8. Gossip School

It was a sunday morning and Joohyun woke up again for work. She would be working full-shift again today despite working a full-shift yesterday. It was tiring but the work didn't bother her anyways, after all she was all in for the money for her tuition fees and her daily allowance. Joohyun yawned as she rubbed her eyes dreamily as she pushed the textbooks aside from her body.

She fell asleep again from studying and reading the textbooks last night. She could not even remembered how she fell asleep. All she could remember was she stopped at the part describing about system balances on the mass and energy balances which totally bore her out. Joohyun stretched her arms as she hugged herself in her soft white t-shirt. She walked out and headed to the kitchen, where the smell of the kimchi soup came from. Her mother must have cooked kimchi soup for breakfast. It was a rare sight as her mother rarely cooked big meals for breakfast during the weekends.

"Aren't you working today?" Joohyun asked.

Her mother shook her head. "I took off today." She replied. Joohyun nodded her head as she grabbed the seat against the wall and waited for the food. 

"Oh- your sister is back for vacation." Her mother said which raised Joohyun's brows immediately.

"Vacation?" Joohyun uttered in reply as it made no sense. School had already started a week ago in Korea for the universities which meant school has either started or about to start in the united states. It made no sense as to why her sister would come back to Seoul for vacation at this time. 

Joohyun's sister, Taeyeon came out of her room with a messy bed hair and her long oversized white t-shirt dress. She tied her hair into a messy bun as she sat across Joohyun. 

"Hey." Taeyeon said.

Joohyun looked at her in shock. "Why are you back in Seoul? Isn't school starting over in the United states?" Joohyun asked.

"It actually starts way later than in Korea." Taeyeon replied coldly as their mother came with the kimchi soup and their bowls of rice. 

Taeyeon grabbed a bowl and started eating hungrily while Joohyun looked at her older sister in doubt. *This is strange.* Joohyun thought to herself. She remembered checking academic calendars in the United States and schools actually do start around the same time or slightly later in the States. Something was fishy and Joohyun could felt it when Taeyeon suddenly came back to Korea at this point of time.

"Oh my, our Taeyeonnie must be really tired after flying back from the states. Eat more, yeah?" Her mother said.

Joohyun sighed as she begun eating. She felt uneasy about her sister coming back, not mainly because she hated her or anything but her parents actually seemed to care more of Taeyeon than her. Joohyun ate her food quickly and headed to work. 

The thought of her sister coming back have been in her mind on her way to work. She took her phone out and checked her school calendar. School was supposed to start on Monday and her sister just flew back to Seoul yesterday night. It made no sense as to why she is back at this point of time and Joohyun felt something have went wrong with Taeyeon. Maybe she was skipping school while still receiving money from her parents.

Joohyun sighed. Her parents paid fully for Taeyeon's tuition fees but Joohyun had to survive on her own with her part-time job that barely pays enough for the tuition fees, let alone for her own spending allowance. Joohyun then went into the cafe and went to the cashier.

"Hey unnie~" Yeri greeted her. "You're early today." Yeri said.

"Yeah, as usual. I'll go start up the espresso machine." Joohyun said as she placed her bag in her locker and wore the apron over her body. She headed to the espresso machine and turned it on, while gently doing the pre-work shots. 

"So how's school?" Joohyun asked the younger girl, whom she considered as her "precious little sister".

"School's just school. Nothing much, really.." Yeri said in a dreadful manner.

Joohyun laughed at her reply. She was still the same, dreading schoolwork and just rebellious as per usual. "Aren't you going to SNU as well?" Joohyun asked.

"Yeah I want to. However, the more I see it, the more lazy I am. If I get in, I don't know whether I will even survive in there. You know how lazy I can be and how much I can procrastinate." Yeri explained.

"Do well in school now. You can do it." Joohyun said.

"Easier said than done." Yeri retorted back.

Joohyun laughed. "I know right? Haha." Joohyun replied.

The cafe was now opened and Joohyun and Yeri were the only staffs in the cafe on that early Sunday morning.

They were having small talks until the first customer entered and Yeri took the order. More customers came in and it was soon swarmed with customers nearing noon time. They were busy with the orders until Joohyun had to do two jobs, from being the barista to being the cashier and taking down customers' orders while the younger sister had to run around the cafe to deliver the drinks and orders as well as cleaning the leftovers and tables around the cafe. 

"Hey, can I take my order please?" One guy said at the counter.

Joohyun nodded her head while pouring the steamed milk over the espresso shot for the latte order. "Yes, please wait a moment, sir." She said as she placed the cup down gently and served it with a coffee spoon to Yeri who was busy delivering the drinks to the customers. 

"Hi yes, welcome to Anthracite Coffee Roasters. May I take your ord-" Joohyun said as she looked up with a smile to the customer to realise it was Taehyung infront of her.

"Oh- hi." Taehyung said in an awkward manner.

Joohyun widened her eyes in shock and a small smile crept upon her lips. "Hi, Taehyung-sshi." She said.