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The ding of the electronic bell above the door signals someone has just entered the convenience store where Hyunjin works.
‘Hyunjin-hyung!’
Hyunjin looks up from where he’s arranging packets of ramyeon on the shelf.
‘Oh my, Jeonginnie! You came to visit me,’ he says happily, running over with his arms outstretched.
‘Don’t touch me,’ Jeongin says cheerfully, placing his arms out in front of him with his hands open to act as a barrier between himself and Hyunjin.
‘You’re so mean,’ Hyunjin says with a pout, lowering his own arms.
‘I came here to say hello, not to be jumped on,’ Jeongin says. ‘Besides, you have something weird on your apron.’
‘Oh, yeah,’ Hyunjin says, looking down at the red smear across his chest. ‘Spilt ketchup on myself when I was heating up a customer’s corn dog earlier.’
‘Oh.’
‘So what are you up to today?’ Hyunjin asks, beaming at Jeongin.
‘Well, Seungmin-hyung, Yongbok-hyung and I are going to karaoke later, if you want to come join us.’
Hyunjin nods enthusiastically. ‘Of course I would, that sounds—’
‘Hwang Hyunjin.’
Hyunjin stiffens. It feels as though a sudden icy wind has rushed down his neck and under his shirt.
‘Ah, m-manager-nim,’ he stutters, turning around and bowing deeply.
Lee Minho, his manager, standing right behind him, threateningly holding a mop.
Minho, also known as a demon who somehow came to earth and started working in a convenience store just so he could ruin Hyunjin’s life, probably. He’s a handsome guy, with large dark eyes, dark parted hair, an elegantly pointed nose and triangular doll-lips—but that pretty face hides a charred black heart.
‘Do I pay you,’ Minho asks icily, ‘to stand around chatting with your friends?’
‘Well, technically you don’t pay me, you’re just my manager, not the owner—’
‘What was that?’ Minho says poisonously, narrowing his eyes.
‘I said no,’ squeaks Hyunjin. ‘You don’t pay me for that, manager-nim.’
‘What do I pay you for?’ Minho asks, looking slightly more satisfied.
‘You pay me to actually do my job,’ Hyunjin parrots dutifully. He hears Jeongin stifle a laugh behind him. Traitor.
‘Excellent,’ Minho says. ‘Now, I’m going to go on till. And you are going to mop the whole shop.’
‘Yes, manager-nim,’ Hyunjin says miserably.
Minho hands over the mop to Hyunjin and gives him a sunny, evil smile, then nods to Jeongin with a curt ‘afternoon’ before he walks off to his post at the till at the front of the store.
‘I guess I’ll see you later,’ Jeongin says, giving Hyunjin a sympathetic smile.
‘See you later,’ Hyunjin says sadly, before he leaves to go find the soap.
When there’s only a couple of hours of Hyunjin’s shift left, the bell on the door dings suddenly, and a customer comes in. The shop is otherwise empty. It’s late, now, pitch dark outside, and the man who walks in has obviously been drinking. He’s wearing a suit, but his tie has been loosened and his jacket is disheveled. He’s staggering a little on his feet and Hyunjin can smell the booze on him from here.
He stumbles his way over to the fridges of drinks on the right side of the store, opening it and pulling out a 6-pack of beer. Then, he approaches Hyunjin.
‘Good evening,’ Hyunjin says nervously, eyeing the customer. His face is puffy and bright red, all the way up to his receding hairline.
‘Evening,’ the man says gruffly. He places the beers on the counter in front of Hyunjin. Hyunjin looks down at it, and then apprehensively back up at the man and bows apologetically.
‘Ah, I’m very sorry sir, but I can’t sell you this.’
‘Eh?’ The man scowls aggressively, swaying erratically on his feet. ‘Why the fuck not?’
Hyunjin flinches, but he tries his best to remain calm as he answers.
‘Our policy is to not sell alcohol to intoxicated customers—’
‘For fuck’s sake,’ the man shouts, banging his fist on the counter. Hyunjin jumps. ‘I have money, you can sell it to me. You just don’t want to. Don’t you want my custom?’
‘Sir—’
‘I come in here all the time,’ he hisses. ‘I could never come back again.’
‘It’s just our store policy to—’
‘You fucking want a fight? Huh?’ the man snarls, reaching out as though he’s going to grab Hyunjin by the collar. Hyunjin jerks backwards, his heart racing, his body going cold.
Suddenly, Minho appears, walking out from between the aisles.
‘Excuse me, is there a problem here?’ His voice is cool and authoritative.
The asshole turns to look at him.
‘Yes,’ he spits. ‘The problem is this store hiring fucking idiots.’ He jabs a thumb rudely at Hyunjin, who shrinks back. ‘Your cashier won’t let me buy this beer.’
Minho’s eyes flash. He takes in the customer’s drunken appearance, his disheveled hair, the strong smell of booze.
His face flattens out into a mask of calmness.
‘I’m sorry, sir,’ he says, stepping in front of the counter, between the man and Hyunjin. ‘I’ll get that for you. Could you please just hand me your wallet so I can check your ID?’
