I flinch as I hear the harsh scraping of metal against wood, a chair being pushed across the floor as the angry customer in front of me stands up. He's the most intimidating man I've had the pleasure of meeting; tall, bulky, with a gruff voice that spits out each word in a long string of harsh syllables. The worst part is that I have absolutely no idea what he's saying.

He's shouting at me now, gesticulating wildly as he stares down at me. I notice that he's only about Nichkhun's height, but the way he puffs out his chest and imperceptibly straightens his spine makes him seem a lot taller. I stare back at him defiantly, though I'm not entirely sure why we are having this argument, so it must look quite petty.

"Monsieur..." I try to interrupt him, but to no avail, since he clearly doesn't want to listen to any more of me butchering his language.

I sigh, wiping my sweating palms on the black apron around my waist, as I tuck my notebook into my pocket. Its hard enough being a waiter when you actually understand what furious customers are screaming at you, but its even worse when you don't really know what's going on. Sighing was clearly the wrong action, because it only serves to aggrivate him further and he moves closer to me. Now, it feels as though he's going to pick me up by my collar and toss me aside, and I gulp - thinking I should never have been left alone on the shop floor.

I hear a high pitched shout from behind us, and whip my head around to face its source. Standing on the single step leading to the kitchen, Ji-eun glares at the man. She swiftly approaches us, affronting the customer as if she isn't at least a foot shorter and a good decade younger than he is.

She spits out in a string of flowing words, "Laisse-le tranquille!" and proceeds to give him what for in perfectly pronounced French. I stand there in amazement, barely able to shake my head to clear my mind, which had become foggy with shock. This girl had been nothing but quiet these past few days since I had arrived, and suddenly she has become quite aggressive. I wonder if Nichkhun knows she can be this assertive...

Speaking of, I was glad Nichkhun was nowhere in the immediate area or I was sure the man would fire me. I know he would instantly regret hiring me, Jang Wooyoung who knows nothing about Parisian culture. Thank goodness for grocery shopping.

Later on, Ji-eun would tell me that she simply told the customer to leave, only in a bit more of an abrupt way, and with a lot more swear words thrown in the mix. This is how I and her would eventually become firm friends - through a mutual hatred of rude customers and her having to fish me out of many incidents similar to the one above. That, and she'd spend time teaching me some clever retorts to some of the insults we came across most frequently.

For now however, she waves me off into the kitchen, and I leave her to deal with the customer who has suddenly become a lot more timid since he has met his linguistic match. Nichkhun left Jennie and Ji-eun (whom he had affectionately dubbed the JJ-team, much to their dislike) to cook, and entrusted the running of the front line to me, so I go and find his oldest assistant slaving away over the stove.

"What are you cooking, Jen?" I ask, my English being much better than my French, though it is anything but perfect. I lean over the pot, and I can smell something absolutely heavenly emanating from inside it. She shoos me away, but smiles kindly as she always does, because I was probably in her way.

She reaches for the wooden spoon on the countertop next to the stove, and quickly mixes the pot expertly, as she explains, "Bouillabaisse. It's Khun's favourite menu item, and it seems to be in high demand today, of all days."

I nod, fascinated by the talk about food. I always am, whenever one of the chefs has time to explain to me what they're doing. Especially when Nichkhun talks about it - his eyes seem to light up with a fiery passion and his voice seems to raise a couple notches as if he can't help but get excited that someone cares enough to listen to him babble on about his work. I find it admirable to harbour such a quality, and within Khun, it doesn't help that it makes him seem even more attractive than I already find him.

Bouillabaisse. For some reason, I feel like I should log that information within my brain. It seems helpful to know something that personal about Nichkhun.

The chime of the little bell above the door breaks me out of my thoughts, and I hear Khun's voice float throughout the restaurant. You know when he's arrived, because he announces it - "I'm back!" almost as if he's arriving home for the first time in ages and greeting his loved ones at the door. I suppose he is, as far as Ji-eun is concerned, since he brought her with him from Korea and practically raised her.

"Wooyoung come and help me," I hear him call. And of course, I'm there almost before he has to call me. I don't know why, but I feel compelled to comply with his every request. Nichkhun is just one of those people you can't help but become slightly infatuated with, I think to myself as I take some of the brown paper shopping bags from his arms.

I haven't seen him all day, but part of me is very glad I finally can. As I follow him into the kitchen, I can't help but steal a few occasional glances at him, taking in his resounding beauty. I swear, every day that goes by, I find something else more attractive about him, but I just shake it off as a silly crush.

As we put the produce away in the pantry, we chat casually, as we seem to have done the last few days too. He asks me more about my life back in Korea, I about his travels.

"Can I ask you something, Woo?" He turns to me, wearing a curious expression, bunch of bananas in his hands. It takes a lot for me not to laugh, at the contrast between the semi-serious look on his face and the way he was holding that fruit. I simply hum in response, and he goes ahead anyway.

"What made you leave Korea?"

The question caught me off guard a little, since no one has really bothered to ask me anything about it since I had arrived. Still, I answer it, though I'm not really sure about the answer myself anymore.

"I just got fed up. My parents were pressuring me into marriage and I had a lot of issues with my university classes," I lean against the shelving unit next to me, resting my head on the plank  of wood nearest to it, "I decided that I didn't want to lead my life being contolled by someone else, so I got as far away as I could."

I smile sadly, thinking of the arduous journey I had to take to get where I was now, standing in front of Nichkhun in the pantry of his restaurant. I see him staring at me, his mouth slightly agape, not quite knowing how to respond, so I chuckle to break the tension.

"Stop looking so serious," I say, throwing him a piece of fruit from one of the bags. He catches it, smiles at me as he lets the issue go, seemingly satisfied in the knowledge that I wasn't that upset, and continues to stock the shelves, whistling to the sound of the radio floating in from the main restaurant area.