Chaewon never dreamt of living in this big city... ever.

She was brisk walking around city searching for some place. The early hours walk exercise was supposed to be a morning peaceful stroll like she had planned in mind the night before she fell into slumber – just like she used to do in her daily morning routine back at her former residence in the countryside. It was the best exercise for her as an introvert because of less people she could bump into as she didn’t like strenuous physical activities or any sort nevertheless – but it turned out the complete opposite on the docket and it was not calm... at all.

Chaewon was supposed to be at the central city park for the first time where she could feel the fresh morning breeze gently touching her body that could make that hairs on her skin bristled. She was supposed to see the faint sway of the leaves on the trees, and the sweet smiles painted on the faces of the small children and the elderly who were cherishing their precious time. She was supposed to smell the flowers and the scent of the freshly cut grass and bushes on the ground beside the concrete pavements. She was supposed to hold a paper cup of coffee which had the taste of freshly brewed dark roast coffee beans that she was a devotee of while having a saunter. She was supposed to hear the soft sound of the chirping of the birds and the quietness of the surroundings. She was supposed to feel the silence that the central park could offer.

It was supposed to be like that.

But it wasn’t.

Instead, Chaewon was soaking in sweat,  jogging around, tripping herself over, and kept turning her neck in one hundred eighty degrees angle as she kept looking around for a potential place to stay for a while to do her urgent work at the busy streets in a morning rush hour surrounded by the sky rocketing towers of buildings and other establishments – in which if ever she would suddenly stop moving in the middle of the sidewalk, the people around her who were in a hurry to go to their respective jobs or errands might knocked her off her feet accidentally and would definitely curse at her for being an obstruction and an absolute idiot. There’s nothing pleasant to see at this hour – especially, most faces she passed by looked like they were plotting a murder inside their minds. She could hear the stuck cars in traffic honking there and then because of a minor car collision happened at the intersection where the parties involved were already at each other’s throats. To add it up, the air and noise pollution, and everything made it a lot worse than she expected. This culture shock scared the hell out of her which she felt like she didn’t wanted to go out in the city again – if only her sudden going out this morning was not that important, she would definitely lock herself in her apartment forever. Somehow it crossed her mind at this point that she wanted to go back to the countryside – she had no intentions to stay in the big city in the first place if it isn’t for new learning and job opportunities that could make her grow more professionally.

Everything was completely different the way she used to grow up with.

This was definitely not she imagined it to be.

Chaewon just moved in two days ago in the city and it’s her first time to set her foot in here. She spent those two days to settle herself in a cozy medium-sized loft apartment in which her new employer provided it for free for her – not to mention that her basic cost of living was also shouldered by them. As a matter of fact, it didn’t take her a whole day just to straighten everything out in her apartment because she only had few stuff to begin with – she grew up as a minimalist where she only lived with things that she really needed and removed anything that could distract her from living with intentionality and freedom. She was also provided a private company car that she could use anytime for her personal and professional use – but the problem was she didn’t know how to drive yet for the reason being she’s an introvert homebody where she always spent her days coding and programming in her computer and she rarely go outside except for her morning walk routine she used to do back to the days where she’s still living in the countryside so the brand new car was rotting there in the apartment car park floor at the basement. Those were all part of her fringe benefits as the newly hired manager and team leader of the top software engineering team of a famous giant technology company that specialized in mobile app development, and internet-related services and products based in South Korea.

Chaewon was born and raised from the countryside. She grew up with a shy, loner, and timid personality so she preferred doing lone activities that didn’t require much socializing because talking to new people in a minute could drain her easily – even hearing them breathe near her could make her exhausted but she only had couple of friends that she could count on her finger that she trusted the most and comfortable to talk with – that’s why she devoted most of her free time and energy alone to teach herself by reading and watching anything related to software engineering and developing during her middle and high school years. After a while, she took a degree in software engineering in their local university and she graduated with highest honours. She planned all of these since the beginning and it went well according to plan. She knew as a software engineer that she could work anywhere especially at home as long as she had her computer and an access to internet – and that’s what she always wanted was to stay at home all the time. She’s really living the life she wanted.

