Chapter Text
POV: ROSIE
Roseanne Park was a young woman of many names. Roseanne was the name adorning her name tag fastened to her work apron. Rosie was what her friends called her. Her parents called her Chaeyoung. But right now, on her college’s campus message board she was Rosé.
Last night before going to bed, she had posted a frantic plea, begging for someone to give her notes for her statistics class. A class that she neglected to take her freshman year and was now paying for. But it seemed as though the gods were watching out for her because she had received a response.
(8:00pm) Businessasusual: Here’s a link to a Dropbox with my notes in it! Stats can be really tricky, so I’m happy to help!
Oh thank god.
(4:12am) Rosé: I owe you my life! I’m a music major so every time I look at a number my head spins. Seriously, thank you so much!
Now with that taken care of it was time for the other stressful part of her day. Work. It wasn’t like Rosie hated her job. She loved her co-workers and there were far worse things than being a barista. But she could live without having to wake up at four in the morning.
She sighs and heads out the door. The walk to the café isn’t far from her dorm and she wasn’t about to drop her hard earned money on an Uber to go like two blocks. Even if it meant walking in the dark.
After rushing down the streets Rosie arrived at the familiar building. She tapped on the glass door, gaining the attention of Jennie, the shift supervisor. Jennie walks over and unlocks the door, letting Rosie into the building.
“Morning. Did you see Nayeon walking up by any chance?”
“Nope. Haven’t seen her yet.” Rosie replies.
“Ugh of course not. I don’t know why the manager even bothers scheduling her to open. She’s never on time.”
Rosie lets out a laugh. “I can’t say I blame her though. It’s a miracle I’m here on time.”
Jennie sighs. “Well you can get started on brewing the iced coffee. I’m gonna pull the pastries.”
Rosie nods and begins her work in silence. Jennie eventually turns to her.
“You have statistics today right? Have any luck getting someone’s notes?”
“Yeah, no thanks to you. I had to resort to the message board!” Rosie teases.
“I’m so sorry I didn’t keep my notes from a class I took three years ago!” Jennie sarcastically replies.
The two of them laugh when suddenly they are interrupted by a tap on the door. They both raise their heads to see their missing coworker, Nayeon.
Jennie goes and unlocks the door allowing Nayeon entrance into the building.
“Good morning you two!” Nayeon says cheerily.
“Don’t good morning me! You’re fifteen minutes late!.” Jennie exclaims.
“But I’m here now! And I’m sure you and Rosie held down the fort in my absence.” Nayeon states with a cheeky grin.
Jennie pinches the bridge of her nose and shakes her head. “I don’t have the energy to argue with you right now. Clock in and get to work.”
Rosie laughs slightly. Nayeon was a first year grad student studying…honestly Rosie wasn’t sure what she was studying. She was kind of a mystery. Very friendly, if not a little…much.
Nayeon eventually gets clocked in and walks up beside Rosie.
“So, Rosie, how’d that blind date last week go?”
Rosie rolls her eyes. “So bad. I don’t know what Lisa was thinking.”
“What happened?”
“Some people just don’t know how to have a normal conversation.” Rosie sighs deeply. “I just want someone who actually has interesting things to say.”
Nayeon nods sagely. “You should start dating older women.”
Before Rosie can even respond to that, Jennie cuts in. “Nayeon, if you’re done giving terrible advice, could you go unlock the door? It’s time to open.”
Rosie takes a deep breath in. Time to start the day.
————————————————————
To say the work day had been trying would be an understatement. The constant rush of customers seemed never ending. It was only after a good two hours that they finally had a reprieve.
Nayeon seized the opportunity to take her lunch, leaving Jennie and Rosie alone. Jennie starts restocking various cups and syrups. Rosie decided to throw herself in cleaning. Just as she’s starting to get into the groove of it, she hears a voice behind her.
“Excuse me?”
Rosie sighs and turns around. She cannot catch a break this morning. “How can I help you?” Her tone probably sounded pretty annoyed but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
A slight chuckle comes from the customer. “Having a bad day?”
Rosie does a double take. She can’t say customers ask about her day very often. She takes another look at the customer. She’s a woman and can’t be much older than Rosie. She’s put-together, wearing nice clothes and not a hair out of place. She’s definitely pretty, that’s for sure.
The woman coughs slightly and Rosie realizes she’s been staring silently.
“Oh um…no it’s not bad, just stressful. It’s been busy and I have one of my tougher classes after this so…anyway what can I get for you?”
“I’ll have a medium black iced coffee and a medium soy latte.” The customer thinks for a moment. “And what’s your favorite pastry?”
“Oh uh…probably the cinnamon scone?”
“Great, I'll have one of those too.”
Rosie nods. “Do you want it warmed up?”
“What do you recommend?”
“I always warm it up personally.”
“Sounds perfect.”
Rosie gives the woman her total and she pays, walking to the end of the counter to wait. Rosie then goes to heat up the scone and notices this mystery woman talking to Jennie. After dropping off the pastry at the end of the counter, she heads to the back.
“Hey, Nayeon, do you know who that girl talking to Jennie is?”
“No idea.”
“You didn’t even look!”
Nayeon rolls her eyes and makes a show of looking up from her phone.
“Once again, no idea.”
Rosie just shakes her head in annoyance before heading back out to the floor. She catches the tail end of Jennie’s conversation.
“Well it was good to see you Jennie. I’ll see you around.” Mystery woman grabs her drinks and pastry. Before she leaves she walks up to Rosie and hands her back the scone.
“For you. I hope your day gets better…” Her eyes flit down to Rosie’s name tag. “Roseanne.”
And as fast as she came she left. Rosie sits in stunned silence. She turns to Jennie.
“Who was that? ”
“Hm? Oh that’s Y/N. She’s also a business major so her and I share some classes. We’re not super close or anything but she’s nice.”
“Uh-huh. Does she make a habit of giving random people scones?”
Jennie shrugs. “Like I said, I don't know her that well.”
Nayeon pops her head out from the back. “Maybe she was flirting with you! Did she leave her number on the pastry bag?”
“When would she have had time to do that? I handed her all of her stuff at once.” Jennie points out.
“It doesn’t matter guys. I was just caught off guard. I’m sure that will be the extent of our interactions.”
The rest of Rosie’s shift goes by relatively smoothly. At this point, she’s just ready to go. Eventually, her saviors arrive. The mid-shifts, Lisa and Momo walk in together.
Rosie raises an eyebrow. “Did you two carpool or something?”
“What’s with the accusatory tone?” Lisa laughs.
“Don’t mind her, she's just all flustered because she got flirted with via pastry today.” Nayeon teases.
“I did not! I just had a weird pastry themed interaction!”
“Right. Kinda sounds like you got flirted with.” Lisa jokes.
Rosie groans knowing this is going to be teasing fodder for a while. She turns to Momo.
“So did you guys carpool?”
Momo nods. “Yeah we both had an early dance class.”
Jennie pops her head out from the back. “Rosie, you can head out now that Lisa and Momo are here. Have fun with statistics!”
Rosie rolls her eyes. “I’m sure I won’t. See you guys later.”
She checks her phone as she begins the walk back to campus, noticing she has a new notification from the message board.
(7:30am) Businessasusual: Wow. You either stay up really late or get up really early. And honestly it’s no problem. Glad my freshman year statistics notes saved someone’s life!
Rosie snorts slightly and shoots back a response.
(8:45am): Rosé: I get up really early! It’s for my job. It’s not all the time but it means I have no sleep schedule.
Rosie puts away her phone and continues walking, a slight smile on her face, that even statistics couldn’t get rid of.