Unwritten Between Us | Seo Changbin

The Girl Who Did Not Look Twice

The morning rush had ended forty two minutes ago, but the cafe still smelled like espresso and burnt caramel syrup. Someone had spilled syrup near the pumps again. It was always the caramel. Never the vanilla or the hazelnut. Something about caramel attracted disaster. Vera had learned this after working at Slow Brew for nine months. She was wiping down the pastry display for the third time. The glass was already clean. She just needed something to do with her hands.

Her coworker Minji was on her phone behind the counter. Minji was nineteen years old. She was in her first year of university and she cared about exactly three things. Those three things were idol music, her boyfriend Jaehyun who worked at a convenience store, and the temperature of her iced americanos. Vera liked Minji despite their differences. Minji talked enough for both of them. Vera listened. It worked.

Today Minji was scrolling through some idol update account at full volume. A voice was singing in autotuned Korean. The lyrics were about being a star or breaking a heart or something equally vague. Vera did not pay attention. She had stopped paying attention to idol music three years ago. It was not a conscious decision. She had simply realized one day that every song sounded like the same song with different colored hair. The production was too clean. The emotions were too big and too fake. She preferred old things. Crackly things. Songs where you could hear the singer's breath catch in the middle of a line.

"Do you think Felix from Stray Kids would date a normal person?" Minji asked without looking up.

"I do not know who that is," Vera said.

Minji gasped. It was a loud gasp. A dramatic gasp. The kind of gasp that belonged in a historical drama. Her phone dropped onto the counter with a clatter. She stared at Vera like Vera had just admitted to arson or perhaps worse, liking trot music.

"You do not know who Felix is? The Australian one? The sunshine with the deep voice? Blonde hair? Freckles? He looks like an actual angel descended from heaven?"

"I know an Australian," Vera said. She was wiping the same spot on the pastry display. The spot was very clean now. "My cousin lives in Sydney. He works at a car wash. His name is Kevin. He has acne."

"That is not the same thing at all." Minji picked up her phone and held it in front of Vera's face. There was a photo of a young man with golden blonde hair and a smile that took up his whole face. He had freckles scattered across his cheeks like tiny stars. Vera had to admit he was handsome. But she did not say this out loud.

"He has nice skin," Vera said. "Kevin's skin is not great. He says it is the humidity."

Minji put her phone down dramatically. "Vera, you need to get out more. You are twenty five. You act like you are fifty. Do you even know any idol names? Any at all?"

Vera thought about this. She knew BTS existed because she could not avoid them. She knew Blackpink existed for the same reason. She knew the names of some groups from the 1990s because her father had left behind a crate of old CDs. Seo Taiji and Boys. H.O.T. S.E.S. Those were idols she could respect. They looked like normal people in baggy clothes. They sang about real things like school and society and broken dreams.

"I know Stray Kids has eight members," Vera said. "I know that because there are eight hooks on your Stray Kids bag."

Minji looked at her bag. It was a custom bag with all eight members' faces printed on it. She had paid too much money for it. "Okay. Eight members. Name them."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I am your only friend and I am asking you nicely."

Vera considered this. Minji was not her only friend, but she was the only friend who talked to her on a daily basis. Her other friendships were of the occasional message variety. People she had gone to university with who now lived in different cities or different countries. She was not good at maintaining relationships. She forgot to reply to messages. She said no to invitations too many times until people stopped inviting her.