The sun was shining brightly over the fast paced city of Seoul, a wonderful chilly morning gracing the citizens. Saturday meant relaxation. It meant not having to set an alarm and just sleep in the whole day. It meant parties and hanging out with friends and indulging in a double vanilla cookie ice cream cake for breakfast. 

It meant fun.

"Yes I understand Mrs.Lee" Yuta assured as he hurriedly wrote down the details on his already filled up notepad. His boss was talking at the speed of light and Yuta tried to keep up with her ever complicated instructions.

"Nakamoto you better not get this wrong! Or else I'll keep on sending you away until your thick head manages to do it correctly!" The uptight woman barked at him through the phone once again.

Since Yuta was in public, he took a big shaky breath and counted from 1 to 5 in his head. Once all the anger slowly dissipated from his soul, he put back on his fake cheery voice and chimed

"Don't worry Mrs.Lee you can count on me!"

There was no reply.

"Hello? Mrs.Lee? Hello-

She had already hung up.

Yuta glared at his phone as he forcefully shoved it in his back pocket. He couldn't believe that this woke him up at 6am in the morning, just to get her a cup of coffee from Starbucks. 

2 long years of studying Fashion Design in Korea's top university and here he is, running around and completing errands like a servant. 

If Yuta knew that this was the case, he would've just dropped out of university and worked as a McDonald's employee. At least he could've gotten free burger coupons.

Walking furiously for 10 minutes, Yuta finally managed to reach Starbucks as he sauntered through the automatic doors, strong scents of coffee beans wafting in his nose. 

A scowl instantly made its way to Yuta’s handsome face when he looked at the queue in front of him. Why did there have to be 100 people buying needlessly expensive coffee at the same time? This only annoyed Yuta even further. 

He tentatively joined the line, slowly slipping behind a little boy and his mother. The moody scowl still remained on his face and Yuta could only repress his frustration deep down inside of him once again. Maybe he could at least catch a quiet break while waiting in queue?

Of course life hated him

 The little chubby child in front of him was obnoxiously shouting gibberish and crashing into everyone around him as he stuck his tongue out on them.

In the middle of his chaotic scene, the pudgy boy suddenly jumped back and stamped on Yuta’s toe with all his weight force.

"Oh FUC-"

Yuta winced and took a sharp intake of breath, raw pain shooting through his toe and his skin turning into a shade of red. 

The chubby boy looked up and met Yuta glaring straight back at him.

Suddenly he broke out in tears.

Why the are you crying? I should be the one crying right now.

The brat's rather large mother slowly turned around as Yuta inwardly panicked. Picking up her monkey of a child, she threw Yuta a poisonous look and haughtily flipped her hair extensions as she put her attention back on her sniveling devil child.

Oh how Yuta wanted to rip her extensions out and hang them up in his bedroom wall. He had no problem getting his inner out and could actually stick up for himself, unlike most people. 

Even his best friend Taeyong quoted "Call Hollywood, we have our own Japanese Godzilla."

But Yuta decided not to waste a single second on this creature of a woman. Pushing his light brown hair out of his eyes, he took a deep breath and decided to just stand quietly in the queue and not talk to anyone until it was his turn to order Mrs.Lee's stupid coffee.

He decided to mindlessly pass time by playing candy crush on his iPhone. Somehow, the bright flashing colours and annoying game sounds managed to take his attention off everything.

As he was swiping his screen to achieve more 'sugar points', a shrieking voice broke out and shook down the whole room of Starbucks into a silence.

"What do you mean you can't give my child his toy?! It says that the chocolate delight comes with a free teddy bear!" 

Yuta realized that the voice belonged to the same despicable woman who glared at him a while ago. 

"Are you new here? 

Can you even open your mouth??" she patronized the innocent employee at the cash register. 

Shifting his eyes at the till, Yuta’s eyes met with the trembling boy who was getting shouted at by the witch. 

The first thing he noticed were his ears. They were unusually perky, almost like an elf of some sort.

 The next thing were his eyes that were blinking 100 miles per hour. Dark brown hair swept his forehead and a slight dimple would make an appearance every time he nervously gnawed at his bottom lip. 

It looked as if he was going to cry any second. 

"I- I'm so sorry!" a thick accented voice spoke out as his eyes blinked rapidly.

Unfortunately that prissy woman was not satisfied and decided to create a bigger scene. Bringing her hands to her hips, she walked forwards until she was all up in his personal space. 

