“I’m,” I try to suppress my smile because I didn’t want to seem overly proud of the fact that I had my own shop and I was self-employed, but I did work hard for it. “I’m my own boss so I can not be busy whenever I want,” I try to shrug it off. I turn slightly towards my shop. “We can actually walk from here.”
 

“That’s awesome,” She says recognizing my pride and grins back. “I’m jealous actually.”

 She joins me at my side falling right into stride with me. The sidewalk is busy so we’re walking close enough for our arms to brush each other. It’s nice.

“I’m not gonna lie, it’s pretty cool.” I admit. “I can never be late, which is a godsend, but it’s a delicate balance keeping myself in check.”
“I can see how that would be a problem. I’d probably be bankrupt by now if I was in your position.”

I laugh and deny her self-deprecating humor. “Nah, you’d manage the same I do.” I turn to her with a smile and a wink and hold up my cup. “Coffee.” She smiles back and we hold eye contact longer then I intend to. I swallow hard and turn away.

“M-Maybe you’re right,” She stutters her voice sounding rasp. “I’ve been known to work miracles.” She finishes with joking bravado.

I turn to look at her again and she’s gives me grin so wide her eyes crinkle. I can’t stop the burst of laughter that comes from me. “Oh yeah?”

“M-hm,”

“Well, I’d sure like to see that.” I comes out a little more serious than I intend, but I can’t say I’m disappointed by the outcome.

Her face falls and her eyes fall for a moment, and I can’t help myself from glancing at her slightly parted lips in turn. She clears and shakes her head lightly.

“Yeah, I mean,” She makes a gestures with her hand. “Yeah, uh,”

I interrupt her with a chuckle. “Don’t gotta work yourself up over it.”

She pushes me lightly, embarrassed. “I wasn’t!”

We walk the rest of the short distance in silence, but we both have smiles on our faces. I take that comfortable silence as a good thing. We’ve only known each other for a short while, but nothing really feels awkward. It feels organic.

“Here we are.” I gesture up to my small shop, it’s nothing grand, but it looks modern, and I know people feel like they’re making the right choice when they come in to get something fixed.

“Oh,” She gives it good look and nods in approval. “I wasn’t expecting anything bad, I swear, but this is nicer than I would have thought.”
I let the praise warm me and grin. “Thanks.”

I open the door for her and follow her in and am met with words from my friend and employee, Wheein.

“Oh wow, you’re late again, and you didn’t even bother to bring me coffee either.” Wheein says in faux angry voice.

“I’m sorry, Wheein.” I raise my hands in surrender then hold out my half empty coffee cup. “You can have the rest of this.” I shake it a bit like that would make it seem more appealing. She responds by looking at me with narrowed eyes. The look of disappointment.

She brightens up when she turns to Solar. “Hi, are you here to pick something up?”

I answer for Solar. “No, she’s not a client. She’s a new friends. I’m helping her out with some sleuthing.” I pause a moment. “Possibly illegal sleuthing.” I say softly. It’s honestly a new revelations I’m just having.

Wheein doesn’t seem to care about that. She sits up straighter, excitement running through her veins. “Oh, a new ‘friend’?” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.

I roll my eyes. “Wheein.” I warn.

She deflates. “That reminds me, I talked to your mom yesterday, and she’s going to have a fit if you don’t bring a date to my wedding.”

I blush and glance at Solar. Wheein’s talking about things I’d rather she not hear. Wheein’s never been very perceptive about anything that I want though. Solar isn’t bothered. In fact, she looks like she’s having the time of her life. I groan internally.

“Wheein, you have to stop talking to my mom. I swear you talk to her more than I do.”

“It’s because we care.” She gives me a pointed look. “Do you not want me to care?”

I don’t respond. What am I supposed to say to that? I gesture for Solar to follow me behind the counter.

“Well Wheein, what do you want me to do? Find a random girl on tinder and bring her to a wedding? That’s crazy.” I huff.

She doesn’t respond to me this time. Instead she finally acts like a well-mannered adult and introduces herself to Solar. “Hi, I’m sorry,” She holds out her hand. “I’m Wheein. Byuli’s friend.”

Solar takes it with a grin and a chuckle. “She seems lucky to have you. I’m Solar.”

Wheein clasps her other hand over Solar’s and laughs heartily. “Thank you! She is!” Then she turns to me and gives me all too pleased smile. She finally drops Solar’s hand and steps back. “Where’d she find you? You seem great.”

Solar chuckles awkwardly. “Oh you know that streets.” She makes a horrified face and waves her hands, and laughs awkwardly. “That sounds bad.” Wheein is loving it, and giggles with her. I can tell that Wheein’s warm look sooths Solar, and she backtracks more calmly. “Moonbyul,” She gestures towards and catches my eyes for a moment, but turns quickly back to Wheein. “She actually helped from being followed from a creepy guy on the street a couple of days ago, and today she helping me out one more…” She glances back at me again and smiles softly.

Hwasa takes that moment to make her appearance. “Wow, our Byuli a hero, huh?” She says this as she walks straight towards Wheein and gives her a kiss on the cheek in greeting, and offers her what I couldn’t, a coffee. Wheein looks at her lovingly and smiles, saying thank you quietly.

