Jaebeom's POV
"Noo..," I stopped myself when I saw the person that I was calling out was sleeping on the counter. I tiptoed carefully to go inside the cafe but the bell on top of the door chimed as I opened the door wider, waking up that person. I shot her an apologetic look, "Sorry noona..."
"It's okay," she brushed her hair away from her face and fixed her ponytail before turning her attention back to me. "As usual?"
I nodded, "Yes, please. And is it okay if I use the private room for the day? I'll have a meeting here later."
"Sure, no problem. It's all yours," she punched my order into the cashier and then proceeded to make my ice americano before putting it on the table, pushing it to my side. "I'll bring your food later."
"Okay," I brought my drink with me as I scanned the shelves for a book to read. But from the side of my eyes, I kept watching her. I noticed her dark eyes got considerably darker in the past few days. Her eyes that used to shine brightly, looked blank at times. Her clothes looked wrinkled. She sighed twice already since I walked in. There must've been something that's bothering her. I was already in my seat when she brought my food. She accidentally knocked my drink, luckily I caught it in time so it didn't spill. I knew she was clumsy, but she wasn't this clumsy before.
"Are you okay, noona?" I asked worriedly.
She tried to smile to cover the tiredness in her face, "Yeah, I'm good. Sorry about that," she gestured toward my drink and I dismissed her.
"It's okay. Oh yeah, you knew the people that's going to be here later, as usual..," I told her as I had brought some of my colleagues as well as my manager here before.
"Which one?" she frowned. "Your manager? Royal dive?"
"Yeah, all of them. And iHwak as well," I nodded. She was quick to remember them. I was impressed.
"Working on a new album already?" she raised an eyebrow.
"How do you know?" I was surprised. I thought she didn't have any SNS, how come she could guess that we were working for my new album?
She shrugged, "I bet all of them aren't going to be here for reading and eating with you. It's not like you guys on a date," she pointed and I had to agree. Of course those three wouldn't be here for just reading and eating. They were busy making music, so if I said they were going to be here with me, it was for making music.
When my friends came, she greeted them and took their orders. We moved to the private room as we had to discuss my new songs. It was supposed to be kept confidential. But as we brainstormed ideas for songs, I stuck. I ran out of ideas. I've been making songs for GOT7 comeback as well as preparing for my new album back to back. I felt like my brain was squeezed out completely.
"What about we take a break? I don't think we're going anywhere today," I decided.
"Yeah, sure. At least we've decided on the songs for GOT7 album," they agreed.
When we got out of the room, I was surprised to see that it was dark already. And noona was slumped against the counter again. I gestured to my friends to keep quiet. "Psst guys," I said in low voice. "I'd appreciate if you guys tiptoe out of here quietly." I pointed to the sleeping noona and they nodded. I held the door open just enough for them to slip out without moving the bell on top of the door to prevent it from chiming. We had to suppress a laugh when Sunghwak faced a bit difficulty to slip out since his belly was getting rounder thanks to the pandemic. But everyone managed to get out silently at the end.
I walked back to the private room and gathered all the dirty dishes and then walked around the counter to put it into the sink. When I turned around, I noticed noona had a laptop beside her. It was unusual for her to work with a computer, so naturally I was curious what she was working at. Trying to be as quiet as possible, I touched the touchpad and the laptop came back alive, showing a balance sheet on the screen. I studied it for a bit, and I realized, it was her account's balance sheet. Looking at the numbers, I saw that the cafe didn't make much these past months. No wonder because almost all year, she was forced to close the cafe due to the restriction because of the pandemic. Even after it has relaxed, there were not many customers at the cafe either. I could probably say that I was the only regular customers so far. I could see that she was barely hanging there using the money in her savings account. And it wouldn't be enough for the next several months. No wonder she looked exhausted.
