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Awkwardly, Dahyun took a small step backwards, trying to create distance between her and Woojin. But not getting the picture (like always), he took a step towards her. She really wished she was paying more attention to her surroundings so she could have avoided this whole situation to begin with.
“Yeah, my jacket’s getting too small– gonna have to buy a new one soon. That’s one of the worst parts about hitting the gym every day, I’m getting too big for all of my clothes.”
Internally, she gagged when he started to flex his muscles, trying to show off, but externally she gave him a fake half-smile. His arrogance had been a turn off since the day they met. Even if she was into guys, she could never be into someone like that. She just wished he would listen when she tried to get that point across.
“But, I’m sure you wouldn’t know anything about that–” his eyes raked over her body, making her even more uncomfortable, “-you could go a size smaller, show off your body a little more.”
Not sure how to respond and not wanting to be rude for fear of retaliation, she let out an uneasy, nervous laugh. “I’m more of an oversized hoodie kind of person. Comfort is top on my priority list for clothes. My shirts are so comfy– my girlfriend steals them all the time,” she tried hard to stress the word ‘girlfriend’. This wasn’t anything new, she's slipped in that she likes girls multiple times in their encounters, but he always ignores her.
Just like he did this time.
“I hear skirts are really comfortable, you’d look great in one,” Woojin leaned in a bit closer.
Biting her tongue to stop herself from saying ‘If they're so comfortable then why don’t you wear one?’, Dahyun’s eyes frantically bounced around the clothing store, looking for anything to help her get out of this situation.
Her ‘out’ came in the form of laughter.
Across the rather large store, a group of four girls that looked to be somewhat close to her age were engaged in an apparently entertaining conversation. A short haired blonde girl with bangs that was dressed up in a stylish yet slightly oversized black jacket was getting smacked to death by a brown headed girl with a very loud and slightly over the top laugh.
Next to them, another girl with a lighter shade of brown and strands that hung down to frame her face perfectly was leaning on a black haired girl that rocked a similar hairstyle to the blondes, but with more of a wolf-cut styling. Both had a hand over their mouths to contain their giggles.
They seemed like they could be nice and they most certainly had to have experienced a situation similar to this at some point. They were all extremely attractive after all. So pretty, that under normal circumstances she might hesitate to go anywhere near them, but shitty situations called for creative solutions.
Pretending to light up with recognition, Dahyun gasped loudly. “Oh my gosh! I can’t believe my girlfriend’s here with her friends too. Small world, I’m gonna go say hi.” She took off, not sparing even a glance behind her while waving her hand over exaggeratedly at the girls.
The one with the wolf cut noticed first and hesitated before offering a confused wave back. When she did so, the other three followed their friend’s line of sight and locked onto Dahyun too.
“Hey, I can’t believe you guys are here too!” She half-yelled, slightly startling the four.
The second she reached them, she looked around desperately at each of their faces. “Please, please! Can one of you pretend to be my girlfriend? I’m begging you,” she finally took the time to check over her shoulder, dread coursing through her when she saw Woojin trailing after her. “Pretty, pretty please, I need it to be believable, he won’t leave me alone,” she clasped her hands together, praying one of them would take pity on her.
It worked, but not in the way she thought it would.
The girl with the light brown hair– the one with remarkably beautiful eyes now that Dahyun was able to see them up close, immediately pulled her in, and connected their lips out of nowhere. Dahyun’s eyes grew wide at the unexpected kiss, but she quickly forced them to shut.
She did say she wanted them to make it believable after all.
And Jesus, with the way the stranger was kissing her, Dahyun was almost positive that she herself would believe it too had she been an innocent bystander to all of this. Her fake girlfriend deserved an Oscar for the groundbreaking performance she was putting on.
The girl moved her lips with precision, letting Dahyun know she was very experienced in this particular field. Seamlessly, they’re mouths clashed together, moving as though they had done this a hundred times already. And that was kind of interesting considering Dahyun had only kissed two people up until this point and she wouldn’t particularly say it was anything to write home about.
