Click, Click

Chapter 5

You had some customers suggest places that you should eat and others tell you that you just had to go to this festival in their daughters' college town not far from here. It melted your heart to get to know the locals and find that a smile really did go a long way in customer service.

After nearly six hours behind the counter and a long wave of chatty customers who genuinely didn't have a care in the world, you deflated a bit, finally left alone in the small convenience store.

"Look at you, working even while across the seas from home."

You jumped, surprised to find Jihoon standing at the counter, a fond expression on his face. You smiled in relief. It was just Jihoon.

"Are you stalking me?" You responded, squinting your eyes at the just shorter idol. "I swear the amount at which I see you is... It's just uncanny."

Jihoon chuckled.

"No, no, it really is just random chance," he replied pleasantly. His expression solemned and he put a chocolate bar on the counter. You began to ring him up, unable to shake the feeling of him staring at you with a thoughtful look on his face.

You had been around a few guys who liked you in your time. Guys who had been very interested in just staring at you when they thought you didn't notice. It was because you were so friendly that guys usually liked you. You came off as a bit of an airhead. A naive, thoughtless girl who constantly wore a smile and had no cares in the world. You were shy, but extroverted and didn't leave a single person out of a group activity if you could help it and that was why people liked you.

On the exterior, you were practically see through. You didn't really have problems, all you cared about was everyone else and how they were feeling.

You were cute and you were nice. You were overly nice to people who weren't used to being treated well too. As such, the people who liked you really just saw that... Exterior. Even though they watched you they only saw that much of you. They generally thought you needed help with everything that you did, even the simple things, and they assumed that they could touch you whenever and they assumed that you were okay with everything that happened around you.

In truth, you were quite capable, you didn't really like to be helped with things you could do yourself. If you wanted to make a bad decision like walk through the snow with bare feet you wanted to be lightly told off but you wanted people to just think it was funny. You didn't want to be forcibly lifted off the ground. Friends or not... It freaked you out to be trapped in someone's arms like that.

When you were passionately talking about something that didn't matter to most people you wanted to be heard. You didn't want to be degradingly called cute and laughed into silence.

You wanted to be with someone who didn't like you because they thought you could be the emotional support they needed because you needed emotional support too.

That's why you had never dated anyone before.

And that was why you were surprised when the feeling of Jihoon staring at you didn't make you wildly uncomfortable.

That look always made you uncomfortable. You always sat there and pretended like you didn't notice, trying your damnest not to react strangely to the sudden attention until they finally looked away from you.

You turned your head to face him. Neither of you smiled, but neither of you was upset either.

"Why a job in customer service?" Jihoon asked you. "You could do anything. You're just in college but you certainly aren't unqualified."

"I like customer service," you responded. You rattled off his total in the middle of the transaction. He acknowledged it. "You know, one time at my old job this customer was talking to a new employee and the employee didn't know how to ring up a bag of ice. My manager, James, came over and helped the employee through the transaction. He was apparently so patient and kind, that it made the customers day. I mean, that story always blows my mind. He wasn't even doing anything for her really. It was the way he interacted with the employee that made her day."

You slipped Jihoon his receipt.

"That's why customer service. The littlest thing that I do can completely make somebodies day and if I get paid to make someone smile then it's just that much more worth it... Do you want a bag?"

Jihoon shook his head and pointed at the candy bar.

"This is for you by the way," he murmured. "It's one of your favorites right?"

You stared at the bar blankly, your eyebrows wrinkling a little.

"Y...Yeah, how did you know that?"

Jihoon didn't answer that question so you asked a different one.

"How long have you been here?" You asked him.

"Long enough to know that this convenience store is going to get a lot more popular," he replied. He pushed the receipt in his pocket and gave you a short wave goodbye.