Work Hours: A FC/UC Short

Starbucks
New York City
United States of America
September 2120

“You doing alright, Free?” Elena asked.

Ansel nodded as he typed furiously on his laptop, the barista watching as he multitasked left and right. On one hand, he was chatting with someone on Facebook (most likely the Senior Editor). On another hand, he was busy working on post-processing a batch of pictures he had taken of Gong Jae-Hwang. There was an external drive plugged into the device and he was muttering things under his breath, words coming out short and quick.

Beyond the appearance of someone working extremely hard during his break, however, Elena could see the exhaustion in his eyes and in his stiff from. The brunette lady frowned slightly, taking the mug he had brought and going back to her station. Luke glanced up from the cash register and saw said mug. “Refill?”

“He needs it.” Elena watched as Luke took the mug, swiftly going to one of the machines and refilling it until froth gently graced the top. “How many?”

“If I’m right, it’s been his third since he got here.” Luke looked curiously at the lone man, “Doesn’t he come here to take a break?”

“He comes here to take a break and keep working,” she sighed. Luke patted her shoulder and handed the mug, she thanking him and leaving the counter once more. She tapped Ansel’s shoulder gently and he paused to look at her, one of the earphones now dangling over his shoulder. “Refill.”

“Right – thanks, Lena, I didn’t know I needed it…” Ansel took the mug and a slow sip, fingers trembling slightly as they held on. “I’m practically making out of the shop at this point,” he complained, and Elena snorted. She pressed a kiss onto his forehead and the male smiled a little at the affectionate action.

“Don’t worry about it. We don’t mind just as long as you keep buying,” she teased. Ansel stuck his tongue out at her and she swatted his shoulder gently, the male soon resting the mug a good distance away from his gadgets. “You hungry?”

“A little bit,” he admitted. Ansel scrambled for the empty plate and used fork, grimacing. “…fuck. How long have I been in here?”

“Just an hour.” Elena took the dinnerware from his hands, “You’ll be staying for your whole lunch break?”

“That’s very likely,” Ansel sighed. “…can I have another one of the sandwiches, Lena?”

“Of course.” She gave his shoulder a squeeze, “I reserved two more for you.”

The male gave a guilty smile and turned back to his laptop, opening the web browser once more and starting to type at lightning speed.

Sighing quietly, Elena went back to the counter and deposited the plate and fork into space allocated for dirty dishes. “Your man still hungry?”

“I don’t blame him.” Elena prepared the BLT sandwich as well as one of the banoffee pies on display, setting the dishes on a plate. “He didn’t really eat much this morning,” she explained to Luke. Luke nodded and wrote a customer’s name on a cup, showing it to her briefly before passing the cup to another barista who began to prepare the newcomer’s order.

“Huh…as long as he keeps buying, I’m not complaining.” Luke joked. “Should I add that to his tab?”

“Just the BLT.” Elena smiled slightly as she poured a little more syrup onto the pie, “The banoffee’s on me this time around.”

“You’re such a kickass girlfriend,” Rayne commented with a sweet smile. “Does Ansel take care of you or are you the one taking care of him?”

“We take care of each other,” she replied calmly. Rayne giggled and continued making the drink, the sound of blending and handling the register filling the air for a good few minutes. The sound of productivity, as well as the gentle murmur of chatter in the café, was one of the things Elena liked about working on a coffee shop. Resting a knife and fork on the tray, she picked it up soon after and was about to take it to the booth where Ansel was working.

To her surprise, he was already there, in front of the counter and wearing that smile of his. “Allow me.”

“You’re working,” she chided. He leaned in and kissed her cheek, hands taking the tray from grip.

“So are you, Lena. I’m not the only customer here.”

“You’re my customer.” She tapped his nose but let him carry the tray, “But alright. Enjoy your meal.”

He winked at her before leaving, and she watched with a fond smile as he returned to his place and began eating instead of continuing working. Rayne nudged her gently. “You have it bad.”

