My Angel ~ HyunLix

Chapter Three ~ Hyunjin

"Fire and damnation!"

Hyunjin wasn't happy. It was only his first day at the café, and already things were going wrong. So far, he'd spilt the coffee beans all over the bench and bumped into another staff member, nearly knocking the tray out of his hands. Now, he'd somehow managed to make the coffee machine stop working.

"What's wrong?" Felix enquired, his deep voice resonating in the angel's bones.

"This damn machine's got it in for me!" Hyunjin complained bitterly. "I wanted to make a latte, but it keeps spitting out this ... this... brown sludge!"

Felix peered at the machine for a moment, then pressed a button and turned back to the angel with an easy smile.

"All fixed! You just had it on the wrong setting, that's all. Nothing to worry about!"

Hyunjin heaved a sigh and glared at the machine. "Stupid machine!" he grumbled.

"Hey, it's alright," Felix soothed. "You'll get the hang of it soon. Why don't you try something different for now? Do you want to try serving customers?"

Hyunjin felt his frustration fading away with every word Felix spoke. "Yeah, okay," he agreed.

He thought taking customer orders would be easy compared to dealing with the demon-spawn coffee machine. But to his dismay, even that seemed beyond his capabilities.

There were so many different things that could be ordered, half of which he hadn't even heard of before. I mean, who needed that many different kinds of milk??

After the first few customers, Felix left him on his own so he could take a tray of drinks to one of the tables. Hyunjin's frustration levels started to rise again, once the other boy wasn't by his side. There was something about him that just soothed his feelings, and had him smiling for no reason.

But right now, his head was throbbing, and steam was threatening to come out of his ears. He was trying in vain to figure out how to put "soy, extra hot, no foam, matcha latte, with extra syrup" into the machine behind the counter.

"Excuse me..." a small voice piped up.

"What do you want?" he growled, turning and glaring at the new customer.

The young girl, who couldn't have been more than 8 years old, shrank away from Hyunjin's fierce look.

"I ... I want a ... ch-chocolate milkshake?" she managed to stumble out, looking like she'd rather just run away and hide.

"Hey hey hey, is everything alright here?" asked a familiar, deep voice beside Hyunjin. Felix looked between the girl and the angel, assessing the situation.

"I'll take over here - why don’t you go take a break, Hyunjin?"

The angel numbly nodded his head and stepped back, then turned and headed out to the staff area. A minute later, Felix joined him, a serious look on his face.

"Okay, what was that about?"

Hyunjin gave a gentle sigh, already feeling calmer. "I'm sorry, I was just feeling really frustrated, 'cause I had a seriously complicated order. That kid came out of nowhere and took me by surprise!"

Felix's face softened a bit. "Look, I know it's your first day, and you're still getting used to everything. But you can't talk to the customers like that, okay? We're supposed to be bringing them in, not scaring them away!"

Hyunjin bowed his head and mumbled, "Sorry..."

"Alright, I'm gonna get back out there. You have a break and calm down, and I'll see you in a while."