chapter.28  »  more.

A groggy beginning to a beautifully sunny day was not how I planned my day to begin.  But it began that way, so I had no choice but to groan as I rubbed my eyes, the sunlight piercing my eyeballs.  I flung my legs off of the bed and listened to my gut that told me to drag my way outside to the kitchen.

There in the kitchen stood Seungpyo wearing new clothes that consisted of a white collared shirt and grey pants that clung tightly to his legs.  His energetic persona shocked me.  What time did he wake up and why did he seem not as groggy as me?

As I scratched the back of my neck, the black microwave beeped.  Seungpyo pressed on a little rectangle at the bottom right corner of the oven and its small door swung open.  He dodged it and reached inside the box.

“Heads up!”  He said, throwing me whatever he head gotten from the oven.

I had no idea what ‘heads up’ meant.  The thing flew towards me and I let it fall to the ground while I stared at it absentmindedly, rubbing my eyes.  It was wrapped in plastic wrap.

Seungpyo groaned.  “Pick it up, pick it up, that's your breakfast!”

I bent low and did what he said, looking over it.  “What is this?”

“It's a microwaveable turnover,” he said while he poured himself some dark beverage that smelled something like coffee.

“What's a turnover?”  I opened the ‘turnover’ and smelled the essence of warm dough, cheese, meat, and tomato sauce combined, except the tomato sauce and meat smelled... inedible.

“I call it instant food,” he sipped from his mug, the smoke billowing in front of his face, “and the kind of turnover you're holding is a pizza turnover.”

I remembered about having learned On Earth cuisine, and one of the topics was pizza, and it never looked like the roll I was holding.  I curled my lips, then took a bite.  “Oh, gross.”

“I know, I know,” Seungpyo said.  He leaned his back on the countertop and continued sipping from his mug.  “It's pretty convenient, though, you have to give them that.”

“What time did you wake up?”  I asked with a mouthful of the pizza.  I sat on the nearest stool that stood by the countertop in the middle of the kitchen, my elbows on the granite top.  I was glad proper eating courtesies weren't as necessary in common public.

“Early,” he replied, “around... six o'clock, maybe.  I have work today.”

There was a clock placed way above the kitchen sink on the wall: 07:15.  “You never told me where you work at.”

“Oh, it's just a café a couple corners from here.”

“What's it called?”

“Sweet Swirls.”

I choked.  Seungpyo panicked and muttered “Crap!”, rapidly getting me a cup of water.  I drank from it, drained the cup, and Seungpyo stood in front of me with a worried look on his face.  He got me another round of water and I was slower with that one.

“Are you alright?”  He asked.

“Yeah, yeah, I'm fine,” I replied, wiping my mouth off of water droplets.  “It's just that... I feel like I've heard of that somewhere.  I can't remember where though.”

Seungpyo craned his head upwards where the clock was.  “Well, keep yourself from choking any further while I'm gone because I have to go.”

I followed him to the living room.  He gave me instructions as to what I should, should not, could, and could not do while he was gone.  He also said that this protocol would last all the way to the end of the week (it was Monday, so the protocol would end on Friday).  We stopped in front of the witchess, who still lay unconscious on the couch.

Seungpyo sighed.  “She's still not awake.”

I wasn't sure if Seungpyo was talking to me, but I answered, anyway.  “Yes.”

“Well,” he turned to me, “you're man of the house while I'm gone.  Take care, both of you.”

He clapped a hand on my shoulder and left.  I walked to the door and closed it, locking it as well.  The house was surprisingly quiet and eerie.  The witchess on the couch was still not moving, and I wondered whether I should bring her to my room so I could watch over her and myself at the same time.  Then I wondered... if she had the power to curse someone, wouldn't she also have the power to heal herself?

“You're really taking your time there, huh.”  It was my turn to sigh.  “I wish you would wake up.  Because believe it or not, I... I really, really, really need you right now.”

While I trailed my way to my room, I tried to recall how many times I have said I needed her in my head.  Countless.

