note:

I'll be using the word 'eonnie' in this story. I'm sorry, its cringe – I know a lot of people dislike it. But it's even weirder to have a younger person calling an older person by their name – especially when I'm clearly writing in a Korean fanfiction/culture AU. However, I'll try to minimise the use of any other words (besides honorifics) that is Romanising Korean words.

Thank you for understanding.

⛅

Hyojung rested her face on top of the table, her hands sprawled across the surface. Her mind kept replaying the whole ordeal that happened to her a few hours ago, on her first day of school.

She cursed her luck.

Her phone dinged and she fished it out of the pocket of her pants without even bothering to pull her head off the table. Still laying her head down, she checked her messages; only to notice a new group on the top of her chat lists – which consists only a few.

One message from Papa. Ten messages from Mama...50 messages from back bencher...gals? She snorted.

Who? Hyojung clicked on the top messages and it leads her to a chat group of Jinhee, Yunha and herself.

Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ : hi gorls.

Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ : I made this group for us.

Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ : Don't let anyone else in okay? Or I'll kick you out.

Ahnya_20 : Ahnya_20 added 'Queen' Miyu.

Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ : SHIT THAT SCARED ME SO MUCH ༼༼;; ;°;ਊ°;༽

Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ : What did you do that for?!

Ahnya_20 : kekekekekekee

Ahnya_20 : Why are you so scared of her anyway. I get it she's pretty but...

Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ : You're kidding me? The fact that she's the heir to a family that owns hotel chains... I'm having goosebumps by thinking about it.

Ahnya_20 : So she's rich and pretty, and then what?

Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ : I'll tell you more when I see you. Now explain where did you disappear to?

Ahnya_20 : I- uh...have something to do... Tell u later.

"Jinhee ✌✌(˵¯̴͒ꇴ¯̴͒˵)✌✌ changed her username to anonymousehee"

Ahnya_20 : Uhhhh...cool username?

anonymousehee : Hehe, thanks. Been thinking about it for two days.

anonymousehee : BTW has Hyojung contacted you?

Ahnya_20 : No.

Ahnya_20 : I'm worried.

anonymousehee : Me too ༼ ຶཽཀ ຶཽ༽

Ahnya_20 : Hey, slow down with those emoticons. They're scary.

anonymousehee : You mean...

anonymousehee : Scarehee?

anonymousehee : ((ඏ.̫ඏ*))

Ahnya_20 : oh my god.

Hyojung laughed. Finally pushing herself up from the table, she wrote a reply. When she sent it, the chat scrolled down automatically to the new chat. She shrugged. She was not going to read everything anyway. Looking at the first few messages she knew the girls were probably trying to spam her with chats so that she would reply to them.

hyoNyang~ : I'm sorry I made you guys worried...

Not even a second later, her phone dinged a few times.

anonymousehee : OHEMGEE we thought you became one of Namjoon's playdate.

anonymousehee : Where did you go?

anonymousehee : You didn't even get to eat your lunch...

hyoNyang~ : Yes...I'm really hungry.

anonymousehee : Where are you?

hyoNyang~ : My parents' café. Near the campus, it's in front of the 311 bus stop.

anonymousehee : I'm coming. See you in a bit!

"Here's your sandwich." A voice said. Hyojung looked at the woman in her thirties and smiled widely.

"Thank you eonnie." Hyojung replied cheerfully, unwrapping her goods.

Tuna sandwich, hm, my favourite. She thought, biting into the soft bread happily. The taste exploded in her mouth, reminding her that she should bring her new friends to her favourite sushi place next time. Since she was starting to crave it.

"Eat slowly, Hyojung-ah. You look like you didn't eat for the whole day." The older woman looked at the girl in concern.

She has worked with the Choi family since they have established their first restaurant. She was a mere babysitter, and then a waitress, the only waitress they had in fact. The Choi was struggling back then, and young Hyojung's childhood had orbited around the ups and downs of their family business.

Hyojung's mother, Jung Sooyoung was a brilliant woman. She was very well ahead of her age – in her thought process and maturity; having a clear goal and plan for the business. She would have realised her dream sooner if it were not because of the economic warfare that they experienced nation-wide.

Choi Woojin, Sooyoung's husband and the father of her beautiful daughter, Hyojung, was hardworking. The one that single-handedly carried the restaurant's name with its exquisite cuisines. He was an excellent chef – he stayed up late just to figure out new delicious recipes that would not cost them so much to prepare – and as a result, giving their customers the best experience in eating without charging them too much in the state of their economy.

