Dara rested her chin on her hand as she watched Jiyong courteously took a customer’s order across from where she was sitting and smiled. He is so hardworking she doesn’t think it could be even more possible to like him than she already did.

“Are we going to stay here until he’s done with his shift?” CL asked.

“She’s probably gonna stay here ogling Jiyong until he’s done with his shift,” Hyoni said with a wry face watching Dara’s besotted expression.

They were inside a café restaurant, one that Jiyong is doing part time busing tables, and drinking grapfruit juices and slices of cake. Of course, Dara’s treat since she forced them to go with her.

Dara ignored them. She’s probably wearing her heart on her sleeve now but who cares? Her best friends are the only ones who can bear witness to it anyway.

She took a sip of her drink when Jiyong glanced at their table and she pretended to be busy with her phone making both her friends roll their eyes at her very obvious display act of indifference. She surreptitiously lifted her gaze to sneak a glance at Jiyong and he was already at another table talking to another customer.

She let out another dreamy sigh. How can he look so cute just for wearing that waiter-apron thing. With the way he carries that, you’d think it was all part of the new fashion unlike the others who were wearing those so sloppily..

But then again, maybe she is just really biased.

She frowned when her brain finally ordered her ears to function and she heard the customer, a skinny probably-middle-aged woman, raising her vooice to her Jiyong, her hands motioning agitatedly at something in her cup.

“Are you some kind of an idiot?” the woman was saying. “I said decaf!”

“I’m sorry ma’am,” Jiyong apologized with a bow.

The woman kept on complaining angrily about something in her coffee and calling Jiyong an idiot for messing up her order and calling for the manager.

“What a ,” CL said who was also watching. “She didn’t request for a decaf when she ordered the coffee. I heard her on my way to the bathroom.”

Dara looked at CL then pressing her lips into a thin line, she stood up surprising both her friends. “Where are you going?” Hyoni asked not liking the look on her face.

Dara didn’t answer her and strode directly to the complaining customer, the manager already at the table who was also apologizing to the customer and reprimanding Jiyong for being useless. His eyes went a little wide when he saw her approaching.

“Excuse me,” Dara said standing to her full height, which is not really much, but at least she’s exuding authority that she has been trained to do since she was little. She smiled at the manager, ignoring Jiyong’s warning look. “I think your service in here is beyond excellent. The grapefruit juice is exactly what I ordered it to be.”

“Uh…” the manager doesn’t know what to answer as he is still in the middle of appeasing an irate customer.

“Do not interrupt on someone else’s conversation,” the complaining customer said. “Wait for your turn.”

Dara turned her head to look at her and feigned contrition. “Oh, I’m sorry. I haven’t realized you are complaining about your coffee not being decaf and all which from what I remember is exactly what you ordered anyway. Not unless there’s something wrong with my hearing but I never heard you say Decaf.”

The woman who’s probably not expecting what Dara would do just gaped at her for a second before letting out a breath then fixed Dara with a belittling look before turning to the manager. “I can’t believe you’re letting children run wild in your Café.”

“And I can’t believe you would be so childish as to put a tantrum over a decaffeinated coffee, which, again, isn’t what you ordered to begin with. The staff gave you what you want.”

“I’m sorry ma’am,” Jiyong told the customer nudging Dara to leave but Dara stubbornly stayed.

“Just because you’re paying doesn’t mean you have the right to call any serving crew names,” Dara continued. “And you, Mr. Manager.” She turned to the manager. “You should support your own staff and appeasing your—“ She threw a glance at the glaring customer. “—customer in a way that the word useless and idiots are not included.”

“Dara,” Jiyong said trying to make her shut up.

The woman stood up and she’s a lot taller than Dara but she didn’t step back. “You think I don’t fight with stupid little girls like you? Just who the hell do you think you are?”

“Ma’am, calm down please,” the manager said to both of them trying to diffuse this brewing fight.

They both ignored him. “I am the daughter of the man you are working for.” She lightly flicked the woman’s company ID that shows Park Industries. “And I’m this staff’s girlfriend.”

