First Love

Chapter 9

The night was quiet as usual as Jae started her work at the convenience store. The night manager, Hyun Woo-nim was in his office, sleeping. The main reason Jae took the graveyard shift was because of the pay. She was offered double and she was not going to pass that up.

The frequent customers were usually those who came in drunk after an office get together looking for a quick fix for their drunkenness. Sometimes they didn't cause trouble and sometimes they walked through the stacked items. She could handle drunks most of the time. If it gets too troublesome, Hyun Woo-nim would help - if he was awake at that time. She could call the police if the situation went out of control but so far, nothing like that had happened.

Taking her seat at the counter, Jae took her phone out and started scrolling her e-mails and messages. She didn't have that much time during her previous 2 jobs, working at early in the morning really has it perks.

As Jae was browsing through, she inwardly cringed at the e-mail that she received from the sound designer she was working with. He was reminding her about the deadline. She shuddered. She was a procrastinator when it comes to deadlines. She had some ideas but it didn't sound right. The songs she made didn't really fit into the game reel that the developer provided. The umph was not there yet.

Then she turned to her message. There was one from the gosiwon management alerting on the scheduled plumbing maintenance on Friday. Not so good, she had to go to the public bath house if she wanted to bathe on that day. Don't even think about answering the call of nature. She would have to run to another building. She just have to watch what she eats and how much drinks she drank that day. It would be catastrophic if she got food poisoning.

Then there they were. Messages from Yoongi.

YO: That answered my question about you playing the piano. You were great.

Jae stared at the phone dumbly. How should she reply the message?

A short 'thank you' can give a lot of meaning through the message, depends on how a person read it.

It could sound cocky and obnoxious.

It could sound really curt formal especially with a full stop at the end.

If she added an emoji at the end, it could make her sounded bashful or cute – no, she was not ready for that. She was overdosed with never-ending ooze of cuteness when she was chasing him back then, she was not going to repeat. It was cloying.

She typed and deleted her response numerous times that she literally jumped when she received another message.

YO: Are you writing an essay? You kept on typing for a long time.

Jae: No, I was not. I was busy entertaining the customers.

YO: Ha ha. The store is empty, there were no customers. Not even one.

Jae paused and looked out. There was no one outside.

Jae: Oh wow, you have a magical crystal ball to see what's happening here.

YO: Nah, I secretly installed a hidden camera there. Not a secret anymore since I told you now.

Jae: You're bluffing, right?

The entrance door chimed in and Jae yelped in surprise.

"You scared me," accused Jae.

Yoongi flashed his gummy smile. "That was entertaining," he said unabashedly.

"Well, I am glad that you were entertained," replied Jae trying to calm her frazzled nerve. "Is there anything that you need?" she asked. Yoongi nodded and went to the beverage section. He returned with 2 bottles of coffee and paid for it. He handed her one.