He stared straight at the pie placed in front of him as if he was examining it for poison. "I thought I ordered the carrot cake you recommended?"
"What?" I was stunned for a moment. This guy... is he seriously....
"This isn't my order," he repeated again in a louder and clearer voice while I stared at him gaping.
Inhale, exhale, breathe. I chanted in my hand, closing my eyes. I was this close to losing it with him — but the thought of me becoming jobless won my anger. "I understand... I apologize for the miscommunication."
I reached out to take the slice of pie away from him, but at the same time, he reached out to grab his coffee pot and the sudden violent stroke collided with my hand. The plate housing the pie flew, successfully propelling itself onto pants with a loud splat.
Oh my god. I nearly screamed at him, but I was too much in a state of shock to even say anything. I settled on glowering down at him with razor discriminating eyes.
"Opps, my bad." He feigned surprise. He smirked and then turned his focus to the windows, watching the pedestrians go by, completely oblivious to my seething anger.
I bit into my lower lip. You need this job, I reminded myself again. I laughed fretfully, scooping the flatten pie back into its plate with my napkin. "It's alright, don't worry about it."
Quietly but unwillingly, I walked back to the counter. I hurriedly grabbed a bunch of napkins and wiped off whatever pie remained on my pants and begun cursing at him inwardly. Taking a slice of carrot cake from the glass case, I made my way back to him.
"I'm sorry about the wait," I panted, taking big strides back to him. I warily assessed his patience and frowned when I saw that he was already irritated. I placed the cake on his table.
"Pour me a cup of coffee," he voiced pompously, a smirk appearing on his face. He did not even take a glance at the carrot cake on the table. He held up the coffee mug in front of him, nudging it towards me.
My eyes snagged on him and his empty coffee cup. Disbelief edged me. It was bad enough that he unapologetically knocked a pie into me, but he was making me pour him coffee as well.
His smirk grew into one of irritation as he kept his pompous gaze on me. My eyes grew sharp when I caught it — his intolerably arrogant nature. Great. Not only am I stuck with a jackass of the a customer, but now it was plain obvious that he was purposely making my life as a waitress difficult. To make matters worse, I was feeling the bitterness and aminousty return for this jerk. I just didn't like how he spoke and looked at me.
Oh, how I wanted to slap that stupid smirk off his face.
Instead of doing that, I simply smiled apologetically. However, much I wanted to physically assault him, I knew better — he was waiting for me to react. But he had severely underestimated my determination to cling onto my part time job that fed my family. If this bastard wasn't wearing those black sunglasses indoors, I would have sneakily taken a picture to defame him online and ban him from coming here forever.
Bastard, I thought angrily, picking up the coffee pot.
Still smiling, I angled the coffee pot over the mug he was holding, my blood boiling with the passing seconds. As I distractedly poured the coffee, what happened next took me by utter surprise. The mug that he was holding up for me suddenly moved, and the stream of steaming hot coffee flowed directly onto his hand. Next thing I knew, the sound of the glass shattering rang in my ears before a loud male screamed thundered in the shop.
"Oh my god!" I covered my mouth, watching in horror as the customer jumped up up from his seat and starting shaking hot coffee off his bare hands. I quickly placed the coffee pot back on the table.
Grabbing his lobster red scalded hand with his other unharmed free hand, he breathed heavily while he glared poisonous razors at my direction. Even though I couldn't see his eyes, I knew that there were full of fury and resentment behind his shades.
Panic forced me to snap out of my reverie and I quickly grabbed a few napkins from the dispenser on the table and started drying his red-hot hands with them. "I'm — I'm sorry! Oh my god!" I cried, genuinely apologetic. While it was true I didn't like this guy, I never wished to harm him like this! I needed this job!
"A — Are you… okay?" I stuttered in confusion as I tried to make sense of what happened. I glanced at his hands, they were blazing red.
I felt his glare at me, indignant that I was foolish enough to ask such a naive question. "Does it look like I am?"
My already petrified heartbeat escalated at his response, "I — I didn't know what happen!" I tried to explain. "You suddenly moved and I was caught off guard—"
"Are you saying I purposefully scalded myself? That this was my fault?" he cut me off. An incredulous expression cloaked his face.
