Sakura dramatically put her shades away when she heard what Hyewon has to say. “I must do what now?!”, she says, clearly frustrated by the predicament she is currently in.

               “Our dishwasher broke down and one of the waitresses got sick, so you’re here to fill her in. Help me wash the dishes. Go on now, wear that apron!”, Hyewon smiles brightly, partly because she has the opportunity to torture the ever so villainous Miyawaki Sakura and another part simply because now she has an unpaid helper.

               The address Hyewon gave to Sakura a few days ago apparently is a location to a small, relatively cheap open-air café where she works part time as a barista and a waitress. Hyewon remembers what Wonyoung had told her before, in order to catch Sakura off guard, they have to do the decoy punishment. In this case, making their senior suffer by doing chores for her. They know Sakura will do it since she is desperate to get extra help for her assignment. Let Sakura do the chores, when she thought she had done enough, then the real trap will be deployed.

               All in honesty, Hyewon has no idea what kind of trap Wonyoung had in mind.

               “Look at my dress! This is an expensive dress! I cannot work with this on!”, Sakura scoffs, harsh and unwilling. “Do you know how rare these pumps are??? How long do I have to wait in line just for these??? My pumps are too good for the kitchen!”, she waves her index finger.

               “You shouldn’t have wear it, then!”

               “How am I supposed to know that???! You told me nothing!”

               “Kitchen now! Or you won’t be getting that cheat sheets!”, Hyewon crosses her arms, looking stern. Looking at exasperated Sakura makes her stomach tickles, but she manages to suppress her laughter.

               Sakura scoffs again, she rolls her eyes at Hyewon.

               “Your choice, Miyawaki…”

               A staring battle ensues between the two as both Sakura and Hyewon refuses to back down. To Sakura, she already done enough to deserve that formula without slaving herself away for Kang Hyewon. As for the latter, she thinks that Sakura needs to earn her trust and prove herself not to be a stalker.

               “Fine!”, Sakura stomp her leg in annoyance. “I’ll do it…”

               “Wear this…” Hyewon hands over a fresh dark green apron with a cute little smiling apple caricature at the middle of it to Sakura. “It can’t do much but at least it will protect the upper part of your expensive dress from the dangerously corrosive dishwashing liquid!”, she says mockingly. Sakura just grunts in response.

               She drags herself to the kitchen with reluctance. Sakura turn back for a second to see how many customers they have. Not much, that’s good news at least. She walks straight to the sink, release a small sigh before starting to wash the stacks of plates. Where are these plates coming from? Did they seriously just leave these here overnight?

               There are only 3 people inside the kitchen, including her. The chef and another one seems to be a waitress as well, just like Hyewon.

               “So you’re the substitute?”, the young girl, seemingly in her teenage years, asks.

               Sakura sighs, “Yeah, I’m the substitute…”

               “Thank god you’re here today! Yesterday was such a disaster!”, the girl says, “We barely can keep up! Especially during brunch, god… it was horrible!”

               Uninterested, Sakura just nods.

               “I’m Ahn Yujin, by the way! That’s boss Park. And you’re?”

               “Sakura…”

               “Nice to meet you, Sakura! Wow, can’t believe I have a foreign friend now!”

               “Uh…”

               “Like, I always wanted to make friends from other country, you know! Learning new cultures, new languages… and oh, learning about their food! I just LOVE food, you know!”

               Sakura forces a smile, she looks at the girl, “Yeah… same…”

               “And sport! Gosh, I loooove tennis! I have so much respect for Naomi Osaka, she’s my idol! Did you saw her win against Serena? Was crazyyyy! I first watch her in the 14’ Stanford Classic-”, Yujin sounds a tad bit too passionate.

               “Yep, I get it. You play tennis…”, Sakura presses her lips.

               “Ooh! How do you say ‘What I’ve Shown You Is Reality, What You Remember, That Is The Illusion’ in Japanese?”

               “That’s… Kinda long…”

               “It’s my favourite line from Sephiroth!”

               “…Who?”

               “You don’t know Sephiroth???”