The main reason why she moved in the big city was that due to her exceptional computer software programming, coding, and problem-solving skills – she single-handedly and independently developed an easy to use mobile productivity-boosting app that was helpful and efficient for those busy people who tend to forget things in their daily routines and lives – and she included herself in one of those people that’s why it became the inspiration why she developed this app. Because of the popularity of this app in the mobile app market, she was offered a job to innovate and expand her app even more by a giant technology company based where the headquarters was in the city – and she took this once in a lifetime opportunity. What’s good about it was that her new employer didn’t really require her to be present at their main office all the time (but she can go if she wanted to) and she would only go to the main office if her physical presence was needed in the important meetings with her colleagues at the top management. Also as a team leader, she could arrange face-to-face meetings too with her team – but knowing Chaewon, she would do any means not to go outside so she would probably stick with group video conferencing to discuss things – but if she didn’t have a choice, she would eventually meet them personally. Chaewon might be an introvert, but she had a great communication skill only if it’s work-related because it’s her cup of tea – and she didn’t enjoy small talks or talking about stuff that she considered not worthwhile for the reason of she didn’t like talking in general.

So to wrap it all, she’s working from home all the time – all she need was a good and fast internet connection, essential work-related gadgets and her laptop. But the thing was how she was supposed to work from home if her internet connection was acting like a total in the times she needed it the most – she needed to conduct a preliminary interview via video conferencing of a job candidate for the position of assistant manager for her team this morning. Chaewon called her internet provider but it turned out they’re acting like a too with a really bad customer service. They only told her that their system was down at the moment so it was under maintenance and it would take them like more than two hours to finish it – well, she could hack to gain access to her neighbour’s internet connection but the problem was they also had the same internet provider so it’s no use. She had another option though, she could go to their office because the internet connection there was insanely fast but she just realized that their office was scheduled to have a pest control today that’s why it’s convenient for the employees to work from home in times like this. Another option was she could also postpone the interview but she didn’t want to because she just got hired just two days ago and she didn’t want to disappoint her superiors because she needed to find an assistant as soon as possible.

This was indeed Chaewon’s first worst day living in the city. She had no choice but to go outside in the morning rush hour (which she hated the most) to search for a place where she could get at least a free access to internet connection.

Chaewon was wearing a black-striped white tee under a cotton gray blazer, plain mint green ankle pajama pants, mismatched colourful socks, a pair of black low Chuck Taylor All-Stars shoes, and a leather sling laptop bag – so basically, she’s wearing her sleeping clothes from top to bottom where she just decided to add wearing her only work blazer and her only pair of casual sneakers so at least she would still somehow looked decent outside. She didn’t really paid much attention to her appearance in her lower garments because she didn’t need to flaunt it on the street runway and also while she’s conducting the interview. She’s running out of time because she snoozed off her alarm clock so she woke up late. Given that she’s a low-maintenance woman, she would be probably ready in less than thirty minutes or so before her work – but because of the fortuitous event that happened, she was forced to go outside to find a free WiFi and time was running out in which she only had less than twenty minutes left before the official set time to conduct an interview. 

Finally, she saw the wall logo signage of Starbucks coffee shop so she rushed her way there but just what she expected, the queue at the counter was long and the cafe was total packed. Chaewon heaved a sigh and felt like she had no choice but to reschedule the interview even though she didn’t want to because she didn’t like the feeling of bothering others so as much as possible especially if she’s the one causing the unintentional and unwanted trouble so most of the time she’s always the one who kept on adjusting even if the situation was understandable and not really that a big deal at all but for her it was and it mattered.

But when she turned her head to her right, she saw a small local coffee shop called “Forelsket Cafe” on the other side of the road just across the Starbucks coffee shop. There were no customers in at the moment which Chaewon already had an idea why. It’s either their coffee was that bad that people preferred to fall in line in a long queue in Starbuck coffee shop or the owner had a bad business marketing strategy if ever the owner of Forelsket Cafe where the last one who picked a location of their business because why would someone established a business right in front of the big coffee shop where  it’s like skating on thin ice – unless the owner of the small coffee shop had an edge or a game plan that would surprise the world someday but one thing was for sure, there’s definitely something because the owner would not risk losing a lot of money for a bad business, right?

Regardless whatever the reason was, Chaewon saw it as a perfect opportunity and place to do her work especially when she saw the “Free WiFi” written on a lengthwise bond paper taped on the glass door beside the “open” signage and the lack of customers at the moment where she wouldn’t feel awkward while conducting the interview and also for less noise pollution. So she crossed the street and entered the coffee shop with panting breath.