‘Fucking finally. Someone with sense.’ Giving Hyunjin a filthy look, the man slides his wallet out of his pocket and hands it over to Minho.
Minho takes it, opens it with a pop and plucks the man’s business card out. He reads it slowly, and then looks up.
‘Oh Sangwon,’ Minho says, slowly and clearly. ‘Vice Lead of Marketing, huh? Interesting. I wonder what your boss would say if I called and told them that a man in their employ was wandering around drunkenly threatening convenience store workers.’
The man looks shell shocked, and Minho laughs coldly.
He shoves the wallet and card back at the customer’s chest. He scrabbles to hold onto them, and Minho leans forward into his space.
‘If you don’t get out, and leave my store and my staff alone,’ Minho says. ‘I’m calling the police. I’m calling your workplace in the morning.’ He steps closer, standing straight and sturdy, completely composed in the face of the customer. ‘And I’ll personally throw your ass out onto the concrete. So which is it, Sangwon-ssi?’
The man, unable to hold eye contact with Minho, looks first at Hyunjin, then at the wall, then at the floor.
‘Whatever. Fuck this,’ he says finally, and turns heel to walk out of the store as fast as he can go.
Minho turns to give Hyunjin a serious look. ‘Come get me in the back if you have any more trouble,’ he tells him, and then he’s gone, as quick as he came.
Hyunjin takes a deep breath, leaning on the counter, calming himself.
That’s the thing. Despite Minho being a demon, well, the good thing about him is that he also doesn’t take any shit from customers. He’s saved Hyunjin from assholes at least a few times by now. So maybe, just maybe, he isn’t all bad. If he would only stop threatening to put Hyunjin in the toaster oven they use to heat up food, anyway.
When Minho comes back out, he’s pulling a stock trolley of packaged snacks with him.
‘Hyunjin-ah,’ he calls. ‘I’m going back on till. I need you to put these products out.’
‘Ah.’ Hyunjin walks over to the trolley and takes it by the handles. ‘Of course, manager-nim.’
He’s in the middle of arranging bags of jelly sweets on the shelf when the bell at the door rings again. Someone stomps into the shop loud enough for Hyunjin to hear their unsteady footsteps.
‘Hello?’ the new customer calls, in a too-loud, slurring voice.
Holy crap, Hyunjin thinks. Two drunk idiots in one day. He just knows Minho is going to take great pleasure in kicking this guy to the curb, too. He crouches down in the aisle so that he can peer through the shelves, to the front of the store where Minho and this new customer are standing. He can just about see the customer’s side-profile. He’s younger than Hyunjin expected, with dark hair that looks like it was once carefully styled but is now drunkenly mussed, round cheeks, round eyes lined in black, a pouting mouth. He looks like he’s dressed for the club, in a low-cut scoop neck black long-sleeved shirt, grey jeans and silver necklaces, silver earrings halfway up each ear.
‘You!’ says the man loudly, stalking straight up to the counter and jabbing Minho in the chest.
Hyunjin’s eyes water as he holds in his gasp. This man isn’t using any honorifics. He’s picking a fight with Minho!
Hyunjin knows for a fact that Minho has a black belt in mixed martial arts. This guy, who looks like a well-aimed feather could probably beat him in a fight, is not going to know what hit him.
‘You,’ the man says grandly again, jabbing his finger forward once more. ‘Are a selfish, inconsiderate, heartless idiot.’
Hyunjin places his hand over his mouth. He’s never heard someone speak so disrespectfully to Minho before. Oh, this is gonna be good.
Hyunjin cranes his head to get a look at Minho’s face and—and—
Hm. That’s odd.
Minho’s usual mask of indifference seems to have melted.
In fact, he’s looking at this argumentative guy with what Hyunjin can only describe as pure, unadulterated fondness, radiating out of his eyes like laser sunbeams of affection. Hyunjin has never seen Minho’s sharp, catlike eyes look so chocolate-y, and gooey, like they’ve just been dipped in honey.
‘Hello, Jisung-ah,’ is what he says.
Jisung? Minho has never mentioned a “Jisung” before. Does he know this guy?
‘Is that all you have to say for yourself?’ Jisung demands, slurring his words all over the place. He sways forward as though he’s going to poke Minho again, then looks like he’s going to trip right over onto the counter, but Minho catches him in both arms and holds him steady.
‘You’re supposed to be with Chan-hyung and Changbin, Jisung,’ he says. ‘What are you doing here?’
At this, Jisung’s eyes light up with fury. ‘I was with them!’ he says. ‘We were at the bar. But then I started talking to them about you, and I was saying how much you’ve been working lately and how I’ve hardly seen you, and I started to miss you so much that I told them I had to go to the bathroom but instead I walked all the way here. In my boots!’
He gestures with his chin to his ankle boots, which have a platform heel and straps and look fairly uncomfortable to walk in, if the way he’s wobbling on his feet is any indication. Or maybe that’s just the alcohol again.
‘You walked all the way here, huh?’ Minho says, in a downright sickeningly sweet tone of voice.
‘Yes!’ Jisung says passionately. ‘And it’s all—it’s all y-your fault because you made me miss you so much!’ He sniffles.
