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They’re all college students who are working part time for their passion for music. Seunghee and her band are mainstays at Elkie’s family bar and restaurant, 2-kie, ever since she sponsored them. It’s their daily routine from school to rehearse or perform there every night including weekends. Besides earning extra, they’re actually enjoying what they do and that’s what really matters.

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Another performance has ended. Dongho and Jonghyun have already gone ahead. Elkie is somewhere at the back of the kitchen ready to close the shop. That leaves Seunghee and Minhyun together at center stage, readying their things to go. It’s past 12 and the restaurant/bar closes at 1AM, there are only very few people inside the place.

Seunghee puts all her things in her bag, her laptop, her writing pads and other paraphernalia. Then she puts her keyboards in another bag along with a few more minor things, like wires, chargers, etc. She puts everything in place and attempts to lift it all. However, she feels like bowling over, thankfully she holds on to her feet.

Minhyun, who’s also packing up, watches her for a while now and just shakes his head. After zipping up his things in his backpack, he carries it and walks over her casually.

“Do you need someone to walk you home?” Minhyun offers. “That’s heavy.”

“No, I can take care of this,” Seunghee refuses mindlessly, still trying to figure out how to carry the things, not looking at him.

But Minhyun stares at her and just grabs the keyboards from her.

“What? Wait!” she protests but he has already walked away to the exit.

“Come on. I’ll take the bus with you,” he tells her before exiting.

“What? Minhyun-ah! Wait for me!” she yells. “Elkie-ya! We’re going ahead now! See you tomorrow!”

She hears her reply her faintly from the kitchen and runs after Minhyun, who she knows is walking to the bus stop without waiting for her. And he is. She needed to run some meters to keep up with him. And when she does, she’s breathing so hard to catch her breath.

“Minhyun-…ah…” she struggles with her breath. “You could’ve waited a little.”

“There’s no time to waste, it’s already past 12,” he scolds her. “You need to be home before 1.”

“What is this, curfew hours? I’m not under aged, I can handle myself.”

“But you can’t handle heavy things so just stop complaining.”

Well, she couldn’t lift all of her things up so yeah, thanks to him.

“But don’t you have a curfew yourself? You’re gonna be late.”

“It’s okay, I’ll just punish myself. It doesn’t concern you.”

“What? You always do things your way and you’re too uptight. What’s wrong with loosening up a little?”

“Just mind your own business.”

“Ah… you never listen to people when they give you advice!”

They continue arguing like that, while waiting for the bus, while on the bus and even while walking to Seunghee’s apartment door. It doesn’t get heated up though. They have friendly arguments like this all the time, in the three years they’ve been together in the band.

“Lock your doors tight. You tend to forget these things,” he tells her, sounding like an older brother.

“Yes, oppa…” she ridicules. “By the way, let’s finish the new song tomorrow. I have some term paper to finish.”

“No problem about it. Get in, I’ll leave once you’re inside.”

She sighs, “Alright, alright.” and then she enters her apartment and closes the door on him.

He walks straight out of the premises. But Seunghee opens the door and takes a glimpse of him and smiles before completely shutting it off.

Minhyun will take another bus home. It’s not the first time he has conveyed her home. There were instances in the past that needed to. It’s obligatory. As the leader of the band, he has to take care of his members. More especially Seunghee since she’s a lady. Shortly, he takes the bus and go straight home.

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Elkie goes to the restaurant during her free time and tends as a waitress to grasp the in outs of the business. She needs to have hands on experience on it since she’s gonna inherit it someday.

She walks around in a cute uniform, like all other employees there. And somewhere near the corner, is Boo Seungkwan, Jeonghan’s friend and S3 member, sipping a coffee he just ordered. He sees Elkie approaching, about to pass by him, and he completely recognizes her.

“Elkie-ssi?” Seungkwan recognizes her as she stands before him.

Elkie turns to him and instantly gets familiar with him saying, “Ah, Seungkwan-ssi?” she smiles at him like meeting an old friend. “Nice to see you again.” She has always been the friendly one.

“You work here?” he asks curiously.

“Ah, no, we own the place,” she says embarrassed.

“Wow. This place is pretty popular with students lately, that’s why I checked it out.”

