Every cloud had its lining, and it just so happened that the clouds that filled Yoona's world were lined with charcoal. At least that's the way she felt lately. She didn't have enough money to attend the local university full time, so she attended in the evenings. During the day, she worked full time at the small bookstore, "Book Nook," which was scheduled to close its doors permanently in less than two weeks. Yep, charcoal!
The number of customers had dwindled after the nearby mall opened up one of those large conglomerate bookstores, where the students that worked there didn't know the first thing about literature! How could her precious patrons not notice the difference in service and the value of her quality expertise in so many subjects! But it was the almighty 'South Korean won' that spoke in this economic slowdown. When it all came down to it, it was always about money.
The small bell above the door chimed signaling the customer's entry. She turned to greet the gentleman dressed in a suit, he wore turtle shell rimmed glasses, and his shoes had a distinctive pattern on them, alligator skin maybe? Fancy! Definitely not one of the local university students.
"Welcome, sir," she bowed a greeting. "Can I help you find anything today?"
The man appeared to be in his late 20's maybe early 30's at the most, he paused and slightly nodded his head, acknowledging her greeting.
"Travel Section," he said confidently.
Yoona's eyes lit up. She immediately became noticeably more animated, when she asked if he had any specific country in mind.
When he shook his head and replied, "Europe," he thought she was going to explode.
"REALLY!" she nearly belted out, "You're going to EUROPE? Oh my! Have you ever been to Europe before? Is this the first time? When will you travel?"
Her questions tumbled out, one after another. Ji Hoon Jung grinned at her enthusiasm, but declined to reply to her personal questions.
"Do you have any out of print, older books? I don't want the run of the mill, commercial tourist books."
She clapped her hands together once, which startled him and he gave a slight jump.
"I have just the thing!" she responded anxiously, oblivious to his reaction.
She moved toward the back of the store, and waved her hand at him to follow her.
"The books up here are all out of print, and are my personal favorites," she confided.
He spotted the spiral stairwell that led to an upstairs loft that was filled with more books. She climbed a few stairs, and paused.
Mr. Jung was about to follow when she turned an about face, and descended the few stairs she had climbed, brushing past him.
"You first," she instructed him.
"Why?" he was immediately curious at what strangeness might await him upstairs.
"Because…" she hesitated, and then flattened her skirt onto her legs. It wasn't an excessively short skirt, but it was short enough that he understood her meaning.
He smiled in response and patted her on the head, "Refreshing to know your kind still exist in this world." He alighted the stairs in a few bounds, and she quickly followed him.
She motioned for him to take a seat at a nearby table, which offered him a perfect view of the downstairs. As she walked down a few stacks she continued speaking in her rushed, excited volume.
"So since you're not going to divulge which country, it makes it a little hard to narrow to my recommendations…"
He heard her sneeze and smiled again at the loudness of it. It was not the typical dainty, female 'choo' sound, but a hearty, robust, 'boy-that-sure-felt-good' kind of sneeze.
"Sorry," she continued a second later, sniffling , "it gets a bit dusty up here, and the owner doesn't want to spend the time it will take to clean since he's closing it all down in a few weeks. So sad really because…."
He could hear her piling one book on top of another. Then another earth shattering sneeze that actually made him jump in surprise.
She continued her dialog as if she hadn't missed a beat, and he reached in his jacket pocket and removed a silken handkerchief. Even though he couldn't see her, he felt the need to offer it up.
"… we've got the best collection of quality books! Like these," she came around the corner and his eyes popped at the stack of books she was carrying. She looked like little Hermione Granger coming back from the library, only taller.
She gently placed them on his table, as if they were her friends.
"I think one of the best ways to get know someplace you haven't been to, is through someone else's eyes. It's the next best thing to being there yourself."
He nodded as she placed several large books in front of him. Then he silently handed her his handkerchief. She waved it away with her hand, and sniffed the air as she crunched her nose and lips together.
"These are some of my favorite scenic and landscape photographers," she offered, bending down next to him, leaning over his shoulder, flipping open the first book.
"Take this one, for example," she explained reverently, "Natasha Fadeeva captures the Russian landscape imagery in a way that makes you feel like you're right there!"
He glanced down at the images, and then back up at her. Ji Hoon noticed that she wore no make up. Her face was as clear, and soft as a new born. It was his job to know about skin, hair, fashion, and beauty in general, so he had no doubt that she was naturally attractive. She relaxed, almost in her own world, as she flipped the pages and her long blackish brown hair hung over one of her shoulders.
