Hyejin lifted her head up from the box of chips she was currently unloading at the familiar chiming of the motion sensor. She really didn’t need to chirp out a greeting, a loud grunt or clearing of sufficed enough to let the customer know of her existence. It was more to ward away potential thieves, though whether they stole or not wasn’t really a huge priority for her. Not as long as they didn’t make it obvious.

She catches sight of a college student dragging their feet towards the back aisle, where the cold drinks were, and promptly went back to her stocking. Unfortunately, the shelves weren’t going to stack themselves.

It was a slow night, as it usually was outside of finals week. Her usual customers consisted of the sleep-deprived academic zombies who managed to somehow arrive at the convenience store without managing to kill themselves with the last couple of brain cells they had working overdrive on caffeine or red bull. She had seen enough of those types to know they only ever stumble in to buy ramen to quench their never-ending hunger or some sort of caffeinated drink to restart their dying brain.

There were the occasional drunk middle-aged men and women who more than often slurred their speech and get a bit annoyed when she gave them blank looks instead of helping. If they can’t be sober enough to actually form proper sentences Hyejin can’t find it in her to give even a quarter of her energy to help them. It’s not like they ever remember her anyway or remember their annoyance long enough to even report her to her manager. Hyejin thinks she was doing the store a service by not actually attracting drunkards in. There were messy and clumsy, and God forbid they get anywhere close to the drink aisle and spill everything on the floor. Cleaning up after drunkards was not part of her job description.

Then there were the rare desperate ones: parents with sick children, fathers-to-be sent by their pregnant wives to fetch something for their midnight cravings. They were the only ones Hyejin actually put up her fake customer service smile and voice to.

All in all, she didn’t hate the night shift. Aside from having to work from 9 pm to 3 am, she was pretty much free to do whatever she wanted. Being alone meant she was free to do her studies and play music in between stocking up and ringing up the random evening stragglers. The pay was pretty okay too, enough to cover for food and rent with a little extra for anything else she wanted, within budget.

It was just as Hyejin was putting up the last few chips that the chime rung again. Her eyes drifted to the doorway, her bottom lip quivering at the three familiar ladies coming through the entrance. The taller duos were quick to leave the shortest, heading towards the ramen section with the purpose of a starving animal. Hyejin didn’t mind them much, not when her eyes were too busy eating up the sight of the shorter brunette trying to fight herself out of her dark-blue knitted scarf. How she managed to entangle one arm around the wool wear Hyejin might never find out. But, the cute sight had her unconsciously smile.

The three women were the constant regulars of their store and an additional bonus to Hyejin’s choice of taking on the night shift. Without fail, they’d turn up at some point in the early morning, sometimes armed with binders or laptops, most of the time with just their wallets and phones.

The tallest one with the sharp face seems to have an unhealthy obsession with ramen and kimchi as she has with the black coat she always wore. Hyejin can count with one hand the times she’s broken out of her usual ramen meal for something healthier, all those times after being nagged at by her two friends about her eating habit. She always went back to the varying choice of instant noodles on their next visit. Must be why her body looked like a noodle.

The one they called their unnie- Hyejin had a double take the first time she overheard them referring to the baby-faced woman- had a wider range of selection when it came to food. She mostly picked out of the hot cabinet or the sandwiches and had a bottle of water or juice. That didn’t mean she didn’t eat out of the other woman’s ramen bowl. In fact, more often than not the three shared their food despite the continuous complaints.

Then the last one. Wheein, they called her. Hyejin doesn’t think she’s ever seen her without a smile. There was something about the woman that drew Hyejin’s eyes to her like a moth to flames. Maybe it was the cute dimple that was as constant as the smile on her face. Maybe it was the way her laugh sounded completely honest, no holding back, no stifling, just pure joy translated into a sound that tickled her ears. Maybe it was because she looked like an absolute angel and seeing her being coddled by the two taller women despite her half-hearted whining not to be treated as a child made her look all the more endearing. Whatever it was Hyejin could not fight the invisible force that was drawing her attention towards the brunette.

“Unnie!” The soft, semi-muffled whine carries around the store. Hyejin ducks her head and scurries back to the register, her chest madly fluttering and her face warming up all the way to her ears. She wanted to just wrap a blanket around the woman and tuck her away somewhere safe and warm.

