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“Please can you go for me?”
Chaeyoung shakes her head for the millionth time at her little brother. There was no way she was going to stay up late outside a video game store with a bunch of nerdy boys. No way.
“I'll do anything! Please Chaengie.”
She looked back to see him on his knees and she felt her resolve falter. She was a softie when it came to her siblings but she'd never let them know that of course and it wasn't like he was just being lazy in asking her to go. She knew if he had the choice he would but his exam was early in the morning and their parents had banned him from going.
“Please.” He pleaded one last time.
Chaeyoung sighed and nodded, “Okay. I'll get your stupid game for you.”
He jumped up excitedly and hugged her tightly.
“Thank you Chaengie.”
Chaeyoung arrived at the line at the time her brother had informed her was best. Already there was 20 people ahead of her and she wondered exactly what was so important about this game.
A lanky body was curled up in a chair against the wall in front of her as she set her backpack and chair down. Her brother had made sure she was prepared for the long wait until midnight. The last time she had waited so long in line for something was for the Harry Potter movies Dahyun had dragged her to.
Only for her brother she would waste so much time in a line for a video game.
Very shortly later, more people began to arrive and she looked on in disbelief at the amount of people lining up behind her.
She couldn't judge them though, she after all was waiting for them.
She wasted her time texting Dahyun and Jihyo. And quickly grew bored with that when they began to stop responding. The only silver lining was that they promised to come visit her later.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw the person in front her stand, taking off the hood they were wearing and revealing shoulder length light brown hair. The person looked over her shoulder and Chaeyoung was shocked at the beauty of the girls side profile.
The girl looked back and Chaeyoung blushed at having been caught staring.
She quickly looked down at her phone trying to play it off.
“Hey.” A soft voice said.
Chaeyoung looked up to see the girl looking at her.
“Hello.” Chaeyoung greeted back.
“I, uh, forgot my phone, do you mind telling me what time it is.” The girl scratched the back of her neck.
“Oh,” Chaeyoung checked her phone, “It's 6:30.” She said disappointingly.
Had so little time really passed?
“Thank you.” The girl replied with a gummy smile.
Chaeyoung really liked her smile.
“I'm Chaeyoung.” She introduced.
“I'm Mina.” The girl responded, “Looks like we're gonna be stuck with each other for a few hours.”
“It seems.” Chaeyoung nodded. “I'm glad I'm not the only girl.”
“There's actually a lot of girls in the gaming community.”
Chaeyoung looked at her in disbelief.
“Really?”
Mina nodded.
“New to gaming?” Mina titled her head in question.
“Not really. I'm here for my brother.”
“Oh.” Mina said, almost sounding disappointed. “Well you're a good sister for waiting in line for him.”
“I guess.” Chaeyoung shrugged, “But he owes me big time.”
They both chuckled which was interrupted by a high pitched voice,
“Myoui Mina, you left your phone in my car!”
Both girls looked up to see a blonde haired girl, followed by a light brown haired girl with bangs headed their way.
“Sorry.” Mina apologized.
The girl handed the phone over, shaking her head. She then said something in a different language and Chaeyoung looked on confused. Mina rolled her eyes and responded in Korean, “I'm not a little kid Sana, also I'm only a year younger then you.”
“I promised your mom I would look after you. What if you had been kidnapped.” The girl stood with her hands on her hips.
“I'm pretty sure they would have checked if I had a phone anyways.”
“Still.” The girl glared.
“Babe calm down.” The other girl laughed, “She's fine. Plus she made a friend.” The brown haired girl pointed.
Sana looked shocked, “Really?”
Now it was Mina who glared, “I may be quiet but I'm capable of speaking.”
“She asked me what time it was.” Chaeyoung informed them.
“Oh, thank you for keeping Minari company.” Sana thanked.
“Well we're going to be stuck together for hours, might as well be friends.” She shrugged. “I'm Chaeyoung by the way.”
“This is my cousin Sana and her girlfriend Momo.” Mina introduced.
“Nice to meet you Chaeyoung.” Momo said.
“Nice to meet you too.”
“We're going to go catch a movie and when we get out we'll bring Mina food, would you like something as well?” Sana offered.
“Oh, I couldn't ask you to do that.”
“It's alright. We'll be bringing burgers since it's easier to eat.” She informed.
“We should go.” Momo said, checking her phone.
“Have fun!” Mina waved to them.
“See you later.”
The girls waved their goodbyes and walked off, leaving Mina and Chaeyoung alone.
“Sorry about that.” Mina chuckled, “Sana's a bit much sometimes.”
“It's okay, my friend Dahyun can be like that sometimes. Was that Japanese she was speaking?”
Mina nodded, “All three of us are Japanese.”
Chaeyoung nodded, “I thought you looked foreign but your Korean was so good I could hardly tell.”
“Really?” Mina's face brightened, “I've only been here for a year.”
“Really?” Chaeyoung said this time, “You're a fast learner.”
Mina shrugged, “Sana and Momo helped a lot.”
“So why did you guys come to Korea?”
