The jiggling sound by the entrance made Jieun looked up from the table she was wiping, then, her eyes swept past the familiar faces trailing into the shop without a twitch in her expression. She continued on with the current task and went back to her station- right behind the counter in no time.

For a brief moment, Jieun recalled the day she walked into this coffee shop after failing to show up at the scheduled interview at the bakery shop. It was those pensile light bulbs which come in various sizes and gave the interior a yellow hue; the bricked wall having a warmer colour tone due to the lightings reminded her of the winter sitting by the fireplace and also someone who used to give her this sense of warmth and assurances without words needed.

A hand with long painted nails smacked down on the counter dragged Jieun back to the present as she fisted and opened her hands.

No use thinking about the past.

“Good afternoon, how may I take your order?”

Gaze as potent as ever, the superficial smile Jieun had only further aggravated the four girls standing by the counter, especially Jooyeon who was facing her directly in the face.

One day, Jooyeon had by chance decided to walk into the coffee shop for a takeaway drink. The moment she walked in, she immediately recognized the girl standing in front of the cashier despite that the hair was cut short and in its natural colour.

Of course she heard that the infamous Lee Jieun was back in campus, but she never thought to meet her this soon, let alone seeing her working.

In a coffee shop.

It was a sight she never imagined to see from two years ago, but as everyone had said- time has changed. Therefore, she had to make most of Jieun’s current pathetic situation and had been making trips to this shop as often as possible. Every time with different people to witness the downfall of Lee Jieun and this time the trio who used to follow her around came along as well.

Of course Jieun did not remember who Jooyeon was until she reminded her in absolute animosity about the slap that she received from her after confessing to Suho. Which was why Jieun found it rather unforeseen to see Jooyeon with the trio who had gave her a tougher time compared to the sole slap she gave.

Ah, having the same goal to take revenge?

Jieun’s eyes crinkled as she thought things grew more interesting.

Nevertheless, the manager of the shop grew nervous as he recognized the very same girl who had been giving his newly employed worker a hard time for the past few weeks. Jieun had been a hard worker and he genuinely liked her for being creative in marketing which brought in profit. Nevertheless, she brought troubles as well which would not do well for the business if this continued and by the looks of it, it would not stop any time soon.

“Look at you, smiling at us. Should we buy some cakes seeing how pleasant you smile at us.”

Eunha snickered as she gleefully looked at Jieun who was still smiling and obediently went behind the cake display.

Jooyeon exchanged glances with the trio before pointing to a cake.

“A piece of this.”

“1 piece of mango cheese cake.”

Jieun repeated her order seeing where her finger was pointing and was about to take it out before Jooyeon spoke with her nasal voice.

“No, I said this.”

This time, the finger pointed to another cake. Wordlessly, Jieun reached for the orange chiffon cake Jooyeon’s finger was pointing.

“The left one!”

Whenever Jieun reached for the cake she had just pointed, Jooyeon would deliberately changed her mind.

“The one below!”

The four of them no longer held their tittering and openly laughed as Jooyeon further taunted her.

“Why are you so stupid? It’s the one in the middle!”

Jieun was rather unaffected by the ordeal and her smile remained, but this time she spoke.

“It seems like epicanthoplasty surgery do affect the vision. Customer, I do hope you’re taking care of your eyes well and you may have to eat more walnuts, it’s really effective in helping you to identify left and right.”

Jooyeon looked as if she swallowed a fly; everyone envied her large round eyes, but very few knew that she had cosmetic eye surgery and asking her to eat walnuts was indirectly calling her stupid!

“Is this how you talk to customer?”

Jooyeon’s raised voice made the manager to interfere as he apologized and gestured Jieun to busy herself with other tasks while he replaced her to take their order.

The four girls temporary halted their shenanigans seeing how Jieun was being covered deliberately by the manager and made their way to their seats after placing their orders. Nevertheless, they began to pick on Jieun again in no time.

“Hey, you! Wipe the table!”

Yerim’s loud voice directed at Jieun made it impossible to ignore so she picked up the cloth rag and received a stern stare from the manager before she approached the four. Another co-worker followed her hot on the heels with the cakes they ordered.

