If there is one thing I do not understand about mankind is the "You hang up first" game. I suppose that it is a tradition held ever since the telephone was invented. In my opinion, this game could be further improved if we replace the word 'you' with 'I'. It would be much more exciting, but Sooyoung thinks that it is rude and pointless.
Sooyoung was on her way to work, night shift at Café de Lioncourt: a small but grand coffee shop at the most posh part of the city, while playing the cretinous game of 'you hang up first' with Siwon. She was on a roll. It was a Friday, and for sure the shop would be packed with dirty rich businessmen hitting on her, old cougars with their boytoys and young social climbing mademoiselles who scrimped on their lunch to savour the overpriced coffee that the Lioncourt offers.
After agreeing to an unofficial movie date with the church boy over the phone, she hurriedly stepped out the marble counter to join Yuri in minding the tables they wait.
"Table four, one cup café au lait and mango tarts for Madame M.", Kris checked as he slid the porcelain tray towards Yuri who was smiling radiantly at him. “Oh wait, my bad. Two cups. Just bring this first to table six, one mocha cappuccino and blueberry cheesecake for Sir Yunho.”
“What is that dork doing here? He has a lot of money to waste, huh?” Yuri raised an eyebrow and elbowed her best friend as she took the ensemble of porcelain and sweets. Kris came back with another cup and put it in Sooyoung’s tray.
“Order complete, two cups café au lait and mango tarts on table four,” she took on her chore and walked across the room that smelt of coffee and a nauseating salad of perfumes. It was usually a depressing task that she does ever so morosely, but that night the thought of Siwon in her mind brightened the dimly lit café.
The walls and the paintings were preening blue Victorian fashion. The tableware was nothing but china and real sterling silver. A lowlight chandelier hangs like a starry nebula suspended from the remarkably high ceiling as the center piece of this bourgeoisie haven. Each table was adorned with fresh flowers spritzed with faux fragrance; that day it was tulips. The antique phonograph was spinning the record gracefully so that every corner was filled with the glum of Moonlight Sonata.
Seeing Sooyoung's cumbersome gait while she carried the short order was like watching an awkward little tortoise trying to find the moon in a lavish milk bath. Her khaki apron was stained with macchiato, syrup and mint in six different spots and Café de Lioncourt’s signature red bowtie was sloppily done yet she managed to look presentable somehow. She carefully laid down the coffee on the silken tablecloth.
"Young lady, may I know your name?" the customer's words took her by surprise. Customers of the Lioncourt are the richest of the rich, and therefore rarely take the time to say a word to the people who serve them unless it was to raise a complaint. Sooyoung's hand immediately checked if she forgot her name plate on her left breast pocket only to find it securely pinned.
"Choi Sooyoung. My name is Choi Sooyoung," with a bow she said curtly in what she called her 'GangNam voice' which is a few tones higher than her regular.
"Sit down Sooyoung-sshi," the old lady smiled. Sooyoung glanced at Yuri looking a bit alarmed. The old lady is creepy. But Yuri just gave her a dismissive nod. Just entertain her, the customer is always right.
The lady was very old but nonetheless beautiful. Her face was definitely of a foreign lineage. She had deep set eyes, freckles across her face, wild red hair that fell on her crooked back and green eyes that glowed like the emeralds on her neck. She wore a simple black dress, a velvet overcoat and was decked with fine jewelries; very mysterious and elegant.
Sooyoung sat down hesitantly. She pulled down her skirt's hem to her knee as if to straighten out the iron creases and then plastered her fake smile which was a crucial part of her uniform. Moments like this, she craves the comforting warmth of a cigarette stick but she had quit smoking for three days now. Siwon hated smoke.
"Isn't the music nice?" the old lady remarked, eyes closed and head swaying to the music as if conducting her own symphony in her head.
"Yes ma’am." Sooyoung agreed as she fiddled with her ash brown hair that was tightly coiled in a bun. She did like the classics but she couldn’t quite enjoy it in the Lioncourt. Lioncourt meant work; work to pay her bills so as not to freeload on her father’s pension.
"An old friend of mine liked this song very much," she sighed as the lowly waitress awkwardly watches until the music stopped and shifted to a livelier Symphony No. 9. Only then did the rich madame focus her gaze on Sooyoung.
"Do you believe in fortune telling… or witchcraft perhaps, Sooyoung-sshi?" the red-haired lady asked. Sooyoung noticed that she had very small teeth when she smiled. She leaned a little closer and it made Sooyoung slightly uncomfortable with the dwindling distance. She pushed a cup towards Sooyoung and motioned for her to have some coffee while she sipped her own.
"I suppose, I wouldn’t know since I have not experienced it for myself,” she answered and the response was an outburst of laughter.
The laughter was frightening. It rose with the music and drilled inside Sooyoung’s ears. It was shrill like old wooden floorboards creaking with every step you take, like hinges of doors that are begging to be oiled and greased, like the cries of danger by primeval animals in the wild. Sooyoung, disconcerted and shocked, just drank the coffee nervously and waited till the manic laughter faded into a knowing smile.
“My dear, there is a lot that you will experience. A lot that you need to know. But then again you might unknow, unexperience, given the strange circumstances” More laughter. It was momentary insanity.
This did not clear the disturbance in Sooyoung’s mind. In fact, it just made her more frightened and confused. She was about to leave when the old woman laid out cards in front of her. Not playing cards that she had been trying Siwon’s tricks on, but tarot cards.
