The day seemed to be full of surprises for Constance. First her Wi-Fi had gone out unexpectedly and now Beom was acknowledging her existence and actually being helpful. The only thing that annoyed her about the whole thing was how he just assumed she would follow after him like some sort of whipped puppy. Not once during the several minutes they had been walking had he turned back to see if she was following him.
"You're cocky to think I'm going to follow after you, you turd!"
She could hear Beom chuckle from where he was a few steps ahead of her.
"For starters, you are following me and for another, I'm not a turd. I'm a human being. You might want to get your eyesight checked if you think otherwise."
Constance wanted to come up with some sort of witty rebuttal but was unable to right on the spot. She instead lapsed into silence as Beom finally came to a stop outside a building. She didn't have much of a chance to examine the outside of the building to see where exactly they were before Beom slipped inside. Constance had already come this far and - even though she was slightly hesitant about following him inside - moved to do just that.
As Constance entered the place, she couldn't help but to notice how it was clustered with a bunch of eclectic people that were all self-absorbed into their own hobbies. The place seemed cozy yet crowded. Beom was already navigating his way through the people like he was doing some sort of choreographed dance so that he wouldn't hit anyone on his way to the back where an unused computer sat. Constance moved to go back to the computer he was now standing by. Once she had reached where Beom was, she moved to take a seat in front of the computer. He moved to sit down in an unoccupied chair beside her.
"Did you used to come here often?" asked Constance as she turned on the computer in front of her.
"Once in a while," Beom said simply, looking around the room instead of at her.
While Constance waited for the computer to boot up, she cast her eyes about the room again too. She wondered if Beom's gaze would fixate on anyone in particular, but his gaze just kept bouncing about as if soaking in the view for nostalgic purposes. Constance's attention was soon diverted back to the computer in front of her when the main screen popped up.
"Why were you without Wi-Fi?" asked Beom as he looked back over at her.
"I forgot to pay the bill," said Constance, seeing Beom smirk out of the corner of her eye. "Don't laugh at me."
"I'm not laughing," said Beom as he quickly wiped the smirk off his face.
Constance turned to look at Beom, seeing the mischievous twinkle still present in his decadently dark eyes.
"Tell your eyeballs that," she said to which he let out a low chuckle.
Constance hmphed as she turned to look back at the monitor in front of her, bringing up job portals to continue the search for a new job. Beom sat there and watched her scroll through the choices with his arms crossed.
"Can't you just pick a job?"
"It's not that easy," said Constance as she expanded the description on one before ultimately backing out of it to continue her search. "I mean, I'm willing to settle for something. It's just...I'd like to also not hate every second of my job."
"What happened to your last one?"
Hearing Beom ask that question out loud caused an ache to settle in her chest. She didn't like thinking about it because doing so brought back the pain that came with it. She blinked her eyes quickly a few times to discourage any tears from falling before clicking on another link on the screen before her.
YOU ARE READING
Enigma Stigma (ONC 2023 Entry)
RomanceConstance meets a hot man named Beom on a bus. She always sees him on her commute to her new job, but is too scared to say anything to him. One day, she decides to talk to him. He is surprised when she can see him. After all, he has invented a way t...