Usually, Chaewon would search online for the menu beforehand whenever she would plan to eat outside. She always prepared it well in her mind before executing it because when someone suddenly struck up a small conversation with her or just simply asked her something, she would definitely freaked out a bit and stammered to the point she would say inaudible words – maybe because her mind was too fast to think that couldn’t follow what she’s about to say. Her awkwardness was worse before where there’s actually one time when she ordered a regular meal at a fast food joint where the cashier lady asked her if she would like everything in her meal to be up-size and she would only need to add a few bucks just like a business hack just to boost sales, she would always say yes to everything – not because she had a lot of money (well obviously, she had due to the popularity of her own mobile app) and she could eat it that jumbo meal all in one sitting (well obviously, she couldn’t)  but because she couldn’t take talking without thinking too much because that was she was – she tend to think all the time so to end the conversation quickly, she would just give short answers as much as possible and gone with flow to everything and after a few minutes that the person she talked to left in which gave her room to think, she would always say in her mind, “Crap, I shouldn’t have said that. I should have said this instead.”

The doorbell rung and three heads turned at her like they didn’t really expect any customers would come in at this hour – one stopped mopping the floor and gave her a gangster look, one had a robotic look and was secretly pinching the leftover bread that the coffee shop was selling, and one with poker face was wiping the mugs - which startled and confused Chaewon where she quickly took a step back outside before the glass door closes itself to peek at the signage to make sure that the “open” signage was correctly displayed on the glass door in which it really was. Chaewon gently came back in where the one who was wiping the mugs shushed and gave a stern look at the one mopping the floor who couldn’t hold her laughter – Chaewon could runaway because of the embarrassment but she needed the free WiFi so swallowed her pride and took light steps towards the cashier register where she was greeted with a reassuring smile from Eunbi who’s the manager of the coffee shop, placing the coffee mug on the cup rack after she wiped it.

“Hello! Good morning! What can I have for you today?”

Chaewon went to the counter, wiping the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand with her eyes fixated on the cash register machine because she couldn’t bear eye contact with anyone. She ordered her usual go-to food and drink in every coffee shop she went through – she probably didn’t have the time to search the menu to plan beforehand on the internet if ever there was one and she didn’t look on the menu written on the chalkboard above them and the pastries counter beside the cash register machine  because of what happened earlier – in which she hoped that this coffee shop had also available products because it’s going to be another embarrassment for her if they didn’t have it and she would probably dash towards the door this time around. “Hi. Can I have a slice of cheesecake and a cup of dark roast coffee?” She uttered in an incredible speed.

“Sorry, what is it again?” Eunbi leaned bit closer to hear Chaewon properly.

“Sss- Sli- Slice of chee- cheese cake,” Chaewon stuttered when she realized she screwed up a bit but still avoiding meeting Eunbi’s eyes.

“Alright. And?” Eunbi asked with unwavering smile.

“A da- dark ro- ro-roast co- coffee,” Chaewon stared at her feet while adjusting the strap of her laptop sling bag on her shoulder as she realized that she’s still on her pajama pants and she’s wearing a mismatched socks in which she assumed that this must be the reason why everyone in this coffee shop gave her looks like she’s a crazy woman. 

“Okay. For here or to go?” Eunbi asked while she’s tapping the screen to process her order.

“Fo-for here,” Chaewon pulled her sling bag upward with her hand supporting the base while her other hand was fishing inside to reach for her wallet. She didn’t know how much was it for Eunbi wasn’t still finish tapping the order in the screen – so to play it safe, she pulled her largest bill and placed it carefully at the counter and she didn’t return her wallet inside her laptop bag because she’s waiting for the change then hung her head low after.

Eunbi was done when she saw the bill on the counter as the total due appeared on the small screen in front of Chaewon. “I’m sorry, but do you have a smaller bill? We don’t have a change yet because it’s too early and you are our first customer. We’re sorry,” she apologized.

Chaewon looked up and finally met her eyes. “Oh sorry, it’s fine,” she quickly broken up the eye contact and veered her line of sight at the screen to check the amount due then she collected her smaller bills and coins in her wallet to pay the exact amount in which she surprisingly she had plenty – she just had a habit of always paying her largest bill not because she wanted to hoard smaller bills and coins when she’s given her a change, but because she didn’t like the feeling someone was waiting for her especially if the queue behind her was long and piling up, she just preferred the cashier was the one who would take his or her time to count the money of her change and gave it to her rather than the other way around. Fortunately, she’s the first customer to come so there’s no line at the moment and Eunbi seemed like pretty chill about anything so she didn’t feel much pressured as Chaewon gathered her payment and kindly placing it on the counter.

“Anyway, sorry about a while ago if we made you feel uncomfortable when you came in. We have a regular first customer that always gets here at this hour all the time so we’re surprise when you walked in. We rarely get customers too since that one came,” Eunbi puckered her lips pointing at the big coffee shop in front of them just across the streets. “That’s why,” she heaved a sigh.

