The Ease of Social Climbing [jinsoo]

three: breakthrough

     It was a few hours after Jisoo left, when Jin received a revolutionary phone call. He was in the midst of revising his manuscript, until suddenly, his phone began to ring.

     "Hello?" He greeted, leveraging the phone between his ear and shoulder. It was a rare occasion for him to receive any calls of any sort, so his expectations weren't the highest. But, the other line exchanged a few words and Jin's mouth gaped open, his shock completely unparalleled.

     "Oh... okay.. May I have a minute to think?"

     Jin swiped the mute button, promptly placed his cell down, and began yelling out in joy— pure disbelief flowing throughout his body. The impossible was happening to him, and out of thousands, perhaps even millions, of people who submitted their work, his was chosen. Never had he ever imagined that his novel would catch publishers' attention so quickly and so effortlessly.

     He was so thrilled that he nearly forgot that he had the agent on hold, so he quickly unmuted himself and let out of cough, preparing his most professional voice imaginable.

     "Yes, I am available this week... oh okay, Friday? Friday sounds good. Oh okay... thank you, goodbye." Jin finished, and stood frozen in place for what seemed like an eternity, to process and comprehend the miracle the gods have graced him with. This is an unreal dream for certain people, but he had god-granted luck that somehow got a measly suburb boy, who just moved to pursue his career, a beacon of opportunity.

     Racing to his phone, which laid upon the kitchen island, he quickly dialed his father's number.

     "Dad! Is mom with you?" He nearly shouted, not able to contain his excitement.

     Some waves of static passed through before he spoke. "Yes, son. Why did you call?"

     "I got a meeting with a publication company on Friday! They want to publish my book!"

     "Punish your what now?"

     "No, dad, pub-lish. They want to publish my book."

     "Oh, they do? Already? Congrats! Next time you come home, bring us a copy, okay?"

     He heard his mom yell from afar. "Tell him to bring a girl too!"

     Jin groaned and after exchanging a few more words with his father, he hung up and sighed in relief. There an urge within him to just scream out all his happiness right then and there, without any regard to his neighbors. He wanted to share it to the world, but there was no one else he could tell it to. Contemplating, his eyes caught a glimpse of the bright sticky note from earlier, while tapping his fingers against the countertop.

     There was one more person.

     And with much impulse, he grabbed his jacket and went out the door.

---

     The man stood promptly in front of the establishment, peeking through the tinted windows to see if the girl was even there. Much to his frustration, there was no sight of her. Somehow, he was scared to even go inside and began backtracking on his decision to come here. Were they close enough for him to tell her about his book?

     After loads of re-evaluating his choices, he finally summed up the courage to head inside. The store was busy, so locating Jisoo wasn't as effortless as he thought it would be. But, he didn't want to look like a creep, so he got on line and scanned the place from there.

     "May I take your order?" The barista said and he eyed the menu briefly before picking a random drink from the top of his head.

     "Uh... do you have soda?"