Chapter Two 

“ You amaze me and it's hard for me to turn away and make it not so obvious that I'm looking at you.” ― Shailee J-N

     It was another tiring day at the store and Euigeon was just starting to feel the effects of it as he counted out the change for the day. The shop was beginning to close and they had just finished serving the last customer. His friend was extra cranky and he had no idea what was wrong with him. However, that didn’t seem to surprise Euigeon considering the fact that every time he was positioned at the cash register, his friend would look like had eaten bucketfuls of sour lemons that day. And today was no different. Normally he would have asked what was wrong and would have tried to comfort him but right now he was honestly too tired to care. All he really wanted to do was close up the shop and go home to get some sleep. He had spent the whole day at school and then at the dance studio, and then spent long extra hours at work, he didn’t have any more patience to deal with his friend’s antics. And if he was honest with himself, he’s had enough of this day as a whole and was hoping that the seconds would just tick by faster.

     “Excuse me are you guys still open?” came a familiar soft husky voice that made Euigeon’s head go up with a crack. “Holy ,” he murmured as he rubbed the back of his neck, not knowing whether his expletive was a reaction from the pain he was recently going through or from the girl that stood across from him. Probably both considering the intense shock he was feeling at the moment as he let his gaze wander over his muse that plagued his mind all day. Although Euigeon had diligently followed his daily schedule to the T, he had silently hoped and prayed that he would see the girl from last night at work again and had taken it upon himself to ask another friend of his whether he could also take over his early afternoon shift as well, claiming that he just wanted to help out a friend in need. His friend had readily agreed leaving Euigeon with a small sense of giddiness in the hopes of seeing her one more time. However, as the hours began to crawl by with no sign of a tall long haired girl in sight, Euigeon’s excitement had slowly dwindled down to boredom and then finally to slight annoyance as he noticed his slim chances of seeing her at all today. And that probably explained his indifference to the people around him.

     “Umm excuse me, are you guys still open,” repeated Hani for the second time that day as she moved closer to the front in order to see if the cash register guy was ok. She had heard the crack earlier and saw the  boy’s slight wince as he rubbed his neck and had immediately felt apologetic towards him. It must’ve been the deepness of her voice that had startled the boy and instantly felt embarrassed over the reactions she was receiving from the workers of this stores. She didn’t know what to do, the boy had even blushed over her plight last time when she had done her aegyo on him. However at a closer inspection, Hani realised that it was not the awkward teen with the excessive amount of acne she had talked to last night, rather, there standing in front of her was an imposing boy-like-man who had shoulders that took over half of the space of the small stall. He had light brown hair that had covered his forehead and a snapback on backwards with a long T-shirt that seemed to go down his knees. He was tall and a lot more handsome than the previous guy before him and seemed to hold himself with a lot more maturity that reminded her of someone else she had seen so long ago. But this boy was a lot taller and it was apparent that he was not the guy that Hani had hoped to see. But then again she knew clearly that it would be nearly impossible to chance upon him when he was promoting with his group this summer and was traveling all around asia at the moment.

     “Yes, we are still open, is there anything. You would like,” came out a deep raspy voice that had Hani immediately snapping out of her revere and staring into the eyes of the boy in front of her. “Huh?” came out Hani’s unintelligible answer as she watched the same eyes crinkle slightly at the corners. “I said we are open, is there anything you would like,” Euigeon chuckled as he watched the slight flushed look that started to creep up over the girl’s face. It reminded him of strawberries and cream and for some reason, all of a sudden he had a slight craving for the delectable treat as he continued to watch the girl in front of him. “Heeyeon-ah what’s taking you so long,” came a slight shout as four other girls started to huddle around her and began to look around the empty trays that he and his friend had put away just moments before. “It seems like they are closing up, its ok we’ll have it when we get back to the dorms,” said a tall girl who had the eyes of an abyssinian cat and mid-length dark brown hair.

     “Tha-”

     “No we were just cleaning up that’s all. I can make a second batch for you pretty ladies. It’s my special treat,” interrupted his friend excitedly as he gazed from face to face of the pretty girls that had just made their entrances. He had lately been fuming over at the corner just now as he watched the interaction between Euigeon and the beauty from before and had regretted not fighting for the chance to work at the cash register again even though it was Euigeon’s position today. He had seen the girl blush and Euigeon smile widely, leaving him with a sense of self hatred as he again was left alone to flip the carp cakes and watch from afar. But now was his chance of hitting it off with one of the other pretty girls as he watched the shortest offer him a bright smile.