Chaewon took a peek behind her as she saw Starbucks coffee shop was packed and the queue was still long. She returned her sight after at the palm of her hand continuing to count the coins as she nodded and hummed in agreement – she just not used to engage in small talks but she understood the situation as it also piqued her curiosity about the regular customer who always came in first – that person must be awarded of most loyal and punctual award of this coffee shop despite of rivalling against the popular coffee shop in front of it.

“And sorry about Yena over there, she just loved teasing and poking fun at new customers. I hope you don’t get offended, she just go a little crazy sometimes,” Eunbi told her to ease up the mood when she somehow sensed the awkwardness in Chaewon as she kept the conversation going like the usual as she raised her chin pointing towards Yena who’s done mopping the floor and now wiping some tables.

“It’s fine. No worries,” Chaewon smiled softly as she completely handed over the exact amount to Eunbi but she quickly fixated her eyes at the menu above written on the chalkboard for the reason being she didn’t know where else to look at because she didn’t wanted them to think that she had a thing for floors for she kept staring the ground.

“Thank you,” Eunbi reached for it and placed it respectively on the money drawer as she saw Chaewon out of the corner of her eye that Chaewon was still scanning the menu, thinking that she might be wanted to add in her order so Eunbi asked her. “Is there anything else you would like to add?”

“Oh,” Chaewon was startled as she was caught a little off guard. “No. I’m just looking,” she chuckled awkwardly. 

Eunbi smiled and nodded as she ripped the receipt on the receipt printer and gave it to Chaewon. “Here you go, the WiFi password was written on the piece of paper pasted at the bottom of the small vase of the fake flower decor in all tables and we will serve your order in your chosen stable.”

“Thanks,” Chaewon paced her way as she observed the decors of the coffee shop – it’s the typical classic rustic house with modern twist coffee shop. The place looked small when it was viewed from the outside but the space inside was just quite enough. There were lot of artificial plant decors in which the ceiling was most entirely covered in faux hanging plant, wooden walls and floors wherein some parts had bricks accents. The lightning made the ambience quite warm and nice, and that’s what Chaewon wanted. 

There were one long table with three high stools each side on the centre, four round wooden tables with two armchairs each beside the glass windows, and two round tables at the tight corner with enough space between it that shared the same long brick wall built-in seating banquette occupying the whole tight space on one side of the two round tables in which the other side of it had two separate armchairs each. Chaewon chose to sit at the built-in seating banquette as she slid herself in between the round tables and scooted herself on the couch at one end wherein on her right was another brick wall and on her left was the round table which also shared the built-in seating banquette which was beside the glass window. She chose this seat because first of all, almost everybody in this world preferred seating in the couch when dining in (including herself), and lastly, she didn’t want unnecessary backgrounds while she’s running the interview. 

She placed her laptop on the table and pressed the power button on its side. She quickly entered the WiFi password and she got accessed immediately. She went to her company portal and she saw that the person she would be interviewing were already online but she decided not to proceed in the interview – Chaewon isn’t too late nor isn’t too early. She knew how to respect time and she just wanted to start just right on time – she also looked at the moment and she had less than minutes left before the official interview time would start so she fixed herself up first – she pulled her blazer off her shoulders and let it drooped on her arms as she tried to give herself some fresh air wherein the sweat was visible on her tees and blazer armpits then she wiped up her sweat by the free tissue beside the fake flower in a vase on the table in which she almost consumed all, she used her phone screen as the mirror and put some face powder in her face after and a little light lip tint, then she’s done after a while. She didn’t need much makeup because she didn’t have too much knowledge in applying makeup in her face wherein she also didn’t bother to learn that skill due to fact that she’s natural and effortlessly pretty – plus, she’s just interviewing and meeting a possible job candidate and she’s not having a video call with a sugar daddy in which she didn’t have one because Chaewon, herself, could be one instead.

She was done with everything so she was just killing time when Eunbi slowly came to her and appeared to be in deep concern as she kept looking the time on her wristwatch like she’s waiting for someone or something. “Excuse me?”

Chaewon turned her head at her without saying anything.

“I apologize for this and I hate to do this but can I request if you can move to another free table because the reserved sign is supposed to be displayed on the table but when Yena wiped this one a while ago, she forgot to bring it back. It’s already reserved to someone really important. I’m sorry,” Eunbi apologized as she was rubbing the palm of her hands to ease her worries.