Her smile that had only been mustered dropped right away when she felt a kick at the back of the knee and tumbled right to the corner of the table on her forehead. The pain quickly manifested but Jieun remained muted at the growing pain as she wordlessly stood up and looked at Sena. The latter only rounded her eyes in feigned innocence while apologizing with not a hint of remorse.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there and my long legs just somehow touched you.”

Jieun paid her no heed and went on to wipe the table before setting down the plates of cakes. Seeing that her task was done, Jieun was about to return to the kitchen, ignoring the sweet smiles thrown at her which she knew very well that they were not done with her yet.

Jieun’s eyebrow twitched when Yerim made a gagged sound and she spitted something out from . Jieun felt the soft texture of a foreign piece on her apron and slid down.

“Ack! Why does the cake taste so disgusting?”

 The manager could no longer stay put when he heard what Yerim said. He quickly rushed to their table, trying to salvage the situation that was anything but good.

“Dear customers, I’m afraid there aren’t likely to have any problems with our cakes. Our cakes are made daily with fresh ingredients and the baker has quite the reputation in town.”

“Well, tha-that’s because this waitress purposely sprayed the sanitizer on the cakes!”

Looking proud that she managed to find a good excuse to slander Jieun, Yerim gave her a smug grin as she crossed her arms, confident that they would not be refuted.

Meanwhile, the manager resisted the urge to call out the four girls out when he clearly knew that the cakes were not even served when Jieun wiped the table. They were patently here to make a ruckus and Jieun was their target. He knew if this was not put an end, the shop would no doubt be affected by the girls’ fracas. Therefore, he glanced at Jieun before deciding to interfere again.

“I’m sorry, we will serve you new servings of the cakes right away!”

Not even waiting for their response, the manager signalled the other worker but he gulped when Jieun finally spoke up after being so quiet for the whole time.

“Manager, there’s no need.”

Jieun ignored the frantic blinking from the manager, telling her not to say anything more.

 “There is no problem with the cakes. The actual problems are them.”

Her voice was loud and clear, other customers in the shop turned to them now, some even nodding their heads and taking out their mobile phones to record whatever that would unfold.

Seeing this, Jooyeon was beyond embarrassed; she was hot with anger, willing to do anything that would divert their attention on them. With a thought flashed through her mind, she reached for the strawberry cake immediately and threw it right at the bobbed hair girl she hated so much.

The moment Jieun’s nose and mouth were invaded by the strong yet pleasant smell of the strawberry and vanilla, her fingers gripped hard on the apron as she registered what happened.

The first cake that had hit Jieun’s cheeks seemed to have unleash all the suppressed anger, indignation among the other three and they began to follow suit, picking up the rest of the cakes and mercilessly threw them at Jieun with vengeance.

Jieun lost count of the times those cold, creamy dessert made contact with her skin, she merely went still and unknowingly closed her eyes, trying her best to even her breathing, trying her best to withdraw any little feelings she had.

As if I’m the onlooker instead.

She had brought enough damage to the reputation of the shop, all she could do was to endure and wait for it to end. Something went into , her tongue tasted it on instinct; the savoury of honey with a hint of cinnamon reminded her of the colour of sunset, then, remembered, how warm was the setting sun, so was the hand holding hers, the gaze on her softer than the orange hue which both of them were basked in…

There was even a gentle smile..

“Stop this instant!”

Her eyes opened and something shone whenever the sunlight peered into the shop from the blinds ever slightly.

The last cake that never hit her splattered to the ground as her mind clicked in recognition at the sight of the diamond bracelet on the wrist from the arm that was stretched out, shielding her. Her fingers almost acted in reflex to reach for the exact bracelet that was safely tucked in her shirt, hanging onto the necklace that she had never taken off all these years.

The surrounding suddenly became so quiet, that even the crumbs of the sweet desserts falling off from Jieun sounded so loud. Whereas, the door that was still wide open from the sudden barging of a person, replaced the artificial yellow lightings in the shop with the autumn afternoon sun and the one standing right in front of her blocked most of the sunlight, as if he was carrying  a halo.

Jieun looked down to her worn converse that were also stained with cream and bits of cakes, then to the ground which was messy from the cake ordeal. Oddly, that was how she felt in a certain part inside her.

Her mask faltered.