Zimzalabim Café

 

Irene had spent the whole afternoon in the small office of the café, reading through reports and making analysis. Her brows were furrow together, she lifter her head up when she heard a soft knock on the door.

“Come in.”

Wendy peek inside the office, checking up on Irene, “Hey…you want coffee?” the brunette offered.

There was a blank expression on Irene’s face, she looks deep into Wendy eyes before she shakes her head “I don’t drink coffee…”

“Oh…ermmm tea? Iced tea?” Wendy tries to offer again.

“Okay.”

Wendy smiles and exited the office leaving Irene with perplexed expression on her face, but she shakes it off and continue to read through the financial reports.

A few minutes later Wendy comes back with iced tea and scones, she places it on the table “So how was the analysis going on prof?” Wendy asked in a joking tone that only earn a glare from Irene.

Wendy gulps and fidgeted, trying to avoid Irene’s gaze as much as she can, there's something about Irene that intimidate her, but at the same time she likes that part of her.

Irene takes a sip of the iced tea and was surprise by its taste. It was just an iced tea but it tastes so refreshing and her mood was enlightened after that one sip.

“Wow…this is nice…” she compliments while take another sip again.

“Glad you like it!”

“But don’t think you can bribe me with this iced tea Wendy.” Irene speaks out.

She pulls out the latest finance report “Your report is such a mess! Can you do an actual set of accounting report?”

“Nope.” Wendy replies without hesitation.

“How about at least know something about marketing?”

“No to that too…” Wendy replies.

“Then what do you know?” Irene asks while massaging her temple.

“Making drinks.”

Irene was dumbfounded by Wendy’s answer. She shakes her head and shoo Wendy away.

“What why? I want to stay here and watch you work!”

Irene was a bit creep out by what Wendy had just said, it was obvious on her face.

“Give me a moment, I’m going to sort out all of this paper work, so by mean time please leave, so I can focus on my work.” Irene stated.

“Does that mean, when I’m around you can’t focus?” Wendy teases.

“Yah~! Stop with your greasiness!” Irene was so over with Wendy trying to flirt with her the whole day.

Wendy laugh at the older girl’s reaction before she excuses herself.

 

 

Flashback to earlier

 

“Well here is it…” Wendy states proudly, with her hands on her hips when she showed Irene her humble little office “It’s not big, but here is where me and Henry do our paper works.”

 

Irene coughed at all the dust that’s flying around when Henry blows on the reports that Irene asked for. “Can you don’t do that?”

 

“Opps, sorry, we haven’t had time to tidy up this place, hence all the dust.” Henry apologized.

“Just how long?” Irene asked in curiosity.

“Since this place open…” Henry and Wendy answered in unison.

Irene mentally face palm herself as she finally realized the situation that she got herself into. She knew that she wasn’t obliged to help Wendy and Henry out just because they saved her last night. She also knew that she can just leave if she wanted to, it’s not like Wendy is going to stop her. It was Wendy’s presence that made her want to stay. She didn’t know why she likes being around her, even though they just met last night. She is sure that it wasn’t love, because she still loves her ex fiancé. Her heart still aches, but somehow Wendy’s presence eases the ache a bit, and she thought that she would like to stay with Wendy until she can forget about her heartache.

“Leave all the files to me…you two just do whatever you two always do.”

“You sure? I can help you know.” Henry said while trying to offer his service.

“If you can help, you should have helped since the very beginning this café open.” Irene replied sarcastically.

“Oh snap!” Wendy teased Henry.

The older boy was dumbfounded by Irene’s sarcastic remark, he tried to find a comeback but he just ran out of any.

“Now will you two let me work in peace?”

“Yes ma’am”

 

End of Flashback.

 

Wendy exited the office and went to the café’s counter, she rested her chin on her palm while looking outside of her café day dreaming. She is not a real fan of coffee, she just like watching the emotion of people enjoying their cup of coffee or tea. She used to work part time as a barista during her university time, just to help her get by her tuition fees and expenses. She learnt the joy of having conversation with customers. She likes it when customers enjoy the coffee that she made. She just like to brighten people’s day. However occasionally she was down with her own emotionally thoughts. Ever since she broken thing off with Joy, she always tried to make people happy, but who is there to make her happy? She does enjoy the companion of Henry, Jennie and Rosé around her, they keep her happy and also keep her mental in check. She used to have suicidal thoughts when Joy broke thing with her. She tries to swallow a bottle of sleeping pills, but was so lucky that Henry had found her. She was so lucky that she had caring friends around her, because she has no one else anymore but them.

 

The ring of the café’s bell made Wendy snap out of her day dreaming and she was greeted by a beautiful girl with a big gummy grin on her face.

