Chapter Text
9:48pm
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“Well?” Yuna drags on, hoping to get a reaction out of Ryujin.
“I really do not know what you want from me right now, Yuna.” Ryujin sighs, just wanting Yuna to clock out so that Ryujin didn’t have to deal with her.
“Come on, it’s been 8 days. Are you really not going to say anything?” Yuna was impatient, just wanting to see everything unfold, since she just wanted something exciting to happen in her dear sister's life. It seems like it was too much to ask for now.
“I seriously do not know what you are talking about. Why can’t you just go home? Unless you want to work overtime with me.” Ryujin was getting ready for her shift at this point, and was trying everything to deflect all the things that her little sister was saying to her.
Ryujin and Yuna worked at 7/11. That’s really all there is to it. Ryujin worked the graveyard shift, and before Ryujin’s shift, it’s Yuna’s. They both thank their manager for giving them different times because only God knows that they’d never get anything done together. They are sisters, after all.
Ryujin was content with her seemingly boring life. She had a routine and surprisingly, she liked it. Organized shelves, rung customers up, take out the trash, etc etc. Once she was done with her shift, she could do whatever she wanted at home. It was simple and easy. Anything that got into her routine absolutely bothered her.
For example:
There’s a new hire at 7/11, and Ryujin is getting distracted. Too distracted.
Extremely distracted.
Ryujin wasn’t the type to suck up to a manager and do the best job she’s ever done at a small convenience store, all she wants is her to do her job proficiently, and with ease of course. It’s simple, and it’s not a hassle.
But how can she possibly do that when there is another worker that is the cause of her despair right now? Ryujin could agree that yes, she’s beautiful, gorgeous even, couldn’t get her off of Ryujin’s mind type of beautiful.
Her name was Lia, and even that pissed Ryujin off because her name was pretty as well.
Whenever they would do a simple task together, she couldn't help but take glances every now and then. It seems as if every glance Ryujin takes at Lia, a little bit of her worries go away and she feels energized all of a sudden from their tiring shifts each night. Ryujin truly thought that Lia was just.. too pretty to be working next to her.
She hates how she always feels inclined to see how pretty Lia is, because she hates being distracted. She has yet to figure out if this was a good distraction or not.
Ryujin couldn’t figure out what sparked her sudden interest towards Lia. She’s not the type to have crushes or feel any type of attraction towards people like that, especially to a girl. It didn’t add up in her head, but at the same time, she didn’t want to think too much of it.
Ryujin wants to talk to her since it’s someone she works with quite often, but she could never figure out how to. It distracts her so much on how there is always some sort of tension between her and this new hire. She doesn't know if it's an imaginary tension, or she's just really nervous talking to pretty girls.
All she knew was that this new hire was bothering her. She was a distraction and absolutely ruined her routine. She wasn’t as focused as she used to be. Ryujin doesn’t know whether to hate it, or like it.
“Agh, come on. Just spit it out already. It’s bothering me so much I might just pass out and die. Do you want me to pass out and die? Is that how this is going to go?” Yuna dramatically sighed, hoping to get her sister's attention from this act. She leaned against the lockers, slowly sliding down in desperation to get Ryujin’ s attention.
Ryujin side eyed her as she put on her uniform. “Spit what out exactly? I don’t even know what you want me to do or say.” Ryujin chuckles, seeing Yuna fully on the ground with her arm over her head.
She steps carefully over Yuna to fix herself up in the mirror.
“Also, can you get off the ground? Your acting isn’t gonna make me do anything.” Ryujin focuses on her hair and her makeup, wondering if she looks good tonight. Fixing her collar around 3 times, moving pieces of her hair around that just made it seem like nothing was changing since she kept putting them in the same position.
“Agh, Yuna,” Ryujin turns around, evidently frustrated. “Does- Does my hair look good?”
Yuna stood up and stared at her blankly. “Unnie, you know you’re gonna wear a hat over your hair right? It… It doesn’t matter.” Yuna was already trying to hold in her laughter at this point, knowing that Ryujin is only worried about her appearance when she has her graveyard shift with the new hire.
