The next three days were a grueling test of patience and of my real thoughts about her.

As soon as the practice ended, I drove everyone
back to the apartment as quick as I could that one might think I was speeding to the pain of a bad stomach flu. But no, I wasn't suffering from diarrhea, there was just that compulsion to reach home as soon as humanly possible.
But when I pushed the door open, I instantly had
an inkling that the house was empty. Jennie didn't
go home yet. But I still ran up the stairs to check
if she might just be brooding in the veranda like
she does every day.
I pretended that I needed to grab something from our room to hide the anxiety of wanting to find her. I wasn't even sure what to do if ever I saw her there. Would I go in and talk to her? What will I say? Was I ready to get shot for real?I didn't have anything planned.
But as I predicted, she wasn't there. She actually did not set foot in the house for three days after what happened.
After being certain of her absence, I was out of the apartment in an instant and decided to drive back to the café.
“Oh you're back! A few more shots or just Americano?”
I sneered indisposed to Soojoo's welcome.

"Fine. iced coffee with milk." She punched a few buttons on the monitor screen and followed me to my favorite spot in the store while pulling off her apron. Without it, she looked too respectable with her white long sleeves, black pants and her hair high up in a ponytail.
"You dress like an executive."
"And you? I see you still havent given up wearing your gigantic hoodies." She shut the blinds beside us and sat across me. "It would beimpossible for him to recognize you after 13years, you know."
"I'm sure he doesn't remember I even existed. But I better be safe than sorry." I answered while raking out the phone from my front pocket. There
was no notification.

"Waiting for something?"

"She didn't come home."
"Ahhh... You're thinking about her. Just as I Thought."
"Hmpf. Why'd you think that?" A little irritated that even my best friend is seeing this unlikely concern, I laid my phone onto the table, screendown.
“Her name is all over your face, you dummy!" She Grinned at me just before our coffee arrived.
"Boss Ji! It's been a while!" I guess Somi ,another trusted barista, was too excited to see me after months of not dropping by.
“Yah! I told you to stop it with the Boss part."
"But you're the boss!" She exclaimed before whispering, "They're all gone, right?"
"Regardless."
"Aww you're still cute, with that snobbish face and pouting. Because of that, coffee's on the house! Haha!" She pinched my cheek before playfully galloping back to the counter with the empty tray.
All I could do was growl and shrink into my chair.

"Since when did I start paying for my coffee?"
“Yah, give her a break. People here are just happy to see you." Soojoo settled her black apron on the edge of the mahogany table before she pushed the iced coffee closer to me. She reached for my phone and turned it upside.
"I'm not waiting for anything."
“Yah! THIR. TEEN. YEARS. Don't tell me what ldon't know about you. I can tell by looking at a  astrand of your hair that you're worried about the girl. Jennie, right?"
"A strand? Seriously?" I wanted to smile while
looking at her face about to turn red. If there was anything that annoyed Soojoo quickly, it was when I try to discredit the fact that she knows me to my core.

"Yeah, it's Jennie. Kim Jennie."
“Kim Jennie. Hmm... Seems familiar.”

“Whatever, there are thousands of Kims in the whole of Korea.”

“ So, you're worried?"
"NO” With a furrowed brow, I answered with
conviction and took a quick sip of the iced coffee. It was a little too quick it caused a brain freeze. “Urgh.."
"Even the coffee can tell that you're lying."
“”Fine. I am ." I slumped back to the chair's backrest.
"Lying or worried?"

"Tsss. Both."

"But tell me, what exactly happened earlier?"
"But I thought you watched the cameras?" sipped again, slowly this time.
"I was attending to a few customers, I couldn't listen to the feed."
"Tsss...Nothing much actually happened." Soojoo's face tells me that not in a million years will she buy that story.

"Fine. So as soon as they got there, she sat and just read a book the whole time everyone practiced. I got pissed. I said some things and before I knew it, she was already going ballistic at me. And you saw it, she went literally ballistic." I could not emphasize it more.
"Something tells me your story is partial to yourself. I want her version."
"The extent of your knowledge of how I am is borderline crazy, Soojoo-yah. God.... Is there even anything I can hide from you??"
"The answer is no. You can't hide anything, Chichu, so do