|| Awake || On Hold

|7|

 [ Recap: After dropping Areum's grandmother at her new old-age facility, she comes back home dejected. Just when she is about to slip into a deep slumber, the main door of the house is banged on, giving her a terrible fright. She goes down to check who it is and is surprised when she recognizes the person.]

Areum's POV

"Areum-ssi? Hi!" says the person standing in front of me, squinting his eye to figure out if it is really me who opened the door as the lights were still off.

"I hope we din't wake you up!" Says the same person again when I give him no reply. I gape at him.

"Ofcourse we did, you idiot. It's three in the night." grumbles the relatively shorter person next to him. He looks down at me and gives a very strained smile.

"Hello, Areum-ssi. I am Min Yoongi of Bangtan. I apologize to disturb you so late in the night but we need your help." His calming voice snapped me out of my dazed stupor and makes me look at him.

I know him, ofcourse. Suga of BTS. The genius producer as his fans call him. I never met him at the company before. He is known to be a very reserved person.

"I-? How can I help you?" I stutter. I blame it on being still half-asleep. Maybe. 

"We got locked out of our dorms so we came to the company but there is no one to give us access in at this time. We are waiting for our manager but cannot stay outside for too long. He asked us to wait here till he arrives." Explains Namjoon, the other man at the doorstep.

I nod and open the door wider. "Sure. Please do come in."

They give me a quick bow and shuffle inside the unlit cafe. I reach out to switch the lights on and try to sniffle my amused grin when NamJoon yelps. 

Both of them look around the place for a minute or two before taking up a seat next to the windows.

Since I couldn't see them properly in the dark, now I take a look at the two men who casually strolled inside the cafe. Both had different styles. While one wore an all black ensemble, the other was in his brown shorts and white tee with a jacket thrown on.

I awkwardly shuffle around the counter at a loss of what to do. As if my senses finally returned to me, I realize that I made a good decision to sleep in a decent set of pajamas. After another five minutes of useless wiping of the counter and pretending to be occupied, I walk over to them.

"Um... will you both like something?" I ask.

Yoongi looks like he was waiting for me to ask, immediately replied with a Iced Americano while Namjoon said he is good.

I drag my feet behind the counter and while making the coffee, I am hit with a sudden wave of drowsiness. The sound of coffee pouring into the cup wakes me up with a jolt and I quickly make the Iced Americano and leave it on his table.

Both the men alternate between quietly talking to each other and gazing at their hand-phones. I slouch in one of the sofa chairs by the counter and pull my legs up to hug them, resting my face on my knees. Usually, when the trainee kids come by this late, I just leave them down and go sleep as they know how to lock after themselves but these men surely don't.

 Soon, the days fatigue kicks in and despite myself, I fall asleep. Since I am a lightweight-sleeper, I would know when someone comes in right? 

Assuring myself, I let myself close my eyes and soon am pulled into a deep slumber.

In what felt like minutes but is actually hours, I blink open my eyes after feeling the sunlight hitting hard on my face.

Sometime during the night, my position changed into lying on the...sofa? With the large kitchen towel on me? What the-

I jerk up when I remember what happened last night and look at the clock to see it's already eleven in the morning. 

What?

I stand up from the sofa chair and cringe when my asleep body slowly starts to punish me for sleeping in an awkward position. I lift the kitchen towel from the ground when I notice a piece of  paper flutter to the ground.

I pick it up and see it is a business card by the name of SeJin. I flip over the card to see a small message scribbled on the behind.

'We din't wake you up when our manager came because you looked exhausted. Sorry for troubling you at this late hour. We somehow managed to learn how to lock the door from outside, so please don't worry. Once again, sorry and thank you.- RM&SG'

I recognize the initials and smile at the small note. I walk up the door and see they had managed to do it exactly as the trainees had figured it out. At this rate, my cafe might be robbed and I wouldn't even know it.

*****************

I am back!

Although I am not sure how many of you still have this book in your library, but thank you for coming back. I apologize it took so long, my exams kept getting postponed and I kept getting more irritated and anxious. But now all those are in the past!

Updates will be much frequent now. Say around twice a week.

Also, how many people are still not over MOTS ON:E concert? I am still not over flicker Jimin, my time Jk, moon jin and ego hobi and rapline Ugh and....well the entire concert really.

Smile a little for me!

**********