Bringing a hand up to cup Dahyun’s jaw, she tilted her head to the side and ran the tip of her tongue over her bottom lip. Unsure of what the hell was even happening, but very very okay with it, Dahyun opened her mouth and granted her access.
Making out with a pretty girl in the middle of a clothing store was not how she envisioned her day going, but she wasn’t about to complain. In fact, she kind of wished this moment could go on a little longer, but of course Woojin just had to interrupt the best kiss she’d ever had the pleasure of receiving.
He cleared his throat not once, but twice– a little irritated that the first one had gone ignored because Dahyun’s fake girlfriend was taking her sweet time at separating them. When they did break, Dahyun fluttered her eyes open to look at the smiling girl in front of her in a daze. If the girl was at all affected by the kiss, she did a great job at not showing it.
Confidently, she ran the hand that had been cupping Dahyun’s face down her arm to connect their palms. She shot her a wink before turning fully to face Woojin. “Yes?” the girl asked sweetly…maybe a little too sweetly.
Letting out what seemed to be an annoyed exhale, he crossed his arms. “You two are together?”
“Yep,” she popped the ‘p’ proudly, bouncing a little on the tips of her toes before glancing over at Dahyun. “She’s my girlfriend. Insanely gorgeous, right?” Bashfully, Dahyun broke eye contact, her face taking on a pink tint. “Well, I’m Woojin, I’m sure you’ve heard about me. Dahyun and I are pretty close. Haven’t heard anything about you though.”
Dahyun cringed at the ‘pretty close’ part because no, they weren’t and they never would be close in any way. She wanted to express that somehow to the other girl, but with Woojin staring at them, she didn’t know how to. With her hand being the only thing she could think of to silently communicate to her, Dahyun squeezed it.
Her fake girlfriend replied with two squeezes of her own, signaling that it would be alright. “Probably because you weren’t listening to her,” she batted her eyelashes at him, earning partially stifled giggles from her friends that were just observing the scene before them, completely amused. “Yes I was,” he argued.
“Oh really? I’m sorry, that’s my bad. I just figured you were one of those creepy guys that has nothing better to do with their time other than going after girls that clearly aren’t interested with the way you were chasing after her like that.” Woojin opened and closed his mouth, his eyebrows creased. “But I’m glad you're not like that! Seems like you have enough common sense to know when to walk away. So, if you don’t mind, I’d really like to pick up where we left off before you got here.”
…and then they were kissing again.
Woojin tried to interject, but her fake girlfriend simply slipped her hand behind Dahyun’s neck and kissed her firmly. Very much liking the fact that this girl's lips were on hers again, Dahyun reached her own hands up to settle on her waist. “They do this a lot. They’re not stopping anytime soon dude, you might as well just go,” Dahyun faintly heard one of the other girls say, but it was kind of hard to concentrate on anything other than her fake girlfriend’s tongue gliding gently against her own.
Another minute passed before one of the girls cleared their throat and spoke to the pair this time. “He’s gone, you two can take a breath. It looks like you need one.” Drawing back, her fake girlfriend murmured between them, “Are you sure? We can keep going just in case, can’t we?” Though the first question was aimed at the others, the second one was for Dahyun. And to that Dahyun stuttered back breathlessly, “I– uh-um.”
“Sana, just ask her for her number and stop making out in front of us please. I’m about to lose my lunch.”
Pouting, Sana pulled back the rest of the way, causing Dahyun to dunk her head down in slight embarrassment with the realization that all of them had just watched the two intensely make out. “We should do that again, but maybe somewhere a little more private?” Sana gazed at her with hopeful eyes.
Finding everything about this mysterious girl alluring, Dahyun found herself nodding rather quickly. “We should– I mean, uh, here,” she searched her pockets for her phone, then held it up to Sana so she could be added to her contact list. With a delighted grin, Sana typed in her information and handed it back to her.
“Thank you for your help with him.”
