Coffee

14. Elephant in The Room

"It's Fridaaaaayyyyy!" Jimin said swishing his hips around the shop like some crazed stripper.

I groaned. Of course Jimin was happy, he doesn't work on the weekends. But of course, I do, and so does Namjoon.

"Can't you act more... boss-like?" I squinted at his frisky dance moves, envious he got time off. Namjoon and I exchanged a look in agreement.

Jimin whipped his head in my direction. "You're absolutely right! I don't act like a boss, I'm far too friendly! Soelhyun, go scrape the coffee residue from the films!"

My jaw dropped in astonishment that he actually was going to make me do such a tedious job.

He smiled to himself, eyeing my reaction "Go on, I want to see it crystal clean you hear me sweetheart?"

Namjoon chuckled a little "Go easy on her little guy."

"Little guy?!" Jimin balled up his small fist in rage "Well I'll have you know this Little guy writes your paycheck! Now you!" He points at the stalls "go clean them!"

Namjoon does the same reaction I did then looks over at me as we both mumble complaints under our breaths.

Jimin upgraded himself to the cashier, waiting for our first round of customers.

Since I was demoted to scraping the grind out of the machines, I wouldn't catch Suga this morning.

I felt my shoulders slump a little. Maybe I was disappointed? Well, yeah I guess I was. I mean, I guess I kind of looked forward to his abnoxious greetings in the morning.

~~~

Jimin slumped against the cabinets. "Thank God for lunch breaks!!"

I raised an eyebrow at him "You think you're tired? I think my hands are permanently stained from coffee suds."

Jimin shrugged then got up dusting his clothes off. "I'm heading off early, you and Joon keep the store together alright?"

"Sure I guess." I looked over at Namjoon apologizing to a customer for spilling smoldering tea all over her uniform.

"Suga didn't come by today," Jimin said disappointed "hopefully he'll stop by Monday."

I nodded. I didn't really know what to say when I met Suga again actually. I mean the last I saw him we didn't even make eye contact, and the night before then he tried to kiss me.

I was pulled out of my thoughts as I heard Namjoon apologizing more frantically and the lady threatening to sue.

"Hey, excuse me. I'm the manager, Kim Soelhyun, is there anything I could help with?"

The lady glared at me. "You're employee just burned my tits off!"

I swallowed back a smile. I faked a stern look at Namjoon who was cowering in the corner. "I sincerely apologize ma'am. Look, if you're not too mad, the next times you come back it's on the house."

The woman rolled her eyes then looked at me. "Everytime I come in?"

I nodded. It would be much better than her suing.

The woman stormed off as Suga walked in, making me swallow although my mouth was pretty much dry.

"You're late." I said as he approached.

Namjoon quickly thanked me and scurried off into the kitchen.

"You were expecting me?" He raised his eyebrows, smug as ever.

I sighed, are we going to address the elephant in the room or what? "So...you're confident you're over Jackson now?"

Suga face dropped "Not hardly."

I sorta held my breath. "Then you... you tried to kiss me because I'm your rebound?"

Suga's eyes widened. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry about that Soelhyun it's totally not like that."

I licked my lips pretty hurt. He hadn't even thought twice about it. Maybe it was hat he was so vulnerable he didn't know what to do with himself. He didn't realize that it could hurt me.

"So what's it like? Why do you flirt with me one second, act like my friend another second, try to kiss me and forget it ever happened?" I guess I snapped.

Suga sighed. "I— I'm not trying to confuse you Solehyun I only see you as my friend so don't worry. I'm just... feeling a whole bunch of emotions I'm not used to. Bear with me, Okay?" He pleaded.

I sighed "I understand, it's no big deal." I laughed although nothing was funny. I don't know why I cared so much. Or why I couldn't get the image of him advancing towards me with his eyes closed expecting a kiss out of my head.

He was a good looking guy really. It was amazing how meaningless his flirty comments were to him , but made me think about them on repeat throughout the day.

"So...we're cool?" A small smile formed on his pink lips.

I smiled as well. "Totally. You want a drink or something? Cuz you're kinda holding up the line."

He laughed "Sure, I'll try Strawberry boba."

I raised my eyebrows at him as I typed in his order to the machine "A guy like you wants strawberry boba?"

He laughed "What? I enjoy my fair share of sweets."

"Yeah, but that's like, the only drink preteens order around here to feel cool."

He rolled his eyes. "Don't judge, why do you think they call me Suga?"

I shook my head and went to prepare his drink. Whatever I was feeling earlier went away and was replaced with giddiness. For some reason, Suga always has that effect on me.