Ji Hoon studied her face, enjoying the fresh, non-surgical look. Her hair was unconditioned and non-processed, and he noted the dry ends. She didn't wear perfume, because she was close enough for him to notice the difference.
"How old are you?" he spoke for the first time since he was upstairs.
"I'll be twenty one this year," she responded without realizing she had revealed the personal detail.
She continued without taking a breath, "Now I think Dmitry Poliakov does nice work as well, but he focuses on country sides."
"Have you ever given any thought to modeling?" the agency CEO asked.
"What? No, of course not."
Something in her head clicked and she turned to face him, and noticed how incredibly close she was to this man's face.
She immediately stood upright, and backed up several feet. Her face blushed a profuse red and she felt instantly inclined to bow to him.
"Oh I'm so sorry!" she bowed a second time, "I … well… there it is. There you go!"
He chuckled at her innocent reaction and it told him all he needed to know about this fascinating young woman. She was honest. She was modest. There was nothing fake about her.
They were interrupted by the sound of the bell chiming again, and Yoona immediately spun around and scurried down the spiral staircase.
"Welcome," she greeted as she rushed over to three young men who entered. By the look of it, they were students from the nearby university.
The young men stood at the entrance, almost as one.
The door opened again, and this time it was another young man, carrying a large bag over his shoulder, and she also greeted him with a bow. He looked at her and then cleared his throat, "Excuse me," he maneuvered his way past the three young men blocking the entrance.
"Can I help you with anything," she asked to no one in particular, but to the collective group.
The first young man, and tallest of the group, sized her up, from head to toe and let out a soft whistle.
"Oh I'm sure you can help me with a LOT of things," he teased her.
His friends next to him laughed while the fourth young man merely kept walking deeper into the bookstore, glancing at the section titles on the racks.
"Any genre in particular?" Yoona tried to be polite.
"Well since you're closing down soon," the bolder boy raised his head and looked around the bookstore briefly, "you should offer a major discount for us right?"
"It's 50% off starting this Friday," she nodded.
"What?" asked another one of the three loudly, "We have to wait until Friday?"
"Oh I'm sure Miss Long Legs here will give us the discount," said the first boy confidently, "Now won't you?"
"I'd be glad to help you with the discount on Friday," Yoona said firmly. She glanced behind her to make sure the fourth boy was not causing any undue incident, remembering he had a large bag that would be easy to slip books into. He lowered himself to a squat, and she knew by where he was at that he was in the Photography section.
The first boy noticed the book ladder reaching up to the very top shelf, at least 30 feet above them, and he smirked.
"What kind of books are up there?"
Yoona turned to see where he was pointing, and the student nudged his friends on either side of him and pointed to her skirt. They instantly understood his meaning.
"Those are used text books," she explained.
"That's what we want."
"Which text book?" Yoona asked.
"Which ones do you have up there?"
When she squinted at him, she saw the knowing, snarky grin on his face, and folded her arms.
"I don't think we have what you're looking for."
"And how would you know that, until you go up and find out?"
"Because you don't have a title, author, or subject," Yoona wanted to kick them out of the store, but it wasn't her place to turn away potential business.
"That's just because we didn't write it down," said the third boy, proud that he could contribute to the conversation.
"Well then I suggest you come back on Friday," Yoona said between her clenched teeth, "Then you'll know the title, and you can have the discount as well."
The three moved as a group toward the ladder and the first student tapped it with his fingers.
"Are you refusing us service?" he asked in a puffed up way.
"Because I happen to know Mr. Choi, the owner, and he certainly would not be happy if you refused us service, now would he?"
Yoona rarely wore skirts to work, and this was exactly the reason why. It was idiots such as these that outlined her clouds with charcoal… they kept her from dressing as she pleased. She recognized the wolfish grins, wagging eyes, and lewd thoughts, having battled them off her entire life. Today she made the mistake of giving in to her desire to feel cool in the outside heat by wearing a skirt.
"Feel free to inspect the volumes yourself," Yoona offered as a compromise.
"What?" said the first student, "What do you think we are? We don't WORK here."
The two other friends chuckled and watched her, in anticipation of hoping she would alight the ladder in her short skirt.
They grew bolder by the minute, and the first, most arrogant of them, pulled Yoona by the wrist and placed her hand on top of the ladder.