“No need to thank me, that was the highlight of my day,” she pressed a kiss to Dahyun’s cheek, a smirk forming on her face when she noticed just how red the shorter girl was. “Well, I should, uh, probably let you guys get back to what you were doing. Sorry for interrupting,” Dahyun directed her attention to the others.
“It’s cool, dude was a weirdo,” the blonde one waved her off.
And with that, Dahyun left them alone, sparing a parting glance in Sana’s direction, only to find the other girl checking her out as she went. Unlike when Woojin did it, she could tell Sana was more appreciating her beauty than anything, the soft smile resting on her lips and sweet eyes gave it all away.
===
Later that evening, she stared at her phone, contemplating what she should message her. Sana seemed to be far more confident than she was, so it was a shame Dahyun had to be the one to send the first text.
“Dear hot chick that kisses random strangers, you’re hot. You should come over so we can make out again. Love, Dahyun.”
Dahyun rolled her eyes. “You want me to be single forever.”
“It’s my ultimate goal. I want you all to myself, come here baby,” Chaeyoung puckered her lips out teasingly, opening her arms wide. “Careful, Mina will get jealous,” Dahyun’s eyes flickered over to the girl in question. “I’m not really the jealous type. Go crazy,” she gave her a gummy smile.
“Minaaa, don’t egg her on,” Dahyun dragged her friend's name out, fending Chaeyoung off when she started crawling on top of her. “Chae, get off, go attack Tzuyu or something.”
“Might not want to do that, Jihyo is the jealous type,” Mina commented.
“I am,” Jihyo slid out of Dahyun’s desk chair that she had been inhabiting and strolled over to where Tzuyu was on the floor, her back against the bed. Opening her arms in invitation, Tzuyu caught her girlfriend when she plopped down into her lap, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “You don’t need to be though, I’m all yours.”
Dahyun and Chaeyoung pretended to vomit.
“Keep going and we can act out what happened with Dahyun earlier,” Tzuyu said wryly, obviously referring to the make out session. “Ooh, let’s do it! I’ll be Woojin,” Chaeyoung stood from the bed and rolled the sleeves of her shirt up. “How you doin’ girl? You’re lookin’ fine today,” though the words should have been aimed at Tzuyu and Jihyo if she was actually trying to reenact the scene, she directed them at Mina.
“There's too many couples in here right now,” Dahyun groaned, shaking her head. She wasn’t even sure why they were hanging out in her bedroom to begin with when there was an empty living room right down the hall. It was probably just to annoy her– like everything else they did in life.
“There might be one more if you would just send something to that girl, what’s her name again?” Jihyo asked, sinking into Tzuyu when the younger girl’s hands encircled her. “Sana,” Dahyun gnawed on her lip, her gaze bouncing between her friend and her phone.
“Just say ‘hi’ and tell her it’s you, she’s obviously interested already,” Mina advised, acting like Chaeyoung wasn’t lifting her hand to feel her bicep at this very moment. “There’s nothing there Chaeng, what are you even having her feel?” Tzuyu raised an eyebrow. Offended, Chaeyoung turned to Mina. “That’s not true! There’s a lot there, right Mina?”
Mina wobbled her head up and down, attempting to keep a straight face when she said, “Yeah, a ton.” Proudly, Chaeyoung hiked her eyebrow up at Tzuyu. “See, I’m ripped.” “So ripped you had to stop kneading dough after two whole minutes the other day.”
“I’m not the baker here, Jihyo is. Leave my dough kneading time alone,” Chaeyoung said defensively. “It was my fault for asking her to help to begin with,” Jihyo sighed.
“Alright, someone fight me right now!”
Dahyun ignored her friend and decided to just follow Mina’s advice.
Dahyun: Hi, Sana? It’s Dahyun, the girl from the store earlier
The reply came quicker than she expected.
Sana: You're acting like I forgot
Sana: Pretty hard to forget a kiss like that
Fighting back a blush, Dahyun tried to suppress a smile and racked her brain for what to say next, but Sana sent another message before she got the chance to.
