A/N: I started writing this when I had just stepped into the Exo fandom (it also being the first kpop band that really caught my attention), it is the first fanfiction I ever wrote and I wrote it in a language that’s not my mother tongue. With all of this, just be aware of the pontential cringiness, over-clichéism (mostly at the beginning) and general mistakes there might be in this story as a whole. I think it gets better as the chapters go by, though.

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Small town girl trying to make a life for herself in a big city. It’s been like this for the last four years; having to move to a completely different country did not seem to do much of a change in my life. All I see are faces passing by. Every agency rejects me because my face looks too western and all they’re looking for is a properly beautiful Korean girl to star even the littlest toothpaste ad.

When I come back home, there’s no one waiting for me. The place is cold and dark. I go prepare dinner just for myself and then go to bed on my own. I’ve never been a very outgoing person, I was always the loner, but oh god. I miss my cat. I miss my mom. I can’t go to Granny’s right now and tell her how I’m a complete failure at what I’ve been wanting to do all my life, seeing her judgemental eyes and hearing her “Told you so.” As I tuck myself into bed all I can think of is that I have to find another way to get by.

******

I breathed in deeply before passing through the doors of the biggest coffee shop I’ve been able to find in Seoul. This is not what my life was meant to be, but I really needed a job to get by. The money mom left ran lower each time the landlady banged on the door to get me to pay rent, and my savings were never huge to start off.

I made my best effort to make myself look proper and presentable that morning, but as per usual, there’s nothing I could ever do against all these beautiful young Korean girls. Even in that place, which was just a coffee shop, most of the waitresses were tallish, slender, dressed up and stunningly beautiful. It looked like a freaking runway. I did not consider myself to be an unattractive person; in fact, I was pretty well considered back home in the US. I even landed some modelling gigs, which was something I didn’t think I’d ever get here. I was not particularly tall; my body had curves which could be considered beautiful in some other places, but here I’d only heard “you need to lose weight” whenever I stood in front of the camera. My hips were too wide, my eyes were too big, my face was not completely V shaped and my pretty pale skin was never pale enough. It was sickening.

I did the best I could to ignore the stares some people shoot at me when I got to the pretty lady behind the counter and asked her if there was any way I could talk to the manager. The dressed up yet informal middle aged man who came down the stairs and introduced himself as the manager informed me that they were not accepting job applications right then, but after talking to him for a little while I somehow managed to convince him that maybe having someone who looked so different waiting tables could result into even more customers coming to the store out of curiosity. The foreign community in Korea is not that big and we’re pretty much stared at every day, so I might just as well make an advantage out of it.

It was safe to say that my first day was pretty hectic. My co-workers took commands and served plates twice as fast as I could and I was not familiar with the menu nor the place. I got a couple leaflets with all the menu options and tucked them into my purse to study them when I got home. When it was time to leave, the manager approached me.

“Listen, you’re only here on trial period. You’d better start breaking your back from tomorrow on. I want you here at 8 in the morning. You will start serving at the bubble tea counter until you’re familiar enough with the shop and the slang to be able to attend the tables as well.” I bowed to acknowledge him and left.

I had just arrived home when my phone rang and I could see in the ID caller it was Grandpa.

“Hello.”

“Hey there, sweetie! How are you doing? I haven’t heard from you since last week.” He sounded cheery and loving as per usual, which made a big contrast on how Grandma used to talk to me.

“I’m fine, but I’ve been busy. The search for modelling stuff is being…well, just as hard as Grandma told me it would be, but I’m still on it.” As much as Grandpa didn’t approve of my career choices, he wanted me to be happy and to learn how much work is necessary to maintain yourself, so he was just letting me do my thing. “Also, I found a job just today, in a pretty huge café in Gangnam but I’m on trial period right now.”

“Oh, that’s stupendous, sweetie.” The grandiloquent English word choices made by my very Korean grandfather always made me giggle. “I’m sure they will be seeing your full potential in no time. And maybe you will be able to enjoy doing that, you never know.”

“Yeah, maybe…”

“You sound quite tired, Gracie, have something nutritious for dinner and go to bed early.” Always so caring. “Grandma told me to ask you to come around here sometime to have lunch with us because you never seem to visit anymore. But don’t be in a hurry, come whenever you are able to, okay?”

“I’ll go as soon as I can, Grandpa. Thanks for worrying. I love you.”

“I love you too, and your grandma does as well. Take care.”

Later in the night, after showering, having dinner and trying to get some study despite my upper floor neighbour’s attempts to distract me with their noisiness, I fell asleep.

******

The next day, I woke up and made my way to the shop just in time already wearing the same uniform as the rest of the girls there. As the shop was about to open, one of my co-workers approached me. She had sleek straight dark hair and a really cute face.

“Hi! I’m MinSeo. It’s nice having you here,” she told me with a nice smile.

“My name is Grace,” I smiled back as I bowed.

“Listen, yesterday I saw you were a bit too overwhelmed with all this stuff. I just wanted to let you know that I’m in the kitchen, which is right beside the bubble tea counter, so whenever you’re feeling too tight, just call me and I’ll give you a hand.” Just as she finished saying this, she left, as the first customers of the morning where coming in.

