Earlier that day

“Okay, but I get to beat up the next guy!”

“How come? Didn’t you get to have the fun yesterday?”

“That was barely anything!”

Chaewon couldn’t believe she always found herself with such imbeciles. There were certainly some civilized gangsters (sort of) here, yet she’s always paired with fools like these.

“Hey, be quiet you two! We’re here.” The third member whisper-yells to the other two.

Chaewon just sighs and watches as the three men knock on the door rather aggressively, shouting to open the door. At once, a frightened man opens and stumbles back as the three men barge into his house. Chaewon slowly makes her way in as well.

“Dad!” A little voice yells.

Oh no.

A little girl runs towards the man with a slightly older girl following closely behind. Behind them is a woman, trying to hold her children back. She’s not successful, though, as the two kids run towards the chaos.

“You owe us money, old man,” sneers the tallest of the three.

“Better hurry up!”

“Leave us alone!” The older girl yells despite her obvious shaking.

It was like a scene from a cheap action movie. The three gangsters seemed like lame actors recreating a silly scenario with this dramatic flair, complete with unnecessary threats and all. Really, Chaewon would think that they’d be more cool and collected, but this was just ridiculous.

“Guys!”

The men pause and look at her in question.

“I’ll take care of it.”

Before the three can protest and yell obscenities about how they wanted to get down and dirty, she gives them a pointed look and crosses her arms.

“But why, miss?” The shortest whines.

“I feel cheated from the fun of that other old man,” she says, referring to how she got in trouble for letting Minjoo’s dad off the hook.

She knew they wouldn’t disobey her orders, but it would help to add in the idea that she wants to make up for her “stupidity” from before.

Dad always wanted me to, anyways--make up for my past stupidity.

“Yes ma’am.”

The three ran off while yelling out the last of their threats, loud laughter included.

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

“Why did you take me here?”

Minjoo doesn’t know what to make of the fact that Chaewon had led them both to her apartment. She hadn’t said a single thing as to why she had taken her here.

Chaewon just gestures her in with a shrug. She looks off to the side as she responds.

“You said you didn’t have anywhere to stay for the night.”

Minjoo could only stare in shock at the gangster as she closed the door behind them both.

When Chaeown finally made eye contact with her, she turns her head again and scratches her neck.

“I promise I won’t do anything weird,” she mumbles quietly.

Minjoo finds it funny how the other girl is worried that Minjoo is afraid that she might do something to her. Really, Minjoo is just surprised at the sudden gesture. It takes a few more moments before she’s able to find a suitable response.

“Thank you.”

She smiles warmly at Chaewon and internally snickers at how she isn’t able to hold eye contact for very long and just turns and heads to the room.

“Hold on,” she mumbles again.

Minjoo giggles at Chaewon’s tough act. She decides that she’s going to make herself comfortable; maybe she’s feeling a little brave and on top of the world right now. And so, she plops down onto the couch and spreads herself comfortably while waiting for Chaewon to return.

When Chaewon steps out of the room, she raises an eyebrow at how Minjoo is casually seated on her couch. She can’t help but snort a little.

“Here.”

Minjoo turns her head towards Chaewon, finally noticing her presence, and sees a pile of clothes being handed to her.

“I see you’ve made yourself comfortable already,” Chaewon says with a raised eyebrow.

“Yup, all good,” Minjoo replied cheekily with a grin as she takes the pile of clothing and heads towards Chaewon’s bedroom.

“Thanks!” She shouts behind her as she steps in the room.

Chaewon rolls her eyes at the girl before plopping down on the couch herself. She had been lost in thought when Minjoo had startled her on the playground. The thoughts of today’s events had been weighing heavily on her mind. She didn’t know what to make of herself now, after she did what she did.

At that moment, Minjoo emerged from the room with Chaewon’s clothes: a grey pair of sweatpants and a white t-shirt. She rubbed her eyes sleepily and dropped herself down onto the couch next to Chaewon.

“What?”

Chaewon is perplexed by the look Minjoo is giving her with her arm lounged on the back of the couch and her head resting on her palm. Minjoo wasn’t saying anything, just staring into Chaewon’s confused eyes.

“Nothing,” she smiles back.

“Are you sleeping now?”

Chaewon thinks for a moment before responding.

“I was actually going to put on this movie,” she says quietly while tilting her head towards the television.

“Sweet.”

Chaewon watches as Minjoo settles in more comfortably on the couch next to her and throws her feet onto the table in front of them. It was really amusing to see how much Minjoo disregarded the fact that she’s really didn’t know Chaewon at all--how little she cared for the fact Chaewon might be “dangerous” and “violent”.

If I come out of this alive, I’m going to rub it in that ’s face. I have my feet on her table for God’s sake.

There are many things Chaewon does in the next moment. She doesn’t attack Minjoo; she doesn’t yell at her or threaten her. Chaewon doesn’t bring a knife to or call in her men to dispose of her. However, she does grab a blanket from the chair beside her while throwing her feet on the table as well. She also scoots a little closer to Minjoo and throws the blanket over them both. Lastly, she mumbles a little at Minjoo about how it’s kind of cold.

