Coincidence - [j.jk] on pause

7

Aileen

My head was killing me and I hadn't eaten much that day. I tried to focus on sorting out the orders and making coffee, but my hands felt slow and my head was heavy.

I made a cup of coffee for myself as soon as I had taken care of all the customers currently there, positioned myself behind the counter, and drank. Finally, some peace and quiet. Even though I'd had several cups of coffee that morning, I still felt like crap. It was probably because of idol taxi-stealing boy gracing us with his presence the day before. I still couldn't get over his rudeness.

There was a bitter aftertaste lingering, but I didn't know if it was because I had cursed at him or the black coffee I was having. I wished Sowon hadn't taken a day off. Otherwise, I might have had a better mood altogether.

"Hey", the new guy called out to me and appeared from the back room. He had tied his apron in too tidily and was wearing a tie. I supposed he lived with his mother, since his shirt was ironed to perfection. For a change, I hadn't chased him out in the first week of working with him. Maybe I'd felt sympathy because he was a foreigner and was clearly struggling with his Korean. Probably a foreign student here to learn the language.

Taemin had warned me not to be rude, since I had scared off the last three new workers that had come to work here.

"I won't be here tomorrow, so please, keep the place under control and I beg you... don't scare off the new guy", Taemin had asked.

"I'll do my best, but I can't promise to not kill him if he gets on my nerves", I had replied. Up until now, he hadn't made a sound, which was good. However, ... now I had to listen to his little girly voice.

I rolled my eyes and tried to put on a smile.
"What do you want, new guy?"

His face seemed sweaty. He was young and had done his hair as if he was going to a job interview.
"There's someone on the phone for you", he spoke in broken Korean.

"Is it the boss?", I inquired in a bored tone and stirred my coffee.

He was taken aback by the question and needed a moment to collect himself or maybe translate in his head.
"Uh", he muttered. "No."

"Is it the president of Korea?"

He seemed very confused. "N...no?"

"Is it the police? Is it a life-threatening situation? Is someone dying?", I rudely asked him, not leaving him any room to interrupt. He was getting on my nerves. God, I hated new guys.

He gulped heavily and I could have sworn seeing his hand tremble. "Well, no-"

"Then why...-", I squinted to read is name tag. He also had a Western name that was butchered in hangul. Mine said something like "Ai-reen", which was not my name either. "Theo..."
I rested my hand against my cheek. "Do you bother me while I'm having my coffee? Hm?"

My sharp tone made him gulp. It gave me joy, as horrible as it was. Maybe I was being rude and overly intimidating because this boy showed the reaction I would have wished from that idiot Jungkook. It still made me so angry.

"It's just... that", the boy sighed and gathered the last piece of dignity he had left. "They're asking for you, specifically."

Seriously. New guys could never handle phone calls. Such a drag.

"My name is Timothe..."

"Whatever", I sighed in exasperation and pushed him to the side so I could snatch the phone from his hand.