               “No…”

               “I thought you were a Japanese…”

               Hyewon suddenly calls. Something about someone in need of a new napkin. Yujin quickly left, much to Sakura’s relief. The last thing she need right now is a mini Kang Hyewon getting on her nerves.

               After long hours of nonstop incoming plates, Sakura finally put the last one into the cupboard. She wipes droplets of sweats from her forehead. Feeling a little numb on her waist, she twists her body until she hears a crack. “Ahh…”, she exhales. Sakura take a seat on a chair near the kitchen counter, taking off her heels that’s been killing her for hours.

               “Lunch!”, Hyewon toss over a wrapped street kimbap on the counter. “It’s complimentary. Dig in!”

               “Just one?”

               “Oh please! Your work’s not that hard!”

               “Why don’t you do it then?”

               “Because I’m the one with the calculations and you’re the one trying to get to it.”, Hyewon answers almost nonchalantly.

               Sakura side eyed the girl. She proceeds to unwrap her food without giving Hyewon any second glance.

               “Be quick. It’s brunch time soon, it’ll get crazy back here…”

               “Oh no! I can’t possibly finish this very large amount of food in time???”, Sakura says sarcastically.

               Hyewon just let out a hum before leaving the kitchen and back to behind the cash register. Sakura let out a short, strong exhale from her nose while carefully biting the edge of her kimbap, not wanting to mess her lipstick. It feels like just 5 bites and her food is gone. Sakura touches her stomach, the kimbap barely fills her. Her feet are aching, her legs are trembling, her waist is numbing. But all will be worth it when she got her hand on the correct formula. “It’s just a few hours now, Sakura. Just a few hours more…”, she whispers to herself.

                 The brunch rush truly is a busy time. Two people who supposed to handle the front are slowly losing their vigour, but they are still willing to continue with a smile. Since Yujin has to help the chef in the kitchen as well, it is up to Sakura to collect most of the dirty dishes. Once again, Sakura curses herself for not exercising more. These ceramic plates are surely heavy as hell.

                 After a few trips from table to table and finally to the sink, Sakura’s breath is getting shorter. She’ll probably never admit this in front of anyone, but her muscle and her lungs are begging her to stop and show some mercy. She suddenly had a newly founded, enormous respect towards the working-class people, they’re truly the gears that running the country’s mechanism.

                While she was leaning against the register counter, catching her breath, Sakura unknowingly stares at the unfamiliar event happening right in front of her. She is staring at Kang Hyewon, her nemesis, in case anyone’s forgotten. Kang Hyewon is moving left to right, back and forth with a full tray on her hand, trying her best to serve the customers. She could hear Hyewon’s voice speaking but she could not make what did she say. All that she knows, Hyewon’s tone is calming and reassuring, probably have the same effect on the customer that she had spoken to.

                Seeing Hyewon being so determined and somewhat enjoying her job is surprisingly opening a whole new perspective to Sakura. All this time, Sakura viewed Hyewon as an equally spoiled brat as her, a kind of person who so up in her own world, slowly losing touch with reality. A rich kid who can do anything, not afraid of repercussions and such. But she seems different. Kang Hyewon is different.

                When Hyewon is with a customer, she is courteous and soft spoken. Her face is kind and her smiles are bright. None of that y, unapproachable vibe that she usually exudes. She feels different. Sakura watches as Hyewon apologetically bowing to a customer for their order delay, something rare for Sakura to witness.

                She was wrong all along. Kang Hyewon is not the same like her. She never was. She is someone better… maybe.

                Revelation hammering Sakura’s mind. Her properly hidden guilt suddenly burst out and washes all over her head again. But, instead of making her feel down, she is strangely motivated. Sakura take a deep inhale and musters more of her strength to carry all the dishes back to the kitchen to be washed.

                Sakura suddenly regain her energy. She is scrubbing hard as she can. She is definitely better at her job now, well, at least now the plates won’t be slipping off her hand that often. Sakura herself is impressed with her handiworks; she never knew she has the talent to wash-rinse-dry tonnes of dishes in matter of minutes. Frankly, she’s proud of herself.

