7-eleven || 2jin

"love is found in unlikely places" and i took that personally!

"shut up. your mom should've swallowed." hyunjin says to her friend over the phone.

"hyunjin, you know those kinda jokes don't hit for me. i never wanted to be born in the first place." yerim says, jokingly serious.

"right, right. i forgot." hyunjin rubs her arms, trying to rid them of the goosebumps that appeared. "damn, it's cold out here."

"it's 10 o'clock in the middle of november, what'd you expect?" yerim snickers.

"you're such a bully."

"please don't tell the teacher on me, i'll give your glitter pens back!"

hyunjin rolls her eyes. the neon lights about ten yards away tell her that she's nearing her destination.

"you're a big meanie poopoo face. i only have this stupid jean jacket."

"the one vivi gave you?"

"yep. she was cute or whatever, but her internal temperature was seriously fucked up." yerim snorts. hyunjin, having already arrived at her destination, is dawdling in front of the store, waiting to finish the phone call. she doesn't like talking on the phone in public, she thinks it's obnoxious.

"it's truly astounding how you can —"

"don't judge me for drinking monster at 10 pm, i'm mentally ill."

"very. go to therapy."

"love you too. i gotta go, you know i don't like being on the phone in public places. bye, stupid."

"bye, ugly."

hyunjin ends the call. entering the 7-eleven, she notices the only worker there, who seems to be sleeping behind the counter. but that cashier wakes up with a start as the bell on the door rings. her head shoots up, long hair landing impossibly gracefully, and the only two people in that 7-eleven make eye contact.

hyunjin nods respectfully and doesn't wait to see how the cashier responds before staring straight down at her converse. she speed-walks to the refrigerated drinks section, almost running into two displays on the way there.

'how come the hottest people are always at the convenience stores in the middle of the night?' she thinks, glancing back at the cashier. the same cashier that is currently running a hand through her dark brown hair and looking gorgeous while doing it.

hyunjin's lonely, bisexual ass has to remind her brain that it's not cool to fall in love with every woman it sees. opening one of the fridge doors, she shivers as the cold air hits her. 'this jacket is about as stable as my relationship with my parents.' she makes herself laugh out loud and tries to cover it up by staging a violent coughing fit. even though the laugh was so quiet in the first place, the girl at the counter didn't even hear it. a counterproductive measure, one might say.

"yo, are you okay?" the cashier slightly bends over the counter to concernedly stare at hyunjin more clearly. her surprisingly deep voice makes hyunjin actually choke.

"i-i'm totally fi-ine, don't wo-worry about me!" she wheezes.

"good. cause if you died right now, my manager would never let me hear the end of it."

hyunjin snatches up a can of monster energy (maybe it's maybelline, maybe it's mental illness), almost dropping it in her haste. she also gets a bag of random chips and a double-chocolate chip cookie so she doesn't seem completely insane.

dropping the items on the counter for the girl to scan, hyunjin feels irrationally nervous and can't seem to maintain eye contact for longer than 0.0001 seconds.

"i would ask if you're having a nice evening, but you almost just choked to death, so i'm guessing it hasn't gone that well." the cashier — who's name is heejin, according to her nametag — jokes casually. hyunjin, slightly breathless, replies vaguely, "yeah."

"you got asthma or something?"

"no, just social anxiety." hyunjin is a bit impulsive. it takes all her will to not run out the door right this moment.

heejin laughs. "you're kinda funny," she tries to scan the cookie, not paying attention and therefore not realizing that the barcode has been covered by a "10% off" sticker. until she does realize, obviously.

"fucking yeojin," she mutters under her breath. yeojin is a younger employee, who seems to think the "10% off" sticker over the barcode makes a new barcode.

hyunjin's impulsivity comes in clutch again. "if it doesn't have a barcode, it means it's free, right?" she shoots fingerguns at heejin, like some sort of bisexual mating call.

heejin laughs again. "sure. nobody buys these anyways." she slides the stuff across the counter to hyunjin. she doesn't tell hyunjin what the price is and hyunjin wonders if she just has short-term memory loss. "um, how much?"

heejin looks up at her, as if confused why she's asking. "free of charge. only cause you were an entertaining customer." she gives hyunjin a charming smile.

hyunjin could really just faint. "isn't that- kinda technically- sorta stealing?" heejin continues grinning. "it would've been like three dollars."

"well, then, i could just —" hyunjin fumbles in her backpack for her wallet. "no, don't bother. i take shit from here all the time, my manager never notices." hyunjin supposes this is hot girl behavior.

"um, well, thank you, hav —"

"hey, before you leave, can i ask you something? business related." heejin calls out just before hyunjin turns to walk out. "... sure?"

"so, if you don't have a barcode, that means you're free tomorrow, right?"

'OH MY GOD!?!!>$?^!?*&' hyunjin may or may not be having a mini existential crisis?

"i-i'm- a- uh- um- there- when- if- you-"

heejin slides a slip of paper with a phone number on it across the counter. "feel free to text if you're interested. or if you're not," she shrugs. "i won't take it personally. have a nice evening." she winks. hyunjin smiles and practically runs out of the 7-eleven.

there's a certain bounce in her step that might not have been there before. but hyunjin's much too preoccupied with that wink to think about much else right now.

- end