“Are you ready for the café makeover that will change your life?”

Jinyoung’s face contorts with disgust as he turns to stare at his assistant, Yugyeom. “What was that?” asks Jinyoung

“That's the slogan of the interior design company that’s coming to work on this place.” Yugyeom patiently explains.

“How tacky and try-hard.” Jinyoung replies, unimpressed. He and his assistant are standing in the middle of the empty café that’s been closed for 2 months now with the purpose of changing its general look and hopefully attract more business. The service industry is one place Jinyoung can never fit in because customer care might as well be first on the list of things he’s bad at. He has always been more comfortable in manufacturing, away from dealing the customers and what pleases them. It’s quite surreal for him to be standing in the centre of a café is about to take over thanks to his late grandfather’s wishes.

The dead don’t see and they certainly don’t argue, so initially Jinyoung planned to sell the place after his grandfather’s passing, but his mother convinced him to keep the café alive and in the family at least for his grandfather’s sake. Can I change the theme of the place at least? Jinyoung asked his mother and she agreed, so here Jinyoung is trying his best to create time for the project.

“See now you are too cynical.” Yugyeom speaks, cutting off Jinyoung’s train of thought.

“I just like quality service without a messy slogan thanks very much.”

“And good service they will deliver. I did my research.” Yugyeom is hoping that this information will put his boss’ mind at ease, but unfortunately it’s not working. In the 3 years that Ygyeom has worked for him, he’s come to learn that when Park Jinyoung is in one of his cantankerous moods, it’s nearly impossible to turn his mood around. The option that comes closest to working is letting Jinyoung and complain to his heart’s content, but at this particular moment Yugyeom can’t afford to let Jinyonug create some kind of tension or animosity from a group of people who haven’t even arrived yet.

This is only fourth time Jinyoung is hiring people to do some work on the café. The meetings with the last three service companies didn’t go so well thanks to how uptight and hard-to-impress Jinyoung is. Now Yugyeom is the one running out of patience with these meetings and he’d like to get the task out of the way.

“I hope.” Jinyoung is muttering mostly to himself. I won't hesitate to give them a headache if they up.”

“Don’t walk into things expecting the worst.”

“For God’s sake where are they?” Jinyoung says, impatiently looking at his wrist watch for probably the 10th time in one minute.

“It’s only 2 minutes after the agreed time. They’ll be here.” Yugyeom provides with practiced ease

“However past the agreed time means late. I feel like awarding them a huge letter T in capital letters and red pen for their tardiness. If they are not here in the next 4 minutes, the deal is off.”

“Let’s give them five minutes.”

“Three.”

“Yes sir.” Yugyeom agrees before the time period gets any shorter.

Both Jinyoung and Yugyeom sigh in relief when the interior design team arrives. As the three gentlemen approach Jinyoung, he gives them all a non-committal glance then his gaze stills as one of them steals his attention entirely. Jinyoung forgets to breathe as he stares brazenly and observably at the guy, whoever he is.

“I am so sorry that we are late.” The guy who is now the centre of Jinyoung’s attention says with the most apologetic look on his face. I had a quick errand to run before getting here.”

“No worries. I was just telling my assistant about the importance of patience.” Jinyoung dismisses and Yugyeom whips around so fast to stare at Jinyoung in shock that his neck feels the impact.

“I really hope that our being late hasn’t already tainted your general opinion of me and my team.” Jinyoung’s object of attention says. At this point Jinyoung isn’t even listening. He is far more concerned with the slightly soft lilt to the guy’s otherwise shrill voice. Then there is the strawberry blonde neck-long hair framing the guy’s pretty pale-skinned face. He is breath-taking. Jinyoung just manages to look away from his face for literally 4 seconds maybe to take in the black jeans and blue/white plaid shirt he’s wearing.

Meanwhile, Im Jaebeom clears his throat quietly and tries not to let himself get too flustered about the way his potential new client Park Jinyoung is staring at him a little more than is necessary.

Jaebeom just spent the last 30 minutes rushing here and desperately hoping his potential client, Park Jinyoung, is the forgiving type. So to say Jaebeom is all sorts of embarrassed, flustered and slightly sweaty too at the moment just about sums up his state. He could say perhaps that’s why Park Jinyoung is staring so hard at him.

Then again Jaebeom is 27 years old and no longer too young to know what it looks like when he’s being leered at. Park Jinyoung is very unprofessionally checking him out right now and it appears he’s not even trying to be subtle about it. 

It’s not that Jaebeom lacks in confidence. He has a lot of it in fact, but he’s just surprised that a suave, incredibly handsome and well-dressed rich business man like Jinyoung would take interest in him. That’s why Jaebeom sort of concludes that there is a possibility he’s misreading things.

Owing his boss’ sudden silence, Yugyeom takes over the conversation. “To be honest we are quite unimpressed with your time management skills, but-”

“Four minutes isn’t bad.” Jinyoung cuts Yugyeom off without as much as a glance in his direction. “We can all pretend this never happened. Shall we introduce ourselves?!” Jinyoung suggests with his gaze pointedly fixed on the strawberry blonde angel who then takes Jinyoung’s offered hand. “I’m Park Jinyoung.”

“Im Jaebeom.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Im Jaebeom.” Jinyoung takes a moment to test the name on his tongue and appreciate it, memorise it. He then gestures at Yugyeom. “This is my assistant Kim Yugyeom. I’m sure you two spoke on the phone.”

“That we did.” Jaebeom replies with a kind smile, a smile that’s kindling a new and strong feeling deep inside Jinyoung. At this point Jinyoung realises that he’s still holding on to Jaebeom’s hand and perhaps is bordering on creepy but he really doesn’t want to let go of Jaebeom’s slightly calloused hand which by the way feels very capable what with the strong, confident grip of his handshake.

Jaebeom puts his hand on the shoulder of the guy to his right. “This is Mark Tuan, our electrician.” Then pointing at the guy to his left, he says. “And this is Jackson Wang, our painter and plumber. This is my team.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too.” The guy Jinyoung now knows as Mark says with a kind smile. Jackson nods and adds. “We hope to create a lasting business relationship.”

“I hope so too.” Jinyoung smiles, eyes still glued to Jaebeom who is now starting to get a little flustered by the staring.

 “We’ve already wasted enough of your time, Mr Park-”

“Call me Jinyoung.” Jinyoung gently interrupts Jaebeom.

“Jinyoung.” Jaebeom repeats. “Shall we start by discussing what you are looking to achieve once this project is finished?”

Jinyoung glances at his wrist watch and regrettably chews on his lip. “My schedule is a little tight at present.”

“I’ll handle everything from here, Sir.” Yugyeom kindly offers and surprisingly gets a peeved look from his boss.

“Yes I suppose you can handle things. Let’s talk outside for a moment before I leave.”

“Sure.” Yugyeom says

Jinyoung turns his attention back to Jaebeom and blatantly gives him such a once over. “I’ll be back to check on progress, so I guess I’ll be seeing you soon.”

*********

After his potential new client has walked out, Jaebeom lets out a breath and looks around the space just to gain a brief overview of what he might be working with and an approximation of how much he could charge for the service.

It’s a great distraction from the fact that Park Jinyoung was just visibly undressing him with his eyes.

Ma