Two years later

 

“Jieun-ah! You’re a genius! Your promotion plan worked again! This month sales had already surpassed last month sales!”

 

The manager of the café excitedly held Jieun’s shoulder in such a manner that even her hat almost fell off. The latter was quick to shed off the hands on her and gave the manager a fleet smile before taking a step backward. Habitually, she reached for her right wrist, but there were no longer the dangling red diamonds for her to fidget with. She had no use of the extravagant hair band anymore now with her bob haircut which rested just one inch above her chin.

 

“I’m just playing my part as one of the staffs and contribute for the shop. Seeing how the shop isn’t busy today, can I take an early leave? I have some private matters to take care of.”

 

“Oh? No problem! You can leave now, Jieun, there’s nothing to worry about here!”

 

Jieun wasted no time to take off the cap and bowed to the manager with a small smile. She ran her fingers through her raven hair as she made way to the changing room, not paying slight attention to the two fellow co-workers who were shooting daggers at her.

 

How could they not when the manager did not only gave her an extra month of pay as bonus and now even allowing her to leave work early by hours? Even so, Jieun paid no heed to them. Her efforts earned her deserved gains; it had been two years since she moved to Busan and started working to support her living. She calmly accepted the reality and put behind the glorious life she lived. Since then, Jieun had been living indifferently as others with her father who was encouraged by his relentless daughter.

 

Initially, Jieun started her working career at different places, but her high school certificate helped her no further than getting part time job with long hours and little payment. In the end, she stayed at the current dining shop until now. Just like most of the restaurants in this seaside city, they serve the usual authentic Korean seafood dishes. It was undeniable that Jieun was a rather picky food eater as food habit and preference were a reflection of a person’s lifestyle, but she found the food here great, mainly due to the home recipe the manager followed diligently. Even most of the seasonings and ingredients were prepared according to the shop’s self-recipe. Nevertheless, the fierce competition among the restaurant chains and the extra amount of time and money being put into their distinct menu, in no time, the shop met its bottleneck.

 

As if it was an inherent skill passed down in the family, Jieun easily noticed the area of improvement and made use of the most subtle opportunities to obtain the maximum economic benefits. She began by suggesting the manager to only sell their most ordered dishes such as pork rice soup, cold noodles, sashimi and Korean pancake. As such, it greatly reduced the cost and time in preparing the food while at the same time maintaining the moderate income. Following that, Jieun made an alteration to the food price by reducing 100 won so that every price ends with 900 won and started the promotion of free dishes and drinks with extra purchase. Such psychological triggers easily influenced the customers and effectively gained sales. In no time, the shop expanded from a small shop crammed in between street food bistros to a two storey individual building.

 

Once Jieun headed out from the changing room, her fellow co-workers came to her like the pair of Cinderella stepsisters, all snobbish and every word dripped with sarcasm.

 

“Oh, how nice the manager is towards you, giving you permission as soon as you ask for an early leave and not even deducting your pay but giving you a bonus instead! Whereas us working our butts off in your stead and earn a scolding from the manager in return.”

 

Jieun only raised her eyebrow when Solbin and Jinyoung started their usual flim-flam.

 

“Solbin, you shouldn’t put it that way! Unfortunately for us, we didn’t have those aha moments Jieun had and lucked her way out. So, we could only stick to working like this.”

 

Jieun was used to their words of playing her down and it never riled her up like how they hoped just so that they could hold something against her.

 

“That’s right, you two will never have those eureka moments because apparently these here,” Jieun pointed to the duo’s foreheads, “may be too empty for its’ own good and by envying me doesn’t help either.”

 

The politeness she had earlier shed along with her words and by the time she was finished, her smile had long changed to her infamous scornful grin. Jieun’s blunt words could not be any clearer to the two who were the targets of her ridicule.

 

“Well, I would like to chat more, but, it’s a pity that your heads aren’t good enough to hold a decent communication, so run off the two of you, it wouldn’t end up well if our parasitic manager sees you two slacking off.”

