Hearts Aflame

019: Cafes and Forgiveness

Mina thought it was going to rain.

Maybe because she was upset, she thought it'd rain, and she was also brooding while walking through the roads, her mouth set on a heavy scowl. Half of her was sad about Suho's words and everything that had happened, and the other half was simply angry, bristling with growing fire that nothing could douse it (Maybe that's why she wanted it to rain. Perhaps if she were drenched, her aching soul will grow cold, something she currently needed)

Throughout her walk to the interview to the café she wished would hire her, she kept on cursing under her mouth, tripping over air and doing samurai assaults on pillars she walked by. She was so angry, so upset, so unfocused, everything seemed like an attack from the Gods. So how did she retaliate? By tripping, and fighting air.

She knew she was being unreasonable, childish, and unrealistic, but how could she swallow her feelings when they were so big? Everything was getting harder to breathe down her pipes, from her sudden relationships with Jongdae and Baekhyun, Suho's stupid nonsensical bullshit about the bonds and whatnot, his afterward apology that didn't satisfy any of her bursting feelings but still couldn't ignore. Was her tripping on nothing understandable now? She was buzzing from within, and everything around her felt like it was poking at her inflated soul.

Should she even go pursue her interview when she was so upset? Would she say something bad and have her expelled before she can even start? What if she burst into tears while she was interviewed? No, she didn't feel like she was going to cry, she felt like she as going to explode, and she had no space inside for tears.

She tried to shrug her feelings away, pausing in her long, angry strides and taking two – three – calming inhales in. She had gone through a lot of humiliation to get this job interview, and she wasn't about to let it go to waste. She screwed every other job she has had and she didn't have any particular talent beside creating buildings, so until she's capable of using her architectural abilities, she'll take any small part-time job that would feed her always roaring stomach. How hard can working in a café be anyway?

With a newfound strength, she drilled her sneaker-clad feet on the ground and marched to the destined café. She found it rather easily, since she had the location of it installed in her phone. The café, as she remembered the first time she asked for a job, looked straight out of a geek's fascinating imagination. The outside was deep, velvet red, but from the sheer wall mirrors all over the front, she could spot some inner designs, and Mina could confidently say that it had a theme for supernatural creatures.

Maybe the owner loved supernatural creatures and believed in them? Or maybe he/she/them were ones themselves. Mina didn't get to meet the boss the first time she came here asking for a job, and she talked to one of the employees (she can't remember her name now) and she didn't feel any supernatural 'feeling' coming from her, not like she can sense it or anything. Mina was a bit – a lot – dense, and she wouldn't spot a supernatural creature even if they're under her nose.

The glass door of the café released a damn dragon roar, and Mina jumped in surprise. She didn't remember that sound when she came through the first time. Did they install it newly or something? With pacing heartbeats by the sudden surprise, she wandered her eyes around the surprisingly normal décor of the café, the color scheme being fair red, dark red and pale white. A person's chest came through her vision as she stared around, all of a sudden, and she guided her pupils upward to see a girl staring at her weirdly, a slight grimace to her mouth. Right away, Mina straightened, her cheeks tinting.

"Hi, um, I'm Mina?" She said, awkwardly, the piercing stare of the cat-like eyes of the girl making her uncomfortable. "I was told to come for an interview?"