               Yujin comes in with stacks of plates with her, “Wow! You’re good at this!”, she says when she saw Sakura’s quick hands. “As if you’re born to do this! I mean… in-in a good way…”

               “Thanks!”, Sakura replies rather wholeheartedly. She agrees. Who can do it better than her? No one, that’s who!

               …Wait… that sounds wrong.

               “Any more of that plates?”

               “Not as many now.” Yujin answers.

               “Oh, good.”

               Sakura let out a loud exhale as she lazily slumps her body on a chair. The work is finally done, the café is closing for the day. She massages her sore shoulder; gone all her plans to continue doing her assignment. At least she can rest her body well tonight, it’s all fine now since Hyewon’s about to give her the cheat sheet for her assignment. Boss Park come into the room, smiling and he starts, “Well, excellent work today, everyone.” The rest of them hums together. “Hope your first day is not too terrible, Sakura.”

               Instead of allowing Sakura to answer, Hyewon interrupts, “She’s fine. We worked together before; I know she can handle this!”

               Sakura throws a menacing glare, since when did they ever work together? What is on Kang Hyewon’s mind? Also, what does Boss Park meant by ‘first day’?

               “That’s good to hear. Okay then, see you guys tomorrow!”, Boss Park says.

               Boss Park stays behind for a little bit longer. Hyewon says that it’s usually the time when Boss Park counts his money for the day with a glass of Yamazaki whiskey before falling asleep on the kitchen counter after crying for a few hours. Apparently, he is still heartbroken from his relationship that ended 3 years ago. The only relationship that he has now is with his money.

               Sakura can’t tell whether that is supposed to be a bad thing or not. He got the money. What is he being sad for?

               A car slows down and stops in front of them. It’s Yujin’s ride home. A young woman is fetching her. Hyewon told her again that Yujin is living with her older sister in a quite fancy apartment. She had no idea why Hyewon is telling her all these things, but she’s not in the mood to complain. Guess she’ll just play along.

               “Really? Then why she works here?”, Sakura queries.

               “Something about experience yadda yadda… you know people do these things to get extra credit, so that they can go to top schools?”

               “But… she’s just a kid…”

               “A high schooler! Stakes are high these days! It’s not the same as our time.” Hyewon slid her backpack on her shoulder. “Anyway, did you get here by your car?”

               “No. I took the bus…”

               “Ah… damn. I was thinking we could get home using yours…”

               “Where’s your car? You told me you got a ride…”

               “It’s my friend’s, not mine… Aww, look at you! You do remember the thing I told you… not looking good, stalker…”, Hyewon raise a brow, with a smirk on her lips.

               Sakura just dismissed that with an eyeroll. Hyewon proceeds to laugh. “So… you don’t have your own car?”

               “No.” Hyewon answers, she is strangely smiling. But Sakura can see something in her eyes. Sadness? No, that can’t be. “Not for the past few months. No more special treatment from dear father…” Hyewon ends.

               Sakura’s stunned. Not her body, just her speech ability. Rarely an opportunity presents themselves in front of her like this, but she’s wondering if she should move forward and try to pry more into Hyewon’s private life. Who knows, she might find something useful.

               “Issues with daddy, huh?”

               “Don’t push it-”

               “Okay.” Sakura quickly retreats and look away. Seems like today is not the day for her to do her Miss K’s works.

               Both of them are walking on the pavement towards the bus station. Sakura never thought the day she and Kang Hyewon walking side by side will ever come but here she is. Is it weird that now she’s not constantly annoyed with Kang Hyewon? It is. But she didn’t put too much thought into it.

               Sakura yawn. This is the first time ever she pushes her physical limit to this stage. Her body is aching, the only retribution she gets is by remembering the correct formula Hyewon promises her.

               “First time at a job?”, Hyewon says. Her eyes still looking forward. “You’ve been living an easy life, Miyawaki sunbae.”

               “As if you’re any different,”

               “Agree to disagree.” Hyewon looks at Sakura with a complacent eyes and smile, “I’m quite adept when it comes to making my own living… did you know I’m also working at the library as a temporary assistant librarian? Come see me later next Saturday if you don’t believe me!”