“Welcome to Zimzalabim Café!” Henry welcomes the girl “Please be seated Miss!”

 

The girl had a shoulder length black hair, she was wearing a big red oversize shirt, she fidgeted when she seated herself. In front of Henry. Henry handed her the menu “Our specialty is our Macchiato Caramel Latte…” Henry suggested.

“I’ll…have that one.” The girl replies “Nice choice miss! Will be right back with you order!”

“Can…um…I have a…slice of strawberry shortcake too?” the girl adds on.

“Sure Miss…” Henry writes down the order and excuses himself.

 

Wendy who already heard the order, already half way of preparing the drink.

 

“You know what…maybe that Irene is our “lady luck” you know. We have our first customer!” Henry exclaims while preparing for the cake. Wendy only smiles at Henry’s exclamation. The two best friend was overwhelming by their first customer ever. Henry finish decorating the cakes, as he was about to deliver the cake and the latter to the customer, Wendy stops him and take the cake and drink from him.

 

“I’ll deliver the order.” Wendy said and headed toward her first customer.

She approaches the customer with a big smile on her face “Here you go Miss, your Macchiato Caramel Latte and strawberry shortcake.”

“Thank you!” the girl in red expresses her thank with that toothy grin of hers.

“Are you here by yourself?” Wendy asked, she tries to start a conversation with the girl.

“I…”
“Yes?”

The girl blush when her eyes met with Wendy “I think you will think that I’m dumb it I told you why I am here…” she confessed.

“Why is that?” Wendy asked again, but this time she seated herself opposite the girl.

The girl fidgeted, and she seems restless, her hands caressed her cup and Wendy noticed how nervous she is, she offers her a handshake as she introduces herself “I’m Wendy, the owner of this café, if you have something that troubles you, I can be your listener.”

The girl looks at Wendy and again she lowers her head as she is too shy to look Wendy in the eyes.

 

“I’m Mina…” the girl finally opens up herself and shakes Wendy’s hand.

 

“Hi Mina! Nice to meet you!”

 

“Wendy-ssi…if…if I tell you this, can you keep it as a secret between us?” Mina asks in a very timid voice.

“I promise.” Wendy assures her.

The girl took another big breath and she looks straight at Wendy “I’ve always wanted to find someone to talk to but I don’t know who…I was wandering aimlessly until I stumble into this café, and I saw you…I don’t know why but I just got the feeling to talk to you.” Mina said.

Wendy nods and encourage the girl to continue her confession.

Mina takes another deep breath and let it all out “I think I’m gay…” she confessed.

 

There was a silence between them, then the girl panic and began to get anxiety “Oh god! What am I thinking! Coming out to a stranger! You must think I am weird!”

“No, No…I don’t think you’re weird at all Mina!” Wendy states as she tries to calm the girl down.

“You should be disgusted by me! I mean a stranger, that suddenly tell you that they are gay…I am so sorry I wasted your time. I should be going!” The girl gets up from her seat but Wendy stop her by grapping on her wrist.

 

“At least finish your drink and cake first before you go.” Wendy demanded.

The girl was scare by Wendy intimidate gaze and she seated herself again, slowly she picks up the cup and sipping on her drink. Her eyes light up when she tasted the drink “This is good!” she exclaims.

 

“Now that you’ve calm down, can you listen to what I have to say?” Wendy asks for the girl’s permission to explain herself.

The girl nods slowly and continues to sip on her latter and take a small bite of the shortcake.

“It’s okay to be gay Mina…you should be proud that you are able to come out even though to a stranger. I am not disgusted by your sudden confession, because if I do I will be disgusted at myself too. Look I know I’m just someone who you met today, I know that if you’re not comfortable to tell me all about your personal matter, but if you feel alone and ever need to talk to, I’ll always be here.”

 

Mina can feel her tears are ready to flow out from her eyes, she tries to hold it in but failed. Wendy laughs a bit at the girl crying face, she takes out her handkerchief and wipe Mina tears away.

 

Unbeknown by Wendy, Henry and Irene were watching her. Henry had bored expression on his face, while Irene was amused. Henry told Irene that he is used to watch Wendy flirt with other girl without she knowing that she unconsciously flirted with them. Irene pursed her lips while crossing her arms whilst looking at the two girls by the window, laughing and joking around.

 

“So she flirted with anyone anytime…” she thoughts before she left Henry alone by the counter and continues with her paper work. She just came out to get herself a cup of water, but then she saw that Wendy was coaxing a customer, so she decided to stand there and watch Wendy coaxing her.

 

Myeongdong Street

 

Jisoo, Jennie, Rosé and Lisa were having a walk at the street after they done with their movie date. The decided to go for a karaoke session and watch horror movie before head to the street for some snack.

