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Jeonghan was never the most patient. One of the main reasons why he hated his job. The only thing forcing him to continue working in a retail shop being the fact that he needed the work experience for his job opportunities later on in life and at the expense of not getting cursed out by his mother for being a “lazy ass.” And well why would he turn down the opportunity to get that good cash.
He had many instances where he wanted to flip a customer off or just leave, quit and move to a place where he wouldn’t have the need to interact with another human. Very drastic reactions but if one worked in retail, they would understand. Customers seem to never understand what the boundaries are as they’re showered with the phrase “The customer is always right!” And Jeonghan would happily draw the line if there wasn’t a chance of him losing his job.
This is also another instance of that phenomenon. Jeonghan stood with a frown (thank god for masks) as he waited for another boy, possibly his age or younger, to finish looking through the records displayed on the wall. Now normally he would tell the customer to leave, and funny story, he did. But the boy sounded awfully desperate as he practically begged Jeonghan for at least a minute more. He felt like a parent telling his child that it was time to go home. But the boy’s cute, so he let it go. Another minute wouldn’t hurt, a minute’s fine . . . (he said while his eye twitched in annoyance)
However, 10 minutes is not okay. He was done, no matter how cute the boy was, he still has a life to live (eating dinner and passing the fuck out). After realizing the boy was going through every single record, he quickly walked on over. Another minute and the boy would be no more. He didn’t care if he went to jail for murder, at least he wouldn’t be able to escape exams one way or another.
He stands behind the boy, waiting for the other to notice him. And it seems that the boy was awfully unobservant as it took an awkward cough to gain his attention. The boy jumped before turning to face him, an embarrassed look on his face. (Oh the fuckery of genetics, he really is cute). “Uhm, is there anything wrong?” He musters out.
“No no... Take your time looking through every single record on the entire wall of shelves. We didn’t close ten minutes ago or anything.” Jeonghan says in an awfully passive-aggressive tone, causing the other to shrivel up. Jeonghan takes a good look at the somehow shrinking boy, he then lets out a soft sigh and questions him, “What exactly are you looking for?”
“Uh, I’m not sure? It’s a gift for my best friend but I don’t know which one he’d like..” His words trail off, turning to face the records once again. And well, Jeonghan doesn’t either. He also knows nothing about the records, never really being interested in them. He only worked here for the money and work experience after all.
“Hmm, what does he like? Does he have a specific artist he listens to?” Jeonghan asks, even if he didn’t know much, he could at least try to help. It could get the customer out quicker as well.
The boy awkwardly laughs, “I don't know.” Jeonghan resists the twitch his eye is begging him to do. (Keep calm, keep calm, keep calm and you’ll get rich soon enough, he tells himself) “Well. He also likes cats, if you… have anything related to them.”
Jeonghan thinks about it for a bit before remembering the absolutely nightmare fuel cat piano that was laying around for a few weeks. He quickly walks on over to the shelf to pull it out and present it to the boy.
The boy looks at the horrid cat piano before turning his attention to Jeonghan, staring at him for a few seconds before letting his eyes wander back to the cat piano. “This… is an absolutely terrifying children’s toy.” Soonyoung finally mutters out as he takes the piano into his own hands, he then beams up at Jeonghan (not that Jeonghan could see the smile behind the mask, but his eyes scrunch up and Woah, that’s cute.) “I’ll take it.”
“Okay right, follow me over to the counter now.” Jeonghan hurries him over, happy that he easily accepted the monstrosity. “Right, it’s fourteen dollars. Cash or card?”
He watches as Soonyoung puts down the toy in search of his wallet, and waits for the boy. “Cash.” He takes out a twenty-dollar note and slides it over to Jeonghan.
“Do you have a membership at our shop?” Jeonghan asks, it definitely doesn’t seem like the other boy would but it’s better he asks. He would most definitely like to be more safe than sorry.
The boy shifts his weight between his two feet, slightly swaying around. “Uhh, no. I’ve never been here before.”
“Right, and do you want the receipt?” Another mandatory question. He grabs the machine so he could smack some buttons and get the paper to spit out.
“Hm, sure. Yeah.” He mutters and silently takes the piano cat and deposits the toy into his bag that was obnoxiously bright and had drawings of a... tiger? That seemed to be hand-drawn onto the bag. (Well as long as he’s using a recyclable bag, one step at a time to save the earth.)
Jeonghan thinks about it for a bit, and decides to smoothly speak, “And could I have your phone number? Well if you have one” He shoots his shot as he waits for the question to be processed by the boy in front of him, he could play it off as just wanting to be friends either way.
“I-I don’t even know your name.” The boy’s voice cracks in the middle of the sentence and his ears are flushed red.
“Well, I’m Jeonghan and?” Jeonghan smiles (even if these masks don’t really allow his smile to be seen) and raises a questioning eyebrow at the other.
“Soonyoung.”
“Great,” He quickly takes out a pen and writes down his phone number on the back of Soonyoung’s receipt, “And here’s my phone number.” Soonyoung seemed too out of it for Jeonghan to get his number. So might as well write his own number down. He can only hope that the other will actually text him.
“Ah, aWesome.” Another voice crack, since when were those awfully cute? His brain must be deteriorating from how cute Soonyoung is.
“Okay now please leave, I’m sure you’re great but we closed like 15 minutes ago.”
“Ah! Sorry”
Jeonghan watches the boy scurry off and sighs bitterly, now he needs to actually close the shop. And oh man, does it take a while to close the store, making sure everything is in place and locked up so that some robber wouldn't come and steal. As if they had anything worthy to steal, what would they take? Another cursed cat piano? Or the fake tarot cards? He sighs as he looks at the time to see that it's now nearly half an hour since they were supposed to close. Did he ever tell you how much he hates his job?