               As much as it’s impressive, Sakura can’t help but sounding sarcastic. “Oh, wow. Really?” Before she can continue that remark any further, their bus come. Talking about timing. “You have small change? I have some if you need it…”, she offers.

               Hyewon scoffs, “I was riding the bus before you did. Of course, I have my own card! You should get one too.”

               “You sound oddly proud of that…”, Sakura whispers under her breath as Hyewon enters the bus first. She followed shortly after. Seeing Hyewon has taken a seat next to a window at the front, Sakura walks towards another seat at the back of the bus, anywhere away from that girl. The bus is pretty empty, it’s kind of easy to choose any seat that is not next to Kang Hyewon.

               When Hyewon saw Sakura went to the very end instead of sitting next to her, she turns her body around. She stares at the girl, but Sakura is pretending not to see her. They made eye contact for a second in which Hyewon manages to insert some glare, but Sakura ignores her. With a huff, and a little stumble when the bus suddenly moves, Hyewon left her seat.

               “Hey!”, she dumps her body next to Sakura. The older girl throws her a questioning look, but she just avoids it with “It smells like vomit over there!”

               15 minutes of silent bus ride. Suddenly, Sakura remembers something. Hyewon hasn’t done her part yet. Her cheat sheets. It’s about time now. “Yeah, about the calculation thing… when are you gonna give it to me?”

               “Oh, that! Relax… you’ll get it.”

               “Hyewon, you promise-”

               “I know, okay. Just relax…”, the younger girl shifts her focus to the worried Sakura. “You’ll have your precious cheat sheet… I’m not scamming you or anything.”

               Hyewon stands up and ring the bus’s bell for the next stop.

               “Wait, you’re getting off?”

               “Yup, it’s my stop!”, Hyewon grins.

               “Kang Hyewon, the cheat sheet-”

               Before Sakura can finish her sentence, Hyewon run as fast as she can and get off the bus. Nobody knows what is going on in Sakura’s brain, but she didn’t react that well to the situation. The most she did was letting out a loud scoff as she saw Hyewon hurriedly left her at the back. It takes a few more second before her motor function come to their senses.

               Sakura chased her but the bus’s door closes before she manages to reach it. She can see Hyewon smiling ear to ear, foot on the ground, looking at her with that cheery, somewhat mocking muffled laugh. Her eyes bulged with the sudden betrayal. “Kang Hyewon!!! You son of a !!! You ing promised me!!!”

               Hyewon take a few steps back away from the moving bus, still looking at the exasperated Sakura who is knocking on the bus’s window. She waves her hand furiously and mouthing ‘bye-bye’, she can see Sakura is now shouting at her. Hyewon giggles. Her senior looks so damn funny when she’s mad.

***

               Night time, even after a nice hot shower Sakura’s body is still aching like crazy and it’s making her hard to sleep. Well, that and also the fact that Kang Hyewon lied to her and all her hard labour is for nothing. She shouldn’t have trusts Kang Hyewon. It’s her own fault. Serves her right.

               Her phone chimes. A text message from an unknown number. A loud grunt escapes when she reads it.

-Let’s work hard tomorrow as well, sunbae!

-This is Hyewon, by the way! Kang Hyewon! Save this number! You’ll need it.

-Trust me!

-How the hell did you get mine?

-That’s a secret!

               Sakura’s mouth agape. She has to do the same thing for tomorrow too??? Absurd!!! Remember her aching body? It’s electrifyingly throbbing now, and all this because of Kang Hyewon. Sakura pull her pillow from under her head and screams into it, as much as her heart wants. The saliva stain on her pillow be damned.

               “Calm down, calm down. You can do this, Sakura. You can do this!”, she whispers to herself. She moves into a sitting position on her bed and starts a breathing exercise. She let out a loud exhale, “Okay… feeling good, feeling fine.”

               She unlocks her phone and logs into Miss K’s email. In the case of severe annoyance, read some people’s emails. That usually takes her mind away and help her to fall asleep. Typically, it worked. But somehow, not tonight. Tens of emails and replies, changing her positions in bed and she’s still wide awake.

               She just can’t shake Kang Hyewon from her thought. She’s infuriated. She’s mad. She should be, right? But why she’s feeling excited for tomorrow? What is she being excited for?

