YOUR POV

            You sigh, wincing as you jog in your tom fords. These things weren’t mean for running, and your toes are already starting to blister or as they slammed into the shoe. You refrain from running a hand through your hair, worried you will upset the messy bun you’ve left it in upon waking up and finding she’d overslept.

            Damnit, you’re so late!

            You sigh, wiping away traces of goop from your eyes as you turn the corner. You let out a yelp as you slam into someone, just managing not to fall to the ground.

            “Yah! Watch where you’re going!” A young girl snaps at you. You blinked in disbelief at her rudeness. God, you hadn’t been that nasty as a teenager. Still, you apologize hastily (if not with a little bit of irritation) already noting that the girl had gone back to giggling over something with her friend. They were both clutching a cell phone, glancing up at something than back at the phone excitedly.

            Shrugging, you move past them, heading for your cafe quickly. You glance at the doors, and stop cold.

            . My. Life.

            You groan at the number of people in Kona Beans, your regular café. What the hell. It never has this many people, and definitely not this early!

            Steeling yourself, you open the door, making your way through the crowds of people milling around the small shop. Almost of all of them are women, you note, giddily holding their large cell phones with ridiculously large smiles on their face. The line was, you note with another groan, complete gone. Instead there is a crowd of women surrounding the cashier and whoever is working it. They are all ordering without any semblance of order, and briefly you wonder whether there is some kind of promotional event going on.

            I don’t have time for this.

            Sighing, you stand on your tip-toes, trying to find Park Mi Sun-ssi behind the counter, hoping Auntie could help you get ahead of the line. Strangely, she doesn’t see you in view.

            “Aish! Lady, move!” You let out a hiss as you are deliberately shoved, eyes widened. You whirl around, eying the same girl who’d you had run into earlier. The girl is eyeing you with distaste, her nose wrinkled.

            “Geez, don’t just stand there like an idiot. This is a café, order something and get out, ar-a-so?” She annunciates slowly, tilting her head as if talking to a child. Your eyes narrow, recognizing the girl’s attitude for what it was. You had gotten a lot of looks like that when you first came to Korea and settled in the area. People tend to think foreigners can’t speak Korean (and half of the time they weren’t wrong) and reacted in annoying ways. But you have never been faced with such frank condescension as this before, and you smiled a little, snorting in shock at the girl’s frank obnoxiousness.

            “Do you understand?” The girl says slowly and loudly, again. Your eye twitches, but you don’t move, instead allowing the girl to push past you, laughing.

            “Honestly, foreigners.” She chuckles with her friends. Your fists clench, and you bite your tongue. You have been on-call all of last night, running a double-shift in the hospital until 4 AM. You had almost lost another patient in the pediatrics ward, and you’d spent the precious time you could’ve had sleeping trying to get your hands to stop shaking without the use of alcohol. Eventually you passed out on your own.

 And now little miss prissy-pants over there has the nerve to walk into YOUR coffee shop and to head to the front of the non-existent line after talking down to you?

I am running on two hours, and yet to have my morning coffee. you think, eying the girl’s back. First and foremost, I am a New Yorker. I will END you.

Eyes hard with resolve, you move forward, slipping past people with the grace of a girl who’d played way too many games of Ninja in school. You stalk forward, eyes solely fixed on the girl who is now chattering excitedly towards whoever was manning the cash register, hand holding her chin up in a coy position as she blinks repeatedly.

Wow, haven’t ever seen such blatant aegyo in real life before. You paused to note, a little creeped out. You glance towards the counter and find Park Misun-ssi taking someone else’s order (of the many crowding the glass), waiting for her to look up. Sure enough, Auntie did, and meet your eyes. She blinks in surprise before smiling, looking a little tired. You pretend not to notice as you look her up and down, taking in her disheveled appearance, and then tut at her, shaking your head and projecting your disapproval quite clearly despite the distance between them.

“Coffee, please?” You mouth at her, and Misun-ssi nods, making a shooing motion in the direction of the cash register in a motherly fashion. You bow thankfully, and when you look up Misun-ssi has already moved to another customer, pausing to mutter your order into one of the regular’s ears. The regular nods, moving to prepare your usual: black coffee, two sugars and muffin.

That done with, you check your watch and start towards the counter. You yawn again, rubbing at the bottom of your eyes until you see stars. On the way there, you ever so slightly push against the girl who had insulted you, making sure not to look back, but letting a dark smirk of satisfaction cover your face.

