She was in love. She was sure of it. For a college student like Sakura, there wasn’t much to look forward to in her 12 to 5 shift at the local convenience store, but the girl who usually came by for an energy drink or some light snacks after her afternoon jog made it all worth it. Sometimes she would chat with her, you know, meaningless small talk (but of course it meant everything to Sakura). And the other day she found out her name. Minju. It was just as beautiful as she was. She also found out she was a stunt woman with a black belt in karate AND she was getting into modeling recently. She was perfect for the job, as Sakura thought her face and figure suited that of a model. She was also really sweet too, she would talk about how she helped the elderly Miss Yoon around at the grocery store or help her cross the street.

“Mrs. Yoon is so adorable, she thanks me all the time and always thinks I’m her granddaughter. I don’t wanna ever disappoint her or make her sad so I always just go along with it.”

Minju let out a little laugh and smiled at her, showing off the dimples on her cheekbones. She felt her heart flutter at the sight. She was a hot girl who kicked but was also a sweetheart. She was also a bit taller than her, which was what she preferred. Minju was just so perfect, and exactly Sakura’s type. She was the one. She knew it.

Sakura went to the college around here but she was currently living at the dorms. Next year she would have to move out into an apartment in the area and she didn’t know how to go about looking for one. People usually put out ads for available space but Sakura ended up putting out an ad in front of the store saying that she’s looking for an apartment instead. If she managed to find one, she could work more at the store and maybe see Minju more often.

Minju was definitely the highlight of Sakura’s work day but lately she’s been seeing things. Sometimes while she worked the register, she would see random flashes of yellow in her peripherals. They looked like they were coming from outside the window of the store, but whenever Sakura turned to look, there was nothing there. Hm. Maybe she should go get her peripherals checked out at the doctor or something, could be a disease.

But Sakura had no time to waste thinking about these yellow flashes because a new shipment just came in and she had to organize the stock on the shelves by herself. She found out that they were all boxes full of Sprite cans and bottles, even a refill for the soda machine. She got to work on putting the cans and bottles in the fridges when she suddenly heard—

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”

Sakura looked up from her position as she was crouched on the ground opening up a new box to see a ball of light at the store’s entrance, screaming as it was approaching her. The harsh sunlight wasn’t helping Sakura’s eyesight see whatever the hell it actually was. It wasn’t until it got really close that Sakura could finally see that it was actually a girl in bright yellow sweats (yes, both sweatpants and a sweatshirt) frantically screaming over god knows what.

“T-Those boxes. Are they all really filled with...Sprite??! Not 7 Up or Chilsung Cider, but Sprite?!”

“Yes...? Ma’am as you can see, I’m in the middle of restocking so if you would just let me get back to—“

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!”

“AH!”

She was caught off guard as she was currently being hugged by some weird stranger who seemed to have a thing for Sprite.

The girl hugged her tighter, “Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!! I can finally get Sprite at this store now! And it’s so close to my home! You’re my hero~thank you thank you thank you!”

Hero? But she didn’t even do anything, she was just doing her job. It’s not like she ordered the Sprite to ship in. Oh well, she’ll just let the girl be happy.

The Sprite stan released Sakura from her grasp and pressed her face against the glass of the fridge to see the Sprite cans inside. She was breathing quite heavily and the she was fogging up the glass.

Yeah...she would have to wipe that up later.

Sakura didn’t know how, but she somehow had sparkles in her eyes as she admired them. “They’re so beautiful...”

Sakura took the time to look at the girl. She was pretty, but because of her strange attire, she looked to be more on the quirky, cute side. She didn’t think it was possible for someone to look so much like a human highlighter but here she was. She was also short, and far too excitable for Sakura’s taste. She thought to herself, if she ever found out that her significant other was this crazy over Sprite as this chick was, this might have to be a deal breaker. The Sprite girl then took out her phone and started taking pics of the cans, adjusting her posture various times trying to find the right angle.

The girl put her hand on as if she was gonna get emotional again as she looked over the pics on her phone. Then she turned to look at Sakura again.

“Thank you again for restocking these. I’ll take fifty.”

“Fifty?!”

.....

