Following Heart

Jade could feel his eyes on her. They were practically burning a hole at the hem of her dress. While she did think that the choice was a little too short for working in, she hadn’t expected her dad to call her into the restaurant so suddenly to help.

It was closing, thank goodness, so Jade didn’t wane too much attention on herself. Just that of one of his employees.

Jade moved two stacks dirty plates to the sufficiently filled serving tray. Sweat started collect on her forehead. She wiped it away with her forearm. Frustrated, she whipped your head around.

“Yah!” she yelled, locking in on him. “My dad’s not paying you to stand around! Do something.”

Ilhoon swiped up the rag off the island where he stood and started wiping the top of it. “What are you talking about? I’ve been cleaning this whole time.”

She put her hand on her hip, cocking her head sideways at him. “Really? Then why do I feel as if someone’s been cooking s’mores over my butt the whole time?”

He shrugged, “Maybe it’s guilt for wearing something that you know is not work appropriate.” He pointed at the hemline.

Jade picked up the rag next to her and threw it at him, clocking him between the face and shoulder. “Hey, I hadn’t planned on coming in today! He called me last minute and asked if I could close for him,” she explained. She toyed with the apron she was wearing, thinking of her father and how much work and money he had put into the little diner he owned. She shook the thoughts that followed the diner her mind, remembering how she was in charge right now. Jade pointed at Ilhoon, “You,” then to the serving tray full of dirty dishes, “Dish duty.”

“Really?” he whined.

She nodded, “The sooner the dishes are clean, the sooner we can get out of here.”

Ilhoon ducked under the counter, going to get the dishes. He threw his cleaning rag over the top, picked it up, and headed towards the dish room. Jade followed behind, posting up in the doorway.

She watched him as he began to fill the sink and scrapped the leftovers into the garbage. Her dad had always hired interesting people, most of which were students from the local university. However Ilhoon was different. He had come to the city not in pursuit of education, but to make it big in entertainment. Though only being hired two weeks ago, she had come to know a great deal about him and his wishes to be a singer. And boy, could he sing. She had come into the diner one night right before closing and her father had him mopping, and he was just singing some tune to himself. It touched her insides and the whole next day, she couldn’t get it out of her head.

He was doing the same now as he washed dishes. There was even a little dance action in there too. He was going over the inside of a bowl with the scrubber when he raised his soapy hand, so far into the groove. Suds flew into his eyes and he dropped the bowl back into the water, causing more to fly up. “My eyes!” he hollered.

Jade sprinted into action as the boy flailed his arms in the air, causing a ruckus.

“Stop moving,” she had grabbed a nearby dry towel and wiped the suds from his eyes. He blinked a few times before their eyes met. And she realized how closeshe was to him, seeing as she could make out the little flecks of light in the center of his eyes. Jade felt his breath against her face.

She ducked her head down, breaking eye contact, shoving the towel into his chest. “No dancing,” she warned him, her voice almost barely audible. She went to leave the kitchen as fast as she could, but he caught her wrist.

Her breathing hitched as she waited for him to speak. “Thanks.”

“Don’t mention it,” she answered without looking at him. Jade went to remove her arm from his grip, however he did not let up.

“You know that dress,” she made eye contact with him, “doesn’t look half as bad on you.”

Her lips moved to form words, but none came out. Her heart was racing and so were the thoughts in her mind. But she knew she couldn’t act upon them. He seemed to notice this in her mind and did the unexpected. He gave her wrist a slight jerk and locked them together chest-to-chest, closing the last centimeter between their lips.

His lips were soft and that was all she could think of as they moved against hers. How nice it felt. Jade was almost lost to the kiss until she remembered she needed air and that’s when her resolve kicked in.

She pushed Ilhoon away, landing against on the opposite side of the room. She watched him as his fingers touched where her lips had just been and he smiled goofily to himself. Then he realized she was staring at him and the smile faded. He straightened up and cleared his throat.

“Joesonghabnida,” He bowed in her direction. Jade went to respond—to tell him that he had nothing to be sorry about, that she liked the kiss—but he cut her off. “I shouldn’t have messed around while still on the clock. I’ll finish washing the dishes right away.” He spun around and went right back to work.

Jade wanted to reach a hand out to him, to touch him; she wanted to tell him it was alright, that he didn’t have to worry about doing the dishes and should instead tend to her, but she knew what he was doing. He wanted to make things easier for her as the boss’ daughter. But right now, she didn’t want that.

Jade placed your hands on his shoulders hesitantly, seeing what he would do. And when he didn’t shirk her from him, she boldly moved them to encircle his waist, hugging herself to his back. She felt him stop momentarily to process what was going on, and then he kept washing. She imagined him trying to fight a smile on the other side.

“You know there’s a café around the corner that I normally go to when I’m up really late,” she spoke, hiding her face in his back.

“Really now?” He continued scrubbing plates.

She nodded into his shirt. “Maybe when you’re done, we could go together? That’s if you want to.”

He chuckled, “You know that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me all night?”

Jade pulled her head back to look at him as he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Fine then, I’ll buy you something.” She placed her face back against him.

“Then I guess it’s a date.”