❝Looking down on me was your greatest mistake.❞
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Despite him being unable to earn a single penny in over two years now, the run of bad luck still did not seem like abandoning Jung Hoseok's side just yet. So when his sister gets admitted into a...
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Leaning against the rosewood-plated metallic doorframe, Hoseok panted heavily, sweat striating down the side of his face as he snooped high and low to detect a particular figure. Joke was on him though, for having ascribed a whopping amount of ineludible hardwork to the task. With only a couple of customers to attend to, how could he even expect Sunghyung to be pirouetting on his heels left and right— receiving and delivering their orders without gaining a moment of idleness in their midst?
Quite disdainful of him to let such a thought cross his head.
Because very contrary to the notion that Hoseok had in his mind, he could straightaway locate the old man behind the counter once his gaze had steadied itself, with the latter starkly appearing to be stultified at the first glance. Hesitatingly, he advanced towards him, hand consciously reaching to dab on the trails of sweat that must be causing his sideburns to gleam by then. But when a few flicks did not prove to be enough to represent himself as the epitome of tidiness, he lifted up the end-seam of his T-shirt, doing the necessary with its assistance now.
A subdued grunt arose from a corner of the restaurant, which prompted Hoseok to cast a cursory look and learn to what did that person owe such a reaction. A coyly simpering female caught his regard as a result, who averted his gaze just as shyly after having checked him out for one last time. Hoseok could not restrain himself from following her gesture, and it was not so long before he finally realised that the exposure of his somewhat toned abdomen— though still under construction— had been the real culprit all along.
A startling breakthrough indeed. Nevertheless, he would not back down from assenting at the same time that it did buttress his ego a little.
And it felt splendid, for a change.
Hiding the already-faint smirk that was creeping up to his lips, he hastened his steps, at last standing opposite Sunghyung as the latter gaped at him in anticipation. "The only reason why I had to take half the day off from my main job and scamper up till here was because I wanted to pour more of my efforts into my— equally important— side job as well—"
"Drop it and come straight to the point." Sunghyung breathed out uninterestedly, peeping from behind his gold-rimmed glasses.
"I'm willing to do extra hours—"
"That's for me to decide."
"Alright," Hoseok shut his eyelids in exasperation, managing to flare his nose although unnoticeably. "I have to be somewhere tonight, and no, it can't be postponed— Cannot be canceled either, of course. Can you let me off the hook for today, please? I'll make sure that I do double the work that you had had planned for me to do tonight. But it can't be tonight... y'know. Please try to understand."
"Does it look like you're needed here?" Sunghyung stated plainly— way too plainly that Hoseok presumably took it at its face value and as a consequence, could not weather the fret that had begun to surface on his face. "Do I even deserve being called a restaurant-owner if I can't serve a handful of people?"
