“I don’t care. You can’t give every cute girl a free cherry.”

Wendy pouted, her cheeks flushing. “It’s not because they’re cute…”

Irene looked at her askance. “Uh, huh? Well anyway, they’re not free, you know.”

“Consider it an investment! Customers will come back on the off chance that they may get a free cherry-”

“THEY’RE NOT FREE.”

“- from their favorite confectioner~” Wendy ended with a click of her tongue and a wink. Irene rolled her eyes.

“And we’re not ‘confectioners’. We’re not even full-time, and we’re going to get fired if you keep giving things away!” But Wendy wasn’t listening anymore.

Irene looked over at Wendy with concern, hearing her sigh. “What’s wrong?” She reached over and fixed the tilt of Wendy’s soda-jerk paper hat.

Wendy let her do as she wished as she pulled the small bucket of free spoons behind the counter. A small group rough-housing outside, had caught her attention, and Irene followed the younger girl’s gaze through the bright windows of their shopfront and saw the cause for Wendy’s dour expression for herself.

“Oh, no,” Irene groaned, seeing the bicycles strewn haphazardly in the rack, and the mismatched leather jackets with the badly sewn-on patches of angry sheep. She watched with increasing dismay as the shortest one tried to kick open their door, only to belatedly realize it said ‘pull’, and not ‘push’.

With boisterous whoops and laughter, the raucous group let themselves into the shop, and Irene debated hiding out in the back room, but she couldn’t just abandon Wendy like that. Not to the notorious bicycle gang, the Mean Sheeps.

It was bad enough that these three annoyed everyone endlessly during the day, but did they have to plague them at their after-school job as well? Seulgi, the leader, sauntered straight up to the counter and leaned on it heavily, doing her best to wink.

“What do you want, Seulgi?” Irene asked stand-offishly.

Seulgi was undeterred by her cold demeanor. She stuck her tongue in her cheek and squared her shoulders. “It’s my birthday today, so I’m thinking something special. How about your number?” she drawled. She held out a hand to her posse.

“Smooth!” Yeri crowed in delight, giving her a high five.

Joy, towering over the others, cupped her hands around and made airhorn noises.

It was going to be a long afternoon.

“Is it really your birthday?” Wendy asked just before Irene elbowed her.

Seulgi held up a finger as she fished around in her pockets for proof. “February 10th, sweetcheeks…” she trailed off greasily as she continued to search around her person. “Uh…”

Par for the course, Irene watched impassively as Seulgi started arguing with Yeri and Joy about the possible location of her wallet.

“Hey, where’s my wallet?”

“Huh? How am I supposed to know?” Yeri scoffed.

“Why are you like this?” Joy complained.

“Whatever!” Seulgi said, pulling at the collar of her leather jacket as she composed herself. “It doesn’t matter. Anyway, we’ll have one vanilla,” she said, then pointed at Yeri, “one chocolate, and one…” she paused at Joy who filled in the blank.

“Why don’t you surprise me~?” she answered, waggling her eyebrows at Wendy.

“What sizes?” Irene all but growled.

“Uh, two childs and a small.”

“What? Come on, I want a small!” Yeri cried.

“Will you finish it?” Seulgi asked pointedly. “Last time you wasted it.”

Irene tried to recall if she had any painkillers in her bag, feeling a headache coming on.

“Two child sizes and a small. That’ll be $7.50,” Irene said as she finished ringing them up.

“Oh yeah?” Seulgi asked, jutting out her jaw menacingly. “Even if I do this?” She picked up one of the waffle cones on display and crushed it in her gloved grip. “Still wanna make me pay?”

“Yeah, better think twice before you mess with us!” Yeri derided from behind her leader.

“... And one chocolate-dipped waffle cone,” Irene drolled, adding another $1.00 to their bill.

Yeri and Seulgi gasped. “J-Joy, get over here and help!” Seulgi cried as she pointed at the register.

Joy pretended not to hear, seated upon the counter further down. “So what time do you get off?” she asked while Wendy tried to scoop their ice cream into the cups.

“Don’t answer her,” Irene called flatly.

Now they had Joy’s attention. She pushed off the counter with a huff and strode over to the register, flipping her long, dark hair which Irene expertly dodged.

“Why are you being so rude? Don’t you know how much protection we provide this place?” Seulgi continued, now that her whole team was there to back her up.

“The Mean Sheeps are feared across the whole block. Maybe even the whole neighborhood!” Yeri added.

“That’s right, so you might want to start showing us a little more respect!” Seulgi demanded, though she realized Wendy and Irene were no longer listening to her as the two ice cream attendants had turned away and were busying themselves behind the counter.

Seulgi was about to express her dissatisfaction when she heard the jingle of the bell above the parlor entrance. She turned and saw a new trio enter, a group of college-age men that had a brutish look about them that the Mean Sheeps could only dream of, though they didn’t have matching jackets.

Irene murmured a quiet, “Here,” as she shoved the three small cups towards Seulgi, her expression significantly subdued. “You’d better go.”

“Wait a sec-” Seulgi protested, but she was roughly shouldered away from the counter by one of the men.