Minho pats him consolingly on the arm, and then carefully lets go of him. When he seems sure that Jisung isn’t going to wobble over again, he pulls his phone out and starting tapping at it, and wow, he’s always yelling at Hyunjin for having his phone out at the till—
‘What are you doing?’ Jisung asks, and he honest-to-god stamps his foot petulantly. ‘Why aren’t you paying attention to me?’
Minho just chuckles, a full, warm sound. ‘Baby, I’m texting Chan-hyung and Changbin. You just told me you left without telling them. Don’t you think they would be worried?’
Woah. Hyunjin just heard Lee Minho say the word “baby”.
There’s a pause, and then Jisung reluctantly says, ‘Okay. Yeah. You’re right.’
‘Of course I am, sweetheart.’
Holy shit. Hyunjin just heard Lee Minho say the word “sweetheart”.
Minho pockets his phone again after a moment.
‘I’ve booked you a taxi too, Jisungie,’ he says. ‘I’m going to put you in it when it comes and you’re going to go home, okay? And I’ll be home in a few hours. I promise.’
‘No!’ Jisung stomps his foot again. ‘I’m not going! I came here to see you. I’m going to sit on this counter until your shift is over.’
‘Jisung,’ says Minho. ‘I’m going to get you in that taxi if I have to carry you in there myself, okay? You need to sleep this off. And I need to finish my shift—I can’t leave until Jinah arrives to take over at midnight. We can talk in the morning, after we’ve both had some rest. Okay?’
Jisung pouts and a tear drips slowly down his cheek, but he doesn’t argue.
‘I didn’t mean to make you miss me,’ Minho says quietly, and now he reaches out to tuck a lock of Jisung’s messy hair behind his ear. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Hyung-ah, you work too much,’ Jisung says, and now his lip is wobbling.
‘Okay, okay. I know,’ Minho says softly, still gazing at Jisung like he’s the moon in the sky itself. ‘I promise I’ll start coming home earlier. We’re planning on hiring a new manager so I can reduce my shifts soon. And I’ll just give all the late shifts to Hyunjin.’
Oh, what the fuck? Hyunjin narrows his eyes in annoyance.
‘Okay,’ Jisung says tearfully.
‘And you have to promise me,’ Minho says. ‘That you won’t ever go walking around drunk without your friends anymore, okay, Jisung? You could have gotten hurt.’
At this, Jisung’s eyes fill up with fresh tears.
‘I’m sorry,’ he wails.
Minho sighs and takes Jisung’s hands, using his thumbs to rub them soothingly. ‘I’m not mad at you,’ he says lowly. ‘Please don’t cry.’
‘I’m not crying,’ Jisung cries, a tear dripping off of his chin.
‘Okay.’ Minho’s voice is gentle, indulgent. His hands come up to encircle Jisung’s face, and he leans in.
Hyunjin starts, and goes back to his trolley of snacks. With flushing cheeks, he starts to fill another display box with grape gummies. He’s almost done with the stock trolley now, but…
Minho and Jisung go suspiciously quiet. When he’s finished putting out the snacks, Hyunjin sits on the floor of the aisle and waits. Even he isn’t oblivious enough to go out walking into the middle of where Minho is obviously having a moment with his—his—with whoever Jisung is to him.
In any case, a couple of minutes later, Minho’s phone buzzes.
‘Your taxi is here,’ Hyunjin hears him tell Jisung.
‘Noooo…’
‘Come on. Do you really want me to carry you?’
‘Uh-huh.’
There’s some shuffling, and then the bell dings again. They must have left.
Carefully, cautiously, Hyunjin peeks his head around the aisle. If he squints through the big glass doors of the shop, he can just about see Minho bundling Jisung into a black taxi on the street outside.
Satisfied, Hyunjin goes to put away the stock trolley.
When he comes back to the till, Minho is standing there again. He looks completely unruffled, not a hair out of place.
Hyunjin sidles up to him. ‘So,’ he says slowly. ‘What was that all about?’
Minho glances at him.
‘What do you mean?’ he asks.
‘What do you mean, what do I mean?’ Hyunjin asks animatedly. ‘Who was that?’
‘Who was who?’
Hyunjin scoffs, looking at Minho incredulously, but then he notices something. The tips of Minho’s ears. They’re bright red. And it’s travelling down to his neck, too.
‘Nothing,’ Hyunjin says slowly, with a smile. Then, he catches sight of the clock on the till. It’s 10pm.
‘Ah, my shift is over,’ he says cheerfully.
Minho nods. ‘Good work today,’ he says shortly. He won’t meet Hyunjin’s eye.
‘Well, I’d better be going,’ Hyunjin says brightly. ‘I need to catch up with Jeonginnie at karaoke. They’ve probably already started by now.’
Minho grunts noncommittally.
‘Good work today, manager-nim,’ Hyunjin calls as he heads to the back to grab his things from his locker, pulling his apron over his head.
‘See you tomorrow, Hyunjin.’
‘See you tomorrow.’
Hyunjin starts grinning to himself as he leaves the shop, from ear-to-ear. Maybe Lee Minho isn’t such a demon on earth after all.