Sana: Please tell me you're about to ask me out?
The smile was not successfully suppressed.
Dahyun: I am, but I don’t really know much about you, any ideas on where you’d like to go?
“Ooh it’s going well, look at her all smiley over there,” she heard Jihyo say. “What’s she saying?” Chaeyoung pried, now strung out on Mina’s lap. “Nothing,” Dahyun dismissed her in favor of reading the new message that just came in. Nearly dropping her phone in her lap when she did.
Sana: Home with you? ;)
She didn’t have much time to panic before the next text popped up.
Sana: Kidding, kidding, but I do have an idea actually
Sana: Why don’t we meet up for lunch at noon tomorrow? I can text you the address of the place if you're free?
Dahyun: Yeah, definitely, I'm free, text away
Chaeyoung whined while Mina brushed a strand of hair out of her face. “I wanna know what’s happening.” Giving in, mostly because she wanted to divulge details as much as Chaeyoung wanted them, Dahyun told her friends what was going on. “You should look up the address and see where you're going so you know how to dress or what you two are going to be doing.”
Liking that idea, Dahyun typed in the address, her brows furrowing at the result that popped up instantly. “It’s an animal sanctuary.” That wasn’t really what she was expecting. She was thinking more along the lines of a random restaurant downtown like most people do for a first date. “I love that place, the animals there are so sweet. I got to pet a sloth one time,” Mina reminisced.
“Maybe you’ll get to pet your spirit animal,” Tzuyu caught Jihyo’s hand that was now tracing her forearm and kissed the back of it. “I’m kind of scared of real eagles, but it does sound like a fun date. Just walking around and meeting cute animals,” Dahyun smiled.
“Is it the baldness that scares you?”
“Yes, in fact, your father terrifies me, Chaeyoung.”
“That’s why you missed my birthday in second grade isn’t it?”
“Why won’t you let that go! I had strep throat. Did you want me to come and give it to you or something?” Dahyun huffed. Chaeyoung nodded vigorously, “Yes! I had a test the next day, dumbass. You could have gotten me out of it.”
Rolling her eyes, Dahyun replied. “Okay fine, I’ll sneeze on you next time I’m sick. Happy?”
“Yes,” Chaeyoung nodded, then paused, “Wait–”
===
The next day, Dahyun walked into the animal sanctuary a little lost. Sana told her to come to the fox enclosure, but it was a tad bit confusing finding her way around the place. Strolling by dozens of different fenced up areas, she encountered everything from Alpacas to black bears. The farther she got, it slowly started to become apparent that the big animals were towards the front, meaning the smaller ones were probably in the back.
And that hypothesis was proven true when she reached a small break point with signs pointing her to continue on. There were probably signs at the front too, but she just sort of took off, eager to find Sana and it wasn’t until she passed a lion with a chipped off ear that she realized her mistake.
Eventually, the animals started to decrease in size until a little silver fox showed up in front of her. It wasn’t super friendly, but it wasn’t aggressive either. The animal was simply just living it’s life, disregarding Dahyun’s existence entirely and walking to the other end of the extremely large patch of land.
Anxious, but excited, she scoured her surroundings, trying to find Sana. She sent her a text to let her know she made it to the enclosure, but never received a reply. From end to end, she made the long trek along the fox area, paying extra attention to a few seating areas that were occupied by people needing a break.
Ten minutes passed and Dahyun’s shoulders were beginning to slouch, unsure of what to do.
She wasn’t quite sure what was going on because Sana had been extremely forward in telling her she wanted to go out, yet she was nowhere to be found. Every visitor she passed, she examined fully, but none were the girl she was searching for.
Until she heard her name coming from the other side of the fence, far far away from the visitor area. “Dahyun! One second, I’m sorry!” Sana yelled from across the way, sounding extremely out of breath. Her brows shot up after seeing the girl in what looked to be a green polo shirt and khaki pants: the staff outfit.