“Beat it, kid.”

Seulgi backed away in shock, absently handing the ice creams out to Joy and Yeri. (“What the- is this mint chocolate??” “Hey, how come you got a cherry??”)

Seulgi led the girls away to one of the tables near the front and sat mutely, watching the men at the counter. Irene and Wendy didn’t even look up at the men as they tried to take their orders, though all Seulgi could hear were snatches of lascivious comments - certainly nothing that had to do with ice cream.

One particularly nasty remark drew high fives and dark chuckles from the men and Seulgi accidentally snapped her plastic spoon.

“Uh, Seulgi? Maybe we should go…” Yeri suggested. All three of them had lost their appetites by now, and Seulgi was about to agree until they watched one of the men lean over the register and finger Irene’s nametag.

“Irene, huh?”

“More like Ice Queen, am I right? Come on, babe, it’s just a phone number.”

“W-we don’t have phones,” Wendy lied.

“Bull, what are you holding out for?”

“Maybe they already have boyfriends,” one of the men jeered.

The first man made a derisive noise. “I don’t see them here,” he gestured around the parlor before turning back to Irene. It looked like she was about to step back away from the register, but he reached out and snatched her wrist before she could get away. “Hey-”

“Hey!” Seulgi shouted, her chair falling back onto the floor with a clatter as she stood. She managed a few steps forward before the trembling in her legs got the better of her and she stopped. “Leave her alone you creep!”

“Yeah!”

“Or else!” Yeri unfortunately added.

“Or else what?” one of them asks, a very punchably smug look on his boyish face. Even though he was the shortest of the three men, he was still at least half a head taller than Joy.

“Or else we’ll have to make you,” Yeri continued.

“That’s right, this is our joint,” Seulgi picked up, “And I’ve just decided I don’t like your face!” Joy and Yeri glanced at Seulgi briefly, wondering what kind of mandate that was, but quickly nodded in support.

The first man released Irene and turned his full attention on Seulgi, blinking at her in mild amusement. “And who are you supposed to be?” he called over, eyeing their somewhat matching jackets.

“We’re the Mean Sheeps!” Yeri called back from the safety of Seulgi’s shoulder. Joy, however, made a more concerted attempt at intimidation as she folded her arms and settled her expression, trying to stare them down.

The men burst out laughing. “The… the what?”

“Like a gang?”

“I can’t… they’re mental!”

The first man stalked over, still laughing as he jabbed two fingers in Seulgi’s chest, sending her back a pace. “So what, you gonna rough us up?”

was suddenly very dry, but she somehow forced an answer: “I just want you to stop bothering them!”

He leered down at her, and Seulgi could see the other two men smugly watching the exchange. “And what if I don’t?” he asked threateningly. When Seulgi hesitated, he shoved her again, this time with both hands and she fell back against Yeri and Joy.

“Hey!”

Seulgi quickly stood up, getting right in his face, though she couldn’t quite bring herself to take a swing.

“You’re as stupid as you look, huh?” the first man asked, grabbing Seulgi by the collar.

“N-no fighting, please…” Wendy’s weak voice called from the counter where she wrang her little paper hat in her hands.

“Come on, man,” one of the other men said finally. “She’s just a little girl.”

“So what?” the first man asked, though roughly released her. He looked at all three of them before he turned away. “... They started it.”

“It’s not worth it. Let’s get out of here.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

It wasn’t until the bell jingled as the door to the ice cream parlor shut that Seulgi collapsed back against the table in exhaustion. “Whew!”

“You almost got us killed!” Yeri whined. “Besides, didn’t you ask for Irene’s number, too?” Joy nodded, keeping tactfully silent about her own charades from earlier.

“But-!” Seulgi protested. “It’s different when I do it!”

“How?” Yeri demanded.

Seulgi pouted as she carefully righted the fallen chair. “... Because I don’t actually expect her to give it to me…” she admitted quietly.

“Are you guys alright?” The woman in question asked as she approached the trio with Wendy in tow. “I told you to leave,” she admonished, though there was more concern in her voice as she looked them over than chiding.

“We’re not scared of some punks,” Yeri dismissed.

Seulgi nodded, much braver now that the men were out of sight. “That’s right, this is our turf and we’ve got to protect you- er, it! Protect it…”

“Well I just couldn’t stand not having you all to myself~” Joy announced as she sidled up to Wendy, who buried her face in her hands.

Irene, however, was giving Seulgi a small, unreadable smile. “Your turf, huh? I guess it was a good thing you were around,” she admitted. “Thanks.”

Seulgi brightened up considerably, and Yeri elbowed her in the side. “Oof- Uh, so does that mean I can have your number after all?”

Irene’s eyebrow quirked, though she was able to maintain an indifferent expression. “I don’t know,” she began as Seulgi held her breath. “Why don’t you try asking again tomorrow?”

Seulgi fist-pumped and Yeri shook her violently by the shoulders. “Yes!!!”

Before Irene could start having regrets, she leaned in for the cherry on top and kissed Seulgi on the cheek. “Happy birthday, Seulgi. By the way, you still owe us for the ice cream.”

fin