“Ah, I get it.” Yuna lightens up, standing up from the floor. “You want to look good for Lia unnie, is that it? I’m right, right?” Yuna has the stupidest smile on her face, knowing she’s getting so much amusement from teasing her sister.
“Are you serious? Is this what this is about? Do you seriously think I am trying to impress someone who just got hired?” Ryujin looks at Yuna in utter shock, because she finally figured out what Yuna has been bugging her all day about.
“Come on. You have a crush on her. Can you please admit it to her now so my big sister can finally have a life?” Yuna pleads, as if this were to convince Ryujin at all.
“She’s been working here for eight days Yuna, I don’t have a crush on her. Especially not on a girl .” Ryujin scoffs, and turns to stare at Yuna once again. “Well, my shift is gonna start now. Head home and make some rice. Please make the living room tidy,” She glares at Yuna, “You better not annoy me when I get home.” Ryujin turns red at Yuna's comment, as she never saw herself having some sort of romantic attraction towards a woman. The comment made her uneasy.
Yuna laughs and gets off the floor, saying bye to her sister. Ryujin gets ready at the register, and waits for Lia to come to start her shift with her.
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12:39am
Ryujin hates late workers.
Ryujin angrily glares at her watch, seeing that the time is 12:39am.
Her shift started at 10pm.
Anger would definitely be an understatement to describe how she feels right now. At first, she was okay with it since she gave Lia the benefit of the doubt and thought that she’d only be 10, maybe 15 minutes late.
Ryujin was more than wrong. Not even a text, or a call from Lia to notify her absence. To make matters worse, for some reason people decide to go to a small convenience store all at once in the middle of the night.
Restocking, speed-walking back to the register, cleaning up a mess a customer made at the self serve, and doing this over and over between 15 minute intervals.
Ryujin being angry was an understatement.
“What a fucking night,” Ryujin sits on her stool, finally serving what is (hopefully) the last customer for the next few hours or so.
She looks at the clock once again.
“2:43,” Ryujin continues on to herself, “She’s still not here.” She lets out the heaviest sigh, since she won’t be able to get out till 6am.
She rests her head on the counter to let herself rest, even if it just lasted a minute. She didn’t have the energy to talk to the next customer that walked through that door. She wasn’t prepared for this night as she thought it was going to be slow.
And just to her luck, Ryujin hears the door open and she does not change her position whatsoever.
She hears someone panting, quite literally out of breath inside the store. Ryujin still had her head resting on the counter and did not want to look up. She decided to wait till the customer would put whatever they wanted on the counter.
Ryujin realized the panting got closer and closer, and she finally decided to lift her head up.
She furrowed her eyebrows, realizing who it was.
“Lia-,”
“Ryujin, oh my god, I’m literally so sorry. I don’t even have an excuse. I will literally do all your shifts for a week,” Lia started off, showing immense regret and frustration towards herself. “Look, okay, I know you’re probably angry, but let me just get ready. You don’t even have to do anything else for the rest of the night, I got it, I swear.” Lia quickly said what she needed to say and ran to the locker room to change into her uniform.
Lia was, well, disorganized tonight.
The minute Ryujin looked up from the counter, she noticed that Lia was wearing her pajamas.
Her bright, pink, fuzzy, heart patterned pajamas.
This wasn’t really a mystery case to solve, Ryujin quickly came to the conclusion that Lia overslept and ran to the shop without any care towards her appearance.
But the minute she saw Lia like that, all flustered and immediately apologizing, all types of anger and resentment ran away from her body as if it was never there in the first place. She looked adorable. Ryujin thought, and if Lia came in like that all the time, she wouldn't mind her being late.
Ryujin couldn’t even say a word back to Lia, she just quickly accepted the fact that she was late. Nothing more, nothing less. She finds herself crazy for losing all that anger built up within 30 seconds. Lia runs away from her sight, filled with pure embarrassment as her fellow coworker had to see her in her pajamas.
Lia got quickly dressed in the locker room, and she couldn't even stare at herself in the mirror. She cursed herself for oversleeping, despite putting on more than 10 alarms to make sure she woke up on time. That's the last time I'm going to stay up all day binging kdramas. Lia made sure that thought was permanently etched into her mind so she wouldn't forget it.
