Yesterday, JongDae had been given the latter half of his day off. It was the first time in months the young man was able to have a bit of spare time to himself besides crawling home from work feeling half-dead and the miniscule slice of time he had when he woke up in the morning. Moreover, he hadn't spent his afternoon and evening cleaning and going shopping like he'd promised to himself but instead, the twenty one year old had lazed around his apartment. Instead of being the responsible man that he pretended to be whenever his Mother called, he had sat around in a t-shirt and his boxers while polishing off two share-bags of chips and an entire tub of ice cream to himself while playing video games and watching movies.

And now, on the following day of Saturday the 21st of December at 9:12am, Kim JongDae was late for work.

It was a bad day from the moment he had opened his eyes: He'd ran out of milk and had to skip his morning cup of tea, he could not for the life of him find a pair of socks that matched other than white ones, his bus was late and he'd forgotten his coat in the midst of a sleet downpour. Yes, Kim JongDae would rate himself as vaguely irked. And that was even before he arrived at the all important axis of his life.

Cherry Heart was based on the main high street and almost always packed to capacity with lovers fawning over each other as they ordered cute things from the cute menu while sharing cute skinship. It was a disaster for JongDae; the last time he had a girlfriend was back in his first year of High School and even that was as short lived as his hairstyle after walking out into the snowstorm. He still remembered her - Park LiNa - and how they got together during first form period after he'd plucked up all the courage he had to ask her out. She was as tender hearted as they came and he was way past smitten by her and then...And then she had him like a dog having it's bone snatched away and dumped him harshly in the centre of the cafeteria - All before lunch.

The young Waiter reminisced about his troublesome teen years that seemed to have ruined his ideals.  Opening the staff door at the back of the building, the young man tried to make it look as though he'd ran.

"You!"

JongDae almost jumped out of his dripping wet skin at the biting tone that was so close to LiNa's on that fateful day. Throwing himself around in fright, the brunette crashed into the pan rack. Cowering from the trauma of having a board eraser lobbed at his face by his first love, the Waiter shielded his head with his hands. "I'm sorry."

Standing by the sink, a woman he'd never seen before frowned at the odd sight. She knew that she could strike the fear of God into even the most brusque men, but this was a joke. "Stop whimpering, I haven't kicked you yet." Resting her right hand on her hip, the female with caramel locks cleanly swept up into a French Twist pointed at JongDae like she was about to scold him. "SungJin isn't in today and the place is heaving out there. You'll cover for him." Without waiting for a compromise, the apparently new employee went back to furiously chopping cabbage at the Head Chef's usual work station.

Shrinking back at the words, JongDae mumbled. "SungJin Hyung is a Line Cook..."

Not taking her eyes off the vegetable she was abusing, the female chef growled. "You think I don't know that? We're short staffed so wash up," Picking up the sliced cabbage, the blonde threw it into the large metal bowl in front of her, ready to be sent to the next man along. "put on a uniform and hurry your over here before I kick you up it." When she didn't receive an immediate agreement, the fiery chef sent a dark side glance to the boy loitering by the fire exit as if he was debating on making a run for it.

Before the words could even sink in, the Waiter-turned-Line Cook yelped. "Yes, Ma'am." Dashing towards the sink, the brunette fought to tug off his vest jacket.

Today, on Saturday the 21st of December at 9:12am, Kim JongDae was late for work. Today, Kim JongDae's life was shoved on a fast-track road to ruin.