Woohyun’s POV

After the initial shock, I managed to address her as a boss to an employee, “Well, Hae Young-sshi… Um, let’s see what you can do.”

I led her to the back where coffee beans and such had already been laid out for use.

I looked at the clock.

“You’ve got thirty minutes”, I told her.

“To do what?”, she asked, staring at the beans. Her scarf was about to drop to the floor again.

“Make coffee”, I replied, and promptly walked out the kitchen. This girl’s every movement was so shaky, it made me nervous to watch her.

Sungjong’s POV

Sunggyu, Dongwoo, Sungyeol, Hoya, and I were walking home, all clutching ice cream cones.

“Man, I need to stop spending money and start working~~”, Sungyeol said, chomping into his ice cream.

“You’re wasting the ice cream”, I snapped at him, “You’re supposed to it, to savor the taste.”

Sungyeol rolled his eyes at me and replied, “Or you could just let me eat it the way I want to.”

I sighed; this kid had so much to learn, still. And he was older than me!

But before I could retort snappily back at him, Dongwoo interrupted me, “Actually, I’m looking for work, too… There’s a new café next to our school. I think I’m going to turn in an application tomorrow. I picked one up today.”

“What, already? Without telling us?”, Sungyeol complained, before he shoved in the rest of the cone into his mouth.

“I knew you’d complain, so I picked up some extras. Want one?”, Dongwoo asked, pulling forward his backpack and reaching into it. He pulled out a pile of applications and handed them out.

Since it was a café job, I took one. Who knows? I could put my amazing baking skills to use.

“I’m going after school tomorrow to turn it in… you guys want to come with me?”, Dongwoo asked.

“Sure, seems like the pay’s pretty decent”, Hoya replied.

Sungyeol nodded and clapped Dongwoo on the back, “Knew you’d watch out for me. I’ll fill this out for you.”

Dongwoo shrugged Sungyeol off and turned to me, “You in, Sungjong?”

I shrugged and said, “I guess it’s worth a try…”

“What about you?”, Dongwoo turned to Sunggyu, who mumbled something, but I was already flipping through the application. It was looking for 2 cooks, as well a variety of other café-related occupations.

Hm… I suppose it’s worth a try, I could use a few bucks here and there…

WooHyun’s POV

Thirty minutes of drumming my fingers against the counter had passed. I got up, straightened my jacket, and walked into the café.

 0_0

Hae Young was also sitting at the table, drumming her fingers.

And in front of her was twelve cups of coffee on warming pans. She’d even drawn faces on each of the cups.

D:

In thirty minutes?

Noticing me, she hopped off the chair and started talking, “I was going to ask you what kind of coffee you wanted me to make, but you left rather abruptly, so I just made the twelve most basic coffees.”

“Show them to me”, I told her, walking around to examine the coffees.

“All right”, she said, and pointing to the different coffees, she started reciting the names, “That’s your regular latte, there’s your mocha with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, cappuccino with lots of foam and chocolate pieces, decaf, of course…”

I sat down and tasted the Americano. It tasted like pure heaven with a bit of rainbow.

I turned to her and tossed out the words, “Foam designs.”

“Okay… what about them?”, she asked me, her eyebrow raising.

“Can you do them?”, I said. 

“I can only do one design”, she answered, hesitant now. 

“And what design is that?”, I pressed.

“Um… a bafgafbgakjs”, she blurted out.  

“What?”, I asked, confused.

“A be-ar”, she repeated, slow--ly.                                             

 “Not a flower or a leaf?”, I asked, surprised.

“I don’t think a bear is a flower or a leaf”, she answered seriously, fixing me with another one of her awkward stares.

….

….

….

“Sir, if you want me to, I’ll find you another barista who’s good at making coffee and wonderful at designs…”, she started saying.

“Why would you do that? You won’t get hired-“

“-On the condition that I get hired as well.”

…

I paused.

Suddenly, she sat down next to me and pleaded, “I really need this job… my family…”

This family had everything in the world they wanted. They, especially the girl and her older brother never wanted anything. They weren’t desperate for food, and definitely, had all the money they could possibly want…

“Please…”, she said.  

Her voice was calm, even as she begged me, but her eyes were not. I sensed desperation in them. As easily as she had made the coffee, I didn’t doubt that this was her best work. She needed this job. She would work hard at it.

I sighed. With or without foam designs, I’d have to take her. One, because she was an excellent barista. Two, because she knew how to draw foam bears. Three, because she would work her off. Four, because she was Sunggyu’s little sister and helping her meant helping Sunggyu… the one friend who had stayed by my side… But while I still had her believing that I needed a barista with expert foam designs… I was going to use that to my advantage. 

“Fine. If you can find someone with expert foam designs in four days, I’ll give you the job.”

She bowed, her scarf falling to the floor in a heap.

“Thank you!”

She lunged at me suddenly, and to my utter shock and surprise, she was suddenly hugging me.

I looked down at her, leaning away and trying my best to place a questionable look on my face.

And when she saw the look on my face, she instantly jumped off of me, smoothing out my jacket and tie, apologizing. Before I even had time to reprimand her, she had gathered her scarf from the room and shot out the door.

Woah.

I let out a breath of air.

One barista, possibly two, found.

I flicked off the lights and headed home.

I’d done my job for the day.

Myungsoo’s POV

I’d gone out to buy some more food and was just coming back in.

