Today it took me 10 minutes more than usual to go to my workplace. It's all because I was searching all over the house for my house key. The funniest thing, it turned out it was in my jacket pocket. As much as I love this job, but I also hate it when it exhausts me like this.

Aigoo, sleeping for 5 hours is still not enough for you, dear my lovely brain?

"Irene-ah, come to your sense, kay?" I said while patting my both cheek gently, trying to keep myself focused, and rushed to my workplace.

Redmare Coffee Shop

The smell of brewed coffee floating in the shop could be smelled as I stepped inside the Redmare coffee shop, with soft jazz music muffled playing on the back. It’s so perfect for this autumn afternoon.

"Hi Seulgi-ah, sorry I’m late." I walked past the counter to the locker room, prepared to start my shift which was already late.

"Ahh unnie, you’re late!" Seulgi replied with her eye focused on the cup while her hand turned the cup slowly making the beautiful latte art before she served it. She then lifts her head, and continued,

"So unnie will be the one who closing the shop, remember the house rules?!" She smiled as if she had been waiting for this to happen.

"Thank you, I'll call you when your order is ready." Yeri followed Seulgi to help her make coffee orders as she finished taking the orders at the cashier.

"Seulgi-unnie, since we're going home first, shall we have dinner together? What are we going to eat?" Whispered Yeri to Seulgi.

"Ehem, I heard what you guys are planning." I came out of the changing room while tying my hair. "Sorry to ruin your plans, but one of you will stay to help me later." The corners of my mouth are twitching against my cheeks, giving them a smirk of innocent fun.

Yeri and Seulgi nudged each other trying to communicate secretly with their eyes. They pointed out to each other which of them would be staying in the cafe with me. I can't help but smile at their childish act.

A few hours passed, you know at a cafe there must be a day when there are not many customers and that is today. I hate when days like this come, waiting is boring, right? Better to have a lot of visitors, then the time will pass quickly and you can quickly go home and go to sleep.

While waiting for customers, I took a rag to clean the counter where the drinks were made. I remember when I just joined as a barista in this café. It was filled with customers for months, they came because of rumors about the beautiful Barista that just joined. And, the beautiful Barista in the rumors is me.

My beauty not only attracts men but also women, it is proven by the many women who come to the cafe either just to see me or to give gifts. Meanwhile, the men gave gifts and asked for my phone number which of course I refused to give.

As time flies, the coffee shop rumors dimmed after a year passed. However, some of them still keep coming and the gifts I still often get from the new customers as well.

Finished cleaning the drink counter, I moved to clean the next counter which is the cashier counter and the display bar, and I saw a credit card on the cash register.

"Yerim-ah, whose card is this?"

"Ah, it belongs to table 7. She said she’s still going to order later, so her bill is still open."

I take a look at table number 7, it was in the middle of our shop making it the easiest table to get our attention from the counter. There was a brown-haired woman sitting by herself, with her back facing me.

"Okay, got it."

A sound coming from the doorbell with three young women, maybe around my age came in together. They straightly walked to the front of me to order.

"Hi, what would you like to order?" I smiled at the woman who stood in the middle and she smiled back.

"Hi, I would like to order one mint choco frappe. Yongsun-unnie, the same order for you?" asked the woman who had a dimple on her right cheek.

"Not this time, Wheein-ah. One iced chocolate for me. What would you like to order, Hyejin-ah?" Said the tallest woman among them.

The woman named Hyejin didn't hear her friend's calling for her.

"Hyejin-ah... Hyejin-ah.." called the woman named Yongsun while snapping her fingers.

"Ooh, sorry, one iced americano for me please." She was busy searching for someone who might already be waiting for them.

"Alright, let me repeat your orders: one mint choco frappe, one iced chocolate, and one iced americano. And may I have your name for the order, Miss?"

"It's Yongsun."

"Okay, how’d you like to pay with?"

"Ah, I found her. Please put our bill together with her." Hyejin pointed at the woman at table number 7.

"Okay, your name will be called when the order is ready. Thank you."

"Thank you." The three of them walked towards the table where the brown-haired woman was sitting.

When night falls, the street lights start to turn on and so does this coffee shop. It was a peaceful night in our coffee shop, with some of our customers were busy reading their books or working on their laptops until one of the brown-haired woman’s friends laugh broke it. Her laugh was too loud.

I came over to table 7, worried that their loudness disturbing the others.

"Hello, excuse me. I’m sorry, would you mind lowering your voice?"

"Omo, my apologies. I think I got carried away. Once again I'm sorry." said Yongsun who laughed loudly earlier.

"See, Unnie! I told you to lower your voice, you're embarrassing me." The brown-haired woman hit Yongsun's arm.

"Thank you." I smiled at them and returned to my place to serve the customer who had just arrived.

