“Good morning, would you like a taster?” I chirp as cheerfully as I can, with a smile perched on my lips and hands offering a tiny cup. The woman ushers her son forward,  a quick, careless smile on her face as she waves me off. I let my hands fall to my side and wait patiently as the woman coaxes her son to choose the ice cream flavour he wants. His eyes hover over the colourful selection, before settling on the flashy orange sorbet and I step forward to take a clean dollop of it for him.

“Cone or cup?”

“Cup, please. He can’t eat without making a mess,” the woman glares at her son, lovingly. I chuckle and reach for the pile of cups, carefully picking one out and dumping the scoop of orange ice in it, before handing it to the little boy. I have to bend a little since he is considerably shorter than the counter.

“Thank you. How much will that be?”

“Eight hundred won, ma’am,” I recite, as I ring up the register. She hands me the exact amount in cash and leaves in a hurry with her son. Just before she steps out, an arm belonging to a boy grabs ahold of the door handle and he opens it to let the woman out. She thanks him and I hear a distinct ‘welcome and have a good day’. I wait for the boy to step in the store with high hopes. Maybe I’ll meet a cute boy this summer. It is just my luck to be stuck in a summer job when my friends are throwing volleyballs around the beach and rolling under the lazy sun.

“Hi, would you like a taster?” I ask with the same enthusiasm and holding out the same tiny cup. My breath catches in my throat. He looks…Oh, that boy is mighty cute. Now…do I look fine? I hope I don’t have a smudge on my face or something; not that I put on make-up this morning. Oh dear, why didn’t I put any on? He might see that little mark on my cheek I just got a few days ago. I-

“Oh, thanks but I work here,” he beams and waves in a friendly, chill manner. I gawk at him and slowly put my hands down, furiously fighting the heat that is creeping up my cheeks. If I thought pretending to clean up the cups would help, I was wrong.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” he says pleasantly and I wonder how I failed to notice the beautiful sound of an angel speaking a minute ago. This boy is a walking definition of perfection and we are going to be working together.

Exactly how am I supposed to hold myself?

“Lyn,” I smile and hold my hand out. He takes it, chuckling and flashing those perfect rows of pearly whites, shaking his fluffy brown hair out of his eyes.

“Baekhyun,” he says and gives me a single firm shake before letting his hands go. I am disappointed.

“Mr. Lee didn’t tell me you were coming to work,” I explain and start to busy myself with trivial chores. I make sure the sprinkles are sufficient in the plastic container. I hustle around, trying to move bags of chocolate fudge to the cabinet close to the counter. Baekhyun leans on the counter casually, watching me with a twinkle in his eyes. I watch him from the corner of my eyes, not daring to spare him a full on, eye-to-eye look.

His looks intimidate me.

His whole being is intimidating.

Because how am I supposed to remain calm with an extremely cute boy in the same room? How am I supposed to resist him? How am I supposed to breathe?

“So, Lyn,” he starts, a playful tease in his smooth voice that melts in your ear.

“Yeah?” I should really try to stay still, but I can’t. I am way too close to him right now. Maybe if I shift a little to the left now…

“You should have fun with this. You seem a little tense, since I came in here,” he says and I whip my head back, a burning, flustered smile on my face.

“Y-yeah, I know. I’m just…You know,” I stuttuer, waving around unnecessarily, my eyes wandering off to anywhere but him. It’s funny but I think my eyes are undeserving of this kind of beauty standing before me. The width between the counter and the wall isn’t too big, so we aren’t that far apart.

“Come on, just take it easy, Lyn,” he laughs and to my horror, he steps forward and easily drapes his arm around my shoulder. I think I squeaked.

“Are you okay?” he asks, eyes filled with curiosity that I hope will disappear soon.

“Of course, just…just nervous. First day of work and all,” I smile queasily, feeling a gurgle in my gut as he looks right into my eyes. Wow, I never knew brown is such a pretty colour…

“Oh, you’ll be fine. I heard from the boss you’re quite the trainee,” he laughs again and pats my shoulder before letting his hands fall to his side. He throws me a nimble wink, as I stutter and try to claim that I really wasn’t one.

