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Seoul, Han River

An hour later, Soo Yeon took her shift at the CNH café.

"What would you like to drink, Sir?"

Kim Su Jung was surprised he came almost every day, but she did not recognize him or pretended not to. The night's chamber absorbed soo Yeon's thoughts, would the netizens judge Song Hi not guilty? She did not have a fraction of attention to spare the boy.

"Umm, what would you recommend?" Kim Su Jung said. The boy tried to break into the young woman's inner reflection.

So Yeon blinked, "our strawberry latté is very nice."

"And what do you like?" Su Jung returned.

"Me?"

The question startled Soo Yeon. Who cared about what she liked? But the customer in front of her seemed eager to know. She wanted to answer black coffee without sugar, but such a reply did not suit Soo Yeon's persona.

"Yeah, what's your favorite drink here?"

"Yuja cha," Soo Yeon replied with her legendary lip twitch. The tea was sweet with a hint of bitterness from the citrus extract, the answer was perfect, and it appeared to satisfy the boy.

"Okay, then I'll have that."

"He likes you," Lee Rim whispered in Soo Yeon's ear, making her turn around and glance at the customer as she prepared his order. The young man stared at her and grinned, leaving Soo Yeon no other choice than to return a smile.

Kim Su Jung came daily, ordering only when Soo Yeon took her shift. He would hang around for about an hour, sometimes more when joined by friends.

Even when the conversations were amusing, Su Jung's eyes followed the girl's movements.

"He is handsome; you should be nicer to him. You're a cute girl, and at your age, you can have a boyfriend."

Lee Rim's words made Soo Yeon cringe inside, A BOY-FRI-END. How could she let out such a taboo word so casually?

All Lee Rim, the 20-year-old college student, saw was a 17-year-old introvert girl who needed some distractions to spice up her teenage life.

Soo Yeon observed things from a whole other angle. 

How could she enjoy her life when her father cried for justice in a crematorium?

 The girl barely slept, haunted by the images of her life for the last three years.

Dating, flirting, and falling in love were futile; she held no wish for such things. Soo Yeon had no place to stock those activities though many would qualify her as empty. The teen's entire body, from her fingertips to the core of her bones, only vibrated in tune with one word, revenge.

Vengeance and its siblings Hate and Rage were the only feelings that inhabited the 17-year-old who caged them behind Soo Yeon's fake personality mask.

"Here is your Yuja cha. Do you want the receipt?"

"Eh, no thank you, Park Soo Yeon Ssi,'" the young man said, reading her badge and leaving her to rumble under her breath about the annoyance of his persisting presence.

The rest of her shift went smoothly. Su Jung left a little after. Soo Yeon distributed plastic smiles, lattés, and Cha to customers, tapping her feet behind the counter impatient to finish.

September nights were not dark, yet Soo Yeon walked swiftly from the metro to her apartment, thirty floors to have a plummeting view of Gangnam. What a shameful life, living like a wealthy heiress pretending to be what she was not or what she was no longer.