 

Right after Jieun said her words, it was Jieun's first time seeing Jinyoung reacting that fast as the latter pointed her finger at Jieun.

 

“Hah! Calling manager parasitic?” As if catching Jieun red-handed, Jinyoung had her chin in the air, ready to tattle on this to the manager.

 

Jieun snorted, losing patience as the two were wasting her time.

 

“Just in case, you don't know, I have lost counted how many times I said this in his face, but, I wonder how will he react if the word ‘parasitic’ comes out from your mouth?”

 

Jinyoung’s face was red with speechlessness, she knew Jieun was right and everyone in the restaurant knew their manager treated the latter like the shop’s fortune cat. If it was not that most of the employees here disliked Jieun, the manager would not have hesitated to promote her as the shift leader. But seeing how well Jieun was doing recently, it did not seem utterly impossible for her to be their superior. Hence, Solbin grabbed Jinyoug’s arms, indicating the other to stop.

 

Jieun flipped her hair and left without sparing another glance at her co-workers. Yes, that’s right. Throughout the years, there were three things that never change; Jieun’s aloofness, her saucy-laced remarks which made her remain unlikable by most. There was no need of her to bend her will for those who dislike her true nature, she just had to cherish those who truly appreciate her.

 

These two years she had learned to ride a bicycle, do house chores, and other works she never imagined of doing and most importantly, she learned not to miss…her left hand reached up to shade her eyes from the glaring sun and increased her speed in cycling. Even so, by the time she reached one specific house with green concrete fence wall, her skin was slightly burning from the heat and sweats trickled down from her forehead.

 

Her movements of wiping the sweat paused at the sight of the messy front yard. Anything she could name from a house was piled up like a small mountain, then, something sparkled along with a blur of the bright colour feather dust at the side caught her attention. She narrowed her eyes when a turn of the small figure caused the glaring reflections into her eyes.

 

Those damn golden accessories.

 

“Don’t just stand there Lee Ji brat! Hurry up and help me to carry all of these into the store! The weather forecast reported that it will rain in a jiffy!”

 

Jieun leaned her head back slightly upon the screeching voice from the petite woman, which worsened the dizziness she started to have because there was only one word Jieun would describe the lady- headache.

 

“You made me take an early leave just to help you move these things?” Jieun gritted out her words and simply closed her eyes to block out the visually disturbing old woman.

 

“What else the reason it can be? Giving you gold? In your dream!”

 

Jieun snapped her eyes open and flung the bicycle aside, not bothering to hide her anger the slightest.

 

“You damn old lady! Have you ever thought that I need to work? If I don’t work, how do I earn money? Without money how on earth am I going to pay you the overdue rent arrears?”

 

It was all rhetorical statements, but the old woman always had to have the last word. Paying no heed to Jieun’s fiery temper, the woman raised her voice an octave higher as she screamed.

 

“So you do know you owe me rentals, huh? Then, better listen to me and move these things now! Or else I'll kick you two out!”

 

Of course, Jieun being who Jieun, was unlikely to back down and spat back her retort almost immediately.

 

“Oh yeah? Kick us out then! It’s not like we like staying here with you, damn old woman!”

 

“Stop cursing me you brat! I’m already one foot in the coffin-”

 

“You’re still living well and screaming your head off at me!”

 

“Just move my things already! It’s going to rain!” The old lady quickly surrendered seeing how there were clumps of dark clouds gathering at the corner of the sky and Jieun only snickered, but the old lady did not miss that triumphant smirk on Jieun’s face. However, the old woman swallowed her anger and instructed the younger girl as she started to move the mess in the front yard.

 

When Taewon and his daughter first moved to Busan, no matter where they moved to, there would always be debt collectors following their shadown and banging on their door. It was the same during the first night they moved to the old lady’s house. As brazen as it was, Jieun caught the old lady’s attention and was liked by the elder the moment she laid her eyes on the younger girl. Hence, that night, the old lady paid for the father and daughter’s debts wordlessly. Since then, they lived here with the old lady and Jieun started her 'maidservant' life; she obeyed to any of the old lady's request. Just a phone call from her had Jieun left her work early just to rush home just and do the current labour work.

