Chapter 1

“Hey, Tiffany, come & stock up on these canned of food!” Manager Seoyeon shouted out, at a young woman dressed in an old looking big striped shirt & well worn jeans with holes in the knees. She also had on an ugly bright neon yellow apron with big red letters saying ‘Choi’s number one grocery store’ imprinted on it. Tiffany, pushed her mid-back length, black hair out of her eyes as she strained her back & repeated to herself, “Lift with the knees, not the back.” Over & over again. She couldn’t afford to hurt her back again. There was just not enough money for her to afford medical care.

Tiffany clenched her teeth & lifted the heavy box of cans. Sweat appeared on her straight brow as she shakily climbed up the ladder & placed the box on the top shelf. After the feat, she sat down on the top of the ladder to take a short breather. Her breathing came out ragged & she had to take three deep breaths to calm her heart & nerves. She closed her eyes & willed herself to rest her eyes for just a little bit.

During this time, another young woman came to the aisle where Tiffany was. She was dressed more trendy & fashionable. She had on a white straight cut mini skirt & olive ruffle front tank top with some cute black carrini gladiator sandals to match. With a smile on her rectangular-shaped face, she sneaked up behind the ladder of the unsuspecting occupant & gave it a little shake. That woke her up. She opened her eyes widely & let out a little yelp as she clutched onto the sides of the ladder for dear life. She spotted the troublemaker as the culprit started laughing at the sight of her friend.

“Hey, Tiffany. Time for lunch so let’s go eat. My stomach is growling.” The young troublemaker woman said, “Sunny, you devil girl!” Tiffany shouted, “You are going to pay for that!” Tiffany quickly scrambled off the ladder while Sunny made a dash for it, all the while laughing. Sunny suddenly stopped as she ran into a guy who was reaching for some eggs from the refrigerated aisle. Tiffany then bumped into Sunny who pushed the poor guy into the fridge & right into the cartons of eggs he was carrying.

His oval-shaped face emerged from the fridge & Sunny burst out laughing while Tiffany had a horrified look on her oval-shaped face but she soon started laughing, too. The guy with the eggs was now one with the eggs. The impact of Sunny plus Tiffany caused his face to crash into the eggs, which resulted to the breaking of the eggs, which in the end, covered the guy’s face with slimy egg whites & yolks, plus added pieces of egg shells.

Tiffany quickly recovered enough to realize that she had just offended a customer. She quickly took off her ugly apron & used it as a towel to help wipe off the egg from the guy’s face. He was steaming & flushed with anger. He glared at Sunny who was still pointing & laughing, “Excuse me! I demand an apology!” He roared at Sunny, “I have never been so humiliated in my life & you.” He said, pointing at Sunny, “Have got to be the most disrespectful girl in the whole planet. How can you just stand there & laughed? Do you know who I am?” He angrily pushed Tiffany’s trembling hands away & took the apron to wipe his own face. Too bad, it couldn’t wipe away the red tinge from his cheeks. The redness wasn’t only due to his anger but to a sensitive reaction from the eggs making contact with his flawless white skin.

Sunny stopped laughing at his outburst. She was now also sporting a red flush on her cheek & it wasn’t from her fifty dollar makeup blush, “Hey, eggman. How dare you yell at me? I’m as respectful of a lady as you can ever meet. I can’t say the same for yourself.” She eyed him up & down critically, taking in his good looks & short black hair but the admiration stopped there. She was more measuring him up then appreciating his stature, “I’m not going to say sorry after your yelling. I have never been insulted in my life. Hah. Disrespectful. A pig is more respectful than you stupid eggman!” Tiffany looked from one steaming person to the other & decided to cut in, “I’m so sorry, mister. It was entirely my fault that you got egged. Please forgive me.” She bowed a couple of times, “Please let me make amends? I will offer to send your clothes to the dry cleaner. I will pay for it myself but please, don’t report this to my manager?”

The guy’s round, dark brown eyes softened at the sight of the distraught Tiffany but then, he heard the annoying ‘Tap tap tap’ of someone’s shoes on the linoleum & his eyes saw fire once again, “I will forgive you for what happened but I’m still waiting for an apology from your friend here. I won’t post charges if she apologizes now.” At those words, Tiffany went over to Sunny & placed her hands on one of her arms. She shook her slightly to encourage her to apologize, “Sunny, please apologize? You know what would happen if you don’t & he reports to Seoyeon. Please?” Tiffany’s eyes bore into Sunny’s, pleading. For her friend’s sake, she grudgingly murmured, “Sorry.” “What was that now? I can’t hear you. Speak up.” The guy cupped his ear & leaned closer to Sunny, “I said sorry, eggman!” Sunny shouted into his ear. This commotion caused Seoyeon to come over to inspect what all the fuss was about.