 

Everyone held their breaths.

 

She suddenly poked her finger harshly on the boy's chest. 

"You can't even treat a customer correctly, why are you working here?"

 

Silence. 

 

The poor boy nervously fiddled with his fingers as he looked down at the floor in shame. 

"What was the owner thinking? Hiring such an incompetent person as an employee." She tutted pitifully.

 

Passerby's stopped outside the shop window to look in curiosity and the customers were also staring holes at the current situation in front of them. 

Maybe it was the fact that the woman really infuriated him to the point of madness. Maybe it was the fact that her satanic child nearly burst his toe open. Maybe it was the fact that it was ing 7am in the morning and he could already feel the vein popping out of his forehead. 

 

Or maybe it was the fact that this stuttering boy with confused eyes and reddening ears kinda pulled at his heartstrings. 

 

But Yuta was about to release his inner Godzilla.

"Just leave it. It's not his fault that they've run out of toys." Yuta interjected.

Turning around, the chubby woman's face instantly fell dark as she saw the owner of the voice. Realizing it was that kid who made her poor son cry, she rolled her eyes. As she started inspecting her nails with a disinterested gaze, she pointed out 

 

"My son was promised a toy. It's highly unprofessional to not provide a customer with what they want."

 

She then side eyed the timid boy as she jeered "Seems like Starbuck's employee standards are pretty low these days."

Biting his tongue, the meek boy shut his eyes harder as he felt the hairs of his neck stand up from the stares of everyone else.

 

Yuta noticed this.

 

"My God." Yuta scoffed, "Isn't it 'highly unprofessional ' for a grown woman to bully a teen employee? Just for a ing toy? Geez you’re like 50."

The woman spluttered as she wore an incredulous expression. It seemed as if his remark had caught her off guard. How dare this obnoxious boy talk back to her in such a rude way? It boiled her blood. 

"You little rat, did your mother never teach you to respect adults?" she barked at him harshly. 

 

Yuta crooked his eyebrow. 

 

"Yeah, keyword being adult. You’re not proving yourself to be one right now."

 

An ocean of gasps formed around them as customers covered their mouths in shock. You could hear a whole cluster of voices mutter 

 

"Serves her right." 

 

"Who does she think she is?"

 

"She needs to be banned."

 

Yuta crossed his arms & stood tall. 

 

That's what I thought .

 

Unable to take the embarrassment and heat from everyone's dirty looks, the woman huffed angrily as she clutched her spoilt child's hand and stomped out the automatic doors, spitting curse words towards Yuta underneath her breath.

As Satan and her child left the coffee shop, the matter slowly dispersed and the customers returned back to whatever the heck they were doing. 

 

"Thank you s-so much!" a voice stammered from behind. 

 

Yuta turned around to be instantly met with a full 90 degree formal bow from the shy employee. 

Chuckling, he returned the bow casually. 

"My pleasure" he leaned in to view the lopsided name tag , "Sicheng."

Hearing his name, he blushed as he slowly lifted his head up from the bow. 

"Y-You were really cool back then!! I'm pretty sure that mean woman won't come here ever again! You were like a superhero hehe. " Sicheng breathed in awe, stumbling on his limited Korean vocabulary.

Stop being so cute.

"But can I ask," Sicheng continued shyly "Why did you stick up for me?"

 

Yuta paused for a second.

 

Hmmm, maybe because you looked like a lost man child who was about to cry and I just happened to adore you and your weird sticky out ears that made you look like an elf plus that woman got on my ing nerves anyways so why not just destroy her along with those cheap fake extensions she was clinging on to? 

 

He walked a step closer.

 

"To be honest, I just wanted to buy coffee and get out. But then I saw an elf in trouble." Yuta chimed with a teasing smile.

Sicheng blinked. 

"Huh?"

Grinning, Yuta stood closer on his toes and lightly scuffled Sicheng’s soft brown hair while the latter scrunched up his face. 

"Next time, you’ll will be able to stand up to others right?" 

 

The atmosphere was warm but Sicheng’s cheeks were even warmer as they tinged with a flushed pink. 

 

Casting his eyes downwards, Sicheng fidgeted nervously with his fingers as he quietly mumbled

 "O-Only if you’re right next to me .."

 

Screw Mrs.Lee's coffee,

 

 Yuta decided he was going to become a security guard.