sohee shifts under the covers for what feels like the twentieth time since she’d said “goodnight” to sehun, who seems adamant to grow eyebags the size of his cheeks. she sighs softly and takes a deep breath to calm herself before she peeks out from under the blankets he still only has his legs under. his back rests up against the headboard while he’s scrolling through his phone. she isn’t even sure if he’s moved since he sat there. “sehun, are you actually ever going to sleep early? stop staying up so late. i can never fall asleep.”

sohee tosses back her shot of tequila, the bridge of her nose scrunching up as she licks at her lips and hisses at the burn in her throat and down her stomach. she grins at the bartender, sliding over the empty shotglass before asking for a glass of water to slow herself down. she whips out her phone and scrolls through her social media idly, letting herself take her time tonight. she had nowhere to be and no plans to make. when she goes to pick up her drink, her gaze sweeps over the other people sitting at the bar, and she has to do a subtle double-take at one of the ladies down to her left. she’s pretty sure that’s the woman in the camvideos she always watches. with the little bit of booze in her system, she finds the balls to pick up her glass and make her way over, contemplating the least creepy way of approaching the woman. it’s really only a stroke of luck when the person seated next to her vacates their seat, giving sohee an opening. “hi, uh, is this seat taken?” she asks, catching her gaze and offering her a smile. 

once she’s finished drying off her shoes by the doormat, she steps in further to try and look for a table she can sit at. when she doesn’t find any, she sheepishly approaches a man sitting alone at a table by the corner. “excuse me, i’m really sorry to impose on you like this, but would you mind if i sat here as well?”

her fingers fly across the keyboard as she excitedly composes a message to one of her favorite baking youtubers to watch. she’d been sitting on the idea of proposing that they collaborate on a cooking-slash-baking video together and after watching his previous video, she’d finally taken the chance to clicking that little speech bubble button. she types, “hi! this is park sohee. i do cooking videos and a bunch of other home-related how-to’s and DIYs here on youtube as well! i enjoy watching your videos so much and i was wondering and hoping if you’d maybe be up to collaborating on a video one of these days? i can’t wait to hear from you! you can totally message me on kkt if you prefer: prksphie . :D”, and presses the send button.

the tiny ache in her lower back finally gives when sohee stretches out her back, an audible crick adding to the relief. she wrings out the damp rag she’d been using to wipe down the tables once the last customer finally exited the restaurant. it had been a tiring and long dinner shift full of families and employees celebrating the end of their day. once she’d finished cleaning up at the sink, she washes her hands and pulls her hair out of her ponytail as she makes her way to the employees’ area. “thank goodness for the weekend, huh?” she says to her workmate, ahrin, with a little laugh. 

“Aurora? Aurora Amano, is that you?”