“What is going on here, Tiffany? Aren’t you supposed to be on your lunch break now? This isn’t a place for employees to talked.” Seoyeon said. She then averted her eyes to the dripping with egg guy & gasped, “M...Mr. Choi! How nice to see you! Have you c...come to check up on the store?! What happened?!” She then quickly glared at Tiffany, “It was you, wasn’t it, stupid girl?! Do you have a death wish or something?! Look what you did to the main boss’s son! You should be ashamed!” She yelled at Tiffany, & finally, said the dreaded words, “You are fired.” Tears welled up in Tiffany’s eyes. She couldn’t afford to lose this job. She already had two other jobs & one paid for rent & utilities while this low wage job & another one paid for her tuition at the prestigious SKY University.

Siwon aka Eggman, felt very bad for what had happened, “It’s okay, Mrs. Seo. I’m okay. No harm done. It wasn’t this girl’s fault. I...I just tripped over my own feet & fell into the fridge & eggs.” ‘Oh boy, what an embarrassing story.’ Siwon thought. His face was now pink from saying his outlandish story but anything to save a damsel in distress, right?

Not believing him, Mrs. Seo apologized a couple more times & bowed low to show her sincerity, “It’s okay. Really. This girl...um, Tiffany, right? She was kind enough to offer this...um.” He stopped right there as he finally registered the ugly bright thing that he had been wiping his face with. He had a dumbfounded look on his face, thinking how on earth his father could have allowed people to wear this atrocity to work. “Um...yeah. This apron when she saw me fall.” He walked over to Tiffany & put his arm around her shoulders, “If it were up to me, I would say she deserves a raise & an employee of the month award.” He gave Mrs. Seo his most charming grin. Sunny, on the other hand, didn’t find it charming at all. She pretended to gag & choke. Thumping her chest lightly, she coughed out “Flirt.” Tiffany, who was standing nearest to her, stamped on her bare toes, hard. Sunny let out a slight, “Ow.” & glared at her friend.

Mrs. Seo eyed the three of them suspiciously but decided not to comment on anything more. She pasted on a fake smile towards Tiffany & a genuine one to Siwon & Sunny, “But of course, Tiffany is one of the best workers here. A raise, you say? Sure, whatever you say, boss.” She then looked at Tiffany again, with distaste but said rather too sweet to believe, “I will raise your wages from seven dollars & fifty cent every hour to eight. Sounds good?” Tiffany was speechless with happiness even though it was only a fifty cent increase. Siwon shook his head, “No. That is too little. How about ten dollar & fifty cent for all her good & hard work?” Tiffany’s head whipped up & stare up in awe at the kind man, “T...Ten?” Mrs. Seo sputtered out, “Are you sure?” Siwon turned to look at Mrs. Seo once again, “Is that a problem?” “No, not at all. Ten it is.” She added, under her breath, “Conniving brat.” Sunny heard that last comment & pretended to accidentally trip & pushed Mrs. Seo to Siwon’s egg smeared black fitted short sleeve shirt, “Oops. My bad.” She grinned sheepishly while Tiffany stifled her laughter behind her hand. Siwon only smiled because even though he had this horrendous woman on him. He believed it was worth it to clean his egged shirt with her own clothes which he noticed didn’t consists of the neon ugly yellow thing.

After that, Mrs. Seo left in a jiffy to get to her office to go change into newer, fresher clothes. She couldn’t go back out like that for the all the customers to see. After she was out of sight, the three young people burst out laughing. Tiffany threw her arms around a shocked Siwon & repeated, “Thank you, thank you, thank you, sir, so, so much.” “It’s okay. I believe that you deserve it.” Siwon replied, as they finally let go of each other. Sunny smirked but then smiled, “Seems like you have a heart after all, Eggman Choi.”

“Hey, don’t go changing my name. It’s Choi Siwon. Don’t forget it. My father owns this supermarket as well as the thousands of others all around the world. It would be a major loss to the world if you were to name me eggman.” Sunny laughed again, at his rebuttal & put her hands up in mock surrender, “Okay, fine, thank you for saving my friend & I guess I’m a little sorry about the egg thing. Why don’t you let me & Tiffany treat you to lunch & a new shirt now?” “So, your name is Tiffany. Very fitting if I do say so myself.” He commented, making her blush. He then looked at the other girl & realized just how beautiful she was too, for the first time. As quickly as that thought came, it went as he remembered the eggs.

“My name is Sunny Lee, if you must know.” She stuck out her hand as he took it. Little did he know that during the time when he wasn’t looking, she had tied a small electric shock buzzer on her hand. The result was a tiny electric shock as Siwon took her hand into his. Sunny started laughing again. The shock had made some of the hair on his head stand up. It was certainly a sight to see. Horrified at Sunny’s behavior towards her savior, she quickly hit Sunny on the back & made her apologize once again. After recovering from the shock, the three finally made their way to lunch & it was of course, not consisted of any eggs.