“Congratulations, Miss Park. You can start on Monday.” The manager said after my final interview.

I cannot believe that I finally have a part-time job. I eagerly bowed my head in ninety-degrees and thanked her countless of times.

“I am expecting that you’ll work hard and get along well with your colleagues. Well, then. Good luck!” She smiled at me and then she guided me into the kitchen.

“Guys, here is Miss Sandara Park. She will be working alongside with you starting on Monday. She will be our new part-time barista. I hope you welcome her warmly.”

There are five people in front of me including the manager. I smiled at them and greeted. “Hello, everyone. I am Sandara, you can just call me Dara. I am in my fourth year as a business major student in Ehwa Woman’s University. Please take care of me.”

They all smiled in return. They also introduced themselves to me. Mr. Dawon is the pastry chef and his assistant is Shinah. The cashier is Ms. Jihye and the waiter is Kyungmin who is also a part-timer just like me.

Ma’am Sera, the manager, said that the other staff are on their day-off and I’ll be meeting them soon, especially Mr. Donghyun who is the regular barista of the café.

After the little orientation, I left the café and head back to my apartment. I am now on a semester break and I decided to work for a part-time job to save money for my last semester in college and to get ready for my internship. I live in a small town in Gyeonggi Province and transferred here in Seoul for college. I am currently living away from my family and rents a small room near the university with my friend, Minji.

I was at the bus stop now waiting for the next bus when Minji called.

“Dara, how was your interview? Did you got hired?” She didn’t bother to say hello and asked right away.

I took a deep sigh making sure she heard it on the other line.

“Hey, what does that mean? Did they reject you? Where are you right now?” She sounded a little too worried.

“Hey, I got hired! I was just trying to prank you.” then I laughed.

The other line got loud when she screamed. “Waaaaa! I am happy for you! Congratulations! We should celebrate today. Buy chicken on your way back, I remember that we still have stock of beer in the ref.”

Just the thought of it, makes my mouth water. “Okay! We will drink out tonight! Do you have anything else you want me to get on my way back?”

“Nothing else. Just get here fast. I am really craving for chicken.” She said and ended the call. Just right then, the bus arrived.

I was entering the bus when I bumped into a man. “I-I’m sorry,” I said but he didn’t bother to look at my direction and hurriedly walked past me. “Tch. What a rude man!” He is kind of handsome but what a bad personality he has. How could he just not even look at me when I am the one apologizing? We were both at fault and he should be apologizing too and yet he ignored me.

“Young lady, aren’t you going in? We will be causing traffic here.” I got back to my senses with that. I bowed to him and said sorry. I immediately punched in my transportation card and looked for a seat near the window.

After twenty long minutes I arrived at the vicinity of our apartment building. I took a deep sigh to erase my displeasure to the rude man and smiled to myself.

I went to the fried chicken restaurant, few blocks away from our building, and ordered our favorite menu, half honey garlic and half spicy Korean-style.

I ran my way into the apartment and as I was keying our unit’s passcode, Minji opened the door and popped a party popper. “Congratulations, Dara! Where’s the chicken? Where’s the chicken?”

I nonchalantly gave her the box of chicken and made my way into my bed. “Ah! It felt so long since I reunited with my bed, my soft and nice bed!”

Our unit is a small room with two beds side by side, a bathroom and kitchen and just a small table. Both of our belongings are kept inside the wall cabinets on both sides of our bed.

“Are you that tired? Didn’t you just went for the interview? Did you go somewhere else?” Minji asked and put the box of chicken in the table.

I sat with my legs crossed and faced her. “No. It’s just that I got so annoyed with a certain man on my way back here that it drained all my energy.”

“Why? What happened? Did he harass you? Did you report it to the police already? Do you have any proof?” Minji flooded me with questions.

I heaved a sigh and held both of her arms to look at me. “It is not anything like that, Minji. Calm down, okay? He was on his way out of the bus and I was going in and we bumped into each other. I apologized to him immediately but that jerk didn’t even look at me. He ignored me when he should be apologizing too. Aish! Remembering it, makes me so angry!”