She shakes her head off the craziness of the thought, her hand to let her long nails bite into her skin. There really was just one thing that freaked Hyejin out about the woman. It was with her weird, bordering-psychotic, thought process whenever she heard the girl speak. Hyejin liked to think herself as a normal, functioning college student, burdened with student loans that started off the never-ending internal screaming in her head. Yes, she was pessimistic. Yes, she could be a bit of a . But kidnapping customers- strangers- was not something Hyejin ever thought would ever cross her mind.

But there it was. The thought that the brunette could be easily adopted like a stray puppy needing a warm place to call home.

“Just keep it on, Wheein-ah.”

“Wheein-ah, come here. They have those biscuits you like!”

“Unnie, my arm’s stuck.”

“How did you even manage that?” The unnie of the group strides quickly back to the entrance where Wheein hadn’t moved from since her attempt at taking said scarf off. It takes her one hard yank to free Wheein’s arm, much to her relief. Hyejin quirks a brow at how the scarf seems to remain unknotted around her neck but quickly disregards it thinking it must be one of those infinity scarfs. Which lead her to think how a grown woman was not able to take a scarf off her neck…

“Stop fooling around. Now let’s pick something and eat.”

“Yes, Yong-mom.”

“Aish” The unnie gives Wheein’s pinkish nose a quick finger tap. It takes a lot of effort on Hyejin’s part not to giggle at the responding nose scrunching.

Hyejin eventually plops herself down on her chair, focusing her attention on her open notes rather than the three women loudly debating which bowl of noodle they should have for that early morning… dinner? Breakfast? Snack?- they never seem to agree on what to call their meal. The noodles were around 2500 won each, hardly worth much to be debated that heatedly. They could have easily grabbed three different brands and shared.

She stops her eavesdropping- was it even called eavesdropping when the whole store can clearly understand what they were arguing about?- when the lethargic looking student finally comes up to pay for three cans of red bull.

“You do realise the four pack is cheaper than buying three separate cans?” The student stares blankly at her, red rimmed eyes telling the tale of sleepless nights and piled up stress, a look that Hyejin was well acquainted with. He blinks, his eyes not really quite seeing anything, taking his wallet out to pull out some cash.

“Suit yourself.” Hyejin shrugs and starts ringing up the cans. She puts the cans into a black plastic bag along with the excess money the student had given her. She has to look out for her fellow poor college student, even if it was for something small. Slipping the handles of the bag around the student’s wrist she bids him goodbye as he tiredly lugs his feet out of the convenience store and out of sight.

The crunching of wrappers and soft thudding of drink catches Hyejin’s ears and she nearly jumps out of her skin at the angel brightly smiling before her.

“Hiya, miss Hyejin.” Wheein chirps, as if it was normal for her to be that hyper at that time of the morning. Hyejin wonders how the woman could even keep up with that cute smile of hers. But somehow Hyejin couldn’t help the genuine smile pulling at the side of her lips.

“Hello again. I see that it’s your turn to pay.” Hyejin quickly looks over the array of items, her eyes lingering a little longer on the four pack of red bull. She quirks her brow as she scans the barcode. “Long night?”

“Deadline for unnie’s project.” Wheein sighs as she tugs her scarf down. Her smile, for the first time Hyejin’s ever seen, falls into a pout that only makes her youthful appearance all the more adorable. Hyejin has to clamp on her molars hard and rely on her internal screaming at the cute sight presented in front of her. “I hope you don’t mind us hanging around longer. We can’t seem to concentrate long enough to do anything at any of our places.”

“That’s okay.” Hyejin bites her tongue at the excitement slipping out. She clears , carefully scanning the rest of the items to collect herself. “I mean, I don’t really mind. I’ll just be reading my notes and work on my assignments.” She finishes ringing up all the items and motions for the total flashing on the screen.

Wheein hands over a couple of bills, grabbing the two cups of ramen and pitching one towards the older women jokingly complaining of Wheein being a slowpoke. The unnie laughs heartily when the taller woman receives a facefull of Styrofoam noodles. Wheein pitches the second one at them and it bounces off the same woman’s head. The unnie laughs louder when she manages to catch the second ramen cup.

“I apologise for them.”

Hyejin shakes her head. “That’s fine. They seem.. cool?” She a brow. The taller woman was trying to shove the noodles into the unnie’s shirt. The unnie, having none of it, was intermittently smacking her friend’s arms and shoving her away. More out of fear of them bumping into something they shouldn't, Hyejin was getting ready to move around the counter to stop the escalating fight when Wheein’s hand stops her. Wheein gives her a small smile and another soft apology before rounding on her heels and storming towards the two, half yelling at how embarrassing they were.