Observing the scene, Dahyun tried to figure out what was happening. Though the girl was running around chaotically, there was no fear on her face, only a touch of exhaustion. “Finn please!” She could barely make out Sana’s words and then Dahyun suddenly realized what was going on. A small orange fox was dodging and weaving around her with something in its mouth.
The closer the fox got to Dahyun, the clearer it became that it was Sana’s phone that the mischievous animal had. Unknowingly, a smile bloomed on her face at the cute sight. It took another five minutes before the animal accidentally dropped her phone, giving Sana an opportunity to finally retrieve the device.
Tiredly trudging her way over to her date, Sana heaved, trying to get some air back into her lungs. Eventually, they were face to face and Dahyun had to admit, this girl was undeniably beautiful. Even with her hair a mess, sweat dotting her forehead and her clothes a little ruffled, Dahyun was in awe of her.
“I– I’m really really sorry about that,” Sana apologized between breaths. “I was on my way out to meet you, but my phone fell out of my pocket and Finnegan picked it up and started running with it.”
“It’s okay. I was just confused for a second. I thought we were walking through the sanctuary, I didn’t know you worked here.”
Nodding her head, Sana stood up a bit straighter, her breathing evening out some. “I wanted to surprise you with cute animals, but the cute animals decided to surprise me.” Dahyun let out a little chuckle, resting her hands on top of the fencing that separated them.
Leaning a little closer, Sana placed her hand on top of Dahyun’s and nodded to the left. “Follow me, let’s go to the employee gate. I’ll let you in.” “I’m allowed to go in?” she asked, astounded. With a bright smile, Sana shook her head up and down enthusiastically. “Yeah! Usually we take small groups in throughout the day, so we can supervise the visitors, but it’s break time. So, I’ll just have to supervise you personally,” she grinned, releasing her hand so they could walk along the fence line together.
“Have you ever been here before?” Sana wondered. “No, I got a little lost coming in actually.” Deflating a little, Sana apologized again, “I’m really sorry about that. I was planning on meeting you halfway since I got done early.”
“It’s okay, really, you kind of had your hands full with that one little guy,” Dahyun shot her a smile, which she returned in full. “That was Finn, he’s my work husband.” “Ahh, so it was actually a lovers quarrel?” Sana giggled, tucking a loose wisp of hair behind her ear. “It was! He does stuff like that a lot. He stole my chip bag yesterday,” she pouted.
Dahyun had to look away, focusing on the grass under her feet to stop herself from staring. “So he’s living up to the whole ‘Swiper no swiping!’ thing?”
“They all do, there’s little holes all around the land that they stash stuff in,” Sana pointed off into the distance, highlighting a dent in the earth where more brown than green showed.
“Ever find anything good?” She asked, the gate coming into view. Sana hummed in thought, her hand pressing against her chin. “Well, if we’re talking about expensive stuff, we’ve found a lot of jewelry that guests drop. But if we’re talking about interesting stuff– an old ladies wig was definitely a fun find.” Dahyun let out a laugh, “You just found it randomly? Or she asked you to go get it?”
Bouncing a little, Sana waved her hands in front of her animatedly while she talked. “See you’d think she would have asked for it back, but no! We just randomly found it in one of the holes which means she came in here with hair and just left with none.”
Reaching the opening, Sana used a key attached to her belt to unlock the gate. “Come on, I’ll show you around,” she held her hand out. Bringing their hands together, Dahyun followed her lead. “How long have you worked here?”
“About five years I think? When I was nineteen, my college roommate–the blonde girl from yesterday–took me here to volunteer and I had a great time. I loved the fox area and kept coming back with her to help. A year later, I applied and everyone knew me by then, so it was easy to get accepted.”
A fluffy black fox with a white tint came up to greet them, running excitedly around the pair. “Ahh Dixie-doo’s making an appearance!” Sana crouched down and immediately the animal scurried over and flopped onto her back. Kneeling down as well, Dahyun watched as the fox received copious amounts of belly rubs.
