Chapter Text
Lee Gahyeon is no stranger to disruptions in her routine. She’s not predictable, not in any way in favour of the same thing over and over again, but there are things she needs to stay the same, things she needs to stay within her control.
Within the scope of those things are her friends, a tight-knit group consisting of her and Handong, her business and her apartment.
Her shoes are currently traitors to the cause, missing as they are despite her best efforts to find them.
And God, what traitors they are, the pair seemingly having disappeared from the sand with no trace whatsoever of where they could have gone. She’s not emotional, not prone to crying, but the thought of such an expensive pair being gone on top of this already very bad, no good day is enough to make her press a hand to her lips to suppress a scream.
She turns around once, twice, contemplating diving into the ocean, fully clothed, to find them, but her outfit is just as expensive, if not more so, and Gahyeon isn’t about to ruin such fine fabric even in the service of finding her favourite pair of heels.
“Hey, lady!” She whirls around at the call, coming face to face with a handsomely pretty surfer, her mid length hair pressed to her wet suit in bedraggled strands. She eyes her with displeasure, only distracted when the woman proffers one side of her beloved shoes.
“My heels!” She grabs it greedily, hugging it to her chest before looking at the woman again. “You haven’t seen the other side, have you? Can you help me look?”
“What? No?!” The woman looks at her, thoroughly weirded out as Gahyeon advances on her.
“Please? I can’t just walk back to my care with bare feet.”
“No way, lady.”
“Then what am I supposed to do? I need to get back to my car.”
The woman scoffs but takes her own slippers off, pushing them towards her. Gahyeon looks at them in disbelief, lip almost curling when she registers them as bathroom slippers from Minji’s restaurant. There’s no way this woman expects her to wear them, right?
Gahyeon grumbles as she makes her way through the village, the slippers too big for her feet. On top of everything else, her car has stopped working and she needs a phone, unwilling to simply leave it where it is. She probably shouldn’t have taken it to the beach to begin with, but she’d wanted to avoid the stares of gossiping neighbours and Minji’s too eager need to help.
She’d never even thought that she would be stuck with it like this, never would have thought that she’d be stranded out in the boondocks.
Not that she has any right to complain, what with her moving there and all, but she can’t help it. Gongjin is a major step down from Seoul and she can’t help but look forward to making enough money to restore her reputation and return to the bustling city that never left her bored.
She stops in front of the Paradise café, looking up at it hesitantly. Technically, she could ask Siyeon to use her phone, could probably ask her for help, but that means going in, listening to her talk about her washed up career while her kid stares her down, judging her. She’d never even heard the woman’s song, much less heard her sing, and she doesn’t really feel the need to change that anytime soon.
She glances at her phone again, hoping for some sign that it will work this time, but nope. The empty bars stare back at her, mocking, irritating.
She hisses at the phone and tosses it into her bag, squaring her shoulders to enter the café. Ten minutes. She can do ten minutes, less if she can get through to roadside assistance fast enough.
Yubin bends in front of Siyeon’s pour-over, carefully pouring water onto the coffee grounds in the filter. She was so close to the perfect blend, maybe a few mixes left before she could create it, but it needed patience and practice to happen.
“…and then she said I was an absentminded dummy,” Siyeon whines in front of her. “Can you believe it? My precious little Heejin called me a dummy.”
Yubin smiles but she doesn’t say anything, letting Siyeon have the space to whine about the woes of parenthood. She’s heard it all before, seen it all before, and everything still remains the same. There really is no need to mess with a winning formula, not really.
“Hello? Siyeon-ssi? I need to borrow your phone.”
She jumps at the sound of that voice, cursing as hot water splashes onto her hands. Siyeon rushes to grab a towel, upending the pour over in the process and creating a sopping mess on the counter.
“I-I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to-”
She cuts Siyeon off with a small smile. She knows her best friend, knows what day it is. Besides, it’s only coffee and no one’s hurt, so Yubin doesn’t let it bother her much as she turns to the short woman from the beach.
“Phone’s out,” she says. “A fire at BrayCom knocked out all the lines.”
She gapes at her, not that it helps much with the manic, almost psychotic look in her eye. Whoever this woman is, she must be desperate to get out of Gongjin because she starts to badger Siyeon about a mechanic.
Heejin comes down at the same time, stopping short as she sees the woman with her mother. Her eyes widen and she jumps in place as she points.
“Aunt Yubin! That’s the woman! That’s the woman who owed us money!”
She frowns. “The one you said had a fake bag?”
The woman looks over then with an even more irritated look than the one she’d worn when she’d come in. It makes Yubin smile cheekily, enjoying her obvious anger at Heejin’s words.
“It’s not fake, short stuff!”
“I’m fourteen and still growing. What’s your excuse?”
Yubin watches with some amusement as the woman gapes like a fish out of water, unable to come up with a retort. Heejin is sharp, ready and able to call out bullshit when she wants. Yubin is just glad not to be the target of her ire this time.
“I can help,” she says. With the way the woman lights up, it’s almost a shame that she has to continue speaking, but she does have standards. “For a price.”
Once, twice…she thinks the woman blinks at her three times before she turns, ready to leave. She’s about to let her too, but Siyeon stops her, her heart too big and ready to serve even in the face of this strangely rude woman.
What is she even doing in their small town besides fleecing the residents?
“Gahyeon-ssi! Wait! I’m sure Yubin-ah’s price is fair, and even if you can’t pay right now, you two can work something out, right?”
For a moment, she contemplates saying no, but there’s a hesitation on Gahyeon’s face that intrigues her, sets her mind whirring as she comes up with a plan on the spot.
“Sure. Something can be arranged.”
She says it so quickly and easily as she takes off her apron that Gahyeon doesn’t have time to protest, not that Yubin has any intention of giving her the chance. Her mind is already running ahead, seeing the opportunities that this is presenting and how best to use them.
“Follow me and I’ll take you to all your dreams.”
“Aish,” Heejin sneers, and Yubin has to grimace. “Too greasy?”
“Definitely too greasy,” the girl says, retreating to wherever she goes when she goes up to her and Siyeon’s apartment.
Siyeon shakes her head in Heejin’s direction. “You go on ahead. I caused this mess so I’ll clean it up.”
“Alright.” She salutes as she leaves, shooing Gahyeon out with her. “See you later, unnie!”
The shorter woman in front of her grumbles, but Yubin doesn’t care. She’s already calculating what this woman can earn and how much she can charge her. Not that she’s completely unsympathetic to her plight. She’s seen her with Haewon and Wonwoo, noticed how well she gets along with the children in the town, but that doesn’t change things between them.
She’s a stranger from Seoul, too much of a reminder of things she’d rather forget. There’s no use getting attached.
“Oy! Are you going to show me how to get the money you need or not?”
Yubin grins. She might not want to get attached, but she can have fun and maybe help Gahyeon relax while she’s at it. If nothing else, there’s that.