It didn’t take long until the three friends of the brown-haired woman left, leaving her alone again.

It was almost 8 PM when the brown-haired woman stood in front of me or in front of the cashier to be precise. Looks like she's done for the day.

"Hi." she smiled, why does her face remind me of a hamster? I wondered.

"Hi, would you like to pay now?"

"Yes, please." and she continued "Are you new here? I think I have never seen you before."

What? Is she kidding? She never heard of the rumors?

Feeling slightly annoyed, I stopped from what I was doing and looked at her, "Excuse me, but haven't you ever heard the rumor about Irene the beautiful barista? Well, I know it's an old one, but it's quite a buzz."

She chuckled, "And the beautiful barista supposed to be you? Sorry, it's only my third or fourth time here and I've never heard of it before."

D-did she just mocks me? I've never felt this annoyed with someone I just met. I guess first impressions are really important, huh?

I rolled my eyes and continued to enter her orders.

"Hey Irene, I'm sorry if my friends were being too loud earlier. Hope you didn't get any complaint by it."

"It’s fine." I answered without looking at her.

Then the brown-haired woman walked to the front of the display bar, looking at the food she was about to order again.

"Uhm, can I add more order?" she asked, pointing to a tuna sandwich.

I took out the sandwich and wrapped it neatly when the brown-haired woman said again, "Actually, I want to..."

Wha-?She’s giving it to me? Did she feel sorry about it earlier? Hmm, maybe she's not that annoying..

"Ah, you don't have to bother by giving me food. It can happen, not all people knew about that rumor, but I appreciate that." I gave her a sweet smile.

"Huh? Sorry, I think you have a little misunderstanding here, I didn't buy it for you. Actually, I wanted to ask if you could warm up the food before you cut me off." She said it so innocently which made me even more annoyed and embarrassed.

A giggling sound was heard from Yeri who was making a drink order at that time. I could feel my face getting hotter after being humiliated by this woman.

Oh my God, that’s so embarrassing. Who is this woman exactly? I hate her..

I quickly unwrapped the sandwich, put it in the oven the way she wanted and she went to the cashier to pay the bill while waiting for her food.

It's the longest forty seconds I've ever waited for the oven to ring since I wanted the woman to go away quickly. And when it finally rang, I wrapped the sandwich and put it in a paper bag a second time and gave it to the brown-haired woman.

"Thank you, Irene." she took the paper bag and finally started walking her way out of the coffee shop.

"Unnie, you're going home now?" Seulgi asked the brown-haired woman as they passed each other as she’s done picking up the dirty cups.

"Yup, I’ll see you again Seulgi-ah. Good night, Yerim-ah." Three of them wave their hands to each other.

I walked over to Seulgi while she put the cups on the sink.

"Ya Seulgi-ah, are you close to her?" I was quite surprised that these two kids knew the woman.

"You mean Moonbyul-unnie? Yeah, I can say we’re close, she's really nice you know. Why, unnie?"

"Isn’t she a new customer here? Yet you guys already close with her? Even Yerim too?!"

"I see someone being jelly right here. And excuse me, what do you mean by ‘even Yerim too’, unnie?"

"M-me? Being jealous?! Of course not!" I turned to look at Yeri, "Yerim-ah, you know what I mean, it’s like not everyone can be easy to get close to you."

“Hmm, you got a point there, but she’s an exception. She’s a cool and a friendly unnie, so I’m fine with her. Anyway.. Seulgi-unnie, you won't believe what just happened to Irene-unnie.”

It didn't take long for Yeri to tell Seulgi about the sandwich incident earlier, and of course, Yeri burst out laughing again. While Seulgi looked at me with pity and while trying her best to hold back her laughter.

"Unnie, why were you like that? You must feel really embarrassed, huh? Aigoo, poor my unnie."

"E-enough, stop talking about her. I hate that woman."

"Unnie, be careful of what you just said. From hate to love; Soon you’re gonna be in the denial phase, then you started to get curious of her, and miss her, aaaanndd fell in love with her."

"Fell in l-l.. N-no, I won’t! Yerim-ah, you really."

"See see, the denial phase has started." Yeri continued to tease me.

"Ya, you come here. You’re gonna be the one helping me closing tonight!"

"Ahhh Unnieeee…" Yeri whined while holding my arm, like a child.

Day after day, the brown-haired woman named Moonbyul came every day to our café, ordering the same menu with sometimes adding a cake to her order. She always sits in the same place at table 7 with her laptop on the table, with her back facing me.

There was never a chat between us after the sandwich incident that time, it’s only Hi, good night, and thank you that I heard from her. While sometimes I saw her talking with laughter with Yeri and Seulgi.

She is a weird one, when other people are trying hard to get my attention or just chatting with me, but not with this person.

