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Miyeon knows their story almost as well as if he had lived through it.
They had met by chance one cool summer night on their university’s quad and it had been love at first sight for Shuhua.
For Soojin? Not so much.
It had taken Shuhua months to thaw Soojin’s heart just enough for the girl to give her a chance. She spent countless days texting her, showering her with gifts and little details, before Soojin finally spared her a little smile that just made Shuhua fall deeper.
And once Soojin had finally agreed to go out with Shuhua on a trial date, the rest was history.
At first, it had all seemed to be sunshine and rainbows for Shuhua, she couldn’t believe the Seo Soojin was dating her. But as time passed, the rose tinted glasses that Shuhua seemed to have around Soojin started losing its color, and the cracks in what she thought was a perfect relationship started to show.
Little by little, Soojin seemed to pull away from her and forget about her existence, breaking up with her every once in a while just to go out with other people. And just when Shuhua seemed to start moving on after each heartbreak, Soojin came back to her life like a hurricane wrecking all the progress she had made just to pull her back into her orbit once again.
That’s how Miyeon met Shuhua, after one of too many heartbreaks the younger girl had gone through. Shuhua had stumbled up to her bar one lonely January night looking as if hell had dragged her twice over.
Miyeon had thought that the other girl was beautiful even if life had seemed to be sucked out of her and Miyeon wondered how stunning she would be when she smiled.
Shuhua had only said, “Give me the biggest tequila bottle you have laying around” and Miyeon had been enchanted.
From then on, every time Shuhua was at odds with Soojin, Miyeon would find her sitting right at the bar and asking for the biggest bottle of alcohol she was in the mood for that day. And that’s how Miyeon got to know what each bottle meant.
If Shuhua asked for tequila, Soojin had broken up with her once again; she asked for wine, it meant Soojin had stood her up on a date; she asked for soju, they had gotten into a big fight that left their -barely hanging by a thread- relationship on the verge of falling apart.
Little by little, and with every drunken word that came out of Shuhua’s mouth, Miyeon came to know Shuhua and got to know her really well.
To the point where she had basically become Shuhua’s closest confidant when it came to Soojin. Which was kinda fitting since Miyeon was a bartender and that was basically part of the job, but obviously Shuhua meant more to her than the other regular patrons that spilled their sob stories to her.
It had been almost a year of this never ending routine though and Miyeon was getting kind of tired of it. Not because she was getting tired of Shuhua, not at all, but because she thought Shuhua deserved better.
So one day, after Soojin had -once again- broken up with Shuhua citing she “need some time to meet new people since she was feeling suffocated in their relationship”, Miyeon armed herself with courage and finally spilled the words that she had been trying so hard to not let slip out for a year.
“You deserve better, you know?”, Miyeon said as she poured Shuhua another drink.
“Uh?”, Shuhua seemed confused at Miyeon’s words.
“You deserve more than someone who always keeps you hanging on and keeps breaking your heart over and over”, with every word that came out of her mouth Miyeon felt herself getting bolder, “You deserve someone that is not afraid to be seen with you on public, someone that’s not looking over her shoulder for the next best thing, someone that listens to you and shares with you your worries and fears..”
Shuhua looked at her like she was speaking a different language, as if she had never dared to think about wanting more than what Soojin had to give her.
“...you deserve someone that goes along with your plans. You deserve someone who will love you unconditionally, someone…”
“Someone like you?”, Shuhua interrupted Miyeon mid sentence.
This is the moment you’ve been waiting for , Miyeon thought before taking a deep breath and staring at Shuhua right in the eyes.
“Yes, if you’d let me”.
With every second that passed without Shuhua saying anything, aloof Miyeon’s bravado started to slip away.
She was about to give up and go to the backroom with her tail tucked between her legs and cry a little at the imminent rejection when Shuhua finally spoke up.
“Okay”.
“Okay?”, Miyeon’s brow furrowed in confusion, was what only seemed a farfetched dream finally upon her grasp?
Shuhua downed her drink in one go, “Show me what you think I deserve”.
“I promise you won’t regret it”, Miyeon could barely contain her excitement at finally getting to date Shuhua.
“Don’t make any promises you can’t keep”, were Shuhua’s final words before she left the bar, leaving a stunned Miyeon behind.
“Wait! How do I contact you?”, Miyeon yelled after her but Shuhua was already far gone.
She was about to give chase after her when she noticed a napkin right next to Shuhua’s abandoned glass.
Don’t make me regret it
-Shuhua, XXX-XXX-XXXX
Miyeon couldn’t help but do a little victory dance, the quest to mend Shuhua’s heart was finally starting.