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There are three certainties in life; death, taxes, and the fat nap Kim Minju was going to take after her 9:00 p.m shift had ended. Key-word nap. Minju had worked at a luxury retail store part-time for the past year to keep up with tuition and living expenses; all perks for being what most of society considered a young adult. Being a university student, or a young adult, had never been easy. Some have described it like riding a bike...except the bike is on fire...and the ground is on fire, and suddenly you’re in hell. But even the visualization of hell seemed only like a far off luxury Minju could not afford. Thus, here we found our young beauty, dozing off in her classy work uniform and high-heels. 

 

“Snap out of it, Kim.” The thunderstorm from her boss Kwon Eunbi could be heard shouting at her from somewhere off. Minju cleared while promptly fixing her posture. Eyeing her scrawny wrist watch, it was already 7:00 p.m. Only two more hours to go. She balled her fist, motivated to drive through the dreadful shift. As a sales associate, her job was to politely greet customers and cater to their needs. In other words; it was essentially being a kiss up to the ill-mannered Chaebols, while they indulge in shopping sprees with more cash she could never fathom to attain in ten lifetimes. 

 

The hours were long, the pay was meh, but it allowed Minju to pursue her passion in the fashion industry. When there were no customers, she would gracefully float from corner to corner inspecting what the latest trend in purses, belts, and fabrics were. Minju had a keen eye and her boss Kwon Eunbi knew this. This is exactly why Eunbi fired the rest of the staff in order to schedule Minju to slave more hours.

 

“Kim, come carry these to the front. Kim, grab this lady some water. Kim, I need the receipt now! Kim, Kim, Kim.” It had gotten to a point where Minju’s own name was unrecognizable even to herself.

 

“Good evening sir, would you care to see our newest line in eco-friendly snake skin bags?” Minju folded her hands around her petite waist, politely bowing at an exact upright 85 degree angle. Her smile faded into a grimace as she opened her eyes to see one particular pest.

 

“I’d rather check you out.” A well dressed and sly Park Jihoon smirked.  

 

“Leave me alone, I'm working.” Minju turned in disgust. Jihoon had only been one of many male suitors that would float into the store from time to time thinking it was so easy to throw their line and reel in a fish that would willingly bite onto their bait. Although his grey hair and sharp jawline were a spectacle, the personality could use a lot of working on.

 

 Minju, had no time for immature boys. 

 

“I’m a customer too!” Jihoon clumsily followed in pursuit as Minju stormed off to a corner of the store to fix the arrangement of displayed sunglasses. 

 

“I’ll call the police again,” she threateningly smiled, stopping Jihoon dead in his tracks.

 

The slender boy gulped. “Let’s not get hasty now.” Jihoon’s spine shivered from the icy chill of a flashback of him being dragged out of the store and into the busy mall-open to the delight of many pictures and videos. 

 

“Look, see. I like these ones," Jihoon said nervously, snatching the first pair of sunglasses he could reach and slid them on.

 

“Those are for females," Minju corrected. The sound of her high heels clicking as she walked away in annoyance echoed around the empty store. 

“Is there a problem Kim?” Minju turned to Miss Eunbi, standing with her arms crossed in an unsatisfied manner. “What is our store motto?”

 

Grumbling, “Anybody and everybody is a customer as long as they have their credit card.” It was quite a nasty piece of text, and Minju could never understand how they attracted so many customers with those same words posted on a sign above the cash register. Minju had cleverly come up with an alternative motto for the store, 'Anybody and everybody is a customer now that the cameras don’t see you.' (Eunbi had neglected to replace the security camera that had been broken for at least four months now.)

 

“Now please, go back and do your job at kissing people’s asses. I’m going back to the lounge to take a nap.” Eunbi stretched her folded arms to the sky while yawning. She added, ”Don’t bother me at any cost even if anything goes wrong.” Eunbi rolled her eyes before strutting away with a glass of champagne that neither she or any of the other workers were supposed to have their hands on.

