A month has passed since the accident happened. It's been just two weeks since Shin-ae went back to working at the café. Everyone was still giving her a hard time by not letting her do the heavy work to get her body accustomed to it all again. There are still times that she loses her breath when she does stretenous activities although she tries her best to hide it so people would stop treating her like a fragile object.

“Hi, what can I get you?” Bora greeted the next customer in line but she didn’t look interested in talking to Bora. Nana’s eyes wandered until she found the girl she was looking for.

“Hey you!” Nana stomped towards her, the counter separating the two as Shin-ae was behind making a latte.

Shin-ae looked up in surprise as she saw Nana in her workplace. 'Why is she here?' Shin-ae thought flustered and annoyed.

“Take my order and make it perfect.” Nana commanded as if she owned the place.

“I’m sorry, I’m still not done with this one. I’m sure Bora will –” Shin-ae tried to stay professional but Nana proves to be stubborn and y.

“No. Finish that up quickly and take my order or else I will make a scene.” Nana threatened, as if she isn’t already turning heads because of her attitude.

Bora stepped in and offered her service but Nana glared at her.

“Are you deaf or is she incompetent? Is Shin-ae going to take all night to complete one easy drink?!” Nana started to mock her rival.

“Okay okay, just give me a few seconds.” Shin-ae just wanted to get things over and done with. The sooner she makes Nana's drink, the faster that she can leave the premises. She was already feeling embarrassed in front of her co-workers and the other customers.

Shin-ae walked towards the registrar and prepared herself to get Nana’s order. And oh boy did she order the the most obnoxious drink. She gave very specific changes to a regular drink, specifying the right temperature, replacing some of the ingredients to lessen the calories like requesting demanding for calorie-free sweeteners, sugar-free syrups, soy milk and what not.

“Should’ve just asked for tea or water.” Bora mumbled to herself as she watched Nana try to push Shin-ae over.

Since it is part of her work, Shin-ae complied to everything without a word. She politely handed over the complicated drink once she was through.

“Oh my gosh! This is not what I ordered. You did not get the temperature and the foam of the milk right. Why are you so stupid?! What did Donghae and Jonghyun oppa see in you when you are so slow. Do it again!” Nana harassed her, enjoying every second and every word that came out from .

“Hey, what is your problem? I think you’re just finding excuses to lash out on her.” Bora couldn’t help but voice out her opinion, regardless if she was still on duty.

“Do you value your job? Haven’t you heard that the customer is always right?” Nana countered, showing no signs of backing off.

“And haven’t you heard of an establishment having the right to refuse service?” Someone spoke up from the side.

Nana scoffed and looked to see who just jumped in. Instantly she became flabbergastered. Cat got her tongue when she realized that it was Jonghyun who stood up for Shin-ae.

“How dare you come here and create a scandal.” Jonghyun was truly displeased that Nana was making a scene in his work place, a place that holds so much to him and she knew better than to disrespect it. Now even Shin-ae felt bad that Jonghyun is here to see this.

“I –”

“Don’t make me call the police on you.” Another voice was heard, this time coming from the main door. Shin-ae and Nana both gasped when they saw that it was Donghae who just came in to the picture.  Fortunately Donghae was just nearby and so he’s able to rush as soon as Bora texted him that his ‘special’ friend was being targeted by his ex. Yes, Bora got the whole story from her friend when they caught up with each other after her accident. She copied his number from her phone for 'just in case' moments…just like this one.

“Nana stop tormenting Shin-ae. Although Jonghyun and I don’t see eye to eye, I am pretty sure that I speak for Jonghyun and I when I say that I want you to stop showing up in our lives.” Donghae stated firmly.

“I was just looking out for both of you.” Nana tried one more time but no one was buying her excuses. They all saw right through her. How lucky is Shin-ae to have both Donghae and Jonghyun stand up for her.

Nana huffed and glared at Shin-ae one last time before storming out of the café.

Jonghyun pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to ease the stress. He then called Shin-ae to his office and asked her if she was okay before telling her that he's giving her the rest of the day off after what happend.

"No, it's okay. I can continue with work." Shin-ae refused his kind offer.

"Shin-ae, it's fine. Go with Donghae.” Jonghyun urges Shin-ae to relax with him, almost like conceding to his competition. He can see that she looks at him diffirently compared to when her gaze is fixated on Donghae. There's no point in competing anymore. From this point on, he will just continue to look after her without romantic intentions, unless Donghae messes up.

“Thank you.” She sincerely told Jonghyun before giving him a hug.

“Thanks. You didn’t need to come and do that.” Shin-ae also thanked Donghae as soon as they were out of the cafe.

“I didn’t need to, I wanted to. She’s too annoying to put up with.” And I didn’t want Jonghyun to have defended you instead of me.

Donghae led Shin-ae to his car and offered to drive her around, promising to be extra careful.

For some random reason, Donghae drove quietly until they ended up at a water park.

“What are we doing here?” She asked with an amused expression as soon as they entered the place.

“To emphasize on a saying…”

“Which is?”

“You can't change some things, you just got to ride the waves and hope you end up on a nice sandy shore somewhere.” He stated as he looked ahead, watching as some of the people swam against the artificial waves in the big pool. “We don’t live near a beach so this will have to do.” He followed up when he finally turned his head to look at Shin-ae.

“You have been successful in ignoring and avoiding me and it’s a pity that we had to meet up again after a long time because of what happened earlier. Look, I really am sorry for last time.” He sincerely apologized, his eyes bored into hers. Yes, it's been a month since they last saw each other because of Doghae's slip-up and his lack of strength to walk up to her to say these things that are way overdue.

“I know. I just wanted to see how long before you’d put your pride and ‘image’ aside to personally tell me seriously.” She looked down with a smile on her face, pleased that they finally got things off of their chest. 

Out of nowhere, Donghae unconsciously extended one of his hands and fixes Shin-ae’s bangs for her. He retreated as soon as he realized what he did. It all seemed so sudden.  They both couldn’t look at each other.

“Oh there’s an ice cream vendor.” Shin-ae pointed to break the awkward moment. She walked right to the cart while Donghae followed close behind her with a satisfied look on his face.

“You look so cute kid. Tell you what, I’ll give you a discount.” The ice cream vendor told the young girl buying a popsicle for herself and her younger brother.

“Oh maybe I can attempt to act cute so we can get a discount too.” Shin-ae whispered to Donghae.

With a sweet tone of voice, Shin-ae ordered for the ice cream the she liked. The man had a grin on his face, it's obvious that Shin-ae’s charm started to work on him.

Shin-ae was about to ask how much it was, again with ‘aegyo’ when Donghae stopped her.

“I’ll buy it for the original price, just stop acting cute…” He muttered, faintly sounding irritated.

“Young lady, your boyfriend is getting jealous. He probably doesn’t want you to act cute to anyone except for him.”

Shin-ae and Donghae both blushed upon hearing the man’s words. Donghae cleared his throat and just handed the payment to the vendor while Shin-ae tasted her ice cream and looked somewhere else.

Hope you enjoy the holidays with your family & friends! :) 

Sorry for being MIA in this story...hope to hear from you guys. Wrapping this story up pretty soon