I stood nervously in front of the grand double spread of glass doors. A slight flash of a green light signalled that the automatic sensor had picked up movement and swiftly opened to reveal the glazed tiled floors of the ground level of Lee Enterprises.

I looked around me as I saw men in business suits, although walking in different directions, they had the same one purpose; to earn a living.

They barely acknowledged anyone else around them, except for a slight nod of recognition but that was it as they walked at a quick pace towards the metal elevators taking them to their assigned levels of different departments.

 

I stopped in front of a large desk filled with three receptionists and two security guards staring blankly straight ahead. I guess they have a job to do too, I thought to myself.

With shaky hands I greeted the receptionist with a bow and showed her the envelope.

“I have an appointment with Mr Lee, in t-the department of-“, I started, with a little bit of uncertainty in my voice.

The receptionist did not look at me but instead nodded firmly and scribbled something on her daily planner before picking up the phone.

“Yes, sir. He’s here now. Yes. I’ll send him up, that’s fine sir.” She placed the hand phone down back on her neatly organised placemat before nodding me towards the elevators.

“Mr Lee’s ready for you, level 20.” She looked at me briefly in the eye before once again ignoring the world around her and continued typing at an incredible speed on her white laptop.

I gave a slight nod and whispered a thank you before starting towards the elevator.

Wow, busy people seem to forget their manners. Obviously they don’t recognise the importance of customer service. At my café, I would never allow that to happen. I continued to complain about the receptionist’s rude behaviour as I entered the already filled elevator.

 

I barely avoided the closing metal doors before I looked around at the unfamiliar faces, mostly filled with annoyance and disregard for a stranger in simple jeans and a wool cardigan holding up their only way of transport up to their department. I bowed my head apologetically and looked around for the lift operator to push my floor button.

A man in a navy blue tie glanced towards me and gave me a smile. Thank goodness, at least one person is nice around here. I silently thanked the heavens and smiled back at the man.

He mouthed the words, which floor?, accompanied by a not so subtle point towards the operating system.

I mouthed back the numbers twenty with a grateful nod and he proceeded to press the button for me with a smile.

 

After about forty seconds trapped in the claustrophobic elevator, I finally reached my floor and stepped out into the quiet hallway. No one else got out behind me so I looked around, clueless as to where to go.

A long hallway extended to my left and another to my right.

Oh crap, where do I go now? Ah, I’ll take my right. Or should I take my left? What do people normally do, right or left? I debated with my gut feeling within my head.

I decided to take my left and proceeded down until I met with yet another receptionist. She gave a small smile and waved me down to a set of large white doors.

“Over there, Mr Lee’s waiting for you.” I gave a slight bow and opened the door, expecting the worst.

 

A slightly chubby man sat at the end of the room in a large leather chair. He turned around slowly.

What, is this like one of them evil movies where the villain turns around and says he’s been expecting me? Oh my goodness if he says that then this is so creepy, should I lea-

“Good morning, Mr Kim.” He stared at me with intense eyes but gave me a gentle smile.

He had an expensive looking black suit on, with a striped blue tie. His early signs of aging were quite obvious and his reading glasses were polished clean, without a single mark in sight. In his hand he held a plain white mug, and he quickly put it down as he saw me arrive in his spacious office.

 

He shuffled the pile of papers on his desk and gave a slight nod towards the chair in front of me. I felt uncomfortable under his piercing gaze and quickly gave a slight bow before sitting down in the chair opposite his table.

“I know why you’re here. And before you start, I’m not going to reconsider retracting my proposition for your quaint, little café.” He said authoritatively, staring me down.

That was quick. I didn’t even have a chance to sit down yet. Was that supposed to be a threat?

 

“Mr Lee. I understand that, but please do consider what is at stake here. This is my life. I’ve grown up in this café, and it holds a lot of memories for me, especially about my gran-“. He held up his hand to stop me and touched his chin gently in thought before continuing.

“Ah yes, Kim Misook. She was an interesting one. I can see a lot of her qualities in you. You have her eyes.” He smiled gently, as if paying respect for my grandmother. How did he even know her?

The small glint in his eye told me that he knew her on a deeper basis than just an acquaintance. I stared at him curiously,

“S-Sir, I hope you understand that-“

“Sunggyu, I want your café. Your grandmother was an old, I guess you could say, friend, and in fact, she owed a lot to me. I never got to say some things that should’ve been said a long time ago, but she owed me this much. I gave her that land, that somewhere to begin her life. And now I want it for my own investment, it’s time to pay back that debt. It’s as simple as that.” He gave a brief nod and lifted his chin slightly, his cold stare once again returning.

 

Stunned, and a little outraged as his response, I stood up and the chair screeched against the tiled floor due to the sudden movement.

