The rounds of interrogation for JooHyun about Soo-young intensified. The questions came fast and furious, inundating the poor woman with so many questions that she held up both hands in surrender.

  “Stop, stop, stop. I cannot answer all three of you all at the same time. Stop. Please. So, since you have a lot of the same questions, let’s start with Seulgi and she might ask what the others are thinking.”

  That seemed reasonable to the others, so they kept quiet. For now.

  Seulgi asked: “Just who is this girl? And why did she just smack you?” Why did you let her smack you and just ugh? And what did you say to her to make her react like that? And…”

  JooHyun stopped her mid-tirade. “Woah, whoa, whoa. One at a time, please. I cannot answer all of those at once! So, let me start with the story of how we met.”

  JooHyun figured she ought to tell them how they met and became friends. This should answer at least most of the questions pguing them. And thus, the story began.

  Three years ago, JooHyun had decided to go to a new restaurant to try something new. She happened on this one. The food is good, filling and best of all: cheap. So, she started frequenting the establishment. Back then, her clothing was as frugal as her budget. So, she wearing a blue denim skirt and a white blouse. Cssic, much like the food at this pce. Basic, simple, and yet still tasteful.

  Being that she had always loved singing, she would frequently hum to herself. Popur pop songs, show tunes, and some Western music as well. She even took vocal lessons.

  So, about two years ago, she was in a better financial situation, and better dressed. She was in a bck knee-length pencil skirt and a dark red button-down shirt with a matching bck jacket. She was dressed like a devil but had the face of an angel.

  Despite being in a better financial situation, she still came to this shabby restaurant. Why? Partly nostalgia, partly because she like the food and was used to dining there. The staff were used to her face, so they did not make things difficult for her. They learned that she preferred it if they just ignored her. They never neglected her, but they made sure that they left her alone, didn’t stare, and made sure that other patrons did the same. Still, she had a small following at the restaurant in the customers, who generally followed ‘the rules’ when it came to JooHyun.

  Being that her presence at the pce had brought some significant profit, the manager and owner would frequently give her a discount to keep her coming back.

  While thinking about what to order and reading the menu, wanting to try something different and new, she was singing softly to herself, she was barely even audible. She was in her own little world, as usual, when something changes. Just after a person walked by, she smelled something unusual. The scent of strawberries floated through the air behind the person who had walked by a few times.

  There was also a new sound to disturb her routine. Sometimes soft, sometimes loud. Sometimes, it was really loud, even when muffled as if from behind a door. This sound was ughter. It was enough of a disturbance that she looked up from the menu to see what was going on. She had already decided what to try anyway.

  The gamin, raven haired beauty that was making all this noise turned out to be her waitress. That was her introduction to Soo-young.

  Soo-young sauntered out of the kitchen, saw JooHyun looking up in anticipation, and sauntered over. With a brilliant smile, she asked “Ready to order, ma’am?”

  JooHyun was stunned for a moment, but rallied and gave her order. She then took a book out of her purse and started reading, returning to her personal, impenetrable bubble. She also started softly humming a recent tune that she heard on the radio.

  She stopped reading, stopped humming, and nearly dropped her book when she heard the same song coming from a liquid gold voice coming from the kitchen. The man who cleared the tables opened the kitchen doors taking a load into the dish pit and unleashed the full power of that voice on everyone in the restaurant.

  Everyone was transfixed. All but the hardiest froze to listen. JooHyun was happy to have someone that had eclipsed her presence in this pce. But she still closed her eyes to enjoy this song. It even sounded better from her than the original.

  This went on all night.

  It got to the point that it became comfortable. Over the next few weeks, the waitress's singing became a hit amongst the patrons as well as the staff. She even got scolded a few times for singing too loud or on the floor in front of patrons. Many unrepentant grins and obviously fake apologies ter, she was still at it. Once the manager got scolded by the entire popution of the restaurant after forbidding the girl to sing at all. She bowed ninety degrees to everyone present and thanked everyone all at once, profusely.

  JooHyun, being a regur, came to know that her waitress’s name was Soo-young. They started talking, have had her quiet reserve broken into. When talking, Soo-young was the only one that looked her directly in the eye. Usually, that was uncomfortable or embarrassing. But not with Soo-young.

  No matter how hard you try, you just cannot get angry or be bothered by her childlike enthusiasm. She was such a joy to be around. Even when she was being naughty, pying pranks, or just being silly to deliberately annoy people, no one could get mad. Her smile just had the magic power to make people forgive and forget all of the mischiefs that she came up with. After a while, it became a badge of honor to have been pranked by her.

  One year ago, she started to sing along with Soo-young. Softly at first, under her breath, mostly. She found that they actually sounded pretty good together. So, she started humming and singing louder, gaining confidence. Pretty soon, the people that she frequently sat near noticed these impromptu duets. There were pools of silence developing around her, at first unnoticed. Soon, the silences grew when they were singing together. She had a Seulgi like power of observation and was unaware of the result of her singing along with Soo-young.

  Eventually, Soo-young noticed the silences. Even JooHyun was not so completely insensible that she noticed, too. Sometimes JooHyun started a song and Soo-young followed along. Sometimes Soo-young started the song instead. Once they actually did a full duet, which was until the manager scolded her to get back to work. Soo-young threw an apology to the manager, a wink to JooHyun, and left giggling and got back to work. The tips that day were impressive.

  About six months ago, Soo-young asked JooHyun to go singing at a karaoke. With no other pns for the evening, she acquiesces. While waiting for Soo-young’s shift to end, JooHyun thought of all of the songs that they could sing together.