Ryujin, on the other hand, was at the counter with her hands covering her face. God, what am I gonna do with myself?
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3:19am
Lia is behind the counter with Ryujin.
It’s quiet.
To be fair, they don’t really talk like that. It’s odd to both of them, really. They’ve been having back to back shifts together, and yet they haven’t sparked up a simple conversation. Ryujin realizes that’s the most she’s ever heard her own co-worker talk.
The awkward silence continues for another 15 minutes, both feeling like they’re holding their breath the entire time.
Lia, on the other hand, has been trying to muster up the right words to say for the past 15 minutes. There were so many thoughts running through her head, not even knowing what to say first. All she knew was that she was insanely sorry, it won’t ever happen again, and she would completely understand if Ryujin would never want to talk to her ever again.
Instead, what comes out of Lia’s mouth is:
“I slept.”
It was so unexpected for Lia to talk so straight and forward to Ryujin like that. It made Ryujin jump almost.
“Yeah,” She looks in Lia’s direction. “I think I saw that when you came in wearing PJs.” Ryujin smiles, finding Lia’s simple little statement so adorable.
“I, uh,” Lia stammers off, not expecting herself to say that. She curses herself for talking without thinking properly. “I didn’t just want to say that.” She fully faces Ryujin this time.
She bows swiftly in front of Ryujin, her body almost at a perfect 90 degree angle.
“Iamsosorrythaticamelateipromisethiswillneverhappenagainandiknowyoualreadyhatemeandthismakesitworsebutiamsoextremelysorryandiunderstandifyouneverwanttotalktomeagain,” Lia ends off her ramble in one perfect breath, and there she is again, panting. And, also refusing to look up to Ryujin out of pure embarrassment.
“Oh my god, get up.”
“No.” Lia stays bowing and honestly, she does not want to look up from how red she currently is.
“Lia-unnie, look it’s okay. I promise. You don’t have to do any of my shifts or anything, let’s just continue the night as if it were a normal shift.” Ryujin awkwardly pats Lia on the head, hoping that’ll make her stand upright from her position. Lia slowly rises up with her eyes still closed, and Ryujin laughs at how cute Lia is. She wasn’t expecting to see this side of her at all tonight.
Ryujin seriously thought that Lia was too adorable tonight. It was bothering her so much. She’s literally only a coworker. Ryujin thought to herself.
Lia then opens her eyes to see Ryujin smiling at her, and all hell breaks loose in her mind.
They both thought,
How is she this pretty?
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3:56am
Lia was scrambling around the store.
She mopped, sweeped, restocked, reorganized, cleaned, practically everything to owe Ryujin back for being late.
Ryujin was surprised, actually, because she didn’t expect Lia to do all this. She had to admit, she was getting more and more intrigued by her. She was just standing behind the register, counting money and taking a few glances at Lia here and there.
Lia was mopping (again) and Ryujin felt bad that she was doing all this work when it wasn't really needed. She appreciated her efforts, of course, but her anger has diminished and she felt that there was no need for Lia to do all this.
"Lia," Ryujin called out. "Come here and just stand behind the register. You don't have to do anything, promise." She signaled Lia to come sit on the stool next to her, patting on the seat.
"No, no, let me do this," Lia wiped the sweat off her forehead and continued mopping.
"Are you usually this stubborn?" Ryujin sneered, hoping that'll make Lia stop mopping.
And she did, she rested the mop against the wall and straightened herself to look at Ryujin. Ryujin stared back, not expecting her to stop right away.
With direct eye contact, Lia replied with,
"Yes."
Lia picked up the mop again, and continued to mop the next aisle. She had her back turned against Ryujin, trying to hide the crimson red that was plastered all over her face.
