F O R T Y – O N E

Word of the Day – “Cartouche”

Miyoung couldn’t remember the last time she’d ever felt this proud of another person besides herself. Perhaps, never. Not to sound cocky at all but it was just that most people in her life had only disappointed her anyway—and she didn’t have a lot of people in her life, to start with.

A soft opening to start with was so classic of Doh Kyungsoo to do. Several people, acquaintances, colleagues and most particularly, some important friends were invited as The Alley Cat’s first customers before its official grand opening next week.

Important friends as in—some of SCORCH staff. Yes. What a way to compete, huh? Doh Kyungsoo was one subtle attacker, indeed.

That wasn’t even the worst part of it all. The smartass sent an invite to the one and only … Ra Wonsuk.

This would probably be the first time Miyoung might see her father again—if he would actually come—since she left home. There was no way of finding out if he was ever going to entertain the email and physical invitation, they had sent to his house a couple of days ago. One part of her wanted to be slightly upset with Kyungsoo when he decided to do this. She felt that it was too much. That it was provoking and such.

But according to Kyungsoo himself … the invitation wasn’t to provoke the competition. It was simply giving up and being the bigger person, actually approaching the man first to settle everything once and for all between all of them—and then maybe having a healthier and fairer competition after.

Of course, Miyoung didn’t think things would ever be settled in such a way but nevertheless, she was willing to take the risk so she didn’t protest to it anymore. Perhaps, a part of her did hope that was possible. That it wasn’t just wishful thinking on their part. It needed to get over and done with.

“Hey, are you here to admire your own artworks or are you here to help me around? You haven’t even checked the kitchen and stock room.” Kyungsoo caught her on the hips which made her jolt in shock. As expected, he had decided to use some of her artworks around the restaurant and he even asked her to paint one part of the walls by the entrance—literally saying that she could paint whatever the she wanted.

So, she decided to paint an orange tabby alley cat sitting promptly in between two tall buildings, looking ahead towards the city night lights and the busy street, the brick floor wet from the rain, the lights from the buildings illuminating through the puddles of water that surrounded the cat.

It was beautiful and she was proud of it.

Well, that made it two things she was proud of now and they were both inside this rustic-looking restaurant.

Initially, she didn’t support the design of the whole place. It wasn’t her style. Off-white, black and brown wooden details, random hanging on the ceiling that Kyungsoo found in antique stores—yes, seriously. The wood structures of the roof were exposed and a glass panel covered the whole thing as roofs so it bared the sky open—maybe that, she actually liked cause it would be cool at night, especially with the vintage-style light bulbs lined around the place.

There were also bottles of alcohol collection, most of the bottles were empty, of course. Now, this was mothering Byun Baekhyun’s idea—like duh. But Kyungsoo surprisingly agreed to it and they gathered the coolest bottles they could find everywhere and used them as part of the décor.

But that wasn’t all. Going all the way back across the tables, there was a repurposed vintage door that led to a beautifully lighted patio—again, all wooden tables and benches and an exposed grill bar beside a little stage where local and amateur musicians could perform at.

The patio was surrounded by light brown wooden fences that were poorly constructed because Kyungsoo did it himself—but according to him, he did it poorly on purpose to make it even more abstract. It was hard for Miyoung to hold herself together and not laugh when he said that. However, in the end, it did look more abstract and almost cool even to a young person as she was.

To sum it up, the whole place felt very antique and it was easy to feel at home.

“Okay, tell me something?” Miyoung pointed at the centrepieces of each table, they looked like yarn balls clumped together leaving a hole at the center as a vase to hold stems of withered roses. “Where the can you get a fake withered rose? Who would even sell that? And yarn balls? Please tell me you didn’t DIY those.” She asked, almost begging.

Kyungsoo looked at where she was pointing at, his lips curling into a tight straight line. “Okay, I can explain. First of all, yes, I hate to break it to you but those are DIY vases.” He said and grinned while pressing his knuckles to his mouth. “But it was Soobin and Daehan’s idea and they did it. Yoon Daehan’s one of our new staff, by the way.” He winked.

“Fine, whatever. So, the withered roses?” Miyoung sighed before emphasizing her actual concern.

“Baekhyun and I got them from one of the stores we went to. They were just normal fake roses. And uh, when we were unpacking them at home, at the balcony to clean them off, Chef kicked and spilled one of your dirty water cups for painting and the tub of paint you left open on one bunch of the flowers and we tried to clean them off but it wouldn’t wipe off completely anymore so we just …. painted them all weird like that?” Kyungsoo tensed up for a moment as he rolled his eyes. “I didn’t want to buy again because it was expensive and Baekhyun said it was okay since our theme is vintage anyway and it doesn’t matter.” He explained before turning around, attempting to run away.

“Wait up—” Miyoung grabbed the back of his shirt to make him turn back. “Okay, I’m sorry. Chef wanted to play with the flowers and he was trying to climb on the table to look down at us and then I guess he saw the small tub of paint and the water cup and pushed it off cause they were in his way. I replaced your paint, I got the same exact one, it’s in your plastic drawer. In my defence, you left it open and you know we have a cat at our home. He could have that too, you know?” Kyungsoo tried to argue in defeat. 

The way he said we have a cat at our home tickled a part of Miyoung’s chest and it was suddenly hard to breathe.

“Okay, come on. Chef isn’t stupid.” She rolled her eyes and looked away, trying to hide the blush that she could feel building up on her cheeks “Anyway, I just want to tell you that this … is beautiful.” She swayed her arms back and forth as she awkwardly looked around.

Kyungsoo reached over to tuck her hair behind her ear as their faces naturally met for a chaste kiss.

“Hey hey hey~” A familiar voice interrupted their little moment as the chimes on the entrance door sounded. It was Baekhyun and two other men behind him. Miyoung assumed it was his father and the other man, whom she’d slightly recognized from that one time they visited, was his brother.

“Oh, hello! Good morning, welcome to The Alley Cat.” Kyungsoo turned away from Miyoung to welcome the guests.

Baekhyun threw his arms over the two men on each side of him. “This is my dad, Byun Rohee and this is Byun Jaehyun, my little brother.” He introduced.

Miyoung bowed politely at them before waving a hand at the young boy who kept his head down but had his eyes fixed at her and Kyungsoo. “Jaehyun, bow.” Baekhyun pressed the boy’s shoulders, finally making him bow slightly.

“This is a great place you got, Mr. Doh.” Baekhyun’s dad complimented while looking around. “Is that … a typewriter on one of the shelves beside the … is that a spinning wheel replica or is that a real one?” He then added.

Miyoung covered and looked away, to avoid the conversation and not burst out of laughter.  “We wiped out all the antique stores we found and even bargained them too which I’ve never done before because it was already very cheap prices to start with. My boss is very frugal, you see.” Baekhyun