Noodz at the Actor's Hideout

chapter 5

Pete's Mini Mart only has two exits. One at the front serves as the store's main entrance and exit, and the other one is at the back that the employees use when taking out the trash or accepting large deliveries. Sera's colleague, Trev (morning shift), uses it to smoke during breaks, and Pete's usual complaint is that the cigarette stubs are already overflowing. It's everywhere except the trash bin where it's supposed to be. After thirty-nine half-assed warnings of dismissal, Trev still chooses to ground his stubs with the heel of his tattered Converses.

Pete gave up, and Sera? Well, she always chooses the front for both entrance and exit.

At this moment, whichever path Seraphim chooses, however—cigarette inferno or the usual front, she still has to pass by her current predicament—the gorgeous Yuan Chen whose lips are tilted in a smirk that's too familiar to her. It's Finn's grin, the character he plays in his most popular high school series yet: High in the Woods.

She has been binging on it since she first saw him, and she has developed this crush that her chest can't contain.

Her stomach churns. If it's with anxiousness or feels from seeing Finn's infamous smirk in the flesh, she hasn't decided yet.

Sera's prepared introduction dies in her throat as she struggles to come up with a believable excuse. How can she tell him that she knows every information about him that's available on the internet without sounding insane?

"No! I mean, yes. I do know you." I've also stalked you and have seen at least four of your works. Sera shuts her eyes, shame overcoming her. She assumed that Yuan knows that people can recognize him. He's the newest big star. How can he just—

"I'm just messing with you." He releases her from her suffering and offers a gentle smile. She takes it, shoulders sagging with relief. "I already saw your wallpaper so I kind of knew that you recognized me, but I'm grateful that you haven't sold that information to everyone else yet."

Assumed too soon. Sera's prepared witty introduction, her flirty line, the hours she spent on perfecting her no-makeup-makeup look all travel down into the bin. They all reach the trash faster than Trev's cigarette stubs did.

He's seen her phone's wallpaper, a scandalous photo at that.

Her head is spinning, going on tangents, running through a thousand thoughts. Who is this guy? Why can't she seem to figure him out despite learning so much about him? Why does he always leave her a speechless mess?

Sera licks her lips and the gloss on them now tastes like despair and shame. "Do you...uh, want some noodles?"

That. Infamous. Fucking. Finn. Smirk. "Sure, why not?"

She takes that as an opportunity to grab the noodles herself, ring up his order, and fill it with hot water. Her foot taps on the linoleum, anxious. The liquid flows into the paper bowl steadily, the sound providing a distraction against the thick, awkward tension between them.

Sera has her back turned to Yuan. Fill up fast, fill up fast, fill up fast—ow!

"Ah, shit!" It burns. Yuan runs up to her, crossing the definite line between the areas of customers and employees, (and his role in her life, too, fine). He picks up her arm and inspects the bright red skin on her wrist. Sera sucks in a breath when he presses his handkerchief over it and frowns. The burn from the hot water stings and her eyes water.

"Run it under cold water. Come on." 

She lets him tug her to the sink right next to the water dispenser. As cold water runs over her skin, she looks at him. This is the closest she's ever been to Yuan Chen (excluding the times she pressed his photo to her cheek) and her body knows it. Her belly flips when he frowns again, lashes fanning over his skin and lips curling in concentration.