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ANOTHER LENGTHY SHIFT on another short friday at the corner store. park jinyoung had been suffering behind the register since four in the morning. his head ached and he had an itch on his back that he couldn't reach.
he'd just finished fighting with an old lady that was very unhappy about the lack of prune flavored lays chips. she insisted that they existed and that she'd eaten them in one of her prophetic dreams to gain back her youth.
jinyoung sat on a stool behind the register and lazily observed the security cameras' footage.
the only thing he had to look forward to on his insanely long friday shift was when the high school upperclassmen girls came in to get a snack.
jinyoung had a record of four numbers in one friday without asking. he never contacted them but he just enjoyed the eye candy and the boost of his self esteem. but it was only two o'clock and there was still one and a half more torturous hours of waiting before the girls flooded in.
a woman, seen in camera four, rummaged through the freezers frantically. she pulled bottles out of their places and stuck her head inside to get a look around.
he wanted to yell at her for messing up his flawless stocking job but instead he just tilted his head curiously.
the woman was messy looking, at least that's how it seemed from where he sat behind the register. her hair was in a sloppy knot on the top of her head and her outfit had undoubtedly been thrown together in a few thoughtless seconds. smudged across her cheek was a very vibrant shade of violet paint.
a few more moments of upturning jinyoung's hard work and it looked like she had finally found what she was looking for.
"yes!" the woman exclaimed so loudly that jinyoung could hear it coherently from the opposite side of the store.
he leaned forward, squinting at the screen in front of him to make out what she had been searching for so intensely. jinyoung thought that maybe she had misplaced a valuable possession or spotted something expensive looking in the far back of the shelf.
what jinyoung saw in her hands was not, in fact, anything of significant value, but a simple bottle of strawberry milk.
the boy huffed, crossing his arms. "dismantled an hour worth of stocking for some milk." jinyoung grumbled under his breath.
she sauntered over to the small tables near the microwave, moving into his peripheral vision so he didn't have to supervise her through the monitor. she had the bottle of strawberry milk tucked underneath one arm, grabbing a cup of instant jjajangmyun and a pair of wooden chopsticks.
the woman spun around and directed her attention towards the check-out counter. jinyoung cleared his throat and averted his eyes, pretending he hadn't been observing her.
"hey, old guy that's been watching me, how much are these?" the woman asked smoothly, holding up the instant noodles.
jinyoung felt his cheeks heat up for more reasons than one.
"just flip the cup upside down and look. and who are you calling old guy? i'm only twenty! what if i called you old woman, huh?" the boy clenched his fists, urging his raging pulse to recover quickly from the embarrassment.
she hummed, unfazed, turning over the instant jjajangmyun to glance at the price.
"four thousand won for this tiny thing?" she muttered, reaching her hand in her pocket and pulling out a wrinkled five. the woman took a few steps closer and slapped the cash onto the counter. "keep the change."
