The next day, the rain stopped.
Gangyeon went to the café early. As she ordered her vanilla latte again, she asked the part-timer,
"Hey, did anyone leave an umbrella here today?"
"No, no one did."
If Yeonwoo hadn't left the umbrella at the counter, that meant she still had it.
Gangyeon took a window seat and opened her laptop. She didn't pull anything up on the screen. She was only pretending to work anyway.
She checked the time. 5:40.
There were still forty minutes until Yeonwoo usually came.
Time dragged.
Six o'clock. It wasn't time for her to come yet.
6:10. Her heart grew restless, as if it could hurry the waiting along.
6:20 passed. It was already well past the time Yeonwoo would normally be there, but the café door remained quiet.
Six-thirty, then 6:50. The clock hands moved on mercilessly.
Gangyeon finished her vanilla latte. She fidgeted with the cup, now holding nothing but ice. She wasn't coming. She wasn't coming today. Maybe the umbrella had made her uncomfortable. Or maybe she just had no reason to come to the café.
'I shouldn't have lent it to her.'
It was seven o'clock. Gangyeon closed her laptop. She put on her bag and stood up.
The café door opened.
It was Yeonwoo.
Today, she was wearing a beige coat with half her hair tied back. She held a black umbrella in one hand. The umbrella Gangyeon had given her.
Yeonwoo passed the counter and walked straight toward Gangyeon. Gangyeon stood there blankly, her bag still over her shoulder.
"Here."
Yeonwoo held out the umbrella.
"Thanks for lending it to me."
Gangyeon took the umbrella. Their fingertips brushed. Yeonwoo's hand was cold. Before, whenever Yeonwoo's hand got cold, she would tuck it into her pocket and warm it up. She couldn't do that now. She wasn't Baek Dohwa anymore. She was Do Gangyeon.
"Oh, yeah. You got home without getting rained on?"
"Yeah."
Yeonwoo started to turn away, then stopped. She looked at Gangyeon's bag.
"Were you about to leave?"
"Oh, yeah. It's gotten kind of late..."
"Were you waiting for me?"
Gangyeon couldn't get the words out. Yeonwoo was looking at her. Her eyes weren't indifferent. They were trying to confirm something.
"...No. I'm usually here until this late."
It was a lie. Yeonwoo seemed to know that too, but she didn't ask anything else.
"You're leaving without having coffee?"
The question slipped out before Gangyeon could stop herself.
Yeonwoo looked at her. Three seconds. Five.
"...Are you buying me one?"
Gangyeon smiled. The corners of Yeonwoo's lips lifted too. Just barely.
They sat across from each other. Yeonwoo ordered an Americano, and Gangyeon ordered a vanilla latte.
Yeonwoo took a sip of her Americano and looked out the window. The sun was setting. The sunset spilled into the café and settled over Yeonwoo's brown hair. Gangyeon held her breath as she watched.
'She's beautiful.'
She'd thought that even when she was a woman. Yeonwoo was beautiful. But seeing her from this body, her beauty felt different. Gangyeon couldn't say what had changed, but her heart was beating at a different speed.
"What's your name?"
Yeonwoo asked without looking at Gangyeon, her gaze still out the window.
"Do Gangyeon."
"Do Gangyeon."
Yeonwoo repeated the name. Gangyeon felt like her heart had stopped. It was the first time she'd heard her own name from Yeonwoo's lips. Before, it had been "Dohwa." Now it was "Do Gangyeon." The voice was the same, but the name was different.
"Do you like vanilla lattes?"
The question came out of nowhere. Gangyeon blinked.
"...What?"
"You order nothing but vanilla lattes every day."
Cold sweat ran down Gangyeon's back. Yeonwoo had been watching her. She'd noticed what Gangyeon ordered every day. But the bigger problem was that vanilla lattes had been a habit of Dohwa's from the beginning. Would Yeonwoo figure it out? But Yeonwoo let it pass. Maybe she wasn't interested. Or maybe she just hadn't made the connection yet.
"I'm Seo Yeonwoo."
"Oh, okay. Ms. Yeonwoo."
Gangyeon couldn't act like she already knew her name. She nodded as if she were hearing it for the first time.
"You come to this café often."
"Sometimes, after work."
"It seems like you're here every day."
Yeonwoo looked at Gangyeon. Gangyeon looked back at her.
"...You come every day too."
Yeonwoo said it first. Gangyeon had nothing to say. She wasn't wrong.
"That's..."
"Never mind. I won't ask."
Yeonwoo drank her Americano. But she didn't look annoyed. It wasn't irritation. There was something amused in her expression. Just barely.
As Gangyeon drank her vanilla latte, she thought to herself,
'She's smiling. Yeonwoo's smiling.'
She had told a man she didn't know her name, had coffee with him, and was smiling. The same woman who had told Gangyeon, "Look it up on Naver," a week ago.
They left the café. It was dark outside, and the streetlights were on.
"Get home safely."
Gangyeon said it, and Yeonwoo nodded before turning away. She took two steps, then stopped.
"Gangyeon."
Gangyeon stopped. Yeonwoo turned around.
"Do you happen to know someone named Baek Dohwa?"
Gangyeon's heart stopped. She honestly thought it had.
"...Who?"
"No, it's nothing. I have a friend who likes vanilla lattes. She hasn't been answering my calls lately."
"Oh. No, I don't know her."
Yeonwoo looked at Gangyeon. Three seconds. This time, her eyes were indifferent. The Yeonwoo she knew.
"I see. Guess it's not you."
Yeonwoo turned and walked away. Gangyeon stood there, watching her back. The beige coat grew smaller beneath the streetlights.
'She's looking for Dohwa.'
Her chest hurt. Yeonwoo was looking for Dohwa. For her. But she was right here, and Yeonwoo didn't know. Right in front of her, and she didn't know.
Gangyeon put her hands in her pockets and walked in the opposite direction. She gripped the umbrella tightly. The handle where Yeonwoo's hand had touched it was still cold.
When Gangyeon got home, she stood the umbrella beside her bed. She would go to the café again tomorrow. Maybe Yeonwoo would speak to her first. Gangyeon hoped she would.