A loud scream made me look up from my phone. I was in the middle of texting Sehun. He was telling me how he got lost during his vacation in Japan. 
I got up from my chair only to see Minhee and Dongwan oppa pacing around the cafe.

"What happened?"

"Eunji is coming!" Minhee said. Eunji was our boss' longtime crush. He never got the courage to ask her out. Now Minhee and I decided to talk him into doing it and we were doing a great job. She was stopping by more often and your boss stopped being so awkward around her. 

"What's the problem then?"

"We are out of her favourite ice cream flavour!" Dongwan said, looking around nervously. "What am I going to do now?"

"Recommend her something else. That can be the chance to talk to her more", I said.

His face suddenly lit up and he smiled. "Thanks, Chaerin, you are a saviour."

I shook my head and returned to my phone. I honestly couldn't believe him. He was thirty six, he had plenty of time to learn something about women. Maybe he was too shy. What was I saying when I wasn't any better. I was going to be like him, I was sure.

Sehun: Where did you go?? :(

I chuckled at his text.

Me: I had an emergency at work, but it's all clear now :D How did you find your way back to the hotel?

Sehun: I had to ask people around, in my poor Japanese :(( But it went well... Is everything OK at work? Are you tired?

Me: The work is not that hard, we have an awesome boss :D I work only morning shifts, so I have the rest of the day off :D

Sehun: That's cool :D Are the customers annoying? xD

I wondered whether to tell him about Donghae, but I decided against it. It would be useless, it's not like he could do anything about it.

Me: Everyone is nice, there are no problems :))

Sehun: That's good...Otherwise I would have to come there and teach them a lesson

This guy knew how to make me laugh.

Me: I don't think they would be scared of you :DD

Sehun: You don't know how scary I can get...

Me: I don't want to know :D

Sehun: I would never want to scare you...But if someone messes with you, I won't spare them 

Why was he so serious? 

Me: It's alright, I can defend myself:) Do you plan on travelling more now? :))

Sehun: Actually yes :DD

Me: Where???

Sehun: I won't tell you :DDD

I groaned. Why was he always so mysterious about himself?

Me: OK, Mr. Mysterious, you don't have to tell me :((

Sehun: Haha, Miss Grumpy, I won't tell you :DDD I gotta go now...Bye :DD

Me: Bye :)))

I sighed, putting my phone in my pocket. I had two more hours of work. I just hoped that Donghae wouldn't arrive.
_____________________________________________________________________________

This was probably the first time in my life that I couldn't decide what to wear to work. The weather was really hot and even though we had AC in the cafe, it could still get quite hot. Plus, I was moving a lot and that didn't help at all.

"You can wear that cute dress you bought last year", mom interrupted my thoughts. "You wore it only twice."

She was right. Although I hated wearing dresses, that one was really nice. The lenght was alright, it was comfortable.

"You're right, I can wear it."

She beamed at me and I knew that she was happy that I agreed with her. She had always wanted me to be more girly. Not that she didn't like me the way I was, but I knew that she secretly wanted me to dress up more and go out. It was hard for her to see me always coming home alone from school, without friends, while everyone else had company. She always wanted me to open up and thanks to her I tried, but I was never accepted by other kids.

"I'm going to work now", she said.

"Where's dad?"

"He went already. Naeun's still sleeping?" she asked, grabbing her purse.

"Yeah. Good luck today", I waved to her and she waved back.

"Have breakfast first and then go to work. Good luck!" 

I smiled, sauntering to the kitchen to grab something to eat. 

After breakfast I went to wake Naeun up. It took me about fifteen minutes to get her out of bed.

"Why did you wake me up?" she mumbled.

"You told me to do it. You are going to be late if you don't get up."

"I don't want to", she said, burrying her face in the pillow.

I sighed and grabbed her shoulders to shake her. "I'm going to be late for work. Get up!"

"Fine!" she groaned. "Stop shaking me!" 

