Ice Cream | Liskook (ON-HOLD)

Prologue

On a quiet Autumn evening, the small bell that was placed above the main entrance of a building chimed beautifully as a tall man in a coat and timberlands stepped foot inside the cozy ice cream parlour. The man briefly looked around before walking to the counter to order the dessert that he had been craving for days. 

"Hello there, sir. What may I get for you?" The auburn-haired cashier lady recited her usual script with a joyful smile. 

"Hmm, can I have two scoops of cookies and cream in the regular cup?" 

"Sure. You can take a seat first or just wait here if you don't mind" She said as she grabbed a medium-sized cup from the far end of the counter, then went back to the middle where the built-in freezer was located. 

Choosing the second option, the man simply stood in front of the counter, watching the female worker's every move as she quickly filled the colourful paper cup with two scoops of his favourite ice cream and soon placed it on top of the counter, right in front of him. 

"That would be 8,000 Won in total" 

"Oh, okay" The customer said and quickly inserted his hand into one of the pockets of his coat, just to find that there was nothing there. His eyes shot wide at the realisation, causing the cashier to speak up in a slightly annoyed tone. 

"Don't tell me you forgot to bring your wallet?" 

"I didn't, I remembered putting my wallet in this coat" He said as his hands hastily checked the other pockets of his coat. 

"Then what's the problem? Pay up already" 

"It's not there" 

"What?" 

"My wallet's not in any of my pockets!" He looked at her, eyes still as wide as before. 

Hearing his words, she simply let out a groan before looking back at him with eyes that looked like they were ready to kill. 

"Look, this shop is gonna close in another half an hour, and if you don't pay for the ice cream by then, I'm calling the police" 

"But my wallet's lost! I don't know where it is! And my house is more than a 30-minute drive from here!"

"Guess you're ending up in jail then" She said so nonchalantly then paused for a brief moment. "Unless you can sacrifice this mouth-watering cookies and cream ice cream right here..." 

The hungry man directed his eyes to the ice cream served in front of him, and it definitely made his mouth water, just like what the worker said. Snapping back to reality, the guy looked down and sighed in defeat before turning his attention back to the lady. 

"Okay, you can keep the ice cream. As long as it means I won't go to jail" He tried to sound as pitiful as possible, hoping that the girl will help pay for him so he would still get to eat the ice cream. 

But sadly for him, luck wasn't on his side. 

"Well good then. I'll pay for this ice cream with my own money and eat it by myself. Now if you have no other business here, get out. The door's that way" She scowled, angrily pointing to the door behind him. 

Not saying a single word, the man reluctantly turned around and headed to the exit. Sighing once more, he mumbled something as he finally walked out the door. "Why am I so unlucky?" 

Or so he thought.  

Around 30 minutes later, the female worker came out the store, wearing a similar brown coat over her white blouse and black pants, matched with a pair of brown timberlands. She was locking the front door when she suddenly heard a weird noise coming from the side. A noise that sounded much like the grumbling of an empty stomach. Intrigued, she slowly looked to her side just to find a man who seemed almost dead, sitting on the cold hard ground of the stone path in front of the ice cream shop. She stared weirdly at him, until she realised that he was the guy from before, and her eyes immediately widened in shock.