It was summer, a season that seems to be everyone's favorite.
Everyone's but hers.
The summer itself wasn't that bad, it's not like she got any beef or anything with it. People seemed to enjoy basking in it anyway –letting the pretty, warm hues of the sun tinting their skin golden with a pretty hint of cherry.
The sun also usually feels pleasantly warm to the skin, generously sharing its heat with everyone under it. Such a considerate move to warm the borderline freezing giant cold ball called earth up a bit.
But the real problem to her lies in how she spends it –the fucking summer holiday that's supposed to be a relaxing thing, a perfect opportunity to free yourself from the stress tight scheduled week. How she was going to spend her whole summer break is nothing close to that.
For real.
Right now she was dragging her steps under the scorching hot sun with only a thin layer of old slippers protecting the soles of her feet from the burning asphalt. The road was so hot that it started to sting pretty badly, the layers of slipper were not doing any more justice to her poor feet.
The walk felt like forever. Forget about the sun giving everyone their well-deserved warmth, it was being a bitch for radiating much more sunlight than necessary. She wasn't trying to be greedy for fucks sake, the sun just decided to spoil her just like a budget sugar daddy.
She had no idea how the sun managed to get hotter, increasing the temperature of the giant furnace which was burning her alive. The heat was starting to dig in her scalp, making her regret her decision to not spend some extra penny for a nice taxi ride even more.
The area around her shirt collar was starting to turn translucent from how much she was sweating. Ignoring the sticky feeling from the sheer layer of sweat on her skin and the painful mark from the straps of her slippers in between her toes, she decided to just suck it up and run to her destination which was not too far from her now.
That's a good decision, right?
Of course not.
First of all, the whole run made her unathletic body sweat, even more, it was running down from her temple only to form again to soak her even more than before.
Second of all, it was the first time she ran since that one cursed P.E class when she injured herself from tripping. Her body will get sore as hell after this, but she was running late, her sore calves could wait, right?
Most likely not.
Finally, that dreaded quick run had come to an end. Finally.
Her steps stopped in front of a small convenience store with a big "24" neon sign right on top of it, the glass door luring her in as if it knew that she needed the cold air-con as soon as possible. Her hand felt almost too weak to push the door open and the heavy white tote bag which was hanging on her right shoulder wasn't a huge help in that situation.
She weakly knocked on the glass door, startling her co-worker from the previous shift who hurriedly opened the door and took the bag for her.
"The fuck?!"
"Shut up Kim, this is the first time we meet this week and that's how you greet me?" She chuckled, as she staggered to the empty seat behind the cashier, plopping herself on it immediately. Happily inhaling the sweetly cooling artificial breeze from the air-con.
"You are really something, Jiwoo," the male pinched his nose bridge before joining her, placing the big white tote bag beside the chair.
"What time did you wake up this time?"
"Uh," she made a thinking gesture, but from the way the male co-worker stared at her, she was sure no answer was needed. "9.30? I think?"
"The shift was like, at 10?" He exclaimed with an exaggerated facepalm.
"But I'm not late? Right?" She breathed out sheepishly, earning another glare from the male.
"Technically yes, 10 minutes," she groaned at the reply. "But that old gramps isn't here yet so cheer up, we can make up a lie before he-"
Suddenly, the –usually cheery sounding– eerie bell resounded in the room, making both of them shoot their heads at the entrance with eyes widening in terror.
The door creaked open, revealing a little boy with a bowl cut with her mom who was busy with her phone. The sight made them exhale in relief. It was not their supervisor.
"Minjun! I thought the old man is here," Jiwoo whisper-shouted as she slowly rubbed her chest, earning a nod from the other.
"Same, I thought he heard us. My job was almost on the fucking stake."
"True, I need to stop staying awake 'till the crack of dawn. Only Lord knows what he is capable of doing to my precious job," she sighed as she took out a cold water bottle from her bag, its surface wet from the condensation.
"Jiwoo!"
"What?!" She furrowed her eyebrows, her fingers were ready to unscrew the cap but her friend decided to snatch the bottle away from her. Her throat was getting scratchy from the dehydration from the running earlier and she couldn't wish for more but to drink the refreshing cold water peacefully.
"Isn't this plastic bottle reused?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Qian An said that it's not good to reuse these single-use bottles, go buy another one. My treat," he stated before putting the bottle away, Jiwoo rolled her eyes at that.
Of course, it's Minjun and his shameless crush on Qian An, a cute cafe barista that he had secretly been pining over for a few months now. It was cute to hear her almost heartless and cold friend pining over someone who sounds so warm and timid, but hell, she wasn't expecting to listen to his rants about the poor clueless guy without making a single move.
"That Qian An guy made you so dumb, yet smart at the same time. It's fascinating, really," Jiwoo snickered before leaving to grab a glass bottle of cold lime soda from the fridge.
"I'll scan this for you real quick, Mister –soon to be– Qian."
"Shut up, Choi," a visible blush was spread on his usually lifeless looking face. She just knew deep inside that he is the type of person who folds 100 paper cranes to confess on his little boy crush and it's honestly adorable.
"It'll be 3.50, Mr.Qian."
"I know what you're thinking, Jiwoo. You might not believe this but I made a move you know. Or at least tried too," Minjun mumbled the last part as he pulled out a 5 dollar bill from his wallet before handing it to the girl.
"What did you do?" Jiwoo quirked an eyebrow playfully before inputting the data on the cranky machine.
"I left him post-its."
Jiwoo stopped rummaging for his change before slowly looking up at him.
"What did he say?"
"Uh," Minjun just made an unsure look on his face accompanied by an equally anxious sounding chuckle. "I had been leaving them for pretty long now, 2 months to be exact, still no replies."
She huffed, "How hard is it to just ask him out normally?"
"It's complicated okay, what if he doesn't like me back?"
"You are almost 20 for fucks sake, just look for another one."
Minjun scoffed as he swiftly took his change from the compartment full of pennies, catching the shorter girl off guard.
"You had no idea how complicated love is for real-" Minjun stopped for a while as he counted the pennies on his palm, before continuing his speech, "-watch it, kid. You might fall for a random stranger or a sweaty jock from that field across the mart."
Jiwoo grimaced at the latter, she always hated the irking odor of sweat lingering around the store whenever they came in to grab a drink or eat some ramen. It was an ironic saying, considering how sweaty and smelly she was that day. She had no idea how Minjun could handle the smell.
Gosh, even she couldn't handle the smell anymore.
"Uh- Minjun, do you have any spare shirt? I kinda stink."
"Your attempt to distract me is not-" his snarky remark was cut off with a sudden flinch. "Shit you stink, hold up."
Jiwoo gave him a "told you" look as he proceeded to rummage his bag for a spare t-shirt, if he's lucky he might find a damn air freshener too.
"Here, go change. You smell like the damn sewer," he grumbled as he pushed a big black t-shirt to her.
"Thanks?" She mumbled before running to the restroom at the back of the store, leaving Minjun alone
Minjun sighed before falling back to his seat, waiting for the woman and her kid to finally get something and pay because they are taking way too long behind the candy shelf.
The bell chimed again, a group of sweaty boys from what seemed like a baseball club flooded in, their loud chattering breaking the comfortable silence.
Jiwoo wasn't going to like this.