Most days, Byulyi didn’t care about her job. It was easy, she was kind of friends with almost everyone in the small company. To be honest, it was nothing particularly hard to do and perhaps she was just used to the simple routine, but sometimes her stupid and unorganized boss liked to test her patience and give her a ridiculous amount of work to do, with a deadline for the very next day. Which meant she had to stop her own stuff to deal with other peoples’ crap and she hated that.

Besides that, Yongsun was messaging her nonstop and it made her nervous. They were making small talk since the night before after it took her approximately twenty-five minutes to write Yongsun a short message explaining her weird call. Luckily, the other girl didn’t make a big deal out of it and they started talking almost casually. It was mostly some simple information exchange, like where they’re from and some stuff about their life. So far, she discovered Yongsun shared an apartment with her older sister, that was studying abroad for a couple of months, not far from where she lived and that she was obsessed with tteokbokki.

“Hey, Byul-Ah, Mr. Choi wants to know when you’re going to be done with the stuff he asked you to do,” Junghwan asked, putting his head inside her small office. He had a half-smile on his lips while teasing her.

They started at the company at the same time, during college, and because they were the same age and suffered together during the internship, they became close. Junghwan was the only one of her work colleagues to know she dates women, to start with. He was kind of silly and liked to a lot, especially about the way the older employees treated them. The elders always had the ‘these kids don’t know what they’re doing’ look on their faces and somehow still managed to find ways to ask for help or dump their work on them. 

“At this rate?” she laughed “Never. Look at this!” she gestured to her messy desk, full of paperwork and stuff she had yet to find out what to do with. “Tell him to hire a ing secretary to help with the deadlines.”

“Ok, I will,” he said, but the smile on her face made clear that he had no intention of sharing that conversation with their boss. “Wanna take a break and have some coffee?”

She frowned, remembering what a cup of coffee had made of her life the day before, even if it turned out kind of good. She’d never admit that, though.

“What about tea?” she proposed.

“Yeah, good enough.” Junghwan shrugged and she got up, taking her blazer on the back of her chair and her phone so they could leave the office.

The day wasn’t cold, but she liked being prepared just in case. They decided to take the stairs because the elevator was always full during the morning and it was just three flights. The moment they stepped out of the building, Junghwan grabbed her arm and when she looked at him confused, he leaned his head indicating he knew a new place. He had this almost weird habit of touching her all the time, but this didn’t bother her anymore. Also, he was kind of protective all the time and acted like an older brother, she thought it was funny in a cute and caring way.

“So, what’s up with you? You seem distracted today.”

“Not much.” she lied, shrugging and then looking down at her brown shoes. “I’m just stressed with Choi’s things. That man is a mess.”

He laughed, nodding.

“I know, right? He’s always losing deadlines and dumping his work on us, saying it’s for the sake of the clients.”

“I honestly don’t know who I hate more, him or the clients” she huffed.

Junghwan laughed, agreeing then started to walk faster, a few steps ahead of her so he could hold the door for them after a guy left the tea place.

Byulyi smiled gratefully and they entered the small cafeteria. It was crowded, apparently, people in the area like to procrastinate with work almost as much as them, so they agreed he could find them a table while she went to get the drinks. Slowly and unsure, she took the phone out of her pocket to check on her messages, almost afraid someone could read them. There was one from Wheein, asking something about a movie they watched together a couple of weeks before and three messages from Yongsun.

Yongsun, 27

Hey, Byulyi, that’s random but do you have any pets?

Also, are you a cat or a dog person? 

Oh, right, you’re probably working. Sorry for bothering you ^-^

Byulyi laughed a bit reading them, relaxing and typed a message for the girl.

i’m a dog person, have 2 dogs, hbu?  

also lol u r not bothering, i’m just drowning in paperwork bc of my stupid boss, but taking a break now

The cashier called the next one and Byulyi put the phone back on her pocket, approaching the counter with a polite smile before ordering. When the girl, who looked a few years younger, put down the two mugs in front of her, Byulyi thanked and got the drinks, turning around slowly and looking for Junghwan, who was paying attention and raised his hand waving to her.

“So” she started, putting the drink on top of the small round table. “Seunghee didn’t dump you yet, uh?”

He laughed, pulling his tea closer.

“Yeah, I don’t know how that happened.” he took a small sip. “She’s the best. The other day she welcomed me home with a nerf shot on the face.”

“Are you living together already?” Byulyi asked.

“Well, kind of? She shares an apartment with a friend, so we can’t always be there and sometimes she goes to mine and it’s actually closer from her work, so, you know." He shrugged "But it’s great.”

“You’re great together, I’m glad you’re happy.” Byulyi smiled. “We could have some drinks together after work or something, one of these days.”

“Yeah, sure” he smiled “It’s going to be fun."

He was about to say something but her phone beeped and he raised an eyebrow, looking at her suggestively. It didn't need much for her to know he saw her on the phone before and probably the weird smile on her lips while answering Yongsun too. She could feel the heat on her face and knew her cheeks were deep flushed. Byulyi hated that others could know how she was feeling just by looking at her, it was so unfair. Quickly, she got the phone out of her pocket and put it on silent mode, dropping the device on the table and pretending everything was ok.

“Anything you wanna tell me, miss Moon?” he asked, chuckling.

“Uh, no” she shrugged again, playing nervously with her mug.

“Oh, so there’s a girl.” He guessed, smiling while taking the white mug to his lips for another sip of his black tea.

“No, there isn’t.” she lied, but she was such a bad liar that people didn’t need to know her particularly well to know the truth.

“You don’t have to hide it from me, you know? Or tell me anything, if you don’t want to.”

“It’s, uh, complicated?” for some unknown reason, it sounded like a question. She sighed. “ I don’t even know what’s happening.”

“Don’t worry, it’s fine.” he had an amused look on his face. “Who’s she?”

“She’s a waitress. I met her yesterday while having