If there was one thing Soah avoided, it was dwelling on the past, her past in particular. She had decided to put everything behind the moment she had left her house and she didn’t plan on moping on memories any time soon. But fate had laid a pattern for her life to follow and as much as she wanted to run away, she found herself at the same spot all over again. Whenever Soah began to feel comfortable in one place, something had to happen. And, that ‘something’ usually felt like a punch in the guts, leaving her breathless and unable to react. On the top of her head, she remembered the time when she learnt her boyfriend was cheating on her after she had really believed she could build a future with him, the time when she had finally gotten used to her house only to be told they were moving, the rabbit she had received as a present when she was fourteen that had died after four months of good care, etc. She had tons of examples that corroborated that fact, but reminding herself of them sure wasn’t a good way to lock her past in the closet with all her skeletons, where it definitely belonged. But sometimes it was the time to pull one of them out. There were so many, Soah was worried her emotional and metaphysical closet full of skeletons would explode. And, between them all, the one that had chosen to fall on her was the one that involved Yuri and Minho and her messed up childhood. Well, it wasn’t so bad and Soah had a tendency to dramatize, but it still wasn't the most fun a girl could have...

Staring at the phone, Soah read at the text message Minho had sent her. They expected her to come and meet them to have lunch this week. He offered Sunday at 12 o’clock and Soah had no excuse not to go.

“And bring your boyfriend, I’d love to meet him,” Soah read. “Ah! How about not?”

Irony was cruel. Although she was very certain her lingering affection for her childhood friend could no longer be labeled as ‘like’, she still found the situation weird.

She replied she was going to be there, to which she got back a message that indicated they had a big new for her.

“That’s it, Yuri’s pregnant,” Soah stated with a sigh.

And she spent the whole morning thinking of how it would be like to be an aunt, standing behind her cash register. Lost in her thoughts, she only noticed Chanyeol and his trail of shopping carts when he almost ran her over. She was pulled out of the way by the arm before the collision. Whipping over, she was surprised to see Joonmyun a big smile plastered on his face.

Soah would be smiling too if she met the person who had sent her a weird text message about being better and kissing. It would definitely be fun to see how embarrassed that person would be. But, for now, that person was she and she was very much ashamed. Feeling herself becoming redder, she lowered her head.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he patted her head like a worried mother.

The gesture made her smile and she assured him she was okay. He went back to work after checking she no longer had a fever, which was fortunately the case.

“I’m sorry, So! I didn’t see you there,” Chanyeol apologized after putting away the carts.

“It’s okay, I’m not harmed,” she assured him.

Chanyeol was the poor soul who was stuck working on most of the nights since Kris had decided to change their schedule around a little. The only day he and Soah worked together, now, was on Fridays.

“Luckily, Suho was there.”

Chanyeol and his never-faltering grin had a habit of calling his friends with nicknames. And, well, he considered everyone his friend, hence he never used their full names. To him, she was known as So. It wouldn’t have been a bad nickname if it didn’t mean ‘small’ and Soah just couldn’t see anything small about herself.

“Are you dating anyone, So?” Chanyeol asked, out of the blue.

She stared at him in surprise, but realized he was just being curious, not interested in her that way. In a way, Chanyeol was very much like a kid who couldn’t keep to himself what was going through his mind.

“No, I am not,” she answered, pushing her chin forward proudly. She refused to be judged for it.

“Then how about Suho? You could date him.”

“Wh… I… Um…” Soah was left speechless and while she tried to utter a complete sentence, Chanyeol kept speaking.

“I think he likes you.” Then, seeing her flustered face, he broke into a huge grin. “Aw! You’d like it if he liked you!”

Soah practically jumped on Chanyeol to stick her hands on his mouth. She had to keep him quiet. Who knows if someone wasn’t lurking around, ready to tell the world about her coworker’s assumptions?

“I don’t like him like that,” she retorted.

The boy only snickered as he went back to his job.

Rolling her eyes, Soah found herself daydreaming about her future nephew again. They wouldn’t even be able to meet a lot because Soah definitely wasn’t going back home now. And, what if Yuri made her godmother. Who was going to be godfather? She winced at the thought one of Minho’s friends could be it. That would be awkward because she had dated most of them when she still hadn’t sworn off love yet.

Baekhyun quickly met her at the register, snapping her out of dreamland. He didn’t seem pleased.

“Chanyeol and I had a disagreement and I know I am right,” he affirmed when she asked him what was up.

“And I can’t tell you about it,” he added as she opened to make him develop on the subject.

She clicked her tongue in annoyance and turn to face the customer that was waiting to be served. Realizing he was staring at her like she was an alien, Soah frowned.

“Can I help you?” she harshly said.

To Soah, customer was never King. She believed she was paid to make them pay for their food and that smile was only an option. Visibly, her boss thought otherwise. Nevertheless, Soah felt bad as the man in front of her took a step back, as if he was afraid of her, so she smiled. Obviously, it surprised Baekhyun who just stood there flabbergasted. Once she finished packing the customer’s grocery bags, her friend turned to her.

“Congratulations, you finally discovered a girl’s second greatest weapons,” he ironized.

“The second?” Soah asked. “What is the first?” and her face showed apprehension as if she wasn’t sure she was going to like the answer he would give.

“Her tears.”

She nodded in understanding. A tear and a smile could get a girl practically anywhere. They just shouldn’t be used at the same time.

The rest of the morning was very quiet and Jinah came to take Soah’s place as she went to eat. She even managed to enter her break at the same time Chanyeol and Baekhyun did. They happily decided to go for jajangmyeon. As they went outside to eat, they met with Joonmyun who waved and wished them a good lunch.

