“Hey, server!”
Hansol looked up at a pretty girl with long dyed red hair and long dangling earrings who gently flicked her fingers at him.
It was actually rude to call out in their establishment. They were trying to always have it so that he could handle only so many people at a time so he would never get overwhelmed. That way, he could give everyone a pleasant fine experience at the cafe. Whether serving confectioneries or drinks, people had to feel like they were being dotted on hand and foot, with service and a smile.
But sometimes, new people, or foreigners, would come in and demand he serve them before he was done with his current task. There was a seating arrangement for how he sat people down in the cafe. He had put together a system to ensure every person he served was in order. In the order of who came first, but also so he could walk figure eights around the tables, making sure he always returned to the start again. It was an endless rotation of beautiful cakes, drinks, and Instagram-worthy shots.
And all the people who graced the store had to do was wait and enjoy. Yet, sometimes some people just felt like they needed something faster. Or didn’t seem to realize how things worked.
Hansol sucked in a small breath. ‘Slow breaths,’ he reminded himself for the third time today. Since the lunch rush hit them three times harder than usual, he had lost it one too many times. But now that it was petering out and returning to normal, he could finally catch up on the overflow. If the people who had just come in could be patient, but during lunch, everyone’s patience seemed to wane in the summer. Two girls came in and sat down without waiting for him to seat them. Which was expected, most people assumed, since it was a cafe. They were not wrong, but he did like helping each customer feel special. But the girls who had come in earlier were, well, they were a lot. They were clearly influencers, dressed up in over sized pants and tight tops. Their long hair was dyed and curled, their eyes painted heavily in makeup, and sparkles adorning their cheeks. They were beautiful, for sure. But one of them had been more than a little rude since the moment she sat down, and he felt his patience slowly slipping through his fingers little by little.
Hansol was helping a pretty girl with short hair and glasses, her face stuck in her student notebook. She had ordered their refreshing limited edition peach blossom cake when the girl with the black hair and fringe yelled again.
He felt the muscle behind his eyebrow twitch and had to suck back some unuttered swears that lingered in his mind to remind himself this was a business.
“I am so sorry, Miss, there are others before you. If you can, just please wait.” Hansol said, but his tone was sharp and more than a bit intertwined with his anger.
A scoff of disbelief broke from behind him, and Hansol straightened up. Then turned to look at who had so rudely disturbed the order of his sanctuary. ‘Who dared to break into what little peace he had at his most busy time of day?’
His eyes widened, and his mouth gaped open.
A slightly older woman stood in the middle of the cafe. Her arms flooded across her brisk suit jacket that was muted magenta and hung crisply across her body. It turned in a way that was both demure and elegant. It paired well with the simple knee-length black cocktail dress and pearls she had on to match it. Her hair was in a familiar, coiffed style. He didn’t even have to ask who this was; he had seen her in pictures, in his own house upstairs. There was literally no one else this could be.
“Mrs. Kang. Mrs Kang Ahnjong!” He responded just as someone else opened the door, and the light spring air whipped inside, tussling the strands of his Pink hair.
The icy glare with which she looked down her nose at him made the pit of his stomach drop from inside, and he felt beside himself.
‘This is not how I wanted to make a first impression. Oh god, what have I done?’
“Is this how you treat customers at this establishment? I assume you know I am the owner since you greeted me by name then.” She snapped, her haughty temper flaring up as she rubbed his face in it.
She obviously had wrongly assumed that Hansol was some sort of part-time worker that she could cow thoroughly with her demeanor.
In the three years that he and Seobin had been together, this was the first time he met Seobin’s mother. Because she lived abroad in Germany and never really came back to Korea.
Seobin had always said that Mrs. Kang Ahnjong was someone he would never want to be introduced to. And that he wished with all his heart on every star in the galaxy that they could go the rest of their days without Hansol meeting her.
And just the idea that someone could wish to never see their own mother again made his heartbreak for the daily pain Seobin had to be keeping inside.
He knew the hurt Seobin carried in his heart due to this woman. The abandonment, the pain, the loss. The rejection.
He knew he could never look at her and see his mother. He always saw all the pain that those words held for him. The pain and loss of a childhood, of a parent, of acceptance. But most of all, acceptance. It was probably the thing that hurt him the worst out of all of it.
Hansol, if he was honest, had this flowery dream. How someday he would meet her and she would love him immediately. Her eyes opened up to how a difference in the world did not mean no room for love. How they should just be accepted for who they were outside of their sexuality, and she would see that. See, that love was indeed love, no matter who it crossed. Someday, he had hoped he could explain their love outright, forthcoming, and show profound honor and respect for their love. Somehow he had foolishly expected that he would… that he could be the one to change this dragon lady’s heart.
While standing and staring at the stone-cold statue of a woman who wore thousands of won worth of jewelry. Knowing whose dreams she held over his head.
He didn’t know what to say to this person he was supposed to have to try to get on his side. To impress.
“Mom.”
Hansol could hear the way Seobin’s voice had become thick and cold. The Seobin, who had said hello to him every morning for the past three years, was gone. Even the Seobin he had met on the first day of class. Back when he was still a little reserved and jaded. Even that Seobin was still so much sweeter than the voice that had cut through the entire cafe.
The whole world around them was filled with a deafening silence. He held his breath, wondering just how he could move, how he could speak. How could he be strong for Seobin when he was so heart rendering useless at this moment?
She turned to Seobin, and Hansol could tell she had immediately disregarded him as insignificant and pointless. Now that she had found the prey she was looking for. Her face twisted into a half-pleased smile, and she opened her mouth, but before she could speak, Seobin cut her off.
“Don’t disregard him like that.”
He felt a sudden loss of the slight reprieve and sweeping wave of relaxation that had assayed him a moment before as if a plug in his calm waters had been pulled. His emotions were being sucked away from around him and down the drain.
Hansol could tell those words were not meant as some don’t treat my partner and employee like that. Or don’t treat another human being like that. But as a don’t treat him, my him like that. An unspoken claim and challenge.
His fingers slipped into his interlocking and clutched onto him tightly. Hansol could feel the tension in his firm grip and wondered if that was from his obvious, blatant claim or his nerves.
Her eyes flickered down, catching the slight movement. He saw the disgust and hatred flash across her face in the quickest expression before she glossed past it, clenched her jaw, and was back to smiling.
“Ah, I see you are so kind to the help these days.”
She started.
Seobin lets out an audible hiss. “Get Out.”
His words were almost inaudible, and yet they were the loudest sounds in the place.
“Excuse me.” She paused, taken aback.
“He is not the help. He is my boyfriend and partner, and this is my place of business. And you heard me when I said, Get Out.” Seobin snapped.
Hansol could feel the sweat trickle down the middle of his palms and wondered if that was his or Bin’s. Heck, he was willing to bet it was a bit of both.
There were soft hushed whispers from their patrons and even a few audible gasps.
It felt like a million eyes were on them, even though Hansol knew there were less than twelve people inside.
‘Thank god she didn’t come during the rush hour.’
‘God, I wish I could say something for him, to help him somehow, but I can’t even get up to get the armor on for the battle already waging around me. How is Seobin so calm in the midst of all of this? Amid so many eyes?’
Comments (1)
See all