"Are you okay?"
Once again, she heard his voice. Mimo was startled by the sound of his voice, and her heart began to pound as if it were about to explode. It was his voice—the voice of the man she had been secretly in love with for three months... Kang Unsoo.
Mimo stood there, unable to lift her head.
What should I do... I want to see his face. I want to see it so badly, but if he sees me like this, he'll think I'm a strange woman. The best plan right now... is to run away...
Mimo slowly started stepping back.
"Wait a minute."
He approached and grabbed her arm.
"Huh?"
Startled, she instinctively looked up. Through her wet, drooping bangs, his face came into view. She saw the white collar of his shirt neatly buttoned up, and her gaze traveled upward, past his porcelain-like white cheeks, stopping at his eyes, framed by narrow double eyelids.
She stared at his face as if entranced, unable to take her eyes off him. It was as if time had stopped. As he looked at her, who was standing there, dazed...
"This won't do."
Still holding her arm, he led her into the café he ran on the first floor.
***
Three months ago...
The hot summer sunlight streamed through the curtains, settling on Mimo's face. She turned over, avoiding the light.
"Oh, my head..."
The moment she moved, she felt a pounding headache and held her head with both hands. Eventually, she managed to get up and made her way to the living room, moving slowly as if her legs were heavy.
She plopped down onto the two-seater sofa with a thud. Three empty beer cans were on the table in front of her. The reason for her headache was the beer she had drunk the night before, unable to sleep.
"Only three cans, and my head hurts this much? Ugh... Is this because I'm getting older? Time may be unstoppable, but it'd be nice if getting older didn't mean suffering like this. The older I get, the more I crave alcohol."
She adjusted her posture on the sofa, sitting cross-legged, and held her aching head with both hands, closing her eyes as she started talking to herself.
"Han Mimo... Yeah, that's my name. My parents gave it to me, hoping I'd grow up to be beautiful. But it was only their wish. You can't escape genetics."
She sighed and continued, "Thirty-two. It's okay. It's tough to get a job in this world. Everyone goes through it. At least I managed to gather all my money and rent an office nearby, started my own business selling merchandise, and it's been six months already. Not bad. But here's the problem—I scraped together every penny I had, so now I'm broke. Why? Because my income is still inconsistent. I can barely pay the rent."
Mimo sat up straight and concluded, "I need to work hard. How do I make money? By working. And what am I doing right now? Ugh, it's already the middle of the day."
She opened her eyes and dropped her hands from her head. "Time to go to work."
She moved briskly, changing into her most comfortable summer training outfit, tying her long hair into a ponytail, and running a comb through her bangs three times before grabbing her phone and stuffing it into her pocket. She put on white sneakers, all within five minutes.
As she headed outside, she rubbed her eyes and found a few eye boogers clinging to her fingers.
"I should've washed my face... Oh well, I'll just do it at the office."
Since her office was only ten minutes away, Mimo practically lived there, doing everything from washing up to eating and working. Her apartment was just for sleeping.
When she arrived in front of the Lucky Plaza, she noticed that a new sign was being put up on the first floor.
"They've been working on it for about a month, and it's finally done. The constant banging was driving me crazy, but I wonder how amazing the interior is."
Curious, she approached the store, trying to sneak a peek inside. Meanwhile, the workers finished installing the new sign, which read: *Unsoo Café*.
"Unsoo? Is this a fortune-telling café?"
As she stepped aside to avoid the workers, the door of the café opened.
***
Mimo rushed down to her office. The door clicked shut behind her. Her office was mostly filled with a six-person table and three chairs. On the table were a laptop and a DSLR camera. Across from the door stood a bookshelf displaying the items she sold, and beside it, a stand with various outfits: long-sleeve and short-sleeve training clothes, a shoulder bag, and a winter coat.
She clutched her chest and staggered over to a chair, sitting down as her legs gave out.
"My heart... I think it's going to burst. He's too handsome."
Mimo thought back to the man she had just seen. When the café door opened, her eyes were naturally drawn to him.
"Is it all done now?"
She approached the worker who was finishing up the sign, following the direction of her gaze. But her eyes were only on him—the man who had come out of the café.
He was wearing a light blue short-sleeve shirt and black pants, with an apron tied around his waist. His light brown hair, dyed a bright shade, fluttered slightly in the summer breeze, catching the sunlight. The sunlight seemed to highlight only him.
After finishing his conversation, he turned toward her, and to her shock, he began walking in her direction. Startled, Mimo quickly fled into the building.
Now, sitting at her desk, she replayed the moment in her mind, resting her elbows on the table and cupping her face. That blue shirt and his face...
"So this is what they mean by love at first sight. I never believed my friends when they said it, because I've never experienced it. But now I do. I fell in love today."
She released her hands and looked up at the ceiling, clasping her hands together as if in prayer.
"And his café is right above mine. This is fate... Destiny."
She blinked repeatedly, staring at the ceiling.
***
For the past three months, Mimo had been indulging in her one-sided crush, lingering around the café to steal glances of him through the large glass windows.
"Excuse me... Are you going in?"
A woman, trying to enter the café, asked Mimo, who had been loitering near the entrance.
"Oh... No, I'm not... You can go in. It's a nice day, isn't it?"
Mimo awkwardly glanced at the sky, quickly turning around and walking away in embarrassment as the woman entered.
She had even worked up the courage to go into the café a few times.
"Okay. I'm just one of the many customers. I'll act natural."
Standing at the counter, she spotted a letter neatly placed nearby. The name Kang Unsoo was written on it.
"Kang Unsoo. So that's why it's called Unsoo Café?"
"What?"
At that moment, he appeared at the counter.
"Huh?"
Startled by his voice, she quickly responded.
"I thought I heard you say something just now..."
Her heart raced uncontrollably at his sudden appearance, while her body stiffened like a statue. Standing in a rigid posture, she nervously stammered, "Uh... no, I didn't say anything. I-I'll order now."
The moment she received her iced Americano, she grabbed it and bolted out of the café. With the drink in one hand and her other hand clutching her chest, she hurried back to her office.
"My heart... It's too much. He's too handsome."
And so, her routine of hanging around the café, stealing glances at him, continued.
***
Why am I here...?
Now, Mimo found herself inside the café, still in shock after being led in by Unsoo. It was early enough that the café wasn't open yet, and she stood there, her mind blank, unable to think.
Unsoo once again gently took her arm and led her, this time to a storage room behind the kitchen. He handed her a towel and some clothes.
"You'll catch a cold in this weather if you stay like that. This is the only room with any privacy, so you can change in here."
His kind, warm voice drew her in, and Mimo, almost in a trance, took the towel and clothes and stepped into the storage room. Once inside and alone, her mind snapped back to reality.
"What do I do... What do I do..."
But more than that, she couldn't stop thinking about how handsome he was.
"Calm down, Han Mimo. Breathe... Breathe..."
She exhaled deeply, trying to steady her wildly beating heart.
Just then, she heard a knock on the door.