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You're My Ideal Type
TAO POV
“So what’s your ideal type?” the interviewer asked us. The other members went down the line and said that they liked girls who cold cook, were cute, had long hair, etc. I zoned out and started thinking about what time we would finally get to go home and rest.
“And what about you, Tao?” I snapped back into reality. I thought about it for a second.
“I want to focus on my career the most so having a girlfriend isn’t in my plans in the near future…” I said. I saw Kris shoot me a glare. Oh damn, I forgot that I had a script. Well there goes that. In the 10 second silence, I could hear fan girls’ hearts breaking.
“Really?” the interviewer asked, taken aback by my answer. I nodded slowly, avoiding Kris’ death glare. I know I screwed up but there’s no point in trying to fix it now. And I was being honest and that’s what’s important. Girls are all the same and now that I was famous, they were about to become a whole new level of weird.
YOUR POV
Aish, I need to get a second job. Working in the coffee shop is great and all but I need a more stable job that pays more. And even more, the coffee shop is always so slow during my shifts. Ok, it’s final; I’m going to look for a job over the week. It was a slow Monday evening, probably because no one actually drinks coffee at this time but whatever. I leaned over the counter and rested my chin on the palm of my hand. I got bored and decided I should mop the work station. The floor was soon wet but clean. While I was in the back room putting away the mop, I heard the bell ding, signaling that someone just walked in.
“Hello?” a voice called out.
“Hold on just a min-oof!” I yelped as I fell backwards onto the floor, remembering that it was still freshly wet. Ah damn, this was embarrassing. I slowly pulled my self up and as I sat on my knees, the guy was bent over the counter, staring at me. Then he burst out laughing, a low chuckle at first, and then an explosion of deep musical laughter. I grumbled and stood up and washed my hands. The guy only laughed harder when he saw my backside was noticeably much damper. I came back to the front counter, the guy’s laughter slowly dying down, although not with out a tear falling from the corner of his eye first.
“What can I get you?” I said politely, although I really could have hit him upside his head right now.
“I’m-haha- sorry, that was the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’ll just have a coffee,” he asked, chuckling a little to himself still.
“What’s your name?” I asked, ready to mark the cup with it. There was a moment of silence before he told me.
“Zi Tao,” he said slowly. It sounded vaguely familiar but I didn’t even care to give it a second thought since he just laughed in my face.
“You’re Chinese?” I asked curiously. He just nodded. “Your Korean is pretty good,” I smiled. He didn’t really say much, if anything, in reply.
I made him his coffee and he stuck around for a few minutes, sitting at one of the tables provided. He was staring at me, as if he was waiting for something. I pretended to ignore him and made myself a boba tea to waste time. Finally, Zi Tao looked at his watch and left. I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost 9. Time to close up shop, finally.
TAO POV
I decided to revisit that coffee shop from yesterday, the one with the girl who fell down. It was empty and quiet, unlike everywhere else I seem to go these days. And better yet, she didn’t even recognize me. I walked in and saw the girl there, lazily leaning against the counter. She turned around when she heard me walk in. She gave me this Oh, It’s you look.
“Hello, what can I get you?” she asked.
“A coffee please,” I replied and sat down. She delivered it to me in a ceramic mug this time and went back to her place behind the counter. It was awkwardly silent in the room. “What’s your name?” I asked her.
“What?” she asked.
“Well, you know my name, it’s only fair that I know yours,” I said, taking a sip of coffee. She eyed me for a moment.
“Call me Kajin,” there was a short pause, “why do you get coffee so late at night?” she asked curiously. I thought about my answer for a moment.
“I have a busy lifestyle and need an extra pick-me-up at the end of the day. Plus, it’s nice and quiet here,” I said, “not to mention there’s entertainment too,” I chuckled, remembering yesterday’s incident. She glared and rolled her eyes at me. “Why is this place open so late?” I asked. She shrugged her shoulders.
“I don’t know, but I’m the only one who takes the night shift because not that many people are needed at this time.” There was an awkward pause.
“Hey, when someone asks you what your ideal type is, what do you tell them?” I asked her.
“Me? Well that’s a very straight forward question to be asking someone you just met….” She said.
“Just answer the question,” I told her.
“Hmm….well I don’t have an ideal type. If I like someone, then they become my ideal type but as for now, all I’m concerned about is getting a decent job.
She yawned and looked at the clock. “I have to start closing up now though. You can stay a little longer if you want but I’m going to start cleaning up.”
“No, that’s ok. I have somewhere to be right now,” I told her. I had an interview to get to and my manager and Kris are probably going to kick my if I’m late. I stood up and left her some money on the table and she took the money and the mug away.
So here I was again, sitting with the interviewer and the other five members of EXO-M. I sat at the end next to Jongdae. The interviewer asked us questions about dorm life, trainee life, our goals, etc. Then that question came up again.
“What’s your ideal type?” the interviewer asked us. The members went down their list of exceptional qualities that, let’s face it, are only possessed by fictional women. I, myself, also had to give some bogus that was written on my script.
“What about you, Tao?”
“I like girls who are pretty and have a good body,” I said.
“I see,” the interviewer replied. God, I sound like such a shallow right now.
I woke up, tired as ever, and dragged my self off the top bunk. Our manager drove us all over to the SM Building and we all lazily shuffled into the dance practice room. We began to stretch and then we all started dancing for the ump-teenth time the dance to our debut single. We had to perform on Music Bank later and do a pre-recording. It’s rare that EXO-M got an opportunity to perform in Korea but it was one that we definitely couldn’t slack off on. The stylists put me into stylish but comfortable clothes; there was no way in hell I could do that flip in leather skin-tight jeans. They did my hair and makeup and finally, FINALLY, they let me go. I still had some down time before we had to leave so I wandered through the building.
I looked at the trophy case with all the awards that our sunbaes had won and hoped that one day EXO could add to it.
“Zi Tao?” I heard someone behind me call. In the chairs behind me, I was surprised to see Kajin staring at me.
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