First
Little Details
It is just another usual day for him. He is in the same old café he works in, inhaling the same familiar scent of coffee he inhales everyday and wearing the same dull expression he always wears any day—the expression everyone loathes, apparently. He is not the type to smile every single minute and his manager will not shut up about Jongin’s rude behavior towards the customers, he had even threatened to dismiss him if he doesn’t try to at least be polite. Jongin is far from being impolite to the customers, so he doesn't know what the manager is actually saying.
Jongin scoffs at the thought of his manager. He works in this café to serve people the drinks they desire, not to just cheaply display his smile to people who hardly care anyway. He’s not being rude, he just doesn’t care. At least Jongin doesn't shout at them.
The very few customers stand in line to order their drinks and Jongin tries his best to at least be amiable and greet them this time. Still, he doesn’t offer a sincere smile.
--
His day is going pretty well, much to his satisfaction. None of the customer so far has disturbed his peace and he is very fond of it.
He abruptly gets dragged out from his reverie though when he hears a single, distinct click. He looks towards the source of the sound and realizes that the sound has come from a lady’s camera that is pointed squarely to him. He grunts silently. He has forgotten that there's always that customer that disturbs the peace he desires, unfortunately to him. And that customer will never disappear, because there is always her.
She comes to the café daily, never not smiling and not holding a camera that hangs from her neck in her hands as she enters the café. She looks beautiful for a lady, the kind guys usually like. Everything on her fits her, really. She has a pair of chocolate eyes that looks so wild, in a good way. Jongin always thinks that her eyes are very alluring, but of course, he will never say it. It’s not important anyways. She has this soft, long brown hair that suits her well. Still, her habit of taking pictures of the same thing everyday makes him feel a tad bit of annoyance.
He never understands why she always takes a picture of everything, every single thing in the café, even though she goes here everyday. He secretly thinks that she is a freak who is obsessed with every little detail and in a way, it scares him out a little. He always misses the little details and just focuses on the main thing because to him, all those little details will be forgotten anyway.
“Ordering hot chocolate with no whipped cream like yesterday, miss?” he asks, trying to sound friendly.
“No,” she replies as if the thought of ordering the same thing amuses her. “I’m having green tea crème frappuccino today.”
“Coming right up,” he says as he rushes to make her frapuccino. After making sure the drink is perfect, he comes back a few minutes after and hands the drink to her. But of course, she beckons to him and orders him to stop right there and takes another picture, a few pictures in fact.
She flashes him a huge grin and takes the cup from his hands, muttering a quiet thanks and giving him her money. With that she walks out from the café, takes a left turn, always the left, and is gone.
He stares blankly at her retreating back and shrugs, resuming to think about so many things that he questions in life.
--
He knows she is there when he hears the very loud click of that tiny camera of hers. He only sighs before turning around to see the same girl he saw yesterday. He doesn’t like the fact that she always takes a picture of him, somehow.
“Not ordering the frappuccino from yesterday, I suppose?”
She shoots him a warm smile.
“Yeah, I’m getting tea for today, I’d prefer it to be chamomile.”
“Alright.” He nods and goes to make her chamomile tea. He extends his arm to hand the girl her tea and then stops midway, remembering she’ll stop him anyway.
“That’s the perfect angle,” she mentions as she takes a picture of her tea. She grins frivolously and shows the picture to him this time, and he looks at it quickly, still not understanding what she finds perfect about the angle. The picture simply shows his gigantic hand holding the white paper cup, nothing special. Maybe, he just doesn’t have an artistic mind or maybe, she just likes weird things, he’ll truly never understand.
She takes the paper cup from his grip and lets out a wide grin as she hands him the money. Well, that’s three smiles in a few minutes, he thinks to himself amazedly.
“Thanks,” she says and starts to walk away from him.
Jongin looks down to put the money in the cash register when he hears someone clearing . He looks up to see her standing in front of him, again, holding her cup tightly in her left hand while holding her camera and what seems like a pink paper in her right.
She immediately blurts out, “I never got your name.”
Only now does Jongin realize that her accent sounds a bit American, it clearly shows she was not from Korea. He shrugs his endless thoughts away and replies tersely, “It’s Jongin, Kim Jongin.”
He glances at his nametag to show her that his name has always been right there. She looks at his nametag and beams elatedly. Holy crap, that was the fourth time she smiled today.
“Guess I never saw the nametag. It’s nice knowing you, Jongin. I’m Jung Soojung. See you tomorrow.”
Soojung, he replays to himself in his head, trying to memorize the name.
She then walks away after saying that, not waiting for his reply. She takes a left turn and disappears from his sight. He notices a pink paper lying on the floor near the door and realizes it is the paper she’s been holding earlier. Jongin saunters out of the café’s counter to pick it up and he finds himself sniggering a bit as he reads what’s inside it.
‘Soojung’s bucket list: 1) To try out every flavor available in Starbucks and really decide which one is my favorite. 2) To get into the medical university my dad studied in. More bucket lists to come due to end of thinking capacity.’
No wonder she likes to order different drinks, he thinks to himself. He folds the paper neatly and slips it into his shirt's pocket, reminding himself to return it to her tomorrow.
