Meet Me in the Afterglow (Purinz/Chaewon x Yunjin)

Bad Idea (M)

NOW.

The first, and up until now the only wedding that Yunjin has been to in her life was one of her uncles when she was fifteen. The memory has gone a little fuzzy with time, but she distinctly remembers it being a fairly quiet and intimate occasion. Held in the backyard of her uncle's house out in the countryside near Gwangju, the guests consisted solely of immediate family and a handful of close friends, with no official catering — Yunjin's grandmother and one of her aunts did all the cooking themselves, three tier cake included — and no DJ or band to provide music, only someone's phone and Spotify playlist connected to the Bluetooth speakers brought out into the garden.

(Needless to say, fifteen year old Yunjin at the height of her moody teenage angst phase, had been bored out of her mind.)

The second wedding Yunjin attends is the exact opposite. But Kazuha wouldn't be Kazuha without her flair for the dramatic, and Sakura wouldn't be Sakura without her catering to Kazuha's every whim, so now, here she is, one of almost two hundred guests spread out across the gardens of a luxury hotel resort a few miles north of Busan, people-watching from the bar with her third glass of exorbitantly expensive but thankfully complimentary champagne in her hand.

(Twenty-nine year old Yunjin is not bored at all. She is a little overwhelmed though; she didn't even know Sakura and Kazuha knew this many people.)

The ceremony took place hours earlier in the afternoon, on the private stretch of beach belonging to the resort, concluding with Sakura and Kazuha making everyone cry with their predictably heartfelt and mushy romantic vows and then kissing with, in Yunjin's humble opinion, a little too much tongue considering their entire extended families were present. Now, the speeches have been made, the cake has been cut, and the party is in full swing.

It's still early in the evening; the sky is a light shade of lavender, streaked with orange and red and dotted with cotton candy puffs of clouds, the lingering sunlight rich and warm. There's a huge white gazebo set up in the middle of the lawn, overlooking the beach and lit up with twinkling gold fairy lights, that covers the bar, the dance floor and the live band set up on the stage currently halfway through an old Hyuna song that Yunjin can't remember the name of. The trees lining the edges of the gardens and the path leading back to the main hotel building have red paper lanterns strung up in their branches, casting a soft orange glow over everything.

It's a beautiful day for a wonderful occasion, everyone hopped up on love or alcohol or both.

She's spent the first few hours of the reception drifting between the dance floor and the table that the ten of them have been assigned to with some combination of the others, before they all got distracted by food (Yujin, Ningning and Liz) or significant others (Minjeong and Rei) or spouses (Sakura), and now she has retreated to the peaceful safety of the bar.

There's two tuxedo-clad women behind the bar that, when they're not pouring champagne or mixing cocktails for Yunjin and the rest of the guests, are flirting tentatively and shooting each other shy looks when the other one isn't paying attention. There's been at least three separate incidents where their hands have accidentally touched when they both reached for the same bottle of alcohol or ice scoop or box of cocktail umbrellas at the same time, and Yunjin can almost feel the heat from their red faces from the other end of the bar.

It's both amusing and adorable to watch, but her attention is diverted away from the potential lovebirds by a familiar shriek of Yunjin-unnie! followed by Kazuha crashing into her side less than a second later, and then rather unsteadily hopping up onto the empty seat next to Yunjin.

Before Yunjin can even say anything, the blonde bartender — Heejin, according to her name tag — appears in front of them and gives them a dazzling smile. "Hello, Kazuha-ssi. Can I get you something to drink?"