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That Afternoon

Eunbi exited the private locker room for employees after taking a quick shower. The rest of her workday had gone well. She taught three classes of middle school girls (which was her favorite) before ending with a 4:00 p.m tango class of elderly ladies. Eyeing her wristwatch, she read the time to be 5:15 p.m. She had time to kill at a small convenience store near the studio as rush hour traffic tended to fall off around 6:00.

Walking to the convinence store now, thoughts of a particular individual invaded her mind. Irene. Baek Irene. This was the name of the young lady who would be in her class for the next three weeks. Because of her tardiness, Eunbi had forgotten that her boss had called about a new student that would be joining her morning class. He had told her how she was a V.I.P client and that she should be cautious about how she talks to her. Why her boss had told her so, she still didn’t know.

 Irene didn’t utter much of a word during the class besides a brief introduction of her name. From there, she followed the regular stretches and small dance routines but always kept to the farthest corner closest to the wall. Naturally, Eunbi tended to hover towards the opposite end of the room. She only moved to Irene’s corner to help her when she was struggling with a certain stretch and only then, she kept her touch as minimal as she could. 

Throwing her head in a 180-degree motion, Eunbi swatted off any more thoughts of the young beauty. Irene was a student, Eunbi was the teacher. She was too young and too broke to have any immoral thoughts ert her mind about her work. Entering the convenience store, Eunbi absentmindedly made her way to a fridge and grabbed a special can of iced coffee.

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“Wait, wait, wait.” All heads in the room shifted towards Jo Yuri who rose herself from the ground to stop the storytelling. “You’re telling me you go from drinking expensive Porcela coffee beans to canned iced coffee?”

“Mr. Lee iced coffee is actually my favorite coffee,” Eunbi answered. " I was introduced to it in high school by Nayeon.” 

The girl mentioned was long asleep on Mina’s lap further back in the room. 

“Wait bu-” A barrage of random items was chucked at Yuri before the young girl could sound off another question. 

“Continue.” Eunbi turned to one side of the couch where Yena was eyeing her anticipatedly. 

“Where was I at? Eunbi held a hand towards her forehead trying to recall her place in the storytelling before Yuri rambled off.

“The convenience store. You were about to tell them the moment I fell in love with you.” Eunbi smiled as her girlfriend squeezed tighter onto her hand.

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“Just give me one more minute, I am sure I had my wallet on me.” Irene continued to unload all her belongings from her purse and pockets.  Car keys, a stick of gum, reading book, makeup kit, phone charger, phone, a large pink pepper spray with a bunny sticker. Everything but her precious LV wallet.

Already, the old habit of tapping the front of her high heel had kicked in. The last memory she had of her wallet was in the dance studio locker room after she changed from her dancewear into her business attire. Did she possibly leave her wallet there?

“Look, lady. I don’t have time to watch yah fiddle your thumbs as you figure out where yah left your damn wallet. Either yah pay for these pocky sticks or leave the store empty-handed. Now get a move on, there’s a line behind yah.” The cashier behind the counter ushered her with his wrinkled hand to get out of the way. He was both a short and grumpy old man. The blue light that flashed from a small box television to his side outlined the few strands of white hair left on his scalp alongside the wrinkles beneath his eyes. Even more visible was the colored ink drawn onto the cashier forearm that pictured a long serpent of some sort. He was also well muscular for his age, indicating that being a cashier perhaps wasn’t his lifetime occupation, and could explain his overall grumpiness.  

Irene turned with some shame to see a number of faces waiting with murderous glares. She dropped her head slightly to apologize for the inconvenience before turning to face the cashier again. Just my ing luck today huh?

“I’ll pay.” 

A low shadow appeared next to Irene and extended itself over the counter with a credit card.

“Off of work already Eunbi~?” The cashier broke his earlier scowl and replaced it with an innocent smile.

 Irene felt offended seeing the dramatic change in the tone and posture of the cashier as the woman next to her offered a small nod. Irene realized at that moment, this was her dance teacher from the morning. The back of her neck and cheeks burned red as the sudden proximity to Eunbi made her remember their earlier lesson together. Irene knew Eunbi had been extremely cautious about how much hand contact she had been putting on her knees and thighs when Eunbi was helping her with a stretch. But still, even the smallest touch made her want to scream, which she ended up doing so, but due to the pain of how far she had disjointed her leg from her waist. 

“Stop giving customers a hard time, you’ll run out of business at this rate.” Eunbi signaled a stone-faced Irene.

The old cashier’s face hardened again as he snarled. “She is not a customer.” 

