𝓡𝓪𝓶𝓮𝓷 𝓫𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓻𝓲𝓿𝓮𝓻

𝔸𝕡𝕣𝕚𝕝 𝟙𝟠, 𝟚𝟘𝟙𝟝 - -  𝔼𝕦𝕟-𝔹𝕒𝕖 𝕡𝕠𝕧

"You can't grab those with your hands sir," I politely told the older customer as he tried to pick up the sliced bagels. He nodded at me and proceeded to use the prongs set in front of him.

That's the fifth time today I had to tell someone that

"I'm sorry ma'am, your total is 34,270 ₩," I bagged her pastries and handed them over to the customer as she handed me the money, "thank you and have a good day."
I smiled widely as she left the bakery. Currently, I'm working the bakery side of the cafe while my parents are off doing god knows what.

I stared up at the clock above the entrance. 7:23 . In about 30 minutes or so, the bakers will be leaving and I will need to lock up the bakery. I looked over to the cafe portion of the building and eyed my sister who was currently serving a customer.

I made my way over to the display cases and took out the treats to store them in the back. I did the same with the bread slices and made note to throw away the bagel and cookie batches. When I finished throwing away the batches I went to clean the utensils in the back. As I walked through I saw the bakers cleaning their work stations, getting ready to clock off.
My back was facing them while I washed the dishes, so when one them tapped my shoulder I jumped at the unexpected touch. It was our head baker telling me they were leaving.

I returned to the front and sat at the cash register. Even though I'll be locking up soon I couldn't leave, I'd have to wait for my sister to get a ride home. Bored out of my mind, I took out my phone and headphones deciding on listening to some music. Through the music I could hear the customers talking and the faint voices coming from the flat screen tv. Before I was able to turn the music up I heard the sound of a bell ringing, indicating someone has entered through the bakery. I looked at the clock before I could see who it was, 8:01.
"I'm sorry the bakery is currently closed. You can still order something to eat over at the cafe," I pointed my hand out towards the cafe while getting up to close the door I had forgotten to close.
"Uh E-Eun-Bae," the person called out to me. I looked up slowly to see who it was, confused as to how they knew my name.

It was Jiwon, a fellow trainee and a friend of my brother. "H-hey, what are you doing here?" I took out my headphones and approached his figure to give him a small hug. He was slightly taller than me so I only had to tilt my head a little.
"You're brother sent me to pick up some food for me and the guys."

"Wow, I thought you guys would be on a diet right now. Didn't you say you'll be debuting in a few months?"

"That ended a while ago and your brother has been hyping up your family's place to guys for some time now."

I left him to walk behind the counter to put down my phone, "I'm sorry to tell you but the bakers are gone and I already packed up a few things so there isn't much to choose from." 

"It doesn't matter as long as there's bread we're good," I looked over at him to see his big goofy smile on display. I wasn't gonna ignore the fact that my heart jumped a little.
Amid the process of fangirling over his smile, I didn't realize he was waiting for me to cash the bags of bread he placed on the tray.
"J-jiwon this is a lot of bread. And the expensive kind ..." I stared at the bags and then to Jiwon, wonder how he was going to pay for all this considering he's a trainee. "Don't worry, you're brother's paying for this!" A smirk came across his lips as he held up a wad of cash. The same smirk reflected onto me, "if that's the case I suggest you bring a few of our signature fruit drinks!"
I crossed behind the counter to the fridge to retrieve a handful of them, " and I'll be keeping the change."  He chuckled along with me as I put my portion of the money into my pocket.

"Do you take a taxi here?" I questioned, packing the juices in to the traveling carton. He replied with a simple no and a shake of his head. "Why'd you ask?"
"I mean, it looks like you'll need help carrying these. The building is far from here." Referring to the YG building, as I took off my apron.
"Naw I'll be fine," he spoke as he struggled to grab the second carton into his hands, which were already occupied by the first carton and the bags of bread and pastries. I quickly took the carton from his grasp before it could fall to the ground.
"You're gonna need help, I'll come with you." Resting the carton back on the counter, I ran into the back to retrieve my things while ignoring Jiwon's refusal. "I have to pick up some music sheets anyway."

"Wait outside while I tell my sister I'm leaving," he followed as I instructed and went to wait outside underneath our umbrella.
I shouted to my sister of my departure and locked up the back room of the bakery, leaving the building with the carton of drinks.

"Jiwon let's go!" I caught his attention by nudging his shoulder with mine. It was silent as we walked down the side walk, before Jiwon spoke up.
"I was gonna call a cab, but with the money left there wouldn't be enough for two people." He held his head down, staring at his feet, as we walked.

"Don't worry, it's fine. I've been meaning to take a night stroll for a while." I smiled at him then brought my gaze to in front of me. "And I really need the music sheets for the next evaluation."

