Amanda opened up the door to her closet and stared blankly at her chest of drawers. On its shelf top, she had stacked polaroid pictures of her trips with the Lahlings and instant photos of her and Nam Joon while they were out on lunch dates and some taken with the Polaroid app. She took a deep breath while staring at her pictures and recalling the events that played around those times.

to be an adult, hmph. Whoever invented adulting should just jump into the river and not come up for air.

Amanda had just got off the phone with her mother. It was her weekly call to check-in with her parents just to let them know she’s still breathing and coping. She had hinted in her phone call last week that she was ‘sorta’ seeing someone and that was all her mom could talk about since then. She wanted to have the parents meet. Amanda suddenly felt smothered and made up an excuse about having an appointment to meet her guidance counselor at college.

She couldn’t really blame her parents for being over protective since she was the only girl in her family. Her parents would shower her with nagging reminders about a biological ticking clock and wanting grandchildren and all she could do to avoid it all was to cough it off or pretend she didn’t hear it. But in all honesty, Amanda did think about all those things. She thought about it a lot.

Amanda was guarded. Having gone through two really ty relationships before and uprooting herself made her conscious of her decisions regarding men. She didn’t want to leap into this like she did the last time; she didn’t want to give in so easily; she wanted to seem carefree, when really, she wasn’t. She did not though, foresee herself falling for Nam Joon the way she did. He was different, he was patient and more importantly he made her feel safe and sure. Never in her past relationships did she feel like he would waver or make a sudden decision to relocate.

in’  Yuchun and Yunho.

She couldn’t help but curse their names to hell and back every time she thought about her past.

Like any typical girl, Amanda wanted a family, a big grand house, a loving husband and a furry white Chow Chow running around in the garden. Damn fairytale my life is turning out into. She smiled to herself at how ridiculous it seemed to want those trivial things.

Heh why did I even bother. It’s never gonna happen.

She rummaged through her drawers to pull out clothes to pack for her night at Nam Joon’s  when her phone buzzed.

Counsellor:   You’ve completed all credit hours. You will be eligible to graduate this semester, Congratulations.

Happy that she finally got that chapter closed, she smiled while swiping through her messages only to find one that she had missed earlier.

Tae:      Your paycheck is ready. I can’t believe this will be your last week. Will be waiting for you at the bar.

20  minutes later, with her backpack in tow, Amanda leans to push on the front door of  The Silver Spoon. She hears the auto doorbell chime and sees that the place is still empty as it is not due to open till a few more hours more. She rests her backpack on the barstool and heads to the locker room at the back of the bar. She doesn’t make a sound and was suddenly curious as to why she received a message from Tae saying he will meet her here. Her phone buzzed and she stops in her tracks.

Joon:     Heard you’ll be at the bar for your paycheck. I’m picking mine up too, will be there in 5.

She leaves him on read and continues to walk to the locker room. She hears muffled noises behind the door and wondered if someone was held against their will. She makes a detour and reaches for the fruit knife (used for Nam Joon’s cocktails) near the sink and slowly creeps towards the locker room door.

She jumps as her heart started to beat erratically when the automatic doorbell chimes softly. She turns her head and she sees Nam Joon walk in. He sees her and smiled.

“Hi baby, I—“ He began when he saw her behind the bar counter.

“Sshhhh!!” Amanda warns him and points to the locker room door.

He mouths a whisper. “W-w-what?  What’s going on?“ As he makes his way to join her.

“Someone’s in there.” Amanda lifts the fruit knife and uses it to point at the locker room door.

“’Someone’?” Nam Joon leans his ears against the door. He doesn’t hear much and whispers back. “I don’t hear anything?” He scrunches his temples.

Right then, their whispers were interrupted by a muffled sound of presumably a girl exclaiming, as if she had won a marathon.

Nam Joon couldn’t hold in his curiosity and pushed the door open. As soon as the door opened, Amanda and Joon held their breaths, awestruck at the view that greeted them. Amanda couldn’t help but cover to stop herself from squealing.

They had found Tae with a blue-green-haired girl , straddling each other, looking like they were about to .

“Oh…” Amanda managed, stifling a snort and turned around to bury her face in Joon’s chest. She didn’t know where to look, she was so embarrassed.

“Brruuhhhhhhhh….” Nam Joon nodded in approvingly.

As soon as Tae and his partner realized that they had an audience, they froze. All Tae could do was to hold onto his partner and they stopped their riding activities. Seeing that he was already ‘caught’, Tae whispered in his partner’s ear, smiled and leaned over her shoulder.

