as good as her korean’s gotten in the past few months, there are times when stella still slips up and makes a stupid mistake, or stumbles over her words, stutters or trails off her sentences when she’s unsure of how to say something. usually this isn’t such a bad thing; often she’s in school and people are rather lenient and understanding, knowing that she’s only been in korea for a year. they’ll correct her or sometimes laugh a little if she accidentally pronounces something in a certain way that completely changes the entire sentence (usually to something either rude, or embarrassing).
this isn’t the case when she’s in public though, as she appears completely korean in every sense of the word. she fits in appearance wise, fashion wise, and on a good day, language wise as well - but today doesn’t seem to be a good day at all as she stands at the counter of a coffee shop, tapping her lower lip and wondering what to order.
she should’ve known not to try and order coffee when she’s tired, as her pronunciation tends to go a bit funny when she’s not fully thinking about it, so as she’s ordering, the barista thankfully one who usually takes her order, so knows her usual, she slips up on her korean, and an old woman beside her lets out a scandalised gasp, turning to look at stella in disgust.
“ya! what do you think you’re saying?!” an accusatory finger comes up to wave in front of stella’s face, and only then does she realise due to the slip in her pronunciation she’d accidentally sworn. she stutters and stammers, lifting both hands up in front of her chest as she protests and tries to explain, but the angry ranting continues and stella feels the tears of frustration welling in her eyes.
she just wanted coffee, not to be shouted at by an old woman and have the entire coffee shop stare at her.
it’s mark-has-absolutely-no-idea o’clock, and he’s standing in line at a coffee shop, blinking sleep out of his half-lidded eyes. he’s useless prior to his daily caffeine beverage, so he looks forward to the surge of energy the coffee gives him.
a few minutes pass and he’s gratefully sipping from his iced coffee, standing by the counter and observing the other patrons of the cafe with a tired kind of alertness. it was nothing out of the usual, really - students taking up tables studying with already-finished cups of coffee, businessmen chatting politely with each other, couples on carefree dates.
he immerses himself in his thoughts until a sudden, screeching shout jolts him back to reality, and he’s shocked to find an elderly lady absolutely fuming at someone who was ordering her coffee. it seemed as though the entire cafe had their eyes on the both of them, and he quickly realises what was happening.
it almost feels like deja vu to mark, what with him being from canada originally and moving to seoul when he was young. he remembers how it feels like to be afraid to speak, for not sounding ‘korean’ enough, for being misunderstood in public...
thankfully, though, mark’s pretty much assimilated into society by now, having been living in seoul for a few years. which is why he feels an inclination to go out and help the woman in her predicament (even though he’s normally relatively quiet around strangers). true enough, he can’t hide the stutter out of his voice as he tries to explain to the old woman the situation as calmly as he can, who was still fuming.
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