 

“See what you do? Why do you make my work life so miserable?” Minju begrudgingly turned to Jihoon. The boy only shrugged his shoulders.

 

“Yeah, yeah, by the way, who was that really tall and cute girl with blue hair that just said bye to me? Did she just start working here? Is she single by any chance?” Jihoon greedily rubbed his hands together as he had already figured out his next prey.

 

“Blue hair?” Minju raised a confused eyebrow. Pushing her index finger under her lip, Eunbi would have never hired any new employees unless...she had a change of heart?...nah.  None of the previous employees had that color hair to begin with either. Wait, dying your hair was against work protocol anyways!

 

 “Where did she go?” She turned her head 360 degree around the still empty store. They hadn’t received a customer nearly all night and Minju was sure she would have heard a new set of footsteps walk in, even over her bosses voice. 

 

“What do you mean?” Jihoon blankly stared at Minju. 

“The blue haired girl…”

 

“OH!!!” A lightbulb should have physically popped above Jihoon’s head from how quickly his face lit up. “She just walked out of the store with that really fancy bag in the middle of your display area. Something about making sure it wasn’t fake?” 

 

Minju’s almost received whiplash from how quickly she turned to an empty lid and vacant white display case. What usually should have been a red studded handbag that cost 1,500,000 won(about $1,220 or ₱61,892) was replaced with a “IOU” note. Minju had been saving for that certain handbag for almost a year! She had successfully defended it from various chaebol daughters for months saying it was out of fashion or some other bull ! Crumbling the note with one balled up fist, she was not about to let some scummy thief take her prize.

 

“Which direction did she go?” She unlaced her black high heels while bouncing on one foot back to Jihoon.

 

“Uhhh, that way,” The boy pointed deep into the mall, past the food court and where the central water fountain was.

 

“Take care of the store!” Within a blink, Minju had passed Jihoon and was already three feet away outside of the store sprinting full speed while waving at him.

“Awh mann.” He grumpily pulled up a stool at the receptionist desk and planted his face against his palm. 

 

Minju ignored the various side-glares she received from the few shoppers at the mall. Thankfully it was both a weekday and at night, so there weren’t too many of them. There was enough to still make the back of her neck burn in embarrassment, but she was set in her objective.

 

 Panting, she passed the water fountain marking the center of the mall, her next path was to take a left and pass the food court where the closest parking garage was located. Ideal for a quick getaway in any logical sense, or at least that’s what most of the movie characters did on Netflix. 

 

Peering at any suspicious figures, Minju stopped in the middle of the mall. She shuffled her bare feet to avoid the icy chill of the cold marble below her. “I'm so dead if I don’t find whoever took it’. Minju needed this job in order to pay for her next semester tuition and a car. There was absolutely no way she was going back to serving at a restaurant with her clumsy big hands. Think Minju, think! Where would you go first if you were going to steal a million won bag?

 

....Got it Within a snap, she turned directions and headed straight for a small shortcut to an emergency backup hall in the mall that was built in case of a fire or other hazardous events. Working at a mall had its perks, Minju had quickly memorized the general layout of the large facility in the year she had worked there. This perk proved crucial for when she was moments from being late to work. Excusing herself for running barefoot through a candle shop and screaming from a life and death moment of having a cleaning trolly almost roll her over. Minju had reached the double-doors to the emergency hallway within minutes. 

 

Casually undoing the red scarf around her neck and tying her hair into a bun, Minju hummed a small tune while inspecting both directions to see if she could spot the individual Jihoon described. What must have been only five minutes felt like two hours. The hair on her arms were rising and she could feel her fatigue slowly catching up with her as she continued to aimlessly look around the empty mall.  

