{Played on by yours truly

She was young, and one glance at her body and face would give the obvious. With long brown hair down to the waist swinging from right to left as she took hesitant steps, she caught the attention of the few usual long time passerby’s’. Her eyes scanned the area, trying their best to send the message to her brain to memorize the places before getting lost any time soon.

She had to stay at this town for some time, none knew how long though. She flipped open her cellphone for the nth time while she tried to hide her hands in her pistachio knitted sweater’s sleeves. She frustratingly puffed another circle of warm air as she put her phone away. Her friend hadn’t called or texted her yet, well maybe it was her fault since her friend was a deep sleeper.

It was debut November and yet winter’s chilly air had already started to make its way to every little place it could go. Her nose and the tip of her ears were red while she stood in front of a particular building, zoning out at the randomest of moments.

Meanwhile, right in that store, which had the name of “The Fox’s cave”, a café that had been passed down the Im family, the owner was counting behind the counter on her fingers. One of the co-workers noticed her behaviour and nudged her while she wiped the top of the glass display.

“What are you mumbling about again, Nana?” asked Jooyeon, still verifying the glass’s cleanness.

“Trying to count and see which number was that guy from last week,” answered simply Nana by scratching her head.

“Oh my god, I would have lost the count of it by now,” she scoffed as she shook her head.

“The count of what? How many times Jinah’s being a flirt?” butted in another close friend of both girls, a young looking (yet called an ahjussi by Jooyeon and Nana) guy in the beginning of his thirties.

“Spot on, Jung. Apparently, another victim happened last week,” sighed the older girl.

“What?! How come I didn’t know?”

“Oh, I guess I wasn’t the only one, she’s being sneaky, see? I just learned now.”

“Victim? They’re asking for it,” Nana defended herself with a pout.

The other two scoffed at Nana’s answer. The young girl’s habits never changed. Yes, it was the same cliché story: everyone knows she’s a flirt yet they still manage to fall for her. Jooyeon and Jungah had told her countless times that it was quite mean, but she kept telling them that it had become so frequent that it was like oxygen for her. Maybe she needed a lesson to calm her tactics.

The older ones, already done with their last touches, were removing their aprons. They didn’t have shifts in the mornings, yet they still came to clean and chitchat with their “daughter” (they loved to call her as such for teasing) before coming in the evening for the late shifts.

Arms linked together, they waved goodbye and Nana followed the lovey-dovey couple with her eyes with puffed cheeks and a weak wave. Jooyeon and Jungah disappeared from her vision and her eyes were slowly doing the entire track it had done, and like that, Nana had found her newest toy.

She pushed the counter’s door and went outside, to tap the younger girl’s shoulder. She was surprised as she came back to earth and from the lost look in her eyes, Nana could only form a smirk, her habits already kicking in.

Someone new in town, huh?

“It’s cold outside, come in; let me treat you for a warm drink.” Nana automatically gave her an eyesmile as she took the stranger’s hand.

The brunette was still trying to take in the events, and before she knew, she was sitting face to face with a blonde whose hand was holding her chin. Looking down, she found a cup with brown liquid and a cutely decorated pink plate that had two pieces of brownies resting on.

“Dig in, cutie,” smiled warmly Nana.

The word made her blush and she quietly took the dessert fork whose tip was shaped like a ribbon to cut a small piece from the brownie. The texture was soft and the melted dark chocolate chips felt creamy, and she mushed them down with a gulp of the hot latte.

Putting the goodness aside, she had in fact, burned her tongue. She noticed that as soon as ’s inside was empty and now, burning. She bit down her lip and Nana was quick to see that something was wrong; by she had already brought a cold glass of water.

“Clumsy, be careful and take your time instead.”

“A-ah yes, sorry…” were her first words before it was quiet at the table again.

The impatient being she is, Nana wanted to start a conversation.

“So Clumsy… I’m not going to call you Clumsy forever, am I?”

She apologized another time, “I’m Kaeun… You are?”

“Nana, simple as that.”

“That’s a cute name for someone pretty like you.” Kaeun grinned to her while Nana was a lil’ bit (in all honesty) taken aback.

That was the beginning of the series of purely accidental and innocent flirting.

“Thanks… You’re not a face I’ve seen before, are you a newcomer by any chance?”

“Yes, a newcomer for a while.” She didn’t say more.

“How old are you? You look pretty young.”

“Aww, that’s sweet. I’m 21, how about you?”

“Older than you of course, I’m 24.”

“Wow, you’re my unnie then. I have the feeling you never changed ever since you entered your twenties.”

“You bet, some call me an “eternal beauty” and ask me to do modelling.”

“I agree with them, you totally should, because with that body, anyone’s eyes would be glued on you.”

Are yours already stuck looking at my hot bod? Or should I make them?

“Oh, is that some subtle message you’re sending me Kaeun-ah? Nah, I’m already preoccupied.”

