary gang get-up helped.”

She doesn’t know where the bravery came from, but she taps her palm against the top of Chaewon’s head and lets out a soft chuckle.

She can’t help herself from laughing harder when Chaewon starts to glare at her, especially now that she notices how Chaewon has to tilt her head slightly upwards to do so.

“You want to die?” Chaewon seethes.

“Oh no, no, sorry, my apologizes,” Minjoo says solemnly with raised hands. Chaewon narrows her eyes further at her at the clear sarcasm and amusement in her tone.

“You glare too much; your eyes will disappear,” Minjoo laughs as she pats Chaewon’s head again.

Chaewon huffs angrily and glares at Minjoo one more time before spinning around and heading towards the ice cream cart. Somehow, Minjoo gets the feeling that she should follow.

“What do you want?”

At first, Minjoo thinks that she’s referring to why she had followed her, but then she realizes that the girl was actually asking her which ice cream she wanted.

Minjoo an eyebrow in curiosity and Chaewon has her head turned towards the side, not making eye contact.

As if sensing her confusion, Chaewon mumbles, “You asked me to buy you ice cream.”

Minjoo exhales with a laugh and tells the man that she would like chocolate ice cream.

“Mint chocolate for me then, please.”

After Chaewon pays, she just starts walking off. Of course, Minjoo follows.

“I didn’t really ask you to buy me--”

“Be quiet.”

Acting against all of the things she warned herself about earlier that day, Minjoo laughed for the nth time and smiled into her ice cream.

They walked in silence all the way to Minjoo’s house;

she somehow couldn’t stop smiling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I knew it. Stupid, stupid Minjoo!

She runs towards her dad as Chaewon glances at her coolly.

I told you, she’s bad news! She’s back here again trying to wrestle money out of Dad. It was all a lie--I knew it. I’m an idiot, idiot! That stupid ice cream stint--

Her mental tirade is interrupted by Chaewon turning and heading out the door without another word.

“Hey!” She screams at her retreating figure, furious.

Chaewon just keeps on walking.

Minjoo dashes out the door and runs in front of her before she can go any further.

“How could you!” Minjoo yells with balled up fists. She doesn’t know why she’s so, so angry. This was her life; Chaewon was a gang member! Of course this is what she’d be doing!

But Minjoo couldn’t hide the fact that she felt a little disappointed and betrayed.

Chaewon only stares at her for a second before she walks around her.

“You’re a terrible person! You ! I hate you!” Minjoo screams at her back.

Chaewon tosses up a hand in a slight wave.

“I know!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Minjoo angrily tosses the door open and stomps into the house, heading towards her father who was lounging on the couch watching TV.

Why is he so calm?

“What happened?” She asked, plopping down on the seat next to him and looking at him worriedly.

“Huh? Oh, weirdly enough, she just came here to tell me that she let go of the rest of our debt.”

Minjoo could only stare blankly at him.

“Yeah, weird, right? I know we didn’t have much left to pay off, but, still! How odd.”

“She… what…?”

“She let go of our debt, Minjoo.”

“... What…?”