“Hello, welcome to Sweetings,” Baekhyun greets the groups of girls who just stumbled their way into the store, giggling loudly. At once, their attention flits to Baekhyun.

They obviously came in for him, I thought, as I see the exchanged whispers and stolen glances at the innocent boy standing and waiting for them to make their orders. He hums lowly and taps his long, graceful finger on the table as he waits. It isn’t an impatient gesture, rather one of good-natured waiting.

“We are ready,” the tallest girl in the group of five announces and she steps forward, flicking her hair back. She blinks, forcedly, and puts on an alluring smile, in an attempt to impress Baekhyun but he isn’t swayed. He smiles professionally at her.

“Which one would you like, Penny?” he asks and with a shock, I realize that they must know each other. They all look about the same age, and judging by their giggles and shameless flirty looks…maybe classmates? There is only one private school I know around here and chances are…they are all from the same school.

“I’d like the…Sweet Love Potion, please,” she bats her lashes flirtatiously. I press my lips, disapproving of her actions.

“Um…The pink one?” Baekhyun offers, coughing lightly and a blush creeps up his cheeks. The other girls erupt in chiming laughter and Penny tries to keep up the smile that is quickly crumbling.

“Yes. The pink one,” she says curtly.

“Cup or cone?”

“Cup,” she says curtly but adds another flutter of eyelash.

“Lyn, could you get me a cup?” Baekhyun looks at me apologetically and points to the pile of cups sitting right behind him.

“Oh right, sure,” I rush forward and try to grab one quickly.

Lo and behold…The entire pile collapses.

“Woah,” Baekhyun’s laugh echoes over the girls’ loud, scandalized gasps.

“That’s not good,” Penny points out with a smirk. I start to apologize but Baekhyun shushes me.

“Sorry, I should have gotten them myself, it probably wasn’t very wise to ask you. The boxes were in the way,” he chuckles, pointing to the big box that my foot must have tripped over. I flush ten shades of red and try to clean up the mess, apologizing profusely.

“Wait a minute, Penny. Do you mind?”

“No, Baekkie, anything for you,” she says sweetly. Baekhyun excused himself and bends down.

“Lyn, are you okay? It’s not your fault at all,” he whispers, his hands collecting the cups much quicker than I am.

“Of course, I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be? It probably is. I am a klutz,” I blurt out and we lock eyes for a nanosecond before we both look away at the same moment. I notice Baekhyun’s hands slowing down and I clear my throat uneasily. It seems like time is just ticking away and I’m not sure the girls are very patient customers.

“You should get back to them, Baekkie. Uh, um, sorry, Baekhyun,” I say slowly, inhaling sharply at my slip-up. Baekhyun’s hands freeze and he laughs lightly.

“Lyn?”

I am afraid to look at him. He must hate me now. He doesn’t sound like the type to like to be called ‘Baekkie”. Oh dear gosh, who even calls people by those kind of names? Not college students, surely…

Against my better judgment, I carefully bring my eyes up to his eye-level and he grins. I think I am about to lose my heart and faint.

“You are really cute…and funny,” he adds as an afterthought. With that he stands up with a single cup and I hear the loud ‘squish’ of ice cream being dumped into the cup. I am left to wonder if he made a mistake, thinking I am Penny or something.

“Eight hundred won, Penny,” he says and Penny hands him her card without a word. When I finish cleaning up and separating the cups into two towers instead, I start walking toward the cash register.

“I think I should handle the register, Baek. You got her the order,” I mutter but Baekhyun shakes his head.

“It’s okay, I got it. You can get the next one,” he reassures me and I start playing with my uniform, at a loss of what to do. Penny shoots me a scathing glare and she flicks her long hair back again, a gesture clearly meant to scare me.

“Maybe you should let her do it, Baekkie. I mean, she should pull her weight around here. I don’t want you just doing everything for her,” Penny sighs and looks at Baekhyun innocently.

“Don’t worry, she is doing her job just fine, Penny. Here’s your card. Anyone else?” Baekhyun says it in a light tone, but I can sense a certain cutting edge to it. Penny purses her lips and the other girls scramble to their feet.

