Jongin sighs absent-mindedly as he feels the cool breeze of LA washing through him while he enters the cafe in Larchmont Blvd called “Go Get Em Tiger”. He remembers this morning how his sister and manager were throwing fits when Jongin said he wanted to walk around the city alone.

 

What if the fans caught you without any guards? How are you going to survive when your English level is worse than an elementary schooler’s? she lashed out at him as she was munching her toast. Jongin just rolled his eyes: You know I will be fine. I’m already twenty two….and if something happens, what’s the point of having phones, right?

 

As he enters the cafe, soothing yellow wallpaper welcomes him with the toasted yellow light illuminating from the bulbs on the ceiling with the fragrant smell of coffee and tea. He indulges himself in the sweet scent. Coffee might taste like poison to Jongin but he definitely loves the smell of it. The cafe is not as large as other cafes he has seen while walking around the city. It’s probably even smaller than the living room in his dorm but somehow it feels cozy. And oh look, there’s even a black and white artline painting of an astronaut up on the left side of the wall and-

 

“What would you like sir?” a soft voice makes Jongin turn around; and he is met by a chubby man who is a head taller than him who’s smiling from ear to ear. Oh . He’s speaking English. Jongin mentally slaps himself. As he freezes in his spot thinking of what the cashier is saying the cashier once again reminds him: “Order? Sir?”

Oh! Order! I know this!

“Uhm…” He frowns as he is figuring out what to do. Menu, menu where are you?

“Oh sir, you can choose from our blackboard menu over here.” The chubby American cashier replies as he is still smiling from ear to ear.

“Uhm... one “White China” tea please”. Jongin orders in his best English skills as possible. Wow. I’ve just ordered in English. Well done, Jongin. Jongin sighs in relief as he take the receipt from the chubby cashier.  

 

The moment Jongin flops himself into a seat, he presses the heel of his palm on his eyes, digging until it will hurt. He wants to bang his head on this coffee table, just to dissipate all the stress he’s been dealing with in his life. Concerts. His ex-girlfriend (who dumped him). His back problems. Members leaving. Et cetera and Et cetera. This week, these eight days were supposed to be his break: his get away. But of course the perks of being a member of EXO is blocking his getaway. From the moment Jongin entered Incheon Airport to LAX, he knew that fans were still watching him steps by steps. Don’t take him the wrong way, he loves his fans but sometimes he needs a breath as well. For some reasons, Jongin thought the sunny loving Los Angeles was the perfect place. I can’t believe you chose LA as your “getting a breath” get away, seriously Jongin. He remembers his sister mocking him about his so-called horrible getaway locations. (though she still follows him to the other half way of the world because quoted: “I need some shopping and who’s going to take care of you, Mr.KFC?).   

I should have chosen Maldives or something, Jongin thought to himself.

 

As Jongin waits for his tea and stressing about his miserable life, suddenly an Asian girl rushes through the door as if she just finished a marathon. She dresses in her sleeveless sunny white lace dress. It looks as if she’s ready for a nice cup of latte and just chill with her book. However, she is constantly frowning and glancing at her brown Daniel Wellington watch every 5 seconds and pestering the chubby cashier.

 

“Can you hurry up, I’m already late for a date? Please please please” The impatient girl flails her arms exaggeratedly to the poor cashier.  She should seriously chill though, Jongin thought. At the same time, the buzzer’s sound on the table signals him to get his tea, while the girl is still tapping her feet impatiently beside the counter.

 

“Here is your China White tea, sir. Please be careful it’s hot”. The cashier warns Jongin.

 

“Here is your Yellow Petal tea, mam’. Sorry for making you wait.” As Jongin is ready to grab his boiling cup of tea back to his seat, the impatient girl is already leaning dangerously over him to take her own. And before Jongin can even realize what has happened, the girl is screaming “!” at his face, horrified. Within the matter of 5 seconds when Jongin is back to his senses, all he sees is half of his boiling cup of tea is all over her arms and her white pristine dress.

 

“So...rry…” Jongin mumbles his apology and backs away stunned. . . . . This can’t be happening. My life is already stressed enough.  He tries to grab the tissue by the counter as fast as he can to clean her arm, but he already finds himself tripped on the floor-

 

“” The girl screams again. Jongin watches in despair as the rest of his tea spills on the floor, the foam cup rolling slowly to the girl’s feet. Great. Another thrown at my face. Why was he so clumsy today?

 

“Sorr-”

 

“No! Don’t say anything else! Just. Go. Please..” Before Jongin could apologize for the second time, the impatient girl already holding her hand up, signals him to shut up.

 

“S..or-” The poor idol tries again when he sees the skin on her arms becoming red. Wait. Did I just hear her swear shibal*? (Shibal= in Korean)

 

Jongin watches as the girl wears a blue sweater and her white high knee socks. I burnt her ankle too? Crap. He mentally slaps himself for the millionth time while drinking on his new cup of tea (that the cashier was so nice to give him for free after all the troubles he caused).

 

All Jongin can do is sitting on his seat, looking like someone just killed his precious puppies and thinking about how he can redeem his sin. Not to mention, the girl is still sending daggers to him across the room. Then suddenly the girl stops and smiles at the guy who has just approached her table. Phew. Jongin thought.

 

Jongin observes as both of them bow and greet each other across his seat.

