Nocturnal Buddies ✩ Yang Jeongin

Chapter 10

"Hyunnie."

The girl's attention snapped up at the mention of her name, noticing her best friend standing beside her.

"You've been smiling at your phone for some time now."

Hyunjoo immediately shut off her phone, and placed it back onto the table. "Oh, sor-."

"Did you get a boyfriend or something?" Areum inquired, raising a curious brow at her friend.

"What?" Hyunjoo blinked a couple of times, unsure if she heard correctly, as she watched her friend occupy the empty seat beside her. "I was just talking to a follower."

Areum hummed in acknowledgment as she stared at the older girl. "Really? I've never seen you smile so much talking to a follower before. You must really like them."

The older girl shrugged in response. "They're fun to talk to, since we kind of clicked. It feels like I've known them a long time, even though I only started talking to them recently."

"Imagine this is the start of your love story."

Hyunjoo immediately rolled her eyes at the younger girl's remark, before lightly shoving her shoulder with a chuckle. "Shut up, it's not like that."

Areum breathed out a chuckle, as she nodded her head, pretending not to believe her friend. Her eyes flickered to the clock shortly after, before she laced her fingers together, stretching her arms in front of her.

"Looks like our shift is almost done, let's go make our rounds so we can leave."

The older girl hummed in response as she stood up with her friend. Her eyes flickered towards her phone before she could walk off, knowing she left the user on read. Promising herself that she'll reply to them when she returned home, she went to check up on her patients.

It was true though. Amongst all the conversations she has had with her followers, this user managed to make her feel comfortable. There were times the girl felt like talking to her followers became overbearing at times, especially when they messaged her on a daily basis. It wasn't something she wanted to admit, especially since she felt bad for feeling that way, but it got annoying when followers would purposely spam her to get her attention.

She felt pressured to stay professional each time she messaged a follower as well, worried that they would judge her if she got slightly comfortable with them. However, with this user, she could relax a little and let her real self slip in ever so often. She still tries to keep it consistent with the user as well, but it felt like she didn't need to fully commit to her persona. It just felt like a natural conversation that she was having with a close friend.

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Hyunjoo pulled her car to a complete stop before killing the engine. As she gathered her belongings from the passenger seat, she couldn't help but curiously glance over at the small café. There were people bustling inside and outside of the building with clear intentions. She stepped out of her car shortly after, allowing the sun to beat down against her skin, before hurrying towards the door.

With a few polite "excuse me," the girl managed to make it into the once quiet café. Various conversations carried themselves throughout the building, as laughter overwhelmed the silence she missed. Her eyes immediately landed on the boy standing at the cash register. His expression filled with visible stress, as he listened to the customer amongst all the talking. The sound of the bell drew his attention towards the door, ready to greet the new customer, before he noticed her.

Relief rushed over him before his eyes shifted back to the customer, finishing up their order. Hyunjoo quickly made her way to the back, placing her bag down, before pulling on an apron. She hastily returned to the front, immediately lending a helping hand to the stressed workers. As she was passing by her friend, she tapped his back consolingly, causing his shoulders to drop from the unknown tension he was experiencing.