“Oh. No, it’s okay. I understand,” Chaewon smiled it out and it didn’t really bother her at all as long as she had the brick wall as her background, it’s all fine by her. She quickly gathered her stuff and scooted herself on the built-in seating banquette to the other end to move to the next round table beside the glass window.

“Thank you so much,” Eunbi sighed in relief. “I’m really sorry for the inconvenience. I just need to do this to avoid confusion. You have another free cake slice of cheesecake for this.”

“Oh. That’s great. Thanks,” Chaewon beamed. Usually at times like this, Chaewon would just refuse because it’s not of a big deal but since it’s a free slice of cheesecake, she would never refuse to such offer. No cake could ever compete of her love for cheesecake best partnered with dark roast coffee.

“You’re welcome. Just call the attention of anyone of us if you need anything,” Eunbi smiled back and walked back to the barista counter where she walked passed by Hyewon at the opposite direction who was holding the tray with Chaewon’s order on it as she walked towards Chaewon. Eunbi told about Hyewon about the free slice of cheesecake as they continued to navigate their respective ways.

Chaewon got occupied in her thoughts as she wondered what Eunbi meant to avoid confusion as Hyewon carefully placed the tray on the other empty table for a while because Chaewon’s table had small free space because of her laptop. She placed the contents on Chaewon’s table gently while Chaewon was busy spacing out. “If you want to claim your free slice of cheesecake, just call any of our attention.” Hyewon said while holding the empty train with a hand on her back. 

Chaewon eventually came back to her senses where she gave Hyewon a quick smile and nodded as Chaewon veered her sight back to her laptop screen.

“But can I say something?” Hyewon whispered.

Chaewon was surprised as she shifted her vision back at Hyewon. “Uhm. Okay. Sure? What is it?”  

Hyewon leaned a little but with comfortable space near Chaewon’s ear as she whispered. “Just in case you can’t eat your free slice of cheesecake or you don’t want it anymore, you can give it to me.”

Chaewon leaned back a bit and felt odd by her actions but she laughed it off quietly. “Let’s see about that.” 

Eunbi saw Hyewon and knew what she was up to so she gained her attention from the barista counter. “Hey Kwangbae! You should stop bothering the customer and come back here to your position now.” Eunbi demanded as her eyes were glued at her digital wristwatch as Hyewon rushed back and squeezed herself between Eunbi and Yena. 

“She’s coming now in fifteen seconds before exactly eight in the morning,” Eunbi informed them as the two nodded and got prepared.

Chaewon overheard them which made her utterly confused as to what they were doing while watching them like they were in a theatre play or sort where they were suddenly doing some other things out of ordinary and which Chaewon questioned to herself why Eunbi started counting down while looking at her watch like there’s a firework display after the new year’s countdown.

“Ten”

“Nine”

“Eight”

“Seven”

“Six”

“Five”

“Four”

“Three”

“Two”

“And...”

They all stared where Chaewon sat.

“One”

Chaewon got completely confused as she felt like why they were looking at her like what happened a while ago when she first came in but this time it was more intense which Chaewon felt like she’s in a prank TV show or something where she’s about to start to find the hidden cameras installed somewhere – if ever she was, she’s not that ready to become that crazy prank victim that would become viral and surfaced quickly on the internet because she’s still in her sleepwear clothes but if ever she would become an internet sensation, at least she had another source of income... or should they said, another source of humiliation.

“She’s here,” Yena announced as they all started acting up and doing questionable things which sometimes Chaewon could get a grasp about why they rarely get customers nowadays because they’re all acting weird. 

Chaewon decided to also see what they were looking at her left beside the glass window where she saw a black wavy-haired lady wearing oversized white plain tee where the hem of her shirt in front was tucked inside the waist band of her high-waist ankle cut denim skinny jeans, a pair of white sneakers, a small sling black sling bag, and a bright smile on her face.

Chaewon couldn’t take her eyes off her as she watched her up to the moment where she took steps inside when the black-haired lady came through the door, utterly astonished and speechless where Chaewon got easily captivated by the newcomer’s beauty.

Chaewon never really dreamt of living in this big city... ever.

But with just a split second, everything slowly began to change where Chaewon taught to herself.

“Holy . Who says living in the city isn’t this great?”

a/n: This is a 2KIM short story (most likely 3-5 chapters only) but if you wanted to extend this story, just let me know. I also accept any one shot or short story requests of any IZ*ONE ships or any other ship from any Kpop girl group so just drop it down in the comment section.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it as much I did. ♡

- aurora ♡