ℙ𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕥 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕤 ⭒ ℍ𝕦𝕒𝕟𝕘 ℝ𝕖𝕟𝕛𝕦𝕟

[ 4 ]

The soothing clacking of the keyboard made Songmin somewhat drowsy as she typed up the Korean assignment, bored out of her mind and itching to resume her math proofs but needing to get this assignment out of the way. The soft music coming from the piano lesson going on in the room behind the shop certainly didn't help with how sleepy the girl felt.

Just a week earlier, Songmin had found the Koi Record Store flyer Eunhye had given her and—after a long hour of deliberating that included lying down on her couch, pacing around her apartment, and downing cups of water like shots—she decided to take up the offer.

Contacting the phone number at the bottom of the flyer, she had booked a job interview with the store owner, Mrs. Ki. The interview had been very casual, involving Songmin sitting down in the shop's back room with Mrs. Ki and talking for only ten minutes about the job before the two ended up bonding about life over some tea. 

Mrs. Ki was a lovely woman on the elderly side who lived with her husband. She and him ran the store together, though she preferred to take care of employees, customers, and offered music lessons while her husband had more training in finances and other business aspects. They had a daughter who worked in the music industry, though she didn't visit them very often and Mrs. Ki missed her very much when she was gone.

By the end of their conversation, Songmin was hired as an evening cashier on Tuesdays and Thursdays and had practically been taken in by Mrs. Ki as a member of her family. Mrs. Ki had even made sure that Songmin left the interview with a tin of loose green tea leaves and a box of homemade dasik. 

The job was really nice. Eunhye had been right; there were very few customers. In the three shifts Songmin had taken so far, she'd only had two customers in total, both of whom had been pleasant and took care of business quickly. With so much downtime in her four hour shifts, Songmin spent most of her time doing homework or working on personal projects. 

Sometimes, when she got tired of sitting around, she would wander around the shop. Although not tiny, the shop was on the smaller side. The aisles were small to allow for more shelves to fit, and every shelf was packed with music, whether that be records, CDs, albums, and cassettes. Various instruments, most on the smaller end, were securely hung on the walls: a guitar, a trumpet, a saxophone, a haegeum, a flute, a clarinet, and a sogeum, to name a few. 

Songmin exhaled a sigh of relief as she finally finished the Korean assignment and pressed the submit button. Closing the tab, she turned away from her laptop and reached down into her bag, pulling out a small box of gimbap and a pair of chopsticks and setting them on the counter. Her mind tried to wander back to her linear algebra problem set as she ate but she forced herself to not think about that but rather give her mind a break, concentrating instead on the relative silence surrounding her.

The voice of children playing outside floated in under the door. The clinking of the lock from the store next door, presumably them closing up, could be faintly heard. The quiet piano melody coming from the back room was a tune she recognized, but couldn't name. This student was good. He'd come in the previous Thursday as well. High schooler. Extrovert.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the tinkling of the bell above the shop door. A customer walked in, someone she couldn't recognize since their face was obscured by one of the shelves. She heard their soft footsteps as they walked through the store, becoming curious as to who would enter the store at this hour of the evening. The two other customers had come during the first two hours of Songmin's four hour shift. She only had about thirty minutes left of her current shift.

The person walked into the gap between two shelves and she resisted the urge to gasp as she caught a glimpse of the person's face. It was the same delicate features she'd seen that day. She looked down at the messenger bag sitting beside her stool. The pastel paint stains hadn't yet worn off.

She tried to focus on examining the different albums displayed on the shelf nearest to her but her eyes kept drifting back into the rest of the store, hoping to catch another peek of the man.

A few minutes of desperately attempting to not look in the direction of the stranger, he walked up to the counter from the back corner of the store, an album in hand. Songmin turned to face him, finally allowing herself to actually look him in the eyes.

His face was just as perfect as it had been on the day he had bumped into her. What she felt wasn't attraction, she could tell. It was a sort of fascination with just how pleasing he was to look at. His soft, rounded features were so soothing to look at, his flawless skin making her want to know his skincare routine, and his mouth curled upward in a slight smile.

She looked away, taking the album from his outstretched hand to examine the price on the back and typed it into the old cash register. It was an EXO album, Ex'Act. Her eyes widened. My favorite EXO album.

When she handed the album back to the man and he handed her, in cash, the money for the album, he was examining her face, recognition blooming in his eyes. "You're the girl I knocked over the other day, right?"

Sheepishly, Songmin nodded, remembering the embarrassment of that day but, now that she reflected on it, wanting to laugh. It was all so ridiculous, especially how big of a deal she'd felt it was when it'd happened.

"Again I'm so sorry for running into you. I was in such a rush to get my painting from one room to another that I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," he said, watching the register print the receipt. "I'm sure that your blouse is still ruined, the paint I was using is notoriously impossible to get out of clothing. Please," he paused, pulling out of his wallet fifty thousand won and holding it out to her, "take this. If your blouse cost more, I can give you more. I don't have any more money on me right now, but I can get back to you later."

Songmin pushed his hand and the money away, taking the receipt from the register and giving it to him. "It wasn't that much trouble. Don't worry about it, please."

Seemingly unwilling to give in, the man slid thirty thousand won across the counter towards her. "Take it."

Then, without another word, he shot her one last smile before leaving the store, album in his hand. Songmin stared at his back through the store's front windows as he walked away, the money on the table in front of her.

I didn't get to ask him his name.

We all know exactly who he is lolololol.

Debating over whether I should make the next chapter really long or split it into two.