Chapter 2

Chaerin jogs as she try to locate Jiyong in the hall way and saw him walking in the middle of the crowd.

“Yah!”

It’s during times like this that the students appear in the hallway walking as if they are in runaway.

“Can you move faster?”

Sounding stern, she manage to make the juniors move swiftly to the side as she hastily trying to reach Jiyong. There are lots of questions that need answering right now.

“Hey, why the rush?”

Jimin. Enough to stop Chaerin in her track.

“Where were you?”

Chaerin frowns and cross her arms in front of her.

“Occupied with lots of ”

“Well, you missed the briefing. Jimin, you can’t be like this”

“Like what?”

“Like this, missing out, not answering my texts….”

“Oh come on baby. I’m stuck doing my assignments. You know how I am when occupied with it. Plus, I have my girlfriend to brief them to me”

Jimin smile slyly as he pulls her and throw his arm around her shoulder. Leading the way towards the carpark, away from the crowded hallway.

“I’m not your PA”

Chaerin rolls her eyes.

“Umm, sorry to say but the moment you sign up as my girlfriend, it comes together with the package”

He chuckles as Chaerin proceeded to smack his chest.

“Hey daddy~”

Chaerin walk to her father that is busy behind the counter and give him a peck before proceeding to keep her stuff in the counter cabinet.

“A bit slow today huh?”

Chaerin look around the restaurant and saw few customers enjoying their meal. Still a lot of tables empty. His father opens this restaurant in the early years of his marriage with her mom. It is equivalent with his qualification as a chef. Mr Lee has always been a hardworking man. True enough, the restaurant have always been the reason of their spat when they were still married. Reason being that Mr Lee often spends most of his time there and things just escalates from there.

“Nope. I just have a chance to actually rest. It was hectic just now, how’s college?”

“Meh…”

“Hmm?”

“Nothing much, oh, I need you to sign this”

Chaerin waits excitedly as she monitors her father reaction while reading it.

“Yah. You’re going national?”

“Yup!”

Chaerin chuckles as Mr Lee hug her proudly.

“You bad kid. When did you know about this?”

“Last week”

“And you just tell me this now?”

“I just want to surprise you daddy”

Chaerin smile as she saw genuine emotion of pride seeping through her father.

“You brat. Wait. Who else is going? Jimin?”

“He too”

“Oh..”

“Why are you sounding so unhappy?”

Chaerin stare at her father, furrowing at him.

“How about little Kwon?”

“Of course”

“Okay nice”

“Wow, suddenly your mood is uplifted huh?”

Chaerin shakes her head and keep the form in her bag carefully before putting her waitress service apron around her waist.

“Well, I like little Kwon”

“Urghhhhhh”

“Hey little kid, I can say the same for you in regards of that annoying old Kwon”

“You do realize that yours and uncle’s age aren’t that far apart right?”

Chaerin does not know when it occur, but for all she can remember, Mr Kwon and her father have been at it ever since Mr Kwon open their restaurant just next to theirs.

“Uncle huh?”

“Well, I like old Kwon”

Chaerin laugh heartily while her father looks at her with zero amusement.

“Get to work little kid.”

“Grumpy.”

Chaerin chuckles as she walks to attend to the customers who just enter the restaurant.

The day went on as it supposed to be. Tiring and long. Chaerin is always at the restaurant if she does not have any practice or activity in campus. Sometimes, Mr Lee felt that she is not living her life as how most of the kids her age do.

Mr Lee studies his daughter behavior as she connects with every staff comfortably. He smiles proudly at how polite she is with the staff, never once treating them as a worker but family.

“Dad, I’m going to throw this rubbish at the back okay”

“Let me do it”

Suho chimes in and was about to grab it from Chaerin’s hand but she immediately back away.

“It’s in my hand dude”

“You heard her”

Mr Lee nonchalantly continues to calculate today’s sales as Suho scratch his head in confusion. He just started working for 2 weeks now and are still working on adapting to this environment.

“Hi uncle”

Chaerin show her smile as she sees Mr Kwon at the back, smoking.

“Oh, the beautiful Chaerin”

He smile back and finish off his ciggarate while fanning away the smoke. Chaerin just chuckles over his behavior.

“Sneaking behind to have a smoke huh?”

“You know how your aunt will yap at me right if she saw me smoke?”

Mr. Kwon. Down in his late 40s, fit physique similar to Mr Lee. Hobby? Sneaking in the back alley to have a smoke which ironic to his daily ‘healthy lifestyle’ as a gym freak. While their restaurant serve a lot of western food, Mr Kwon’s serve the best traditional food in the whole area. It’s funny that both Chaerin’s and Jiyong’s father often bicker among themselves though their business actually compliments each other. The only thing that Chaerin remember as the cause of their spat was when the Kwons renovated their restaurant and have damaged their place and everything turns sour after that. But, the bickering only fixed to adult with adult and the kids with themselves. As for Jiyong, Chaerin developed a negative feelings upon him due to his cockiness whenever they meet.

“You know uncle Kwon, it’s really amusing to see how you manage to sneak behind her aunty’s back without her noticing it”

“Well, it’s because I’ve been doing it for my whole life..”

“Uncle! I’m going to tell aunty”

“Yah, I’m gonna stop giving you braised kimchi stew if you keep blackmailing me like that”

“Nooooo!! You know it’s my favorite”

“Well, I know it too well, I’ll give you some later but don’t share it with your dad.”

“Uncle”

Jiyong’s dad chuckle as he saw Chaerin squint her eyes on him.

“You know Chaerinnie, I’ve been seeing you on a daily basis, and you’ve grown up to be such a polite and beautiful lady, and I treat you just like my own kid.”

“Why the sudden change of subject uncle?”

Chaerin smile and stand beside Mr Kwon, resting her back on the wall.

“It’s just that, I hate to see you hurt by someone you love”

“Hmm?”

Chaerin look at the pair of concern eyes staring at her. She was about to continue but ended as soon as Jiyong open the door of their restaurant to