And then she puts on the movie.

I’m definitely rubbing this is that ’s face.

Or at least that’s what Minjoo would be thinking if she wasn’t blushing at the proximity of their bodies or the fact that she could feel Chaewon’s body heat under the blanket or how she could smell Chaewon’s lotion or anything related to that.

The movement was very sudden and definitely caught Minjoo off guard. It was hard to tell with the lack of lighting, but if she looked closely enough (which she didn’t because goodness Chaewon was really just too close right now) she could see that Chaewon was red as well.

Chaewon doesn’t spare a single glance at Minjoo and instead keeps her gaze directed towards the TV as she turns on the movie. If she feels Minjoo’s powerful stare, she doesn’t let it show.

Throughout the movie, Minjoo is surprised at how much Chaewon reacts to the movie. The girl had mumbled every few moments to reprimand some character or to groan at their stupidity or to curtly agree or whatever else---

---Minjoo honestly found it quite endearing. When she looked over at Chaewon at one point, the girl had been pouting with her eyebrows furrowed at something on the screen. It took everything in her power not to squish her cheeks and coo lovingly.

Well, her willpower was tested once more when she felt something drop onto her shoulder with a light snore.

Oh my god.

The movie was almost at its close, but, evidently, Chaewon hadn’t lasted through the whole thing. Now that Minjoo was able to inspect her a little more closely without having to worry about getting caught, she could make out the tiredness on her face. Judging by the dark circles underneath her eyes, she hadn’t slept very well the night before.

She must be exhausted.

Minjoo picked up the remote and turned off the TV, but the quiet droning of the movie became mere white noise anyways as she kept her eyes trained on Chaewon’s slumbering visage. The only light now came from the moonlight streaming through the one window left uncovered. Despite the lack of light, Chaewon’s soft features were clearly visible. Her closed eyes, her cute nose, her soft, soft looking lips--

Ah---

She’s so beautiful.

Slowly, she brought a hand up to brush any stray hairs away from Chaewon’s forehead, taking care not to disturb her. All the while, a gentle smile adorned her face alongside a loving gaze.

Perhaps it didn’t make much sense--this. Afterall, their relationship held few words, many secrets, many stories untold. She could count the amount of times they’ve met on two hands. Although, it was almost magical how deep each of their meetings have been. It wasn’t just any chance meet; rather, it felt more like they needed to meet. From the moment Chaewon became more than just that gangster, she couldn’t deny that there was something special about this.

Sure, they had had conversations before. Minjoo could tell you what Chaewon’s favorite color was, or what ice cream she’d get at an ice cream cart. She feels like, despite the short time together, she could tell you a bit about her besides that. For one, her bangs are starting to get just a little too long, and if you look closely enough, you can see that they cover her eyes a little. She’s tough and can be quite scary, but that really just seems to be a paper-thin layer covering whatever the heck is underneath. Oh, and she snores lightly in her sleep.

Minjoo feels like, maybe, logic doesn’t have any place in whatever they have here. But, maybe, it’s better that way. She doesn’t know.

What she does know, however, is that she wants to have more conversations with her, learn more about her. She wants to learn through words and moments, make memories that are as crazy at what has been and perhaps as regular as what could be: going for walks, swinging in the park, watching a movie. She can’t explain it well, but she supposes it’s something akin to seeing someone in a crowded coffee shop and not being able to get them off your mind; you don’t know a single thing about them except for the fact that they have you hooked. Although, she admits that this situation is a bit more… extreme.

But with the little smile on her lips and the content sigh she gives off as she snuggles against Chaewon, she can’t really care about the odd situation she’s put herself in.

As she lays her head against Chaewon’s and closes her eyes, the last thing on her mind before she drifts off the sleep is how soft her hand is.

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

Chaewon groans quietly as her ringtone rips through the silent night and interrupts her peaceful slumber. She takes a quick peek at the clock and sees that it’s only three in the morning.

“Hello?” She mumbles after she blindly reaches for her phone off to the side. In her sleepy haze, she digs further into whatever warmth was beside her.

“Hey, good work with the job today. I’m glad you’ve realized how stupid you were to do that with that old man. I’m sure you beat some sense into that family today--too bad about the little girl, though, but it is what it is. There are four light jobs tomorrow, so I’m just going to give them to the other guys. I’ll contact you again when I have a job for you. Don’t mess up again.”

After his little monologue, he ends the call abruptly without giving Chaewon a chance to say anything else. All the better, anyways; it’s not like she enjoyed speaking to her father.

That family…

She throws her phone off to her side and lets herself settle back in while she tries to push away thoughts of today’s events.

“What was that?”

Chaewon’s eyes shoot open at the drowsy voice. It was only at that very moment that she realized that the warmth coming from her side was actually Minjoo’s body, and the slight weight on her head was Minjoo’s. At the same time, she realizes that there was a very high chance of Minjoo having heard that conversation, as she was very, very close.

Uh oh.