A yawn escaped through my widely opened mouth, accompanied by a loud sigh. I stretched my hands above my head and then leaned from one side to the other. That was when I realized that almost everyone in the place was looking at me. It hit me that what I was doing was very unlady-like so I shrunk into myself and then bowed timidly.

Puffing up my cheeks, I decided to head desk myself for my stupidity. But my head landed too hard that it caused quite a clatter from the objects on the table. I knew people were staring at me again so I kept my head down. It was too embarrassing to meet their disapproving eyes a second time.

I started to mutter profanities to myself when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It must be a worker. It had to be. I couldn’t believe there would come a time that I would be shooed out of the café. Out of all the places where I had caused my careless disturbances, why did it have to be my most favorite place? They were probably going to ban me from coming here. Forever.

Where else would I get my daily dose of coffee then? This was the only café I knew that served tiramisu coffee. The first moment I had a taste of that cup of heaven I knew that this was it. This was my place. I belonged here.

But that wasn’t what made this place so close to my heart. Nope. Not only did they serve caffeinated drinks here, they even had a mini library where customers could just lounge around…and read. Then there was that bookstore connected to the café. It was just a dozen steps away. This wasn’t just heaven on earth, this was paradise. How was I going to keep on living if I was forbidden from entering paradise?

“Yaa,” the worker said in a very deep voice.

It was quite rude of him to address a customer like that no matter how I had acted. It wasn’t my fault that I tended to be too much myself whenever I was here. It was because this café made me feel at home. The scent of coffee, the hint of cinnamon, and then the freshly baked pastries, it was obviously the café’s fault for being too great a café. They couldn’t tell me not to come here; instead I should stop coming here myself. That seemed appropriate. At least I wouldn’t continue to embarrass myself anymore. The annoying taps on the shoulder again.

“I’m going!” I announced, finally lifting my head. But my jaw dropped when I saw who the person actually was. “Heol, YongGuk-ah…”

“That’s YongGuk-OPPA to you,” YongGuk said, taking a seat opposite of me. “Were you sleeping?”

“Ani,” I scowled at him for making me give up on my paradise even if it was just in my mind. “I’m so glad you’re here after I embarrassed myself. Now I can stop from doing so any longer.”

“You’re an embarrassment as you are,” he chuckled, his pink gums showing. Sometimes I wonder if those weren’t real gums but were chewing gum lined along his teeth to look like gums instead.

“I’m not!” I threatened to hit him and to poke his eyes out, but he continued to make fun of me. He laughed, imitating my actions but looking ridiculous as he did it. Wait, that meant I was the one who was looking ridiculous. “Yaa, stop it! You’re embarrassing me!”

“I’m not the one with the bruised forehead!”