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Suyeon practically dragged Youngwoo through the department store, who was taking it quite well (considering she didn’t have a choice in the matter anyway).
“I can’t believe the new fashion brand is already selling, we need to go check it out before it’s all gone!” Suyeon had excitedly called Youngwoo the day before, setting up an outing as soon as possible. Youngwoo didn’t have any plans and could tell how excited Suyeon sounded, hence her current situation.
“A-ah… yes.” Despite agreeing to accompany her friend, Youngwoo was already starting to feel tired out by the rushing from place to place and the clambering of people in the mall.
“Also, there’s this gimbap place I wanted us to go to as well since I thought you might like it.” Youngwoo smiled to herself at Suyeon’s thoughtfulness and the idea of gimbap after their mall run. However, her sentiments of Suyeon’s thoughtfulness were brushed off as she was uncomfortably pulled along towards the clothing shop Suyeon wanted to go to.
Coming up to the store, the frenzy inside and out was hard to miss. A constant flow of traffic streamed in and out, and from outside, fleeting glimpses of the staff weaving through the crowd, working without pausing could be seen.
Feeling intimidated, Youngwoo paused. “Suyeon… maybe let’s not go in.”
“There really are a lot of people, huh?” Suyeon grimaced, feeling reluctant to go in as well. “We’ll come back another time I guess.” She sighed, she couldn’t help being disappointed, but she knew she could come back later and didn’t want to make Youngwoo more uncomfortable than she already was.
Unfortunately for the two though, in their moment of hesitation, a new wave of shoppers came surging forward, shoving them helplessly into the midst of the over-capacity store. And in the rush of people, their arms were unlinked and the two women were separated.
“Ah- Youngwoo!” Suyeon could see Youngwoo struggling through the crowd trying to get to her, and her anxiety was already reaching high levels.
Youngwoo frantically tried looking for Suyeon, barely making out her voice over the excited chatter of the other customers. “S-suyeon!” Her nerves were on edge and she was getting bumped into and spun around, pushed further into the store. Every time someone brushed past her or shouldered or bumped into her, Youngwoo started to feel a surge of rising panic, losing her focus on finding Suyeon. The people, the sounds, the proximity — it was all too much. Her hands came to her ears over and over, attempts to block out the sounds, and as a comforting movement. She spun around, aided by the whirl of people passing her, shifting from foot to foot. But no matter what she did, it was just all too much.
Between the sensory overload, her attempts to soothe herself, and her shattered awareness, Youngwoo failed to notice that Suyeon had managed to find and get to her. On Suyeon’s part she had just used sheer force to cut through the throng of apparently fashion starved women.
Grabbing Youngwoo’s wrists to stop her from hurting herself with the force and repetivity she was using against her ears, Suyeon felt a pang of deep guilt at the sight of Youngwoo’s panic. Even though she was aware of which situations Youngwoo was uncomfortable in for the most part, she had still brought her to the mall when she knew it would be busy. Seeing her tearing up and panicking in front of her, Suyeon drew Youngwoo towards herself, wrapping her in a hug, hopefully protecting her from the traffic and helping her anxiety even a little.
Suyeon could feel Youngwoo shaking, her breathing rapid, muscles tensed. She knew they couldn’t just stand there until the store cleared out a little since that would take hours, so with Youngwoo securely in her arms, Suyeon shouldered her way back through the crowd towards the door, earning the two women a mix of dirty and confused looks.
Breaching through the massive crowds at last, finally having space to breathe again, Suyeon quickly took Youngwoo aside to not risk being swept back into the store they had barely managed to escape from.
Suyeon released Youngwoo from the embrace, gently holding her face, which was currently facing the ground, and checked on her.
“Youngwoo? Are young alright?”
Shaking Suyeon’s hand off her face (in which she just placed them onto her shoulders) Youngwoo gave a hesitant nod. Her heart was still racing, and the overload hadn’t completely left her senses yet, but being out of the crowd had helped.
