The next day, Taeon found a part-time job he could do after work.
It was because he’d become afraid of the blank time he couldn’t endure without falling asleep.
If I live a life where I enroll in an academy with money earned from work, learn what I need to learn, start new work, and meet various people, this time will naturally pass too.
It will be a time when I clearly realize what I’ve lost, but the thought that things suited to me will also naturally come into my life made Taeon take one step forward.
The cafe with an hourly wage 1.5 times higher than minimum wage was quite far from the neighborhood where Taeon lived, but the long travel time was rather an attractive condition for Taeon, who didn’t want to be lost in thought alone, so he had no complaints.
It bothered him that the cafe overlapped a bit with the commercial district of Hanguk University’s campus area, but even Taeon, who didn’t attend university, knew that Hanguk University was an incredibly large place, so he decided not to worry about it.
“Aren’t you going to interview me?”
“Uh, no. For the reason, go home and look in the mirror.”
To the owner who told him his start date as soon as he saw Taeon’s face, Taeon asked in bewilderment.
“It’s about time to replace our store’s sign, but I guess we don’t need to.”
In front of the owner smiling with satisfaction, Taeon was a bit dumbfounded.
On the way home after finishing the quickly ended interview, Taeon encountered a group chatting and smiling brightly while wearing jackets that were clearly department group jackets at a glance.
Even though I don’t know who they are and can’t know the content of their conversation, those brightly smiling faces look nice, Taeon thought without realizing it. Taeon now knew the preciousness of a daily life where one could smile like that.
And he quickly lowered his head.
It was because the desire to find Sunjeong among the university students with similar silhouettes was wriggling inside him.
Even if Sunjeong passed by Taeon right in front of him, if not wanting to be discovered was Sunjeong’s heart, he wanted to respect that heart at least.
Sentence, a private cafe commonly seen near Hanguk University, was always crowded with people these days.
However, that crowded time period was very limited, from 7 PM to 10 PM.
If they drink coffee like that in the evening, they won’t be able to sleep.
Taeon, the only part-timer working during that time period, could only have such thoughts every time he saw students who came to him and ordered coffee with a smile.
“Um, excuse me…”
“I have a boyfriend.”
In front of a female student who began with a shy face while holding her coffee, Taeon answered in a firm voice.
As if Taeon’s answer wasn’t even unpleasant, the customer laughed while pretending to be cool, saying ‘There’s no way you don’t. I was just curious.’ Taeon wanted to smile with her too, but the corners of his mouth, which rarely knew how to smile, didn’t listen properly, so he ended up making an expressionless face.
At times like this, Sentence’s owner Juseong would say restlessly,
‘Hey, Taeon. That thing… Not giving your number is your choice but… at least hear people out to the end…’
Sentence had become famous as a place where one could open their two eyes that had been tormented all day by ugly alphas on campus.
After opening, it was breaking its highest sales record day by day, and Juseong was anxious that Taeon’s blunt personality would eventually eat away at all those sales, but such a thing didn’t happen.
‘I’ll give you double the hourly wage. No, if you become a regular employee, I’ll enroll you in the four major insurances and pay you more monthly salary than your current job.’
He grabbed onto Taeon’s pant leg like this because he didn’t want to miss this golden period, but Taeon answered like this:
‘You need skills to make a living. I need to learn skills.’
‘Your face is a skill.’
‘It’s because I’m still young. It’s all just a season.’
Juseong knew many alphas whose self-esteem was incredibly high even though they didn’t measure up to Taeon’s toes. If he was going to rely on his face value, he wouldn’t have come to our cafe. Comforting his frustrated heart like this, Juseong could only think that he should properly show his sincerity when paying salary.
For Taeon, these were days when he came to think that the cafe work—or precisely, working at a Hanguk University cafe—wasn’t really for him.
Besides dealing with customers who kept talking to him, there was too little to do, so he kept thinking about Sunjeong.
Moreover, he even came to harbor expectations that Sunjeong might visit this cafe for no reason.
No, he won’t come.
Still, if by chance he happens to come to the cafe… we could at least talk about how we’ve been doing.
I could tap that small shoulder and ask like a joke why there’s been no contact lately.
Though he couldn’t say things like whether they could at least remain friends like before, even if he lived promiscuously, even if he dated an alpha boyfriend.
Taeon, deeply immersed in the delusion he had every time he worked at the cafe these days, let out a chuckle without realizing it.
“Excuse me. Aren’t you taking orders?”