“Do you want to come with us,” Soah offered, trying to ignore the chuckles coming from her tall friend.

“No, thank you. I already made plans for lunch.” Joonmyun gave them a big smile that made his eyes disappear.

So Soah was left with both her guy friends and their crazy eating habits. Chanyeol ate twice as much as she and Baekhyun did, combined, and Baekhyun would always make faces to illustrate how he felt when eating. It was true to say that they had a fun time and almost missed out on coming back on time. Kris wouldn’t have been pleased.

Taking her spot back, she bid goodbye to Jinah as she was done with working for the day, but Baekhyun held her back with a single question.

“So, Nana, you and Daehyun?”

Baekhyun wiggled his eyebrows suggestively and she seemed horrified he knew about it. “I know from a good source that you both have something going on.”

“Who, besides you, knows?” Jinah asked, worried.

“If he does, probably everyone else…” Soah confirmed. “Sorry!”

“This is why Jungah was laughing when we worked together yesterday,” Jinah realized with a sigh. “Oh, well, the secret was bound to get out one day…”

She shrugged and turned to face Baekhyun. “Please don’t spread rumors about me anymore, though.”

He raised a brow and plastered a knowing smirk on his face. Soah knew it meant he couldn’t promise anything and apparently, so did Jinah. She sighed once more and went to get her things to go home. And probably do damage control, Soah thought.

“We just can’t keep you away from gossip. Can we?”

“Nope!” Baekhyun answered Soah’s comment, making sure to pop the ‘p’ at the end of the word.

The rest of the day was pretty calm until the moment an old man tried to make a pass at Soah. She had to insist on the fact that she really was dating someone – a tall and muscular guy who happened to be a pro-wrestler champion in America – but he only left her alone when she threatened him with her bottle of perfume in spray.

“Clients are so weird!” Soah commented on the whole situation.

“Soah,” Joonmyun warned coldly as he was passing by.

And that was so totally random and unexpected Soah wondered if she had heard wrong. She frowned and wondered when exactly her nice and caring boss became the kind to be suddenly cold and ignore people. Because that was what he was doing. He made detours not to be near her, never looked her way and talked to everyone but her. At least, that’s what she noticed in the two hours of working she had left.

“What’s up with him?” she asked Daehyun who was walking by, his hands holding a box of cabbages.

“What do you mean? He’s not different from usual…”

And so she concluded he only acted that way with her. Maybe it was the text-message that had finally gone through to him and he wanted no more association with her. So when Kris asked to talk to her, just as she was leaving, Soah’s brain automatically jumped to the conclusion she was getting fired.

All because of one stupid text-message! Or maybe there was something else she didn’t notice… Perhaps being her usual self had disappointed her bosses or made them thing they would be better if they got rid of her…

“About yesterday’s question,” Kris started once he made sure no one else was around.

Blinking, Soah began considering maybe her job was safe and she relaxed a bit, her shoulder loosening from the previous tight hold. Now, what did one of them asked the other yesterday? Of the top of her head, she had many possibilities…

Seeing her clueless face, Kris began explaining. “I can play your pretend boyfriend if you want. I’ve sorted out what kept me from helping you.”

No word came to Soah except: “Oh!”

And feeling utterly dumb, she forced herself to continue what seemed like decent sentences.

“This is very nice of you! However, I thought it would be better if I told them the truth…”

“Oh!” Kris said, with the exact same expression she had seconds before. “Then it’s all good. You should know lying is never a good way to get yourself out of messes.”

He awkwardly patted her shoulder in an attempt to seem like a good older brother who loved to give friendly advice and not some random guy who liked to nag.

“Then, I’ll be going home since I’m done for the day.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you one tomorrow.”

“Right…” she said trying to look everywhere, but his eyes because of how weird the situation had become. Well, for once, Kris had always been a bit on the stiff side, but now he really bore a striking resemblance to a pole. Maybe if he weren’t so skinny and actually started eating like a growing man – which he wasn’t anymore – he would not be as similar. Oh the irony of working in a grocery store.

Soah fled before the heavy silence became even worse and Kris got back to his job. On her way out, she noticed Baekhyun and Chanyeol were both done with their day too and she went to offer to hang out. They could go to noraebang because how much time had it been since she last went to karaoke? Oh, right, since the Yesung-Yuri fiasco…

“What are you suggesting?” Chanyeol yelled, making Soah stop in her track, as she knew she was going to interrupt a fight. “Are you saying you always know everything?”

“Of course I always know best!” Baekhyun vociferated. “You should listen to me!”

“Soah,” Chanyeol began, making a quick pause to compose a sentence that made sense.

“Yes?” the girl interrupted.

Seeing how both her male friend’s head snapped toward her in surprise, she realized that maybe they were talking about her and not to her. She frowned and walked to them.

“What are you arguing about? And what does it have to do with me?”

Both guys looked at each other for a minute and cracked a smile.

“Don’t worry about it, it’s a silly argument.”

Chanyeol nodded along to Baekhyun’s statement. “Beside, you are old enough to make your own choices,” he added.

More confused than ever, Soah watched as they smirked and walked away, leaving her hanging in front of the grocery store.

“What does it has to do with anything?” she shouted but they didn’t answer.

“Oh, whatever! I’ll just go home. You missed on my beautiful singing voice!”

Seeing they were too far to even hear her, she turned back and started walking home.

“Who am I kidding, I sound like a dying whale.”