Life was deserting her. Badly! The other day Miyeon had a big fight with her mother – not that it didn’t happen in the past too – but this time, it was even worst. It made her realize that the only way she would remain sane was to get a job and move at her grandmother, somewhere at ten minutes away from her school.

The bad reason was that she didn’t have any experience. She has never worked before and it was really hard for people without experience to find a decent job. The ones she could probably find for sure were to serve as a waitress in a place where people barely even came, a mascot, baby sitting and stuff like that.

Even babysitting would be hard considering that some parents asked for women not kids like her who could not even know how to make someone shut up.

She already packed and went at her mother in the evening of that day. Her grandmother was very happy to have her and she didn’t insist to know why Miyeon had a fight with her mother in the first place, knowing perfectly well the relationship between the two of them.

Her grandmother was the mother of her father and she always thought that she was a woman with a difficult temper; Miyeon’s mother.

The apartment had two bedrooms, one big living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and two huge corridors. One at the entrance of the apartment and the other one between the living room and the bathroom!

“Go and wash your hands quickly! I made kimchi!” her grandmother said from the kitchen.

“Okay gran’!”

In the bathroom, she washed her hands and sighed while looking at herself in the mirror. One of her habits was to talk to herself in the mirror; which was really weird for others even if she believed that many did it.

Biting her lower lip, she pointed a finger on the mirror and ‘poked’ her forehead reflection.

“Aish, you are going to survive! All you need is a job, really…” she said and kept on poking her forehead reflection.

“Miyeo-“

“I`m coming!!” she said and ran to the kitchen.

During their meal, her grandmother suddenly stopped from eating and looked at Miyeon with a serious expression on her face. Stuff like that was really intimidating. If there was one thing she didn’t like much that was when people stared at her out of the blue!

Swallowing her kimchi slowly, she sketched a shy smile and looked with wonder eyes at her granny who was silent. After almost one entire embarrassing minute, her granny pointed her chopstick at Miyeon’s face and, Miyeon backed away a bit because she was afraid that she would pop her eyes out with it.

“I think I can get you a job!” her grandmother suddenly said and nodded to herself.

“H… h…hmm?” Miyeon said, still blinking confused.

“You could work at Kim’s coffee shop! I am sure she would hire you since he is in my debt and you better make a good impression and be hard working or we are going to have some problems miss!” her grandmother said with a serious voice while still pointing her chopstick at her.

 Miyeon quickly nodded at her grandmother and bowed her head in a thankful way. The next day, she had to wake up really early in the morning because her grandmother had already spoken with Mister Kim and he agreed to take her in for a week and see if she would do a good job or not. 

He also wanted to discuss about her school schedules so he can tell her when to come to the coffee shop. The shop wasn’t far away from where her grandmother was living. Somewhere around 15 minutes by subway! That wasn’t far away considering that Seoul was huge and some people had to spend one or two hours in the subway to get to their works.

They arrived there at eight o’clock and Mister Kim was very friendly with them. Miyeon’s grandmother seemed to be very close to him and it made her wonder for a moment…

Her grandparents were divorced but she thought that Mister Kim would have been a bit too young for her granny even if they did have something going on.

“When do you finish school Miss Miyeon?” Mister Kim asked.

“Usually around 2pm but I can skip the last hour if-“

“No! That is out of the question!” her grandmother made things clear.

“But usually the last classes are-“

“I said no!” her grandmother made things clear while pointing a finger at her.

“O…okay!! Uhmm.. Every day from 2pm!”

“Good! Then you are going to work from 2pm to 9pm and during weekends you will start from 8am to 2pm! At first, you are going to clean around the shop, after you finish doing this, you can serve the clients! Okay?”

“Yes Mister Kim!” she said and bowed.

“When can she start?” her grandmother asked.

“You can come today at 4pm!”

“Thank you very much Mister Kim!” Miyeon said shyly and bowed.

After her grandmother finished speaking with Mister Kim about random things that only they knew about, they both agreed that Miyeon should go to school in that day. Her grandmother was very strict when it came to education and skipping classes would not have been a wise decision.