Seeing Youngwoo’s weak response, Suyeon just pulled her back into one of her crushing hugs. The taller woman enveloped Youngwoo, and despite her aversion to most touch, Youngwoo could feel herself begin to relax from the pressure of Suyeon’s hug. The constant pressure all around her, the warmth from the other woman — it felt nice. As the anxiety ebbed and her senses returned, Youngwoo wiggled out of the embrace, met with Suyeon’s gaze, darkened with concern.
“Are you ok now?”
“Yes. Thank you for hugging me tightly, the pressure from hugs helps with anxiety… and thank you for taking me out of there.” Youngwoo glanced around, thankful to be back in a safer space.
“No, I should be apologizing.” At that, Youngwoo turned back to Suyeon. “I brought you here even though I knew it would be busy, and it ended up with us almost getting stuck in that car-wreck of a shop.”
“Oh. Well, it’s alright since we got out anyway.”
“Aish, you’re way too forgiving!” Suyeon lightly slapped Youngwoo’s shoulder in reprimand, Youngwoo just giving her a confused look. She wanted Youngwoo to be at least a little upset with her, maybe irritated or disappointed. Just not immediately ‘everything’s forgiven.’ But since things seemed to have worked out, Suyeon decided she would deal with her guilt later.
“Anyways, how about we go get that gimbap, hm? We can relax after that mess. It should be on the way back to the parking lot anyways.”
“Sure,” Youngwoo responded, taking a step forward to begin their short journey. In which her legs gave out, causing her to stumble into Suyeon.
“Hey, are you sure you’re ok?” Suyeon asked worriedly, straightening up the woman in front of her.
“Ah! I’m sorry, I’m fine, it just appears that I have a mobility limitation, likely due to the stress,” Young said matter-of-factly.
Suyeon stared at her for a second, a look of consideration on her face before speaking again.
“Here’s what we’ll do…”
With some convincing and not much of a choice due to Suyeon’s urging, the situation the two women ended up in consisted of Youngwoo on Suyeon’s back, arms loosely wrapped around her neck.
“Just until the restaurant, ok? Then you can rest and should be able to walk back to the car yourself.”
Youngwoo responded with a slightly nervous nod. “Are you sure this is ok, or safe? And aren’t people looking at us…?”
“Don’t worry, it’ll be quick.” Suyeon had a feeling Youngwoo wouldn’t like the piggyback for that long, so she made her way towards the gimbap restaurant as quickly as possible while remaining safe.
“Oh! Junho asked me to send him pictures of what I do.” Junho had gone on a vacation trip with family but wanted to know what his girlfriend was up to, hence the request. “Going to the mall with Suyeon is something I can send pictures of.”
“Sure. Oh, and we can take a selfie now and make Junho-ssi jealous!” Suyeon laughed, pausing to let Youngwoo take out her phone and hold it out in front of the two to take a selfie. Looking at the picture, Suyeon let out a chuckle at Youngwoo’s attempts to smile. It was still a work in progress.
While Suyeon brought the two of them to their meal, Youngwoo sent the picture to Junho, telling him about their outing, and how ‘Spring Sunshine Suyeon’ was taking care of her and telling him not to be jealous of their outing.
“Youngwoo, we’re here. Also, instead of texting the dude who’s across the country, focus on the date you're on right now!” Squatting down, Suyeon gently placed Youngwoo back onto the ground, grabbing her hand and pulling her up to order.
“But, aren’t dates between people who like each other?” Youngwoo only went on dates with Junho since she liked him after all.
“Yes, and I like you, so there’s nothing wrong with that. And I’d hope you like me to,” Suyeon muttered the last part under her breath. “Besides, there’s different types of like y’know. But let’s order!”
Youngwoo thought about what Suyeon said, absorbing the information. “’Different types of like…’”
Soon enough, the two had their food, and sat at some tables near the different food stalls. Reaching across the table, Suyeon grabbed Youngwoo’s water and swiftly opened it while the other woman was occupied with meticulously lining up the individual gimbap rolls.
After eating the first piece, Youngwoo gave a nod of approval.
“Let's come here again sometime, Suyeon.”
Youngwoo was busy eating, missing the smile Suyeon gave her.
“Yeah, let’s.”