Glancing over, Sana gave her an encouraging smile. “Dixie loves tummy rubs from everyone, want to give it a try?” Hesitant at first, but relaxing a little at the poofy animal’s happy ‘hehe’s’, Dahyun reached out to run her hands over the giddy little thing’s stomach.
Wiggling from side to side in excitement, Dixie soaked up every ounce of attention. “She’s really cute,” Dahyun noted, starting to give more purposeful strokes, easing up around her. “She is! All of the foxes here are really sweet. Half of them just mind their business and the other half want everyone’s love,” Sana told her, both girls' hands raising when Dixie rolled back to her feet and took off after a lighter colored fox in the distance.
Dahyun’s eye’s softened when she noticed a three legged fox cozying up to a tree. “What happened to that one?” Following her line of sight, Sana gave her a sad smile, “Since this is an animal sanctuary, we get different animals from all kinds of bad situations. Firefly is from an animal abuse case.”
The younger girl frowned deeply.
“There’s five other foxes that came from the same home she came from. The owners were running a pelt farm. There were more rescues, but they got distributed to a bunch of different sanctuaries.”
“That’s horrible.”
Sana nodded in agreement, pulling Dahyun towards her. “It is, they keep them in tiny cages they can barely move in. Firefly got an infection that went untreated for too long, she could have lost her life, but they were able to save her by taking her leg,” she explained, retrieving a small treat from her pocket.
“It’s a sad story, but she’s living a good life now. She gets lots of toys and treats,” Sana placed the treat on the ground in front of her. Firefly sniffed, then took it into her mouth, chomping away happily. Sana gave her a little head pat and stood back up. “It’s too bad you weren’t here the day before yesterday, that’s the best day of the week!”
Raising an eyebrow, the younger girl questioned, “How come?”
“Monday’s egg day!” Sana exclaimed, urging her to follow again. “Does an Easter bunny come out of one of the dens?” Sana’s smile reached her eyes, making them crinkle. “Cute and funny, got a lot going for you, huh?” A whirlwind of butterflies fluttered in Dahyun’s stomach.
“On egg day, we go around to each fox and everyone gets a boiled egg as a treat, they go crazy for it and it’s a good healthy snack for them to have,” she explained, walking backwards now as she spoke. “You should see Pecan’s face when he gets his egg, if anyone comes close, he’s ready to take them down. He gets into screaming matches a lot.”
“Do they come here with those names or do you guys give it to them?” It seemed a little odd for abused foxes to have such lighthearted names like Firefly and Pecan. “Majority of the time our donors get to name them, they only keep their previous name if they're attached to it. Even though there are a lot of sad cases, some foxes come here because their previous owners simply couldn’t care for them anymore and had to surrender them. Dixie is one of those. Her owners loved her, but did what was best for her in the end.”
By now, they were nearing an area that had huge wooden cages with beds inside of them. “Every night they have to be locked up and foxes tend to be paired up or sometimes they’ll room with three if they get along well with others. This is where they sleep and eat, Fennec is still in there with his stuffed monkey. He’s just a quiet little guy.” The silver animal in question watched them, but made no move to get up, content with his head resting on the monkey toy. “That’s so cute,” Dahyun cooed.
Right when they were about to go inside, Finn turned up again, ready to play chase for a second round, but Sana was having none of it. Getting out another treat, she held it high. “Sit,” she commanded. Finn jumped a couple times, failing to snatch the treat when she moved it further away and eventually conceded, following her orders.
“Woah, I didn’t know they could do tricks. They act really similar to dogs.”
“They do! They’re kind of like a mix of a dog and cat.”
Noticing that Finn was an affectionate guy, Dahyun was the first to crouch down this time, offering her hand to him. And to that, he immediately threw himself to the ground, demanding belly rubs. Dahyun giggled at the little ‘hehe’s’ he was spouting, but quickly snatched her hand back when he opened his mouth and lurched forward.