--
Jongin dances himself exhausted that night. He has just finished teaching his new choreography to his students an hour ago and now there he is, dancing alone in the night. He pours out every single emotion that he's been feeling into every move that he makes. Dancing has been his only escape and it will always be. His messy thoughts that are endless are always forgotten when he dances. He sways along to the music, making sure that the awesome beats of the song match his steps. The room is completely dark, the only light streaming in comes from the windows, but Jongin feels like he's shining whenever he's dancing. He just feels so— free.
The music stops and Jongin lets out a heavy breath, leaning against the wall for a few minutes. He packs his belongings into his duffel bag before he goes outside. He inhales the misty air of the dark city and starts trudging towards the park he goes to after dancing. It is late at midnight, but time never bothers him. He likes the tranquility of the city at night, he likes wondering in the darkness, but he never does really like the feeling of loneliness. He has embraced it though; it has become a part of him now, loneliness.
He falls onto the grass almost immediately as he arrives at the deserted park. The grass feels a little bit damp and it tickles the scruff of his neck, he inhales the smell of the dampness and concludes that he likes it.
He just wants to think and have time to himself now, even though he always spends most of his day thinking and questioning everything and everyone. But this time, he thinks of himself. How he really is, why he acts a certain way—he can never comprehend himself.
Jongin closes his eyes and thinks about how his life has been so far. He also thinks of her, her who left him that easily. He runs his hands through his hair and messes with it. Amazing things are yet to come, and he wonders if those things will really come to him. Probably not.
“Jongin?”
Great, just great, he thinks.
He opens his eyes to see the owner of the voice and almost bitterly chuckle to himself. Of course, it just had to be her. He is not even surprised anymore.
“Yes,” he replies.
“Hey there, may I join you?” Soojung asks politely. She has her wavy hair pulled into a messy ponytail, a few strands of hair hanging messily, and her eyes are an even darker brown in the dark.
He nods towards the empty space beside him and she plops herself down there, lying down on the grass beside him.
He notices that she doesn't have a camera in her hands. He shuts his eyes closed again and very quietly, asks, “Where's your camera?”
She must be happy to be asked such a question because she replies with an exuberant, shrill voice.
“Oh? It's right here in my bag, want to see it?”
Jongin doesn't reply. He just stays quiet. But a moment later, he opens his eyes to a tiny camera that's been situated on his chest. He glances at her briefly and takes the camera in his hands, millions of questions starting to run through his head.
“May I?”
“You may!” she exclaims euphorically.
He turns on the camera and scrolls through all the pictures she has taken. He sees a diversity of pictures: pictures of her tiny feet, pictures of her, pictures of the street, pictures of the drinks she always orders and his hand, pictures of trees, pictures of the sky, pictures of some other random strangers, pictures of food, and the list can go on forever.
He gives her back her camera shortly after scrolling through it and places both of his hands underneath his head, making it a temporary pillow.
“So, what do you think?”
“Uh...” He raises his eyebrows as he thinks. “It's very... Miscellaneous, I guess?”
She laughs. “Yes, indeed. I just want to capture all these little details and little things in life that are usually forgotten, y'know? Sometimes, there's beauty even in the simplest little things, and I want to capture all of it.”
It's really strange on how he can actually feel her smiling even without looking at her. Not his fault, she smiles way too damn much. Jongin truthfully doesn't want to say anything to her. He just wants to let her speak and to listen to her soft voice. However, he decides that he really should say something about it since he's not that rude.
“Why not just focus on the big picture? And let all those little details surround it instead of capturing everything. It's just as beautiful.”
That's so far the longest sentence Jongin has made today.
“I'm not sure. Don't little things make up the big picture?”
Now Jongin feels sort of dumb, but he dismisses the topic swiftly, “Not exactly, so I dunno.”
“Oh well.”
None of them utters a word after that. Jongin feels a bit uneasy due to the torturous silence and he fidgets a little, but he decides to ignore it and to savor the peace she is offering him instead.
He only opens his eyes when he hears Soojung standing up. She brushes off grass and dirt that stained her jeans after putting her camera back into her bag.
“It's pretty late,” she says to him with the same bright voice of hers. “I'm going now, Jongin. It's nice talking to you for a short moment.”
Jongin suddenly remembers the bucket list in his shirt’s pocket and he tells her to wait as he rummages through his bag for his shirt. He takes it out, gets to his feet and hands the pink paper to her.
“I found it on the floor after you went out this morning,” he briefly explains.
She seems baffled for a few seconds as if she finds it hard to process his words into her head before she takes the paper from his hand.
“Oh, yeah!” She lets an inane laugh out as she observes the paper. “I was wondering where it went. Thanks!”
Then they stand there, not saying any word again. Soojung appears to be reluctant to leave, it’s like she is expecting Jongin to say something else. But Jongin, of course, doesn’t have anything else to say.
Soojung breaks the silence eventually, slight disappointment evidence in her voice.
“Alright, well, see you around.”
“Yeah,” Jongin replies briefly.
And then she vanishes into the dark.
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