+(4.100)

It’s Jongin’s third week now, he’s racked up enough money to buy a new Keurig but he thinks he’ll just put it in his savings. Savings will benefit him in the future and he has absolutely no ulterior motives. This is what he will tell himself for the next few months.

Again, he’s walking up to the convenience store doors, halfway till 6. The predictability is excruciating. But wait, he looks to the counter and Kyungsoo isn’t there? Yes! The inconsistencies of normal life have finally killed Jongin’s routine. He is sad but we are happy. The guy behind the counter has smoldering eyes and many piercings dangle off of both of his sculpted ears. He looks very model-esque, very intimidating. So Jongin must succumb to wandering the store again while his coffee is coming out, looking at the same selections of snacks that are there every week. He grabs his coffee when called and high-tails it out into the open cold air. He starts on his way to the office but catches a small human figure hunched over on the ledge which is peeking out in front of the store window.

It’s the cashier.

                “Hey,”

He turns to face Jongin, with a mouthful of red popsicle.

                “What’s up?”

                “Nothing much. What’s with you, why’re you out here?”

“I’m on break right now,” and he picks up and dangles a box of an assortment of other popsicles in front of him. “You want one?”

“No thanks,” and he holds up his cup of coffee.

Somehow Jongin’s brain thinks it’s okay to ask if he could share a part of the ledge with the cashier.

                “Sure, free country.”

And so Jongin sits. Well, they both sit together, sharing an unexpectedly comfortable silence before the clerk decides to break it.

                “I’ve been wondering, for a while actually, what is it that you do?”

                “What I do?”

                “Yeah, like your job and stuff.”

                “I’m a computer software engineer. But I mainly like to work with video games and stuff.”

                “, that’s super cool. I knew it.”

                “Knew what?”

                “That you’d do something cool like that,” he smiles.

Jongin chuckles but then also simultaneously catches a disrespectful whiff of rotting trash and notices an aluminum can, uncovered, and filled to the brim sitting beside the clerk. He quickly pinches his nose and tries to hide his offended glare.

                “Don’t you smell that?”

“What?” he looks around.

“Oh, the trash? Not really, I’m still getting over a cold; my nose is clogged all the way up. Nothing goes in, nothing gets out,” he says in mock ominousness.

Jongin finds it excruciatingly adorable, almost unsettling.

                “Well, I can,” and so Jongin scooches over, farther away from the trash.

Kyungsoo does the same, restoring the small distance between them while still enjoying his popsicle.

                “You like the coffee today?” the clerk asks, staring at Jongin out of the corner of one eye.

                “It’s the same as ever.”

“’Same as ever’?” he gasps in offense. “I’m hurt, Jongin. Here I thought you kept coming back for my artisan coffee, but what, you’re telling me Tao’s coffee is no different?”

Jongin’s smile fades a little, because he thinks the cashier may be half right.

But of course, building one’s savings is important.

                “All you do is press a button for the coffee to come out.”

                “And you think just anyone can do that?”

                “Yes, I do believe so.”

                “Well.”