“Ladidadida~ One green tea latte for my pretty lady and one cappuccino for my other pretty lady!” Aron flirted and winked at the two girls at the table he was serving. The girls giggled and took pictures of him like he was some sort of celebrity.

Hye Mi stood at the counter near Mrs Shin and looked around the once quiet café, almost every table was now filled with giddy girls, all holding phones and cameras to take picture at the so called “Little Paradise’s Prince”. She spotted Aron winking at a girl who was taking the photo of him and rolled her eyes. Yeah that’s cool, take over my house and take my job as well.

“Hye Mi-ah,” a motherly voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

She turned back to face Mrs Shin, who had just finished making two soy chai lattes. “Yes ahjumma?”

“Don’t you think Aron needs a break honey? He’s been running around like that all day,” there was the tone of worry in her voice. “He won’t take his salary and it’s already been 6 days of full tables. He should be exhausted by now. Should we help him serve?”

Hye Mi thought for a moment before heaving out a sigh, Mrs Shin was right. Aron had followed Hye Mi to work ever since he arrived and had literally begged Mrs Shin to let him work, he even volunteered for free so that she didn’t have to pay for an extra person’s salary. Fortunately, or unfortunately for some, his ‘apparently’ good looks had attracted hundreds of high school students who came in almost every hour to see him. “Ahjumma you know we can’t, my legs are aching because of the ridiculous time I have spent standing here looking around. Those girls only want him to serve him.”

“I’m just scared he is going to faint before your shift ends,” Mrs Shin frowned.

“I hope he does, I’ll be able to shove him into a box and ship him back to California,” Hye Mi muttered as she grabbed a cloth to cleaned one of the tables.

“What did you just say about shipping someone back to Cali?” Aron asked as he came next to her and picked up the used cups. “You better not be talking about me.”

She gave him a sarcastic grin with her eyes closed. “Nope, I was just talking about some crazy monkey I picked up on the streets,” she said and walked off.

Aron watched as she walked into the kitchen area and softened, it was obvious that she didn’t like feeling useless at her own workplace but he didn’t want her to overwork herself.

Just as he was about to take the used cups into the kitchen, a loud bang echoed throughout the café, followed by a series of screams and shouts. One of the girls has fallen onto the floor, shivering and ing everywhere. Her eyes were rolled back, as if she had been possessed by some demon.

Frightened, Mrs Shin let out a screech and picked up the phone to dial the ambulance. Aron dropped the cups and immediately ran over to the girl, who was now surrounded by all the other girls. “Excuse me,” he said as he pushed through them and knelt down besides the ing girl. He tried grabbing her hands to calm her down but it was no use, since her legs were also all over the place.

Hye Mi, who was washing the dishes heard all the commotion outside and immediately ran out, she spotted Mrs Shin at the counter, desperately trying to call someone and then a group of crowd gathered around something on the left side of the café. Not seeing Aron in the crowd, a bad feeling muzzled up in her chest and she immediately ran over.

“Excuse me!” she shouted as she pushed through the girls, who were heartless enough to just stand there and record the scene. Her eyes landed on Aron trying to calm a shivering girl, she gasped and dropped down next to them. “Oh my god what happened?” The girl’s face was now going green, as if someone has blocked her breathing pipe.

Aron shook his head as he desperately tried to keep the girl in one place, afraid she was going to hit the tables and hurt herself. “I don’t know! She just suddenly dropped onto the floor and started shaking!”

“What do we do?!” Hye Mi shouted, her heart was beating its way out of her ribcage and it was getting hard for even her to breathe. “Should I call the ambulance?” The word ambulance made her head swirl.

As if on cue, Mrs Shin pushed her way through the crowd and stared at them. “I called the ambulance; they said they’ll send someone over in 30 minutes. In the meantime we need to make sure she’s lying on the side and that she had enough free space around her.”

Hye Mi nodded and gently held onto the girl, Mrs Shin knelt down to help her move the girl to the side while Aron stood up to separate the crowd. “You heard what she said girls! Give her some room! Go outside and take a cigarette or something!”