“Is there something that your heart wishes to know?” the old lady asked with her voice strong yet somehow appealing. She laid the deck face down, fanned evenly and oh so carefully. The cards looked worn out and used for decades. They could be as old as the fortune-teller herself. Sooyoung sat back down.
It is amazing how the human mind could easily forget preconceived notions of danger at the face or even at just the ghost chance of confirming that he has what his heart desires-- Or in this case, whom her heart desires. Hearing the old woman’s question, Sooyoung instantly forgot that she finds this woman to some extent frightening. All she could think about was Siwon and if the latter fancies her like she is starting to fancy him.
“Go ahead and ask the cards, my beautiful darling” she waved her hands as if to beckon. “Don’t be shy now. The cards will tell you exactly the truth. Yes, the truth.” Inviting. Enchanting.
She made Sooyoung pick out ten cards and then laid them out in a Celtic cross, opening it one by one as she told her prophesy. It did not look good. It can not be good.
“I see feelings overflowing. A cup in reverse, upside down, but oh me. Oh my. This love can not grow. Like a seed that is drowned in water with no sun to shine its light. This is not the time. Not the one. He can not. The wands that approach fast shall stop the flow.
But it has been set before time. This is something you can not stop.
The wheel has been in motion for ages so it comes to this;
this forlorn affair that make both your eyes shed rivers of tears.
Two cups for your two eyes. A great love, founded in lies.
At best there could be a great renewal, a brand new start. But caution. Oh dear, my dear you should be cautious. Don’t be like a fool, hopping carelessly off the cliff, without looking what is there beneath. Or else, it could be something you can not undo.
Heartache, such great heartache is very near. Like daggers plunging into your little heart.
Breaking it into jagged little pieces. You’ll be torn apart.
The moon and her secrets. She will play her part.
The devil tells you to look deeper, oh look deeper. For things are not what they seem. You’d be bound and you might feel trapped. But then again this is something you can not change.
The lovers, oh blessed be the lovers. A choice must be made. What you fear is also what you seek.
But in the end there will be death. In death it all ends, also where it begins.”
“Remind me not to talk to strange, rich, old women again,” Sooyoung hung her uniform back into the cabinet. Yuri was struggling to remove her belt which was buckled in such a way that it seemed air tight.
“She gave you a nice tip. And you know them rich people, always cuckoo as clocks. And who knows, she might not be bogus afterall. You should have been more friendly. Next time, I’ll be the one to take her order. Maybe she’ll tell me when Mister Right will come.” Yuri had always been the one to have more interest in the occult. Even as a student photojournalist, her portfolio mainly consisted of the odd and unusual pieces: the girl that cried jewels, the monkey boy, haunted houses and many other bizarre shots that would look like a freak show’s diary when compiled.
“I’d appreciate it if she had given me a goose that lays golden eggs instead,” Sooyoung said sarcastically. But she was not really kidding. She needed a golden goose more than ever. Somehow, her wage in the Lioncourt is not enough to fund her everyday life especially now that she has stopped dating the rich older men who were always at her feet. “…and you should just go date Kris instead of waiting for Mister Right.” Yuri’s eyes widened as she covered Sooyoung’s mouth with her apron.
“Fuck off. He doesn’t like me. And we both think that dating friends is a no no. And besides I know who he likes,” she whispered and then proceeded to hang her own uniform beside Sooyoung’s.
“Tss… This girl. Why don’t you just go date Yunho then? You are a journalist and he is Seoul Daily’s future owner. That’ll be perfect. Haha.”
“Ew. Fuck you.”
It has been a running joke that Yunho and Yuri were dating ever since Yuri’s psychotic editor-in-chief, Luna, had an episode and accused Yuri of not concentrating on her work in the school paper because she was always out dating guys. These guys Luna the lunatic was talking about were the photogeeks. But since it was an open secret that Yuri liked Kris and making fun of that would be below the belt, Siwon was a monk, Youngbae is afraid of mammary glands and Jinki was Sooyoung’s ex, it was just natural that Yunho was the only choice left to make fun of.
"Anyway, your favorite customer left this for you" Yuri reached into her pocked and Sooyoung's brows met in a knot of confusion. It was a small doll made out of rags and pins. It had brown buttons for eyes and yarn for hair.
"A voodoo doll?" " And a calling card. Apparently she is called Madame Miriam, enchantress of the Nile." Yuri said in a funny accent while waving spirit fingers at Sooyoung's face.
Madame Miriam, enchantress of the Nile.
"That's not funny. You know what, just throw that away." Sooyoung turned her back and opened the zipper of her brown shoulder bag.
"But you might need it. Let's give it a name, SooWon." Yuri laughed as she played with the little doll, making it fly like a toy airplane.
"If you want, you can keep that thing along with this." Sooyoung stretched out her hand to give a silver lighter. It was a plain zippo that had a few scratches on it's sides.
"But this is your favorite lighter… don't tell me…. Who are you evil spirit? Where is my friend? Spit her out! Choi Sooyoung will never give up her favorite lighter and her Marlboros."
"I just did. Just did" Sooyoung smiled.
Yuri took the lighter in her hand, stared at it for a moment and her eyes panned back to her friend. She shook her head.
"Choi Siwon, what have you done to my friend?"
No comments:
Post a Comment