Crowds.

Gossips.

Attention.

Expectation.

Sigh.

Odd seconds exponentially passed by which was pushed along the frustrations of a woman named Bae Joohyun.

One thing she hates the most is to be dragged forcefully into a gossiping attention-attracting abyss she never asked to be a part of. Joohyun clicked her tongue audibly. 

Why was this happening..? What day is it today? Oh right. How could she forget about it? 

It's Valentine's day.

The exasperated woman gravely recalled that she was supposed to work her thesis quietly inside her favorite café, with her favorite people, with her favorite coffee, with a good weather and clothing to set her in her working mood, all day, she almost aimed.

It was supposed to be that way.

Now, why is she in the middle of a circling crowd, full of hushing voices and glistening eyes while watching the scene unfolding between her and an unknown man she never talked to before?

Joohyun exhaled while turning around to observe her surroundings. A woman beside with a wavy black long hair has her hand joining her animated gasp, and a woman with a shoulder-length hair adjacent to her was snickering at their friend's antics. These asses. Joohyun internally shook her head.

Now she looked at her front. A clean looking man wearing a denim jacket with a rose in hand was smiling, looking at her with an expectation that uncomfortably wrapped around her disheartened consciousness.

Another Oh. She realized what was happening.

She was being confessed to.

"Ms. I-Irene Bae," The fidgeting young man said, "Happy Valentine's Day! I've uuhhh.." He blinked rapidly. "b-been liking you for a while now!"  A bow. "P-Please go out with me at least once!" His mini-speech was concluded with numerous squeals from female onlookers that was appealed by the man's looks and his confession extravaganza.

Here it is. Another wave of headache was crawling into her.

Joohyun rapidly tapped her fingers beside her idled laptop while thinking carefully of her next move. She doesn't want to make this scene stretch out as longer than necessary. She needs to finish her thesis soon.

And most importantly, she had no damn for empty confessions.

As she slowly cleared to speak, a guitar strum invaded her battle-phased alertness.

Joohyun raised her eyebrows which gradually changed into knitted ones a few seconds after when the strumming did not stop. All attention was suddenly shifted to the person responsible. She was thankful for the space to breathe, even just a little bit.

But her breath only lasted for a very short while.

'So much that I don’t know

Honestly, it’s hard

I don’t know the right timing

Why do things keep messing up?'

The world felt like it zoomed into a ethereal piece of art in a form of a woman and she suddenly could not care less about the other aspects of the world.

'My heart has slow footsteps

So with all my strength, I chased after you

Each step you take

I’m right there so why are you hesitating?'

A bob-cut brown haired woman was solemnly serenading inside the café with her eyes closed. Everyone was at awe and impressed with the woman's soft voice, but Joohyun felt all more than that.

'Ooh love, love is, what is it, what is love?

Ooh love, what do I do? What if love?

You’re probably my..'

Each guitar strum has made Joohyun's heart clenched so softly, and it made her calm down at the same time.

'One, one, one, my one,

The only one, one, one, you are..'

Her eyes looked at the woman in front of her tenderly, with an unnoticed smile forming on her face.

'If this is love, love, love, if love..

What should I do, what should I do? what if this is the love..'

The strumming stopped and the woman that took her breath away slowly opened her eyes. The sudden round of applause caused her whole body to jolt up. Her heart was in frenzy, how the hell did she do that!?

Joohyun blinked rapidly to calm her unusually tensed emotions but at the same time she was calm. She's feeling entirely weird and she can't go back to her usual demeanor.

It was so weird. It was totally indescribable type of weird. It was her first time feeling it. She was in trance. Her head was empty and all she thought was that she had a very sudden desire to approach the woman who serenaded her but-

"Ms. Irene Bae," The man stepped forward, with a newfound confidence after the serenade. "Will you go out with me?"

Ah. It brought back Joohyun to the reality she dreaded. As her stomach churned with disappointment, she also found a newfound confidence to end this useless farce.

"I'm sorry," She sternly stated. "Thank you for your confession, but I cannot accept your invite." Joohyun tried to discard the uneasiness as whispers of distress were tingling within her ears. "I hope you'll understand." She slightly bowed as she concluded.

The man was dumbfounded. He slowly stepped backward with a slight bow. Joohyun could not help but felt a tinge of guilt as she saw the man's discomfort. He looked around to witness numerous worried faces that made him felt more humiliated than earlier. "E-excuse me." He fully turned around with an angry stride away from the café leaving the rose fall in front of Joohyun's table.

Another broken expectation.

Joohyun tried to mask the hurt she felt and forcefully dragged her attention back to her thesis. Her two friends just looked at her with worried expressions with a clear intention to console their friend.  The mood had shifted into the sour mood she despised.

It was not supposed to be this way.

She hated Valentine's day the most.

The crowd slowly dispersed as the commotion died down. Joohyun slowly tried to calm her breath when someone suddenly knelt down in front of her and reached for the fallen rose. Her fingers instantly stopped typing.

"…I hope somewhere in your heart, Jong-in's confession made an impact, eeeeven just a tiny bit." The woman motioned with a pinching hand gesture and a comical face. "It's a shame, but I'm a bit glad for you not giving that little boy a false hope. He's a bit of a hopeless romantic, you see.. Thank you, I guess?"

What is happening..? Joohyun was 99% sure that her eyes were so wide it could pop off anytime.

In her 24 years of current lifespan, never in her life she felt what she was doing was worth a gratitude for.

Speechless, she only looked stupefied and a giant-sized idiot in front of this bewildering woman when she-

"Happy Valentine's day." The woman softly smiled. "I hope you'll still have a nice day onwards. Please excuse me." She placed the rose beside Joohyun's laptop and calmly went outside the café as she carried her bagged guitar on her shoulders.

As the woman exited the café, the two (idiots) friends immediately scooted forward. "Woah, girl. Today's wild for you as always. Still livin' the It girl title."

The woman adjacent to her chuckled. "This time, with a serenade. Your admirers are leveling up, Joohyun."

The two friends noticed the lack of reaction of their friend in their usual banter. "Joohyun? Earth to Joohyun?"

"Huh?" Joohyun was quickly pulled back from her stun. "W-what? And why are you looking at me like that, Sooyoung?"

"Oh my god." Park Sooyoung, the woman beside her squinted her eyes. "You're blushing. Oh my god, Yerim. Joohyun is blushing!! Holy Sh-"

"Joohyun is blushing?!" Kim Yerim slammed the table hard as she charged her body forward to Joohyun's direction.

And then all at once, Joohyun gasped. For the first time in her life, in the most random place and time, everything bursted and felt her heart deafeningly thumped.

Uncontrollable. Warm.

She can’t believe it.

That mysterious woman, whom she met just 5 minutes ago, suddenly flipped her life in a direction she never expected.