chapter two

Young-Jae's hands furiously worked on the keyboard of his laptop, a cigarette clasped between his teeth, and his brows furrowed together into a frown. He was ordering a few accessories for himself, more specifically for his next Livestream. He pulled the cigarette out to blow the smoke out of his mouth as he leaned back in his chair putting it off on the ashtray kept by his side.

It was a never-tiring cycle for him, excitedly scrolling through so many products and imagining what he would look like wearing them or how it'd feel to have so much leather or metal on his skin. Would he like it? Would he not? Nevertheless, it was pretty much the only happy time he had.

He looked through almost every item available on the website currently, only two getting his attention. One a black leather choker and the other one being a matte black hand harness which he would completely body. After placing his order, Young-Jae closed his laptop and got up from his apparently 'gaming' chair to go take a shower.

He wanted to try out something new too but nothing interested him enough these days. Life was getting sullen with every coming day since he basically had zero personal life, almost no friends, and a fucked up family he left back in Daegu years ago. His life was the perfectly like smoke of cigarette that was left behind in his room like the aftermath of the last one, one with a dash of baked desserts, and espresso that reminded him that his shift was in half an hour.

"I fucking hate this shit," he grumbled under his breath. "Why does it have to be so early anyway?", still whining with all of his body, Young-Jae worked to get his clothes off while putting on music and soon enough, turned the shower on. Nothing a warm shower couldn't fix for him.

He stood under the hot water pouring from the showerhead as steam formed in his bathroom, slightly fogging the glass. He washed up taking his time and walked out with just a towel around himself. He stood in front of the full-sized mirror with neon pink LED lights emitting from all around it and turned around to check himself out. The tattoos on his back shining in the light.

He ruffled his hair with the damp towel to dry them off and dressed up in washed jeans and a black shirt. Jae put his sunglasses and watch on before walking out carelessly with his phone in hand. The door locked automatically behind him with a subtle click. He was walking to his workplace right around the corner when his eyes caught glimpse of a woman who looked snobbily rich getting out of a luxurious black Jaguar across the street, a tall bulky man accompanying her as she walked towards the coffee shop. Whoever that was, Young-Jae was absolutely stunned.

Her long fingers and hands were waving in the air gracefully as she instructed the man he assumed must be her assistant, about god knows what. He watched the girl enter the shop, not even sparing a single glance around as she did. So, naturally, Young-Jae got in too while watching her from afar as she took a seat on one of the carved wooden chairs behind a few other tables, sturdy legs crossed over each other. Her shirt slightly tightened around her breasts as she held up a hand in the air with eyes strictly glued onto the menu, perhaps ready to order. 

Young-Jae bit his lip, wanting to take her order but his co-worker, Seok-Min beat him to it. The girl smiled in gratefulness as the latter repeated her order correctly while Jae quickly scrambled behind the counter and threw his apron on, removing his shades to look professional, slightly.

~

"I'm thinking of going on a break from all this work, what do you say Joon?", Minjae said poking her inner cheek with her tongue as Joon took a seat from across her. The man shrugged, one elbow rested on the table while his other hand toyed with his phone, scratching at the baby blue cover mindlessly.

"You should, I can handle a little extra work," he recommended now resting both his elbows on the table to give her all his attention with another shrug. He then realized that he shrugged a lot.

"Are you trying to say my work is just a little?", she said, feigning hurt, and even though she was just teasing, Min-Jae couldn't help her usual hard tone. Joon chuckled shaking his head and leaned back with a fond smile gracing his lips.

"I didn't mean it like tha-", She put a hand up, her gaze now somewhere behind him as she cut off all his explanation. Joon followed her gaze leading him to a comparatively small barista standing behind the counter, a little distracted to be called 'working', he thought.

Minjae watched the man then pour coffee into a small golden cup, his visibly pale hands looking extremely attractive in her eyes as he stirred the strainer. The black shirt he adorned was open a button or two more than necessary. She internally drooled at the sight of his clearly dyed silver hair that curtained his small eyes and silver earrings dangling from his ears. He looked like a pop icon.

"Okay," Joon groaned, covering his face with his palms in embarrassment. "Can you at least keep your mouth shut? We're in public Min," The girl seemed unfazed by his shame but decided to speak instead of shutting her mouth. What could she do? He really was good-looking.

"He's stunning, who is he?", Minjae pried, leaning a little more into the table all the while not taking her eyes off the cute Barista that she happened to like a little too much if one asked Joon.

"He just works here I guess, don't even think about doing something with him, he could turn out be a scammer or something for all we know," Joon suggested softly speaking even through his glare but she shushed him again, hand waving frantically with an eye roll that was clearly exaggeration.

Young-Jae's eyes slowly moved upwards, locking directly with her and Minjae gulped visibly. He raised an eyebrow arrogantly as if questioning her actions but it only made her gut twist in excitement. She looked away when the waiter came to Jae's side, and he followed suit.

She didn't look at him again but she knew he was looking at her too, anybody would've known with the way he was so obvious with it. Minjae's lips formed a cat-like grin at the thought. The waiter came, settling her coffee in front of her and Namjoon's in front of him. The two got up and left as soon as they had paid for it, Namjoon following her closely.

~

Youngjae on the other hand was determined to know the girl he had just laid eyes on. He watched her leave the shop and get into her car. He had seen prettier girls but she had an aura around her that made her more attractive than those he had experience with. He wanted to know who she was and why she looked at him once but not again. He didn't get any answers, it wasn't time yet.

As soon as his shift was over he rushed back home, desperately wanting to get changed out of the jeans that almost boiled him. Also, he was starving. Young-Jae punched in the passcode of his small apartment kicking his shoes and jeans off before he hurried to the kitchen to make instant noodles for himself.

He put the water on for boiling and connected his phone to the Bluetooth speakers once again and clicked on the complete discography of 'two feet'. It had become a habit now. He cooked the noodles in as much of a rush as he could, stomach growling out of hunger since he couldn't wait longer. A string of curses left his lips for his boss who basically made him a workhorse.

~

As soon as Minjae had walked out of the coffee shop, Joon was onto finding out who the barista guy was. He knew Minjae too well and if she had asked for somebody's details then she definitely liked them, no waste of effort since it had happened only once before, that too for Jiwoon so he agreed to it without another word.

In not more than twenty minutes, Joon had found out his name and background information along with his twitter username. He provided all the details, leaving everything else upto her. It wasn't like Minjae was going to listen to him anyway. She only did what she wanted to, regardless of the methods she used to do it. Stalker or not, Minjae had more than enough details about the boy.