I wonder why?

"Unniee.."

I jumped when I heard Yeri call me."Omo, you startled me. What's wrong, Yerim-ah?"

"What are you daydreaming about?! Here, there's a flower for you from the person on the table over there." Yeri pointed at the table with her chin while handing me a Calla Lily flower.

"Thank you." I peeked at the table that Yeri meant, and found Moonbyul who was sitting as usual with her back to me.

What is this, she suddenly gave me flowers? Would it make her feel embarrassed if she gave it to me directly?

Well, I know quite a bit about flowers. This flower is called Calla Lily which has meaning beautiful. I smiled and said to myself, well it's about time you make move on me huh.

While carrying the flower, I went to her table. She was very focused and didn't notice I was standing next to her table at that time, her fingers typed on her laptop quickly.

"H-hey, Moonbyul-ssi right?" I said in a low and soft voice.

Moonbyul's fingers stopped typing as she closed her laptop, and looked up at me.

"Hi Irene, what's up?"

"Thank you for the flowers, they are very pretty."

"F-flowers? What do you mean?" Moonbyul replied with a confused face, her brows furrowed trying to remember what she had done a while ago.

"You know, this?" I showed her the flowers, "Yeri gave it to me this earlier, she said it was from you?" I looked at the counter, where Yeri was standing. Moonbyul also turned her body to look at Yeri and try to find out what happened.

At that time Yeri's eyes widened, she crossed her arms in an X while moving .

"That.. not.. from her.. The table.. behind you." I slowly tried to read movements and saw Yeri pointing with her finger to the table behind me.

*Gasp* Don’t tell me..

I turned to look at the table behind me, there was a young man sitting there waving his hand at me.

"Is this from you?" I showed the flower to him.

"Y-yes." He answered shyly.

I closed my eyes, regretting what I had just done and even more so what I had to say to that woman.

"Why don't you... *sigh* Urgh, never mind, anyway thanks for the flowers." I gave him a slight smile that made him blush like a fool and the fool here wasn't just him, but me too.

I turned my body to face Moonbyul and gave her a 90-degree bow, "Moonbyul-ssi, I'm sorry. Once again I'm sorry." and ran away without hearing or seeing what she was going to say.

I ran to the locker room while Seulgi followed me.

"Aah, what am I gonna do? What should I do?" I muttered to myself as I paced back and forth.

"Why? Why unnie?" asked Seulgi panicked.

"Seulgi-ah, that was really embarrassing. I don't think I can face her anymore. What should I do? I want to bury myself." I whine at Seulgi.

This is the longest whining I've ever done, she thought I was cute and asked what happened then I started to tell her what happened.

"Aigo, just gives it a few days, it will be fine, Unnie. Don't worry, I will help you."

Despite the reassurance that Seulgi offered, I couldn't stop feeling embarrassed as I buried my face in my hand.

Three days passed so slow as I tried to avoid Moonbyul and tried to keep our interaction as minimum as I could, it was not difficult to avoid her with the help of Yeri and Seulgi.

It’s about closing time for our café tonight when I saw that there were only two guests left at our café. While Moonbyul wasn’t at her table, it was only her stuff there.

"Did you see where she went?"

"I don’t know, Unnie." Yeri said while washing the dirty dishes.

"Maybe to the restroom? Just go take out the trash now, unnie, that way you won't meet her. I'll take care of her bills." Added Seulgi.

"Right, thanks, Seulgi-ah."

Carrying two plastic bags filled with trash, I went to the back alley to dispose of them. A puff of smoke greeted me as I opened the door, making me feel like I was suffocating so I started to cough.

"Oh, sorry." Said a woman with a deep voice, she waved her hand trying to make the smoke disappear. And that woman is Moonbyul..

She held a cigarette between her fingers while leaning against the wall near the cigarettes receptacle installed in the back alley of our cafe.

"Ah.. I thought you were in the restroom.."

She gave me a smile and turned blankly starring into space, "Are you about to close?"

"Yeah, about thirty minutes or so." I walked past her, to the corner to throw out the trash.

I walked back to enter the cafe and this was the second time I walked past her. She was still silent, still not giving me any reply. While holding the doorknob, I wondered what hold me back from going inside, so I decided to take a glance at her.

Moonbyul looked lost in thought. Realized I was watching her, she turned, and our eyes met.

"Are you okay?" I ask.

She nodded, gave a little smile that disappeared as she returned to stare blankly.

Well, if she said so. I’ll just head back in.

I pushed the door open and take a step in but again.. I stopped in the middle way to take a glance at the woman once again.

But what if she needs my help?.. Screw it..

"Hey, do you want me to stay with you?"

"Well, that would be nice."

I joined her leaning against the wall, leaving some d