The chatter inside The Busy Bean Cafe became louder. There were about 30 people inside at that moment but all of them crowding together made the cafe look like it was some kind of an arena. Most of the onlookers were either gossiping with their friends or holding their cell phones up to take a picture or capture a video of what was happening.
When Nancy Jung noticed the noise, she realized that her ident.i.ty had been discovered. She became very nervous as she subconsciously scanned around the room and caught sight of how the crowd gathered and enjoyed what they were seeing.
"I can"t believe these two friends!"
"I didn"t know Nancy was like this."
"You really can"t know the person just because they smile beautifully on TV."
"These two are still new but they sure act so big!"
"Ha! I wonder how long they will last in the industry."
"I"m finished!", Nancy said in her thoughts. She wanted to yell at them but she stopped herself when she thought that it will only do her more harm. All the hard work that she did for the past months flashed before her and she suddenly felt nervous. How stupid was she to get aggravated just because of Samantha and Hannah? Were they really worth it to have her career go down the drain?
She bent down to pick up her cap and took out a mask from her bag. She quickly wore them and ran towards the door of the cafe. She didn"t even think of dragging Hazel with her as she no longer cared about that idiot friend of hers.
"Nancy!", Hazel called after her.
Nancy did not turn her head and just headed straight for the door as she maneuvered her way out of the crowd and out to the streets.
Hazel took another glance at Hannah and Samantha, she glared at them before she followed her friend Nancy Jung out of the cafe.
When the two of them left the cafe and were out of sight, Hannah finally breathed a sigh of relief as she leaned her back on the counter. Samantha went closer and patted her best friend"s shoulder. She was just about to say something when they suddenly heard a faint clapping sound from behind them.
The faint sound became louder in just a second until everybody joined in and cheered at the same time.
They probably enjoyed the show.
Hannah and Samantha turned to face the customers and Hannah just realized what she and Samantha had done.
Feeling guilty, Hannah walked a few steps forward and scanned the room. Showing a polite smile, she spoke, "I apologize for causing trouble this afternoon. All of you must be feeling very uncomfortable. To make it up to you, I will offer one free drink to everyone in the cafe. I hope everybody will understand and… I hope that you will still come back."
Hannah scratched her nose at that last sentence. It was the first time that she had ever experienced something like that and she didn"t know what she could do as the owner as there were only two possibilities: Customers will lose interest in her cafe and will no longer visit to avoid the bad vibes, or… they will come back because they didn"t mind what happened.
Right after Hannah announced, one customer from the back spoke in response, "Don"t worry! I will keep coming back! That was a good show after all!", everybody laughed at her comment.
Another one added, "I will definitely come back. You didn"t do anything wrong anyway. You only defended your staff. I would love to have a boss like you!"
Hannah chuckled, "Well if you"re serious about that, you can come for an interview anytime!"
The cafe was filled with laughter making the atmosphere relaxing despite the commotion from earlier.
Samantha and Hannah looked at each other and laughed as well. And as if they have the same mind, they high-fived.
"AAH!", Samantha yelped in pain and retracted her hand startling Hannah.
"Wh-why! What"s wrong? Did I do it too hard?"
Samantha looked at her hand and Hannah saw that it was reddened. She remembered how she slapped Andrew that one time and her hand hurt as well. Although this time, it didn"t hurt that much but she felt her palm and fingers were uncomfortable as if it was about to swell.
"It"s nothing, it will go away with just some ice.", Samantha said.
"That must have felt so good to slap Nancy huh?", Hannah asked while she checked her friend"s hand. "Come, let"s apply some ice on it."
Hannah told Samantha to wait for her upstairs on the roof garden while she prepared an ice pack.
The two of them sat on the benches in the patio. Hannah held Samantha"s hand and carefully applied the cold compress on her palm.
"How does it feel after slapping Nancy?", Hannah asked and glanced at her friend.
"I don"t know… but I guess it was satisfying.", she admitted.
Hannah laughed when she recalled what happened earlier, "Well it sure looked satisfying to see her getting slapped!"
"After many years of not remembering what happened back then, I feel like she"s familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.", Samantha thought about that time 13 years ago and how she got her memories back a few months ago. "But whenever I see her, I only see Mia…"
Hannah looked up to her friend and cautiously asked, "You aren"t blaming yourself still, are you?
Samantha raised her head and looked at the sky trying to find the right words to say. It had always been a sensitive topic for her but she had been trying to face it because she doesn"t want to go back to her dark moments anymore.
"Yes and No.", she paused and Hannah waited for her to continue, "I know I shouldn"t Han… but I guess there just isn"t anything in the world that could fill that void in my heart."
"I"m no longer very sad, but I still can"t help but feel bad about what happened. And when I see Nancy for what she is now, I feel even sad for Mia.", she added and Hannah stroked her friend"s arm to comfort her.
While the two friends were at the roof garden, they weren"t aware of what was currently happening online. News traveled so fast, the videos that the onlookers had taken earlier were already uploaded on the internet and had already gone viral in just one hour!
Because of this, curious people went over to the cafe very quickly even though the incident was no longer happening; they only wanted to see and imagine what happened inside. And in an hour, people started to gather outside of Hannah"s coffee shop.
Meanwhile, Daniel Cho who was in another meeting had no idea what happened to his fiancee until a.s.sistant Ahn told him.
Entering the meeting room, Ahn bent down to whisper the news to his boss. He had been told by Daniel that any news regarding Samantha, he must be informed right away.
And as soon as Daniel heard the news, he stood up from his seat. Big or small issues, as long as it was concerning Samantha, he could never ignore it. So without second thoughts, he decided to go to his lover.
Looking at the presenter in the front, he spoke urgently before leaving the room. "I have an emergency. Let"s end the meeting here."