Salmon Bagel and a Hot Chocolate

8 - An Outsider Perspective

An hour in and Minjeong was already very keen to head back home.

However, the time she spent with Karina (which was all night) turned out to be better than she'd expected.

Talking to the woman was surprisingly refreshing, which was a nice feeling as the only people Minjeong had been talking to, other than her friends, were her clients. There was something about Karina that made Minjeong talk, just like what Yizhuo and Yunjin were able to do.

Minjeong had learned quite a bit about Karina– the woman was not too far away from family as she was very prone to being homesick, her mother and older sister worked in a hospital, she'd known Giselle ever since they were kids, she can sing and dance, played a lot of sports when she was younger, was and still is quite the math nerd, deathly afraid of birds, and loves dinosaurs, sharks, and crocodiles.

A ton of anecdotes got Minjeong to come to all those conclusions, but she wasn't disappointed to hear any of it. Karina was interesting and Minjeong was genuinely willing to get to know her.

"How long have you been working at the café?" Minjeong asked.

"Just started last year, actually," Karina told. "Giselle bought it and needed someone with a business background to help her with all the logistics. Lucky for her, I have a business background, love coffee, and had just gotten laid off. So, I agreed to help and that was the best decision I'd ever made."

"I'm really glad it's all going well," Minjeong smiled. "Glad I found it too. You guys are good at this."

"Giselle's got the money and the brains, I got the brains," Karina wiggled her eyebrows. "Together, we make a pretty good team."

"She sounds lovely." Minjeong hummed, glancing over at Yizhuo and Giselle, who were alone in a booth having what seemed like a pleasant conversation.

"She is," Karina nodded. "I'm so happy she met Yizhuo. It's been hard for her."

"Hard?" Minjeong furrowed her eyebrows.

"Like, dating and feelings and stuff," Karina shrugged. "Things got a little weird for a bit..."

Minjeong simply raised her eyebrows, realising Karina would speak about it anyways. Just as she figured, it took Karina less than 5 seconds of silence to explain further. Karina didn't seem to do all too well in moments of silence.

"Gi and I, we tried the whole dating thing out," Karina muttered. "I mean, it was alright, but it also just didn't work. Things got weird for quite a while, we didn't speak to each other for a year. It ruined our friendship periodically and after that, she was just too scared to date again."

"Ah, I see," Minjeong nodded. "I hope this helps her overcome that fear."

"I think it will," Karina sighed contently. "This is a weird thing to say, but she's like my sister now."

"Yeah, maybe don't say that after you talk about her as your ex again." Minjeong shook her head. in amusement.

"Yep..." Karina let out a light laugh. "So what about you? We've been talking about me all night, I still know nothing about you."

Minjeong let out a small laugh. Sure, she was okay with Karina's company, but she still didn't know her well enough to open up to her.

"We'll leave that for next time."

"Aw," Karina pouted. "But that means there'll be a next time?"

"I think we're gonna see each other a lot more now." Minjeong hummed, watching as Yizhuo and Giselle walked over to them, hand-in-hand.