Sunset at Hamdeok

Chapter 6

Hyoyeon secretly watched Tiffany. She fleered as she leaned on the bar counter. Tiffany glanced at her even though she was concentrating on making three cups of cafe breve.

    "What?" Tiffany asked without looking up.

    Hyoyeon laughed. "Tell me, did something happen in Jeju?"

    Tiffany coughed. "Yeah, there was a night festival on the island. Why?"

    "Did you meet a handsome stranger with sexy abs?"

    Tiffany curled her lips. It was the third times Hyoyeon tried to dig about her vacation in Jeju. "There was no such guy. End of story." Tiffany lifted the cups and put them on the bar counter.

    Hyoyeon pouted. She put the cups onto her trays and walked away.

    Tiffany cleaned her station. She sighed. Once again, she was reminded of a very handsome young man who had held her through that night. She smiled. I'm not even sure if he has abs or not. Tiffany quickly shrugged the image of him off her mind.

    Hyoyeon nudged Sunny who was wiping a table with a clean cloth. "I'm sure something big happened in Jeju."

    Sunny looked up and saw where her friend was staring at. She giggled. "Come on, leave Tiffany alone."

    "I can't." Hyoyeon shrieked. "It's been a week she acts so... So unusual."

    "Really?" Sunny watched Tiffany curiously, trying to see what Hyoyeon might be seeing from her. "I don't see anything. Tiffany still makes great coffee. That's all I know."

    "Didn't you see her smile a minute ago? Why would she smile all alone when nobody was talking to her? And twice, I caught her sitting by the wall and looked so distraught as if she was thinking about something. Isn't that weird?"

    Sunny shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. She looks pretty normal to me."

    Yuri went down the stairs. She cleared her throat. "Anything interesting?" She asked.

    "Not recently." Hyoyeon grinned, "except that Tiff-"

    But Sunny quickly nudged her. "Except that Tiffany didn't bring us any souvenirs from Jeju."

    "Eung, I know that." Yuri nodded. "What a shame. Now go and do your job. We have  customers." Yuri sent her workers away. She then approached her favorite barista.

    "I know tomorrow is your day off, but can you possibly come?"

    Tiffany disposed of some coffee waste into a dust bin under the bar counter. She looked at her manager. "But I thought Jessica would come tomorrow."

    Yuri tapped her forefinger on the bar table. "Jessica just called and said her fever got worse. I hope you can fill in for her. This coffee shop needs its best barista."

    Tiffany didn't have other choice. Yuri really knew how to make everyone follow what she wanted. Who could blame her, she owned this place.

    Tiffany had worked at SNSD coffee shop for almost four years now. She could confidently say that she made a better coffee more than anyone in the neighborhood and that she really enjoyed her job. She even rarely took a day off. It was better for her to be behind the bar counter and working with her espresso machine than to stay at home doing nothing. Hyoyeon and Sunny often encouraged her to find a boyfriend so that she wouldn't have to spend saturday night alone. But hey, who needed a boyfriend when you had to work at Saturday night?

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"You can't say no." Sooyoung gave Taehyung her sweetest smile.

    "Do I ever have a choice?" He sighed. "I never say no to you." He pinched Sooyoung's nose.

    She giggled. "I'm so irresistible, right?"

    "In a bad way, yes." Taehyung pushed his chair away. "Now let me do my work. I am so busy right now."

    Sooyoung jerked upright. "That's not a really nice thing to say to your fiancee." She pouted.

    Taehyung sneered. "I wish I had another fiancee."

    Sooyoung curled her lips. "No girls would stand to be your fiancee. You're lucky I never run away from you."

    Taehyung put his hands together and stared at her. "Don't you ever want to have a boyfriend? A real one?"

    Sooyoung pouted. "I don't have any chance. My family would kick me out if they saw me with someone else."

    Taehyung laughed. "Ah, poor Sooyoung." He jerked upright and stroked her hair. "Don't try too hard, I doubt anyone would want to be with you."

    Sooyoung hit Taehyung's arm. "Anyway, don't forget to pick me up at nine tomorrow. I don't want to make my friend wait."

    "I never knew you had a friend who worked at a coffee shop."

    "Everyone has a secret." Sooyoung winked.

    Just a moment before she left his office, Taehyung remembered something. "What's the place again?"

    "SNSD Coffee Shop." Sooyoung waved her hand at her future husband.

    Taehyung smiled. He looked outside the window. His relationship with Choi Sooyoung was probably one of the most intriguing relationships ever. He had known that girl since he was six years old. They grew up together. He had never been close to anyone besides her. And when he was sixteen years old, he got engaged to her. He was probably too young to understand what an engagement meant, but Taehyung never complained. He liked Sooyoung, that girl was his bestfriend. And what could be better than to be engaged to your bestfriend? It was much better than to be engaged to a total stranger.

    Taehyung whirled his chair. He grabbed a pencil and started to scribble something on a piece of paper. He looked at it and mocked his own drawing before kneading it into a ball shape and threw it into a dust bin. That young executive vice president took another piece of paper and began to draw again.[]

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