**Minji's POV**

Ever since that cursed news story ran, the shop has been completely bombarded with people. I'm happy that the business is finally taking off and all but oh my god am I tired all the time! Even hiring Haerin started to not relieve the pressure anymore either cause more and more people started coming down even more than when the video initially broke. I suggested to Auntie that we hire someone else but she was skeptical if a new hire along with their training process would work. There's already an overflow of customers so having to also train someone new would be even worse. She only accepted Haerin because she personally knew Haerin from when she would see her at my house or school sometimes. 

I started to get annoyed of these customers too. There were multiple people who would come to the shop purely just to talk to me; they wouldn't even have the decency to order a drink. They would just come to ask for my number or even a couple people came to scout me for their modeling and singing companies. I tried to decline them but they were so overly persistent that Auntie had to go out herself and force them to leave. Worst-case scenario, we would send out Haerin to physically push them out the door. Scary kitty...

One thing I have noticed besides all of the publicity and what not is that I haven't seen Hanni in a while. Danielle has even come every once-in-a-while to hang out with Haerin. They head out together to go to pet shops to find Danielle a pet cat. Every time I ask her where Hanni is, she just smirks and says that Hanni's busy. I mean I guess that's acceptable, but I felt a strange sense of longing to really banter with someone? I don't know how to describe it but whenever I talk to Hanni, it brings out my sense of youth and spirit; it's fun...REALLY fun.

~~

Under the guise of repairs, Auntie gave us a day off...or so we thought...it was still a day off from working and the shop but she sent Haerin and I off to buy some equipment for the store. It was still infinitely better than continuously going to make coffees for everyone for another straight day. She handed me $500 and told us to go buy stuff to benefit the store. I didn't really understand what that meant and neither did Haerin so we just walked around the mall trying to find things to buy. 

We started by going into stores that we wanted to look though which including looking around at dresses, then shoes, then we took a break at the food court to eat hot dogs. 3 hours in and we have bought absolutely nothing except for food.

"Should we actually look around for things to buy for the shop now?"

I sighed, "I guess so. What stores are even here that might have something we want?"

Haerin searched up stores in the mall on her phone while I scanned around our location. All I saw were just more clothing boutiques and department stores.

"Ahh here!" Haerin flipped her phone over to show me a place that was across from the mall but may be useful: FurnitureHeaven.

"What are we gonna do there?"

"Maybe we could buy a couch so more people could sit inside?"

I put my finger to my chin, "hmmmm we would need to rearrange the shop somehow." I mentally reconfigured the layout of the store in my head, "I don't think a couch is going to fit inside." I came up with a new idea that sounds fun. "How about putting computers inside?"

"Computers? The customers would break them by spilling all their drinks on it though."

"Maybe...we could...get a computer for the employees though..." I eyed Haerin with my ridiculous thought. She usually turns me down bluntly very quickly. She sat there blank-faced for a moment, actually pondering my idea.

"Will she allow it?"

"We'll see...?"

"Hmmm." She remained blank, "you take the blame though."

And with that, we went to Best Buy to buy a computer for ourselves.

~~

We walked out of the store with a pretty moderately okay set-up. It's definitely nothing incredible but the worker said it should work well with a $500 budget. It also included a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, so I hope that my Aunt will let us keep it. We're planning on arguing for it's case using the argument of "Us workers need fun for the busy work we do". 

Luckily, Ms. Kim's flower shop is also in this mall so I was planning on storing our things here so that she can bring it to us by car later. It would be very scary if Haerin and I walked around with this stuff at nighttime and it's really heavy too. I also wanted to see Hanni. I haven't seen her at the shop in a long while so I wonder what she's doing these days.

"Ms. Kim? Are you here? Hanni?" I shouted out trying to alarm anyone. The lights were still on so I assume someone must be in the back somewhere.

I heard a scuffle from the back and out emerged Ms. Kim. "Why hello there Minji! Who do we have here?"

"This is my friend Haerin. I was wondering if you could do me a favor and drive these to the shop on Monday or something. I don't want to carry it around; wanna keep it safe you know?"

"Oh of course, so I just need to drive over to the shop on Monday and then you'll pick it up? I gotcha. Leave it in the back. I'll load them into my car when I leave."

Haerin took the monitor box from my arms and went to drop-off everything inside.

I glanced around, "Ms. Kim, where's Hanni? I haven't heard from her in a while."

"Honey didn't you hear? She's studying hard for her audition. She hasn't left the house in like a whole month"

"Audition? Audition for what?"

"She's going to audition for some music show. When she found out about it, she begged me to let her stay home and practice, so I obliged. I didn't realize that she didn't tell you though. Danielle has been around the house a couple times so has some of her other friends; I just assumed..."

"Oh. Alright then." I guess we aren't as close of friends as I thought we were. "well tell her I said 'good luck' but I'm sure she's got this in the bag. Thank you then Ms. Kim, we should grab a meal together sometime like old times." 

"Anytime honey!" 

With that farewell, Haerin and I left, now completely out of money and nowhere to go.

~~One month ago~~

**Hanni's POV**

I saw an ad recruiting people for a new audition show to become "the next big musical talent". I knew that I needed to join. I didn't have much belief in myself to actually succeed however, I felt that if anything, I could gain some experience or recognizability from participating. I excitedly ran back home and started practicing my guitar playing. I knew it would blow the judges away if I chose to perform an original song that I composed and wrote. I continued working on an old uncompleted song from months ago. I had half of it already composed so I just needed to compose the latter half and then add lyrics. It shouldn't be too hard I think...

I relentlessly spent the next month in my room working on my song. I still couldn't get past the hump of composing the last half of it. I tried writing some lyrics for the sections that I did have, but it was all just rubbish. I got so desperate that I asked Danielle to come over one day to try to brainstorm something that could work. I thought maybe a fresh mind; an outside perspective can help me interpret this song so that I can complete it.

"Bro that song sounds like a love song."

"What? Does it really?" I tried to think about it in my head. When I first started composing, I didn't really have a thought. I just connected a bunch of chords together that I felt sounded good.

"Yeah bro. I think you should make it a love song. So what were your previous relationships like? You could reflect that stuff in the lyrics."

I sat there frozen, unsure what to say.

She hovered her hands over her mouth, "don't tell me- YOU'VE NEVER DATED BEFORE?!?"

I smirked, "no...?"

"NAUUUUURRRR WAYYYY!!!" she blurted out.

"Shhh be quiet. But no, I've never dated anyone before."

"HOW? I swear dudes constantly gave you letters and you hung out around a bunch of dudes in school."

"Yeah...but I never actually dated...I was just friends with them all."

"If you've never dated anyone then...how were your crushes like?" she suggested.

"crushes..." I pondered, "I've never had any..."

"You're joking," she stared at me expressionless, "what do you mean you've never had a crush? You have NEVER found anyone attractive or felt like you wanted to get closer to them...?"

I scratched my head, "no, not really. I kind of just became friends with everyone but I've never felt like that."

"I find that hard to believe. You've definitely felt that way for someone."

I chuckled in disbelief, "I can assure you I have not. What else do you think the song represents then? I can't do love clearly."

She bite her lip, "No. You're doing a love song."

"What do you mean?"

"It's time to get you a crush," she smiled smugly.