From the moment Soah woke up, she knew this was going to be a bad day. Maybe it had to do with the fact that her hair had suddenly decided mingling with its own kind was a good idea and she was left with knots all over the place – though at this point it could as well have been a single humongous knot. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was raining, pouring down as if someone up there had suddenly decided to drop a never-ending bucket of water upon their town. Or maybe it was because she was stuck on a morning shift doing a job she couldn’t care less about when she should have been elsewhere. And while Soah was still ignorant when it came to the details of what she was supposed to do, working at minimum wage in the local food market just wasn’t it. She was so convinced she was meant for greater, bigger things!

Still, Soah reluctantly dragged her feet to work, barely coming on time, and punching her card exactly one second before it was too late, under the disapproving eye of manager Wu. She mentally snickered before taking a clean apron and going to the cash register. That was her spot. It had been that way for the last two years and a half. And far from growing on her, Soah’s job as a cashier filled her with despair. There were so many appalling things that people did… Just because they were a smaller business with only two cash registers, people thought it was okay for them to leave stuff on the counter and saunter away to go find other aliments. Soah was even more consternated by the way people treated her, like she was a robot or part of the furniture. A ‘hello’ never hurt and ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ were just polite sayings. Clients were coming in like they owned everything, dumping their cart on her countertop and mumbling rude stuff like “You’ll give me a bag”… ‘You’ll give me a bag, please?’, ‘May I have a bag, please?’, ‘Can you give me a bag, please?’… There were so many nicer ways to ask!

“Don’t forget the smile,” reminded the shop’s manager as he walked by with a stern expression.

Soah forced the corners of her lips to lift into a forced smile that looked everything but genuine, still pleasing Mr. Kris Wu.

“Good,” he said as he walked outside to talk to an old lady who was doing her morning grocery shopping.

As soon as he was out of sight, Soah’s mouth dropped and she sighed. Leaning against the metal surface of her counter, she ran her hand in her hair, still unsatisfied by the way she had handled her bright locks that morning.

“Can I leave my things here?” a middle-aged lady said before dropping her green basket on the surface.

“Sure,” Soah grunted, deciding she didn’t even care anymore.

As the lady obliviously went further away, Soah took a look at her basket. Apples, carrots, fresh basil… 9 000 wons, she guessed in her head.

“Someone is not having a good day,” a voice interrupted her train of thought.

She turned her head to face her boss, Kim Joonmyun, the son of the previous owner. Barely 26, he had inherited the family business when his parents decided to retire. Unable to manage a business on his own, he had called in a friend from business school, and this was why both Joonmyun and Kris owned the place. While Joomyun was the real owner, Kris was the one who really called the shots. Otherwise, this place would have sunk already. Soah still remember her boss’ previous idea: selling exotic food. To which Kris had vehemently objected “We are not going to be selling papayas all year long, Suho!” And the discussion had been closed.

“Yeah, this is somewhat of a bad day…” Soah showed a little more reserve telling Mr. Kim of her daily mood than she would with anyone else. Maybe she didn’t want him to worry about her…

“I know what will cheer you up!” Joonmyun exclaimed with a bright smile. “An early break.”

Joonmyun dug in a nearby basket for three tomatoes. Before Soah could object, Kris was coming back from outside and blankly stated: “She’s not taking an early break.”

Looking dejected for a second, Joonmyun quickly brightened up and started shuffling the tomatoes from one hand to the other. The fruits – or were they vegetables? Soah didn’t know anymore – began flying in the air as Joonmyun expertly juggled with them. The sight made Soah giggle. Noticing her reaction, Jonmyun smiled grew as his eyes lingered on her happy face and that was all it took for him to loose control. A tomato was involuntarily thrown out of Joonmyun’s hands and ended up on a client’s head. Horrified, Soah’s boss hurried to the client’s side to apologize.

“I’m so sorry Mr. Hwang!” Joonmyun uttered with a bow.

The scene made Soah laugh even harder and she broke into a chuckling fit. Of course, this was enough to alert everyone else on the floor, even Mr. Wu, who still bore an unreadable expression, and all turned her way.

“Sorry,” she mumbled before eyeing the register, not having anything better to do.

“Kwon Soah!” Mr. Hwang said, looking at her. “Is that you?”

“Hello, sir,” she answered with a smile.

His expression softened. Tossing aside the tomato that fell on the ground, Mr. Hwang walk to the counter with bright twinkly eyes. “I can’t believe it! Wait until I tell Tiffany.”

Pulling a tissue from a box under her cash register, Soah walked up to the man and wiped away the remains of the tomato that lingered on his forehead.

“How’s she?” she asked softly.

“She’s good! She misses you, you should come home one day.”

“Of course,” Soah agreed. “I miss her too. But I don’t think it’d be a good thing to tell her I work here. I’ll come by for sure, though.”

Mr. Hwang nodded.

In fact, Tiffany had always been Soah’s best friend from their youngest days. She would want to believe it was still the case even if they hadn’t seen each other for the past few years. In fact, it had been exactly two years and a half, the exact same time Soah had worked at the vegetable store. And the exact same time since Soah had chosen to drop her studies and leave her past behind. A very good but headless choice if you asked her.

When Mr. Hwang left, both Kris and Joonmyun came to Soah with the exact same expression.

“How do you know him?” Kris voiced both their opinions.