After putting whatever dairy products I’d bought into the refrigerator, I went into my room (which I was currently sharing with So Eun), and found her at the desk, staring at a piece of paper.

I looked down at the paper, but she’d already hidden it when she noticed my arrival.

“Hi, Oppa”, she said and stood up to hug me. I hugged her back, but she was trembling.

“Eun ah”, I said, startled.

“What is it?”, she asked me, letting go of me.

I meant to tell her that she was trembling, but the moment I looked at her eyes, I knew that she already knew. She also knew that I knew, but she was trying to keep it from me. She was trying to stay strong.

“Nothing”, I replied softly.

“Did you buy Pocky sticks?”, she asked me, more cheerfully.

I nodded, “Yeah, they’re on the counter and still in the bag.”

She nodded, smiled brightly, and walked out of the room, shutting it as she went.

I went over to look at what paper she was looking at, but found myself stopping.

I couldn’t invade her privacy like that.

Right?

I mean.

Well.

But…

“Just do it…”, a voice said in my head.

 “But… I’m one of the good guys”, I said back.

“Look”, the voice whispered, “To help her to stay strong.”

I hesitated.

No, it was my own greed and curiosity that I wanted to fulfill.

I sighed and lay down on the bed and covered my eyes.

So Eun was terrible at lying, so it was impossible to just ignore it when she lied.

I had to help her.

But… I don’t know how.

The door opened and So Eun came back holding two boxes of Pocky sticks.

“Oppa, they were wayyy at the bottom”, she griped, ripping one open.

“Sorry, I’ll just leave them on the table next time”, I answered, my arm still over my eyes. Even now, I could sense she was just acting.

Suddenly, I felt the weight shift on my small bed and I raised my arm from my eyes to find So Eun next to me. She rested her head next to mine before looking up at me with a Pocky stick in .

Now was my moment to ask.

“Eun ah, what were you looking at when I-?”

My question died away when So Eun ferociously stuck a Pocky stick in my mouth and said, “Chew.”

Half frustrated, but half amused at her adorably angry face, I obeyed quietly and started to chew. When I was finished, I swallowed and said, “You know, you can’t keep things a secret from me forever.”

So Eun nodded and replied quietly, “I know, but I want to for as long as I can. I hate the idea of you knowing all my weak spots.”  

“Why?”, I asked, “Don’t you trust me?”

So Eun shrugged and said, “It’s not so much a matter of trust… as it is pride. Right? I mean, that’s why you won’t tell me what happened between you and WooHyun. It’s not that you don’t trust me, it’s that you have a sense of pride.”

I looked down at her, suddenly feeling incredibly guilty. That wasn’t…entirely…true. I didn’t’ trust So Eun to stay with me if WooHyun could offer her more…

So Eun must have sensed something because she threw aside the Pocky sticks and threw her arms around me and mumbled, “I’m not trying to scare you, oppa.”

I patted her head and replied, “I know.”

~

Sunggyu’s POV

“Is this the place?”, Sungyeol asked, pointing to a newly furnished café.

“Think so”, Dongwoo replied.

“What do you mean, think so? Weren’t you here yesterday?”, I asked Dongwoo. This whole application business had been suspicious from the start. It wasn’t like Dongwoo, whose family was middle class, but had a stable income, to go job-hunting. Besides, wasn’t WooHyun’s new business a café?

“Did you say something, hyung?”, Hoya asked me.

I shook my head and followed the others into the café. I wasn’t going to say anything when I wasn’t sure. Besides, I trusted Dongwoo, at least to the extent that I trusted that he wasn’t going to get us killed.

But as I entered the café, I couldn’t erase the sneaking suspicion that this was WooHyun’s café, the café he’d just asked me to find workers for. I’d recommended my sister and let her know to come here…

Why would WooHyun bribe Dongwoo so that all of us would apply? Was he trying to lure in one of us? Maybe Myungsoo…? No… but…

My gaze fell on Sungjong, who had entered right before me. No, not Sungjong either… except… wait… Didn’t Sungjong bake?

“Hey, guys.”

I looked up to see WooHyun in front of me, in a classic suit and a pretty boy smile.

“You own this café?’”, Sungjong asked, his nose wrinkling. “Why you?”

 WooHyun shrugged before explaining, “Well, my stockholders and business managers want to see that I can expertly handle the finances of a small local café before they let me handle the big international deals. So, I guess this is some sort of a test for me.”

“I’m leaving”, Sungyeol said, but I grabbed him before he could exit.

 “WooHyun, why are we here?”, I asked him, “You must have some reason for calling us all together.”

WooHyun casually replied, “I simply wanted to offer all of you the chance for a job first. For old time’s sake… and…”

“And?”, Hoya prompted.

WooHyun dropped his casual manner, suddenly staring straight at us with honest eyes, and said, “Because I’m sorry. I want to apologize to all of you. All of you except Myungsoo.”

There was silence in the café.

You could hear a pin drop.

.

.

.

.

.

All I know is that I no longer trust Myungsoo, WooHyun, or Dongwoo.

What was happening amongst our group?   

 a/n: not entirely pleased with this chapter, but it's necessary. thanks for reading! :]

for hellopanda23: http://mireutic.tumblr.com/post/24576415128/lee-joons-baseball-skills 

&&&&&&&&&&&

http://nativelynaiveyou.tumblr.com/post/23936374216 

<3