At school, Miyeon almost fell asleep during one class but Soniya made sure to wake her up before she would get caught.

“Yah! Didn’t you sleep last night?!” Soniya asked.

“I did but today I had to wake up at six because my granny found me a job and I fell asleep late last night…” she said with her eyes barely opened.

“Then throw some cold water on that face of yours and wake up!”

“Aigoo, don’t be like that! If you were in my place, you would have understood!”

“I do know how it is to be sleepy and I usually wash my face with cold water and drink a cup of coffee to prevent sleeping during classes!” she said in an arrogant way.

Rolling her eyes, Miyeon her lips and sighed deeply while staring from the blackboard to her notebook. Quickly, she noted down everything that was on the blackboard and when she heard the bell ringing, her eyes automatically closed and hit her head of the desk, making Soniya fold her arms and shake her head judgingly at her.

After classes, she went straight at home to eat and study as much as she could until 15:30pm. Keeping up with her studies would be a problem when she had to go at 2pm to work! She thought that the only way to survive this was to study during school and also do her homeworks between breaks. Otherwise, she didn’t know how she was supposed to get all the rest she needed.

When she finished everything, she nervously looked at her grandmother whom gave her a tight, encouraging hug for her first day of work!

“Oh boy, I should note this date in my calendar!” she said and made a crying face.

“You are going to do fine Miyeon! Now, you better make me proud of you or else…” her grandmother said and pointed a finger at her.

“Aiiigggooo!!!” Miyeon pouted and left the apartment.

The subway was very crowded and she catching a seat was out of discussion. There were a lot of elders and since she was a teenager, it was polite for her to let them sit down or else they might stare judgingly at her until she couldn’t take it anymore and get up herself!

Some did that. It was awful!

At work, Mister Kim was cleaning some tables with another girl who was also an employee. Her name was Gina and she seemed really friendly. Older with probably two or three years than her!

When she walked into the store, Miyeon bowed at both of them and Gina sketched a big smile on her face.

“Oh! The new girl?” she asked Mister Kim with a bright smile.

“Yes! Gina, please meet Miyeon, Miyeon this is Gina!” Mister Kim said and they both bowed and greeted themselves.

“Whenever you have any questions, you can ask Gina! She is working here for already one year so she knows everything there is to know!” Mister Kim said and walked in the back of the coffee shop.

“Ah, come with me!” Gina said and grabbed her hand, pulling her behind the stand where she had the cash, drinks and everything. “You will have to wear this hat!” she said and suddenly got out a white hat that got a smiley glass of coffee on it.

The emblem looked rather hilarious to Miyeon and she had to bit her lower lip to not burst into laughing.

“Also, you should dress in white shirts from now on because you will have to wear this red scarf around your neck. It would be best if you had black pants or skirt as well! How I am for example!” Gina said and took a spin to show her how she is supposed to get dressed.

Gina was wearing a really pretty black skirt with a white simple shirt while Miyeon had a simple dark dress.

“I am sorry!” Miyeon said and bowed.

“It’s okay! I think Mister Kim forgot to mention it to you but now that you know, it’s okay!”

Smiling at Gina, she suddenly wrapped the scarf around Miyeon’s neck and arranged it in a pretty way. The way Gina treated Miyeon was making her feel like a little sister who needed training in how to show herself to the world. It was rather a pleasant feeling tho. Some employees could be really rude sometimes

In that moment, the door from the entrance opened and Gina turned to look who it was. Miyeon looked too and raised an eyebrow confused because the person had some dark glasses and a hat on. It looked more as If the person was disguising itself.

“Ah! My boyfriend is here!” Gina clapped happily and walked towards the entrance, giving the person a tight hug and a cheek kiss.

Feeling awkwardly, Miyeon took a small notebook and a pen, waiting to see if he wanted to take a seat for her to go and ask if he wanted to order something to drink or not.

Even if it was called a “coffee shop” they would sell also tea, bubble tea, hot chocolate, juice and stuff like that.

Another guy walked inside the store and Gina waved really friendly at the second guy whom was wearing a hat as well.

“Hello there!” the guys replied and took his hat off, making Miyeon choke with her own saliva.