Who Am I To You?

Employed

"You ask him." I plead Rose.

"No, you ask. It's you who want the job, not me." She says and heads straight to the kitchen. I swallow the lump in my throat and slowly walk towards Mr Kim.

"Good afternoon sir," I say loud enough for him to hear.

"Good afternoon Jennie. You are early from school." His toothless smile was so cute.

"Sir, if it's possible can I get a part-time job here?" I ask trying to sound as cute as possible hoping to convince him. "You don't have to pay. I just want to work, that's it."

"Child, focus on your schoolwork. Your sister will work." He looks at me with shock, probably at the fact the school child wants to work part-time for free.

"It's fine. Please, sir. You don't have to pay at all." I smile and he sighs, and I know that I already got the job. I run to him and hug him so tight and thank him. He laughs and pats my shoulder."Rose! I got the job!" I scream as I run into the kitchen. 

"Why do you want to work for free? What is your secret motive? Are you trying to find any secrets about me?" She says raising her eyebrow at me.

"Do you have any secrets for me to find?" She laughs and gives me an apron. I tie it around my waist and pull my hair up into a tiny bun. Rose teaches me how to make different drinks and I note down every single bit she said. Since it was my first day, I did the job of writing down orders while Rose prepared the drinks and food. At around six, Kylian came to study at the café.

"Hi, grandpa. How is your new employee?" He asks while wrapping his arms around Mr Kim's neck and hugging him.

"She is doing great. How do you know her?" Mr Kim asked, confused."She is my classmate grandpa."

"You are still in school! I thought you were a college student." Mr Kim looks so shocked and his expression made me laugh. Kylian gives me a confused look. I pull him aside and whisper what Mr Kim was talking about. Kylian burst out laughing and I hit him on the arm and go back to work."Grandpa, you know what? I can help with the café work too." Kylian says and I look up at them in shock. Kylian is the last person who would want to do the job. 

"I don't mind as long as you don't mess up anything. Your mother and I went through a lot of trouble to run thiscafé. I don't want you to ruin any of it."

"Okay, perfect. I will start tomorrow onwards. I have some assignments to finish." Kylian makes way to a corner table and pulls out his books and start doing his work. Mr Kim leaves the café saying he has to go buy groceries and Rose also goes with him to buy some groceries for us. She asks me to stay in the café with Kylian until she returns. I decide to clean the tables until she got back. 

"Jennie can you come here for a second." Kylian was now drawing a picture and I go peek into his work. He was drawing a human sketch. "Can you draw this bit for me, please? I will treat you to lunch tomorrow on behalf of this favour." I nod and sit down on top of his table and he gives me his book and pencil. I make soft strokes on the paper and complete Kylian's drawing. He joins me at the table and watches me complete his art assignment. "You look pretty when you are focused on something. ONLY when you are focused on something. Otherwise, you look horrible." I pout and look at him to which he chuckles. Gosh, this kid was cute when he laughs.

"You would have to buy me something else tomorrow in addition to the lunch for the insult you just made. Agree?" I say still focused on the drawing. He doesn't reply so I look up at his face and see him gazing at my face. I tilt my head to the left and look at him. He tilts his head in the same direction and smile.

"Sure. Let's go out for lunch together. I will pick you up at your apartment and then we can maybe go have some fun. Sounds good right?" He was still staring at my face. I nod and stare back. We break our stares when the bell on the door rings indicating the arrival of a customer. Both of us move our heads in that direction.

"Sorry, we're closed." We both chime in at the same time. We laugh slowly at the coincidence. 

"I know." Taehyung was standing in the doorway with his hands inside the pockets of his black coat. He had a weird love for black. "Give me that thing you gave me the other day." He says as he sits down in the seat in front of Kylian's.

I get off of the table and go into the kitchen. I quickly prepare him a cup of iced lemon tea and this time I offer him a strawberry cheesecake. I cut a few strawberries in cute heart shapes and place them on top of the cheesecake. I take it to him and place it in front of him. He doesn't even look up at me. He was scrolling through his phone. Kylian sits facing his brother, now looking at his drawing. Taehyung puts his phone on the table and takes a sip of the lemon tea. He looks up at me with an expressionless face. 

"Is it good?" Just as my voice leaves my mouth, I realize that my tone changed. It was as if I was trying to sound sweeter. Kylian noticed it too and he looked at me with a strange look. Taehyung nods and continues to eat his cheesecake. He doesn't seem too happy with the strawberry hearts. Maybe he thought it was cheesy. He finishes his food and drink and gets up. He pulls out his wallet and gives me money and walks out of the café. I place the money on the table and run after him.

"Hey!" He turns around surprised to see that I had followed him out. "Did something happen? You left me that night. After what happened, how can you leave me like that?" This was something that really troubled me. Taehyung holds onto my hand and takes me a few feet away from the café, to a side road. There wasn't a single person here.

 "Listen Jennie. I am sorry for not making this clear before anything happened." "What do you mean?" Worry starts flowing throughout my body. "I did wrong. I am sorry but I didn't mean anything more than what happened that night. I should have made it clear then itself. Let's not talk about that night ever again. Let's try not to meet again and move on like that never happened. It's for the best."

"Why? Am I not good enough? Don't feel the way I feel for you? Is it just me who cherished every single second of our moment?" I say, my voice was breaking, tears were pricking my eyes.

"I don't fall in love. Ever." Taehyunglets go of my hand and walks away. I wanted to run after him and take his lips in mine. I wanted to beg him to stay. I wanted to yell at him. But my legs refused to move. My mouth was dry. I sat down on the road and tried to stop the tears from flowing. I use the bottom of my top to wipe my face dry. I had to go back into the café but I knew that Kylian would see right through me. My face was red so it was pretty obvious that I had cried. I take a deep breath and walk back inside. He is still sitting in his seat but he had fallen asleep. I run to the kitchen and wash my face. I wanted to go home. I wanted to take a large ice cream bucket and stuff it down while crying to a sad romantic movie. I wanted to cry out loud. All of this was not possible.

I don't want Rose to know anything about Taehyung.