"Up you go," he scoffed, "Ms. Long Legs."
Yoona was about to protest when she heard a scrapping of a chair, and looked up at the loft. Her gentleman customer upstairs was now standing, and loudly slammed shut a book.
At the exact same moment, she heard some very fast, repetitious clicking. It was the sound of a shutter, mechanical, and rhythmic. She turned her view from the loft to see the fourth customer, a young, and yes, rather handsome assumed student clicking away with a professional sized camera, the lens extending from his face.
He walked over to them, and turned the camera, so that the students could see the photos on the small 5" LCD display. He had captured each one of them, in close up shots.
"What would the university have to say about students that sexually harass women?" he stated instead of asking.
The three young men glanced above at the loft, and noticed the older man leaning on the railing, looking down at them, his face conveying his anger and disgust.
When the students quickly glanced from one to another, their leader let out a 'tsking' sound and responded, "Fine, we'll be back on Friday." And with that, they pushed their way out the door.
Yoona watched them leave, and turned to bow her thanks to this young man with the camera. Changmin Shim had already started to pack up the lens in to a shoulder bag when Ji Hoon came downstairs with a few books in his hands.
"Thank you," Yoona bowed a third time in the direction of Changmin.
He did not look up at her, but placed his bag on his shoulder and headed to the door. As he walked he paused briefly, as if he were going to say something to her. He glanced down at her bare legs, and shook his head.
And with that, he left the store.
Did he just silently insult her?
"It's hot outside!" she said aloud, to the door.
"And I wasn't supposed to come to work today!" she continued her boisterous explanation.
When she received no response she blew out a breath and turned to face the gentleman.
He nearly took a step back at the expression she had on her face. He could tell how perturbed she was, and stifled a laugh, because he knew it would only infuriate her.
"Imbeciles," she whispered under her breath.
She walked up to the man and took the books from his hands and glanced down at his selection.
"Romania?" she questioned and the furrow in her brow disappeared. "Really?"
Ji Hoon responded with another nod, and she walked over to the cash register.
"Home of the Blue Danube," she said softly, almost to herself. She ran her fingers across the cover of the top book, almost in reverence.
"So it's Eastern Europe that you're interested in," she confirmed to herself while she peered at the second book. "You really will enjoy it there. Not that I've ever been, but I can only imagine…"
"Why don't you go?" the gentleman asked as he placed a black credit card on the counter.
She had heard of these cards before, but this was the first time she had actually seen one up close. She raised it up and saw that there were no numbers on the card, only a name, embossed in gold, "Rain." These were the cards that had no credit limit. You could buy a car or a house with this card. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"You're kidding, right?" She pointed to the sign above the cash register, "Cash Only."
"Sorry," he apologized, "I don't have any cash on me at the moment."
"Maybe you can come back on Friday," she offered. "It will be 50% off then."
"Can you hold them for me?"
"Oh yes, but I doubt anyone else will be looking to buy these," she grinned.
"Who should I ask for?"
"I'll be here," she responded.
"Yes, and you are?"
"Oh," she understood, "Yoona. I am Yoona Im."
He naturally extended his hand out, offering a handshake and smiled at her hesitant response.
"Ji Hoon Jung," he shook her hand firmly and confidently.
"Are you American?" she asked, surprised at the handshake. She handed him back his black credit card.
"No," he chuckled, "Old habits die hard."
Yoona tucked the two books behind the counter and then leaned forward, placing her chin in her palm, and elbow on the top of the counter.
"America, Romania…" she said to out loud, but he could tell she was talking to herself again. "Your clouds all have platinum linings, don't they?"
Ji Hoon grinned as he walked out of the store. What a stroke of luck! He pulled his Blackberry phone from his breast pocket and pressed a speed dial number.
"Listen," he instructed to the person on the other end, skipping a greeting altogether, "I'm in Hongdae. There's a bookstore here called Book Nook. Young girl, 5'8", slender, flat-chested, bowlegged, by the name of Yoona Im."
He paused and checked his watch, realizing he was late for his next meeting.
"She's smart, so make sure she gets a decent wage."
He listened for a few seconds and his voice grew firmer, "What do you mean what for?"
He ran his fingers through his perfectly styled hair, impatient with the inquisitor on the other end of the pone.
"Hire her as my assistant. I want her as my Girl Friday!"