Around closing time :
"Hey Kyubok! Go lock the front doors!" I yell at him.
Finally the work day is done. It's 15:00 right now and the flow of customers have pretty much died out for today.
Thank you, Miss Manager for the half day today.
I quickly begin collecting the last of the dishes left by customers, and move on to wiping down the tables.
"Nuna..*" Myung-Dae quietly calls me from behind as I complete the cleaning of the last table.
I turn around to face him.
"Yes?"
"The sunglasses guy is still here."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah… Soo-Yun said to keep an eye on him because he was watching you." Myung-dae admits while looking at the floor.
"Ah I see." I smile. "Thank you very much."
He looks up at me and smiles back. "You're welcome."
"Don't worry about him. I'll take care of him, or maybe I'll have Kyubok kick him out."
"Okay. Do you want me to ask Kyubok to do that?"
"Sure."
"Okay. I'll go now."
"Thank you Myung-Dae."
He nods and smiles, then walks off to find Kyubok.
I finish the rest of my closing duties and walk over to the locker room. I open the locker and take off my apron, switching it with my coat. I put the coat and my mask on of course, and grab my backpack, slamming the locker door shut. I peek my head through the door to the café and tell them that I'm leaving. I don't see the man as I peek my head out, so I'm assuming that Kyubok was able to kick him out.
Good. I don't feel like dealing with someone like that today.
I close the door behind me and start walking to the side door that leads to the alleyway.
"Wait! Kyubok is supposed to walk you home!" Soo -Yun shouts from the café door.
"It's okay!" I shout back. "I'll be fine! I have my phone on me and I'll walk with the crowd!"
"Okay… Be careful!!"
"I will!"
I walk out the door and start in the direction of my house.
I don't even make it ten feet from the café, when out of the corner of my eye, I see a figure jump behind a restaurant trash can.
"Hey!" I call. "You know you don't have to hide."
The figure slowly appears from behind the trash can.
"I know she sent you." I laugh. "A good looking guy like you shouldn't be hiding behind dumpsters, Kyubok. What will all the ladies say?"
"Sorry." He replies. "The second you left, that little chihuahua Soo-Yun started screaming at me telling me to watch you until you got home."
"Ah don't worry about it. You don't have to apologize."
He smiles, "I guess I'll get going now."
"Why don't you just walk me home. If you go back to the café now, or if Soo-Yun hears that you ditched me, she'll make the rest of your week a living hell."
"You're probably right." He sighs. "Sometimes that girl makes me want to shove a stick through my ears."
I laugh.
"That's because she's the only girl who argues with you and doesn't think you're the handsomest man on the planet." I tease, reflecting on their fights of the day.
"Whatever." He pouts.
We walk to my apartment making small talk the whole way. When we arrive at the front of my apartment building, we say our goodbyes and I walk up to my unit.
I open the door to my apartment, walk through and collapse on my couch.
I sigh.
Today was a long half-day. That guy… I wonder why he was watching me today… I didn't see him at all on the way home… I wonder .. maybe it was just a coincidence? Maybe I'm just letting the past cloud my perspective… But, the other employees saw him watching me too…
"Ah, forget it." I say to myself. "Let's just get this pamper evening started."
I get up from my couch and put my backpack on its designated hook near the front door. I walk into the bathroom to take a shower. The things I have planned for the pamper evening are written on a sticky note that I had hung on my fridge last night.
Shower,
do a face mask,
eat ramen,
watch a kdrama for the first time ever.
In the bathroom, I take off my uniform and throw it on the floor. I play some music on my phone and turn the volume all the way up. On the way home, Kyubok sent me a playlist of his favorite k-pop songs. The only ones I am familiar with are Kick It, the one Kyubok sang this morning, and "The Feels" by a girl group named Twice. Soo-Yun and Mi-Young play this song all the time at the café, and I happen to really like it.
The songs in the playlist are pretty good. It's been a while since I've listened to music, but thanks to my coworkers, I might start listening again.
Towards the end of my shower, The Feels plays.
Finally, a song I know the lyrics to.
"You have stolen my heart OH YEAH
Never let you go oh oh never let it go oh oh oh oh oh oh …"
I rinse my conditioned hair under the water.
Singing a k-pop song in the shower? Never in my life could I imagine doing this in the past.
I sigh happily and shut off the shower water. I wrap myself in a towel and check out my skin in the mirror.
Flawless as always.
I turn off the music on my phone and set it on the side of the sink. In the distance I hear my kettle start to whistle. Earlier, I had put the kettle on a low fire so it would boil by the time I got out of the shower.
Time for ramen!