After my explanation, Minji stared blankly at me. So I nudged her and said, “Don’t you want to say anything? You were so full of it just a while ago.”

“Dara, I think it’s no big deal. Maybe the man is running late for an important matter. What important is you said sorry. You shouldn’t be overthinking about it. But wait, how about his looks? Is he handsome? What does he look like?”

I snorted at her remark. “You didn’t even console me and yet you dare ask me how he looked like? Are you even my friend?”

“It is not like that, my friend. I am just curious because you know, he might be your fated man. Things like that happen often in movies, right? So, what do you think? Did you felt a spark when you bumped into him? Did the surrounding went into slow motion when you looked at him?”

I slightly kicked her in the leg. “Fated man, my ! Stop being such a hopeless romantic. Things in movies don’t happen in real world. You should know that after breaking up with your recent boyfriend. And to boost your curiosity, yes he looked a little handsome. But that doesn’t change the fact that he has such a bad personality. Happy now?”

“Hey, Sandara! You could have not brought up about that thing about my previous relationship! Yes, it ended in a bad note, but I had good memories with him, you know? Unlike you who has been single since forever. We should stop this, the chicken is getting cold.”

 After our little argument, we quietly ate the chicken I brought and drank beer after. Minji and I became friends since middle school. Our personalities are opposite of each other and we always argue over the pettiest thing like this but it didn’t stop our friendship to grow. We’ve been friends for ten years now and we really rely on each other since we transferred here. She’s a university scholar while I managed to just get by with the fees being paid by my parents who run a small rice cake shop back at home. I started doing part-time since freshman year and it helped me survive the expensive way of living here in the city.

We drank until late in the night that I don’t know when we stopped. And of course, we woke up with a bad hangover.

Weekend passed without me realizing it. Monday has finally came and so is my first day as a part-time barista too. I left the room with Minji still preparing for her English tutorial classes. Summer has always been like this for us. Unlike other students who go on vacations, we take summer breaks as an opportunity to work and her to study more.

I arrived at the café thirty minutes before my shift starts. My shift starts at eight in the morning and will end at one in the afternoon. I plan to apply for a bookkeeping certification so I will be studying in most of my afternoons.

“You already came, Dara” said Ms. Jihye.

I greeted her and Kyungmin who are just getting ready for the opening of the café. There in the counter, a man is meticulously checking the coffee machines and other instruments.

“Donghyun, your apprentice is already here. Can you come out for a second?” Ms. Jihye asked the man.

So, he must be Mr. Donghyun. I muttered good luck to myself as I greeted the man who looked like in his late twenties or early thirties. “Good morning, Mr. Donghyun. I am Dara, the new barista.”

He just nodded and then shook my hand. He then instructed me to come to the counter. I wore the café apron and followed him as he introduced all the machines and how to operate them. I am an intermediate level barista so understanding how everything works doesn’t need longer explanations.

At exactly eight, the shop welcomed its first customer. In the first few orders, Mr. Donghyun guided me in using the machine but I easily gotten used to it.

At around nine, the shop is already full of people. Some are on their way to work, some are students and some are mothers with their kids on their way to kindergarten. We welcome them in warm smiles on our faces.

“Welcome to Wonderland Café!” We greeted as a man in black suit entered the door.

He casually walked his way to the counter and then I realized, he was the rude guy at the bus few days ago!

“Good morning, sir! What’s your order?” said Ms. Jihye.

I observed the man as he did not greet back when Ms. Jihye greeted him. He was looking past her as he said, “the usual one.”

Why is he so indifferent? Minji said that he might be in a hurry back then but not now. He is acting so cold towards the warm Ms. Jihye.

Ms. Jihye keyed in his order and then turned to me. “One Café Americano with two shots of espresso for Mr. Jiwon. Please do it, Dara.”