 

Darting her head back and forth, she finally noticed a strange tall girl with her grey hood pulled up walking towards the double-doors from one side of the mall. Her suspicion was confirmed once she noticed that in the girl’s arms was one big shopping bag from a store that wasn’t even open that day.  ‘This was it Minju, do exactly what you saw in Criminal Minds.’

 

Minju skilfully danced her way from the opposite direction. She played it cool by stopping at a mini-vendor to check out cute plushies and pretended to be distracted by display windows even though she couldn’t afford anything. They were about five feet away from each other before she noticed the mysterious girl halt in her tracks. Before Minju could pounce on her prey, the latter was already full on sprinting back the direction she came from.

 

‘Damn it.’ Minju cursed under her breath while chasing in pursuit. Her speed was highly diminished compared to her earlier sprint. pulling two consecutive all-nighters to study for a test, and not eating lunch that day was taking a toll on her phytique. She silently regretted all the times she rejected her roommates,Yena and Hyewon, offer to goto the gym. 

 

Realizing the distance between her and the thief would make it impossible for her to catch up. Minju was moments from giving up until the mysterious girl unlucky ran into the same garbage trolly Minju had almost been run over with minutes earlier. The thief was thrown off balance to her side and knees. A loud screech stung Minju’s ear as the thief’s body dragged across the white marble and echoed the large hall. The bag in her hand was thrown across the pathway, uncovering the luxurious red purse. Minju quickly caught up and knelt down to grab her prize first.

 

Her attention was momentarily captivated by the surprisingly knocked down beauty. The grey hood of the thief's hoodie slipped off revealing the cotton candy blue hair Jihoon had described earlier. She couldn’t tell if her heart was beating rapidly from the sprint she had just finished or if she was mesmerized by the sharp jawline and idol-like feature the knocked over thief sported. Her skin was even paler than her own, not to mention she was taller and had a much fitter body. She could have been a model. Her heart flinched as she watched the thief fail to stand up properly and tumbled back on the floor, wincing in pain. She must have rolled over her ankle when she collided with the trolly.

 

“Hey, you two over there!” Minju's ears perked to a booming voice that was louder than Eunbi. Unlucky timing from the gods above, a fat and stock figured police officer on his electric moped had probably heard the crash and took attention to the luxury purse on the ground. Minju had her fair share of troubles with the obnoxious police officer. If you could imagine a stereotypical cop in his shades and dramatic stringy mustache. You would be almost close to the image of the mall cop being described, just add the pink stain of a donut on his face.

 

“You two come here right now!”

 

‘’ When asked to recall what ran through Minju’s mind following the events that took after the police officer had caught them. Minju simply answered that she didn’t know. 

 

The common reaction anytime this story was told was along the lines of “CAPP, no that’s bull.” Or some other derogatory term used to express the disbelief that someone of Kim Minju’s caliber would attempt something so ballsy.

 

But anyways, without any hesitation, Minju in one last ditch effort of raw strength and energy, swooped the purse with one hand, while simultaneously swinging the thief’s arm over her shoulder to allow the girl to limp with her. The two were on a life or death race against a fat police officer on a moped.

 

“Take a left here!” Minju turned her eye to the thief pointing at the door of a female bathroom. It was genius actually! Minju would have never thought of this by herself but she complied with the directions and helped the thief girl hobble inside. What was special about this spacious restroom was that there were three opposite doors that  led into three other sections of the mall. 

 

Thankfully, there was nobody else in the restroom at the time to seriously look at them. They awkwardly shifted through an empty part of the mall before they safely barged through the same emergency doorway Minju was guarding earlier and onto the emergency alley.

 

Panting and sweaty, Minju unloaded the heavy weight on her shoulder and allowed the thief to gracefully sink onto the stone floor below them. The two didn’t exchange any words as Minju bent forward to catch her sparce breath. She vowed to never miss an opportunity to goto the gym with Yena and Hyewon even if she needed to pull another all nighter. She frowned at first when she heard the thief snicker. ‘What was so funny?’ The girl continued to snicker until it turned into a wild laugh. Minju couldn’t help her body from shaking as a small giggle escaped her own mouth. What did she just do?

