eyes ; ha yoonbin

07

yoonbin's pov

the school bell rings, signalling that school has ended. i stand up from my seat and packed my bag.

"bye, sijin!" i hear jiwoo from my back and i look at sijin who waves with a smile to say bye to jiwoo. she's just sitting down at her seat as she goes through her notes once more. she proceeds to take out more books and starts opening them to pages that has the information she needs. she reads and understands what the page says. she digs for her notebook under a huge pile and writes down something in red at the side of her paper. she takes a highlighter and make a box around the words and puts a star on top of it.

she suddenly stops what she was doing and she looks up at me. i quickly look away to avoid any eye contact or any awkward exchanges. i continue to pack my things instead and pretend nothing happened.

"what were you doing?" she just won't let anything slide.

"packing?" i state the obvious and she looks away, definitely done with me.

i grab my bag and left. i have a shift to attend so i have to hurry. i work in a convenience store near my house. i work in there for 4 days in a week. i also have another work as a banquet server at a hotel near my place too and i work as a banquet server for 2 days.

everyone in school doesn't know my situation. well, i don't talk to anyone in school so they don't know what's up in my life. i have a family of 4. i have my mom, my dad, a younger sister and there's me.

right now, i only have one of them. i only have my younger sister. my mom and dad passed away just last year. currently, we live in a small apartment with our grandma. it was my family's house and my grandma moved in when my parents passed on. lucky for us, the house is not rented so we don't have more financial burden.

my parents have left everything for my sister and i so we have quite a few to get us living. my family is not very well off. my parents earn enough for bills, grocery and tuition fees. we rarely had enough money to go out and have fun so we always stay at home. if we ever go out, we don't spend much money. we would go to parks for picnics.

that's why i had to work part time jobs. if i stayed still and refuse to work, the money left for us wouldn't be enough to let us study for two years. my grandma is 80 years old this year and she is unemployed. surely, no one would want an 80 years old to work for them. she stays at home and does the chores, or cook. when i could, i would help her out. she's really old to be doing these things but she would like to help to ease our burden.

i had to do all the earning because my sister was too young to be employed in part time jobs. i have to say, my pay is kinda okay. i get quite a lot for working as a banquet server. and i get a decent pay for a cashier in the convenience store. even though it wasn't so much, it could help a bit.

i was planning to stop studying after i graduate from high school. getting a certificate is already enough to get me a full time job, just not those high paying. i would let my sister continue studying if she wants to and she'll have a bright future ahead.

all these, nobody in my school knows. except those that i met while working. those students from my school who go into convenience stores to buy whatever they need. they would recognize me but i doubt they would question my life. many students at my age does part time works even though they are not in financial crisis so i blend in quite well. but i'm totally fine that they know i work.

i'm just not okay if they know my family is having a financial crisis. it's nothing embarrassing but the fact that i know how this society work. they would gossip around and talk about this and that. they would sometimes step over the line and say some harmful things. that's something that really pisses me off and get me over the edge sometimes. this is why i would rather not to tell anyone about my financial problems.

wait, nobody cares to know anyways. what am i talking about.

i have a conflicting view of people. sometimes, i would like to be their friend because everyone knows how having friends would really make your life brighter. but sometimes, i rather not because of how the society works. it would be great to find someone very understandable, kind, and will be there for you no matter what everyone else says. that's the true friends.

before i know it, i'm right in front of the convenience store. i take a deep breathe in and pull the door open. i smile at yeri, another part timer, standing in front of the cashier.

"you can go now, i'll just change and will be right here" i tell her as i walk to the worker's closet.

i put down my things and i get changed into the store's shirt. i work in 7-11 so its a green and red collared shirt. i keep my school pants on since it's black anyways.

"bye yoonbin" i hear yeri shout from the door and before i could say bye back, the door rings, signalling someone has either come in or come out.

i walk over to the cashier as soon as possible and i sit there the whole day, serving customer by customer. sometimes, i would stock up some food that are running low and i would sign papers when delivery days come.

the store usually gets packed when middle schoolers are released. many of them hangs out in 7-11 because of the cheap food. the line in front of me is long and the store is just very noisy, filled with a lot of shouting and talking. once everyone is gone, i would clean up the seating area and be back again to sitting in front of the counter until a customer is ready to be served.

"ding" the door rings. i look up to give a friendly smile but a smile just didn't form on my lips. i look at the person who entered. she wears a pajama with an oversized tee and her hair is in a messy bun. she looks at me and she smiles widely.

it's sijin. out of all people, it's her.

she walks up to me with the big smile still on her face.

"hey yoonbin, what's up? you work here?" she looks at me and i simply nod my head.

"what can i do for you?" i ask like how a normal emplyee would be to it's customer if they come up to me.

"nothing much, i'm just here to get some snacks ya know" she says and walk off to the aisle of cup noodles.

she takes at least 5 minutes to pick out her noodles and she proceeds to get a corndog. she goes to the drinks aisle-

why am i even keeping an eye on her? seriously?

i look away and sit down at the stool. i patiently wait for her to come to the counter. and once she did, i see her arms filled with food. wow, she got those huge appetite.

the food pile up in front of me as i stare at how much she was going to buy. i start to question if she's gonna eat those all by herself.

i start scanning them one by one. she buys a cup noodle, cheese corndog, black pepper sausage, an oreo cadbury, oreo kitkat, white kinder bueno, and an ice lemon tea bottle.

"total's 22,000 won" i tell her and she fishes out the right amount from her wallet and passes it to me. i count it and slot it into the machine. the receipt gets printed out and i hand it to her. i pack all her food and handed it over to her.

"thank you" we both say at the same timing and she laughs.

"why say thank you?" she says and walks off the store before i could even take another breath.

well, i guess she lives near- i mentally slap myself. what the hell am i thinking. she obviously do by the way she dressse- shut up yoonbin

and just like that, the day ends and i get home pretty late at night. yoora, my little sister, is already sleeping. my grandma stays awake to wait for me. no matter how many times i tell her not to stay up for me, she still does because she says she can't go to sleep without knowing i'm safely home.

she also watches me eat dinner that she cooked along with yoora and goes to sleep after. for me, i stay up and do my homework. and partially study things i missed. one reason why i'm late for school. i always oversleep because i'm so tired.

[ well, you see that coming? ]

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