“Good morning, what can I do for you today?”  The words droned out of my mouth.

All the while I served the customers who were coming in the café, the greeting sentence sounded like a mantra.  A boring, annoying, dead mantra that had no meaning to it whatsoever because 1) what was so good about the morning, and 2) there really was nothing I could do for them today.

Mara quietly mopped behind the counter, and even though I had my back turned to her I could still feel her judging eyes on me.  She wasn't glaring or anything, but I could feel her looking at me like I was somebody weird.  I wouldn't blame her; I did feel weird, myself.

“What's going on with Soojin?”  Mara whispered.  There was no way she was asking me directly, so I figured Seungpyo was beside her.

“None that I know of,” Seungpyo muttered.

I sighed in response, and I heard scurrying behind me as Mara and Seungpyo dispersed and went on about their jobs.  There was another customer in front of me, so I recited the mantra, accepted their payment, and called out “One small regular coffee”.  Seungpyo then brewed the customer's coffee.

Later on there was lunch.  Since a good majority of humanity didn't drink coffee midday, there weren't many  as many people in the café.  They were actually numerable: about five or six.  Two people were only there for the Wi-Fi while the rest had iced drinks.

Mara slid in the seat across from me.  “You're acting very weird today.”

I tore off a piece of ham in my sandwich.  “Great observation.”

She scoffed, hurt.  “And very rude!”

After swallowing the crunched sandwich in my mouth, I sighed.  “I'm sorry.”

She sighed, too.  “And I'm sorry about Prince.”

“How'd you know about that?”  My brows were furrowed while I continued eating.

“I saw a flyer on my way here this morning.  I recognized your phone number on it,” she replied, suddenly holding up a copy of the pamphlet Jonghyun and I handed out around two or three days ago.

“Oh.”  Was my only response.

There was silence after that.  I became so familiarized with quietness that I didn't even notice Mara get up, say some beautiful counsel to me, and leave to attend to, apparently, more customers at the counter.  I also didn't notice Seungpyo sit where Mara had sat before.

“Hey,” he said.

I nodded in response.

“Goodness, you're awful,” he replied.  I never thought judgmental things were in his vocabulary.

“Thank you,” I said stupidly.

“Listen, I...”  He sighed, too, just like Mara.  But the way he exhaled had something to it, like he knew something I didn't.  “I know a lot of complicated things... and they are quite unbelievable.”

I placed the sandwich on its wrapper sprawled over the table.  “What are you trying to say?”

“What I'm trying to say is that...”  Seungpyo lowered his voice to a whisper, “things are harder, messier, and more confusing than they all seem.  I just... I know a lot of stuff and—”

“Soojin?”  Someone interrupted.

I looked up.  “H- Hi, Jonghyun.”

Seungpyo growled under his breath.  “We'll talk later.”

Seungpyo stood up and left briskly, making his way to the counter.  I blinked at his retreating back, but my peripheral vision was entirely blocked by Jonghyun's face.  That was probably the first time I found him quite... annoying.

“What are you doing here?”  I asked abruptly.

He looked slightly abashed, his cheeks flushed a light shade of pinkish red.  Then I realized I must have asked rudely, but I didn't take it back.  He brought his head low, then he looked up, an unabashed façade replacing his other one.

“I thought I'd pay you a visit!”  He grinned, no glints in his eyes.

I forced myself to smile back, chuckling awkwardly, “And you did!  Wow...”

The rest that happened weren't much important, except for the meaningful glances Seungpyo casted at me throughout the remainder of the day.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

updateupdateupdate!  after ages, lololol.  hey guys!  did anyone miss me?  ><  anywhoos, so i updated and now, well, things are getting interesting~~~

i predict this story will end when i reach chapter 35, so... i have no idea yet, but i just want this story to end at a prime number (or a composite number like 30 which won't happen, and 40 which also won't happen).  so yeah :)

anyways, i hope you guys liked this chapter!  and pardon me for updating so late... because the future updates will be a bit late as well  ><  byebye~ God bless you guys!  <3

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