"Suit yourself I guess," Ryujin furrows her eyebrows at Lia's unusual behavior. "I'll be here if you need me, don't work too hard." She takes her phone out of her pocket, and starts to text Yuna to try to get her mind off Lia for once.
ryu: yuna r u awake
Shin Yuna: Yeah sadly. Why, did something happen??
ryu: no im just really bored
Shin Yuna: Why don't you talk to lia unnie???
ryu: shes mopping
Shin Yuna: At 4 in the morning?
ryu: why are u interrogating me and yes at 4 in the morning, she came in at like 3 and decided to do all the hard tasks for me even tho she didnt have to
Shin Yuna: Jeez she was so late tonight I wonder what happened
ryu: she just said she slept lol
Shin Yuna: That's it ??
ryu: what do u want me to do interrogate her like what ur doing to me rn
Shin Yuna: I mean no im not saying that but at least make some small talk idk ur so boring
ryu: but what do i gain from asking for more information
Shin Yuna: You're literally helpless my god
ryu: what the hell is that supposed to mean
Read: 4:06am
Ryujin scowled at her phone, not believing that Yuna left her on read. What was wrong with what she said? Should she actually ask Lia? Isn't that an invasion of privacy? Does she have to ask? Ryujin was overthinking like crazy, and she couldn't tell the difference between a normal question or not.
"Ryujin," Lia called out, almost a whisper. Ryujin was surprised she even heard Lia from across the store. "Is it okay if I sit with you now?" Lia put the mop away in the storage closet, and looked at Ryujin waiting for her response.
Oh my God, she thought, how is she this adorable asking one simple question?
She quickly snapped out of her short trance. "Hm? Oh, yeah, yeah of course," Ryujin moved a bit to the side so Lia had room to sit on her stool. Ryujin contemplated if now would be an okay time to try to start up some conversation with her, to lessen the tension.
"So, uh, any reason as to why you overslept tonight?" Letting out a dry chuckle at the end. She noticed Lia tense up a bit, nervous that she hit a nerve of some sort. Ryujin chimed in again.
"I'm not gonna tell on you or anything, I didn't mind that you were late.. Just a heads up would've been nice, yeah?" Ryujin struck her a smile, hoping that'll make Lia less nervous. Lia had her head down, not exactly facing Ryujin.
"Are you mad at me?" Lia asks with a slight crack in her voice, worried that she made her coworker angry. This alarms Ryujin, and she instantly feels bad.
"Mad? No, no. I'm not, I swear. Stressed? Definitely, but you're new so I don't mind cutting you some slack. It's okay, remember?" She was now rubbing Lia's back, trying her best to console her.
"I promise I'll owe you back soon. You'll let me do that right? At least take you out to lunch or something?" Lia lifts her head up, hoping that Ryujin would say yes to her offer.
Ryujin couldn't ever say no to her when she asks like that. So of course, she accepts Lia's offer.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ryujin takes up Lia's offer. “As long as you tell me why you were late. Or else I’ll tell Yeji-unnie.” A smirk grows on Ryujin’s face, wanting to see how Lia would react to her teasing.
Lia abruptly woke up at that statement, playfully hitting Ryujin as she noticed she was only teasing.
“Don’t do that! You said you weren’t gonna tell.” Lia huffed out, a scowl forming on her face as she saw Ryujin’s laughter grow by the second. “Enough now, I slept because I was binging too many dramas and I fell asleep by accident. Embarrassing, I know. I don’t usually sleep through my alarms like that but I guess it was just a good sleep for me.” Lia quickly shrugged off, hoping that Ryujin won’t ask anymore questions.
“I see, I see. Well now that it’s fair, you’ll definitely take me out for some lunch soon right?” Ryujin shot a smile at Lia.
Lia froze up on the spot, not expecting for Ryujin’s smile to strike a chord in her heart like that.
“Y-yeah. Definitely. As long as you don’t tell Yeji-unnie, okay?”
“I’m good with that.”
And by the end of the shift, they were both content.
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6:20am - End of Shift
“Did you turn off my alarms?” Lia barged open the door to her apartment and instantly yelled at her roommate, demanding an answer.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Lia.” Yeji was on the dining table, eating cereal as she had just woken up. Yeji almost burst out laughing seeing how flustered Lia was after her shift.
Lia angrily pulled out a chair in front of Yeji and sat down aggressively.