Frowning at his sudden behaviour, the girls grumpily but quietly headed outside the café. Once they were all gone, Aron turned his attention back to the girl. “Did they say to do anything else ahjumma?”

“Umm…” Mrs Shin thought for a moment, “They said to keep her conscious and make sure her breathing rate doesn’t slow down.”

Hye Mi grabbed onto the girl’s cheeks and tried to make her look at her. “Can you hear us? We need you to stay awake with us? Can you hear! Please respond!”

The girl didn’t respond, nor met eyes with Hye Mi. Her eyes were rolled and she was shivering even more than before. Hye Mi thought it was more of shaking, like someone was electrocuting her from the inside. She grabbed onto the girl’s hands tightly, in hopes of calming her down.

Meanwhile, Kris was walking down the streets. Work at the hospital was getting a bit overwhelming so he needed a break, and the fact that he hasn’t seen Hye Mi’s face for almost a week had led him to the café. As he looked up, he spotted a crowd standing in front of the café, almost all of them were in uniform and they were peering into the windows of the café.

“Do you think she’s okay?” He heard one of the girls ask as she was looking through some pictures on her camera.

“I don’t even know,” her friend responded.

“What the hell even happened to her?” One girl frowned. “She made us get kicked out of the café, I didn’t ditch school for this. I wanted to see the ulzzang!”

 “Do you think she’s possessed?” One girl asked in a gossipy way. “Did you see how she was just shivering and shaking everywhere?!”

Kris furrowed his eyebrows, none of the things these girls said made sense, so he decided to go inside. “Excuse me,” he muttered as he pushed past the girls.

The girls squealed and jumped at the sight of another handsome man entering the café. “This café is like eye candy heaven!” One girl announced.

The moment Kris stepped into the café, he saw nothing but a bit of whispers coming from a familiar voice. He jerked his head to the left and saw three people surrounding a girl. Without thinking twice, he rushed over.

Aron, who thought he had footsteps, turned around with a frown. “Didn’t I say that the girl needs some space- OH MY GOD DOCTOR WU!” His eyes widened when he saw Kris.

Hye Mi stopped trying to get the girl’s attention and immediately looked up. “Please help her Kris!”

Kris nodded and immediately ran over, he took off his blazer and knelt down. “What happened?” he asked as he examined the girl, who has now gone into a shade of dark purple, and her eyes were completely white now.

Before Hye Mi could respond, Aron had bet her to it. “Everything was fine! She just suddenly collapsed and started ing about!”

Kris furrowed his eyebrows to concentrate; he had never dealt with anything like this before, which was nerve wrecking. “Have you called the ambulance?”

Mrs Shin immediately nodded and said, “They should be here soon.”

Kris nodded in response. He looked down at the girl and he touched her forehead before he decided to carefully flip back so that she was now facing the roof.

“What are you doing?” Mrs Shin shrieked, “They said to keep her on a side!”

“Keeping a person on the side is just a basic emergency process, it doesn’t refer to all emergencies,” Kris replied calmly as he bent down to listen to the girl’s heart rate. He wasn’t slowly down and he sighed in relief. He leaned to a side to examine her face, he noticed her lips were slightly puffed out and immediately tried to pry it open. Hye Mi watched in horror at his actions.

“She’s biting her tongue off! Quick! Give me something to put into !” Kris shouted.

Aron scrambled around frantically, “Like what?”

“Something like a ball of cloth or something!”

While Aron ran into the kitchen to look for a clean enough cloth, Hye Mi couldn’t wait any longer and ripped off the sleeve of her pink blouse. She rolled it into a ball and handed it to Kris. “Here, try this.”

Kris took it without hesitation and placed it into the girl’s mouth so she wouldn’t bite her tongue anymore. Symptoms of a seizure were taking place with this girl and were getting worried. He bent down to listen to her heart rate again and to his surprise, it was slowing down!

Colour almost drained from Mrs Shin’s face when Kris started doing CPR, she managed to get herself up before running over to the counter to call the emergency center again.