     “Really, can we really?” Hyerin questioned as she looked excitedly at the new batter that was being made. “Why of course anything for you fine ladies,” winked the friend as he started mixing even more vigorously whilst pulling his sleeve up to show off his muscles that he had been building for about a week. Seeing the desperate attempts at flirting, Euigeon turned his head again to the girl who he just now found out was called Heeyeon and immediately smiled. She had the look of slight disgust and mild humor as she looked on from her friend to his friend. “Now what would this ‘pretty lady’ want for her carp cake,” Euigeon questioned with a soft chuckle as he watched her head snap up to his with a look of confusion and then finally understandment. “Well I personally want the chocolate one but all my other pretty friends would like one plain, two caramels, and one strawberry,” came her reply with a twinkle in her eyes.

      “All right that would be ₩10,000 please,”                                                                                                                                                        “Oh wait give me a sec,” said Hani as she rummaged into her bag and pulled out a crumpled  ₩15,000. She blushed over the state of the money and immediately tried to smooth it out as she rubbed it over the countertop. “It’s ok, I’ve gotten a lot worse,” smiled Euigeon as he watched her pale face turn slightly pink again. He was really craving strawberries and cream right about now. He took the money from her and started to count out the change. However when he was handing it back to her, his fingers began to graze over the palm of her hand and immediately felt the shock travel from his fingers and up all over leaving a tingling sensation over the places that had been touched by her as he instantly pulled his hand back. He was so surprised to have felt what he was feeling and quickly looked down only to see her snatch her hand away from his and hear the tinkling sound of coins being dropped.

     “So do you guys live around here, I’ve never seen you guys around before,” his friend said excitedly as he interrupted Hani and Euigeon in order to smile first at Junghwa and then Hyerin. “Oh no, we came here for work, We’re leaving to go back to soul tomorrow,” replied back Hyerin as she happily accepted the carp cake from him and took a big bite out of its head. “Ahh no wonder, you all do talk with a soul dialect,’ stated the friend absentmindedly as he started to hand back the last carp cake to Euigeon to give out with a lot less enthusiasm then before as he realised that he had no chances with city girls up north, especially ones that were as pretty as them.

     “You guys are leaving tomorrow,” Euigeon questioned softly as he looked down at Hee Yeon with a blank expression on his face. “Yes, we came here for work and a bit of vacationing and now we are all going back tomorrow morning,” stated Hani as she tried to take the carp cake from him, making sure that no part of her touched his. The shock she had felt earlier when her hand had grazed him was still very warm and had Hani’s heart doing somersaults. She didn’t understand what to do with that feeling and rather then pondering over it she had immediately shoved it to the back of her mind and instead focused on trying to get her carp cake out of his hands safely. “Well since this your last day we must follow tradition,” Euigeon teased as he saw through her true intention and pulled the carp cake out of her reach.

    “You have to be hand fed,” he stated with a smirk and a slight shrug. “Oh come on, can’t I just have it now,” Hani pouted with a nervous feeling in her stomach. “Come on Hee Yeon-ah, just do what he says, we got to go back to the hotel,” called out Solji as the rest of them started to head off to the van before their manager started to look for them. “Ok fine,” huffed Hani as she opened to receive the carp cake. “Here you go one carp cake for the beautiful lady,” Euigeon teased as he gently put the cake in whilst rubbing the corner of her lips in order to remove the chocolate cream that had gotten on there. Hani watched as he the cream that he had removed from her lips and immediately blushed crimson. This was the first time anyone had done that to her and yet alone so publicly. Knowing no other way to react, she immediately mumbled out a thank you and ran after her group mates. Euigeon smiled at her retreating figure and continue to the sweetness off his finger. “Well it seems like you’ve been craving chocolate recently,” stated his friend with a slight eyebrow raise. “Hmmm rather than chocolate, I have a sudden craving for strawberries and cream, let's go buy some,” smirked Euigeon as he started to close up the shop and head off home

*****Author's Note:*****

Recently my whole family had caught the flu leaving me to be the nurse as well as the hometaker of the household. That's probably why it took me a while to upload the next chapter. Either way its up and I hope you enjoy!!! Also I loved reading the comments from you guys and it gave me great motivation to move on with the story. Thank you guys! You've been a great help!

Facts: Also as for the so called tradition that Daniel and his friend followed is something I made up but also shown on EXID show time when Hyerin and her father went out to buy food and the worker at one of the stalls had both hand fed Hyerin and even her father. I thought it was unique and included it in the story.  As for Daniel's intentions on whether or not he did it for simply customer attraction or for his own personal gain is all up to you to decide,                                                                                                                                                  <(^ ^)>