Floors, swept.

Tables, wiped.

Ingredients, prepared.

Money, counted.

Machines, cleaned.

Finally, I can go home.

This was my favourite part of the day-

Or night, to be more precise.

After a long evening of working alone within the small café, the moment I was free to leave was definitely the best part of work.

Everything was all organised and waiting for the opening employee to set up tomorrow morning.

Nothing was missing or forgotten.

I was good to go.

… Or so I thought.

I had literally just flipped our sign to ‘close’ when she arrived before me, awfully tipsy.

While I had raised my eyebrows in bewilderment, for some reasons she was smiling warmly at me.

Her eyes gazed straight into mine, arched into down-facing crescent moons.

“Uh… sorry, we’re closed.” I announced slowly while glancing at the sign she clearly ignored. “Please come back another day.”

Instead of cooperating with me, she actually grabbed the sign herself and flipped it back to ‘open’ before shoving right past my body and into the café.

“H-Hey!” I raised my volume at her, who clearly didn’t heart a word since she proceeded to make herself comfortable on one of the sofas. “We’re closed, I said!”

She was now humming joyfully and admiring our interior decorations, ignoring everything that I say until she spoke up herself.

“Let’s have a cup of coffee together.”

I looked at her in utter confusion for a few seconds while she scanned through our small menu.

Throughout the two years of working here, never have I ever met a customer as weird as her.

However, she seemed way too stubborn for me to even attempt talking some sense into her brain, thus I ultimately gave up and closed the door behind me.

My strategy was to satisfy her absurd coffee-cravings at 11:30 PM and quickly kick her out afterwards.

I want to go home.

“What would you like?” she somehow stole my line as her attention remained fixated on our menu. “It’s on me.”

“P-Pardon?” was all I managed to reply with.

“I told you, we’re having coffee together.” she eventually glanced up and flashed another eye-smile at me. “So choose what you’d like to make for yourself and I’ll pay. I’m going for a nice espresso, by the way.”

As a payback to her lack of responses, I remained silent throughout the whole duration of making ourselves two warm cups of coffee.

Surprisingly, she never spoken a word after informing me her choice of drink.

She was simply resting in her seat while watching me work, smiling at me whenever our eyes made contact.

The questions in my head just kept on accumulating.

“Here, your espresso.” I said coldly as I placed her cup in front of her before sitting myself down at the table.

“Thanks.” she replied, her gaze lingered on my face for a bit until she looked down at her cup.

She gave it a good whiff and let out a deep sigh of relaxation.

I merely held onto mine for warmth and stared at her, waiting.

“How was your day?” she dared to ask, making me hold back a scoff.

“It was good until you showed up.” I immediately jabbed, hoping it’ll increase the speed of her leaving my sight. “What are you doing here?”

“I was about to lose myself to the alcohol in my system, so I thought I’d try to sober up with some coffee.” she answered.

I didn’t bother telling her how coffee is useless in her situation.

“Just go home, for Christ’s sake.” I huffed in disbelief. “Why are you getting yourself wasted on a Wednesday night? Don’t you have work or school tomorrow?”

“The most common reason, you know, drinking away your problems and all.” she replied sheepishly before taking a cautious sip of her espresso, instantly hissing in pain upon contact with the steaming liquid. “Damn that’s hot.”

“Look. I’m sorry to hear that you’re going through some things, but that doesn’t mean you have the rights to barge into our store and demand for service when I’ve told you that we’re closed for the night.” I grumbled lowly. “I could’ve arrived back at my apartment by now.”

“Sorry, I just- I want to keep this feeling going for as long as I can.” I heard her reason, “The sad reality will hit as soon as the alcohol wears off, you see.”

The tone in her voice had suddenly changed.

I looked up from my cup and indeed the twinkle in her eyes were now absent.

She was a lot more sorrowful compared to when she was at the front door.

Please don’t tell me she’s an emotional drunk, because I am not going to deal with that sort of crap for a complete stranger.

Not when she’s forcing me to extend my already-dreadfully-long shift.

The shop was now dead silent as neither of us started another conversation.

I didn’t want to bother with wasting any more energy on her, while her mind seemed to be troubled by something- that I don’t care about.

All I want is to go home, take a nice hot shower, and sleep.

She’s preventing me from doing just that.

We sat in absolute silence for the next ten minutes.

Afterwards, I watched her finish her last bit of coffee and she finally removed herself from the sofa.

The moment I had been dreaming about was here, at last.

“On debit, please.” she said quietly while taking out her card from her wallet.

I let her tap it onto our card machine and printed out the receipt for her.

She took it with wobbly hands.

“Now go home and rest.” I nagged as I left the counter to send her off. “You’ve bothered me long enough.”

“Yeah, sorry for being a nuisance.” she laughed it off while heading towards the door.

Each and every one of her steps were unstable.

The alcohol was really kicking in for her now.

“Yah!”

I had screamed out loud when I dashed over to catch her.

My fast reflex assisted me with succeeding on that task, but unfortunately I still ended up on the floor with her.

I hissed in pain while she remained silent.

I can’t believe I cushioned her fall even after what she had done to me.

Son Naeun, you’re honestly too kind-hearted for your own good.

“Hey, get a grip of yourself!” I sputtered after sitting ourselves up, the majority of her body still resting on top of my own. “You can’t pass out here, goddamn it!”

“Please…” she slurred weakly. “Just throw me somewhere on the streets… I’ll survive somehow…”

“Of course I can’t do that, you idiot.” I scowled back, “Where do you live? Give me your address and I’ll drive you home.”

I waited for a response, but there was none.

I leaned my head forward so that I could see her face, leading me into discovering a new issue.

She was now totally unconscious.

Just.

Great.

I groaned loudly before pulling ourselves up.

I was pretty weak myself, so it took quite a struggle for me to drag her lifeless body all the way to the back of the shop and into my vehicle.

I’ve never been so thankful to our café for having a private car park.

I would’ve died myself if I had parked further down the streets.

Now with a passed-out, booze-stenched stranger buckled up in the back seats, I finally headed home.

I spent the remainder of my energy heaving her into my apartment suite, with sweat dripping down my chin afterwards.

My muscles are definitely going to be sore tomorrow.

Not looking forward to that.

With a grunt, I plopped her lifeless body onto my couch before covering her with a thin blanket.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep in peace if I hadn’t done that.

This stupid soft heart of mine, I swear.

Having that accomplished, I speedily took a shower and crashed into bed as soon as the last strand of my hair was blow-dried.

It took less than ten seconds for me to doze straight off into dreamland.

I was absolutely exhausted to the core.

The next morning, I discovered a neatly folded blanket on my couch and a small piece of paper on my dining table.

With a semi-messy handwriting, it wrote:

Hey beautiful,

Sorry that I left without thanking you in person for your hospitality.

I’ll make sure to pay you back.

You’ll catch me at your store someday.

PS: I ripped a page out of your notebook for this. Hope you don’t mind.

I automatically let out a deep sigh as soon as I had finished reading the piece of note.

Without sparing another glance, I then crumpled it up into a small paper ball, swiftly chucking it into the rubbish bin.

“Repay me by never coming back, geez…”