amidst the winter season | kittyz

eight

At exactly half past 10, Hanni walked up the driveway to the café with two books clammed under her arm, her hands shoved into the pockets of her jacket. Yunjin was already outside, shoveling the fresh snow away to clear the driveway.

"Good morning!" Hanni greeted her and quickly brought the books inside to save them from the snow before she came back outside, "Do you have a second shovel I can help you with?"

"Yeah, it should be in the shed."

Hanni nodded and went to work herself. For a few minutes, she and Yunjin worked in silence until there was a wide passage through the masses of snow in the driveway.

"Let's head inside," Yunjin leaned her shovel against the wall of the house, "my hands are freezing."

The two women headed inside and took off their jackets. Hanni shook the melting snowflakes out of her hair and quickly took off her shoes.

"Do you have anything I can eat? I haven't had breakfast yet."

"Sure, you can just take something out of the fridge," Yunjin showed her typical wide smile at the younger girl, "tea?"

"I'd love to."

When the water was boiling in the kettle and Hanni was chewing on some toast, she finally told Yunjin all about the previous evening.

"It was awful!" She confessed, "I mean, Haerin's friends are nice and all but I felt so uncomfortable the whole time, like an intruder who had snuck into a stranger's house."

She paused for a moment.

"That's probably how Haerin sees me, anyway."

"Don't let her get to you," Yunjin advised her kindly, "people that are rude to you are not worth your time."

"Thank you... -I'm really glad I can come here everyday. I wouldn't know what else to do, stuck at home all alone. Or worse, together with Haerin."

Hanni giggled at the words she had said but Yunjin suddenly seemed flustered. "Speaking of which..." Yunjin sheepishly ran a hand through her blonde hair that was partially wet from the snow, "I'm afraid you won't be able to visit for a little while."

Hanni let her continue without interruption, anxious yet curious to hear what Yunjin had to say.

"Kazuha gifted me a 3-week road trip to Australia yesterday!" Yunjin beamed and could not help the wide smile that spread on her lips, "We're going to leave in a couple of days and then we'll rent a van and travel through the country. Neither of us have been to Australia before so we're really excited."

Seeing how happy Yunjin was about her upcoming vacation, Hanni could not bring herself to be mad or truly disappointed. She smiled back at Yunjin, even though there was a small voice in the back of her head, quietly whispering 'but what will you do when the café is closed?'.

"That's awesome!" Hanni said, "When is your departure?"

"On Friday," Yunjin replied happily, "we plan on flying to Vancouver to spend two days over there. Our flight to Australia leaves on Sunday evening."

As it was Tuesday this very day, Yunjin's departure was only a couple of days away.

"And when will you be back?"

"Probably around the beginning of March. We haven't booked our flights back yet."

The two got to work and Yunjin got all the cakes from the fridge while Hanni prepared the tables. The day went on without any notable events but below the surface, Hanni's mind was racing.

Where in the world would she go while Yunjin was on vacation? After an initial wave of disappointment about the new information, Hanni knew in her rational mind that no one really could be blamed for this. Still, staying home the whole time and being bored out of her mind did not seem too fun. At least she would not have to deal with Haerin since the latter was gone the whole day, skiing in the morning and working as a waitress in the evening.