The girl had paid for all the Sprite in cash and managed to carry all the boxes by herself. Sakura offered to help her with them but she seemed insistent on carrying them herself. The girl was eternally grateful for her and said that the next time she would see her she would give a present to thank her. Sakura sighed. She hoped she wouldn’t have to deal with that girl on her shift again, she was so weird and hyper for Sprite that it drained all the energy out of her just by talking to her.

She came back the next day.

“Hi~I just wanted to thank you for the other day for stocking up the Sprite again, here’s some pastries from my job as thanks, I know you must get hungry while you’re working...Sakura,” she said as she read her name tag. “Ooh can I call you Kkura? Is that okay?” Sakura shrugged, she didn’t mind. She went over to the aisles and shrieked as she saw the Sprite can boxes arranged to form a robot. “This is so cooool!!” She didn’t hesitate to start snapping a pic every millisecond. She also took a selfie with Sakura (with her permission of course). The girl looked at her phone to see how it turned out. “Oh!”

Somehow the girl’s bright yellow attire shined a little too bright and made the photo a little yellow. “Oh my god,, it looks like the pee filter from Haduri Cam.”

“Haduri...what?”

“Eh you probably don’t know what it is~”

She glomped Sakura into a hug. “Thank you again Kkura.” Sakura couldn’t help but notice that she smelled nice, surprisingly like lavender instead of Sprite. The girl made her Sprite purchase and went on her way again.

Sakura tried one of the pastries she was given, a chocolate hazelnut croissant. It was absolutely delicious and the Sprite girl was right, she did get hungry often on the job. She would have to thank her but that didn’t change the fact that she was still a weirdo. She didn’t even know her name because she always paid in cash. What should she call her? Sprite Stan, Sprite Girl, Sprite Maniac, Sprite Freak? Sprite Freak. It seemed harsh but there was no way that Sakura would tell her that she called her that in her head. But that’s what she was anyways.

Sakura only worked three days of the week for about 15 hours and she somehow ran into the girl every. single. shift. Why couldn’t she run into Minju more often instead? She changed it up sometimes, buying Sprite bottles instead of cans, taking selfies with a bottle as if she was a sponsor, and even just going to the soda machine and being excited by the sound it made as it poured Sprite into her mega size cup.

-click- -pshhhhh- “EEEEE!” -click- -pshhhh- “AHHHH!”

Sakura did not get paid enough to deal with all this. No matter how the girl enjoyed her Sprite run at the convenience store, it always ended in her giving Sakura a hug and snacks from the café she apparently worked at.

That day though, Minju walked in and saw them hugging and she even bumped into the Sprite Freak on her way out. “Ah sorry!”

“It’s okay,” the Sprite girl smiled politely to her as she left. To be fair, how could she not see a human light bulb?

Minju went up to the counter with some Doritos. She smiled at Sakura and asked, “I saw the ad outside the store. You’re looking for an apartment?”

“Yeah. I would look online, but it’s not an urgent need yet, so I decided to post that in case anyone was offering.”

“I see. Well, the apartment complex I’m staying at often has people moving in and out, there might be an opening soon. Who knows, maybe my roommate might move out soon and we can be roommates, I’ll let you know of any changes.”

Just the thought of that and getting to spend more time with Minju made Sakura all giddy all of a sudden. “Ahahaaa~maybe, that would be great.”

Minju then asked, “That girl dressed as a highlighter, I saw you two hugging and you looked close, is she your girlfriend?”

Panic filled Sakura’s eyes, “No, no, no, not at all, you’ve got it all wrong, she’s just a very eager customer. I’m sure she does that with all the cashiers she interacts with.”

Minju was amused at Sakura’s persistent denial. “What a shame, you two look cute together though. Thanks for this by the way.” She left with the Doritos in her hand.

Sakura facepalmed. Her and Sprite Freak?? And the fact that Minju liked them together? Damn. There goes her chances of having a shot with Minju. She took a bite out of a blueberry muffin that the Sprite Freak has given her. And it tasted really good.

The next shift that the Sprite Freak had showed up, it was just another day of her usual Sprite antics, with her buying a six-pack of Sprite at the counter.

This time however, she asked, “Hey Kkura remember that girl that came in after me the other day? I think she’s getting kinda famous around here for modeling right? I think her name’s...Minju! I think that’s right. Isn’t