unforgiven ➽ a Halilintar-centric fic

18 | see it coming

Taufan was not having a good day.

"Sir? Sir, look at this foam art you've handed my son." The woman shoved the plastic cup onto the counter, tipping some of the contents. "Do you see what you've done?"

Taufan peered at the generic white and dark brown picture of a teddy bear with a bow on its ear. He hadn't drawn it – it was one of the images burned into the foam machine the stall had they used for latte or hot chocolate. If he's honest, he hadn't even been paying attention to what picture they'd used for the last fifteen or so orders.

"What's wrong with it?" he grunted. It's not like he painted alien warlord propaganda on the thing. "What did I do, exactly?"

The woman's face turned beet red, her voice rising. "It's a girl bear, you idiot!" she shrieked, stomping her foot. Her son, next to her, shrunk and pulled his hood over his face. "My son is a boy! He should be having boy bears. Remake it this instant!"

"Lady, if you aren't an entitled brat I don't know what you are," Taufan snapped, unamused. "Maybe you should go back home, look in a mirror and reevaluate your priorities."

"How dare you disrespect me?" She slammed the counter. "I demand to see your manager!"

"Like hell—"

"Tau," Gempa cut in, bottle of whip cream in hand, "what's the commotion?"

Taufan spun towards the younger, exasperated. Apparently, his current expression must be somewhat amusing towards him, as Gempa snorted into his palm when he turned around. The heat in his cheeks burned brighter. He loved Gempa, he really did... but sometimes the punk gives him a reason to throw him into the sky and pray he lands on his feet like a cat.

Seeing a new face (read: victim) to air her grievances to, she overlooked Taufan's presence to pester Gempa. Just as she opened her mouth to spew all the agenda she tried to hammer into Taufan's head, a new voice interrupted them from behind, sounding rather befuddled by the entire ordeal.

A pair of siblings stepped forward, flanking the woman on both sides. The brother sported an unzipped brown jacket over a white shirt and jeans, while his sister was wearing a sleeveless turtleneck and baggy camo pants.

The woman glared daggers at the offending customer. "Hey, Karen," she snarked, a venomous bite in her tone. "Have you really fallen so far in your life that you get off of harassing the new guys?"

"You shouldn't be making a scene, you know," said the man, removing the headphones from his ears and resting them around his neck. "Think about how your behavior is going to affect your son."

Taufan's head whipped back and forth from the pair, confusion rising in his mind. What was this strange sense of déjà vu? Also, what were their parents feeding these guys? He didn't need a height check to know that he would look like a midget compared to these two.

The woman's face turned stark white. To Taufan's surprise, she didn't even attempt to push their buttons. Instead, she grabbed her son's wrist and high-tailed from the premises, leaving the hot chocolate behind without so much of a second's hesitation. Then again, even he would hesitate when faced with them, and he's died more times than he could count.

They approached the counter, all hostility gone and in place of it was a sense of familiarity, like they'd been here many times and it'd become a second home. Taufan greeted them as he dug up a rag to clean up the counter.

"Newbies?" the man asked, tilting his head. "Don't think we've seen you around here before."

Taufan nodded. "I guess you could say that," he agreed. "We only just started today. Do you come here often?"