Last Night at the Café

2 | Hot Chocolate

A / N

This chapter is dedicated to CharmingandOctober

~

YU AH WAS right. She came to Home too often. Here she was, on another Saturday night, typing away on her laptop as if her life depended on it. Maybe it did. She was too reliant on the café's comfortable atmosphere to complete her writing than she wanted to admit. It cost her a pretty penny, but the staff didn't chase her out – the table she favoured was an unpopular one, composed simply of plain brown wood with a vase of orange flowers.

But tonight, she was unfocused. The meeting with Cho Eun had left her considering the hours and effort she spent on something meant to be a hobby. Was working towards winning a prize an accolade she wanted, for instance?

Unknown to her, hours upon hours had passed. By the time she leant back in her seat and stretched her arms out, the sky was dark. Home closed at 9.30PM on the weekends. She had two minutes to spare before Kazu did his rounds.

Then a roll of thunder caused her to jolt upright.

She jerked her face to the windows in alarm, her eyes straining to stare out into the dark night. Then her eyes grew wide at the sudden gust of rain beating against the glass.

It was too early for rain.

But now wasn't the time to consider the varied patterns of the weather.

It seemed all the world had decided to leave then. Guests milled about, abandoning their tables. Seollal hurriedly picked up her things and stuffed them haphazardly into her bag. Forget about squeezing out another sentence from her battered brain. She could only think of the long stretch of unsheltered road to the nearest subway station.

Pushing the door open, a gasp left her at the spatter of rain on her face.

She crowded herself into a corner under the awning, squirming away from the droplets that splattered on her sneakers. Dismayed voices murmured around her. Beside her, a teenage couple dashed off into the night under an umbrella, their arms around each other even as the wind threatened to blow them off their feet. Their laughter was bright under the downpour and for a moment, she watched with a slight smile before the rush of passersby consumed them.

The awning hurriedly emptied as other guests quickly disappeared into cabs or under umbrellas. She peeked into the street, her mouth pursed at the cabs that passed by, but was quickly blown back under the awning by a gust of wind.

Anxiety tugging at her, she turned her attention back to her ride-hailing app when she realised she was the only one left under the awning.

Are you serious?

Dread sunk in her belly as she tapped 'reload' and watched as rides disappeared from the screen.

"Andwae!" she hissed as she jabbed furiously at her phone.

(No way!)

"Aniya, this can't be happening," she groaned. "Half an hour? I have to wait half an hour?"

(No)

Her skin prickled with goosebumps from the cold. She glanced over her shoulder to see that a lamp had been left on in the shop. Jieun was nowhere to be seen, but there was Kazu at the sink, his back turned. With a sigh, she leaned against the brick wall before jumping up when the chill entered her bones.

She had never cultivated the habit to bring an umbrella out with her. Between cursing herself for not checking the weather forecast before she left the house and admonishing herself for not heeding eomma's constant nagging to always have an umbrella with her, she did not notice the window swinging open beside her.