“Hello, are you the new employee?” Hongbin brushed his hair out of his face, looking up from the papers he was reading over on the table.

            “Um, yeah.”

            “Great! I’m Hyuna, and I’m definitely your senior, so I expect some respect from you.” Hongbin’s eyes widened. This wasn’t exactly what he had looked forward too, coming to work at the little shop down the street from his apartment. The woman, Hyuna, laughed. “Just kidding. We’ll be working together so I don’t really mind that much. I’m not mean and scary. I can show you around, but there’s not a lot to see. Everything is usually pretty quiet, but we get some wacky customers every once in a while. You get to work up at the front, until I, well technically the owner but he’s never really here so it’s basically me, think you’re ready.” Hongbin nodded. The woman standing in front of him had a wide smile on, with bright eyes and big, curly hair, with dark lips and winged eyeliner. She was really pretty, but had a confident air about her, and Hongbin decided that he liked her. She was looking at him, and started laughing.

            “You know, this is when you’re supposed to introduce yourself.” He hadn’t even started work yet and he was already being awkward. Awesome.

            “I’m Hongbin,” he said, smiling at her. Her eyes widened and her smile grew.

            “You have cute dimples, oh gosh. I’m going to call you Bean, is that okay? You should smile more, it’ll draw customers.”

            “Uh, yeah, Bean is fine, I guess.”

            “Good! Let’s get started then.” Hyuna went through the store and showed Hongbin the basics of his job, just manning the register and talking to customers, as well as cleaning. It seemed pretty simple, and she was thorough in her explaining. At the end of the day, she showed him how to close up, and walked outside with him.

            “So! That’s just about everything. If you have any questions, here’s my phone number, and I guess I’ll see you tomorrow! We can start figuring out the schedule too. Have a good evening!” With that and a wave, she turned and walked off in the opposite direction as Hongbin. He started to head his own way home, mulling over the things he’d been taught, and trying to remember all of them for the next day.

            When he got back to his apartment, he slipped off his shoes and rummaged through his fridge, pulling out leftovers from yesterday, and went and slouched down on the couch, pulling out his laptop and relaxing, staying put until he decided it was late enough to go to bed, he had to get up on time tomorrow anyways.

            Hyuna greeted him with a smile and handed him a badge with his name on it, welcoming him to officially working at the store.

            The work was pretty easy, and Hongbin caught on fast. He got used to coming over every day, and was terribly embarrassed the first time he came in on a day off, but Hyuna just laughed at him and told him to go out and enjoy his day off, which for him meant going to the park with his camera and people watching. When it happened again the next week, Hyuna just laughed again.

            “Is this going to become a pattern? I’ll have to remind you every day before, huh? Will you remember then?” She flicked him on the forehead. “Go make some friends, have a good day!”

            They got along well, and she was a good worker. Hongbin pretty much considered her his boss, since he never saw the actual one. He took to calling her that sometimes, having to dodge to avoid her hitting him.

            “Hey, boss, the front is all wrapped up.” He dodged a paper ball thrown from across the room.

            “I’m not your boss! Don’t call me that!” Hongbin laughed.

            The first time Hakyeon came over was a pretty ordinary day, just about as slow as every other day, and Hongbin was just finishing sweeping behind the counter when the bell above the door chimed. Hongbin didn’t hear any footsteps, so he figured it wasn’t a human or the like, probably a fairy or something similar, those kind came sometimes. Instead, what approached him was an elf, with a wide smile.

            “Hi, is there anything I can help you with?” The elf in front of him just kept smiling.

            “No, not really.” Hongbin blinked.

            “Uh, okay, well you are welcome to look around, just keep in mind that we are closing pretty soon, in like ten minutes.”

            “Okay!” The elf turned and started wondering through some of the shelves, before returning to the counter.

            “Your name’s Hongbin?” Hongbin turned and looked at him.

            “Yeah, that’s me.”

            “I’m Hakyeon!” Hongbin wasn’t really expecting a conversation, but he put down the broom anyways.

            “Can I help you?”

            “You already asked me that,” the elf, Hakyeon, pointed out.