Irene had always valued how easily she could hide her real emotions through a stone face. Some would call it a “ resting face” but Irene always liked referring to it as her poker face. It always came in handy at work when coworkers or customers tried to give her a hard time. This time, however, something in Irene told her that she shouldn’t allow the cashier to talk to her like that. Clearing her voice and mustering the most assertive tone she could, Irene bellowed. “I have a name YAH know. It is IRENE” 

 Both the cashier and Eunbi’s eyes widened as they exchanged wary eye contact. Immediately, Irene’s chest lowered and she felt her neck concave into her shoulders. Did I make a mistake just now? The convenience store turned deathly silent. And then, out of thin air, a burst of wild laughter broke out from the cashier and Eunbi. 

“What is so funny?” Irene scrunched her nose. Her anger was clearly visible now.  

“Did she just make fun of mah accent?” The cashier pointed at himself in disbelief. “Did this young and timid little lady make fun of this old man's bumpkin accent?

“It seems so.” Eunbi chuckled while placing her paid items into a small plastic bag and sliding the pocky sticks closer to Irene. “You did deserve it though.”

“Hey, young lady, or should I say...Irene. Yah didn’t seem to be the type to have a cheeky side to yah, but boy oh boy, you just left a tear in this old man’s eye.” The cashier began dabbing the corner of his eye with the side of his index finger.

Unsure if she should take the cashier's comment as a compliment or an insult, Irene decided to cut her losses and stormed out of the convenience store with whatever little pride she had remaining. 

Her high-heels echoed as she took deliberate and angry steps down the sidewalk. Even though she was used to the type of snarky remarks from her parents, something about the exchange in the convenience store filled her with a burning embarrassment that she would not let show further, especially in front of Eunbi.

Irene registered the sound of the convenience store door opening again and turned to watch Eunbi jog up to her. “Hey, you forgot this.”

“Thanks,” Irene mumbled in a low voice as she received her pocky sticks from Eunbi.

“Don’t take anything he said personally. He’s an old bumpkin and where he’s from, people tease to show affection.” Eunbi explained. "or I wonder if it had to do with his past thug experiences.” 

This made Irene feel a little better, but she showed no signs of feeling so. “Thanks for paying for the pocky sticks, I'll pay you back on Thursday,” Irene said.

“Ahh, it was only 2000 won, don’t worry about it.” Eunbi shrugged. 

“No, I insist. I do not like being indebted to people.” 

 Eunbi noticed the small scowl Irene showed and had to fight off the urge to smile any wider. 

“Hmm, if you really feel like paying me back. I like coffee.” Eunbi waved the now empty can of Mr.Lee instant coffee.“you can take me for some coffee next time.” 

Eunbi was caught off guard when Irene showed a sly smile. It was a nice change from the usual stiffness Irene seemed to carry herself with. What threw Eunbi even further off, was what she said next. 

“....did you just ask me to take you on a date?” Irene fibbed with narrowed eyes.

“Date? What? Sorry I didn’t mean it like that.” Eunbi waved her free hand at Irene.

“It is okay, you do not need to apologize, I will take you up on your coffee.” Irene nodded her head firmly. “Only it will not be whatever this is.” Irene took the empty can of instant coffee from Eunbi’s hand and stared quizzically at it. She crumpled the can and then discarded it in a nearby trash can. “Yeah, definitely not that, I will take you to my favorite cafe.” She began walking down the block. 

Eunbi tilted her head in confusion. All she had intended was for Irene and her to grab a can of Mr. Lee coffee at the convenience store maybe on Thursday. She couldn’t believe how blunt and direct Irene had taken her offer. 

Snapping back to reality, Eunbi looked further down the sidewalk to see Irene waiting for her to catch up. 

“Wait, right now?” Eunbi’s eyes widened.

“Right now.”

“Sounds great, except for the fact you still don’t have your wallet,” Eunbi replied.

Irene halted her march with a sharp exhale. Her face began to glow increasingly red, as she remembered her lost wallet. “I think I left it at the dance studio, did you possibly see it by any chance?” Irene took short and remorseful steps back to Eunbi.

The shorter girl shook her head. “I did not, but we can head back together. I’ll help you find it and then you can take me on this coffee date.” 

Irene had to avoid looking at Eunbi’s face once she realized the other girl had smiled even wider. This girl is going to be the death of me. 

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That Night

“So, you’re telling me. Not only are you the dance teacher for this super attractive chick, but you also asked her on a coffee date which she said yes!” Even as a long-term friend of Eunbi, Yoo Jeongyeon could not understand how she got such a babe to agree to go on a date with her.

“I unintentionally asked her.” Eunbi corrected.

This did little to ease Jeongyeon bewilderment. All of her roommates, which consisted of Jeongyeon, Jihyo, Momo, and herself, sat around the dinner table. They had long finished their meals, but it had been so long since the four had been home together, they decided to lounge around and catch up about their daily lives.

“Wait, so what happened after you guys headed back to the studio. Was her wallet there? Did you guys end up going for coffee?” Jihyo inquired. She wanted to know every little detail about Eunbi’s new potential lover. 

Eunbi rubbed the base of her thumb under her chin. “We did end up finding the