 

“You work at the shoe store near the food court don’t you?” Minju huffed. Now that she was one on one with the thief. She recognized the iconic blue haired girl in front of her. The girl in question seemed displeased her identity was recognized so easily but she raised two hands as if she was surrendering herself to the authorities. Minju hated the ghost of a dimple that shone along the charismatic smile of the blue haired girl.

 

“Why on earth would you steal a ing purse at the same mall you work at?” The thief’s smile quickly disappeared as she frowned and looked away.

 

 “None of your business.” she grumbled.

 

“I just saved your life and this is all you have to say?” Minju planted two hands on her waist. She was baffled in how rude this girl was.

 

“I didn’t ask you to save me.” Slowly the girl tried rising to her feet but a yelp of pain caused her to fall back onto her and grip onto her ankle.

“Tsk.” Minju bent over in front of the girl. The girl reactively cowered and shouted in protest but Minju ignored it. Pushing her hand into her hair, she undid the scarf she had previously tied. The lengthy strands of her hair elegantly collapsed onto her shoulder and neck. 

 

 “Lift your foot up.” The thief didn’t comply.
 

“Lift it up,'' I said.” Minju impatiently grabbed onto the sat girl’s foot which caused the former to howl in pain. “That’s what you get,” she mumbled before wrapping her scarf around the bruised ankle. It must have been one heck of a collision. The whole ankle had grown a disgusting blob of purple skin. It looked like someone had stuffed six jawbreakers under her bone and smashed it into pieces. ‘She's definitely not walking for a good week.’

 

“Thanks.” The girl shyly retracted her ankle.

 

Sighing, “What’s your name anyways?” Minju lowered herself to sit in her uncomfortable skirt.

 

“Yujin...Ahn Yujin.” She stuttered.

 

“Yujin! That’s a pretty name.” She smiled at the seemingly younger girl. Behind her gigantic height and rebellious blue har, Minju could catch a glimpse of a devious youth within her almond eyes. “I’m Kim Minju.” Minju took her hand out for a shake. The former hesitated but reached her hand forward as well.

 

“We’re going to have to ice that when we get back.” Minju shook her head disapprovingly at the growing glob that was growing on Yujin’s ankle.

 

“Go back?” Yujin tilted her head in confusion.

 

“You’re not going anywhere till we properly treat you.” Minju emphasized.

 

“No.”

“What do you mean, no! You can’t walk anyways” Minju frowned, why was this girl being so hard?

 

Yujin allowed her head to rest on her knee before whispering, “You’re going to turn me in aren’t you?”

 

Minju began to laugh hysterically. Really? After chasing the girl for at least fifteen minutes and then running away from the police offer for another ten, Yujin really thought she was going to turn her in?

 

Scoffing, “I will now that you mention it.”

 

Yujin’s pout mimicked a puppy after it had just peed in a place it shouldn’t have. Minju only rolled her eyes. This girl is as oblivious as Jihoon, wait...speaking of Jihoon.

 

Minju quickly searched her skirt for the secret pocket that she kept her phone in. Scrolling through her SNS, “come on, I know your messaged me sometime.’ 

 

“Found it!” she exclaimed in rejoice. Yujin nodded her head blankly at Minju celebration. After some rapid clicking, Minju held the phone to her ear.

 

“Is this-is this a DREAM?” 

 

Yujin could hear an unidentified male’s voice. For some reason hearing her savior talk to another person, especially a male made her stomach feel uneasy.

 

“Yeah, yeah, bring a bag of ice and come to the emergency exit next to the food court.” 

 

“...”

 

“No its a ing left, not a right.”

 

“...”

 

“NO!  left from the store, not left from the direction I'm looking right now!”

 

 Yujin giggled, she enjoyed watching Minju’s exaggerated and angry facial expressions.