            “Oi!” You pause, recognizing the girl’s voice. Damn.

            “Ahjumma-“ The girl scolds, walking up to you, and you almost look up towards the heavens in a pleading expression. Why? Why are you doing this to me? I’ve never been arrested for homicide, I’m a doctor for chrissake’s. I’m supposed to save people’s lives, not end them…and how the heck would it work if I’m arrested in Korea, anyway? Don’t do this to me, please…

            “The line is back there, right? You need to order something and then get it, you can’t just cut.” The girl says sweetly, still acting as if she is talking to a child.

            “Or do you not understand? Ahjumma, you don’t belong here.” Your eyes narrowed as you catch the double meaning. Out of the corner of your eye, you see whoever is manning the cashier shift uncomfortably as the girl delivers the entire line with a cheerful smile. Seeing the cashier still his movements, the other people have stopped, now listening to their conversation. You, however, are too pissed to care.

            Ahjumma? “Ahjumma?” You repeat out loud, getting a kick from the girl’s shocked expression. Yes, I can speak Korean. And Imma take you down, .

            “I’m twenty-five years old. You know what that makes me?” You say, leaning in and delivering the line in perfect Korean.

            “Your Sun-bae.” You snap in two syllables, smirking at the girl.

            “I may be a ‘foreigner’” You lay the emphasis on thicker, pausing to roll the word on your tongue before eying the girl “but I am also someone for you to respect. Ar-a-so?” You make the okay sign with your hands, now the one talking down to the girl. Talk finished, you move towards the cashier.

            “Aish! Crazy !” The girl mutters. Usually, you would have left it alone, but you hadn’t slept last night, you hadn’t had coffee, there are too many people in what you had long since considered “your” place and goddammit, a child had almost died on your watch, you’ve almost had to call it, and your hands are beginning to shake again.

            You whirl around, seeing Misun-ssi watch you with wide eyes. The crowd grows even quieter.

            “I’m sorry, what?” You ask in English. The girl blinks rapidly, her cheeks heating up as she obviously didn’t know what you said, or perhaps didn’t know how to respond.

            “You see, unlike you, I’m not here to flirt with pretty-boy cashiers.” It’d been mostly a guess, based on the frankly disturbing display of aegyo back there, but based on how the girl is coloring you have hit the nail on the head.

            “Unlike you, student, I have to go to work where I can make money to pay for your education. So, if you would please let me get my stuff so I can quickly go support your future, okay?”

            “Here, Nayoung-ssi (you).” As if to further prove your point, Park Misun-ssi reaches over the counter, passing over your drink and muffin and pausing to glare at the girl, who shrinks a little, getting even redder in embarrassment.

            “Cheosohamingda!” You say, pausing to smile sincerely at Misun-ssi as you take the coffee and paper bag. Misun-ssi nods, grinning at you before placing both hands on her hips and turning towards the girl.

            “Miss, please do not disrespect our valued customers, or I will ask you to leave.” She says authoritatively, and you raise your eyebrows and grinned as the girl sputters. 

            This time you move towards the cashier with no interruptions, whom you now stood only a few feet from and handing him the items, unable to stop another yawn from erupting that you politely cover with your hand. You rub your eyes, wincing, and the man puts down your purchases in front of you.

            “How much is it?” You asked, rummaging through your bag for your wallet.

            “It’s free. Think of it as my apology.” The man might’ve grinned at you, who knows, but you are too tired to care and, quite frankly, annoyed. Instead you take out the money, watching the smile or whatever slowly fade as you take his hand and put the bills that you know is the price in his hand. You barely register the gasps around you, instead clenching your fingers around the bill.

            “Student, just focus on working hard, araso? And please, never work here again.” You nod affirmatively at him, grinning slightly (with a hint of exhaustion around your eyes you were sure,) wave at Auntie, and then leave. You take a long sip of your coffee as you walk out, letting your shoulders relax finally as the warm liquid runs down your throat.

            Just what the doctor ordered. Ah, puns.

            As you pass by the glass at the front of the coffee shop, you never stop to look back inside. If you had, you might’ve noticed the faces positively gaping at your back, the cashier’s face particularly shocked.

            And it would take you three hours of surgeries, and four hours of napping on the lumpy couch in the break room before you would gain enough lucidness to realize-Oh. That guy at the cashier was Kyuhyun from Super Junior, wasn’t it?

…

. My. Life.