The start of shooting was really hectic, as it always was ever since she started working in the network. She had spent 48 hours calling for appointments for the locations and approvals for filming, the  TV crews holding their equipments had all piled outside the YG Building as she approached the receiptionist to show the pass she had received from the CEO himself. Lugging a handful of papers in her hand, she motioned for the crew to enter and follow one of the securities to lead them to where the subject is. Two of the camera directors told her they need a shot of the YG Building so she told them to just follow afterwards. The scriptwriter, a new one unfortunately, couldn’t seem to work under pressure as she looked really nervous for whatever reason. The director and the producer would be coming in a little bit and they have to get everything ready.

They were ushered inside of the YG Studios where Jiyong is sitting in a swivel chair in front of a laptop that was wired in a number of machineries that Dara thinks might be the Digital Converters or The Master Clocks. Hell, what does she know? She’s not brought up to create music. Jiyong saw them enter and he lowered down the volume of the sound he was listening in. They all greeted him as they set up their equipment. Jiyong greeted them back before his eyes returned to her and seeing the stack of papers she is balancing on her arms.

“Let me help.” He stood up extending his hand.

“No, that’s fine,” she immediately rejected looking around and spotting the couch. She called the writer before she placed the papers down on it and instructed her to do the revisions on third sequence. Jiyong just watched her, again with that enigmatic expression, before returning to his seat.

“I need the story board,” Dara told the writer beside her. “Where is it?”

“Uh…” The writer looked through her pile and pulled out a folder. Dara turned to Jiyong and gave him a copy of the sequence.

“Let me brief you on this first,” Dara said opening the storyboard. “We are going to the fourth sequence—it’s on the second page—where you’re going to talk about how you find… music. Like, how did you get in creating music and—“

“We’re going to shoot in my hometown?” Jiyong interjected looking at the first sequence.

“Of course,” Dara said. “We’re going to film the place where you had walked around in diapers.”

Jiyong’s mouth lifted at the corner at the way she said that like he was amused or something and Dara cleared , not amused of him being amused at her, before returning to the file she was reading. She continued instructing him, handing him the script at the same time, and pretended this is just another production that she needed to complete and he is just another actor or public figure that she needs to make look good and interesting in front of the camera.

“You guys are going to film everywhere I have been to?” Jiyong asked with forehead creased as he looked up from the paper he was reading, interrupting her again.

“Yes. Everywhere. It’s a documentary, Mr. Kwon. We need to have every materials to make you look really hardworking and inspirational.” Crap. That came out of without thinking. And her sarcasm is leaking on every word.

Jiyong just stared at her without saying anything and Dara considered apologizing over that remark but then thought better of it. He had a lot to apologize to her for and he’s not doing it so why should she? Ah . She’s already starting to get personal. You are professional, dammit! She slowly opened , her jaw shaking with the effort of even constructing an apology for him.

Jiyong looked like he wanted to laugh watching her doing whatever she is doing now, quivering while her eyes narrowed into slits. As far as he knows, he had never done anything to her since that reunion.

Yet.

Before Dara could even manage to come to terms with the unwillingness of her muscles and nerves, a greeting from behind her made her turn and saw the director had already arrived, the producer right behind him. She let out a sigh, relieved that she wouldn’t have to go so far as apologizing to him.

The director exchanged pleasantries with Jiyong and she moved to the side to give the producer the script as well as the list of people working for this documentary and the alloted budget for the entire shoot. The producer whose name is Janey, a really y know-it-all if Dara had to really describe her, gave her a condescending look. “Can you buy me coffee? Decaf. And HyungDon would want black coffee. Thank you.”

Dara nodded before leaving the stuido then scowled at her reflection in the elevator’s mirror. What a conceited little…. That Janey really rubs her the wrong way. probably slept her way to be promoted really fast and she had the gall to accuse Dara of using her money and name to be an Assistant Producer in 4 years. She worked for this!

The station manager doesn’t even trust Janey to take care of projects and the last time she handled a shoot, their budget skyrocketed into a huge mess which is probably the reason why the Station Manager calls on Dara to take care of the preliminaries.

That fact definitely is the reason why Janey hate Dara more. Because of course, she knows her own incompetency.

She guessed this coffee would be from her own pocket since she didn’t even give her any money for this. When will Janey be trans