Hye Mi watched Kris as he continued performing the emergency procedure; she wasn’t sure what he was trying to do but to see the determination evident in his face made an ‘oomph’ feeling in her stomach. The way he strongly pushed onto the girl’s chest to get her heart running again made her see him in a much manlier spotlight now. It was amazing how at ease she suddenly felt the moment Kris stepped into the cafe.

Maybe it was his doctor aura, maybe it was his comforting aura, or maybe it was just her. Either way, Hye Mi knew there was something different about him from this moment. She knew that he wouldn’t be just a doctor or a classmate anymore. He was going to be someone more than that. Way more than that.

------------------------------------

“Doctor Wu, you did a very good job,” the paramedic praised as he shook hands with Kris.

“It’s my job,” Kris humbly replied. “So how is she?” he asked as she was pushed onto the ambulance.

“Thanks to you, her condition is now stabilised, but we’re still taking her to the hospital for a thorough check up, just in case it occurs again.”

A satisfied feeling engulfed Kris’ stomach and he finally was able to relax. He nodded and thanked the paramedic before they drove the ambulance away.

After everything was over, Hye Mi and Aron helped Mrs Shim close the cafe.

“Are you sure you want to close it today?” Hye Mi asked, concerned. “We can always stay for a few extra hours.” Aron nodded eagerly.

“No it’s alright sweetie, you two have done enough work today and thanks to Aron, I made more profit today than I need,” Mrs Shin replied warmly. “You two should go home and rest now, especially you Hye Mi.”

“Deh!” Hye Mi and Aron chorused.

“I’ll get going now then. Thank you Kris for stopping by today, you really saved a life back there.” Mrs Shin gave Kris a grateful smile and patted his shoulder before walking off.

Kris coughed and turned to Hye Mi and Aron. “So… Did you want a lift?”

Aron noticed the tint of shyness in the doctor’s eyes and couldn’t help but snicker at the thought of such a manly doctor being all shy and cheesy. Anyone could tell at first glance that the guy was interested in women, either Hye Mi was really stupid or she was just downright ignorant.

“Umm, its fine, Kris. We can take the bus home,” Hye Mi tried her best not to stutter. She was amazed at how fast her body could change in just a short time.

Before Kris could even protest, Aron lazily slung an arm over Hye Mi’s shoulder and pulled her close with a grin. “Don’t worry Doctor Wu. I’ll make sure no one harms her until we get to our apartment.”

Kris stiffened at his comment. “Our?”

“Ahuh!” Aron nodded. “Didn’t Hye Mi tell you? We live together now.”

Hye Mi rolled her eyes and elbowed his stomach, “Don’t listen to him.”

“Oof,” Aron doubled over. He shot Hye Mi a look and stood up straight. “Meanie.”

Kris blinked at their close interaction and couldn’t help but envy Aron. “Oh.”

Hye Mi gave him a fake laugh and wrapped her arms around Aron’s arm, ready to drag him away. “We’ll get going now! Don’t wanna miss the bus! Bye!” She waved to Kris before dragging the protesting Aron away.

As they turned at the corner, she dropped Aron’s arm and placed her hands on her heart to check her heart beat. Just by looking into Kris’ eyes was already making her crazy.

Aron stared at her accusingly as they slowly walked to the bus stop. “What are you thinking?”

“What?” She blinked at him.

“Your ears are red,” Aron noted teasingly.

“Nothing,” Hye Mi mumbled. Not wanting to be caught by her loud mouth best friend.

He stayed quiet for a moment before blurting out a question, “You like Kris right?” When her eyes widened, he knew he was correct and mentally celebrated. This is going to be easier than I thought…. Muahahaha!

“N-No I don’t!” Hye Mi shouted. “I can’t anyway… He’s gay, remember?”

“Oh yeah…” Aron tried to act dejected. “What a shame…” He secretly stared at her reaction.

Hye Mi sighed and let her shoulders droop. “Yeah… What a shame…” Shame shame shame!