It's a Friday, at that point in the day where it's about to tip over from a slow and peaceful afternoon to the hectic chaos of a weekend dinner service. Yunjin's at the host stand with Sana, looking over the reservations for later and shuffling a few tables around, supplying the occasional hm or wow when Sana's retelling of her date the previous night calls for it, when the door opens and Chaewon walks in.
"So then I told her that I don't normally fuck on the first date, but— oh, hi Chaewonnie!"
Chaewon stops at the host stand to say hello to Sana, or rather, for Sana to do her usual enthusiastic greeting, which Chaewon weathers with the usual endeared bemusement that comes with talking to Sana.
"Your hair looks nice, did you dye it again?" Sana asks, reaching out and petting Chaewon's bright red hair.
"Yeah, Yeji came home yesterday with two boxes of hair dye and four bottles of soju, so I didn't really have much choice in the matter."
Yunjin has no idea who Yeji is, if she's Chaewon's girlfriend or roommate or sister or what, but the name seems familiar to Sana and their conversation continues to flow easily. It's an odd realisation to have at that moment, that Chaewon has been at Eden for over a month now, and while she has easily made friends with the rest of the staff, Yunjin still knows abYunjinieutely nothing about her.
(Well. Not abYunjinieutely nothing. She knows Chaewon has a scattering of moles on the inside of her left thigh. She knows Chaewon likes having her hair pulled when she's going down on someone. She knows what Chaewon sounds like when someone fits a third finger into her.
Irrelevant things, in the grand scheme of it all. Things she certainly shouldn't be thinking about. Not now, not ever.)
Regardless of the managerial hierarchy, Yunjin likes to think she's genuinely good friends with most of her staff.
Sana will tell Yunjin about her dates in explicit detail with zero regard for the fact that Yunjin is technically her boss. Yerim, who has been at Eden for almost the entire four years it's been open, confided in Yunjin when she was first struggling with her sexuality. Yunjin has unloaded onto Jiwoo multiple times when she's been feeling particularly stressed about something and Jiwoo has been a shoulder to cry on each and every time.
Chaewon, on the other hand, is still merely a stranger, one that Yunjin is reluctant to let get any closer. All she knows about Chaewon is that she's twenty-five, she's from Cheongju, and she does freelance photography on the side.
"Hi, Yunjin-ssi," Chaewon says, giving her a little nod as she passes on her way to the staff room, having apparently escaped Sana's clutches.
And that her voice makes Yunjin's stomach curl up into complicated knots. It's soft and sweet like summer rain, and Yunjin's never been so affected by someone's voice before, but she just chalks it up to lingering horniness or the fact that she's heard Chaewon's voice whisper the filthiest things right into her ear while her fingers take Yunjin apart.
"Hey," Yunjin manages to say without her voice breaking or something equally as embarrassing.
Chaewon gives her an amused little smile, one that Yunjin is frequently on the receiving end of and one that implies Chaewon knows exactly what Yunjin is thinking about, before she disappears down the stairs towards the staff room.
Chaewon, thankfully, hasn't seemed interested in befriending Yunjin either, which Yunjin is secretly relieved about. Haseul and Sooyoung and Kahei have all rambled on about her and hyped her up as not only a great bartender but also just a really nice person, but Yunjin would prefer to keep her at arm's length not only because of the sex, but because Chaewon is, unfortunately, exactly her type. Exactly the kind of girl The few conversations Yunjin has had with her — always with some of the others present, never one-on-one — have proven that Chaewon is sweet, funny, and very chatty once you get her going, and it really doesn't help that she's just as hot dressed down in the jeans and white button up and minimal makeup she wears on the bar as she was all dolled up and dressed to kill that night at Wonderland.
Even with the professionally sized distance Yunjin has put between them, this version of Chaewon is already so much more real and present than the Chaewon of Wonderland, now merely a phantom in comparison. This Chaewon is exactly the kind of girl that draws Yunjin in like a moth to a flame until she gets attached and, inevitably, burned.
It's fine though. Yunjin is...surviving. Mostly.
There's still the odd urge to hyperventilate or panic and confess everything to either Sooyoung or Haseul or Kahei whenever she looks at Chaewon and is reminded all over again that she's had Chaewon naked and writhing in her lap. A few times she's glanced towards the bar and found Chaewon already looking at her, and each of those times has sent her scuttling away to hide in the office for an hour or two pretending to do some admin work so she doesn't have to feel Chaewon's eyes lingering on her.
They don't talk much, or even interact at all really, but that's mostly because Yunjin deliberately avoids the bar if Chaewon is working. It's a little embarrassing, but whatever. The whole point of a one night stand is that you're not supposed to see them again, let alone have them start working for you.
It's fine.
And if it isn't, then Yunjin will make it fine.
She just needs a little more time to get over the fact that someone she once had sex with is now someone she has to spend a moderate to significant amount of time with each week. She'll be fine. Eventually she'll be able to look at Chaewon, maybe even actually talk to Chaewon like a normal human being, without her stupid brain playing a highlight reel of everything Chaewon let her do to her.
Hopefully.
YOU ARE READING
speeding up my heartbeat / purinz
Fanfiction#1 huhyunjin #9 purinz Chaewon leans back in her chair and raises an eyebrow. "I mean, you never even told me your name." "You never asked," Yunjin points out. "And besides, you were gone the next morning before I woke up. It was clearly meant to j...
