With both of my hands inside my jeans pocket, I walk along the sidewalk. Thinking about what should I do next after I got my things from the supermarket, after ten minutes walked I arrived at the store. Walking inside the store, immediately I walk to the beverages section. I suddenly felt thirsty after my ten minutes walk. Looking at the drinks one by one, I try to decide which one I should buy. There are too many drinks inside the cooler. I only like some of the drinks. But hey, what’s wrong with trying new things right?  But then again I always ended up buying the same drink.

Just as I set my eyes on my favorite drink, I could feel my phone vibrate inside of jacket pocket. Taking it out from my pocket with my right hand, I answer the call without looking at the caller ID. This is not usually what I do, I always check the caller ID, but I’m just too lazy to see the caller ID for now.

“Hello?” I say my greeting, and let my left hand take my chosen drink.

“Where are you? We need you, pronto.”

I let out a sigh when I heard the excited, yet firm voice that belongs to my cousin, Kim Jaejoong. Pushing the door of the fridge with my shoulder and let it close by itself, I move my phone from my left ear to my right ear. I never really felt comfortable using my left ear for calling someone using my phone.

 “What do you need oppa? I’m not going to work until next Monday.”

He should know this. He’s the manager slash my good friend. Plus I’ve told him already before I went home yesterday afternoon.

“But Tae-“

“No.” I said sternly, “Oppa, I need my time alone. If it’s emergency you could just send it to me by email. Better, go to my apartment” I continue getting irritate.

I feel bad for sounding rude towards Jaejoong oppa, but really.  I really need my time alone.

I walk to the end of the aisle to find medium size racks of carts. I take one of those things to put my drinks. Pushing it down other aisles, I let my eyes wonder to the snacks display. There are many snacks too. Too many that I couldn’t decide which one should I buy. Sometimes it could take more than three minutes for me to decide which one I would want to buy. Moreover, I could stay inside a supermarket for more than thirty minutes just to decide the whole things that I want to buy. It’s already become my habit, staying for a long time inside a supermarket, one weird habit.

I could hear a long tired sigh from the other line, “Alright alright, I got it Miss Kim. But, I’m going to your home later. You got to see this Tae, you will be amaze.” Somehow I could see a grin on his face as he said the last sentence.

I stop my walk.

His words got my attention, “What do you mean I will be amaze? What do I need to see to feel like one?”

“Well… You will see it later when I got there.” He says, “Trust me, you will be amaze.” Then he ended the phone call without any signal for ending it.

Frowning I look at my phone screen, “Typical.” I mumble some incoherent words.

I keep pushing my cart along the aisles, taking some soaps and shampoos. I don’t forget to buy an olive oil and other cooking ingredients. Although I don’t have that much time to cook, I still love to cook when I have free time. Sometimes I could just make a simple dish or when I’m in the right mood, I could make tons of food that at the end I need to give some of the food to someone else. Usually I give it to my friends or the guards inside my apartment building. I mean, they have work hard, so why not giving them some appreciation such as food? Who doesn’t like food? I chuckle at the thought.

After making sure that I got everything that I want, I immediately walk to the cashier to pay my groceries. As I wait for the cashier to check my groceries, I let myself look around the place. There aren’t many people inside the store, only some older people and a couple of youngster. Each one of them is busy looking at their own groceries. Just as I want to set my eyes back on my own groceries, my eyes catch something outside the store. It was a couple, a young woman and a young man. The two of them were walking past the store, giggling and linking their arms to each other. They look like they are teasing at each other. They have mischief look on their face, but still have the loving eyes too. One thing that caught my eyes is their happiness.

Happy, the couple looks very happy with each other.

I feel myself smiling, but it wasn’t a big smile. Just a small one, like I used to wear when I feel a bit ticklish but lazy to make a real smile, but… this time…

I shake my head lightly, rubbing my chest and take a deep breath before I focus my eyes back to the cashier. Smiling at the cashier when he gives me my groceries bag, I say thank you and give him the money. I told him to keep the change and immediately leave the store. Walking faster to the exit, I hug the groceries bag to my chest more tightly. I take another deep breath as I set my feet outside the store.

Gwenchana Tae-a… You are going to be just fine.

Looking to my right and left, I take a left turn and walk back to my apartment building.

***

As soon as I arrive at my apartment, I bring my groceries to the kitchen. Taking out each items that I have bought I decided to arrange them in their places first before I went to my bedroom and change my clothes. After five minutes everything I bought is in their places. Huffing, I walk to my bedroom as I take off my leather jacket. I toss it randomly and lay myself onto my bed. Closing my eyes I could feel the rush of exhaustion hits me.

This is why I need my time alone, I feel exhausted. I need to be alone. Not many people understand this. Only some people know it and that includes my parents. Especially my parents, they know when to leave me alone and when I could use a company. They know it because I’m their child of course, their only child.

