A Meeting of Rivals - 3
Silence had descended upon our clan — no, upon Daseogak.
The order that had left the silver-haired, blue-eyed woman's lips carried such force that one might easily have mistaken it for an order of an entirely different kind — a curse.
"For a second there, I honestly thought she was putting me on."
Once I had hurriedly smoothed things over and pressed a drink into the hands of each of the Mangeum Hall staff, Hayeon and I ended up behind the emptied counter. She gave a dry laugh and spoke. Absurd as the whole affair was, there was no arguing that.
"What surprised me even more was that you were actually serious about making a hot iced Americano."
Hayeon, you weren't much better yourself. Boiling water while furiously scraping away at the leftover ice — what exactly were you trying to make?
"B-because I couldn't afford to lose."
Hayeon protested, looking ashamed between sips of her coffee. Afford to lose at what, exactly?
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"I was thinking that a household like the Zhuge Clan must actually drink things like that..."
Ah. So it was like imagining that the young heir of some corporate dynasty would turn his nose up at ordinary yogurt and eat only the foil lid on top.
"She panicked. That's all it was."
I gave Hayeon a brief account of Jegal Hyang's personality.
"Come now. Even so — how does a person fail to place an order?"
"She is the daughter of a house where she has never once needed to order for herself."
Some people live their whole lives being made to do things they despise, while others are born into lives where they never have to do them at all. She didn't become the youngest daughter of the Zhuge Clan for nothing. At my words, Hayeon's jaw dropped in genuine surprise.
"Ah... Wonderful. Now I'm the only one who comes off as the villain here."
Hayeon wore a bitter smile, as though at a loss for what to do with herself.
"And were you not?"
"Excuse me?!"
"Ha ha. I'll take Miss Jegal her drink myself."
Time to flee. I said it while eyeing the coffee that was neither hot nor cold — ordered, then abandoned by its owner.
"Haaah. Fine. If you insist. And here I thought she had the personality of a sly fox..."
Chagrin ran plainly through Hayeon's voice. From her position — one where thinking kindly of Jegal Hyang was never going to come easily — perhaps she had been nursing a quiet malice all this time.
"I know you meant none,"
...though after watching the young lady vanish with a face on the verge of tears over her failed order, anyone's impression was bound to change.
I stepped out from behind the counter and set off in search of the customer who would not answer no matter how she was called.
Finding Jegal Hyang was easy.
A corner seat. The kind tucked well out of the sunlight, one of the few spots where no one seemed likely to wander in.
"...It's over. It's truly over. H-how could I make a mistake like this..."
All I had to do was find the talking box.
"Miss Jegal."
"...There's no one heeere."
I opened the box with care, but Jegal Hyang would not look my way.
Too ashamed even to raise her head, was she? In that case, a little mischief was in order.
"Your hot iced Americano is ready."
"AAAAAAAH!"
Her gaze pierced straight into the coffee in my hand. But when Jegal Hyang's eyes finally met mine, she could bear it no longer.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Why does she look as though she would crumble the instant anyone touched her?
"Ha ha. It's a mistake anyone could have made. Don't take it too much to heart."
I settled down onto the floor beside Jegal Hyang and looked up at her, offering what comfort I could.
"...But you were disappointed, weren't yooou."
She was silent for a long while before asking me in a voice that crawled along the ground.
"No."
In moments like these, one must answer with conviction.
"I'm a wo-woman who can't even order a drink by herself. Of course you're disappointed in meee."
Apparently conviction alone had not been enough. The embarrassment had yet to fade from Jegal Hyang's face, and her head stayed down.
Left as she was, the mistake would loop into endless self-blame and curdle into a proper trauma.
Perhaps I ought to soothe her for a bit.
I sketched a plan in my head with lightning speed. The method that would comfort her most.
Good. Let's go with that one.
"The first time I ever walked into a teahouse to order, I couldn't even get my order out. I bolted straight back out the door."
Begin with a sense of kinship.
"What? Really?"
Jegal Hyang stared at me with eyes gone perfectly round, startled by the unexpected confession.
"Really. Everyone else ordered with such ease, and I knew nothing at all. I felt as though I had wandered into a completely different world, and I simply couldn't endure it. I dwelled on that retreat so much afterward that I wouldn't so much as set foot near a teahouse for the longest time."
The truth was a little different.
Back in my university days, I wandered into a chain coffee shop thinking I would treat myself to a cup — took one look at the prices and fled in shock. Skipping two cafeteria meals just to afford one coffee? What kind of madness was that?
"Ah..."
"Watching you, Miss Jegal, I was the one impressed."
Kinship established — more or less. Now for the second step: rebuilding her crumbled self-esteem.
"B-because my order was so laughable?"
"No. Unlike me, you did not run. You stood your ground and fought."
"..."
Unlike me, she had marched right up and ordered. When I fixed her with a look of unfeigned admiration, Jegal Hyang lowered her eyes, faintly abashed.
"Everyone has something they can never get right, no matter how hard they try. Most people simply give up when they find it. But what did you do, Miss Jegal? Haven't you been laboring away to make amends for your mistake last time?"