My breathing hitched. What was I saying? Could it be that I was too distracted? Why would he purposely move his hand to get scalded by steaming hot coffee? This was what I got for cursing something in my head and thinking malicious thoughts — but I didn't expect that I was going hurt him in reality!
But I was so sure, so sure that he was doing this on purpose. "I am truly sorry, sir. But I was holding the pot still…" I stated firmly, not leaving any room for debate in my voice.
"Do you even know who I am?" He challenged. I could feel the tension in the air while his chest moved up and down in a fast pace due to his newfound anger. "I should've known better than to come to this cheap and run-down cafe…" he mumbled under his breath, but unfortunately for him, I caught it.
I slowly felt my guilt fade away as he said that. Geez, his guy must have really high confidence to think of himself so highly. Who the hell did he think he is? I narrowed my eyes, tapping my foot impatiently on the ground. How dare he come into my best friend's shop and insult it like that.
Anger blinded me at the very moment. "Cheap..? Run down...?" I echoed after him, and then it happened.
All hell broke loose when I took the bunch of soiled napkins I was holding and threw it at him.
"Yah! What the hell?" He screeched. I could feel his anger radiating off him.
"Look, sir." I said with steel threading behind my voice. All the anger and hate that I had piled up inside of me unleashed and I took a quick strike forward and jabbed my index finger into his rock solid chest. "I don't care if you want to make my job as a waitress hard and I don't care if you insult me or file a complaint against me. But you are not invited to this 'cheap' and 'run-down' cafe. Please leave, you can bill me your medical bills."
"W — What?" He stuttered, clearly in shock over what I said. I didn't know if he was shaking because of anger or because it was a great blow to his immense pride, but I had just about had it with him.
I grabbed his arm and dragged him towards the door. Fine, if he didn't walk out on his own, I would simply kick him out.
"Get your hands off me!" He shouted and steeled his standing to the ground. This was much better planned in my head, no matter how much I wanted to throw him out myself, he was much stronger than me. We stood at the middle of the coffee shop, unmoving as we glared at each other in a vicious challenge.
"And what will you do if I won't, sir?" I smirked, challenge swarming in my eyes as my grip on his arm got tighter.
I was just about the say something smart when soft bells ringing in the air caught my immediate attention; I knew that it was a signal for the arrival of a customer. I had half expected Chaerin to come back and run towards me when she had figured I had finally lost my temper and was kicking a customer out.
But what came through the doors was anything but another customer or Chaerin. Men clad in smart black suits and a communicator hooked into their right ear rushed in the cafe in frenzy. I backed away in instinct, eyes wide in realization and utter most horror. I have seen enough actions movies to know what these guys were — they were bodyguards.
Something clicked inside me and I turned to the fuming customer in a blink of an eye, my stomach curled up dread. Who the heck is this pompous guy?!
"Your Majesty!" A bulky, well-built bodyguard charged forward, he pushed his way between the brat and me, successfully breaking my grip on him. In the series of this unfortunate events, he roughly pushed my hand away from the jerk and I fell to the ground, landing on my butt.
More strong bulk men clad in black suits poured out from the door, surrounding the bratty customer in a protective circle. Still on the ground, my mind was spinning.
I was sure I had heard wrongly just now, I mean... how could this guy be...
At that very moment as if he was on cue to finally reveal his appearance and confirm my doubts, the customer took off his cap, ran a finger through his hand and shook it for more volume, and finally removed his dark visor sunglasses. It was then did my world shake to the very core.
Holy mother of cow.
Standing right in front of me, between a barrier of tall bulky men in black, in a so-called 'run down' and 'cheap' coffee shop as he had referred to it, was the exact same replica that I had seen on the television just minutes ago. It's... was the Crown Prince, Kwon Tae Hyun himself.
"Your Majesty please, we need to leave here. You can't go around looking like that." Another body guard of his reminded in a professional voice, they gently dragged the reluctant prince away from the scene, but the very same glare followed me every where he went.
No one paid any attention to me trembling on the ground. I felt the blood ran cold in my veins, I didn't think that anyone icy glares that could rival Chaerin's, but he certainly qualified with flying colors.
Maybe it's because of the fact that did not remove his dark visors just now and I could not see his glare with true clarity, or maybe it's because he is the very crowned prince himself.
But his fierce cold glare could not shake me that much as his next words did before he disappeared out the door,
"Lee Kara, trust me you will regret this."