After resting for another ten minutes, I sit up on my bed and look around my bedroom. My bedroom isn’t messy, no not really. A queen size bed just beside the window, with brown and cream cover. A door just beside my dresser is my medium size closet where I could keep my all of my clothes. Usually that room is the messy one. At the end of my bed, there are racks of books. The racks are sticking on the white wall, my father do it for me. He said that it could make my room look more minimize. Which is true, my room looks pretty good because of his works. He is quite good at interior design, yet he doesn’t work on that field.

I was going to go to the bathroom when I heard the door bell rings. Great, he’s here already? I check the time and it was only four in the afternoon. Shaking my head I change my clothes quickly. Just as I finish changing I could hear Jaejoong oppa screaming from the outside.

“Ya! Kim Taeyeon! Open up! I know you are in there!”

Rolling my eyes I shouted back, “Hold up will ya?! Give me a sec!”

I look around to find my hair tie, when I found it I tie my hair into a messy bun. Then I walk to the front door. As soon as I open the door I could see Jaejoong oppa gives me one bored look.

“You just kill me with the boredom of waiting for you Kim Taeyeon-ssi.” He says those words as he walks into my apartment with his own bags.

My lips turn into a tight smile, “Sure, just come in. I don’t mind at all.” I say sarcastically as I close the door.

Jaejoong oppa waves his hand dismissively, “You love me anyway. So yeah, just deal with it.” He says in his own sassy way.

I only laugh at his words and the way he acts. It’s true. I love him too much to care about how he treated me. He starts unloading the things inside his bags as soon as he reaches the coffee table. Scoffing, I walk towards him with my arms crossing on my chest. I look at him as he takes out some books from inside the white bags that he brought. The bags that he brought were actually the bags that usually we give to our customer at our book café. I frown as he set the books into some orders. I take a sit and look at him with one eye brow raise.

“What’s this?” I start to ask, taking a book into my hands.

“Well,” He let out a wide grin, “First thing first, I would like to congratulate you my dear friend.”

Jaejoong oppa leave me with the books to take a walk into the kitchen.

“Uh… What for?” I ask again, still not getting what he’s talking about.

He comes back with two glasses and a bottle of orange juice. Yes, orange juice. I don’t have any wine in my kitchen because I just don’t have any. He’s still grinning widely as he pours the liquid into the glasses.

“This morning I got a call from the elite publishing house.” He starts, “You know the-“

“The publisher that I like…” I interrupted him, “Are you saying that… we…”

Jaejoong oppa clap his hands in an excited way, “Yes! We got them! We made a contract we them! So, start from next Monday they will send all of their authors’ books to our store! Isn’t that wonderful?”

My eyes widen, couldn’t believe with what just I heard, no way. I didn’t realize that I said that out loud until Jaejoong oppa let out a chuckle.

“Yes way! Tae! We got them! Your favorite publishing house is working together with your book café! Aren’t you excited?”

“Excited? This is more than excited! This is-“

I run my fingers through hair and untie my hair tie. I still couldn’t believe that they want to work with us, after all the hard work that we do to make them work with us. They finally sign the deal.

“See,” He smirk and take a sit beside me, “I know you will be amaze.” He takes a sip of his drink.

“This is more than amaze oppa, like, this is.”

I open my mouth, but no words come out from it. I don’t know how to describe my feelings right now. I don’t know what to say! Jaejoong oppa laughs at me and ruffles my hair.

“I’m proud of you dongsaeng-a. Your hard work has paid off.”

“Our hard work oppa, we did this together. I’m not the only one who’s working.” I say looking at him.

He chuckle at me, “I know, but you are the one who keep chasing them. I don’t think we will get them if you don’t do it in your own way. I mean, from the start they already love you.”

I give him a look.

“What? It’s true! They like you!” He scoffs and takes another drink, “Why do you think you are being invited to their dinner gala when you are not even officially working with them?”

“Uh?” I stare at my own glass of orange juice, “Because they are just being friendly I guess? Plus I think they don’t feel comfortable about me being left out from that dinner gala. After all, I was in a negotiation with them.” I take a sip of my juice, before putting it back on the coffee table, “So are these the books that we will going to sell in out café?”

Jaejoong oppa nods his head, “Yes, those are only some of the books. They will send the rest this Sunday. And no, they aren’t being friendly sister. They are being very generous with you. Why? Because once again, I tell you sister, they love you.” He then shrugs his shoulders, “Plus no one gets into that gala except the ones that’s working with them.”

My eyebrows rise in an amusement, “Really? Ha, I guess I’m lucky.”

“Very lucky.”  Jaejoong oppa agree with me.

I only smile at his replied, “So, what do you want me to do with this books?”

“Oh, can we keep the books here for a while? Sunday later I will come here again to take it and arrange it in our book café. Also,” He pulls another bag and rummages the bag before taking out a document with a pen, “I need you to sign this. This is the contract that the publishing house has sent out to us.”

“Sure.” I take the document and the pen from his hands, and start doing my work.

Just a short one for now lovelies~

Tell me your opinion about it,

Good bye for now, see you in the next update!