Coffee and Cigarettes and Everything in Between

Nineteen

Winter

"Finally!" Her friend Ningning says as she walks toward us with a huge smile on her face. Karina looks at me with an apologetic smile. "Yes, she's loud." I can tell now and even from before at the coffee shop.

"Great to finally meet you outside the café." She says with sarcasm as she stands in front of me. I offered my hand. "Hi, I'm Winter." She takes it and shakes it gladly. "Ning Yizhou, glad to be formally acquainted with my unnie's girlfriend."

"That's way too formal. Baby, she's just messing with you. You can call her Ningning."

"Way to steal my thunder unnie." She says as she rolled her eyes at Karina. Stomping her feet, she hook her arm on my arm and started walking, leaving Karina to trail behind us. I look back at her to see if she was following. She shake her head and started walking then mouthed, "it's okay".

"Where to go?" Ningning says more to herself than to me.

It's both their day off so we decided to go to the mall. It was just supposed to be Karina and me but she said that Ningning wanted to meet me outside the confines of the café. I agreed. It's also a good opportunity for me to know her bestfriend. Karina have met Giselle before so I guess it's my time to meet Ningning.

"So which suits me better?" Ningning asked as she face us with two different colored blouse on each of her hand. Our time today was spent doing a shopping spree. A "Ningning" shopping spree to be exact. We were like parents taking their daughter to the mall for the very first time. Every store that we go to there's always a certain item that catches her eye.

"I think the red one." I answered her.
"Really?" She asked amused. "You think it will go well with me?"

"Yeah. Well see your eyes are like feline ones but they're on the bigger side, your eyelashes are also very long and your face have that V shape right? That's why I think red will suit you better. I think bold colors will compliment your facial features more than lighter shades like grey, white or even blue but black is an exception. Black suits everyone."

"I think I just found my new shopping bestie. You may be demoted soon unnie."

"So should I go now?"

"But seriously unnie she's like ten times better than you when it comes to shopping advices. All you ever say to me is just choose the one that you like better. You can pull it off anyway." Ningning says imitating Karina's voice, complete with the hand gestures and all.

Karina kicks her leg. "Because it's the truth!"

She smiles sweetly at back at her. "I know but at least give some advice other than that. See? Winter even talked about compliments, colors and stuff and everything."

"No, it's not like that. I really don't know much about shopping, I just figured from your looks which color will go well with you. You know considering that I work with colors and shades all the time."

"Maybe I should date a painter too. What do you think unnie?" She says as she lean on the clothe rack.

"Maybe but not this one. Go get your own."

"Winter are you sure you don't have a younger brother?"

"I only have one and he's thirty one."

"Maybe a cousin?" She asks hopeful.

"I'm not close with my cousins sorry." I answered crashing her hopes.

"I'm gonna be single forever." She says as she looks at the distance. Karina snorted at her. "Ningning you're only twenty-two."

She looks at the both of us. A deep sigh escape her lips. "Twenty-two and single."