Goodbye Insecurities

Worth It
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Beep Beep

Beep Beep

Beep Beep

The clock struck 4:30 a.m. as a groggy eyed Rena rolled over in her bed, slamming her hand down ontop of the annoyingly persistant alarm clock that refused to let her sleep in any later. She rolled onto her back and flung her arm over her eyes while letting out a soft sigh. Lately, the days seem to be growing longer or perhaps her mind is starting to play tricks on her due to the lack of sleep she's been getting.

Being a college dropout and having no other option than living on the outskirts of town due to it being the only affordable housing she could find, she had no choice but to wake up so early every morning to commute to work. She had put in multiple applications across town, and a small cafe in the middle of the city was the only place that was willing to give her a job right away. Time had no intention of slowing down or stopping, so Rena unwillingly pulled herself out of bed and made her way into the bathroom in hopes that a cold shower would do the trick and wake her up.

Buzz Buzz

As she got out of the shower, the sound of her phone ringing could be heard from her nightstand. Quickly wrapping a towl around herself, she ran out and grabbed her phone.

"Hello?"

"Rena! I'm sorry for calling so early, I was just excited about finally being able to see you today, what time do you want to meet up!?"

Rena bit onto her lower lip and sat on the edge of her bed with a low sigh.

"Eunwoo...I'm sorry, I forgot to tell you that my boss asked me to work last night."

"You're kidding right!?" Eunwoo exclaimed loudly, "Rena, you've worked like a month straight from open to close with no time off! He can't keep doing this to you, it's not right!"

"It's alright Eunwoo...I'll get some time off to see you soon...I promise. It's just...I can't say no, I owe him this much..."

"Rena..." Eunwoo's voice grew stern, "...you've more than proven yourself to be a capable and reliable person to that asshat of a manager. You need to start focusing on you again, it's been long enough..." there was a short pause before finishing her statement, "...call me when you're free, I'll be waiting."

Rena's hand fell to her lap as she stared blankly at the two photos that were standing on her nightstand. One was of her and her best friend since middle school, Enwoo....the other was of her and her younger sister Elly.

***

"You're late!" a voice yelled as soon as Rena came through the front doors of the cafe. Horrified, she looked down at her watch and furrowed her brows as the clock had just changed to 8:01.

"What do you mean? You told me 8:00 last night?"

"Good workers are always at least 20 minutes early for their shifts, you should know this by now. You should learn by example from Soojung here." Seung-hyun, a young man who is no older than 30 stood with his arms across his chest with the same stupid smirk Rena has grown to despise.

Talk about being a kiss-...ugh! Keep calm Rena...something better will come along...just keep calm.

She bowed her head immediately, "I'm sorry sir, I will keep that in mind."

The man clicked his tongue as he made his way to stand in front of Rena. Placing his hands behind his back, he slowly leaned forward so that he was mere inches away from her face, "Make sure that all these windows are spotless by the time I return, if I can't see myself clearly in each window, you're staying late tonight to do them again." He returned to his upright position and stuffed his hands in his pockets, "I trust that you can do that much..." he said while sporting a -eating grin before walking past her and out the doors. 

She let out a loud sigh as she watched him walk out of the cafe until a loud crash caught her attention. She looked back at Soojung , then at the shattered glass of coffee on the ground. "Oops, sorry my hand slipped...Rena, be a dear and clean that up would you?" She looked back up at the now grinning Soojung and simply shook her head before walking off to get the broom and mop bucket.

The days were always like this. For Rena, she's learned to stop having hopes and dreams because in the end...there has never been a positive outcome for her. In elementary school she was always the last kid to be picked for anything team related and middle school is when all the bullying began. She had always been more of a quiet kid, not too outspoken but still friendly nonetheless. Perhaps that is what egged on the bullying. Kids at that age were pretty relentless and ruthless at times. Sure, she wore older clothes and used the same bag year around, but it didn't get too bad until they brought up her father. They said such horrid things, most which were rumors that came out of nowhere. They even went as far as to say she killed her own father. Can you imagine what words like that could do to a 13 year old girl? Eunwoo had been her saving grace. She was a transfer student who happened to walk into the bathroom as two older girls were getting ready to do who knows what to Rena. She had pulled her phone out and began recording before telling the girls to back off. Ever since then, Eunwoo has always watched out for Rena...though, she has never been able to shake off her passive/submissive personality.