               Why?

               After spending hours and hours thinking about her own predicament, Sakura finally fell asleep with questions still remain unanswered in her head. That night, she dreamed of giving all her might, shouting as much as she can at Kang Hyewon who’s sitting in front of her with an annoyingly beautiful smile. It’s still didn’t give her the satisfaction that she needs since her voice refuse to come out. What a nightmare.

***

               Early in the morning, Sakura’s phone is already beeping non-stop. Hyewon is relentless when it comes to reminding her that she still has some work to do if she wants that cheat sheets. Stuffs like;

-Wake up sunbae, it’s 6!!!

-Sunbae it’s 6.15!!!

-It’s 6.30!!! You’re gonna be late!!! The café opens at 9!!!

-Hey, do you still want that cheat sheets? You better reply my messages

               And many others that Sakura didn’t open. It’s bad enough that Kang Hyewon lied to her about the work, now she’s even breaching Sakura’s personal boundaries with all these unnecessary messages. Sakura can no longer handle the number of times her phone chiming, for the first time in forever she sets it to silent. Not even vibrate. Nope. She could care less even if that message is coming from Number 13.

               Remembering how much her heels suffered yesterday, Sakura vows today she would wear something comfortable on her feet. She even refuses to use any of her expensive dresses. Instead, she put on some empire waist top and bootcut jeans. That should do it. Now she’s ready!

               “Chaeyeon, I’m leaving!”

               “Oh, good! Your ride’s here!”, her friend, Chaeyeon says with a big smile on her lips and a fake big slurp on her hot cocoa.

               “What ride? My car’s still in the workshop. Why are you smiling like that?”, Sakura takes her purse on the top of the coffee table.

               With a singsong, her friend answers, “Nothing…”

               Sakura’s big question was finally answered when she reaches the apartment’s main gate. Kang Hyewon, Sakura’s self-proclaimed nemesis is there, with the smile that she hates so much plastered on her lips. Hyewon’s long, straight hair is neatly tied in a ponytail, with a few loose ones on the side of her forehead, radiating a fresh look. The younger girl places her palm on her cheek, “Hey, sunbae!”

               “What is this?!”, Sakura crosses her arms.

               “A bicycle. Duh.”

               Sakura rolls her eyes softly, “Okay. Why is it here?!”

               Hyewon pull down the stand and left the saddle. “Because this is how we are going to get to the café today!”

               “You’re kidding right?”, Sakura let out an awkward laugh. “We get there faster with the bus!”

               “Um… I’m thinking going green today… so, bicycle it is!”, Hyewon says in a cheery tone. “Buckle up and pedal to the metal, Sunbaenim! Now, chop chop!!!”

               “You want us to cycle that far?”

               “No. I want you to pedal us that far.”

               “Are you crazy, Kang Hyewon??? My calf is still hurting from all that standing yesterday!!!”, Sakura scoffs and begins to walk away. “Screw this, I’m taking the bus! You wanna go green that bad? You can do it alone!”

               “Okay sure. I guess you can screw your chances to get that cheat sheets too…”

               Sakura halts her feet. She let out a desperate and annoyed sigh and turns around. She walks towards the bicycle and Hyewon who is standing next to it. “Fine!”, she says before she forcefully sits at the saddle. “Well? Go on and take a seat, Miss Kang!”

               “Uh-uh. You’re forgetting something. Your helmet, sunbae.” Hyewon hands over a pink flowery helmet with a Donald Duck sticker on its left to Sakura.

               Sakura glares as hard as she can at this little prick. “I’m not wearing that!”

               “Road safety, sunbae. Let’s not get a traffic violation ticket while we’re at it…”

               The older girl snatch away the helmet. “You’re so annoying, you know that?”

               Hyewon chuckles. “So I’ve been told!”

               After a loud exhale through her nose, Sakura begins pedalling. Suddenly she notices a sensation on her shoulders, too close to her neck for her comfort. “Hey, hey! Take that fingers off my shoulders!”

               “But where can I hold onto???”

               “Anywhere but there! Somewhere lower!”

