"Gabriella."

The familiar voice made Gabriella look up instantly. The BTS song that Gabriella had heard using her earphones no longer interested her, especially when those black eyes saw Ken there.


Ken looked stunned without saying a word. Time seemed to stop without permission. There were only Gabriella and Ken who stared at each other without saying anything. It was probably about a few seconds, before Gabriella finally removed the earphone wires from her ears and cleared her throat softly. Making Ken gasp and blink in place.

"I have something to give you," Gabriella said, handing a long white envelope to her boss.

The man of Chinese descent accepted Gabriella's gift with hesitation. He looked at the object in his hand, before looking back at the woman who still didn't move from the chair she used to work in. The laptop Gabriella was using was still the same, just like any other day.


"What's this?"

"A letter of permission because I didn't come in yesterday," Gabriella said.


Both of the Chinese man's black eyebrows furrowed instantly. "For what?"

"Well... to clarify the reason why I didn't come to this place yesterday." Gabriella shrugged her shoulders, then raised her chin quickly, signaling Ken to check the other sheets in the same envelope. "On the back, my resignation from this job."

Ken swallowed his saliva with difficulty. He looked around, before finally pulling out the chair in front of him and sitting across from the woman there. Gabriella's expression showed no hesitation at all, which made Ken feel secretly worried.

"Your father died the day before yesterday?" Gabriella nodded. "That means that time... Sorry, Elle. I know I was wrong."

"It's okay. We never know how deep the human heart is," Gabriella said, a little sarcastically. "In the resignation letter, today will be the last day I come to the restaurant. So, I'll finish my work until the restaurant closes tonight."

The man in a plain black T-shirt with a short red shirt as his outwear put the white sheets of paper back into the envelope, before finally placing it on the table. Ken seemed to take a long breath, before finally starting the conversation again. "What if you don't resign? Don't you need the money?"

A snort escaped Gabriella. "Who doesn't need money these days?"

"Well then, stay here. You can keep working here and I'll make up for all the wrongs I've done to you, Elle."

Despite saying it so earnestly, Gabriella didn't waver at all. She just looked into the other person's eyes without opening her voice, letting Ken drown in very real expectations.

"I know I was wrong, but that doesn't mean you should get out of here," Ken said in a lower voice. Given that the matter they were discussing was a personal one, Ken was reluctant to upset his other employees. "This is all my fault. So, if you're not comfortable seeing me, I can avoid you for a while. Don't resign, Elle. Isn't it hard to find a job in New York?"

Gabriella did what Ken had done earlier. She inhaled as much oxygen as she could, before finally replying to the man in front of her. "Finding a job is hard, but it's even harder if I stay in a toxic workplace. Maybe for people like you, women are just betting material, we're just sex objects, but for me, by making me a betting material, you've made me sure that you're not someone I can trust."

Checkmate!

Ken couldn't say anything else now.

"I'll finish my work today. So, I won't have to come here and see you again starting tomorrow."

Ken finally relented. "Alright, I'll still transfer your salary. You can't refuse, because it's proof of my professionalism as a restaurant owner. But, let me do one more thing for you."

"Ken, please...,"

"No, no! Just one more thing. I promise." Ken looked at Gabriella straight on. "It's okay, isn't it, Elle?"

***

"Are you coming back to Los Angeles next week?"

Glen looked up, leaving his gaze from the laptop with the bitten apple logo behind him to look at Kevin. Kevin, who had just finished making a cup of coffee, pulled up a chair in front of Glen and sat across from him. Glen mumbled for a while, then said, "I'm waiting for someone."

"Who, your girlfriend?" Kevin was suddenly enthusiastic. "Introduce her to me once in a while. You're so quiet."

A short chuckle came from Glen after Kevin said that. He then closed his laptop screen and crossed his arms over his chest. "Not really a girlfriend, not yet."

"Wow, are you dating again?"

"Hahaha, you just want to know," Glen teased Kevin back. "After all, you make coffee alone, don't you make it for me too?"

"Don't be spoiled," said the bespectacled man who was now raising his cup, preparing to immediately sip the surface that was still steaming hot. "Uh but, why don't you stay in New York? Don't you have family here?"

"I have family, but the only thing that attracts me is this guy. He was, you could say... my first love when I was in school. I thought I had moved on, but it turns out ... when I met him again, I fell in love again."

Kevin shuddered in horror, then slowly drank the coffee he made in the pantry. "It's like I'm listening to a podcast by a twilight child."

"Haha you bastard." Glen got up from his chair and tapped Kevin lightly on the shoulder. "Leave my laptop, I want to make coffee too like you."

"Okay."

---

Gabriella's eyeballs, which were not decorated with gray softlens today, swept around. The interior of Ken's car was indeed a little more luxurious than hers, but that wasn't what made the twenty-five-year-old woman sitting next to Ken feel strange. Rather, it was Ken's intention to take her home with him.

"Why are you taking me back, I have my own car, Wa?"

The question that sounded so reasonable to Ken's ears actually made him chuckle with amusement. He then stepped on the gas pedal under his foot and started to take his private car out of the restaurant parking area. "I've left your car keys with Andri, Alan will drive your car to your rooming house. He already knows where you live, so it's okay if I drive you back now. Besides... this could be the first and last time I'm going to drive you back. Right?"

The woman's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "Are you insinuating me or something?"

"Hahaha no, just relax." Ken turned the steering wheel calmly, different from Ken's attitude this morning which seemed grumpy and careless. He even deliberately slowed down the car, unlike other days. "I used to like one girl."

Although she wasn't looking at Ken and was just staring at the street scene outside the window, Gabriella's hearing listened attentively to every word that came out of the mouth of the man beside her.

"But he died in an accident."

"My condolences," Gabriella muttered, without taking her eyes off him.

"It's okay. It's in the past, a few years ago. That's what I thought at the time, but I can't stop missing him. I still think about her and hope to meet another girl who looks like her, or at least, if I meet a girl, I get the same feeling as when I was in a relationship with that girl."

Gabriella adjusted her hair, then glanced at Ken. "So what?"

"The new girl I met... just wanted my money. From there I thought, any girl I meet, I can buy."

Gabriella's forehead knitted, and she quickly gave Ken a disapproving look.

"Uh, don't get me wrong. But when I met you, my thoughts about girls who can be paid for just disappeared. For the first time in my life, there was a girl who wasn't interested in me at all. That's why I'm curious about you."

Secretly, Gabriella's heart warmed at those words.

"But I know it's too late. I tried to be honest with you about my feelings, Elle. Isn't it okay if we start over as friends?"

"Friends?"

"Yes," Ken said, nodding his head. "Is it okay if I stay close to you as a friend?"

How can you stay close to him as a friend, Wa? Are you crazy? You can't even stop your heart from beating. Ken, Ken, which demon are you possessed by?

Ken cleared his throat to get rid of his own inner voice, before finally asking, "Well, you don't mind about that, do you?"