Soul Theory

Chapter 3. The 'Coworker'

CW: inappropriate adult x minor relationship. (the character who was the minor is technically 18 by now, but the history goes back, aaand 18 is still a teen...)

* * *

[Music blares over the car stereo.]

Sometimes

얼어버렸나, yeah

너를 보면 잊어버려

I feel it coming, baby

이기적이야 넌 왜

매일 날 시험해

Please take me somewhere, yeah

느낌대로 해 (느낌대로 해)

우린 얼음 같던 날들을 녹이려 해 (녹이려 해)

굳이 빙빙 돌아가지 말고

날아가자, 그래 구름 위로

Let's go far away (Far away)

Far away, far away, far away, yeah-yeah

("Somebody!" by HWA SA, Loco)

* * *

Verise angled her face into the sun. The wind ripped through her hair. 80 miles per hour on wide, empty road was a treat coming from bottleneck city streets.

She nudged her passenger princess for the lighter. He was, for all Minjung knew, Verise's "coworker", but it did not elude Verise (ever) that Kenny was her longtime boss. Given that her last shift was last week, was he now just... Kenny? She would pout at hardly seeing him anymore and grin at all the memories. Kenny being the manager had made everything better. Hotter. More useful. He never scheduled her in any way she didn't want, and he was always great to look at. And that endless game...of cat and mouse.

Kenny was the manager of The Canary, one of Brooklyn's "finest artisanal" coffee shops. One of so many. All claiming the same thing.

Getting out of Queens, as young as she could get away with, was a childhood thrill. After frequenting every coffee shop in reasonable vicinity, the cozy nook feel of The Canary kept bringing her back. That, or the inordinately handsome staff of all genders. Ordinarily, she would be easily overwhelmed by such a small, stuffy and frequently busy spot. But, rubbing shoulders with the world's most beautiful people, it was her little oasis. Lost in her writing, gorgeous and mature scents would waft by her as the workers moved about the space and she would come up for air just to admire the scene.

Her first crush bloomed (and died) here. Just a tween plunking away at the revisions for her next journal submission, Verise found herself doted upon by the graduate student and cinephile Madeline Tsui. Ineffable, mysterious and overprotective, she was cool, even icy, with the customers, but always gentle and sweet with the young Verise. Verise came every week for Madeline who always worked Sunday mornings (until, out of nowhere, she stopped working there at all).

Verise became The Canary's youngest hire, paid under the table until she turned 16.

Her interview was conducted by him, a humble assistant manager at the time. She knew, at 15, upon locking eyes with Kenny that she had it; the job was hers. She was dressed to the nines and had come prepared to flirt with a wall for the job. The wall was not a wall. Twas an overeager recent college drop out with perfectly messy hair who refused to be called Mr. Lee. The interview was hardly professional. Two wolves looked at each other from across the small circle table, sat so closely together that their elbows were nearly touching, and flashed mutually inviting signs. Nothing serious. Never. Just three off-and-always-back-on noncommittal years being chronically available to and sinfully comfortable with each other.