“Impressed that I know one of the most influent men in all Korea?” Soah retorted with a smirk. “I’ll let you know that I have connections all around the world!”

Waving his hands at her, like he was dismissing what she was saying, Kris shook his head.

“It’s surely a coincidence,” he declared.

“Now, about that early break…” Soah asked with her bigger smile.

“Out of the question,” he said as he pulled Joonmyun away.

Finally, Salvation hour was nearing, Soah noticed as she handed a lady her bag full of berries. She watched with a haughtily raised eyebrow as the woman proceeded to undo all her bag-packing to do it on her own. Soah almost face palmed at the sight. Why let her do all the work if she was just going to start over…

“You can take your break,” Joonmyun told Soah as he walked toward the back store. “Jinah will replace you.”

True to his words, Im Jinah was walking toward her at this exact moment with a big smile. Soah waved awkwardly before rushing to her locker at the back. Taking her purse and leaving her apron on a chair, she walked through the backdoor without punching. Kris was going to be mad, but she really didn’t care at the moment. The only coherent thought in her mind was “Fooooooooood!”. She exited the building, preparing herself for a run because it was still a rainy day.

“Soah?”

She turned around to notice Joonmyun was casually leaning against the brick wall, seemingly waiting for someone with an unbrella. Her?

“Yes, Joonmyun-ssi?” she asked curiously.

“Just call me Suho!” he said as he walked to be next to her.

“Suho? Is that a nickname?” Soah already knew it was, in fact she had heard Kris use it countless time, but she just didn’t want to show him she paid that much attention.

“Yes, all my friends call me Suho.”

She nodded slowly, taking in the fact he thought she was his friend. Maybe Kris should give him a class on work relationships. Not that the cold manager was any example to follow…

“Since you have a break and I also have one, I thought maybe we should go eat together? I’ll be paying, of course. What kind of boss would I be otherwise…”

He chuckled and she stared at him with wide eyes. Was that a date?

“You are very nice, Suho,” she tried carefully. “I’m sure Kris wouldn’t be as generous as you are.”

With a smile, Soah followed him as he guided her toward the busy street that was invaded with black umbrellas. At least Suho's sported a nice sky design.

“So,” he began, breaking the silence that had comfortably sunk in-between them. “Have you ever gone to eat lunch with Kris?”

“No way!” Soah immediately spurted, surprised by the question.

“I see,” he responded. He proceeded to drag the silence and for what it meant, she didn’t mind. Soah, as much as she liked talking and arguing was actually very bad a small talk. I always amazed her how some people could make a conversation live through minutes and hours around a subject as casual as the weather.

The next forty-five minutes consisted of comfortable silences and happy jokes Joonmyun told to make Soah smile. It worked, and Soah could honestly say she had a good time. Obviously, Suho insisted to pay, much to Soah’s dismay. She usually preferred to do things on her own even if it included paying her own lunch, but there was something about Suho’s smile and gentle insistence that made her give hum. If he wanted to be nice to her, she didn’t see the harm.

Coming back to the job, she took back her spot at the cash register next to Jinah.

“Had a good break?” the older female asked.

“I did,” Soah answered truthfully but without letting anything show.

“If you are back, then, I will go back to doing my things.” And Jinah went her way with a small wave of the hand.

Jinah had worked at the grocery store longer than Soah and had managed to get a nice job. Circling the four alleys – it was a small store, for sure – she was in charge of looking to see what was missing and fill the shelves. It took some strength, but Jinah was always followed by this blond kid – who might have been older than Soah but actually seemed younger – and he was the one who carried the boxes. Jinah only had to prance through the shop with her pad. That was the kind of dynamic job Soah wanted. It did no harm that there was no customer service.

Soah inwardly smiled thinking one day, she’d get that job only to shake her head to wonder if she was in her right mind. Why would she want Jinah’s job, one day she’d get a much better one, preferably out of this grocery store and probably implying huge responsibilities. She’d be looked upon as a role model and every new employee would want to be like her. She chuckled at the thought.

“Had that good of a time?” Kris asked, leaning over the counter.

Noticing him, she jumped slightly, eyes widening in surprise.

“How is that your business?” she retorted, harsher than she would have liked.

He scowled and gave her a bill of 10,000 wons.

“For the cash register,” he stated when she took it.

Just as he was about to go away, he spun around and stared at her. The visual inquisition lasted few minutes and she was starting to get uncomfortable. Fiddling with her fingers behind her back, Soah wondered if there was something on her face.

“You know of our policy, right?” he made sure.

“We don’t take credit card unless it’s more than 80,000 wons?” she tried tentatively.

“I mean the dating policy.”

She gulped and lowered her eyes. She appeared confident in front of Joonmyun and the other workers, but Kris was the only one who made her nervous and slightly afraid. She had done absolutely nothing wrong and yet she was still scared of loosing her job, practically willing to beg for forgiveness. She breathed in and out, trying to chase the uneasiness away and gain back her confidence.

“I know the dating policy. And I can assure you I haven't gone against it.”

“Good,” he simply stated before cracking a smile and going back to whatever he was doing minutes ago.

Soah truly believed he was in no position to hit her with the dating policy until she accidentally met Joonmyun’s eye and he waved at her happily, sending chills down her spine. Noticing the familiar fluttering feeling in her stomach, realization dawned on her. Ohh!