Secrets of Attraction

Two: JOOHYUK

"Very subtle before, Bin," I said, wiping down the coffee bar. "You should have Thursday Girl's digits in no time."

"Dude, don't remind me," he said, sweeping the floor in front of the counter with broad strokes. "You know how long it took me to work up the nerve to talk to her?"

It was seven thirty. The Soop dead zone. The after-yoga crowd had subsided and the café was dotted with the usual suspects: Hipster MacBook guy holding his organic smoothie while he stare at his screen; Homework Girls and their chai lattes, although it seemed they were doing more laughing at me and Subin than studying tonight. And Haein, feet up on the chair across from him, bowl of bright green pond water in one hand, a book titled Wherever You Go, There You Are propped open in the other.

There'd be one more rush after the last yoga class of the night but then my shift would be over. Strange as it sounded, I dreaded it. Being alone with my thoughts was dark place these days. At least at work, there was always some distraction. New customers. A difficult order. The douchey radio station that my manager, Hanna, insisted we play, which spewed pop songs 24-7. It all kept me from descending into my own private pity party. I focused on the task at hand, which at this moment happened to be ribbing Subin about his latest infatuation.

"But you didn't actually talk to her; you pulled your serial-killer stare," I said, mean-mugging to demonstrate. He stopped and rested his chin on the broom handle.

"Come on, I wasn't that bad, was I?"

"No comment," I said, scrubbing a nonexistent spot on the counter.

"Damn, I can't help it," he said, sweeping again, although all he was doing was moving dust from one part of the floor to the other. I didn't have it in me to lecture him on the proper use of a dustpan. "I even screwed up talking to her friend. What was her name?"

"Suzy."

"See, man, you got her name without any effort."

"We had a normal conversation. I wasn't angling for her name. You're trying too hard, dude. Just, you know. Smile now and then. Make their drinks right."

"She's with someone, anyway."

"Right. What did Suzy call it . . . soul mate - involved? Bide your name, Bin, cause once words like soul mate  start getting tossed around, things turn to shit," I said, taking my best three-point shot with the mop cloth to the sink and missing by a foot. I crouched down to pick it up. Homework Girls giggled.

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?" I popped up to face him but Subin was standing in front of Haein. When he realized Subin was talking to him, Haein placed his book down.

"How do I do what?" he asked. Haein seemed like a pretty stand-up guy who could talk about Buddhism or the latest Kdramas with equal enthusiasm, but this was the first time Subin had ever posed what sounded like a personal question. I tossed the mop cloth into the sink for real and leaned across the pickup counter to listen.

"You know . . . not get distracted when you teach?"

Haein looked at me. I shrugged.

"I'm not sure I'm getting you," he said to Subin.

Subin gestured with the broom handle to punctuate his words. "All that bending and stretching and yoga pants . . . I'd be walking around with a constant -"

"Whoa," Haein said, laughing and putting up his hand.

I shook me head. Yoo Subin was a code developer and a passable barista, but a puerile certin when it came to the opposite sex. He had a point about the yoga pants, though. They'd been banned at school.