“Taeyeon, last minute switch. You’re up in five.”

Shoulder-length black hair flipped over reasonably broad shoulders as Taeyeon lifted her head. She wore a frown on her face, lips pressed together in annoyance. “Why are they always doing this to us?”

“The other band is stuck in traffic.”

“Why didn’t they come earlier? Traffic isn’t a valid excuse anymore.”

The other woman put her hands up. “Don’t shoot the messenger.”

With a sigh, Taeyeon turned to the other women on her left and right. “My guitarist and keyboardist are here but I don’t know where our drummer is.”

“Here!” came a voice from somewhere behind the messenger.

Taeyeon chuckled. “Okay, let’s go.” She closed the sketch book she had been drawing in and left it on the seat along with her case of pencils. “Move it, girls.”

ov

The band on stage was good. Especially the singer. She wasn’t tall. In fact, she was a small little person, yet her voice was anything but. Her voice could reach the sky. And express volum. She had one heck of an emotive way of singing. Two songs in, Tiffany was admiring the charisma the singer had on stage when a voice interjected her enjoyment.

“Hey, new girl.”

Tiffany the new girl got off her barstool and bowed to the shorter but obviously more senior woman quickly. “Hi, I’m Tiffany,” she said after bowing and smiled, hoping to have a good start in this new place. “Do you need help with something?” she asked kindly.

“Help? Sure, we can always do with some help.” The woman’s smile was cold and unfeeling. “Clean up the band’s area. Replace their ice bucket. Make it nice and tidy for when they finish their set soon. Got it?”

Tiffany blinked. Wasn’t that a job for the waitresses? This woman must be mistaken. “What’s your name?”

The woman’s expression grew uglier. “New girls these days really like to throw their weight around, huh? Want to know my name? You should first know that I’m the most senior waitress around here and when I tell you to clear a table, you clear it. Understand?”

You may be a senior waitress here but I’m—

Tiffany stopped herself. This wasn’t a good time to introduce herself. And what did it matter? She had been a pretty good waitress back in high school. This, she could handle.

ov

“What the are you doing?”

Tiffany whipped around, sketchbook in hand, and her eyes widened upon recognizing the singer on stage earlier. “Me?” she asked, staring into smoky eyes that had gone from angry to something else and back to angry in a heartbeat. “I’m cleaning this area up for you.”

The singer stretched her hand out. “Give it back.”

“Give what back?”

“My book.”

Tiffany looked down at the sketchbook in her hand. “Oh, right. Sorry, I didn’t mean to touch your book but I had to pick it up to wipe the seat.” Stretching her arm out, Tiffany held the book for the petite woman to retrieve. She let it go, thinking the singer had her hand on it but it fell to the ground, and fell open. Tiffany was first to reach for it, squatting down so she could pick it up but that’s when she got a clear view of the drawing on the open page.

“Who—” Tiffany began to ask, but the book was shut in a hurry and picked up by the singer.

“Don’t ever touch my book again.”

“What’s going on here?” asked a familiar voice.

Tiffany stood up in confusion. “Oh, Yuri, you’re here.”

The taller woman threw her a strange look. “I told you to wait for me at the bar. Why are you here with Taeyeon?”

“I was at the bar waiting for you. I was enjoying her,” Tiffany gestured at Taeyeon, “singing but someone thought I’m a new waitress and ordered me to clean the band’s booth up.”

“And you did as you were told?” Yuri rolled her eyes. “Lemme guess. The one who ordered you around is a short woman. Hair dyed golden.” Tiffany nodded. “And she told you she’s the senior around here.” Tiffany nodded again, more vigorously this time and Yuri sighed. “Her name is Seureo and she’s a bully. We’re about to fire her.”

“Oh, I didn’t know that.”

“Yeah, there’s no way you could’ve known that.” Yuri shook her head then turned to Taeyeon. “And what’s the problem here?”

Tiffany stared curiously as Taeyeon shook her head and held the book close to her chest.

“No problem,” said the singer, scooting around them. “It’s fine.” She tried to stuff her book in her bag, shoving it harder against the opening when it refused to cooperate.

At this point, Tiffany had the question on the tip of her tongue but she didn’t want to ask it with Yuri around. “Yeah, there’s no problem here,” she said to Yuri in the end. “Let’s go to your office and get down to it.”

Yuri smiled and nodded. “Great. Follow me.”

Tiffany turned to smile at Taeyeon and excuse herself but the singer was still trying to stuff her book into her bag. Something about that made Tiffany giggle. A streak of funny in her blood, maybe. But it was becoming obvious that the singer was avoiding her gaze so Tiffany decided to follow Yuri and leave Taeyeon alone with her book and bag.

Next time. The next time she saw Taeyeon, she was going to ask the singer why there was a sketch of her in that book.

ov