“Well, that’s pretty good news to me.”

She smiles at him and he smiles back satisfied. He notices she’s been standing too long and offers her to sit. “Oh, please sit down Elkie-ssi.”

“Oh, no thanks, I’m actually working right now,” she winks at him.

He can’t help but chuckle a bit, “Yeah, I also heard you have an awesome band performing here every night.”

“Oh, yeah. If you have time, you can check them out sometime. I’m sure you’ll like them.”

“Sure. I’ll spare sometime. Um… now that we’re at it, well, you know, me and my friends have a group too. We actually need places to perform too. Can I contact you for a slot here in your restaurant sometime? If you have vacancies that is.”

“You have a band too?”

“Well, it’s only a group cuz we don’t play instruments. But we do acapella and performances.”

She gets the hang of it, “I see. Well, here.” She gets something from her pocket and hands it over to him, it’s her business card. “Just give me your number and I’ll contact you if ever we need some performers.”

“Wow, thanks. I don’t have a business card so can I just save my number on your phone? If that’s alright with you.”

“Yeah sure.” She hands him her phone and he sees her wallpaper. A picture of her with another girl, it’s Seunghee.

“Your sister?” he asks as he inputs his number.

“No, she’s my friend. The vocalist of the band performing here.”

He quickly hands the phone to her after entering his details and snapping a selfie. She laughs at it.

“That wasn’t really necessary Seungkwan-ssi.”

“It is. In case, you’ve forgotten how I look today. You can always look at that.”

She giggles even more, “You’re still funny Seungkwan-ssi.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Elkie-ssi!” someone calls from the counter.

She looks over her shoulder and turns back to him, “Ah, I think I need to go. It was nice seeing you again Seungkwan-ssi.”

“Yeah, nice to see you too.”

“Enjoy your coffee.”

“Sure.”

Then she excuses herself and walks away inside the kitchen. He follows her with his eyes till she’s gone and he sighs right after. Then he stares at the card and then on his phone. Too bad, he hasn’t snapped a photo with her. But there’s always next time he thought. He sips his coffee and just enjoys the ambiance of the place. It’s a surprise it’s Elkie’s family who owns the place. He always thought she’d go back to Hong Kong after high school. She was always praising home when he talked to her in the past. And he can clearly remember everything about her. Is it atypical of a past schoolmate to recall everything about the other? He wonders.

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Seunghee drops by her apartment before going to the café, tagging Elkie along with her. Right before turning the corner to her place, three guys cross the street, almost running as if beating the red light. The two girls both see them and Seunghee instantly recognizes Jeonghan among them, with his blond hair standing out.

“That was my neighbor,” Seunghee says. “And those two are his friends.”

Elkie looks at them too and finds one person familiar. “Ah! That was Seungkwan-ssi.”

“Seung-who?”

“One of his friends was my schoolmate in high school, Seungkwan-ssi. I was in the same clubs as him for a time.”

“Really? Who thought you’d know someone in his group? That might come in handy in the future when I completely lose my cool and file a complaint on his friend.”

“Let’s all be civil unnie.”

“He needs that himself.”

“But if you really need to, I can ask the owner to push him out.”

“No, let’s not resort to hostile manners.”

Then they both laugh. They walk straight ahead going to her apartment, in a hurry.

“We really need to scram! Minhyun’s gonna nag at me again,” Seunghee utters.

“Don’t mind my cousin. He’s just trying to steal all of your attention,” Elkie jokes.

“Ah, doesn’t his girlfriend ask for more of his time? He’s always all over the band.”

“He doesn’t have one anymore. It’s been months unnie.”

“Oh, really? They broke up? We don’t really talk about these things. So that’s why he’s frequently just pesky. And only at me! Ah… he needs to get a new girlfriend.”

Elkie laughs at her, “Just don’t mind him.”

“Well, that’s a better suggestion. Ah! I can’t find my keys!”

They’re infront of her door now and she fumbles for her keys. Elkie just smiles on the side. She loves the idea of her Seunghee unnie and her Minhyun oppa getting together. But she can’t really push them to it. They have to sort things out themselves. But she definitely ships them. Cuz by then she can officially call Seunghee family.

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TO BE CONTINUED…

Published: 08/11/17