speeding up my heartbeat / purinz

07

It's another slow Tuesday afternoon.

There's a couple of tables in that are occupying Yerim's attention, Sooyoung and Chaewon are doing something on the bar that involves a lot of giggling, and Yunjin's tucked away at an empty table at the back of the restaurant with her laptop and a giant cup of coffee.

She's slowly going through the backlog of emails inquiring about bookings and reservations for large parties when Sooyoung pops up out of nowhere and places a bright pink drink in front of her.

"Try this."

Yunjin obediently takes a sip out of the straw wedged into the drink. And then takes a much longer sip because whatever it is, it's delicious. "Wow." A third sip, just to make sure. "This is good. What's in it?"

"Right?" Sooyoung grins, sliding into the chair opposite. "Orange soju, peach schnapps, lemon juice, sugar syrup and that hibiscus tea that Kahei-unnie insists on continuing to order even though we sell like, one pot of it a month."

"The only person I've ever seen drink it is Kahei-unnie. I think she just orders it for herself."

"Probably," Sooyoung snorts, taking the pink drink back and taking a sip of it. "Chaewon came up with this. We were brainstorming some cocktail specials to put on for the Summer Daze promotion next month, but I think we might have to add this to the regular menu. Cheongju Iced Tea is the working name for it, so we could have a little spiked iced tea section of the menu, put it with the Long Island and Tokyo ones, maybe add another one. Maybe a Tennessee one or something."

"You know I'm always in favour of more whiskey based drinks," Yunjin beams, stealing the glass back to sneak another sip of the now half-empty Cheongju Iced Tea. "It can replace that gross cucumber and mint cooler that abYunjinieutely nobody orders."

Sooyoung frowns. "I don't know why everyone hates it so much. It doesn't taste that bad."

"It's not awful, no, but drinking is supposed to taste fun, not like one of your five a day."

"You're all haters," Sooyoung grumbles.

"And proud," Yunjin says, laughing when Sooyoung flips her off. "Have you come up with anything else for Summer Daze?"

"Nothing concrete yet," Sooyoung says. "Chaewon is playing around with that mango rum that came in yesterday, think she's trying to do some kind of pineapple and mango daiquiri type thing." Sooyoung looks fondly over at the bar, where Chaewon is frowning at a bright orange drink. "She's really so great, I'm so glad Jiwoo recommended her."

Yunjin just hums in agreement, not particularly eager to jump into a conversation about how great Chaewon is considering her contributions will have nothing to do with Chaewon's bartending expertise and everything to do with her fingers and her mouth.

Sooyoung gets distracted by her phone for a bit, so there's a nice peaceful lull in the conversation for a few minutes, the quiet ambient background noise of tables talking and glasses clinking, and then—

"So like, are you ever going to tell me what your problem with her actually is?"

Yunjin freezes. "What?"

"With Chaewon. You avoid her, you don't really make an effort to talk to her, when she comes up to join in a conversation you get all weird and quiet and then make an excuse to leave. So, what's the problem? Did she do something? Say something?"

For one hysterical moment, Yunjin considers telling Sooyoung everything. Wonderland, whiskey sours, the back of a taxi, pushing Chaewon against the wall just inside her front door—

She doesn't.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Yunjin lies instead. "I don't have a problem with her."

Sooyoung rolls her eyes. "Yunjinie, we've been friends for like, ten years, I know what you're like when you don't like someone," she says, and she's clearly about to dig deeper into this increasingly horrifying interrogation when her face abruptly changes to the most disappointed expression Yunjin's ever seen. She doesn't actually put her head in her hands, but she looks very close to it. "Yunjin," Sooyoung sighs. "Do you just think she's hot?"

"What?" Yunjin squeaks.

"Oh my God, is that all it is?" Sooyoung laughs. "I've been worried that you and Chaewon hate each other for some unknown reason, but you just think she's hot."

"I do not," Yunjin protests.

"You do."

"I don't."

"You do."

"Oh my God, what are you, twelve?" Yunjin huffs. "I just don't know her very well, alright? That's all it is. Stop acting like you've figured out some huge great secret."

Sooyoung leans back in her chair, a giant smile on her face. Yunjin somehow resists the urge to launch the remains of the Cheongju Iced Tea in her face.

"But—"

"I have work to do," Yunjin interrupts, making a show of turning back towards her laptop. "Goodbye, Sooyoung."