Because I could see the effort plain as day. Have some confidence.
"Yeees. That's right, eeeheee."
"Could anyone paint a masterpiece in a single brushstroke? A masterpiece is what emerges only after countless efforts, is it not?"
"Yeees."
Unlimited affirmation works wonders, as ever.
Had some of her confidence returned? A curious flush was beginning to rise in Jegal Hyang's cheeks.
For an ordinary person, this much would have been plenty. But Jegal Hyang was a singular creature, so one final touch was needed.
"In that spirit — may I drink the beverage you ordered for me, Miss Jegal?"
Coffee of perfect yin-and-yang harmony in hand, I turned to her.
"Sorry?"
"Even the very same mistake grows fainter in memory when it was made for another's sake."
Let us recast an embarrassing blunder as a kindness done for someone else. Far less shameful that way.
As though swallowing her mistake down in her place, I took a sip of her drink right before her eyes.
"..."
At the sight, Jegal Hyang's face turned a peculiar shade of red, and her mouth would not close.
"Now — a caramel macchiato for you, Miss Jegal. It seemed to be what you had meant to order, so I made it myself and brought it along."
I handed her the cup I had prepared separately.
"Y-young Master Kang... made this, for me..."
"Keep gathering experiences like this at my side, and one day you will order like a seasoned hand."
If she came to think of me as an easy friend to be around, and we traded amusing experiences along the way, it would serve Jegal Hyang well for the rest of her life.
Though of course, this being a contract romance, we would part ways once the business in Wuhan was finished.
"T-together? Ehehehe."
Jegal Hyang hid her lips behind her coffee cup and smiled. Mercifully, she seemed to have made a full recovery.
For a while afterward, I traded pleasant chatter with Jegal Hyang, who declared in a bashful voice that the coffee I had made was delicious.
"What could the two of you possibly have to talk about for that long?"
While we were still deep in conversation, Hayeon came marching over with a sullen face.
"Miss Hayeon. Your coffee is delicious."
I raised the cup she had made by way of greeting.
"Huh? That's...?"
Hayeon's brow creased. Her astonished gaze shot back and forth between my cup and Jegal Hyang's.
"Miss Jegal's seemed to have gone cold, so I gave her mine."
"..."
Why was the expression draining out of her face?
"Miss Jegal. Miss Hayeon will be lending the branch a great deal of help from here on."
Things looked set to turn awkward if I left them be. Rising from my seat with Jegal Hyang, I introduced Hayeon to her all over again.
"If running the place proves too trying, there is no need for you to show your face at Daseogak at all. Manager Kang and I will operate it perfectly well on our own. Hmph."
Hayeon bore down on us with the poised stride of a runway model and delivered this to Jegal Hyang, chin high, expression imperious.
Having come dressed to the nines today, she looked every inch the elegant but razor-tempered young madam of some chaebol house.
"Miss Hayeon."
Please do not announce that part out loud.
"Wh-what is it?"
Hayeon, perhaps feeling a sting of guilt herself, stumbled slightly over the words.
"Ah, um... I-I hope we'll get along, eeehee. Hayeon... Hayeon eonni?"
Ah. I never told her our ages.
Tilting her head, Jegal Hyang studied Hayeon's face for a moment, then ventured the address with great care.
"...I'm nineteen."
Why had her expression frozen over just now? Hayeon stated her age with an air of sheer incredulity.
"Ah! I knew it! Hayeon eonni it is, theeeen!"
"...I beg your pardon?"
"Eep! Y-you're a whole year older than me, sooo!"
"And just who are you calling eonni?"
"Ah, I, um..."
Under Hayeon's withering stare, Jegal Hyang floundered helplessly. The girl I had only just patched back together was reverting to dust before my eyes.
"What's with the sudden spite?"
"It is not spite!"
She is your elder by rights, isn't she? What's with the face of a woman sorely wronged?
"I-I'm sorry. It's... it's just that you look so very m-mature, eeehee. A-and you are a year older than me, too."
Had she decided it was her own fault, then? Jegal Hyang appended her explanation in an apologetic tone.
"M-mature? Hngh!"
Hayeon's mouth opened, and nothing came out — as though she had taken a critical hit.
"Miss Jegal. Miss Hayeon is naturally a trifle brusque."
Caring for one's staff is, after all, the mark of a true leader. Someone had to come to Hayeon's defense.
"Yeeees. Eehee!"
Jegal Hyang nodded with an awkward look of understanding — then flinched anew under Hayeon's gaze and clutched at my sleeve.
"Branch Manager Kang, wh-why is she grabbing your sleeve? And why are you hiding behind him?"
Because she fears being bitten by the haughty cat, that is why. However I looked at it, those two were about as compatible as a cat and a hamster.
"Miss Hayeon. Shall we get back to work?"
In moments like these, separation is the answer.
"Hngh! Just whose side are you on, anyway?!"
Both of their sides.
Which is why coffee time ends here.
Humoring the grumbling Hayeon as I went, I saw the day's business at Daseogak through to its close.