Someone Like Yoo

VI

Chapter VI: What Do Yoo Think You're Doing?

It is exactly 3:38 in the afternoon when I glanced up at the wall clock hanging above the espresso machine – and the business peak hours start.

One of the employees, Mary, fills a glass of iced coffee with saturated milk and snaps a perfect whirl of of whipped cream on top. She places the drink on a tray, ringing the bell, and I serve it to the woman at Table 11. This leaves Chanyeol managing the cash register. Just like Choi Tae-hee, he's tall and had a muscular build. But unlike Choi Tae-hee, Chanyeol is lazy. He told us that he doesn't have enough energy to roam around the shop and make teas for people because his night job as a KPOP group member is already tiring enough. Tae-hee and I never believed his excuse, but Auntie Samshin did.

The woman's daughter from Table 11 suddenly tugged at my brown apron and pulled me to the glass box beside the cash register. She was around three or four years old and her eyes were sparkling like luminous pearls in the ocean and her black raven hair fell down until her shoulders like baby waves. She was plump, filled with sweetness and cuteness maybe. She raised a portly finger at one of the pastry displays. The little girl wanted a bite from the Strawberry Shortcake Supreme. And guessing from the way she was puckering out her lips, she must be craving more than just one bite.

I sigh, a smile gradually forming in my mouth. One of the simple joys of working in this tea shop is meeting children like her and granting their wishes. I feel like I'm Auntie Samshin.

This little girl and her mother stayed but people flow in and out of the shop every other quarter of the hour – from young to old, singles to couples, businessmen to writers, coffee-lovers to tea-lovers, locals to tourists, and then of course – out of all the people that fate could end me up with, it's – Yoo Deok-hwa.

He wears a knitted black cardigan, buttoned up to his chest, and peeking out from inside is the collar of what it seems to be a plaid navy blue shirt. Even from afar, I could catch sight of little white specks sprinkled all over her chestnut hair and the redness of his cheeks is strikingly apparent. He looked like a small boy who had just played around in the snow at Christmastime.

Standing beside him was a man in a gray tuxedo, in the same shade of his short hair. His thin eyelids protrude over his face and he squints his eyes more than five times a second, as if the half-moon glasses he was wearing over his nose is still not enough. He carries a pot-belly – and as I am guessing, it is either because of too much or because of too much alcohol. I don't really prefer the latter, because aside from the pot-belly, he was also carrying a kind and honest smile.

Behind them was another man and from the way his face had lighten up at the smell of freshly-brewed coffee and the way his hands would clasp together – as if he was about to say something out loud, but would rather not – he was around his early thirties and I assume he works in a bustling corporate. He must be an expertise of charm and poise, because he looked respectable standing in his dark brown suit and tie.

I have just realized that Deok-hwa hasn't noticed me yet nor have we made eye contact. However, I have still to grasp what is yet to come: I'm the hostess and I have to go to his table to get his orders.

Deok-hwa led them to one of the tall mahogany tables by the window. From the very moment they sat and picked up each a tiny laminated menu, the beginning of my end has initiated. From all my years of experience in the dining industry, it only takes a matter of time for businessmen like them to think their orders through.

As the adopted daughter of the goddess of childbirth, of course, I did not forget the little girl and gave her a slice of the Strawberry Shortcake Supreme before I dashed right inside the small office beside the kitchen. I have a good feeling that Auntie Samshin keeps at least a pair of sunglasses around here. Luckily enough, when I rattled through one of her desk drawers, I stumbled upon a pair of round-rimmed black mirrored shades – plus a sheer, preppy-looking cloth that I can use as a headscarf to hide my hair! Fate is being good to me today – thank you, Auntie Samshin.