“The idiot’s my soul mate.”

* * * * *

Upon getting to know Ansel for the first few weeks, Elena assumed that his job at the film studio was pretty easy. Based on what he had told her, what she imagined was something like him taking videos and running errands every once in a while. However, when the time came that she caught him panicking and compressing two videos at once, her vision of his job as laidback and easy shattered.

Whenever he would visit the shop during his lunch breaks, he was either there to cool down or to continue working – there was no in-between. He always sat in the same booth that Luke joked about letting Ansel buy the spot for himself. Each time Ansel was there, he tried to order something new but always found himself going back to a classic BLT and any sweet coffee available.

Whenever at home, Ansel would try to rest. On the late nights, Ansel would be cursing and growling as he worked on his video editing on his main computer. Elena would watch, quietly rubbing his back while he worked on the videos. There would be a cup of coffee to his left and baked goods from Marion on the table. Once, Elena merely read while waiting for him to finish. Upon looking up, she was surprised to see him with his head leaning forward and eyes closed.

(She then proceeded to wake up and coax him into sleeping. It was 7AM in the morning.)

He went without sleep sometimes. Elena knew and oftentimes tried to get him to make up for sleep during the weekends, but he would insist on taking her out as recompense for not spending too much time with her on the weekdays. Preferring him to sleep soundly during the weekends, Elena would wake up much earlier and quietly turn off his alarm.

Ansel would often wake hours beyond his alarm and would panic.

Elena would merely smile from her position on the bed, set her drawing tablet down, and push him back on the bed.

* * * * *

“This,” Ansel began with a serious voice, “is something that absolutely no fucking one should know about. Aside from the rest of you.”

Jae-Hwang glanced at the rest of the people gathered in the Free-Jones apartment: Elena Jones, Rayne Ho, Marion Salazar, and Kyle Geronimo. “So, the usual people.”

“Counting us of course,” Ansel rolled his eyes, “Since you’re the main feature and I’m the asshole who was assigned to post-processing your shoot and finalizing the edits on your promotion video.”

“Wait – what?” Marion stared hard at Jae-Hwang, to which the latter smiled. “What the fuck is Free talking about?”

“Is this what you were hinting to me?” Rayne asked excitedly. Elena couldn’t help but smile; she also knew what Ansel had been up to. The only ones not in the know were Rayne, Marion, and Kyle. Kyle lifted a brow.

“I have a feeling that Marion will cut off my circulation, granted how hard she’s squeezing my arm right now,” he deadpanned. Marion ignored that and tapped her foot on the ground.

“What the fuck are you waiting for, Free? Show it already!”

Ansel merely stayed silent, made sure his laptop and TV were connected, and calmly maximized the window of an application. On the larger screen appeared Jae-Hwang, and the video was paused. Rayne blinked.

And then Ansel pressed play.

The video comprised of Jae-Hwang during his photoshoot that had taken place only a few weeks back. There were different takes of him posing, walking, and looking into the camera with intense and made-up eyes. All of them were watching silently, Ansel in particular, as the thirty-second video flickered from Jae-Hwang’s face to a black screen with white text containing Jae-Hwang’s name in Hangul.

Under that was the name of a modeling company they knew Jae-Hwang was trying to get into for ages.

When it ended, Rayne squealed and locked her arms around Jae-Hwang, who was laughing. Marion yelled a holy shit and began to yell at Jae-Hwang, demanding why he didn’t tell them sooner and why he had kept it as a secret. Kyle could only try and calm Marion down while Ansel chuckled amusedly.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned his head to see Elena resting her head on his shoulder. “Nice job,” she whispered.

“That was all Jae-Hwang,” Ansel replied. He focused his attention on the three who were congratulating the model, “I just had to make his shots and video pretty.” Elena shook her head and moved her arms down, lacing her fingers with his and squeezing his hand.

“That was you too.” She pressed a kiss onto his shoulder, “I’m proud of you, Retel.”