Later on in the day, Rena had been managing the cafe on her own after Soojung had disappeared on a longer than normal lunch break, and Seun-hyung had yet to return from dismorning. Fortunately for her, it had been a rather quiet day. As she was wiping off the shelves behind the counter, she missed the sound of the the door chime and hit her head after being startled with a soft "Hello".

"Oww..." she cried out as she rubbed the top of her head before managing to spout out with her eyes still closed, "Welcome to the Black Mamba Cafe, what can I get for you?"

A soft gasp could be hears from across the counter. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine, it's only a small bump..." Rena spoke before becoming silent after opening her eyes. She became mesmerized by the young woman standing in front of her. The woman was visibly a foot or two taller than her and was wearing an off shoulder black blouse with a white skirt that just covered her knees. She also had beautiful red hair in a loose side ponytail that sat over her shoulder.  It wasn't from the obvious beauty that seemed to pour out of the taller woman, but rather the look of genuine concern she held within her eyes. It was a look that Rena hasn't seen in a long time...well, coming from someone other than Eunwoo that is.

She quickly snapped herself out of her trance as the woman smiled softly at her.

"So, what will it be? Something...sweet maybe?" Rena spoke as she held her chin in her hands as she made her guess.

The woman gave a small chuckle, "You know what? I think I'll leave it in your hands, surprise me!" she said highly amused.

Rena widened her eyes, then gave a warm smile. "You got it!" She grabbed a glass from the cooler, then looked back at the woman. "Please, take a seat...I'll bring it to you when it's finished..." she gave a short pause as she looked at the taller woman.

"Minkyung," the woman smiled. Rena nodded with a smile of her own as she went to whipping up a drink.

A few minutes later, she stood in front of Minkyung and placed her drink down on the counter. Her eyes widened at the drink that was topped with perhaps a bit more than normal whipcream and a pink colored syrup. "What is this!?" she took a sip, she widens her eyes before taking a few more drinks.

Rena snickered to herself as she flung a towl over her shoulder, "It's a white chocolate raspberry frappuccino....a lot of people around here think it's too sweet, but I think certain days call for a little extra sweetness," she said as she stuffed her hands into the front pockets of her apron.

"Not at all, It actually fits my taste just right, especailly after a long day! Wonderful suggestion Rena!"

Rena went silent for a moment, "How did you...."

Minkyung laughed whole heartedly before replying, "Right there!" she said pointing at the nametag on Rena's shirt. "I wish I was good at guessing things like you are, but I don't have the luck!" she smiled once more before taking another drink of her frappuccino.

Rena's face dropped as she tapped herself on the forehead and laughed out of embarassment.

***

"Rena! Hurry and get those orders out, what's taking you so long!?" Seung-hyun gave a quick smirk before he went back to talking to a few girls that were sitting at the counter. 

Rena bit her tongue as she quickly and precisely made 8 drink orders before rushing to get them out. It was a Thursday afternoon and the small cafe had filled up rather instantaniously.

"Soojung, can you help me out here and take the cakes on the counter to table 3?" Rena was juggling another 6 drink orders as the other two did absolutely nothing to help her.

"Sorry, cant right now, I'm busy." Soojung spoke without looking up from her phone once.

Rena glared at the girl as she quickly finished the drinks and balanced them on a tray in one hand, while holding two plates in her other hand. She had managed to make it to table 6 to deliever the two orders of cake, but as soon as she turned to walk away with the tray of drinks a customer had scooted their chair back to stand up, making Rena lose her balance. The pregnant pause almost felt surreal. She stood still as the various types of coffee and tea's dripped from her face. She clenched her eyes shut tightly, the silence ending shortly after. She opened here eyes and looked at Soojung with bewilderment as she was bowing and apologizing to the customer.

"What do you think you're doing Rena!? Hurry up and apologize for making a mess and getting him dirty!"

