Hello Pretty Boy| l.k.h

Heartbroken Saturdays

    It is Saturday morning. The sun is shining brightly. The water that was previously saturating the city has dried up. The city looks lively and cheerful. Everything has been restored.  Everything except Im Jisung. 

    The dark curtains remain closed. The light continues to sleep along with Jisung. Any other day Jisung would have been up and ready for the day to come. But not today. Today Jisung has given up. She can not believe what happened. She refuses to see that she lost her livelihood. 

    Jisung slowly rises and crawls out of her comfort. Sluggishly walking to the kitchen, Jisung continues to replay her experience from yesterday. 

    "He didn't actually say that, did he? Was I really fired? Dumped? Was it a dream?" Jisung thought. 

    Once in the kitchen, Jisung opens the pantry to realize there are no more tea packs. Jisung grabs her wallet and heads to the convenience store down the block. 

    "Good morning!" says the young cashier when Jisung walks in. 

    "Good morning," Jisung mumbles. She walks to the back and roams around in the aisles. Without any luck, Jisung heads up to the counter. 

    "Do you guys sell tea packs?" Jisung asks and skims the shelves around the counter.

    "I'm sorry, but no. We do sell coffee though," says the cashier. Jisung nods and heads to the coffee machine. 

    After grabbing her coffee, Jisung heads back up to the counter. "Here."

    The cashier nods and scans the cup. "That'll be 3.90," she says.

    "3.90? Okay," Jisung replies and grabs out her wallet. She pulls out her credit card and scans it. 

    "Sorry, but there's no money on here," the cashier informs Jisung. 

    "That can't be right. Scan it again," ordered Jisung. 

    Once again the card was declined. "That dirtbag must've canceled my cards," Jisung thought. "Can I run back to my apartment to get cash?" Jisung asked. 

    "Sorry, but I can't allow that. You have to pay now or I dump the coffee," the cashier apologized. 

    Jisung sighed and looked at the cashier's name, Hana. "Okay, listen, Hana, it will only be a minute. I live right down the road. I swear I'll come back with the money. Please just let me have the coffee. I really need it. Please," Jisung begged.

    "No can do."

    "Seriously, please man. I will give you the money. I'm not stealing it."

    "Hey, I got it," said a man. Jisung turned around and saw the guy she bumped into yesterday. 

    "No, no you don't have to do that. I got this," Jisung told the man. 

    He chuckled, "With what money?" The man walked towards the counter and gave four dollars to the cashier. 

   He grabbed the coffee cup and handed it to Jisung. "Here you go," he smiled.

   "Thank you," Jisung said. 

   "Anytime," he said and left. 

____

    Jisung walked up to her apartment and unlocked the door. When she got it she stubbed her toe on a box. 

    "Ah, damn it, that hurt," Jisung said and looked at the box. It was one of the boxes she was packing to move in with her now ex-fiance. 

    Jisung sat down and opened the box. The first thing she saw was a photograph of the couple in their first couple of years dating. They were both in college for design and fashion. It was a photo from their first date where they went to a nearby park. That was five years ago. 

    "I'm sure we can get to this again," Jisung said. She pulled out her phone and message Youngjo. 

Hey, let's meet up?

    She put her phone by her side and waited for a message. Meanwhile, she continued going through the box. She found a cat collar in the box. Before the two thought of moving in together, Jisung had a pet cat. Her name was Poko. Poko was a beautiful cat, but not beautiful enough for Youngjo. He never liked cats, so Jisung got rid of her to keep him happy. But, she still kept the collar for when she misses the cat. 

    From what Jisung heard from Poko's new owners, Poko died about a year ago. 

    "I did that to keep him happy? Why?" Jisung questioned herself. 

    At that moment Jisung's phone buzzed. 

What do you want? 

    It was Youngjo. Jisung smiled happily. "He responded!"  she thought. 

I want us to go back to how we were before. Can we try this again?

What I want is you to leave me alone. Don't message me again. 

But we were good together. We were a role model couple. 

Are you stupid? Our relationship was only an act. Get over yourself and look at my feelings. I never actually liked you. I like our image. Stop being so selfish. 

Please?

I'm blocking you. 

    Jisung murmured, "Why won't he just listen to me?" Jisung threw her phone on the couch and walked back to her room. There she got onto her laptop and decided to look around on adoption centers' websites.  

    "Persian cat and two years old," Jisung read aloud. "Perfect." She looked for the address the got dressed. 

____

    At the center, Jisung looked around and found the cat that was on the website. The cat's name is Sam. On the tag, it states he was found in an ally way and was brought to the center and cleaned up. 

    "Hello?" a woman said. 

    "Hello," Jisung said to the woman with her eyes kept on the cat. 

    "Are you interested in adopting Sam?" 

    "I am," Jisung answered. 

    "That's great! He's been here for a while so I'm happy to hear you want him," the woman smiled. "I'll go grab the papers."

    Jisung nodded. When the woman left Jisung strolled around the shelves of animal products. 

    "Excuse me, ma'am, do you work here?" a familiar voice asked. 

    "You again? Are you stalking me?" Jisung asked the man. 

    "Well, no, but I was walking down the street and saw you walk in here. I wanted to say hi." 

    "Oh, well here's your chance."

    The man cleared his throat the said, "Hello, beautiful. What's your name?" 

    "Hello, pretty boy, I'm Im Jisung. And you?"

    "Let's keep that a secret," the man said. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Im Jisung."

    "Mutual," Jisung said. "Well, I need to go find the real employee. See you around." 

    "See you around, Pretty Boy," Jisung thought as she walked away.