Being the third wheel around them is hard sometimes, but at least I had someone here to experience it with me. Solar and I glance at each other and smile. We seem to agree that it’s cute, but still I shouldn’t feel this single all the time.

“Yeah. Why did you doubt me before?”

“Yes,” Hwasa states matter of fact. Wheein and Solar laugh at her bluntness, and I can’t help but join in.

“Wow, and you call yourself my friend?”

“Eh,” Hwasa waves me off.

Her demeanor changes when she turns towards Solar. She looks much softer, and she offers her a kind smile. “I heard your name was Solar?” Solar nods and she takes Hwasa’s offered hand. “I’m Hwasa.”

“Nice to meet you.” Solar responds happily. I can see her getting more comfortable, which pleases me more than it should. I like that she likes my friends.

“So what are you doing in terms of sleuthing?” Wheein asks.

“Ooo, sleuthing?” Hwasa asks suddenly interested.

Solar nods eagerly. “My friend thinks her boyfriend is cheating on her. Moonbyul stole his phone and now she’s going to get us past the lock,” Solar explains.

“Stole?!” Wheein exclaims, as she whips her head to look at me.

I shrug sheepishly. Hwasa’s looking at me with a pleased look on her face. She sees right through me. When Wheein starts to giggle, I know she’s catching on too. I try to ignore them and start gathering all the tools that I’ll need to do the job. Just my laptop and a cord…

I try not to verbally groan when Hwasa brings up and old subject. “Wheein did you tell her about the call you had with her mom yesterday?”

“Sure did,” Wheein responds with a smirk and a nod. I don’t exactly know what they’re doing but I can tell they’ve already worked something out together without so much as a word.

“She knows that there’s no way she can show up without a date?”

“I tried to make it clear to her, babe. I’m just not sure it’s getting through.”

Hwasa tisks. I give them a mean look and turn towards Solar.

“Can I have the phone? It shouldn’t take too long.”

I catch a strange look on her face. She looked like she was conflicted. She quietly hands me the phone, and I plug it into my laptop.

“Maybe I can-” Solar starts but stops. She starts again. “Thank you so much for everything. Honestly, it’s too much from someone I’ve just met.”
“Nah, don’t worry about it.” I look at her so she knows that I’m being genuine. “Seriously.”

“Listen,” She gets closer to me. “You’ve done something for me, so it only makes sense that I do something in return.” I try to tell her that it isn’t necessary, but she talks over me. “I’ll go as your wedding date.”

My jaw drops. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it certainly wasn’t that. “I didn’t do any of this so I could get something in return.”  

She grabs my arm and stares deep enough into my eyes that I almost cower. “I know you didn’t.” She pauses, and I can see that she’s having a hard time speaking these words. “I was genuinely scared that night I ran into you. Who knows what could have happened with that guy,” She trails off her eyes glazing over for just a moment, but she quickly snaps out of it. “But nothing did because you were there, and it means more to me than you know. I want to do this. It’s not even a big thing. And I have to pay you back for the pizza anyway so.”

I really didn’t think I had such an impact. It was really just timing, I barely did anything. I almost speechless, but I can’t let her do this.

“Solar, I appreciate the gesture, really, but it’s not just a one day thing. They’re having their wedding in their hometown. We’re going to be there like a week. That’s… You can’t pretend to be my girlfriend for a whole week.”

She shrugs. “Yeah, I can. I can get the time off. And anyway,” She gives me a teasing, almost flirty smile. “Playing your girlfriend doesn’t seem like it’d be that hard.”

I hear Wheein choke on her coffee. I forgot they were here. Solar doesn’t pay her any mind. This time I am speechless.

A sophisticated “Uhh” is all I can manage.

Wheein decides it’s the perfect time to chime in. For once, I’m thankful. “Solar, we’d be more than happy to have you there!” She turns towards Hwasa and slaps her arm excitedly. Hwasa takes it with a charmed smile. “They can come to our cake testing!”

I finally manage to drag myself out of my daze. “Shouldn’t you guys already have that all set up?”

“Nah, cuz we know a lot of the people there and they insisted on being a part of our wedding, and we only have the time to go down there a week ahead.” Hwasa explains. “It’s a small town, they don’t have much going on anyway.” She adds for good measure. “Oh and yeah you should come, Solar. Moonbyul needs you more than you know.” I can see the mischievous gleam in her eye.

“My mom’s grown, she can handle me being alone. She should know by now that life isn’t perfect.”

“Let her live in her bubble,” Solar insists. “Let me be your girlfriend.” She whines and looks at me with big pleading eyes.

I’m weak. I know it, but really who could say no to such a display? She’s gorgeous but also sooo cute.

My face heats up at my own thoughts, and I turn away to look at my forgotten computer. “If you really want to, fine.” The three girls in the room cheer as I start cracking into the phone. “It could be fun,” I begrudgingly add with a hint of a smile.

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Thanks for all who commented :') hope you like this chapter I do