tw// mentions of cigarettes

“Finally!”

With a lot of effort Lee Siyeon eventually manages to stop the slow flow of blood from her wound on her wrist while heavily breathing and quietly cursing.

Those delinquent girls caught her again on the way home. It’s not that Siyeon herself was a decent citizen, not at all. Her attempts of blackmailing information was the main reason she was beaten up ruthlessly behind the abandoned building. 

Siyeon searches for her pack of cigarettes in a pocket of her black jacket that was dirty after she was dragged several times down the ground previously. When she figures the pack is empty, she throws it with a frustration and sighs. 

such a ty day

After moments of contemplating what to do further, Siyeon decides to go the closest minimart around so that she could buy herself a pack and calm down her nerves a bit. 

Because of the heavy rain that is pouring at the moment, under the street’s dim lights Siyeon almost runs by the minimart but in the end distinguishes the largely written letters on the roof of the minimart. 

She opens the door a bit too harshly as she was in a hurry of hiding away from the cold weather that has already gotten into her bones. Above her she hears a sharp ring that was informing the visit of the new customer. She stops half way through to wipe out her dirty shoes on doormat. But seemingly it didn’t work, as doormat was dirty too. Her wet clothes were unpleasantly sticking to her skin as well as her soaked locks of dark hair.

“Good evening.” Siyeon hears a cheerful yet a bit reserved soft voice from the side of the cash counter. Siyeon lifts up her head to give a quick glance to the cashier but freezes at the sight of the prettiest features of a delicate face and forgets about the thing she was trying to do a moment ago. The cashier notices the staring and just gives a friendly smile to Siyeon. “What are you looking for, Miss?”

“Um, yes,” Siyeon realises her weird behaviour, awkwardly chuckles and hastily approaches the counter. Siyeon notices that up close the cashier girl was even more prettier. But in order to look more casual she averts her eyes anywhere but the pretty girl’s eyes. In ordinary occasions, she would act more confident, but with a bruised eye and dirty clothes she felt herself not worthy of even trying to make an eye-contact. It is surprising that the cashier haven’t said anything about her looks or did not even glanced at her with disgust. Siyeon clears while feeling growing heat on her cheeks. “Tenth one, please.”

“Here,” In a short moment the cashier girl finds the needed pack and puts it down on a counter after quickly scanning it. After being told that it was all, cashier tells the price and asks Siyeon. “With card or cash?”

“Card.” To this point, blackmailing information had some good pros and in this case, it was some extra money for these kind of situations where just a little amount was needed to get relaxed just for a moment. While the cashier was working, Siyeon lets herself to look a little longer at the girl in front of her more closely. She was probably her age and, despite the initial cheerfulness, was quite tired as Siyeon notices dark circles under puppy shaped eyes. Siyeon cracks an understanding smile. Life is not easy after all. 

“And,” The cashier finishes the payment, hands over the pack, and smiles warmly. Siyeon thinks her heart beats faster than usual. “We’re finished here. But before you go, do you have a time to fill out one short survey? In return rilakkuma plushes are given.”

“Oh, sure.” Siyeon responds and accepts the given pen. Her writing hand was the damaged one but still she manages to fill in all the needed places on the paper. With the other hand she takes a plastic bag where besides cigarettes, cashier put the plushy. Through the thin transparent plastic bag she looks at the pink plushy and smiles a bit. It’s been years since she last held a plushy toy.

“Cute,” Siyeon remarks with a smile and looks up at the bright eyes before her. She’s not sure if she referred to the girl or the plushy. She finally feels the courage to ask. “Do you—“

“Minji, your mom called. Said she hasn’t still gotten your stipend,” Out of nowhere loud voice of a woman interrupts. Siyeon looks at the direction of a middle-aged woman and guesses that’s the owner of the minimart. “Make sure to send it after your shift.”

This moment Siyeon involuntarily catches girl’s name. 

so her name’s Minji. even her name is pretty.

“Okay,” Minji responds and nods her head submissively while giving glances of apology to Siyeon that they can’t talk now. Siyeon returns the smile with sympathy thinking that it would be awkward now to ask her number. She sensed Minji was sorry too. “If that’s all, have a good evening.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Siyeon nods, turns around, and starts walking towards the exit. She thinks after this she’s not likely to return to this store because she simply doesn’t live in this region of the city. She sighs. What a chance was to get cute cashier’s number as she already is used to her cheerful calming voice. 

But one moment she stops on her track contemplating if she should take a chance. She will probably regret it if she won’t do it now. So she turns around and comes back to the minimart in a hurry. Siyeon crosses the way to the counter in a short moment surprising Minji and the woman beside her, and takes a pen to quickly write her number and name to the previous survey paper:

“I won’t be able to visit this store but I’d like to know you.” Siyeon says confidently, hands the paper to Minji, and chuckles after realising what she said but nevertheless still continues. “I also want to add that your smile resembles me of the sun. It’s weird but true.”

Minji stares with a surprise and blush on her cheeks unable of saying anything. A woman beside her just scoffs at the scene.

“Okay, have a nice evening then.” Siyeon hastily goes on, turns around, and before leaving the store, at last says to Minji. “Hope you’ll call.” 

Like that she exits the store. 

“What a brat!” Owner of the store remarks and scoffs again. “Throw that paper away or else this delinquent girl definitely will bring some problems.”

“My shift is over,” Minji says with a sudden firm tone, and before leaving to the stuff room, she responds to the woman’s order. “I think it’s not your responsibility to tell me what to do with my personal life, ma’am.”

Minji herself didn’t expect that response of hers as she’d never say this in other circumstances. But that costumer’s brave and playful eyes gave her kind of a courage to do this. And Minji was glad that it happened as she’s now leaning on the closed door and reading the given piece of paper with a fluttering heart. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t impressed and moved by brunette’s previous action. 

“Siyeon.” Minji quietly pronounces under her breath as if tasting the name on her tongue. It rolled off easily like she was used to say this name. 

She takes her phone from the pocket of her jeans and types out the numbers from the paper. Her heart pace gets a bit quicker as she waits for the response from the other side of the line.

“Hello?” 

At the sound of the already familiar voice, Minji feels like she’s entering a new chapter of her life that might be full of joy or sadness. Either way she was ready for this and so she reciprocates the greeting.

“Hi, Siyeon...”