 

The call ended moments after. The two girls looked like they had just been forced to work on a school project as they awkwardly sat facing each other in silence. Minju momentarily rested her eyes, she needed a can of monster or coffee asap. She was even considering taking a small glass of champagne from the store, it wasn’t like Eunbi would notice or anything. 

 

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What felt like two minutes turned out to be twenty minutes. Rubbing her eyes gently, Minju was confused why she didn’t see Yujin in front of her. “Oh , don’t tell me she left!” A chill filled her spine until her face was met with a mouthful of iconic blue hair. Lifting her head from an unfamiliar shoulder and turning her head sideways, Minju was shocked to see Yujin rubbing the same shoulder sorefully. 

“I’m-i’m so sorry.” She wiped off a pool of drool she created on Yujin’s hoodie. 

 

“Don’t worry about it.” Minju couldn’t help but feel flush from the girl’s strange act of kindness.” You seemed really tired and I didn’t want you to fall face first into the concrete.” Yujin awkwardly explained. 

 

A barge from the door in front of them caused both girls to yelp and Yujin hid herself in Minju’s arm.

 

“What the took you so long!.”

 

Jihoon panted while holding up a first aid kit and bottles of water. “I forgot where the food court was.”

 

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If there was one useful feat Minju had accomplished with her roommates Yena and Hyewon, it was attending a first aid course over the summer before their freshman year of college. Yena was a notorious klutz and must have broken every bone in her body twice fold. Hyewon, on the other hand, was known to become reactively violent from time to time. To say the least, learning how to stop stabbing wounds was a small priority for them

 

Once she finished properly dressing Yujin’s ankle with a wrapped bandage, Jihoon and Minju helped to guide Yujin back into the store. It had already passed 9:00 o'clock which meant the mall was soon closing, and in the case of her boss Eunbi, checking out and going home at 8:45. Jihoon had to leave in a blitz saying his mother was going to kill him since he was supposed to be on home arrest still(for the police accident last month) which left Yujin reclined in a chair with an ice pack over her foot while Minju worked on closing the store.

 

“What happened to everyone else that used to work here?” Yujin interrupted while Minju silently mopped the aisles. On the occasions when Yujin would spy into the store to create an optimal plan to steal the purse, she was disheartened as there would usually be 3-4 other workers everyday. But in the past week or so, she would only see Minju working by herself while her boss lounged behind the receptionist desk doing nothing. 

 

“You’re guess is as good as mine.” Minju huffed while blowing her bangs. Staggering, she nearly collapsed against a counter next to her. Her hand clenched to the end of the mop in front of her was blurry. She winced at the ringing sensation that deafened her ears until it had disappeared as quickly as it came. Minju by far had exceeded her physical capacity. 

 

Yujin gripped onto her chair silently, she wanted to get up at that moment to help the older girl clean or do something to help. It was the least she could have done after everything Minju had done for her. Staggering, Minju soldiered her way through the rest of her job and collapsed into a chair in front of Yujin once she had finished. 

 

“How are you getting home?” Minju had confined the girl to the chair with an ice pack for so long because the former refused to answer that question earlier.

 

“None of your business.” Yujin repeated the same answer she gave Minju twenty minutes ago. She heard a stern growl from the older girl which was surprisingly quite intimidating. “The shuttle bus that runs through the city should be here in about 10 minutes.” Yujin quietly whispered.

 

‘“The bus? At this hour?” Yujin shrugged her shoulder as if saying so what? “No way.” Minju protested. Taking the bus at night around that part of town was risky business.  

 

Minju was guilty of taking the same bus ride home herself, but she had her excuses. Not being able to afford a car was rough, and she had to do what she had to do. Dialing her phone, Minju rolled her eyes when her roommate didn’t pick up. Typing a quick text, she asked Yena if she could pick her up and drop off her “co-worker” who br