chapter.7  »  but if you would notice me.

All the while as I lay staring at the ceiling of my bedroom, I thought about how I would face the manager of Sweet Swirls.  I had to be honest to myself.  I had forgotten how job interviews went since I didn't have to go through them for four years straight.

Minutes flew by and I forced myself to go to sleep.

Slowly I felt myself falling into a trap-like routine to suddenly wake up in the middle of the night and be in awe at the sight of Soojin's face.

I couldn't accurately calculate the exactness of a dog's vision, but mine was good enough just to outline the contours of her facial features, like her nose and eyes and lips.

My face was at a good distance from her, just about three inches.  Not too far, and not too close either.  I picked my favorites out of all the things that God had given the allowance to take place on her face, and I grew to like her lips the most.

It was a cliché to like a girl's lips, of course, but Soojin's were quite unique.  The edges curled just at the right points, and even if she wasn't smiling in her sleep, it looked like she was.  They weren't too plump or too thin; they were somewhere in the middle.  I noticed they were pouting, like Soojin was about to give a kiss.

One night while I stared at her, I had almost lost all the control I had and tripped only to fall five centimeters from her pink lips.  My dog eyes were wide, and I stumbled backwards on four feet.

But tonight, I was tempted to trip just once again.

Prince behaved really well when I explained to him I had to leave to go to Sweet Swirls and talk with the manager.

Well, that was sort of a lie.  He didn't really behave well, at least not after a couple of minutes.

At first he bit at the couch angrily and ran around with this stuffed toy in his mouth, shaking his head all around.  Before his toy got ruined and before I had to buy another couch, I called him over and his soft white fur, explaining to him softly that I wasn't going to be gone forever.

I caught myself before I even started talking to him like he was a real human.  It was all in my head, and I had gotten lost in the moment.  Prince snuggled me one last time before I placed him back on the ground, making sure I left him enough food and water for the unknown amount of time I would be gone.

With the business card Kyungsoon gave me and a folder with my résumé and other documents, I looked around and asked people where I could find Sweet Swirls.  They pointed me in all directions possible before I found myself standing in front of the café.  I looked back, and slapped my forehead when I saw the post and trash bins on the sidewalk across the street.  I estimated that Sweet Swirls was at least four to five blocks from where I lived.

There was a sign hanging on the glass walls of the café, exclaiming that Sweet Swirls was hiring.  The sign looked like it had been tattered by wind or time, but it was still there.  Because of the glass walls I had a good look of the café before I even went inside.  There was no doubt that Sweet Swirls and my previous workplace were rivals.

I pulled the door open, and the bell above sounded.  My head shot back when I realized everything was different from what it looked like while standing outside.  I had a thought maybe the glass walls had a grade like certain eyeglasses did.  The cars parked outside looked smaller, and the inside of the café looked bigger from the outside.

There were at least ten small coffee tables placed inside the café.  They were colored in pastel green and really light khaki.  The chairs were also the same color, except the brown on the chairs was darker.  The floor was wooden, varnished to have a glossy look.  There were cute wall decals of owls on trees and birds and butterflies on the pale yellow walls that weren't glass-made, a thick line of pastel green lining the base of the walls.  Two cash register and other things were in the middle of the café inside a circular counter while the coffee grinders were mounted in containers on the wall in an arch-like formation behind it, separated by a small walkway where customers could walk freely.

Sweet Swirls was self-service, as explained by the exposed, different-flavored brewing coffee grinders and coffee cup dispensers on either side of the café.  Maybe that was another reason it was different from the other café, apart from the nicer and friendlier atmosphere of Sweet Swirls.

The cashier behind the circular counter beamed at me.  She was wearing a pastel pink apron and a cap of the same color.  “Good morning, ma'am!  How may I help you today?”

I walked towards the cashier and leaned forward a little, my voice almost in a whisper.  “Uh, I saw your sign outside, and I'm interested in applying for a job.  Is your manager available?”

The cashier's smile stayed, but there was something different about it, like she was thinking.  She looked at me straight in the eyes.  “I'm the manager of Sweet Swirls, ma'am.”

“O- Oh, sorry.  I should've noticed.”  I was taken aback, perhaps even a little embarrassed.  The manager just laughed at me as I took a glimpse of her name tag.  Manager, indeed.  “So... yes, I am interested in it.”

“Let's sit down over here, shall we?  So we can talk more.”  She bobbed her head to my left, pointing at an empty table just by the coffee cup dispenser.

I stood by table and waited for her to arrive, my back facing the entrance of the café.  I turned and saw her holding two cups of coffee with another worker standing behind the counter.  She set one of the cups in front of me, the sweet aroma of hot caramel macchiato escaping the cup as she sat down.  She motioned for me to sit as well.