I continue singing The Feels even without the music.
"Boy oh boy oh I know, I know I got the feelsssss."
I wrap a towel around my whole body and walk out of my bathroom with a hairbrush in hand. As I walk towards the kitchen, I twirl around in my towel, one hand holding the towel up and the other holding my hairbrush as a microphone. I toss my head back and hit the high note in the song.
"'Cuz you you you give me the feeelssss. Yeahhhhhhhhhh!"
That was pretty good. I chuckle. Do all pamper days result in this happy feeling?
I place my hairbrush on the island of my kitchen and continue to hum. I grab a pack of instant ramen from the pantry above the stove and set it on the island. I tuck in the corner of my towel so it will stay up without me having to hold it. A safety measure for when I cook my ramen. Who knows who could be looking in through my window. As I begin to open the package of ramen, I suddenly hear a rustling noise coming from the living room.
… What is that… I'm sure I didn't leave the door open… So who or what is in my house?
I can feel my heart begin to beat quicker. I slowly open a drawer that is connected to the island and pull out my taser. I begin slowly walking into my living room. On the couch, a figure stirs. I hold up my taser and walk towards it.
As I get closer, I realize that the figure is of a man sleeping on my couch. This is kind of like the situation with Kyubok earlier. However, the only difference is that I was able to recognize Kyubok the moment he moved behind me. This man, I don't recognize at all.
The man is wearing a basic white dress shirt and suit pants with a black tie loosened around his neck. The matching suit top is being used as a blanket. Somehow, this outfit looks familiar. I hold my taser to his head.
Should I wake him up? Or should I wait until he wakes up?
I tilt my head slightly.
I'm sure I saw an outfit like this today…
The man on my couch moves revealing his face to me. My heart almost leaps out of my chest from the sudden movement that has broken my train of thought .
"This perverted criminal. How dare he break into my home." I snarl.
I bump his forehead with the off mode of my taser. The man wakes up confused. His eyes cross as he looks at the taser aimed at his head. He doesn't flinch. Instead he smiles and asks,
"Don't you recognize me?"
I stand there not knowing how to respond. The man then looks at me standing there in my towel. His eyes and mouth widen in shock. He jolts up and turns his head away from me covering his eyes with his hands.
"KKAMJJAG-IYA!" He yells.
He looks through his fingers for a split second and immediately closes his eyes again.
"Put some CLOTHES on!" He shouts. "WHO WALKS AROUND NAKED?"
"YAA!" I scream. I slam the taser on the coffee table. "FIRSTLY, I'M NOT NAKED. I HAVE A TOWEL. SECONDLY, THIS IS MY HOUSE, AND I LIVE ALONE. THIRDLY, ARE YOU SAYING MY FIGURE IS UGLY?"
"NO" He shouts back. "IT'S JUST NOT RIGHT FOR A WOMAN TO BE COVERED BY ONLY A TOWEL IN FRONT OF A MAN!"
"WELL OBVIOUSLY" I shout back. "THIS WOULDN'T BE A PROBLEM IF I WAS HOME ALONE!"
I run up the stairs and to my bedroom. I can feel the blood rush to my cheeks and ears. I bury my face in my hands burning with embarrassment.
"That perverted jerk." I say through gritted teeth. "He comes into my house without permission, doesn't get fazed by my taser in his face, and instead tells me to put clothes on? Who is he… What does he want…"
I throw on my black hoodie and my pajama bottoms, and walk back down to the living room. The man is still sitting on my couch. Except this time, his jacket is on and he looks calm and collected again. I slowly approach him and snatch my taser off the table.
I hold it up and aim it at him.
"Who are you and what do you want?"
He sighs as if he was the one with a stranger in his house.
"Don't you recognize me?"
"Recognize you? What do you mean?"
"Never mind."
Recognize him? How can I recognize a complete stranger? If I saw someone walking around in only a suit during the winter I'm sure I'd remember…. wait, wait... suit?
I clear my throat. "Do you happen to have sunglasses on you?"
The man smiles. "So you do recognize me."
"You're the customer who sat there all day drinking only one americano.. right?"
"That's me."
I scoff. "Who sent you? I won't ask again. What do you want?"
"My name is Jae-Hak." He responds."And I have come to get you, the former Los Angeles Division 1 captain of Hallyu." He pauses for a second and looks into my eyes. "You're Byeol Bi right?"
I stand there in shock.
B-B-Byeol Bi? Why did that name come out of his mouth?
"Where did you hear that name?"
The man just sits there and smiles.
"Who are you really?" I ask fearfully.
… How did my past follow me all the way here?