“Yeji, did you turn them off? Please answer.” Lia, starting off her interrogation strong, but showing signs of weakness after pleading to her roommate for some answers.
“I mean even if I did, which I totally didn’t, by the way- would it have really been such a bad thing? I bet you finally had a full conversation with Ryu, since you were late. Right?” Yeji raised an eyebrow, waiting on Lia’s response.
Yeji was straight lying through her teeth about the alarms, but she couldn’t handle it anymore. Seeing two of her workers (who are very much interested in each other) be the epitome of awkwardness and tension when they’re together just ruined her mood. She had never seen two people so helpless to make even the simplest of conversations.
“You did. You turned them off just so that I could have a reason to talk to her! I wasn’t even prepared!” Lia stood up and groaned in agony, throwing herself on the couch with her face-down on a pillow. “I want to run away and change my name and move to a new country. You’re paying for everything.” Lia stated, face still in the pillow, all muffled. Yeji sighed and went to her overly-dramatic roommate and turned her around.
“I didn’t hear a word you just said, Lia.”
“I said I’m moving away. And you are paying for everything since this is something I will never get over.” Lia was refusing to look at Yeji. Yeji thought she looked so childish, and she’d never seen her so frustrated over a girl like this. It was amusing to her, almost.
“It.. I mean come on. It wasn’t that bad right? You’re overreacting. You were just late. Nothing more, nothing less.. Right?” A slow wave of concern was washing over Yeji. She thought her harmless gesture would just push Lia in the right direction, that’s all.
“I came into work in my pjs, Yeji.”
“What?” Yeji questioned, almost not believing her roommate. She knew that she would at least be late, but to come into work in...her pajamas?
“I’m not repeating myself. Long story short, her and I could go out for lunch soon. And we talked. And since you indirectly admitted that you did turn off my alarms, you owe me.” Lia huffed out.
Yeji owned the small 7/11 that Ryujin, Lia, and Yuna worked at. They were all pretty hard to manage as a whole. Yeji had never thought that her being an owner also meant babysitting 3 children that she had to call her employees.
“Tsk, I owe you? You practically owe me since I graciously gave you a job at my convenience store. I’m doing you a favor, come on now.”
Lia didn’t want to deny the fact that Yeji is the reason as to why she has this job. Lia honestly didn’t need it since her parents provided a lot for her while she’s in Korea, she’s just bored and didn’t like living alone at all.
“Whatever. I don’t even know how you managed to turn them off but I will thank you since I managed to talk to Ryujin for more than one second today.” Lia started to settle in from her shift, slowly unwinding and was more than ready to sleep for the rest of the day.
“You know you have another shift with her, right?” Yeji infomed her, with raised eyebrows. “That one night shift you were supposed to have with Yuna changed. The sisters decided to switch shifts again. Usually I’d just leave one person in charge, but I can’t seem to fully trust any of you alone for the graveyard shift yet…” Yeji ponders off, wondering if that moment will ever actually come.
Lia tried her best to be calm with the information that was just given to her. Another awkward graveyard shift? With her ever so poor social skills with Ryujin? She genuinely didn’t know how much more she could handle.
“Yeah, that’s fine. I would rather have Yuna but… you’re the boss”, Lia swiftly turns around and jokingly bows at her roommate, and disappears into her room. Yeji rolled her eyes and stood up, preparing to clean up her mess from breakfast. Starting to wash the dishes, she screamed from the kitchen, “Jesus, you’re so annoying! I will literally schedule you with her for the next three months if I have to, Lia!”
As she entered her room, she didn’t flop onto her bed like she usually does. She just stood there, with her back facing her door, thinking about everything that went down last night. She considered herself to be a person that was fine with making small chit-chat. This wasn’t her first job, this wasn’t the first time she had to talk to someone new. Lia was immediately confused as to why she wasn’t able to tune her social skills with her co-worker. Her mind was racing with nonsense, such as:
Does Ryujin hate me?
Will Yeji actually keep scheduling me with her?
Why did Yeji have to turn off my alarms just for me to talk to her?
Why did Yuna suddenly switch?
And, the one question that kept ringing in her head,
Why the fuck is it so hard for me to talk to her?
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