 

“Annyeonghaseyo” The girl smiles widely at the man. Ah..so she is Korean. Jongin sighs in relief even though he doesn’t know why, it’s not like it will make her less scary. Korean women are scary, he knew it the moment he was born. And if she’s korean…what if she recognized him?

 

Even though Jongin can only see the newcomer from his back and a small part of his face, however, he can tell he is somewhat well-off with his proper black suit, Oxford shoes and that Rolex watch Chanyeol always wanted to have.

 

“So...what university do you attend, Haein-ssi?” The man asks, while sipping a cup of tea.

Her name sounds 50 times less scarier than herself. Jongin notes to himself.

 

Before Haein could answer, the newcomer already has interrupted “Don’t tell me you go to some liberal art college…” The man scoffs.

 

“I’m a student at UCLA. University.of.California, Los.Angeles”. Haein forces a smile, emphasizes each letter.

 

“Oh. Not bad.” The man nods. Then the man bombards Haein with more (stupid) questions for the next 15 minutes. How much do you weigh, do you work out a lot, etc. Jongin quietly listens to them all, and surprisingly to him, Haein answers patiently everyone of them. He never knew stalking people on their blind date could be so fun, amusing too.

 

When the man is ready to check another question out of his list in his leather notebook, Haein abruptly stands up, and she does not look happy. The rich man just simply blinked.

 

“What’s wrong?” The man then looks up and down at Haein, judgingly.

 

“What’s wrong?” Haein shoots back.

 

“Are you feeling hot? Do you need some air? Because man...that awful looking blue sweater….and those out-dated fashion high knee socks...is making me feel like we’re in Alaska. Who wears high socks with heel-” The man points to her clothes mockingly. Jongin frowns and about to get up as he heard the man, but stops in his track because he knows this is not his business.

 

“Well I do. And by the way, the tea you were enjoying so much was actually mine. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some air away from all of your stupid questions. It was so great to meet you.” Haein scoffs a laugh and rushes out the door, leaving the rich man stunned in his seat.

 

“Ha ha…” The stunned man turns around to Jongin and forces a laugh. Well, who told you to be such an with that great face of yours. Jongin watches as the man leave the cafe right after.

 

I should go as well, should I tell the cashier to reserve Haein a cup of tea for next time? Wait. What if she doesn’t even go here often. Jongin thinks to himself as he about to leave then a soft tap makes he turns around. It’s the chubby cashier again.

 

“I think you should give this back to her”. He smiles widely as he hands Jongin a book. Book? This is not his.

 

“Ah...No..No..Not mine” Jongin tries to explain with his arms. I should really learn English properly.

 

“But you know her right? The girl?” The cashier nudges. Girl? Is he talking about Haein? Know? Well he spilt all his boiling tea on her body, so the cashier can say he knows her a bit.

 

“Ok.” Jongin doesn’t know why he accepted to keep her book and stayed at the cafe. How is he even going to give it back to her? He glances back at the book he’s holding for the past hour. He recognizes the beige and pink cover. “Me...Before….You..? Jojo Moyes? Ah! 미 비유! ” Jongin exclaimed. He cannot register the fact that scary girl also reads one of his favorite book. He must admit this is one of the unordinary one he usually likes to read but he likes it nevertheless because it’s more than just a romance novel. Though this is the first time he’s read  the English version.

 

As Jongin opens the first page, he sees the page title is decorated with hearts and butterflies in different colours. In the middle of the page lies a neat korean writing “From Min Jun oppa to Haein” with a heart beside it.

 

“Uhm..I think that’s my book?” A voice startles Jongin from his thoughts, making him jump from his seat. And it’s no other than the girl he spilt his tea on who’s sitting right in front of him. She crosses her arms, staring at him expectedly in her blue Alaska sweater.

 

.

 

“Oh yea...it is…” Jongin shyly hands back her the book, but he takes it back immediately before she can reach for it. Not so fast!

 

“What do you think you are doing?” Haein’s face contorts into frustration.

 

“How do you know I’m Korean?” Jongin raises his eyebrows, tensed, searching for any recognition in her eyes. But he finds none and relaxes.

 

“Well...who told you to eavesdrop my date and laugh?” She reasons as she’s leaning over him to take the book away from her. But Haein’s 5’2’ feet height and Jongin’s lean 6 feet body isn’t helping her a lot. Cute. Jongin chuckles when she’s failing left and right trying to get her novel.

 

“Look.I’ll give it back to you if you accept my apologies for spilling tea on you. It’s already late, both you and I need to get back home” He summarizes the situation.

 

“Fine?”

 

“Fine.” After a while, Haein gave in. Jongin smiles in relief.

 

“And I should probably go now..” Haein says as she points towards the exit.  

 

“But you hated the date anyway, didn’t you.” Jongin comments before he can stop himself, face serious. Great. Jongin. Great.

 

Haein scoffs a laugh. “Can you not act like you know me so well? It’s not like you are any better than him.”

 

“Aren’t I?” Jongin smirks confidently as he looks into her eyes sincerely. Haein looks away, face red. Why is this guy so confident all of a sudden? He was literally just struggling to say sorry to me 3 hours ago. I should have just keep talking in English.

 

“I don’t even know who you are, creep.” Haein retorts back, still not looking at his face.

 

“Do you want to, then?”