When I made sure that she was up, I went to my room to change and rushed out of the house without saying goodbye. I was lucky that the cafe was only ten minutes away by foot, otherwise I would be late.

Dongwan greeted me at the entrance. Minhee arrived just minutes after me and she smirked at me.

"Who did you dress up for?" she told me later when Dongwan left.

"No one", I replied, confused.

She shook her head in disbelief. "It's for that cute guy who comes here every day, right?"

I rolled my eyes. "Minhee, he obviously likes you. Can't you see how he always looks behind me to catch a glimpse of you?"

"Me? How could he like me?!"

Oh my Minhee. For this short period of time I knew her, I realised that she could be quite oblivious. The cute guy she was talking about asked me if I could let her serve him his order, and he did it in front of her, but she still remained oblivious.

"Of course he likes you. I'll let you take his order when he arrives and you'll see that he likes you."

She blushed visibly and I chuckled. The door opened and we welcomed our first customer. Our day had officially started.
____________________________________________________________________________

Both Minhee and I were exhausted. The cafe had a record number of guests that day. Two hours before our shift ended  we finally could catch some breath.

"That's all because of you", Minhee said, cleaning the coffee machine. 

I frowned. "What do you mean it's my fault that we had a lot of guests today?"

"Look at you, you look really pretty today", she remarked and I rolled my eyes. "How many of them asked for your number today? I heard it all, you know."

"Four", I said. It felt kind of weird, probably because I wasn't used to it. Some guys openly tried to flirt with me, some even asked for my number. It felt strange and it wasn't flattering at all. I didn't like all of the attention I got."Someone's coming", Minhee said and I groaned.

"I swear, if it's another flirty customer I will..." I grew silent seeing the person in front of me. There was no way that it was real. I was probably too tired to see well.

"There are flirty customers, aren't there? You didn't tell me about them", he said.

"Sehun", I whispered and he smiled widely at me, spreading his arms. Without thinking I hugged him. It felt so nice being in his arms. I looked up to see him looking down at me with a smile on his face. "What are you doing here?" I asked, detaching myself from him.

"I got bored of Seoul. And I...came to see you", he said.

My heart was threatening to burst every second. He came all the way from Seoul to see me. 

"I'm glad you're here."

Minhee coughed behind us and I turned to her. "This is my friend, Sehun", I told her.

She nodded. "I'm Minhee. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too", he said.

"Sehun, have a seat", I said, gesturing to the seats.

He shook his head. "No. I want to help you."

I chuckled. "There's no need for that. Minhee and I can manage." He pouted and I couldn't help but to giggle. "If you really want to help, then help me wash the glasses."

He happily accepted and we got to work. He was in charge on drying the glasses and putting them on the rack.

"Did you come here by bus?" I asked him.

"No, I drove here."

"Really? You took Luhan's car again?"

"Yeah. He has another one that he uses."

We kept chatting and I noticed that cafe was empty. Minhee was busy with her phone. Sehun and I finished with washing the glasses.

"I will bring a chair for Sehun to sit", Minhee said, seeing that there were only two chairs behind the counter and she stormed off to the storage room.

She was quickly back, carrying the chair. Sehun took it out of her hands and thanked her.

"I'm going to the storage room. I knocked some things over, I need to picked them up." She leaned over to whisper in my ear. "I'll leave you two alone", she winked at me and left.

I took a seat and looked to Sehun. I had never seen him smile like that before. "You seem too happy", I said. "Something happened?"

"I'm happy to be here and to see you."

I was positive that I was blushing madly from his words so I looked away. "Well...I'm happy to see you too", I murmured and in the corner of my eye I saw him blushing.

The sound of the door opening startled me and I got up, only to see Park Donghae and two more guys entering after him. What a day.

Sehun took his phone out and I reluctantly went to take the orders from my new guests.

"It's nice to see you again, Chaerin", Donghae's voice sent waves of disgust through my body. The two other guys kept looking at me, their eyes shamelessly raking all over my body. It was suffocating.

"What would you like to order?"

