“Hongbin-ah, can you finish wiping the counters? I’m almost done in the back,” Hyuna called, her voice fading out as she descended the stairs into the basement.

            The boy at the front counter grumbled. “There isn’t much counter to wipe, seeing as how all of it is covered in junk.” The antique store that they both worked in was a mess, as it always was. Pieces of collections were stacked on top of each other next to shelves that could very well hold them, if they were also not haphazardly disorganized. The whole place was filled with items, from old and dusty books to dolls that Hongbin would swear were haunted. The counter in question had little boxes full of rings and pins in them, in no sort of order at all but still somehow perfectly in harmony with the rest of the store. The warm lighting and quiet atmosphere added to the ambiance of the store and the smell of pastries wafted through the walls from the bakery next door.

            Just as Hongbin was sweeping the remaining mess on the counter into his hands and into the trash bin, the bell above the door jingled, and Hongbin rolled his eyes. Every day, exactly ten minutes before closing, he would show up. Just show up, wander around for a while, then come and talk at Hongbin as he tried to finish his tasks for the end of the day. He had yet to buy anything, and Hongbin pondered on if it would be rude to kick him out, maybe accusing him of loitering. The old boss wouldn’t stand for it, however, so he had to bear with it until the lights of the store would flicker off and the guest would finally leave.

            Today was no different, it seems. The elf moved silently and surprisingly gracefully against his entirely too loud personality. Not for the first time, Hongbin wondered who had decided to put that disposition into an elf, of all creatures. Maybe he could be a fairy, or an imp, some sort of troublesome creature so then Hongbin really would have a cause to throw him out.

            “Helllooo, Hongbin? Ground control to Hongbin, over.”

            Ah, there he was.

            “Good afternoon, Hakyeon.” Hongbin turned around to face him. Hakyeon was smiling at him, teeth bright on a tanned face.

            “Your hair is a different color again today.”

            “You noticed! I like the red much more than the blue, don’t you? Taekwoon says that it’s too loud and annoying but I think it’s perfect.” Hongbin bit back a comment about the hair not being the annoying part, and just nodded.

            “It certainly has flair.” He paused. “Wait, did you say Taekwoon? As in the Taekwoon who works at the bakery next door?”

            “That’s him!” came a cheerful reply. Taekwoon was well known in the area for his baked goodies, but no one knew much about him, he rarely was out in the main front of the store. Those who had seen him said he was “dark and mysterious.”

            “You know him?” Hongbin directed at the elf, turning away to continue gathering up pieces of trash. Hongbin hated to admit it, but he was curious about him.

            “I sure do, he’s my best friend, we’ve known each other for yeaaaars.” Hakyeon leaned over on the counter. “Why, are you curious?”

            “A little bit, yeah. I mean, no one really ever sees him around here, he doesn’t come out into public very often. I’ve worked here for two years now and I still haven’t seen him once.”

            Hakyeon hummed.

            “He probably doesn’t want you to, then.”

            As Hongbin was about to pressure him more about the mystery pastry chef, there was a loud crash outside the store, approximately exactly where the flowerpots were. Loud swearing could be heard, and Hongbin hoped to whatever gods were out there that the source was not planning on coming into the store, there were only 6 minutes left until he could justifiably tell the elf standing in front of him (politely) to leave.

            The bell on the door chimed, and Hongbin groaned.

            It was going to be a long 6 minutes.

            The door burst open and a cheery voice rang out through the room.

            “Helloooo, who’s in here?”

            Hakyeon looked up.

            “Jaehwan, is that you? What are you doing here?” The owner of the voice emerged and Hongbin sighed.

            Of course it had to be a fairy.

            Fairies are a fickle type, constantly moving, almost always radiating positivity and light, often just generally annoying. This particular fairy was grinning ear from ear. He had a high, defined nose and a sharp jaw, a sharp contrast to the smoother edges that Hakyeon had, typical of fairies and elves respectively. The fairy’s hair was a light brown-blonde color, and his eyes were big and light. His wings were folded up against his back, shimmering with a small light that glittered when he moved. The wings were thin and colorful, less for practical reasons and more just for the appearance.

            “Hakyeon! Imagine seeing you here! I just moved in upstairs so I was going to come downstairs and say hello to whoever else lives in the building, and I fell out of my window outside, and decided I might as well come in. What are you doing here?” Hongbin immediately decided that he truly did not want this Jaehwan character lingering in the store any longer than was needed, his light, folded wings already coming close to brushing some of the fragile stacks of items.

            “-and I was just talking to Hongbin, ah, he works here, about Taekwoon! You remember Taekwoon, yeah? He’s working just next door and since I come here all the time maybe I’ll try to convince him to-“

            “Excuse me, but the store is closing, and I’ll need to ask you to leave. We reopen tomorrow at 10am, when we will be happy to assist you.” The speech was practiced, he said it every day to Hakyeon promptly at 6 o clock.

            “Jaehwannie, we should grab some dinner, I haven’t seen you in forever! I know a good place- thanks Hongbin, see you tomorrow! - and they have some of the best casserole I’ve ever had.” The chatter continued through and then out of the store, and Hongbin let out a sigh.

            Living in Talgi had both benefits and consequences, one being the existence of the various mythical creatures that lived in and surrounding the city. From fairies to centaurs, there was plenty of diversity. Humans were less common, but there weren’t any problems between the humans and the other inhabitants, aside from small skirmishes. Hongbin had grown up outside of the city, only moving when his mother told him to, word by word, “find something to do with your life because I don’t want your lazy on my couch until you are 21, Hongbin.” So he had moved into a small one bedroom apartment, and then begun work at the antique store.

            He never figured much of the creatures, not avoiding them but never really interacting with them. Most of the (few, albeit) friends that he had were human. Even the visitors to the store were generally human, with the occasional elf, sometimes a nymph. Hongbin liked the nymphs, they were pretty and usually kind, despite sometimes causing some trouble. They always cooed over him, talking over themselves about how he “should get out more often” and that they “have friends that they could introduce him to.” He supposed it was simply because of his looks, seeing as they never had any real conversations.

            Hongbin had always thought of himself as pretty average, not anything special, but if you asked some of the customers (usually the female variety) they would tell you about a charming smile with dimples, hair that just covered his forehead and then some of them would lower their voices and talk about some other feature of his. He usually just tuned them out, smiling and telling them to have a nice day.

            Until about a month ago, when, ten minutes before closing, Hakyeon showed up. He was tan for an elf, but seemed to have captured some sort of sunlight because he had a sort of glow around him, although Hongbin could never quite be sure. When they first met, his hair was dark brown, slightly curling, falling just over his eyebrows. Since then, it had been black, and then blue, and now to a bright shade of red, which Hongbin supposed fit him rather well. He wasn’t really loud in volume, but had a lot to say and only ten minutes to say all of it. Hakyeon never seemed to run out of things to talk about, but some part of Hongbin didn’t really mind, seeing as the last ten minutes of work were always the slowest, using his time just straightening the same things over and over to give the appearance of working. Hakyeon certainly wasn’t boring.

            And now, it appears, Hongbin’s life was about to get a lot more complicated.

 Uwaaaaah this chapter is really short I'm just trying to figure out the basics of the story soooo

yeah Hakyeon is an elf and Jaehwan is a fairy and they are both annoying

Thanks for reading~

let me know if you have anything to say about it!