“Who are they?”

Mingyu raises his eyebrows to Jihoon’s question, “hm?”

Jihoon points a group of boys with his chin, “the boys over there. I’m pretty sure I never seen them before.”

Mingyu looks at the direction Jihoon pointed, “they are basically – hmm, how should I call them? – a group of college students, just like you. They’re regulars since a few days ago, when you’re hospitalized.”

The younger boy looks at those six boys. They are laughing quite loud, well, not all of them. Two boys are very quiet. The blonde one with curly hair looks lost, he looks like he doesn’t get what his friends said. The boy with sharp jawline next to him seems constantly takes care of the blonde one, explaining the conversation to his ears. And the other quiet boy is a black haired one with sharp eyes. He looks busy with his book and sometimes smiling to respond his friends’ conversation.

“Jihoon, do you want to stay here and watch them or do you want to change your clothes and work?” Mingyu nudges Jihoon’s upper arm with a bread tongs.

“Ah,” Jihoon blinks his eyes a few times. He hasn’t change yet and he doesn’t want Soonyoung to yell at him in the first day of coming back to work. “I’ll be right back.”

***

They’re here again, all six of them. Like usual, four of them are talking and laughing, one of them needs some help from his friend, and the other one is busy with his own world. But today, the last boy is not reading his book. He keeps checking his phone and steals two or three glances outside the coffee shop.

“Mingyu, do you know their names?” Jihoon asks out of his curiosity.

“Yes.”

Jihoon looks at Mingyu. The taller one puts down the bread one by one to the shelf before looking at the smaller boy. Jihoon’s cheeks turn pink.

“Do you have a crush on one of them?” Mingyu shifts his gaze to the still-laughing boys.

“N-no.”

“Hm, well, in case you’re hiding something from me. I’ll tell you their names. That black hair boy with dimples is Seungcheol, how do I know him? He has a crush on my beautiful boyfriend and once sent Junghan a box of chocolate. Much to his dismay, Junghan doesn’t like the chocolate and I ate all the chocolate. He thought Jungha-“

“Man, I asked their names, not your story,” Jihoon rolls his eyes.

Mingyu snaps his fingers, “ah, I’m sorry. Okay, we’ll move to the next person. That boy with brown locks is Vernon. He is a friend of mine when we were in 7^th grade. And the one next to Vernon is Joshua. I know him because Vernon introduced him to me.”

“Okay, next?”

“I’m done.”

“The other three?”

“I don’t know.”

Jihoon stabs Mingyu’s cheek with his closed-lid pen, “you said you know their names.”

“Aren’t three of six people a ‘their’?” Mingyu rubs his cheek.

“ you.”

“No, thank you. I’d rather have Junghan s me, instead of you. Now let me get back to my job making delicious cakes before Soonyoung fire me,” Mingyu walks to kitchen in the back of the coffee shop. “Adios.”

Jihoon curses on the taller boy until the bell on the cashier’s counter rings. Jihoon turns around to find the bookworm boy stands there, looking up at the big menu above the cake display behind Jihoon. His eyes squint to see the letters on it clearly. Jihoon walks closer to the bookworm boy; he smiles politely, “may I help you?”

“Yes, please,” his husky voice reaches Jihoon’s ears and makes him blush. “I want an iced Americano and… Can you recommend me a cake?”

Jihoon averts his gaze when his customer looks at him. Clumsily, he turns around to take a look at the big menu, “umm, d-do you like sweet cake o-or not?”

“No,” he replies.

“L-lemon cake?”

“Lemon cake sounds good. An iced Americano and lemon cake, please.”

Jihoon turns around to face his customer again. He touches the computer screen to process the payment.

“Please put the bill under Seungcheol’s name.”

“S-sure,” Jihoon nods as he does his job. Shyly, he looks up at the bookworm boy, “I’ll bring your order to your table. Please wait a minute.”

The boy smiles at him, nodding, “okay, thank you.”

“Y-you’re welcome,” Jihoon mutters under his breath. As the boy left the cashier’s counter, Jihoon squats himself down, trying to cooling down his heated cheeks. Mingyu – with a tray full of macaroons – looks at his friend in confusion. He walks to the cake display, putting the macaroons on the empty shelf as he steals a glance to Jihoon.

“What are you doing down there? Playing hide and seek with a customer?” Mingyu asks.

Jihoon shakes his head. His hands are cupping his own cheeks, “no.”

“So?”

“I’ve talked to him.”

“Who?” Mingyu finishes putting the macaroons.

