HEART2HEART

chapter 2: cat ear gamer girl

"What the hell?"

"What?"

"It's 6.30pm, what are you still doing at work?" Taehyung frowned as he yelled into his phone he held in one hand, while locking his car with his other hand. "You're crazy, dear brother."

"The stuff I'm doing is really interesting, hyung-" Jungkook explained over the phone. "I'm learning so much on the job."

"I've never seen someone quite as hardcore as you-" Taehyung clucked his tongue as he entered the stairwell of the carpark. "Oh, wait - I have. Your mentor, Jieun-ssi. You guys are gonna hit it off so well, I bet. Two computer geeks obsessed with their work."

"Jieun sunbae is really knowledgeable, hyung-" Jungkook said quietly. "Thank you for assigning her to be my mentor."

"I didn't." Taehyung frowned as he made his way to the top of the staircase and pushed the door open. "She volunteered."

Jungkook was silent for a while. "Really?"

"Mmhmm-" Taehyung hummed. "She hardly volunteers to mentor anyone, so she must have really seen something in you."

"Hmm..." Jungkook went silent for a while. "I wonder what that is."

"You can ask her tomorrow or whenever," Taehyung suggested as he arrived outside his destination. "Anyway, I'm here, I gotta go."

Jungkook went silent for a while. "PC café, again?"

"Yup!" Taehyung announced with glee as he pushed open the door and waved to the owner of the PC café he had long made friends with because he was such a regular customer. "I need to blow off some steam after work, you know that full well."

"I'm no longer surprised," Jungkook had long become accustomed to Taehyung's gaming addiction. "Have fun, hyung."

"You too, with your work. But take it easy, it's only your first day, you still have a long way to go-" Taehyung grinned as he turned down the corner, making his way slowly towards the usual console he used. "Make sure you don't suffer from burnout and-"

🎵 Enchanted - Taylor Swift 🎵

Taehyung stopped short, both in his steps and in the midst of his sentence, as he caught sight of the console he usually used, which was typically empty, because everyone in that café knew that seat was his. He didn't care if anyone wanted to use it at other times but after 6pm, it was like that seat somehow had Taehyung's name written all over it in an invisible marker for the past six years, it was unofficially officially his seat.

But today... was different.

In the usual empty seat that welcomed him, sat a girl with long wavy hair dressed in a baggy oversized grey sweatpants and matching grey sweatpants. Her black Puma slides lay on the floor below her and she sat on his seat with her feet up, giggling as she smashed at the keys on the keyboard and intensely clicked around the screen with the mouse, whilst talking to someone through her cat ear headphones.

This very scene enraged Taehyung.

At that very moment, she reached over to her bowl of bibimbap that waited for her on one corner of the table, scooping one huge scoop of rice and shoving it into her mouth. A small chunk of food fell right in the centre of the keyboard and the worst thing was that... the girl didn't even seem to notice.

That was it.

Taehyung was fuming mad as he stormed his way up to her, ready to launch a full on attack on this monstrosity that had come to usurp his throne of glory. How dare she.