That was unexpected. I hadn’t been in Korea for that long and in that time, I’d only been able to interact with my grandparents, my landlady and my noisy neighbours, so I wasn’t really hoping to have such warm welcoming.

The rest of the day went as I thought the days working there would develop over time. MinSeo and I had the time to chat and get to know each other a bit. She was a couple years older than me and lived with her boyfriend in an apartment quite far from my house, but as he usually picked her up when her shifts were over, we agreed they would drop me at home whenever I needed to. At the shop, we would get around an hour to have lunch, so we two went out together to grab something quick to eat, talk a bit more and do some window shopping in the busy streets of Gangnam.

In the afternoon, the manager came to see me at my spot. Despite my lack of knowledge of the business and my not-so-good Korean, I’d been able to keep up during the whole day, which got me congratulations and a reassuring smile on his behalf.

By the time my shift was just coming to an end, while the shop was pretty quiet and calm, this guy came in storming through the door and walked up to the bubble tea counter I was attending. He was wearing casual yet expensive looking clothing and a big pair of sunglasses even though the sun was already setting. He was very tall, slender but fit looking. His hair was parted and combed to the back. His complexion was pale and he seemed to be quite grumpy. Just a regular rich Korean guy, in my opinion.

“Is there anything I can do to help you?” I asked after giving him some time to decide on the flavours he would want to have. He casted a glance at me over his sunglasses and started talking to me in Korean at such fast pace I simply could not get a thing.

I came closer to the counter.

“Would you mind speaking a bit slower? I could not catch a thing,” I said making half a bow and repeating the word slower in Korean.

“Maybe you’d be better off learning to speak our language before trying to attend customers, don’t you think?” he answered in a snarky tone, making me blush. “I was just asking for my usual order and asking where the previous girl who worked here is.”

“Well, I just got this job yesterday, so I’m sorry, but I do not know what your order is nor where that girl is now.” I was not going to let this bratty kid spoil all the progress I had made in that day. “So, if you do not mind, would you please repeat your order so I can take note and bring it here as fast as I can?”

He seemed a bit taken aback, as he just told me what he wanted and sat in a table to wait. I disappeared through the door at my right, which led to the kitchen, so I could grab the ingredients I needed for the smoothie he had ordered.

“Did you see that? Why do people tend to think that wearing clothes that are more expensive than everybody else’s  gives them the right to treat the rest of us like dirt? I’m just trying to do the best that I can,” I ranted to MinSeo, who was there cleaning up.

She stopped to take a look through the window that separated the kitchen from the main room.

“Do you know who that is?” she asked me with half a smile.

“Should I know?”

“Well, he’s a member of one the most successful kpop groups not only in Korea, but in the whole world. Pretty much everyone knows him, more around here, as he comes to grab drinks at least four times a week.”

“Well, I’m not much into that boyband stuff and I don’t care how rich and famous he is, he lacks complete consideration,” I grunted.

She looked at me with a funny expression in her face.

“I understand you, but to start off, he’s a really good and consistent customer, and to follow, if you intend to work serving other people, I can assure you are going to be facing people who are much more unpleasant than him. Now, drink some water and go out there to do what you’re being paid for. It’s rude to keep the customer waiting,” she scolded. But after seeing my bottom lip pouting out, she added “and smile, you have a really beautiful smile.”

With that, I went out of the kitchen carrying the fruits I needed and proceeded to prepare his order. When I was half way through it, I felt someone staring at me and turned around to find him just behind my back, startling me.

“Well, at least you can say you have a style when it comes to peeling fruit,” he snickered.

I turned around and went behind the counter to finish up his drink.

“Is there any name you would like in the cup, sir?” I asked stretching the last word as much as I could.

“Not really. But maybe you could give me yours.”

“I don’t think you will be making me a drink any time soon.”

He smirked and handed me a bill as he picked up his cup.

“Have it your way then. And keep the change. I will see you around some other time, I guess.”

“Good day, sir.”

“Sehun, just Sehun is okay,” and he left.

“Grace,” I heard a voice behind me and turn around to see the manager, Mr. Park. “Being sassy to the customers in unacceptable. You’ve been doing so well all day long; don’t make me regret taking you in.”

“I’m very sorry, sir,” I apologized while bowing. “I’m still kind of nervous about the job and I let it take the best of me. It won’t happen again.”

After meeting and greeting MinSeo’s boyfriend when he came to pick her up, I went into the back of the car and remained silent, thinking about what had happened.

“Grace, don’t be too hard on yourself, it’s been just a small mistake. Tomorrow everything will run even more smoothly. Besides, I’m pretty sure Mr. Park will end up hiring you, he grows fond of people very quickly, even more if they do their job well,” MinSeo said, trying to cheer me up.

“I hope so, because I definitely need the money to start paying at least a Korean tutor,” I said, making both of them laugh. “What’s the name of the guy who came today, again?”

“I never told you. He’s Oh Sehun, and the band is EXO. You will have no problem finding them on Internet.”

“Aww, Oh Sehun! MinSeo here used to be quite fond of him, didn’t you?” said Lee, MinSeo’s boyfriend, in a tone of mock.

She hit his shoulder playfully and replied:

“But not anymore, since now I have my man with me, you silly.” They’re so endearing.

Soon enough, we got home and I waved my hand to say goodbye as they drove off the street. As soon as I passed through the door, I realized how really tired I was.