“Let’s just go,” Penny announces and just like that, they disappear, leaving the shop silent and in its tranquil state. I sigh and start pacing again, doing small things to occupy myself.

“Listen, I’m sorry I was clumsy. That won’t happen again,” I say loudly, letting my back face him as I try to collect the plastic spoons in the container.

“Like I said, don’t worry about it.” His voice comes up much closer to my ears than I expected, so I jump with a little gasp.

He was right next to me. A few inches away. His breath…was tickling me. His sweet voice whispering right in my ears. Under normal circumstances, I would be quite uncomfortable with this, but…

This is Baekhyun. My cute coworker.

I spin around and catch his face too close to mine, so I pull my face back and stop breathing. He pulls back in surprise too and blinks, before breaking out in a mischievous grin.

“Oops, sorry,” he apologizes, scratching the back of his head nervously.

Wait. Is he…is he nervous? I am not thinking straight right now. Where is a customer when I need one?

“Right,” I croak and return to picking at the spoons.

“Yeah,” he mumbles. The air is awkward between us and I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for him to say something.

“So…do you go to school around here?” I find my voice floating in the air instead.

“Yeah. I go to school with Penny and the girls. We go to Daejeon High School, right up the street,” he says. I hear a clatter of plastic on the counter and then silence again. Baekhyun starts drumming his fingers and I nod to the rhythm.

“Are you on your summer break?” Finally. He finally speaks. I am about to cry tears of joy but I think he has had enough of me.

“Yes, and I thought a summer job would be…fun,” I try to say enthusiastically.

Baekhyun scoffs. “Sure. Well, if it makes you feel better, I’ll be around all summer too. We’ll be stuck working together all summer long,” he says, half groaning. I can’t tell if he is teasing me.

“All summer long,” I echo his words with disappointment and Baekhyun chuckles.

“What? You don’t like working with me?” he muses and I shake my head vigorously, forgetting that all this time, we have our backs facing each other’s.

“No, it’s not that.”

“Then…you do like working with me?” He asks with hidden motives, and I can hear it. There is a certain hopeful boy behind those words. A test. An innocent question in disguise.

“Maybe,” I answer vaguely. I tap the spoons against each other just to fill the room with silence.

“Do you maybe want to go to this beach dance with me on Saturday?”

Now that is a surprise.

I don’t know if I am still breathing but I feel slightly light-headed. Didn’t we just meet hours before?

“I mean…well, it’s summer. We might as well…be a little spontaneous and all that jazz, you know? But if you don’t want to, that’s alright, Lyn,” he says awkwardly. Here I am, thinking this boy can never sound awkward or nervous; that those words don’t belong in his dictionary. His confident moves and voice had me fooled.

And he sounds so adorable when he’s nervous. I stifle a giggle.

“Maybe…Maybe I want to,” I declare casually, grinning to myself. I can feel the air thin around us. The awkwardness is gone in an instant.

“That’s really great! I can pick you up at five?” I jump again, because apparently, Baekhyun has a knack of appearing beside you anytime he likes.

“Sure, can’t wait,” I smile and try not to stagger as my legs turn to jelly under his gaze.

“Me too,” he says smoothly and walks away. I breathe again. I wonder how many times this is going to have to happen before I get used to it.

“Wait, you don’t know where I live,” I call out. A customer walks in with his dog, panting. Baekhyun greets him in the same cheery voice with those standard lines I know by heart already.

When the customer scans the ice cream selection, Baekhyun takes the time to flash me another wink and playful grin.

“I’ll know when I walk you home later,” he whispers.

When he laughs out this time, making the customer jump up in shock, I am undoubtedly certain that it is because of my red-as-tomato face and the handful of spoons I just knocked off the counter down to the floor. 

A/N: HAHAHA, inspired by my convo about boring summer job and cute boy coworker with my friend, Lyn <3 What do you guys think of it? Oh and...I know I said I might make a wolf fic...BUT IM SO UNINSPIRED RN TT_TT SHOOT ME. UGH. IM SORRY. but yeah...omg I wanna make it beautiful BUT IM JUST STUCK UGH. Ohkai. Bye <3