“Look, Mr Lee. With all respect, I know that this would be a nice financial investment for you, but I need this shop. It’s my only source of income and I’m already struggling to pay my bills even without this difficult situation. Please, whatever mercy you have, spare it on me. I’ll repay my grandmother’s debts, however long it may take. Anything, I beg you.”

My voice quivered as I lowered to a whisper and shifted my gaze away from his intense stare.

“You know I can’t afford a law case, let alone present a reasonable argument.” I raised my eyes to look at him, with a look of helplessness and desperation.

“Then why bother?" He simply stated, disinterested.

“Please,” I pleaded.

 

He raised his mug to his lips and with his eyes casted down, he shifted another pile of papers on his desk. It was only after a few moments of silence, that all my hopes at his reconsideration and compassion were destroyed.

“I will have your shop, Mr Kim. And I will not stop until I have it.” He said firmly, giving me a hard look before continuing signing the documents of more important cases than my simple coffee shop.

I gave an exasperated sigh and turned sharply to storm out of the office. That is, before giving the owner of the building an intense look of hatred.

 

“I hope the next time we meet we will be in a better position, Mr Kim.” He spoke in a satisfied tone as he continued marking his papers, not even sparing a glance in my direction.

How arrogant and rude.

I felt like bursting into tears but I had to hold on to my last string of pride and I lifted my head high without a glance back and walked straight out of those wooden doors, and continued my way out of the building.

 

It was only then that I realised I had just lost my café to the world’s biggest .

 

As I weakly stumbled across the road, a stranger asked if I was alright and led me by the elbow to sit down at a park bench. I sat silently and ignored his concern but I expressionlessly nodded my thanks and continued to stare into space. The stranger left before giving me a gently pat on the shoulder, already on his way to a busy appointment of some sort.

 

I sat on the bench for what felt like hours, silently mulling over all kinds of different thoughts around my head.

The secretary had handed me an eviction letter on the way out which told me I had to move out of the café within a few days.

I scanned through the letter once more before scrunching it up into a crinkled ball in my hand and threw it as far away as possible with a frustrated sigh.

I folded my knees in front of me and put my head in between my arms in defeat. Tears silently rolled down my face and I rubbed my eyes harshly with my elbow in an attempt to get rid of the pain that overwhelmed my whole body.

 

I felt a slight vibration in my left jean pocket and I quickly wiped away the remaining tears before putting the phone to my ear.

“Yo-boseyo?” I softly asked into the metal mouth piece, clearing my throat to steady my shaking voice.

“Sunggyu ah? It’s me, are you okay? How did it go?” Woohyun’s gentle, husky voice resounded in my ear.

I hummed in sadness and he gave a soft sigh before whispering his apologies and caring words that made me feel slightly better. I smiled in reply and nodded as he told me he would come over later that night.

After an exchange of a few more words, I hung up and straightened the creases out of my jeans before standing up to return back to the café.

 

 

“Hyung!” Sungjong put down his cup before running from behind the counter to open the door for me as I reached the front step of the place which no longer belonged to me. He saw me avoiding his curious gaze and dropped his head in disappointment.

“Oh hyung…” He trailed off, turning his eyes to meet mine.

 

“It’s going to be okay. Don’t you worry, we’ll manage without it. How about we study again and then we can buy a new coffee house when we graduate and earn enough money then, hm? That sounds good, right Hyung?” He assured me in an encouraging voice.

I gently nodded and whispered okay.

I walked over to my usual table and sat down, tightly gripping the mug of Earl grey Sungjong had handed to me.

 

 

It was already eight o’clock when Sungjong had taken off his apron and was trying to hang it on the door which was slightly too tall for him. He started to stand on his tippy toes and gave a slight intake of breath to stretch that extra distance that was needed to be able to reach.

 

“Don’t bother, Jongie, you won’t need to come in again anyway.” I whispered regretfully.

He gave me a saddened look before looking down at his apron, slightly pouting.

“I’ll keep it safe, Hyung. We’ll need it later anyway, right?” He said, his voice full of hope and aspiration.

“Mm yeah.”I nodded, smiling back at my naïve cousin whom I had grown to love so much through him helping me at the café.

 

Sungjong grabbed his bag and started to head out of the door. He turned the knob, but I stopped him as I suddenly stood up, the chair creaking as it slid against the floor.

“Jongie, wait. I just want to s-say, um, thank you. Thank you for helping your old cousin out for the last couple of weeks.”I gave a sheepish smile and grabbed his arm to prevent him from leaving.

“Oh Hyung, of course! I’ve loved every second of it, and now that you’ll be coming to University with me, we can have lunch every day, okay?”He exclaimed in excitement, and gave me a jumpy hug.

I nodded and gave him a genuine smile, despite the sadness I felt inside as I thought about going to University every day instead of working at the café.

“Of course we will.”

