Memories - Purinz

Chapter 6 - Houston, Purinz Has Landed

Now

Yunjin regrets three things that morning while she's driving. One, she regrets taking her car to meet up with Kazuha because she's been photographed in it a bunch of times and knowing their fans, there is no way she isn't going to be recognized. Not to mention she had to park a little farther from the bakeshop because there were so many goddamn cars so early in the morning already. She knew the way to the shop so well, seeing as she and Chaewon used to take turns dragging each other to the establishment when either one of them began craving something sweet. Chaewon loved the cheesecakes, it didn't matter which one, and Yunjin kind of hates herself for remembering that.

Two, she regrets choosing to wear a baseball cap and sunglasses in lieu of their usual disguises that involved wigs because the cap does nothing to help hide her face and the glasses were just useless. It does help with shielding her face from the harsh rays of the sun when she gets out of the car though, so at least there's that.

And three, she regrets drinking the night before. Her head was pounding despite already downing a large bottle of Prime before going out with nothing but a pair of loose light denim jeans, an oversized shirt tucked in, and a pair of black beat up Converse low tops. Yunjin's not usually this scatterbrained but apparently when you had just spent yet another night sleeping beside your soon-to-be ex-wife, all logic goes out the window.

She huffs as she walks faster towards the bakeshop Kazuha told her to go to, already deciding on making the latter pay for one whole cheesecake solely for Yunjin's consumption as punishment. Yunjin immediately rushes inside the shop, desperate for cold air, ignoring the hollow feeling inside her stomach when she thinks of who she used to come here with. Once she's inside, she takes her black aviators off and breathes out, relieved to finally be out of the heat. She smiles, warm and polite, at the girl manning the counter. Yunjin sees a flash of recognition cross the girl's face but before she could do anything, Yunjin's already made her way towards one of the booths in the farthest corner of the shop.

A memory flashes in front of her. It's one with her and Chaewon; both of them seated on the exact same table Yunjin is staring at during present time, and Chaewon's across her, giggling behind her palms and looking like Yunjin had given her the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the other heavenly bodies in existence, when in reality she had probably just given her a slice of cake. She smiles to herself, remembering how Chaewon found happiness in every little Yunjin used to do.

Used to.

Yunjin shakes her head and takes a seat. It's already 8:57 in the morning and her friend is nowhere inside. Yunjin checks her phone to see if there were any messages from Kazuha, grumbling when she sees none.

"Jesus, Nakamura Kazuha," she mumbles under her breath, already sending her friend a text saying 'where are you? you need to pay for my cheesecake'. Kazuha replies a minute later with a 'boooo i never agreed to that'. Yunjin tells her to just hurry up.

When Kazuha doesn't answer, Yunjin sighs and leans back on her chair, eyes stuck staring at her phone. If she was being honest, she's been waiting for someone else to text her and the whole morning, she's been trying to fight the urge to text that same person. But Yunjin decides not to be honest, she ignores the itch, figuring it'd die down as soon as Kazuha arrives. She puts her phone down and lets her gaze wander outside; she spots three odd looking people hunched over newspapers from the coffee shop across the street but that doesn't really hold her attention long enough to forget about her urge because after a few short seconds, Yunjin finds herself opening her messaging app. Her fingers hover over the contact name 'C ❤' and she realizes she hasn't changed Chaewon's contact name even after everything that happened. God knows how many times she's done this, staring at her phone and wanting to text Chaewon, over the past two years. She types up messages ranging from 'where on earth are you, Chaewon' to 'why did you leave' to 'please come back' but she never presses send.