Lisa was quiet the whole day, and Jennie noticed this. She tried to make a few jokes and even make fun of herself during the karaoke session, but all Lisa ever did was laugh a bit, before looking distorted again. Jennie was not liking it. She takes out her phone and texted someone.

 

To: Kim Jichu

Yah…unnie…what is wrong with Lisa? She was fine this morning, but after Wendy unnie left she becomes so quiet.

 

Jisoo who was enjoying feeding Rosé rolls her eyes when she feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. She handed the tteokbokki to Rosé and fish out her phone to read on the message. She saw Jennie’s name on her notification and quickly she looks over her shoulder to glare at Jennie, who was coincidentally looking at her. Jennie mouthed the question to her, Jisoo just mouth back “Think about what you did today!”

“What’s wrong unnie? You and Jennie been acting weird today.” Rosé asked. She knew that Jisoo and Jennie are best friend, their family had been close friend, but that doesn’t stop the chipmunk from feeling jealous whenever she saw how close Jisoo and Jennie are.

She knows that Jisoo hadn’t said anything about liking her or even asking her out yet. Sometimes she just wants to be selfish and she wanted Jisoo for herself, but Jennie is always there to stop her from claiming Jisoo as hers, well unofficially claiming Jisoo, as she is too timid to confess her feeling to Jisoo. She is afraid that if Jisoo does not like her the way that she likes her. Lisa and Jennie keep telling her that Jisoo really does have feeling for her, but Rosé couldn’t see the effort. The way Jisoo treated her other friends is no way different than the way she treated her, and the four of them are always together, it was hard to be just the two of them and Rosé is getting frustrated.

 

Jisoo pulls Rosé to the side and whisper to her “Hey Chaeng ah, do you think you can help me?”

“If it’s within my ability, sure unnie.” Rosé replies with full.

“Great! Help me in ditching Jenlisa.”

“What?” Rosé asks in confuse tone.

“Trust me, they got issue and they need to solve it themselves, I’m tired of being the middle person.” Jisoo sighs and she glance back to Jennie and Lisa who was busy looking at some accessories.

A smiles creep up on Rosé face, she nods to Jisoo idea “Finally alone time with Jisoo!” she cheered in her mind.

“On count of three, we slowly walk away without them noticing us okay? Now is the right time because they didn’t look at us.” Jisoo explains.

Rosé just nodded. Jisoo grabs Rosé’s hand, she glances back and see that Jennie and Lisa is still busy choosing some accessories, she starts her count down and take a step further away from JenLisa.

Jisoo and Rosé giggle as they walk away quickly from Jennie and Lisa.

Lisa saw that the two girl had left she and Jennie alone, she clears to get Jennie’s attention “Jennie…I think they left.”

“Who?” Jennie asks as she tilt her head to look at Lisa.

“Chaeyoung and Jisoo unnie.”

“Oh…” was all that escape from Jennie’s lips.

“Do you want to go home?” Lisa offered.

“Lisa ah, I…” Jennie pauses for a moment, but then she nods and links her arm with Lisa “Let’s go home.”

Lisa is going crazy in her mind, one moment Jennie was cold toward her, and another moment Jennie will be the sweetest toward her. She is confused. She tried to sorted out her feeling toward Jennie, after a long discussion with Jisoo, she is convinced that she likes Jennie. She had always wanted to tell her, but with the way Jennie act toward her, maybe it was just one sided, she thought.

Lisa smiles and she lead their way toward her scooter. Then Lisa panicked because she just remember that Jennie had never ride on any motorcycle or scooter before. She doesn’t know if this will be uncomfortable to Jennie, so she looks at jennie with apologetic look.

“What Lisa?” Jennie asks without even looking at Lisa, but she knows what Lisa is thinking.

“Or we can take the cab, I mean…it can be chilly at this season for you to ride my scooter.” Lisa explains.

Jennie let go of her arm, and instantly Lisa misses the warmth “Look Lisa, I don’t mind riding the scooter with you…so don’t worry about me okay.” Jennie tries to give Lisa the assurance that she is fine with it.

Lisa smiles and takes out the spare helmet for Jennie, she helps her to put it on, Lisa notices how cute is Jennie’s cheeks is when she's wearing the helmet.

“Don’t you dare to laugh at my cheek Manoban!” Jennie warns the taller girl.

“You’re so cute!” Lisa squealed as she pinch Jennie’s cute cheeks.

“Yah!” Jennie protests.

“Okay Okay, I’m gonna stop. Hop on Nini.”

“Nini?” Jennie shots Lisa with a confusion looks.

“Yeah, can’t?”

“Yes…you can, Lili.” Jennie smiles at Lisa and she hops on her back.

