Spirit Animal[Jiyoo]

New Beginnings (part 2)

"If you could jump into a pool full of something, what would it be?"

"That's a pretty odd question Gahyeon. Points for creativity though! Hmmm...I think orbeez. You know, those jelly like balls that grow with water? Just curious what it would feel like. I was originally going to say paper money, but I don't think that would support my fall very well hahaha. What about you cutie?"

"Hey you're not supposed to revert the question on me! You're already always in my mind anyways. Wait...uh what I mean is, you already know how I feel most of the time!"

"Awww you're so cute when you're flustered! Sure, I know how you feel, but I don't know you personally. I want to get to know the young woman behind all those complex emotions."

"Oh. Um, ok...hear me out...whipped cream! I think it would be fun! I don't think it would support me that well either, so maybe I would slide in instead of jump. But, just think about it! I think the entire place would smell great!"

"Huh. I somehow feel like that suits you very well. Keep the questions comin'. "

"Do you turn your ability on and use it for your job, or do you try to not rely on it and just use what you learned from university?"

"Oh I definitely use my ability. Sure, what I was taught comes in for the more official diagnosis and helpful exercises, but using my abilities helps a bit. I can tell when they're lying about feeling ok. My coworkers call me the miracle doctor."

"I guess you do have a hidden advantage over others in that regard. Speaking of your coworkers...how well do you get along with them?"

"Ah,  I feel like I know what you actually want to ask. You can't really hide your curiosity from me, after all. I get along with all of my coworkers pretty well. At first, there was a bit of difficulty since I'm a foreigner, but no one can deny the quality of my work. Now, as for the person you're curious about, everyone calls her Sally, but her actual name in Mandarin is Liu Xiening. She's a childhood friend of mine. She moved here a short while after I did. We were roommates for a while. As for my relationship with her, we're just friends. I decided to ask her out a few years ago, when I was your age actually, and she rejected me. I was disappointed and sad for a bit, but I should have seen it coming. At that time, I was still perfecting my emotion reading skills. That, paired with the fact that I wanted her to like me back so much, led me to misread her warm feelings of friendship and trust as something more."

The car comes to a stop at yet another red light, and for a moment, neither Handong nor Gahyeon say a word. Worried she might have brought up bad memories for the older blonde girl, Gahyeon scrambled to find the right words.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't know. For what it's worth, I'm sure you're an absolutely wonderful person with the best personality and kind heart and warm smile and um" Gahyeon panicked as she continued to ramble on.

"Woah there! Slow down! There's no need to apologize, but thank you for such high praise! I shall cherish it to my grave! But really though, no need to be so somber. This is something that I can look back on now and laugh about. Any awkward feelings between her and I have since been cleared up. What about you? Anyone besides me catch your eye recently?"

"Um, no. Not really. Can I ask...you seem to already know that I might like you. Like, maybe have the tiniest bit of interest in you. You sometimes flirt with me too, even in the past at FeverDream when our shifts overlapped, but it kinda reminds me of Siyeon in that way. She's just naturally flirty. It's like that's engrained in her personality. However, you're not Siyeon...so what does all of your flirting mean?"