            “Yeah, and it still applies. Do you need any helping finding something?”

            “I’m not really looking for anything in particular.” Hongbin sighed internally.

            “Do you have any questions then?”

            “Not really.” Hongbin furrowed his brow.

            “Then why are you here?” Hakyeon smiled.

            “Well I’ve just come over from the bakery next door, and I’ve never been in here, so I decided to see what it was like.”

            “And?” The elf laughed.

            “And it’s very interesting, and I’ll probably be back again!” He turned, and headed for the door. “Maybe I’ll see you tomorrow, Hongbin!” Hongbin just watched him go, confused. He shrugged it off, and went back to cleaning up. Hyuna emerged from the back.

            “Ooh, who was he, he’s cute! I didn’t know you had any elf friends, Hongbin.”

            “I don’t, I’ve never seen him before.”

            “Well he’s cute. I hope he comes back. Call me next time, maybe I can chat a little bit! Elves are all so interesting.”

            The next day, Hakyeon showed up again, as promised. Hongbin saw him through the window before he came in, sunlight catching on his slightly curly brown hair. As he walked in, Hongbin noticed that it seemed like he had brought some of the sunlight in with him. His smile was just as bright as the day before, eyes sparkling.

            “Hello again!”

            “Hi, Hakyeon.” Hakyeon grinned.

            “You remembered my name.”

            “Yeah, I don’t have that bad of a memory, and it was just yesterday. You remembered mine too.”

            “Sure, but you’re pretty memorable yourself.” Hongbin stared at him.

            “What are you talking about?” Hakyeon waved his hand.

            “Nothing, never mind. How’d you start working here?” Hongbin unwittingly found himself drawn into the conversation, and almost forgot to tell Hakyeon to leave when it was time.

            The elf kept up the pattern, showing up every day ten minutes before closing. He talked a lot, Hongbin had noticed, and didn’t really ever seem to have anything specific to talk about, just whatever was on his mind at whatever time. Hongbin noticed when he came in with black hair, and it looked good against his warm skin color. Hongbin told him that, and he wasn’t sure if he saw a blush rise to the elf’s cheeks or not, but he decided not to think about it too much. When he came in with blue hair, he looked even more dramatic, but in a good way, and Hongbin was fascinated by the atmosphere that seemed to follow Hakyeon around.

            Hyuna thought it was cute, and told Hongbin regularly that he should try to make friends with Hakyeon. Hongbin just laughed it off every time, but there was definitely something interesting about the elf. It was hard to finish work with him around though, and when Hongbin told Hakyeon that, he just laughed and said it wasn’t his fault if Hongbin couldn’t focus, to which Hongbin responded that it was absolutely Hakyeon’s fault. He kept coming in, and Hongbin got used to looking up at the clock around closing time.

            “So, do you like him?” Hongbin glanced over at Hyuna while she finished counting the money from the day.

            “Do I like who?”

            “That elf, what’s his name? Hakyeon? Is that it? The cute one, you know.”

            “Do I like him? I dunno, he’s interesting but also kind of annoying sometimes.” Hyuna laughed.

            “Well it’s good to see you interacting with someone, you’re kind of boring sometimes.”

            “I’m not boring!” She laughed again, shutting the drawer with her hip.

            “No, not really. Pretty fun to mess around with, though.” Hongbin rolled his eyes.

            “Whatever.”

             “Helllooo, Hongbin? Ground control to Hongbin, over.”

            “Good afternoon, Hakyeon.” Hongbin turned around to face him. Hakyeon was smiling at him, teeth bright on a tanned face.

            “Your hair is a different color again today.”

            “You noticed! I like the red much more than the blue, don’t you?”

soo here's a bit of hongbin past? idk

someone asked if i could do some history with hyuna so i did? kind of? i spun it off a little bit but i hope it works

shout out to me for leaving so many perfect places to put stories in the main story pats myself on the back

yep here you go!

and i probs say this a lot but it is easier for me to work around if i have a prompt, and as many as i come up with it's hard to find the pull behind stories sometimes :P so if you have any ideas just hit me up man

thank you for reading, subscribing and commenting!

~Win