Doubler || NCT || Completed

3

"Hello?" Yujin answered a call that had forced her to get up from the kitchen floor. As soon as she had seen that the call came from the Dalah Café located in Yongsan-gu, she knew that she should get her shoes and coat back on.

While she listened to the employee, Jiyoung, explain how the other worker had gotten sick during her shift, and how the café was getting too busy for her to handle on her own, Yujin picked a dry pair of shoes from the shoe rack and glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost nine in the evening, so luckily the café would close in less than two hours.

"I'll get going right away", she told the younger girl when the hurried explanation was over. "I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Thank you, unnie", Jiyoung exhaled, relieved. "And I'm sorry for bothering you!"
"It's okay, it's a good thing that you called me", Yujin promised. "I'll be there soon."

After hanging up, Yujin looked at the dog that had followed her to the front door. She hadn't thought about him when she had promised to go help Jiyoung for the last opening hours of the day.

"I have to go back to work for a while", she told the dog. He stared at her intently, standing right next to her. "You'll be fine here on your own, right?" she continued, somehow expecting an answer even though she was well aware that the doubler was unable to give her one.

Yujin smiled at the dog tentatively before opening the front door and stepping out. She was going to close the door after getting out, but the dog had other plans, as he followed her and managed to slither half of his body outside before she could do anything.

"No", Yujin said, shaking her head. "I can't take you to work with me, I'm sorry."

The dog didn't budge.

"I know that you must be confused but I'm not taking you with me", she told the being in front of her, trying to be stern. She couldn't let the dog do whatever he wanted, whether he was a human or not.

The dog was still staring at her with puppylike eyes.

Yujin frowned at him. "No matter how cute you are, I mean it when I say that you're not coming with me", she stated, and tried to push the dog back in gently. "Go inside, I'll be back in a few hours, you can manage alone until then. I won't change my mind!"

The dog wanted to sit in the front seat.

Yujin muttered to herself angrily while she exited the garage of the apartment building. She really needed to learn how to say no to an adorable puppy face.

Once she had to stop the car at the first traffic lights, she turned to glare at the dog beside her. He looked smug, with his brown eyes narrowed to crescent moons and his mouth slightly open with its corners turned upwards. Yujin had never seen a dog smile quite like that before.

"This won't happen again", she notified the damned dog. The dog smiled at her, and she was sure that he didn't believe her at all.

"On the serious note, though, you'll have to behave well once we get to the café. I don't have a leash for you and we can't draw any attention to the fact that you're free to go wherever you want. I'm a co-owner and a supervisor of the Dalah Cafés, and I don't want to tarnish their reputation."

The dog listened to her, and she truly hoped that he understood what she meant. It was extremely stupid of her to take him with her in the first place, especially since he was still dirty, smelly and injured but now it was too late to regret that.

"Oh my, unnie, you have a dog?" Jiyoung exclaimed when Yujin and the dog entered the busy café through the backdoor. "It's so cute!"

Yujin smiled, as she pointed at a quiet cornet close to the counter, showing the dog where he should settle to wait. Every time she entered any of the Dalah Cafés, she felt like she had come home. The soft music, warm scent of fresh coffee and welcoming atmosphere wrapped around her like a warm blanket. It was silly, but she hoped that the doubler would feel at ease there as well.