Chapter 1: Our Accidental First Meeting🍜

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"Come on Kim Soo-Yin!" I heard my boss yell from behind the counter

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"Come on Kim Soo-Yin!" I heard my boss yell from behind the counter. "These bowls of ramen aren't going to serve themselves! Jeong Lu-Shi has already served 4 tables! Hurry up!"

"Yes sir, Mr. Lee!" I exclaimed back while loading up two bowls on my tray to take to Table 2. I walked briskly to Table 2 and smiled at the customers.

"Here you go ladies, one Khao Soi ramen and one Tonkatsu ramen! Enjoy and thank you for coming to Lee's Noodle Company. If there's anything else you would need, just let me know." I said as I bowed my head.

"Thank you dear," one of the ladies said. I bowed my head again, turned around and made my way for the next round of orders. Once I weaved my way through the tables full of customers, I was back at the counter again. Jeong Lu-Shi already had her fifth tray full of ramen, four bowls to be exact. She smiled at me and leaned down towards me.

"Don't worry Soo-Yin, you're doing great! Just keep your head held high and don't lose your confidence." She whispered.

"Thanks, I feel like I'm going to need it." I responded. I sighed heavily and leaned back against the counter. This was only my third week on the job and I was already feeling an immense amount of pressure. Lu-Shi had worked so hard and put in a really good word for me to get this job. Plus, Mr. Lee himself wasn't helping much, he was practically the "Dragon of the Noodle Shop" breathing fire down newbies' necks. However, I needed the extra money, as Lu-Shi and I were renting a nearby apartment together. We have been best friends since we were ten and we had a lot of fun together growing up. Typical girl stuff, listening to K-Pop, shopping, watching K-dramas, etc.

However, at 22, my younger self was hoping I'd have a nice luxury apartment and a better paying job than this...boy was my 16-year-old self wrong. College wasn't really my forté, at least in the regular, run-of-the mill educational sense. I enjoyed writing: stories, poems, you name it--but there wasn't much of a career in it and it was like a 1 in a million chance to get published. The whole general education thing bored me, I preferred to just let my mind wander a bit and jot down whatever came to mind and write from there.

"KIM SOO-YIN!" Mr. Lee yelled angrily. "QUIT DAYDREAMING AND GET THIS BOWL OF KIMCHI RAMEN TO THE GENTLEMAN AT TABLE 7! NOOOOOW!"

I jumped up from my daze and loaded the bowl of Kimchi ramen onto the tray and headed towards Table 7. The man who was sitting there was dressed in all black, from head to toe, even sporting a black baseball cap. He even had on a black face mask over his face. I wonder what for?

No, Kim Soo-Yin, don't ponder on it I thought to myself. Just give him the ramen and then you can finish out the last 20 minutes of your shift.

As I was just a few steps away from table 7, I didn't pay attention to the wet floor sign for whatever reason. I started to slip and I kept trying to correct myself to keep me from falling.

"Here's y-y-y-your....oh SHIT!" I yelled. Before I could even blink, I was on the floor, tray next to me spinning, ramen noodles, kimchi and broth everywhere. The bowl was shattered into pieces across the floor. I could feel my face turning red with embarrassment. When I looked up, I noticed there was some of of the kimchi and ramen on this guy's pants and shoes, my mouth dropped.

"OH MY GOD! I AM SO, SO SORRY!" I got up and tried to grab some paper towels or napkins. My body was sore, sure but I've been through worse.

"Don't bother," the man replied. "If you had been watching where you were walking in the first place, it wouldn't have happened. Idiot." He wiped off the kimchi and noodles from his pants with his hands. How in the hell is that not burning his hands?! Is he made of heat resistant material or something?!

"S-s-sir please let me help you get--" before I could get anything else out, he pulled down his mask. His skin was ivory in color and so smooth, his lips were pink and his eyes were dark brown, almost completely black. He had dark bags under his eyes, he looked exhausted.

"Don't!" He snapped, gritting his teeth together. "I don't need your help! You've already done enough dam--"

"KIM SOO-YIN! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OVER HERE?! WHAT DID YOU DO?" Mr. Lee started to yell as he made his way towards us. I held my head down in shame and bit my lower lip. He turned to the man and completely changed his tone. "Sir, I am terribly sorry for what my clumsy employee has done. Is there any way we can repay you? A complete refund? A weeks worth of free ramen perhaps?"

I glanced up at the customer, who then stood up and wiped himself off the rest of the way. He then smirked and took a deep breath. He glanced over at me and I looked back down at the floor.

"Hmph," he mumbled.

"Hm?" Mr. Lee replied.

"This girl has only been here for a few weeks right?" the man asked.

"Yes," Mr. Lee said.

The customer then folded his arms and smirked again.

"How about you cut this girl some slack? My friends and I are regulars here almost every week and we've seen how you treat the new employees. You're a bit harsh on her--" he paused for a second and I looked back up at him. He made eye contact with me and my heart fluttered. "So how about you take it easy on her? It's no wonder you have so many new employees that quit barely after a month."

It was so quiet in the restaurant that you could hear the grills sizzling in the back as the chefs were preparing the different meats for ramen. Customers and employees alike just stared at this customer and Mr. Lee, who were having quite the visual staring contest. Mr. Lee's face quickly turned into a bright red, the reddest I had ever seen his face. I glanced down at his his hands and his knuckles were almost as white as the customer's skin tone. I instantly knew that this was not good--at all.

"Oh and I'm not done," the customer continued. He then slowly walked over to me and stood inches from being in front of me. I bit my lower lip and turned my face away from him. He then grabbed my chin between his fingers and forced to look at him. His gaze meeting mine, there was a cold look in his eyes and then he chuckled. "It really, truly takes an idiot to not see a wet floor sign when it's literally right in front of her face."

I grabbed his arm and pulled it away from my chin. I stared right back into those dark, cold eyes of his. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes and after about ten seconds I couldn't hold them back anymore. The hot tears scorched my cheeks and I could feel my bottom lip quivering. I was embarrassed, no---not embarrassed, absolutely humiliated in more ways than one. He kept the staring contest going, not blinking once. Then he quickly glanced down at my hand and his eyes grew wide.

"What? What is it? Cat got your--" I said in a sarcastic tone right before I looked down at my hand. Blood was dripping from my hand. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. NO! There was already a small amount of blood on the floor. I must've cut it on a shattered piece of the ramen bowl and with my adrenaline running due to the embarrassment, I didn't feel a thing. I could feel my head start to spin, I can't stand the sight of blood. I could feel all the color drain from my body.

"No...no...no..." I whimpered.

The last thing I remember hearing was someone faintly yelling out.

"Hey! Yoongi! What is--"

That's all I remember before the darkness of vertigo took over. Falling down into darkness--complete darkness.

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