“The bo-,” Jihoon shakes his head again. He gets up.

“Your crush?”

“Shut up. I need to make an iced Americano,” Jihoon walks past Mingyu.

“You know your cheeks are pink, right?” Mingyu chuckles.

“Kim Mingyu, shut up,” Jihoon grabs a glass.

“I’ll wait here so I’ll know who your crush is. I’m curious,” Mingyu gives Jihoon a smug grin.

“Get back to the kitchen, Kim Mingyu,” Jihoon pushes Mingyu to the door next to cake display.

“Okay, okay, you don’t have to push me like this,” Mingyu pushes Jihoon’s hands on his arm. Sulking, he walks back to his work area.

***

It’s just another day those six boys – including the bookworm boy, come to the coffee shop. Like a few days ago, the said boy orders an iced Americano with a slice lemon cake. This time, no waiters in charge to bring the food to him, Jihoon needs to do it by himself. And Jihoon swears he never seen a boy so beautiful up close like today. This bookworm boy is seriously like a well sculptured statue. His jawline, his nose, his lips, his eyes, his cheekbones, everything about him is so amazing. And Jihoon can’t forget his husky voice, too. When the boy said ‘thank you’, Jihoon can feel himself melted down inside. Don’t forget his skin. Jihoon accidentally brushed his hand on the unknown boy’s hand when he put down a glass of Americano on the table. He felt a tingling feeling when their skins touched. How Jihoon wishes he can touch more of him.

“Mingyu, what if I have a crush with our customer?”

“There are two possibilities, man.”

Jihoon looks at his best friend.

“One, the customer likes you back so probably he’ll keep coming back here just to see you. Two, the customer doesn’t like you and he comes back here because he loves my handmade cakes,” Mingyu points at his cake on the display with a big proud grin.

“I thought even if he doesn’t like me he’ll keep coming back here for my coffee,” Jihoon glares at Mingyu.

“I can make coffee too, just like you,” Mingyu shrugs.

“I’m being serious, Mingyu.”

“Me too. Make a cup of coffee is easy. You know-“

“I have a crush.”

Mingyu blinks his eyes a few times, “don’t lie to me.”

“Why would I ever lie to you?” Jihoon stomps on Mingyu’s foot.

Mingyu knocks Jihoon’s head, “who is this person?”

“Promise me you won’t tell anyone.”

“I’m just going to tell it to Junghan,” Mingyu shrugs.

“Kim Mingyu…”

“Fine. Who is this unlucky person?”

Jihoon squints his eyes at Mingyu’s question, “I’m not going to tell you.”

“Ji-“

“Excuse me; can I have extra tissues, please?” A husky voice cuts Mingyu’s words. Jihoon turns his head to the customer and automatically, his cheeks turn pink as he shifts to the cashier machine, grabbing some tissues and hands them to the customer.

“Thank you,” the customer gives him a small smile after taking the tissues.

As the said customer leaves the previous spot, Mingyu looks at Jihoon. Realizing his friend’s cheeks are now pink, Mingyu laughs loudly, “Jihoon, do you know your cheeks are pink? It’s so obvious you have a crush on him!”

All the customers on the coffee shop – including the owner of that husky voice – turn their heads to the cashier counter with furrowed eyebrows just to see the smaller boy punching the taller boy with his fist. The taller one laughing uncontrollably meanwhile the smaller one finally realizes that they were causing a mini chaos. Jihoon bows to the customers before pushing back Mingyu to the kitchen, mumbling about how Mingyu is so stupid.

***

“They were talking about you,” Seungcheol points his finger at his back, to the cashier behind the counter. Two of the employees on that coffee shop were laughing earlier after one of them shouted about how his friend has a crush on someone.

Wonwoo raises his eyebrows as he sits next to Joshua, “No, they were not talking about me.”

“Let’s bet on this,” Junhui chuckles.

“What?” Minghao looks at him.

“When will Wonwoo breaks his own promise about not dating until he’s graduate,” Junhui grins.

“Count me in!” Seungcheol puts his fist in the air.

“That sounds interesting. I want to know it too,” Vernon nods.

“Me too, me too!” Minghao nods eagerly.

“Am I a betting object?” Wonwoo scratches his nose.

“No, it’s just fun to make a bet on you because you’re unpredictable. Joshua, will you join us this time?” Junhui pats Joshua’s back.

Joshua looks at Wonwoo, grinning, “sure.”

“I thought you’re on my side,” Wonwoo rolls his eyes at Joshua.

“Not this time,” Joshua shrugs.