               A laugh escapes Hyewon’s mouth. She stifles it with her hand. “Aw… you want me to hold onto your waist? Miss stalker, you’re quite a romantic!” she says with a disturbingly joyful tone. In a short movement, Hyewon proceeds to slide her hand and tighten her hug on Sakura’s abdomen.

               “Ew! Ew! Ew! What the hell!!!”, her distracted concentration causing the bike to sway left and right. “Not there!!! Somewhere lower on my ARMS!”

               Hyewon ignores her. She just let out a few little girl’s giggles while moving her fingers around, tickling Sakura.

               “Kang Hyewon!!! Seriously!!!!!!”

               “Okay, okay. Crybaby!” Hyewon gives up. Maybe for the best since they’re about to enter the main road. “Is here okay?”, she asks after moving her hand to Sakura’s arms.

               Without answering, Sakura just angrily pedal away.

***

               “Good morning, Sakura-chan!!! Hyewonnie!”, the young Ahn Yujin greets them with enthusiasm. “You look uh… you look sweaty, Sakura-chan… what happened to you?”, her voice slows down at the end.

               Sakura-chan. This high schooler that she met just yesterday is now calling her with the prefix ‘-chan’. How quickly does relationship progresses in this café? With Hyewon and Yujin both starts to treat her like a long-term friend. Especially Kang Hyewon and her excessive skinships. She can’t help but thinking something weird is going on within this establishment. A hex, perhaps?

               “Good morning, Yujin…”

               “You can call me Yujinnie-”

               “…No,”

               Yujin pouts. “Okay then…”, they proceed to make their way into the small locker room for the café workers. “So, today’s my turn for washing duty, Sakura-chan you take the front!”

               “You know what, Yujin? I don’t mind washing plates at all. If you want, we can exchange for today…”

               “Oh no, that’s okay. Washing dishes gets paid more…”, Yujin chuckles. “I’m not missing that moolah, babe!”

               Sakura shrugs to shows indifference towards the arrangement despite secretly disappointed with it. “Alright. Do I still have to wear this apron?”. Sakura hates this apron; its weirdly sophisticated design makes it harder to put on. This thing has a slippery fabric for the string that constantly undone every time she moves.

               “That’s a requirement!”, Boss Park shouts from afar. “That apron is the substitute for uniforms… be glad that you girls don’t have to put on some lame white shirt and black jeans!”

               Hyewon closes her locker and put on her apron. She rests her sight on the Sakura whose apron is loosely tied. “You can’t even do that right…”, after saying that sentence, Hyewon approaches the older girl. “Let me help you… don’t move.”

               Sakura can’t lie she was taken aback with this sudden closeness with Kang Hyewon. Hyewon instructed her to make a T pose, in which she obliged. The girl slid her hand under Sakura’s arm, catching the apron’s strings and made a few loops around Sakura’s waist before making a knot at the back.

               That 20 seconds feels like a minute to Sakura. That minty, woody mixed with tender rose of Hermes scent smells so nice that she wanted to take a long inhale of it. Also, she never notices what a nice skin Hyewon has, it is smooth, radiant and well hydrated. She looks great, she’s glowing. With Hyewon tries to make the knot at the back forcing her to close the gap they had before, once again Sakura finds herself in a weird position. This time she’s smelling her nemesis’ hair. Her eyes blinked a few times, confused as of why is she enjoying this so much.

              ‘Gosh, why does Kang Hyewon smell so nice? Ew, Sakura! You did not just say that inside your head!’, says Sakura inside her head.

              “There! All good now!”, Hyewon’s voice breaks the silence, making Sakura dragged back from her own world. She pats her senior’s shoulder a few times, “Let’s get to work!”.

              Sakura was left with an awkward feeling, almost suffocating and this small, teeny tiny common room is not helping. She just stands as Hyewon walks away, leaving her and Yujin inside. She heard a small laugh. “What?”

              “Look at you guys! So much tension!”, Yujin says in her high-pitched teenage voice. “Honestly feels like I’m watching the beginning of a CW show!”

              “Ew, what tension?”