“No, no! He’s not trying to hurt you, I swear,” Sana reassured instantly, frantically shaking her head to try to dissipate the fear that showed up on the younger girl's face. Attempting to make the situation better, Sana repeated what Dahyun did, but when he came toward her with an open mouth, she let him. Observing them with interest, Dahyun noticed that he wasn’t applying any pressure, he simply held her hand in his mouth and rolled from side to side happily. “He’s a good boy, the only time he gets aggressive is if he’s being territorial over a toy, but even then, he’s pretty easy to work with.”
Cautiously, Dahyun raised her hand and leaned in again, brushing against Sana’s shoulder in the process. When he took her hand between his teeth, he applied no force and let out little joyful squeals, making her smile. Sana watched them proudly, happy that she was willing to try again.
Once they were done pampering Finn, the two girls walked around the piece of land with Sana introducing her to each new animal that came by, telling stories about them. The tour lasted for another twenty minutes until a sudden thought occurred to the younger girl. “Wait, am I holding you up from work?”
Sana giggled. “No silly, I wouldn’t have invited you here if it caused issues. That friend I told you about, Jeongyeon, she works here with me and is covering my shift while I take you around. But even if she wasn’t, it’s my lunch break right now anyways. Oh and speaking of that, why don’t I take you to go get some food?” she offered, throwing a ball as far as she could, an orange fox taking off after it.
“Sounds good to me, lead the way.”
With the older girl’s help, they made their way back to the front of the enclosure, then down the guest path to a small stand that was set up with picnic tables scattered around it. Checking over the restaurant's menu, they both ordered, then picked an empty bench to sit at. Dahyun smiled at her food when Sana opted to sit beside her rather than in front.
“I know taking you to my job was kind of an odd choice for a first date, but the foxes are a really big part of my life. If you hated them, I’d rather know now then later when I’m really really into you. And we’re already approaching one of the really’s, so we have to go quick,” Sana beamed before dipping a piece of Gimbap in some brown sauce and taking a bite.
“You don’t have to worry about that. They’re all really sweet, I can see why you got a job here. It seems like a lot of fun,” Dahyun tried to calm her over excited beating heart at the ‘really’s’ remark. “You know, we’ve talked quite a bit about me, but I’d like to know more about the cute girl I’m out on a date with. Where do you work?”
Swallowing a mouthful, she answered, “I manage a bookshop with some friends. It’s the one right across from the roller skating rink by the lake.” “Ooh, so you're a smarty too? Seems like I should be thanking that guy for making you run for the hills,” the older girl joked.
Lightheartedly, Dahyun rolled her eyes. “That’s probably the only good thing that’s come out of knowing Woojin.” Curiously, Sana adjusted herself in her seat so that she was angled towards her date. “If you don’t mind me asking, what’s the deal with that guy?”
Shifting to face her as well, Dahyun let out a sigh. “He’s the son of one of my dad’s friends. I try to dodge him as much as possible, but I didn’t notice him yesterday because I was looking at a sweater. He always hits on me– no matter how much I bring up that I don’t even like guys. Of course he would still be at the bottom of my list even if I did though, he’s a jerk. He actually left for a while to stay with his mom, but he moved back last month and I’ve run into him way more than I’d like to.”
“Maybe he’ll take the hint this time? I think we put on a pretty convincing show– if not though, you can call me anytime to do it again. It’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.”
Dahyun bit the inside of her cheek. “I don’t know, you might not be able to help. Seems like your work husband gets jealous. He might rob me if I come back here, thank god I don’t own any wigs.” Smoothly, Sana tucked a strand of hair behind Dahyun’s ear, making the younger girl hold her breath. “If you want one, there's a pink wig in the lost and found. It’d look amazing on you.”
They both broke into fits of laughter instantaneously.
When it settled, they continued working on their meals for a while and somehow circled back to the topic of Dahyun’s bookstore.