Hyejin hides a chuckle behind her hands. At least it wasn’t completely a boring night.

An hour later and Hyejin feels like her head was ready to float to outer space. The coolness coming off of the fridge wasn’t helping her lethargy.  Even the numbers were beginning to jumble around her head as she counted the number she was stacking. She shuts the door, letting her forehead rest against the cool panel, closing her eyes to rest for a little while. Just a short rest, she promised herself.

She could still hear the scratching of pen on paper and the soft tapping of the keyboard from the front. The three women were still working on whatever it was they needed to do. Though she didn’t actually try to converse with them Hyejin was grateful for their presence. They would occasionally come up to her to ask for something, most of the time it was for the key to the restroom. Once in a while, one of them would ask her to turn up the volume of her phone when a song they mutually liked began to play. One time the unnie of the group started to randomly dance in the middle of the store, remembering to be embarrassed when a customer came in looking at her oddly.

A crash and small shriek reboots Hyejin’s mind and she jolts from her rest, nearly tripping over the box of drinks she was refilling. Cussing under her breath Hyejin sped walked through the aisles, catching the person responsible for the crash. On the floor looked like two broken bottles of mayonnaise. Hyejin internally groans. Of all the things to break.

However, when she gets a proper look at the culprit whatever little annoyance she felt eased away. Smiling guiltily at her was the unnie, thick white blobs dirtying her grey joggers and shoes.

“I am so sorry.” She squeaks, just in time for her curious companions to round the corner.

“Aish. This unnie.” The taller sighs as she pulls the culprit back to look her over for injuries. Wheein slips past the two to assess the damage, scratching at her head, probably wondering the same thing Hyejin was thinking. What was she even doing in that particular aisle?

“Don’t worry about it. It happens.” Hyejin sighs. “Are you hurt? We’ve got a first aid kit at the front.”

“She’s fine. Just caked with mayonnaise.” The tallest answered wiping away at the mayonnaise with the tissue papers she had in her coat pocket, the unnie nodding her head.

“We’re sorry about this. Yongsun-unnie is a bit of a klutz.”

“Hey.” The tallest clamps a hand over Yongsun’s mouth, effectively shushing whatever complaints she had. She gives Hyejin a wide smile and waves off her raised brow look.

“We’ll clean it up.” Wheein offers, bending down to start collecting the larger shards to put away. Not having the energy to argue Hyejin nods her head.

“I’ll get the cleaning supply.” She pauses, pointedly looking over to the older duo. “Please try not to bump the shelves. The items here are a bit fragile.” She says without malice. Yongsun sheepishly hangs her head while her companions have a chuckle at her expense.

Collecting a clean cloth, a mop and the bucket from the back Hyejin makes the decision to round back to the front register to grab a plastic for the broken glass before returning to the aisle. The chime from the detector catches Hyejin’s ears and her eyes stray to the locked register, hand going to her pocket to get a feel of the outline of the key. She guesses she has enough time to take the items to the three and come back to the front to ring the customer before returning back to finish cleaning up the aisle.

“Good morning. I’m sorry, I’m going to have to step-” Hyejin lifts her eyes from the register and stops short on her explanation. Her head lifts up, following the heaving torso that was far too wide and greyish to be human. constricts, pulse hammering as her eyes meet the obsidian black pools staring down at her. “-out.” She breathes out, feeling her muscles seize and bones shake in fear.

She backs up, keeping her eyes trained at the thing growling in front of her. The loud pounding of her pulse in her ear has her missing the following chiming. Frozen in terror she doesn’t see the form quickly going around the counter heading straight towards her blind side.

The next breath she takes is to in the much-needed air expelled from her lungs upon impact as she’s flung to the side of the counter. Her head hammers angrily, body lying prone on the sticky floors as pain brings all of her nerve ending to simultaneously fire everywhere. Her hazy mind reminds her of the emergency button underneath the register and she tries to recall if she had managed to press it or not.

Struggling to her knees she coughs, strings of saliva dripping down her lips to the arm holding her up. She struggles to push herself up, crawling towards the closest aisles for safety. Her hearing comes back, ringing from when the back of her head hit the floor but sharp enough to hear the heavy thuds that were definitely coming from behind her. Reaching the edge of the aisle she reached for the shelf for assistance, practically climbing up the shelf.

The small hairs on the back of her neck prickle, her muscles contracting in anticipation of getting herself thrown around like a ragdoll. She mutters a quick prayer under her breath amidst her terrified sobs.