The younger one couldn’t help but look down to clear her mind for a sec. “P-preoccupied? By what?” She ignored the previous question.

“I own this place.”

“WHAT? A-ah, I need to pay you then, I’m so sorry.” She rummaged in her silk handbag in panic to find her wallet.

Nana stood up and held Kaeun’s hands to stop her from repaying her, shaking her head in disagreement. “Don’t even think of doing that, I was just being nice and I decided to treat you.”

“But I will feel guilty then-

“If you badly want to pay me back, you’ll just have to come here every day and talk with me, I’m kind of bored here.”

She thought about it and nodded, “If you say so unnie, expect anytime soon.”

When Kaeun also quit the café, Nana grinned by herself, standing proudly behind the cash register, deciding to text her “Dad” and “Mom” (aka Jooyeon and Jungah) about her exploit and how she was going to have fun.

But things changed with the grand number of times Kaeun stopped by. The texts to her “parents” became a bit more shy and timid as Nana realized she was forgetting her game. Not only Kaeun’s innocent, unknown to herself, flirting was affecting her but she was being thwarted in her own plans, making this turn into one of those many clichéd stories.

Jooyeon and Jungah scolded her about karma being a b**** and such stuff whenever they could talk with her (since Missy was now occupied with someone else), but Nana was playing deaf when it came to that matter. She was too submerged by Kaeun’s simplicity and cuteness that she forgot what she had done herself.

Maybe this was the last time she would be confused when she counted her fingers.

*

Three cold months later, on the month of lovers, February, and to be more specific, on the 13^th, the two, now closer than ever, girls were sitting together in the café. Nana had brought Kaeun everywhere she could think of before she thought of confessing her heart (On Valentine’s Day, everywhere would be closed).

Her heart was beating faster when she held Kaeun’s hands tightly on the table. She carefully thought of her words. One thing she didn’t know was that Jungah had called Jooyeon over so they could peek on their daughter.

“Don’t forget tomorrow is V-Day,” poked Jooyeon.

“You don’t say, Joo. You know I’m always prepared.” He whispered huskily before stealing a peck.

Jooyeon bit her lip, embracing Jungah’s waist. “Ask me to marry you, then.”

“Stop anticipating things, will you. Or you’ll end up being trolled.” Jungah put his arm around her shoulders, before bringing back their attention on Nana. “But first comes Nana here, sshhh.”

They were both silent. Now that she thought of it, Nana still didn’t know what Kaeun was doing in this town. It had so many months yet that was the only mysterious part she hadn’t pierced through. But did it matter for now? Nope, and she was going to go head first in this matter.

“K-kaeun, it had been so much time now and I would like to tell you something really special…” Her right hand untangled itself from Kaeun’s and reached for something in her jacket’s pocket. “I will always love you, and so, I wish you would-

Her small introduction was cut by the ringing of a cellphone. Kaeun noticed it was hers and quickly went for it in her jean. She answered it and by looking at her surprised happy expression, Nana guessed it was someone Kaeun wanted to talk for a long time.

“Are you serious?... Already here?... Omg, I’m sooo glad you finally made it… ASAP?... Oh, fineee, I missed you anyway.” Her conversation was cut short and she was beaming from excitement.

She had almost forgotten Nana’s existence, before being reminded by her tilted head and arched eyebrow.

“Who was it? A friend?”

Kaeun sighed, “Nope, someone I had to wait here before we could re-meet so we move again somewhere else, aka my boyfriend.”

Nana was dumb-founded. Had she heard right? Only a stupid “Huh?” escaped her lips.

The peepers had almost let out a loud gasp when they had heard that part.

“Yup, now now… before I go, what were you saying unnie?”

“Ah…eh…” Her hand’s direction changed in her pocked to grasp something else that was just beside the object she was going to originally take. “I-I wish you would always see me as an older sister you can count on for any problems.” She gave her a weak smile as she handed her a red spiral lollipop.

“Awwwwww, unnie you’re so adorable! Thank you very much, I’ll never forget our times even if I’m far away.”

Kaeun ran over Nana and hugged tightly before letting her go and jogging away when Nana urged her to not make her boyfriend wait, even if that was a lame excuse so that Kaeun didn’t have to see Nana’s tears.

Her forearms crossed on the table and her head on them, Nana started sobbing like a child while the older ones finally came out of their hiding place to comfort her. They didn’t say anything but sweet words, since they had already warned her about karma way before.

Good job, Kaeun, you ended up innocently playing with the player’s heart.

Fin.}

Haha, yes, Jung’s genderbend and guess what, “his” mom’s Uee LOLJK aaah that fanmeet confession (abt Uee’s future children’s names) is still in my head hahaha. Wow 1900 words and I was evil again and broke Nana’s heart AGAIN SORREH BABE. This was a rare occasion, as I didn’t felt like sleeping at 3am, oh studies~