“It was a joint thing, my friends and I planned it for a while and finally we were able to get it off the ground a year and a half ago. One of my friends, Chaeyoung, helped us a lot with the designs for the interior. She loves doing art projects, but her girlfriend, Mina, is one of the owners too, so she had an extra incentive,” Dahyun cut herself off with a chuckle, remembering an incident that happened because Chaeyoung was a love sick puppy around her girlfriend.
“Sometimes it worked against her though and created more issues for the store. She was doing a big mural for the front– where our register is and was up on a ladder one time. Apparently she got distracted by Mina putting away some books nearby and leaned over too far and fell off the ladder, right into a bucket of red paint and the entire thing completely coated the floor and splashed on everything nearby.”
Sana’s mouth opened slightly, envisioning how big of a mess that must’ve created. “Did it ruin any books– the floor? What happened to Chaeyoung?”
Wiping her mouth with a napkin, Dahyun shook her head. “We were pretty lucky actually, only like five books got hit by it and the floor took a little work, but we managed to get it cleaned up. The other owner, my friend Tzuyu– her girlfriend is a baker, but she can fix anything– do anything. She’s basically Wonder Woman. She came right over because we were all freaking out about it and helped fix the place up,” she paused for a second, looking into Sana’s eyes with a sparkle she always got when she talked about the bookshop.
Sana found it incredibly endearing.
“Chaeyoung spent hours getting paint out of her hair and won’t even glance at Mina while she’s on a ladder now. It’s a little sad actually because she’s so short, ladders are her best friend.”
Sana arched her brow, a smirk heavy on her lips as she flattened her hand and placed it over Dahyun’s head to call attention to the black haired girl's height. “She’s shorter than you? Seems like a ladder might be your best friend too.” Feigning offense, Dahyun pushed her away by the wrist. “I used to be the tallest in my grade–” “-so you peaked in kindergarten?” Sana finished for her, her teasing grin bright.
“Worst first date ever, I’m leaving.” Dramatically, Dahyun made a face of displeasure and rose from her seat, but Sana caught her by the arm. “Kidding, kidding! You at least made it to the second grade.” Grabbing her wadded up napkin, she made a show of throwing it onto the table in protest. “Third! I at least made it to the height of a third grader. C’mon, my self esteem’s taking too many hits, give me something!”
“Oh?” Sana said innocently, tugging Dahyun back down to her seat. The look in her eyes made the younger girl swallow.
“I can help with that,” she eliminated the space between them and suddenly the comedian in Dahyun died and was replaced with a bumbling idiot that didn’t have any idea how to talk to a pretty girl. “Y-you, uh. My, um, self esteem?”
“Wanna see?”
In fact, Dahyun did, but she probably looked dumb when she had to nod rather than say it because– while Sana’s eyes were beautiful, they might actually be kind of dangerous.
Nearly all the remaining space dissipated and suddenly the younger girl was forced to shut her eyes when Sana was almost to her lips. Her anticipation was high, but it morphed into confusion swiftly after an item was placed into her hand and no soft, plump lips made contact with her own. She opened her eyes, then her palm.
“That–” Sana began, whispering playfully between them as Dahyun inspected it, “-is a highly sought after piece of chicken jerky that we dehydrate right here in the facility. Only the best of the best foxes get it when they're good, so your self esteem should be through the roof right about now.”
Dahyun fell apart, clutching her sides, in crumbles from the joke. She considered herself to be quite the comedian on most days, but Sana was putting her to shame at the moment.
It took a few beats for the younger girl to pull herself together, but when she did, Sana was pulling her in for real this time to place a soft kiss against her lips– one much different than their first or second. A shorter one too, but that didn’t mean it was worse. In fact, it might’ve even been better because it held a completely different meaning than the others.
“I’ve got to get back to work soon. Do you want to do this again sometime?”
Luckily, Dahyun was able to find her voice this time.
“Yes, definitely, one hundred percent. If you want, you can come to the bookstore and I can show you around there? Then we’ll be even.”
Sana smiled, her thumb gliding back and forth over Dahyun’s cheek.
“Sounds perfect.”