"Ooh, evaluations!" Jiwon sighed loudly before puffing out air from his lips. "I forgot about those." I think I heard him laugh nervously but I didn't question it.
"Don't you still have those?" He shook his head before he replied. "The guys and I haven't had one since late February."
"I would say your lucky," I paused when I heard him laugh at my statement, "but I believe things got harder."
"Yes, yes they did," he chuckled, pushing himself further into his jacket. Only then I realized it was cold outside. I didn't even realize I had shivered a couple times. "Aren't you cold?" I lied. I didn't want him to worry about me.
"So tell me about it. What it's like getting ready for your debut?"
"Very frustrating. The choreography for our debut song is a completely different style compared to our evaluation choreo." By his tone of voice I could tell he was pissed off.
"And Hanbin stays on our ass about getting the moves correctly! Like is there a difference between this," he stopped walking to show me the move, "and this?" To him there might not have been a difference but I could tell where Hanbin is coming from. He needed to 'hit hard' for the particular move, which he clearly showed the second time. "Jiwon, I'm no dance expert so don't quote me on this, but I think Hanbin's right." A frown etched on his face, as if he was sad that I didn't take his side.
"Like think about it, that move, it comes with a BAM right?"
" a BOW," I stared at him for a second thinking if I should BOW him myself. "Ok a 'BOW', so at that point wouldn't you 'hit hard', like give the effect of someone BOWing something?" I motioned my hand as if I was going to punch air, knowing that the way I was explain was utter trash.

All Jiwon did was stare at me. I couldn't tell by the look on his face that he was confused or upset with me. He sighed in defeat, knowing what I said sounded somewhat logical. Then we continued to walk in silence.

Should I have said that? Maybe it was the way I said it. Ugh he's ignoring me now!

In the middle of my distrait thinking, I heard a weird gargle noise and then a sudden sharp pain in my lower stomach.

I must be hungry ...

I quickly looked over at Jiwon, without moving my head, to see if he had noticed. His blank face was the same as before.

He didn't hear. Good. Didn't want you to in the first place.

The sharp pains and faint stomach growls continued, but I chose to ignore it, I'm not really in the mood for eating right now.

"Hey J-," I was cut off by a sudden tug on my arm. Before I know it, Jiwon had brought me into a convince store.
"You work at a cafe yet you refuse to eat." Even though he mumbled I could still hear him as he searched through the isles. "I mean it's not that I don't want to eat," I paused to stare at a bag of gummy strawberries, "I just don't have the urge to eat anything sometimes."

"Hey Jiwon! You wanna try tho-," He wasn't there. Last time I saw him he was right in front of the snack isle. I searched for him. He's at the cash register paying for something. "Couldn't you wait for me?" I nudged his shoulder tossing the pack of gummies on the counter to reach for my money.

"No candy." I asked him why and he replied back quickly. "Because you need real food." He looked me dead in the eyes as he took the bag from the cashier. He didn't release his gaze until he dragged me out of the store by my wrist.
"Wait, Jiwo-,"
"Don't rebel please. It's getting late and I want to make sure you've been fed properly before we go anywhere. Ok?" He looked dead serious to the point where I couldn't look at him directly so I held my head down before answering.
"Now let's go eat some ramen!" I could physically feel his mood change as he spoke about eating.

"Did you know I'm really good at making ramen?"
"You're good at it?"
"Really good. Don't worry." All of a sudden he started rapping the instructions from the ramen labels. I couldn't help but laugh at how goofy he is. "Shouldn't we take out the ramen first?" I held up the sealed bag to where he could see it but he refused to look at it and kept rapping, which had changed from instructions to complete randomness.

"Hey, Jiwon do I scan the barcode on the wrapper of the box?" I turned around to see him jumping around, hands flailing in the air, his words now breathless pants. "What are you doing people are gonna think you're off in the head," I jokingly punched his shoulders to make him stop.

"Try both. I have to be honest with you haven't used on of these machines before. I'm a stove top type of guy, you know?" He looked down and side eyed me. He took the wrappers from my hands and proceeded to scan their barcodes. A loud beeping sound made me jumped out of surprise. Jiwon continued to scan the wrapper in hope the machine will start working.
" Oppa-ah, scan the boxes barcode already, the beep is annoying me," I shook his arm whining for him to stop before the beeping sound came back.

He paused, didn't even move an inch. "J-j," He shook his head a little to hard, which startled me but proceeded to take up the ramen box. Another beep came, which almost made me sigh in frustration but I stopped myself when I saw the water flowing out. "Oppa, I told you! I'm going to go sit across the street, bring them when they're ready." I picked up the pastry bags and a carton, leaving him behind.