Heartbreak Cafe

Chapter Three

"Fucking caviar racing?"

Jihoon covered the wide smile on his face with his hand as his little brother ran back to the counter after his... conversation? Altercation? Whatever it was, it was fucking hilarious.

"Don't you dare say another word about it!" Junkyu shouted as he ran to the back.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? Our non-existent orders aren't about to make themselves," the older shouted.

"Just give me a break! I just survived a potentially mentally and physically traumatic incident. I need to, like, spiritually recuperate, or some shit."

Jihoon raised his eyebrows. "Damn, someone tells you to shut up for once and suddenly you're scarred for life."

The older man didn't get a response, assumably because Junkyu was already in the process of 'spiritually recuperating.'

Jihoon sighed and glanced around the cafe. Everything had mostly calmed after the whole fiasco from earlier, the atmosphere settling back down to its usual warm ambiance.

Customers were scarce: the only people still occupying the space were a busy college student working on his laptop and an older business lady thumbing through some files.

The location of his family cafe made sure that these two archetypes were just about the only types of people he did business with. College zombies and corporate slaves.

Jihoon didn't quite mind this particular demographic of patronage. He just wished...

That there were more of them.

Business was getting slower and slower these days, but the bills didn't stop stacking up. Jihoon was aware that the demand for walk-in cafes was withering. With modern age hustle culture, people didn't have the time to spare 5-10 minutes to get coffee over the counter when they can get it faster and more conveniently from a drive-through.

That was the sad truth, but he couldn't do much about it as he watched his family cafe grow quieter by the day.

Well... mostly quiet.

There were still the unignorable sobbing girls that occupied the space 2 out of 5 business days, but he didn't really mind them as much as he knew Junkyu did.

They were good business: bought tons of cake.

Of course, that was only when they didn't go crazy and break his furniture.

Speaking of which, was that kid ever going to pay for that chair or not? Jihoon thought absent-mindedly as he drew shapes onto the counter with his finger.

Suddenly, a shadow fell over his station. Jihoon looked up with his eyebrows raised to meet the eyes of a tall, darkly attractive young man.

Well, speak of the devil.

"Um, can I help you?" Jihoon asked the guy, a bit too worn out to be polite.

"Uh, yeah. I was just going to pay for that chair that my... um, acquaintance broke," he explained nervously, glancing around behind Jihoon as if he were looking for something.

Or someone.

Jihoon smirked at the improbable thought as the other man pulled out his wallet and started thumbing through twenties.

"How much was it?"

Honestly? It was 15 bucks, probably older than this guy's mom, but he was feeling a bit sly today, and, looking at this guy's wallet, he was sure the kid wasn't gonna hurt from a small overcharge.

"80 bucks," he answered.

The guy just nodded as if he thought the price was reasonable and started counting out the money. After a couple of beats, he handed Jihoon 7 crisp twenties.

Damn, did this kid use all his luck in the face department or something?

"Um, 20 times 7 is 140, man. You gave me 60 too much."

Jihoon tried to hand back the three extra bills but was stopped by a hand pushing back his own.

"Oh yeah, I know. The extra 60 is for, um, the guy with the mop from earlier. It's, like, a tip for cleaning up my mess. Or more like compensation? Ah, never mind, can you just give this to him?"

Oh? Interesting...

The older man smirked almost villainously as he watched the boy in front of him nervously fidget as he waited for Jihoon's response, looking everywhere but the other's eyes.

Oh hell yeah. Hot rich guy has a crush on my little brother. Jihoon was about to have fun with this one.

"Oh, no way, thank you! You know, Junkyu is going to really appreciate this. He's been really wanting a new bed for his dog... that has cancer. Yeah, poor thing, am I right? It's incurable! Junkyu just wants to get him a nice bed so that he can spend his final moments in comfort. He's been looking at this really nice one, but it's kinda pricy so we haven't been able to get it. You know, no one has 100 bucks just lying around. This tip will really help. Let's just hope that another kind, probably equally hot soul tips him the other 40. Oh, I'm sure he'll be very appreciative of whoever that is. Might give them a big, warm hu-"

Another 40 dollars was shortly slammed onto the counter before Jihoon could finish his tirade.

It's almost too easy...

==============

Junkyu sipped his tea lethargically as he sank into his almost criminally comfortable bean bag. This was exactly what he needed. Just a couple of minutes resting his mind in the back of the cafe.

His troubles seemed to melt away as the tea warmed every part of his body.

What awkward conversation with an annoyingly attractive guy that said he talked too much? Junkyu didn't remember that happening at all... He probably just imagined it. Yeah, his daydreams have definitely been a bit outlandish these days.

The relaxed man was practically shocked out of his skin when the door to the break room slammed open. His tea splashed in its cup, sending the scalding liquid spilling onto his hand.

"Ah, hot, hot, hot," Junkyu yelled as he wiped off his hand. "Hey, Jihoon! What the fuck was that? Can't you open the door normally and not like a fucking SWAT force?"

His older brother ignored him as he walked over to his little resting area and tossed 5 twenties onto the coffee table in front of him.

Junkyu just stared at the money with a confused expression. "What is that for? Early pay or something?"

Jihoon placed his hands on the younger's shoulders with a stony expression on his face. He didn't say anything for a bit, making Junkyu wonder what supernatural force has possessed his older brother. Ghosts? Aliens? Mermaids?

His thoughts were interrupted when he finally spoke. "If that hot guy from earlier ever comes back, make sure you thank him for buying your dying cancer dog an overpriced death bed."

Junkyu looked into the other's eyes with a blank expression.

"It was the fucking mermaids, wasn't it?"