              “You know what I’m talking about. When two adults are-”

              “Yeah, yeah. Let me stop you there!”, Sakura waves her hands around. “You’re 16, you know nothing about tensions.”

              “Excuse me, I’m 17!”

              “Point still stands.” Sakura finally decides to exit the common room, now Yujin is alone in there doing the rest of her preparation of god knows what. Hyewon who is standing behind the register saw her and shouts.

             “Ready all the tables, please, sunbae!”

             “Just me? What about you?”

             “Can’t you see I’m manning the register?”

             Sakura clears and rolls her eyes softly. She flips her hair and begins setting each of the tables like Hyewon had instructed. She didn’t see it but Hyewon was smiling and constantly checking on her while she was busy correcting the tables.

             “Hey, do I get any fraction of payment from all these jobs I’m doing?”, Sakura suddenly asks.

             “What payment? I thought we agreed on the cheat sheets only.” Hyewon tilts her head. After clicking something on the register, Hyewon left and went outside the café. She stood there, on the pavement for more than 10 minutes, crossing her arms.

            Sakura glares at the girl’s back. She thinks about how this is probably just one of Hyewon’s way to get her all worked up and mad again just like the bicycle thing this morning. “Just come inside, stop pretending you’re working. I did all the tables.”

            “I am working.”

            “Really? Doing what? Dusting the air?”

             Hyewon scoffs, “I’m waiting for the bakery van. For all our pastries? What, you think these cookies and cakes magically puffs themselves from air?”

             “I thought Boss Park does all that…”

             “Boss Park cooks, he doesn’t bake. Learn the difference, sunbae!”

             Sakura make mocking face at Hyewon before coming back in the café. She halts her step when Hyewon suddenly raises her voice against her. “Where are you going? Wait out here with me. I’m alone is not gonna be enough.”

             “I thought this was ‘your’ job…”

             “Hey, no complaining!”, Hyewon place her hands on her hips. “That cheat sheets have to be earned!”

              “Okay, okay…”

              The van arrived and soon Sakura finds herself carrying 3 stacks of butternut brownies into the kitchen. She keeps on counting every second, every minute, unable to wait until this day is done. But today is proven to be more of challenge than yesterday when a sudden order of lunch for 10 comes in.

               Boss Park slams his hand on the register, prompting all the waitresses, Sakura included to stops their movement. With a huff, the man begins, “We got a problem, Houston!”

               Sakura and Hyewon exchange glances. Boss Park continues, “We got order for meatball Bolognese and vegetarian, which is a disaster!!!”

               “Why?”, Yujin asks with innocence.

               “Because we don’t have the ingredients for the vegans, Yujin! What else?”

               “What are we missing, boss?”, this time, it’s Hyewon’s.

               “Worcestershire sauce…”, the man closes his eyes. “Goddamn, I should’ve realized that! Damn you, Yamazaki!!! I forgot to buy the damn Worcestershire because you!!!”

               “I saw a full bottle on the cabinet yesterday…”, Sakura chiming in.

               “Those are not vegan, Sakura!”, Boss Park started to sound much more desperate than he originally was. “It got anchovies in it! Anchovies!!! And anchovies Are. Not. Vegan!!!”

               “So? It’s not like they can tell…”, Sakura shrugs. “Just use that one.”

               “Oh, god! Please, Sakura! I’m not a fraud, alright??? If I said it’s vegan, then it’s vegan!”, Boss Park massages his temple. “Oh god, my head. Oh , it’s spinning! My world is spinning!”, the man falls precisely on top of a chair next to him. Hyewon quickly come to his aid, preventing from falling further. “, I forgot to take my medicine! !”

               “It’s okay Boss Park, we got you…”, Hyewon reassures.

               Sakura’s mouth went agape, “What is going on?”

               Yujin come to stand next to her and whispers, “Don’t worry. This happens quite a lot actually, every time he got stressed out. Boss Park got hypothyroidism, so yeah.”

               “Hyewon, the sauce…”, Boss Park weakly says.

               “I got this. We’ll be fine. Okay, the Worcestershire should be easy to find, right? General stores should have one of those…”, Hyewon tries her best to calm down the boss. “Sakura, go to the store and buy us the vegan Worcestershire.”