The sound of sneakers on the vinyl floor has her look up, blinking at the angered look on the tall woman barrelling towards her. Not knowing what else to do, Hyejin shrieks, pressing further into the shelves and shutting her eyes. She was so confused. What was the woman doing running towards her and not to the emergency exit at the back? Why did she look angry even? She feels a breeze pass her back followed by a low animalistic howl of.. pain?

Still quivering in fear, Hyejin stiffly turns her head towards the direction she was crawling away from. At first, she thinks she’s hit her head way too hard and was in a trippy kind of dream. But the weight and warmth coming off of the dark blue scarf falling on her head and the arms pulling her from the shelves onto a warm embrace felt a tad too real.

She gasps, looking up to a very expressive face giving her a concerned look. Her arms around Hyejin were securing her upright despite Hyejin’s legs practically giving out beneath them. Yongsun doesn’t seem to be fazed at the additional dead weight she was carrying and merely reoriented her grip around Hyejin’s waist.

“Are you alright? Are you in any kind of pain?” Yongsun asks softly, gently running a hand over Hyejin’s cheeks, drying her tears.

Hyejin doesn’t answer. Couldn’t find the words. Her tongue feels heavy in and the pain in her head turning into a low, sluggish thumping and Hyejin feels completely stupid staring openly at the worried look Yongsun was giving her. A stray thought pierces through the heaviness in her head. Yongsun looked prettier up close and personal.

A howl breaks her gaze from Yongsun and it felt like all of her senses came back to her all at once. Her head throbbed painfully, her legs shaking just trying to keep her body upright even though Yongsun was baring most of her weight.

She swallows thickly, her eyes taking in the massacre at the storefront. Dark red blood, almost black, pooled around the large greyish mammoth of a creature lying on its back. Standing intimidatingly over it was the skinny woman, her missing black coat revealing the dark navy blue button up riding up her back to make way for the pair of black wings sprouting from her shoulder blades, the top just barely brushing the ceiling.

She turns to share a look with Yongsun, her wings moving back enough for Hyejin to see the bloody dagger she used to take down the creature, still dripping with the thick, blackish-red blood. Hyejin shuddered, clinging desperately to Yongsun. Until she realises who she’s clinging to and Hyejin let’s go as if she’s burned by a hot iron. Wide-eyed and in total fear she looks between Yongsun and the winged woman rapidly moving towards them, a scream stuck on .

Her scream releases when she and Yongsun are roughly pulled from where they stood. Just in time as the shelves collapse behind them. Hyejin does the only thing she can do and cower, pushing her hand out in instincts to save her head.

“Watch it, Wheein.” The winged woman growls warningly.

Hyejin was still spooked, completely. But the name sparked curiosity within her and she peeks from in between her trembling arms. Only to see the black feathers in front of her, acting like some sort of shield. There were still arms secured around her and Hyejin looks behind her to see the winged woman holding onto both her and Yongsun.

As if feeling the gaze on her the woman’s eyes flicker to Hyejin’s startled ones. She sighs, her wings moving around them so Hyejin can have a clear view of what was happening around her shop.

Hyejin whimpers at the sight of the shelves crushed into itself, a pale man in the middle of all the destruction looking nothing more than just winded. Bits of food and glass scattered about his business suit fall off as he pushes to sit up, wheezing to get air into his lungs.

It seems like an absolutely insane moment, but all Hyejin can think of was if she were to survive this whole ordeal how was she going to explain all the destruction to the manager.

The pale man-thing growls, pushing further upwards and launching its tall frame from the broken shelves towards the approaching Wheein. Hyejin’s eyes widen and she almost begs the winged woman to save Wheein when the fight abruptly halts.

Wheein, even with her small stature, evens out the playing field. No, the pale face on the man seems to turn a deep crimson red as he applies more of his weight against his arms. Wheein seems to only strain a little against the man’s weight, a few greenish veins popping out of her skin as she pushes back, a low, throaty snarl rumbling from her tiny being.

“You dare hurt what is mine.” The low snarl doesn’t sound anything human. Hyejin rationalises that she should feel afraid at this. She should be terrified. And yet, the proclamation feels more like a promise of protection. She couldn’t say exactly how, but she suddenly feels somewhat at ease.

Or maybe she did hit her head harder than she thought. Her vision was beginning to blur as the adrenaline in her blood run its course, and Hyejin feels her eyes rolling to the back of her head and she passes out.