They smirked, one of them leaning in his chair to get closer to me. "Oh I know what I would like to have", he said while eyeing my bare legs. Donghae laughed and I was boiling with anger. They clearly came here to disrespect me.

I cleared my throat, a sign that I was waiting for them to order. Donghae got up, the chair scrapping the floor. I looked over to the place where Sehun was, but I couldn't see him from the coffee machine. Minhee was still in the storage and I started to panic. I was practically alone with them.

"We came here to play, Chaerinnie", he said in a disgustinly sweet voice that almost made me gag.

"You've come to the wrong place. This is not a playground", I said as sharply as I could.

He laughed at me and the other guys got up too. "Believe me, we are in the right place."

Before his hand managed grab my wrist, a sharp voice resonated through the air.

"Is there a problem here?" 

I turned to Sehun, who was approaching us with quick steps. Donghae looked taken aback by his presence. "That's none of your business", Donghae snapped at him and turned to look at me.

"Of course it's my business when you're messing with someone I love."

I turned to look at Sehun and as if I wasn't shook enough by his words, his demeanour shook me even more. He glared menacingly at Donghae, his shoulders tensed. 

"This girl?" Donghae said. I noticed that his voice wasn't so confident anymore. Sehun was quite intimidating. "What is there to love?"

I managed to stop Sehun before he launched himself at Donghae. I held his wrist and he visibly calmed down. He pulled away from my grasp and took a few steps to stand face to face to Donghae.

"You and your little friends over there don't deserve to breathe the same air as this girl and you are going to respect her, whether you like it or not", he growled and Donghae's friends took a few steps back. 

"What if I don't want to?" Donghae wasn't giving up. He was obviously testing Sehun's patience and I was afraid of it. I was scared for both myself and Sehun. Even though they appeared to be weaker than him, I didn't want him to get hurt in any way.

"Then you'll have to deal with me and that is something I wouldn't recommend to anyone."

Donghae scoffed. "What are you? Her knight in shiny armour or something like that? I could kick your without breaking a sweat."

Sehun cocked his head aside and smirked. "I'm her boyfriend, if you really want to know. And I'd like to see you try." His hand landed on Donghae's shoulder and squeezed it so hard that Donghae squirmed in pain. His friends were now standing near the door, looking ready to run in any time.

Sehun finally released Donghae from his deadly grip and the latter gave him a pathetic glare.

"I'm not done with you", Sehun said. "Just dare to step into this cafe again when she's working and you'll see what else I'm capable of. Now get the hell out of here."

His friends didn't wait for him as they stormed out of the cafe. Never in my life had I seen Donghae more miserable. He left without looking at me.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief when the door closed. I glanced at Sehun who still looked angry. I was so shook that I couldn't speak.

"Are you okay?" he turned to me with a worried look on his face. "Did they hurt you?" I managed to shake my head and he sighed. "I'm sorry I didn't react in time."

I couldn't believe that he was saying sorry. He saved me. Those guys probably thought that I was alone and they wanted to hurt me. The fact that he scared them away, probably forever, made him look even better in my eyes. He told them he was my boyfriend. There was a complete mess in my head. I couldn't believe that Donghae still hated me and actually tried to hurt me.

"Chaerin, do you hear me?"

"I'm fine, Sehun, I'm fine", I said, even though I was still in shock. "Thank you so much. If you weren't here..."

"Don't say it, please." 

I gulped, lowering my head to look to the ground. All of a sudden I felt a pair of arms around my shoulders. I sighed, relaxing completely in his embrace. "Thank you, Sehun. Thank you so much."

"The most important thing is that you're okay", he said.

"Chaerin! Look what I've found!" I heard Minhee's voice and we broke the hug. Sehun smiled at me and I went to see what Minhee had discovered in the storage room.

"I've found some books", she said. I stared at the book that she laid out on the floor. They were in Japanese.

"They are probably Dongwan's."

Minhee picked up the books and put them on a table.

"I think I need a coffee", Sehun said, coming up behind me.

I smiled. "I think I need one too."