Overall, the couple made a great team, but Choi Hyojung was so little and her parents were working so hard to prepare her a good life. That was where Lee Eunbyul came in. Fresh out of high school with nothing better to do (and in the situation where the economy was a literal shit – no one wanted to hire an inexperienced high school graduate), she took a job as a live-in babysitter before she had saved enough money to move out from the Choi's house – which was pretty small, even for the three family members.

Eunbyul started out as Hyojung's babysitter and later she also became her tutor. Hyojung has never had another sibling, which often made the girl feel lonely – Eunbyul noticed. But as Eunbyul lived with her, she promised to herself that she would never let Hyojung feel alone, and she will be a sister figure for her.

And that's what she did.

As a result, Hyojung and her became really close – and that meant the Choi; Hyojung's parents, too have already accepted her into the family.

The family trusted her so much that they even let her work extra hour with them in the restaurant. When Hyojung was older – Eunbyul became the waitress, and then when their business flourished and the family could afford more staff, she had cafés under her own management that the family opened.

Then when Hyojung got into a university and she wanted to move out, Eunbyul made a special request to Hyojung's parents – to which they agreed.

The café where they were now was once a small empty lot that Jung Sooyoung had bought as a business plan. So when Eunbyul told them she wanted to move near Hyojung to keep an eye on her little sister, Sooyoung agreed instantly, telling her husband that they should turn the lot into a café. That café was to be under Eunbyul's management, and the staffs that had worked closely with her during her management in her former cafés would be the new supervisors of those cafés.

Eunbyul has to admit that managing multiple ones could stress her out so bad, but with the new supervisors, she knew they will be fine. Besides, she would come to meet the supervisors once a week and get reports from them.

She was proud of what she had become and she felt indebted with the Choi's for life. Without them, she would never have the chance to see what she could do.

So when Hyojung pouted at her question and her face showed that she was upset made Eunbyul extremely worried. She knew Hyojung was not the social butterfly kind – and she has heard from her supervisors that the university was famous for forming crazy powerful alumni, and the fact that they have one of the toughest curricula was beyond her imagination.

What if they were giving her little sister a bad time with all those assignments? Were they not supposed to be kinder to freshmen?

"I didn't eat and I was humiliated in front of the whole faculty today..." Hyojung said, lowering her sandwich. Her lips were trembling and her eyes shone of unshed tears. Eunbyul quickly stood up and rushed to the place where they made drinks and grabbed the coffee that she have forgotten to take when she went to give Hyojung her food.

"Here – extra caramel," Eunbyul said, handing Hyojung the macchiato.

Hyojung's expression instantly brightened up and that made Eunbyul smile. Caramel Macchiato always does the trick.

The girl moaned as the sweet caramel invaded her taste buds, washing down the fishy taste of tuna she has just devoured.

"Well I accidentally spilled my glass noodle on a guy's coat – like literally eonnie, everything that could've been in my stomach was on his coat. He was super mad and he dragged me – "

"He manhandled you?" Eunbyul's eyes were as wide as saucers as she felt her older sister instinct kicking in. How dare him!

But Hyojung just waved dismissively. "Not really, I followed him and he has never touched me, but if he weren't so scary than I would never follow him in the first place, right?"

Eunbyul nodded, motioning her to continue with her rant. "Turns out he is the Student Council's president. I was so shocked!"

Eunbyul gaped, "then shouldn't he be very lenient on you? I mean if he's in the council, then it's his job to help the students. And you're a freshie!"

The girl shook her head in dismay, finishing the last bite of her tuna sandwich. "Apparently not this president, eonnie."

"I'm here!" Their conversation was interrupted by a cheery voice. Seeing the person who has just walked into the café, Hyojung instantly stood up.

"Jinhee!"

The girl quickly found Hyojung and rushed to meet her. "We were so worried! Are you okay? What did he say?"

"I'm fine." Hyojung smiled. Looking at a grinning Eunbyul, she said, "Eonnie, this is my friend, Jinhee." She looked at her friend and motioned to Eunbyul. "This is Eunbyul eonnie."

"I'm glad you've found friends, Hyojung-ah." Eunbyul stood up and patted on Hyojung's hair. "Well, why don't you and your friend sit down and I'll bring you something to drink? I have to get ready for the evening hour!"

Jinhee grinned. "Can I have an iced latte? Thank you." Eunbyul smiled and went to prepare the drink while Jinhee sat herself on Eunbyul's place in front of Hyojung.

Hyojung noticed the glint in her friend eyes as she stared into Hyojung's eyes and say, "Now speak. I want to know everything."