What woke Taeon, who had fallen into idle thoughts without even realizing the existence of the familiar voice ringing clearly in his ear, was a voice urging Taeon once again.
Taeon, who came to his senses in an instant, straightened his posture to take the order and stood up. And he raised his head.
Taeon’s eyes widening was a matter of an instant.
Sunjeong, who had been moving around in the delusion inside his head, was looking up at Taeon.
He should quickly call out ‘Go Sunjeong,’ but his mouth wouldn’t open at all… probably because of Sunjeong’s gaze looking at Taeon right now.
It would be better if it was a face full of anger. It would be better if it was an expression that said he hated him so much he couldn’t stand it. It would be better if he was even tearful. But Sunjeong’s expression was calm—excessively calm.
Exactly like someone who came to the cafe to drink coffee.
“Go Sunjeong, Hyeongho says to change from iced americano to hot americano.”
“Okay.”
After turning his head to answer the friend at the table who called him, Sunjeong looked up at Taeon again with an excessively good complexion.
“I’ll drink here. Two iced americanos, one hot americano, one milk tea frappuccino.”
“…”
Is he mocking me right now?
Taeon quickly examined Sunjeong’s face, but Sunjeong really seemed perfectly fine.
“Ah.”
When his mouth opened again like this, Taeon was finally relieved. It was because it was a voice that wasn’t as cold as before.
“There are only two outlets at our table. Can we connect and use a 3-socket power strip? We all have to use laptops so we need to charge batteries.”
“…”
I don’t know why a question about whether we can use a 3-socket power strip is tearing my heart apart like this.
Taeon bit his lip hard without realizing it.
“Yes, you can use the power strip.”
“Then…”
What will Sunjeong’s continuing words be? Taeon swallowed dry saliva. Now his stomach seemed to be churning.
“How much is it all together?”
“…”
Toward Taeon, who couldn’t answer for a while, Sunjeong slightly furrowed his brow.
Very slightly so it wouldn’t show. Exactly with the attitude of a customer enduring a part-timer who isn’t doing their job well.
Likewise, Taeon, who struggled to swallow the rising despair inwardly so it wouldn’t show to Sunjeong, looked at the POS machine and barely answered.
“Two iced americanos, one hot americano, one milk tea frappuccino. Four drinks total, that’s 17,500 won.”
“I’ll pay with Pay.”
“Yes.”
The phone Sunjeong handed over was a white, latest model.
It wasn’t the baby pink phone that had four-cut photos taken with Taeon stuck all over it.
When Taeon took the phone, processed the payment, and handed the phone back, Sunjeong turned around with a dry voice saying thank you.
Taeon’s gaze couldn’t even bear to watch Sunjeong’s back as he turned around and vacantly went downward.
***
His face looked quite haggard.
Sunjeong, who took a sip of iced americano, became lost in thought while recalling the face of Taeon who had just served this coffee.
What awakened Sunjeong’s consciousness was the conversation of his classmates whispering in lowered voices.
“Hey, crazy, this must be that place.”
“Seems right. Crazy.”
If they said ‘that place,’ it meant the cafe with a ‘super handsome guy’ that was spreading among Hanguk University students these days through word of mouth. Sunjeong had also heard the rumor and knew about it. No matter how handsome any alpha is, could he be as handsome as Yoon Taeon? he used to think to himself, but he really didn’t know that alpha would be Taeon.
A popular part-timer at a cafe with heavy foot traffic. It would be perfect for Taeon to find a rut partner. It was a thought that came for no reason even while knowing Taeon’s personality of not wanting to meet people outside the neighborhood.
At the familiar depression he hadn’t felt much lately, Sunjeong soon shook his head vigorously.
If I’m going to be with Taeon from now on, I shouldn’t worry about the current Taeon.
“So who’s going to do the presentation?”
What cut off the flow of the guys who kept glancing at Taeon was Sunjeong’s firm voice.
In an instant, the commotion settled and silence came. It was because no one wanted to take on the presentation in the lecture of a picky old professor facing retirement who would throw a question at every single word the presenter said.
“Should I do it?”
“Hey, Go Sunjeong, you are good at presentations.”
“Yeah, I only trusted Sunjeong, for real.”
In an instant, the atmosphere brightened again.
Originally, Sunjeong was absolutely not the type to raise his hand to take the lead in presentations. Rather, he hid in the back because he didn’t want to do it. He didn’t really like receiving people’s gazes and disliked speaking even more.
Sunjeong overcame his presentation phobia when he was in high school doing an assignment with quite a high proportion of performance evaluation together with Taeon.