               “Um, but I don’t-”

               “I’ll send the picture to you.” The girl quickly gets up on her feet. “Yujin, marinate the meatballs while I prepare the Bolognese sauce! We have 3 hours before the lunch time, we should be okay!”

               In a matter of second, Hyewon manages to put most of the things in order. She looks and sounds professional. Not going to lie, but seeing Kang Hyewon taking over so naturally, giving orders and keeping everything under control is kinda, well, what’s the word? Uh……… Amazing?

               Yep, that’s it.

               It takes Sakura almost half an hour to get the Worcestershire sauce. She doesn’t understand what’s so disastrous about this event, maybe Boss Park is just a little bit histrionic. When she arrives, Boss Park is still sitting weakly on the chair with his head bobbing. Yujin is catering to a few customers and Hyewon is in the kitchen, cooking.

               “What can I do?”, Sakura asks. She hands over the sauce to Hyewon.

               “Stir the sauce for me, after you serve all these plates.”

               Sakura obliges. “I thought this café is not that expensive… but look at all these ingredients and preparation… I seriously thought you guys used canned pasta sauce…”

               “It’s special because this order is coming from Boss Park’s close friends…”, Hyewon says while pouring oil into a pan. “So yeah, we do use canned sauce… usually…”

               The garlic and onions sears loudly, and bits of the oil fly out of the pan. Surprisingly, Hyewon was undaunted by it. With a swift hand, she put in the chopped fillet and other ingredients. Like a professional chef, she begins to mix in the rice and moving the pan back and forth. Sakura hum, her respect for Hyewon actually grown tenfold.

               The girl can cook, she’s hardworking and responsible, she has flawless skin, rumour has it she even has a good GPA! God have spent too much time creating Kang Hyewon, it isn’t fair. Maybe, there is a good reason why she was so jealous of Kang Hyewon after all. No, this is a good reason to be jealous of her. She’s good, Sakura admit that.

               Sakura smiles. It feels weirdly right. She is no longer feeling that resentment inside her. Instead, she is at ease like a huge burden lifted from her back. She wonders why.

               Finally, the second day at the café is done. Sakura can’t explain why but she feels a new sense of satisfaction. All in honesty, she’s kind of feeling sad. This is her last day with the café’s people, and she kind of grown to like both the people and the atmosphere. Then again, she got a whole lot of things to do to save her own . The assignment, primarily. So, to continue working here is not a valid option.

               “Here.” Hyewon hands over a blue paper file.

               “Is this the cheat sheets? ing finally!”, Sakura snaps the file away and proceeds to check on its content.

               “Just the first part… there are a total of three. So, prepare yourself!”

               Sakura just nods. Hyewon was expecting something more. A much fiery reaction. A mental breakdown, maybe. “That’s tame. Aren’t you going to yell at me like you always do? No longer mad at me, huh?”

               “Yeah. I mean, what’s the point?”, the older girl’s eyes are still focused on the paper on her hands.

               “Ready to go home? The bus will be here soon.”

               “Uhuh, sure. But what about the bicycle?”

               “You go and take that bus; I’m going to ride that one back to the dormitory…”

                “Alone?”, Sakura hesitates to continue. “Isn’t that… a little bit… unsafe…?”

               “Nah, I’ll be fine!”, Hyewon let out a surprisingly beautiful smile. Either that, or Sakura simply is enchanted.

               “I… I don’t know, Kang Hyewon…” Sakura put away the papers into the blue file. “What if something happened again? Like… like that night?”

               “You mean the night that you stalked me?”, Hyewon nudges and Sakura clearly didn’t appreciate that.

               “Ugh, come on! This again??? Whatever, Kang Hyewon!”

               “Hey, sunbae! Where are you going??? The bus stop is this way!”, Hyewon increases her voice. Despite that, Sakura didn’t turn around, she just continues in the same direction, towards both her home and Hyewon’s dormitory.

               Understanding what Sakura is trying to do, Hyewon smiles widely. She even let out a small scoff. She kicks the stand and pushes the bicycle along with her. “Sunbae! Wait up!”