chapter.17  »  not so crazy.

“That's crazy, Soojin.  Dogs can't talk.,” Mara said after I told her what happened yesterday.

“You might think it's ‘crazy’, but it's not.  It really is not.  My dog just talked and—”

“Sounds like crazy to me,” Seungpyo muttered, rummaging through the supplies in the cabinet under the circle counter.

I looked at him, his back facing me.  “I heard you there, Seungpyo Kim.”

He mumbled a low sorry.  I looked back at Mara with eyes that begged her to believe the words I was saying ever since I entered the café.  She just eyed me with her eyes wide, eyebrows propped up, telling without words that what I was trying to say was crazy and impossible.  It clearly wasn't.

The amount of customers present at the café was just the right amount to have them seated a table or two away from each other.  Everything was going smoothly, although my head was in spirals.  Also, strangely, Jonghyun wasn't there yet.

I sighed.  “You know what, just... forget about it.  You're right, it's crazy.  I was probably just not paying attention.”

Mara's gaze was burning holes all through me, then she patted me on the shoulder.  “It's good to have you back on your right mind.”

She left to go assist customers, followed by Seungpyo who ended up cleaning the windows up and wiping tables.  I gripped on the part of the counter behind me and exhaled, my mouth forming an open pout.  I dug one of my hands into my apron's pocket and pulled out my phone.

“‘Menu’, ‘Messages’, ‘Call Log’, ‘Contacts’...”  I read the headings of each icon at the bottom of the screen.

“Soojin, customer coming!”  Mara's voice boomed from the door of the café to where I was.

Indeed, a customer stood smiling at the counter.  She was an elderly... who didn't look so good, as in, she didn't look like she had any money with her as she had almost ruined clothes on.  The customers in the café sneered at her and threw glares at her, but she kept on smiling.

“Good day, ma'am, what can I do for you today?”  I asked with a smile on my face, ignoring every person who was judging her.

“Must I have the best beverage you serve here?  I am parched, dear.”  She replied with that  usual jolly tone used by elderly women.  The glares were becoming more and more irritating to me.

“Well, the most ordered beverage here is our vanilla frappé, and if you would like that...”

“I would like that, please,” she replied quickly.

I raised an eyebrow slightly, curious as to why the lady seemed to be in a hurry, then I relaxed.  “Expect it around ten minutes, ma'am.”

“Thank you heaps,” she said, walking off to one of the tables near the counter.

As I brewed her frappé, I started to get an eerie feeling.  I turned around and found the woman looking at me with a plain gaze, which made me quickly return to the brewing.  Why was she looking at me like that?  What did I do?  I quietly sighed and continued making her coffee.

“Hey,”  Mara popped up beside me.

“Hey to you, too,”  I replied, not taking my eyes off of the brewer.

“Why is he not here yet?”  She asked.

I poured the coffee into one of the regular-sized cups.  “Who is not here yet?”

She slapped me lightly on my arm, and I winced.  “You perfectly know who is not here yet.  Why do you think he's not here today?”

I had an idea of whom she was speaking.  I furrowed my brows.  “How should I know?  And why would I care?”

Mara groaned.  “You are such a delight.  He's always here whenever the new employee's here!  And plus, you two are getting friendly with each other.”

“I don't know, man.  He's probably out there somewhere, obviously not here.”  I tightened the lid of the cup and stuck a plastic straw in the lid hole.

She groaned again, walking to my other side.  “It's driving me crazy how you're so cool about it.”

“Why should I not be cool about it?”  I strolled back to the counter and, before I could call the elderly, realized that it would be disrespectful to have her walk by herself back to the counter.

“Something's wrong here...”  Mara tapped her foot impatiently.

“Not my business.”  I shrugged slightly, making Mara groan again.

I walked around and out the circular counter, carefully walking to the elderly woman's table.  She looked up at me surprised with wrinkly eyes and heavily freckled face as I settled the coffee cup on the table.   formed a light smile.

“Thank you very much, dear.  Thank you.  Where would I find such a courteous person anywhere these days?”  She replied with so much gratitude I felt my eyes water with joy.

The other customers, however, had the opposite reaction.  While most of them didn't care, the others felt the need to judge the elderly with all their might.  They were probably wondering why I was still hanging around near her when she didn't look as clean as everyone else in the place.

“It's my job, ma'am.”  I beamed.  “Can I get you anything else at all?”

“Oh, no, none at all.”  She waved her hand at me, sipping the coffee with all content.  “But... would you mind sitting with me for a moment?  I would like the company of a gracious young lady for a few more moments.”

I looked around first, seeing the eyes of the people in the café (except for Mara's and Seungpyo's) telling me I shouldn't dare sit with the woman.  The woman's eyes begged me, however, and I couldn't ever let down a begging elderly.  And I couldn't let down an opportunity to annoy a bunch of judgmental people.

I sat down on the seat across from her, feeling proud of myself.  “I wouldn't mind a single bit.”

We started chatting about random but interesting topics, starting off with my life and then hers.  My life was a party compared to hers.  Every word she uttered tugged at the strings of my heart, almost sending me to the floor to bawl my eyes out.  It turned out that three weeks after she had turned two years old, the Korean War began.  Her parents were killed by North Korean soldiers, along with her three other siblings, just when they were about to escape their home.

“But how much is a two-year-old really capable of?  All I remember was I took off running when the soldiers were not looking.  I just ran far, far, far away...  far from the civilization.  I ended up under the care of an American soldier when they passed by the dry fields I was hiding at five days after my escape.  His language I couldn't comprehend, but I felt we both missed our families.”

A lump was caught in my throat.  I gulped.  “And... after the war... what happened?”

“Well, it was all fun.  I was successful at learning his language, and he learned mine.  We learned from each other. Until one day, when he left the army barracks, one of his friends told me his return... would take very long.”

It was probably because they overheard the two of us, but Mara and Seungpyo slowly walked to our table, ready to hear more.  The customers who sneered at her, one by one, were beginning to leave.  I heard some of them sobbing on the way out.

Mara bent down, her eyes at the same level as the tabletop.  She placed her hand above the woman's.  “You're very strong, ma'am.  You really are.”

“We're very honored to be able to hear your story coming from you personally.”  Seungpyo smiled.

A tear escaped my right eye as I placed the woman's hand in mine.  “I'm so thankful to have met you.”

The woman placed her other hand above mine, her eyes glistening.  “I'm thankful as well.”

Moments later, we dispersed.  Every now and then, Mara, Seungpyo, and I would check on the woman and ask her how she was doing.  There were little to no customers by that time, and the woman bid farewell.  The three of us knew perfectly well that she didn't pay for her drink, but we cared less.  Mara volunteered to pay for it, but we agreed just to divide the payment among the three of us.  After we had cleaned the café, I left the place.

My head turned to the left and I saw the same elderly woman walking across the street, all the cars at a halt in front of her.  I smiled, remembering the wonderful day I had and story I heard.  I wondered whether other people bothered to find out about her life.  Then, just as I was about to walk away, I turned to look at the old lady again.

The only difference was she was suddenly wearing an elegant white gown.

author's notes.

dun dun dun duuuuuuuuuuun.  she is now wearing an 'elegant white gown'~  i wonder...  heheh, well hello guys!  i couldn't update yesterday because of certain things, so i'm sorry again.  but here's the updaaate~!  pretty dramatic, but we need a little of that here and there.  anyways, hello new subbies, and thank you for reading!

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