Choosing You (The Devil Prince X The Pretty Angel)

Chapter 64: Side Story; Kang Minjun

Present Day

Sweet Tooth Cafe

Minjun's POV

"Hey..!"

I jumped off his feet, almost losing grip of the tray in my hands. I turned around sharply.

"Jiějiě..!!" I patted my heart which was beating so hard from the shock, "You shocked me..! I almost had a heart attack!"I complained, looking at Siew Li Jiějiě in disbelief.

"Who told you to space out like that?" She pursed her lips, "what's wrong..?"

I blinked, immediately trying to act innocent, "what..? Spacing out? Me..?" I frowned, doing my best to act ignorantly, "I was not spacing out.."

I was spacing out. I had caught myself spacing out so many times these last few days. I tried so hard to concentrate on work, and not think too much about that thing, by trying to think about something else. But before I knew it, I was already thinking back about it.

"You were spacing out, Kang Minjun and you know it..Don't act as if you don't...You suck at acting." Siew Li Jiějiě muttered. She's now looking at me, seriously.

I was stupid to think that I could fool Siew Li Jiějiě. She's right. I couldn't act. I never could.

She looked around and then she took my hand, "there's no costumer for the time being," she said as she dragged me out to out to the workers' lounge, "come...!"

"But...But....!" I tried to protest but when she gave me a glare I shut my mouth at once.

She let go of my hand after we reached the lounge. Then she folded her hands in front of her chest, looking at me sternly like a school prefect who caught a delinquent trying to skip school. I gulped. She's scary when she's like this.

"Talk..." Siew Li ordered. And I gulped again, fidgeting on my feet nervously. 

" Is Yang bullying you?" She asked bluntly, "I'm going to punch him..!"

"No-!" I shook my head in denial, as I stopped her from walking, "he's not bullying me!"

Ever since I started working here three years ago, everybody had been treating me so well. They're spoiling me and sometimes it get too much for my own comfort; probably because I'm the youngest here. Siew Li Jiějiě was particularly more protective of me.

It was not surprising though. She knew me the longest after all, being my neighbour. She knew me since I was born. And she looked after me a lot, while I was growing up. With the six years age gap between us, I felt like, she was the sister I never have. And needless to say, she understood me so well.

Maybe, that's why she was one of the first people who noticed that I was different from the other boys around. And she's the first person I told about myself, being gay, confirming her suspicion. She was with me when I decided to come out to my parents, when I was in my last year of high school. As I had already anticipated; they didn't take the news well. They exploded and scolded me, screaming at me to change my mind. When I didn't budge, my father tried to hit me, and my mother only looked without doing anything. If it wasn't for Siew Li Jiějiě, I would probably have been beaten black and blue. That day, I packed my clothes and left home. That was four years ago.

Siew Li Jiějiě was already living alone at that time, so she took me in. I stayed with her, for a year before she got a day job waitressing at The Boss' cafe. She had been working at a bar, at night, for three years before that. She was a waitress but there's a rumour spread around our neighbourhood that she was also 'selling' herself for money. A rumour I never believed because I knew her. If she was really selling herself for money, she wouldn't have to work at a bar, while still searching for daytime steady jobs. And frankly, she was not that kind of a person. I knew it by heart. That's why I was surprised that her parents couldn't see what I saw. I guess, the vicious tongue of people talking about their daughter got to them. They had a huge fight. And Siew Li Jiějiě moved out. Even after she moved out, she would still come back to do housework at her parents' house during the day, several times in a week. And we still hang out, after I came home from school. We were still close. I didn't think twice about moving in with her, despite the rumours spread around about us in the neighbourhood then. They said, that it proved just how much of a slut Siew Li Jiějiě for seducing an innocent high school kid like me. They didn't know anything. My parents readily accepted the sympathy though. I guess, they'd rather people thought that I was being seduced rather than people knowing, that I was gay.