 

“It’s freaking late summer! You just have to choose monsoon season to let your rubbish collections to catch the sun!”

 

Jieun grunted as she lifted up the heavy bamboo chair and could care less of what the old woman said afterward. The neighbours who lived here knew better to walk pass this house with their children because there was not once the two did not scream their heads off at each other and what worse was their awful choice of words as they threw curses around.

 

Regardless of their way of interaction, Jieun respected the old lady more than anyone because even now she had a hard time believing there would be one who lent a hand to her and her father at their lowest. They were strangers to the old lady, but she did not even blink an eye when she signed the cheques and gave them to their debt collectors.

 

Perhaps, she was an angel sent down by her mother in the heaven.

 

However, this angel of their family was apparently a classic parvenu. It was not hard to considering the amount of gold she wore on her body along with the rumours they heard from the neighbourhood that the old lady’s son was a rich business man. Yet, not once Jieun and Taewon had met the rich son of the old lady and only knew that she started to live in Busan after her husband passed away.

 

By the time Jieun had finally finished clearing the front yard, her right big toe was sore from the bump earlier, but she was too tired to check it out. Instead, she laid on the outdoor bench to catch her breath. Thanks to the shade offered by the only tree in the front yard, her skin soon cooled down, leaving only red marks as the evidence of her hard work under the sun. Jieun was about to doze off until a whip at her left thigh caused her to spring up and she glared at the culprit of her abused thigh.

 

“Move aside Lee Ji brat. Here, I made some chicken soup, drink it up!”

 

“I would prefer watermelon…”

 

Before the old woman could take back her bowl of soup, Jieun quickly grabbed hold of the bowl and took a huge slurp of the contain.

 

“You ungrateful brat!” Jieun only shrugged at the old lady’s barking of insult and began to chew on the drumstick. The elder caught onto the younger girl’s starvation and gradually stopped her lecture and started her daily nagging.

 

“I made your father an extra serving so make sure you that you have him finish the whole pot when he comes back. You heard that, you brat?”

 

Jieun dodged when the old lady tried to smack her thigh again and mumbled incoherent words of reply with chicken stuffed in .

 

“Your poor father, if I wasn’t so old and couldn’t stay up to wait for your father home, I don’t mind taking another look of your father’s handsome face before I go to sleep.”

 

Jieun choked on her drumstick when the old lady started to talk about Taewon dreamily again like a teenage girl.

 

“But really, brat. Your father’s look just grows on me more and more. He is way much better than my unworthy son! Ugh, with that look of his, it amazes me even now that he got married.”

 

Jieun’s choking ceased and her interest was piqued at the mention of the old woman’s son.

 

“Why? Is he horrible looking just like you? Owh! That really hurt!”

 

In order to prevent the bowl of soup from spilling, Jieun remained still and earned a beating from the elder’s feather dust.

 

“I have no idea how my son could possibly turn out like that? Both my darling and my gene are perfectly fine- Don’t you snicker! It just makes me more frustrated, even my grandson takes after my useless son!”

 

The younger chortled as she imagined how ugly could the old lady’s son and grandson be. but what the elder said afterward made Jieun choked again, this time from her own laughter.

 

“Now that I mention it, you and my grandson could be a perfect pair, maybe I should introduce my grandson to you!”

 

Before the old lady fully launched into her matchmaker spree, Jieun found her chance to slip away when a familiar voice was heard.

 

“Noona! Noona! I- Aish!”

 

A break screeched, then, the sound of a bike being carelessly thrown to the side and in no time, Jieun spotted the jet black hair which bounced as the owner practically sprinted into the front yard.

 

Before the boy could even raise his head up, he was already being dragged out by the one he frantically called out to.

 

So...who's the one who call Jieun noon and what do you think about the old lady as well as her son and her grandson? :D Leave comments!