"Apologize?" Rena looked the man up and down, other than a few droplets on his shoes, there was nothing on him. She looked back towards Soojung with a blank face. "Apologize for what? I'm the one wearing everything! This is ridiculous!" She was more or less angry at the fact that Soojung or Seung-hyun never lifted a finger to help her, and now they were all in this little predictament. She gave another glare to Soojung before crouching down to pick up the big pieces of shattered glass from the floor. A mere moment later she heard a scoff coming from the man, "Is this how the staff here is trained? Your customer service skills are rather lacking," he spoke as his eyes were focused on Rena.

Rena chuckled at the statement, but chose to ignore it. "Hey you, help me clean this up while you're down there," the man said in a cocky tone as he held his shoe up. "Hey, I'm talking to you..." he used his foot to nudge her shoulder. In doing so, Rena nearly tipped over, having to use her hand to keep herself balanced. She flinched as she picked her hand up from the floor. A large glass shard was poking out of her palm that was now covered in blood.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Rena yelled out in anger. Without giving the man a second glance she walked right past him and towards the back of the cafe. She winced as she held her hand underneath the faucet.

"What the hell was that!?" A fuming Seung-hyun came walking through the back doors.

"What was what?" Rena asked as she held back her tears from pulling out the glass shard.

"All of this could have been avoided had you just apologized!" 

"Apologize!? But I didn't even do anything wr...."

"Go home Rena, I don't want to see you for the next week." Rena watched im amazement as he walked back to the front of the cafe. "You can't be serious..." she whispered to herself.  She wrapped her hand with a thick layer of paper towels before grabbing her things and walking out the back door.

*

"How did this happen?" the nurse held onto her wrist as she flushed out the rest of the glass from her hand.

"I just...had an accident at work." Rena closed her eyes tightly, biting onto her knuckles to keep from crying.

"Well, you did a good number on it young lady. Alright, I'm done here. Wait just a minute and I'll go get the doctor to stitch you up."

Rena let out a loud sigh as she sank back into the chair. She stared at her hand, still unable to believe the fact that her boss suspened her for a week. She was almost zoned out again before hearing a knock at the door. She looked up and gasped at the familiar face looking back at her.

"So it really is you, I saw your name on the chart but I wasn't sure if it was the same Rena," the doctor smiled widely.

"Minkyung? You're a doctor? But you look so...young!" Rena gasped in shock.

Minkyung chuckled as she grabbed a pair of gloves and slipped them on while sitting in front of Rena, "Thank you...I think? Are all doctors supposed to be old men wearing glasses?" she asked playfully as she raised her brow.

"N...no! Not at all! I didn't mean...okay, I don't know what I meant. I was just surprised that's all, it's a small world huh?" Rena sat back and focused her stare on her lap.

Minkyung gave her another wide smile as she grabbed the big needle from the tray in front of her and held onto Rena's hand. "This might hurt a bit, but bare with me so I can get your hand nice and numb."

Rena flinched with the first poke, but continued to watch as Minkyung applied the anesthetic.

"You handled that rather well," Minkyung said surprised as she grabbed the needle and thread and began stitching her up.

"It only hurts if you keep your mind on it," Rena smiled as she watched the rest of the procedure.

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Relikku
I'm still a bit salty that Pledis and all.....but I will still continue to love the Minkyebin ship....and I hope that everyone from Pristin have success in whatever they decide to do! Sorry if the ending isn't too great...I just didn't want to leave this hanging!

Comments

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Sicachu143
#1
Chapter 2: This is officially one of my fav MinkYaebin fanfic ever. Great job author. I hope to see more stories from you <3 3 3
twodoogi #2
Chapter 2: And I really really like you author-nim :):)
So cuteee minkyebin!!! Thanks for updating :)
akagaminoshirayuki
#3
Chapter 2: Yeayyyy another update!! Such a amazing storyy. What a nice work author???
akagaminoshirayuki
#4
Such a wonderfull story and i would love if you continued
BigGirlDontCry_143
#5
Chapter 1: Omg yessss u should continue thissss <3333 pleaseeeee
kasterian #6
Chapter 1: More please...?? :)
Evesom
#7
Chapter 1: Please do continue this <3