Though I was tempted to take the macchiato, I shook my head.  “You really shouldn't have.  I- I really don't have any money with me right now—”

She chuckled.  “It's alright, it's alright.  It's on the house, don't worry.  Let's talk about that job now, alright?”

“O- Okay.  I mean, you really shouldn't have but... Okay, we'll talk.”  I nodded, feeling awkward on the inside.  My smile was awkward, too, almost lopsided.

She introduced herself as Mara, half-Korean half-Spaniard, after I introduced myself and handed her the folder.  As she talked, I started noticing how she was half-Spaniard.  Her eyes were different, bigger and the brown was darker, but they were still pointy at the ends.  Her skin was a tad bit tan.  She looked beautiful.

“I have one question, though, if you don't mind me asking,”  Mara said, clasping her hands on top of my résumé.  “Why were you fired back at your previous work?”

Oh, I definitely minded, but I guessed being honest could get me employed.  “To be honest... I really have no idea.”  I sighed, and Mara nodded her head, listening to me.  “One moment I was just wiping the tables, then the next the manager called me over and fired me without telling me the reason.”

“So,” she replied immediately, “if I call them later today to ask why you were fired, do you think they would tell me the reason?”

“That really depends.  After working over there for four years, I've noticed they're sort of secretive about things, especially stuff that have to do with our jobs.  I mean, it's actually not the first time somebody got fired without them knowing the reason.”

Mara nodded her head again, her lips tight and forming a straight line.  “Well,” she placed her hand above the table vertically, “you're hired.”

I stared at her hand wide-eyed.  I pointed at myself, my mouth opened.  “M- Me?  H- Hired?”

“Yes, you.”  Mara laughed.  “You're hired.  We can't let your four-year experience go to waste.  That exceeds the experience qualification of Sweet Swirls, actually, and you seem pretty friendly.  Just the perfect employee Sweet Swirls is looking for.”

I blushed slightly and shook her hand.  “Thank you...”

“Mara.  Just call me Mara.”  She leaned forward and whispered, “I really don't want the customers thinking I'm the manager here.  They get tense when they find out.”

I laughed and pointed at her name tag.  “Your name tag shows it, though.”

“Does it?  Oh, it does!  Darn, forgot to change it back.”  She took the tag off and flipped it, revealing the side that said ‘Cashier’ instead of ‘Manager’.  “Thank you for telling me.  I knew I was forgetting something.”

I giggled again.  “It's okay.”

“So, when can you start?”  Mara asked, her eyes round and twinkling.

I thought for a second.  “I can start... maybe tomorrow?  Tomorrow, I'll be here.”

“Actually, no, you're not starting tomorrow.”  She said, and I was shocked.  She waved her hands.  “No, no, I didn't mean it that way.  I mean tomorrow will be like your training, to get you started on things.  Then the day after that, you can start.  Does that sound good?”

“Yes, that sounds great.  I'll be here tomorrow then, same time or earlier.”

“That sounds nice.”  Mara nodded.  She leaned in again and lowered her voice.  “And by the way, someone's been staring at you ever since they got here.”

I became alert.  What if it was the manager from the other café?

“Who?”

Mara pointed at the person with her eyes.  I looked behind me, and saw a guy sipping from his cup of coffee.  He kept his eyes on me the entire time.  His face looked so exotic for a moment I thought he was a foreigner.  I looked back at Mara, my heart beating so loudly I could hear it in my ears.

“Isn't he handsome?  Some girls go here just to see him at this time of the day.”  Mara turned into a gossipy friend rather than a strict manager in a snap.  Perhaps that was a reason why no one had been hired.  They probably thought Mara was too friendly to be a manager, that she might not be able to control them.  Too bad for them.

“He's... good enough, I guess.”  I shrugged.

Mara giggled and stood up.  But before she left, she said, “He's single.”

I smiled at Mara and watched her walk away.  I sighed, proud of myself for finding a job that easily, and stuffed the papers back in the folder.

Tempted badly, I looked back and saw the guy staring again.  He didn't look away.  I gave him a light smile as a friendly gesture, then he looked away.

Well, how rude.

AUTHOR'S NOTE.

another update!  aigoo, was this long?  sorry if i made you read quite a lot >< i just really wanted to get this down.  and yes, i've picked jonghyun as the handsome guy in the café.  heehee.  oh and if the colors i chose were confusing, here they are:  pastel green ,  light yellow ,  darker brown , and  light khaki .  and i also wanna brag about my new piece xD here, it's called “One More Wallflower”.  i'm not going to publish it, i don't think so, but i thought i could share it with you guys.

well, thank you guys for reading!  i love you all!

-