“Well,” Mina looked down to the floor, “Momo's parents were giving her a hard time about being, well, lesbian, and it got really bad so Sana planned for them to leave together and they applied to schools all over the world but the Seoul National University accepted them first so they chose to come here. I came because I wanted a change of scenery and I was always close with Sana and missed her.” She explained.
“Oh I see.”
Mina nodded awkwardly, licking her lips and completely distracting Chaeyoung.
“Um, so what's so important about this game.” She decided to switch the topic. “Is it like, a sequel?”
Mina shook her head, “No it's not. It's a new game and it's been teased for such a long time and has such great promise, I can't wait to play it.”
“So you're pretty into gaming huh.” Chaeyoung stated obviously.
Mina blushed, “I'm really good at it. I started off with Pokémon and just kinda spiraled on from there.”
“I used to play Pokémon!” Chaeyoung exclaimed excitedly.
Mina giggled, “I think everyone has played Pokémon.”
Chaeyoung blushed, “Well I haven't played anything since.”
“Maybe you can play your brothers game, it's an online game so we can, like play together.” Mina murmured shyly.
Chaeyoung froze, her imagination was running wild, she could have sworn Mina was asking her out on a virtual date.
“Oh, um, maybe.” Chaeyoung blushed, “I wouldn't really know how to play.”
Mina looked down at the floor, “Right.”
“I could try.” Chaeyoung offered, not liking the disappointed look on her face.
“It's really not that hard.” Mina said, now more enthusiastically. “We can, uh, exchange numbers maybe, I can show you how to play?” She bit her lip.
“S-sure. Sounds like fun.” Chaeyoung blushed, “Here you can put your number in my phone.” She said, handing it over.
After Mina was done inputing her number, Chaeyoung quickly texted her so she could have her number.
Chaeyoung changed the subject to school and they fell into a long discussion and before they knew it, Sana and Momo arrived with food.
“Hey nerds, we brought you food!” Momo announced as they arrived.
Sana and Momo plopped down in front of Mina and Chaeyoung's chairs and passed them their food.
“Thanks.” Chaeyoung said as she bit into her burger. She eyed Mina as she poured way too many ketchup packets on her burger. “You sure love ketchup.”
Mina blushed and nodded.
“Mina loves ketchup. She puts it on almost everything. It's pretty gross.” Sana informed her.
“So have you been doing most of the talking?” Momo asked.
“No.” Chaeyoung shook her head, “We've actually have had really good conversations.”
Both Momo and Sana froze and looked at Mina with wide eyes.
“Really?” Sana said, a smirk growing on her lips.
“How was your movie.” Mina quickly asked, “I was thinking about checking it out.”
“It was good.” Sana said indulging her. “You should go see it with Chaeyoung.” She said innocently.
Mina whispered something in Japanese as she side-eyed Chaeyoung.
“I wouldn't mind.” Chaeyoung confessed.
Mina froze, “Really?”
“Not at all, I mean we exchanged numbers, why should it only be used for gaming?”
“You exchanged numbers?” Momo and Sana asked in-sync.
Both girls nodded.
“She offered to help me with gaming.” Chaeyoung stated.
“That's… good.” Sana smiled. “I'm glad Mina's finally making friends.”
“I have friends.” Mina glared.
“That you made through us.” Momo teased.
Sana nodded in agreement to the statement.
Chaeyoung chuckled at how cute Mina looked sulking.
Sana and Momo spent a while with them and then left to waste more time until they would come back to pick Mina up. Originally they were going to join Mina in waiting for the game but with Chaeyoung there, Mina sent them away to spend sometime together without her around to third-wheel.
Shortly after Dahyun and Jihyo arrived to keep them company. Mina was noticeably quiet while Chaeyoung's friends were around and she understood Sana and Momo's surprise. They weren't around for long and left two hours before midnight. Which left them with a lot of time to waste. It was easily spent talking and Chaeyoung was disappointed when one of the store clerks came out to inform them they could pack up their things. She grew sadder as their time together came closer to the end. Mina also noticeably grew quieter.
Chaeyoung refused to check the time, like not looking would slow down the time somehow.
Their conversation was much quieter now as Chaeyoung tried to hold onto Mina's every word.
It was a bit dramatic, they did exchange numbers after all.
When the line began to move as the clock struck midnight, they smiled softly to each other a moved forward. Chaeyoung watched Mina's face brighten as she was handed her copy of the game and she watched her practically skip to the cash register.
Mina waited for her outside, holding the game pressed to her chest.
“Thank you for keeping me company.” Mina said when Chaeyoung joined her.
“I should thank you. I wouldn't have made it throughout the whole night alone.”
Mina smiled shyly, looking down at the floor, “You'll call me right?”
“Of course.” Chaeyoung grinned, “I waited a long time for this game. I might as well play it.”
A car pulled up in front of them and Momo waved out the window.
“Well, I'll see you.” Mina frowned.
“Yeah, you have to take me to that movie remember.” Chaeyoung nodded.
“That's right.” Mina brightened. “Bye Chaeyoung.”
“Bye Mina.”