“Care to join us?” Tae sniggered.

“Really? Well…” Nam Joon considered, smiling and turned to Amanda.

“What!? no, we’ll wait outside!” Amanda dragged Nam Joon out of the locker room and shut the door behind them.

She buried her face in her palms and muttered ‘what the hell just happened’ to herself so many times. She tried wiping that mental image out of her head, but she just couldn’t. She wasn’t sure if she should be grossed out that she caught her boss screwing a girl in the ‘office’ or that she saw him , she wasn’t sure.

Nam Joon on the other hand couldn’t help sniggering and laughing about it. He was surprised, alright.

“I gotta hand it to him, he picked one helluva place to bang a chick.” He climbed into the bar stool next to Amanda.

“I can’t ing get that image out of my head now!” Amanda gently leaned her head into her hands on the bar counter.

“Keep that image fresh, baby coz you and I…” Nam Joon leans over to nuzzle his nose in her ear.

Just then the locker room door opened and a fully clothed Tae and his partner appeared behind it. He adjusted his collar (which was inside out) and straightened his Gucci shirt.  Tae’s partner was only slightly shorter than he was. She had shoulder length hair and features so sweet, she did not seem the type to be wildin’ openly in a locker room.

Amanda mused. Looks can be deceiving, Tae you devil, you. You bagged a sweet-looking chick and didn’t tell us about it.

Nam Joon couldn’t help but smile appreciatively. He was smug and his bro code kicked in. “Good job, bro.” He offered a fist pump, which was reciprocated by Tae.

“Thanks.” Tae with his self-satisfied grin, cleared his throat. “Meet Fiona.” He turns around and pulls her next to him. “Fiona, meet Mandy and Joon. They met here, while working for me.” He gripped Fiona’s hand assuredly.

“Nice to meet you Fiona.” Amanda smiled and offered a handshake. “Sorry… uh… about just now.” She flashed her teeth, feeling slightly ashamed.

“No, it’s ok.” Fiona smiled back, genuinely abashed and couldn’t look Amanda in the eye. “I should go sort out the plates in the kitchen.” She leaves hurriedly.

The trio laughed as they watched Fiona jog her way to the kitchen, knowing that it wasn’t the best circumstance to have met new people for the first time.

“Wow… you guys have ‘fantastic’ timing, huh” Tae pointed out.

“Dude, you told us you were waiting for us here!” Nam Joon exclaimed.

“Did I?” Tae pulled his phone out to check his sent messages. “Right, I did, didn’t i?” He smiled to himself while reading his messages. “Looks like, I did this to myself!” He roared with laughter.

“No dude, she ‘did’ you! Geddit? Geddit?” Nam Joon couldn’t help himself and Amanda joined in.

“Let’s just forget it happened….” Tae opens up a drawer behind the bar and hands Amanda and Joon an envelope each. “Amanda, that’s your hard earned paycheck. Thank you again, so very much, for spending your hours here with us. I don’t want to seem too formal about this, but you’re always welcome here. I know I have Seojoon, my bar manager, to thank for having hired you. So again, thank you so much!”

Amanda couldn’t help but feel proud of herself. Her hours at The Silver Spoon may seem insignificant to some, but she’s made a lot of good friends while working here. There was never a dull moment.  She stared at the envelope and thought quietly about how thankful she should be to Yugyeom for introducing her to Seojoon. She wouldn’t have met Nam Joon if it weren’t for him.

I would’ve probably ended up doing translation work for authors that paid peanuts if it weren’t for this job.

“No, I should thank you, Tae.” Amanda squared her shoulders, still holding the envelope in hand, without opening it. “If it weren’t for this place, I wouldn’t have met Joon here.” She nudged Joon’s elbow shyly while hiding her eyes behind her hair, not wanting to make eye-contact after that confession.

Tae knew Amanda had worked long hours and perhaps sacrificed study time to help the crew at The Silver Spoon out. He felt bad for that but also, he didn’t meet many reliable waitresses that worked for him like she did. For that, he felt blessed.

“Anytime, Mandy. Any. Time.” Tae leaned over and squeezed her hands. But only briefly because he was about to relay some important information for Nam Joon.

“Bro, for you…” Tae hands Nam Joon a slightly bigger envelope. “There are two things in that envelope. One is your paycheck and the other is a contract.”

“A contract?” Nam Joon held his breath and then cleared his throat.”I wo