 

 

I was standing at the top of the metal ladder, finishing taking down the countless Christmas decorations that Woohyun and Sungjong had spent so long putting up, when I heard the bell chime again.

I looked towards Woohyun, slightly flushed from the cold weather outside, with a large grey scarf around his neck holding a couple of white plastic bags.

 

“I figured we could just have Chinese takeaway today.” He held up the bags with a sheepish grin.

I laughed and he helped me hop off the ladder by offering me his hand.

“Why thank you, Prince Charming.” I grinned at the cheesiness of it all before placing the last of the decorations back in their respective box.

Numerous cardboard boxes surrounded the café, as I had already started packing away some of the many memories that were held in the small shop.

 

We sat down at my favourite table and he brought out the wooden chopsticks and a wide variety of different Chinese cuisine in small plastic boxes.

“I didn’t know what you liked, so I kind of chose a bit of everything.” He explained, whilst breaking the two pieces of wood and shaved them lightly against each other to get rid of the splinters sticking out.

“Here,” He handed a pair to me as I handed him a white paper plate.

 

He started unpacking large amounts of food onto my plate and I looked at him bewildered as I gestured for him to stop, but he wasn’t satisfied until my plate was so filled that not a single sight of white from the paper plate was seen from the top.

“You need to eat more, Gyu.” He gave a sly grin and started eating his own pile of food.

He exclaimed his approval of the taste and immediately began stuffing his face.

I stared at him in awe. Well, I certainly picked the one who could eat very well. I laughed to myself, and continued staring at the adorable yet handsome man in front of me before picking my own pair of chopsticks up and began eating the fried noodles and the numerous other delicious side dishes.

 

 

After about an hour of eating and pointless chatter, we sat with steaming mugs of hot cocoa in our hands and small pink and white marshmallows on a small dish in front of us.

“Woohyun ah, I really don’t know what to do. I’ve tried but there’s no way I can keep this place. My grandmother would be so disappointed in me right now if she were alive.” I sighed in deep disappointment.

“Sunggyu, there’s nothing you could’ve done. You tried your best, but the company was just too unreasonable and sometimes people are just like that. They’re so selfish and so caught up in their own world they simply don’t understand what other people feel, nor do they even care about the means of achieving what they want.” He gave a sharp intake of breath, more evidently upset about the rudeness of the company than I was.

I blinked in surprise and gave a small nod.

 

“Everything will be okay, I promise.” He gently whispered, reaching out to hold my hand.

“Sungjong said he started collecting university subject information for you already, right?”

“Yeah, I’m going to start a double major. Music and food science technology.”I surprised even myself at my decision to start a new life as a student.

I had always wanted to pursue music, but I guess things just got in the way and I never got the chance. It’s not like I was too old now, right?

Ah, you never know until you start, I thought silently to myself, with a small smile of hope on my face.

“That’s wonderful! I’m sure you’ll be able to learn heaps from it, I’m a bit jealous actually, I wish I could go back to university too. Music? Who knows, I might even see you on Music Core one day.” He gently smiled.

I scoffed in disbelief and gave a smug look,

 

“me? Kpop? Never.” I laughed loudly.

 

 

A light breeze blew in through the cracks in the door and it grabbed our attention as we turned our heads towards the glass doors.

We were greeted with the sight of white flakes falling from the night sky.

It was the perfect weather for takeaway and hot cocoa, as I smiled at the beautiful sight outside.

 

“Looks like we chose the right day for this date, huh?” Woohyun grinned mischievously as he dunked yet another marshmallow in his drink.

I shook my head with an embarrassed smile and met his eyes.

“Will you help me pack up the boxes tomorrow?” I asked with a slight quiver in my voice.

Woohyun gently nodded and squeezed my hand firmly. He leaned towards me and gave me light kiss on my forehead and wiped away the small tear that had spilled down my cheek, to which I was unaware of until I felt the slightly calloused fingers swipe against my skin.

I gave a small smile and looked up into his deep brown eyes which seemed to be neverending.

“Thank you”, I whispered.

 

 

#

 

so sorry for the late update guys! i know many of you are on holidays now and i'm oh so jealous, two more weeks, i can do this! haha

thanks so much for reading, and yes todays chapter was a bit boring and sad, but everything will work out later, i promise!

and no, Mr Lee is not associated with Woohyun in any way! I'm not that cliche haha (ironic i know since i write such fluffy stuff :P )

thank you also to my new subscribers again! i'm on 65 now yay, i never even though a couple of you guys would read my corny story, but thank you!

do shout me a comment to tell me what you think! <3

hope you all have a great week!

 

 

p.s i am so in love with Nell's music right now! after hearing sunggyu do his covers from years ago, i've literally fallen in love all over again with sunggyu and now Nell. amazing music, give it a search if you haven't heard it yet!

Here's Gyu singing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VwJGk5ZqiQ     he's just so perfect <3