“Hold on tight okay?”

“Okay.” Jennie replies as she wraps her arm around Lisa’s waist. She is praying hard that Lisa couldn’t hear or feels her heartbeat, as her chest were pressed against the latter’s back, she can feels that her heart is going crazy. She never knew how broad Lisa's back is until today.

 

Somewhere in Myeongdong Street.

 

“This is the golden moment!” Jisoo thought when she finally scores alone time with Rosé. The older girl tries to get closer to the younger one, but she keeps failed miserably. Rosé was distracted by all the street food along the street. She tries to hold her hand, but Rosé swat if off when she saw an ice cream truck “Unnie! Look! I want some!” Rosé squealed.

“Well let’s go get it!” Jisoo invites as she holds out her hand, hoping that Rosé will hold it, and indeed Rosé holds the older girl’s hand. Jisoo intertwine their finger and they walk together toward the truck.Jisoo wanted to savoury this moment while she can, because it is not that often that they get the time alone. 

They ordered vanilla and chocolate ice cream, they found a bench and they seated there, enjoying each other company.

 

8PM Zimzalabim Café

 

Irene yawns and stretches herself, she just finish sorting out all the documents and reports. She looks at the time and realized that it’s already 8pm and her stomach is already growling.

“Hungry?” Irene was surprised by the sudden voice that came out of nowhere.

“Wendy! Please don’t scare me like that! Please make some noise when you come in!”

“Ehehehe~ we’re closing early today, so let’s go grab some food, then we can go buy your necessity and also some grocery.”

“Sounds good.” Irene agrees.

“Wow…this place is so organized.” Wendy was shock at how organize the place is after Irene sort things out.

“Yeah, and please keep it that way.”

“Yes ma’am!”

“Stop calling me ma’am you make me sound old!”

“Okay, come on let’s go Irene, Henry just closed the main entrance, we gotta leave using back door.” Wendy gestures to Irene to move toward the direction she pointed.

 

They went to the nearby pizza shop and had a few slices of pizza for themselves, then they went to the 24-hour grocery store to get their supplies. While shopping for grocery, Wendy learns a lot about Irene, she learnt that Irene does not eat chicken, she told her she was not allergic to it, her body just rejected it. Wendy also learns that Irene loves cloth softener, and she is surprise when Irene starts to whiff the different brand one by want and insisted Wendy to buy one because Wendy didn’t use any softener. Whenever she does the laundry, she’ll just dump everything in and let the washing machine do it thing, which earn a scolding from Irene. Irene told her to remove undergarment and clothing, it had to be wash separately.

Wendy feels bliss at the moment, she is so used to be alone, that she forgot how good it feels to have someone around. They went to the counter to pay for their stuff and Wendy was surprise at how expensive things can be.

 

“What all these for 150?!” Wendy complains as they pushing the trolley to the parking lot where they parked.

“Yeah…it seems like you rarely do grocery huh?

“Well…I always go for take out.”

“It’s not good for your health.”

“I Know mom.”

“I’m not your mom.” Irene said while rolling her eyes.

“Then? My wife?” Wendy tries to joke, but she regrets it immediately.

“I’m sorry Irene…I didn’t mean to…”

“I rather be your wife than being tje wife of that ungrateful ex fiancé of mine.” Irene cuts Wendy off before Wendy could finish her sentence.

“I…” Wendy tries to talk again, but again she was cut by Irene.

“You don’t have to apologize Wendy…Maybe I was used to take care of her like this, that is why I can shake it off…old habit dies hard ain’t it.” Irenes said with a sigh.

“If you are comfortable by doing so, then do it, if it reminds you of her, then please don’t force yourself.” Wendy states.

“Hmm…” Irene replied with a hum.

 

The ride to Wendy apartment were silence, the two of them didn’t exchange words. Wendy feels bad that she reminds Irene of her ex. Though Irene said she did nothing wrong, but Irene is giving Wendy this hostile feeling that Wendy hates so much. Wendy hated awkward moment. She wants to understand the girl better, she wants to get close to her, but Irene is too cold.

 

“I gotta find a way to get to know her better.” Wendy thought to herself.

 

They arrived at Wendy’s apartment, they carry the grocery together, although Wendy offer to carry more Irene rejected her, she said that Wendy should not try to keep handling thing herself, she asks Wendy to rely on her more.

 

When they reached Wendy’s floor, Irene stop on her track when she saw two figures sitting down in front of Wendy’s apartment.

“I thought I gave you the keys?” Wendy asked when she saw that Irene frozen in front of door, she tries to peek at what is stopping Irene, and that she saw something that she didn’t want to see.

 

“JISOO!!”

 

To be continue….