If Kyungsoo had to describe himself he would use words like calm, collected, organized, reserved, introverted and polite. Of course he had his dorky and funny sides but those were only shown to people who were close to him.
To strangers or acquaintances however, Kyungsoo sometimes even seemed a little shy… and occasionally a little intimidating. This always kind of bugged the young man since he thought he was as intimidating as a fluffy baby penguin considering his small built and waddle-like way of walking (thanks to inheriting his moms  narrow hips but thick thighs, yay).  Nevertheless Luhan and Yifan keep trying to explain to him that his big, round eyes were pretty good at that I’ll-ing-cut-your-balls-off-and-make-you-choke-on-them-glare-thing and compared him to some creepy kid in a horror-movie all the time.

Apart from all of that Kyungsoo would say he’s just an, albeit a little too short and too big-eyed, average looking guy with good manners, silent nature and a very unspectacular life.
And still, all of this doesn’t stop his cheeks from adapting the colour of a ripe tomato and his inner voice to screech like a teenage girl on the peak of her pubescent boy-band-obsession as soon as a certain someone with broad shoulders and a dazzling smile walks into the little café Kyungsoo works in…

 As soon as the doorbell chimed at 3pm sharp, just like every Tuesday to Friday and occasionally Saturdays, Kyungsoo could feel his fingers get a little jittery and a eating grin stretching across Luhans face right next to him.

-“Stop smiling like that, you idiot”, the raven-haired man grumbled under his breath but his colleagues smile stayed, if not grew even wider. He was only three more strides away.

-“You look incredibly ugly when you smile like that”, Kyungsoo whispered again and Luhans expression suddenly shifted into something one could only describe as utterly offended. One stride away.

-“What did you just-“

-“Good afternoon, what can I get you today?”, Kyungsoo cut the other off by greeting the reason his voice suddenly sounded a pitch higher than before.

-“The usual”, a timbre voice answered, plump lips formed into a lopsided smile.

-“Not even asking for almond milk this time?” the barista internally high-fived himself for asking so casually without stumbling over his words.

-“Nah, given up on that”, the man on the other side of the counter said, shyly maintaining eye-contact with Kyungsoo, both silently shifting on their feet because the eye contact was so awkward but also really, really nice and their faces were so close and oh god, this guy’s cheekbones were probably moulded by angels.

-“Jongin, if you’re finished I’d like to order now”, a deep voice boomed as it snapped Kyungsoo out of his trance.

-“Yeah, sure, since this one’s on me”, Jongin said and smiled uncomfortably as he shifted aside to make space for his tall friend, who accompanied him most of the time.

-“A chocolate Frappuccino, please”, the lanky guy, Chanyeol was his name?, said, his loud voice making Kyungsoo squirm a little.

Over the months the barista had learned that the gangly giant either had no control over the volume of his voice or just didn’t care about his fellow quiet-loving citizens. Jongin and that Chanyeol-guy waited at the counter while Kyungsoo whipped up their orders with skilled movements. As he poured the lacto-free milk into a glass of Latte Macchiato he flashed an apologetic smile to Jongin, who’s lips curled into a fond smirk before he continued to talk to his friend.

Since the first time the other had entered Little Buffalos Café, he’d always ask if they had almond milk, as he was lactose-intolerant. Back then, Jongin always used to look down while he was talking and avoided eye contact at any chance. Sometimes Chanyeol ordered for him still asking for almond milk every single time- Needless to say, without success.

When Kyungsoo once asked why he always asked for almond milk when they also had lacto-free, the younger reasoned that he thought lacto-free tasted weird, mumbling almost incoherently, not looking up and playing with his phone instead.
How arrogant he is, never even bothering to look at the people he talks to, were Kyungsoos initial thoughts. But when he looked closer, he noticed the slight blush on the others cheeks and the way his slender fingers nervously scratched at the nape of his neck until the skin there shone in a hurtful looking red.

One time, when it was Luhan who served them and asked for their order Jongin almost hid himself behind his taller friend and tucked at his jacked as he murmured that Chanyeol should order. That’s when it dawned on Kyungsoo that the other wasn’t arrogant but simply very shy (and he totally didn’t find this super cute).

Never ever had Kyungsoo reacted that way to a person before, of course he had had crushes but they have never been as violent as this one.

Jongin was undeniably attractive, which was why the raven haired barista brushed his crush off as superficial attraction in the beginning of this dilemma; especially considering that Jongin seemed cold and arrogant before. At first sight, the young man seemed just like one of those popular collage-kids that probably partied a lot in the weekends and thought they were better than everyone else.

However, with time came change. Chanyeol and him frequently visited the café to relax after their classes or talk about studies and Jongin would sometimes even come here alone to cram for test or unwind after some sort of sports he did (the barista didn’t know what the latter exactly did, he just noticed his sports bag). During his visits Kyungsoo learned that the brown haired boy had a really dorky laugh and slapped the person next to him when he found something was funny (which happened a lot actually) and also he did that thing where he pulled his sleeves all the way down over his fingers like a shy school boy, oh, and he actually became super shy when pretty girls checked him out or smiled at him.

In the past year Kyungsoo got to witness that this handsome guy, who had all the visual requirements to be the towns biggest heartthrob, was nothing but an awkward, dorky laughing ball of fluff who wore his worn out converse even during the coldest months of winter.

In other words, Kyungsoo was metaphorically but sadly not literally, ed.

-“You know, for the sake of our friendship I’ll pretend that you didn’t just insult me”, Luhan chimed next to Kyungsoo after Jongin and Chanyeol had sat down, while cleaning the blade of the smoothie-blender.

-“Sorry, I just got kinda nervous”, he half-heartedly apologized.

-“I forgive you… but only because you are…”, the baby-faced man moved close to Kyungsoos ear, ”in looooooove” The shorter male only gave him an incredulous look in response.

-“What are, you- I am NOT in love”, the words came out in a hiss. Luhan nonchalantly ignored his colleagues remark and continued:

-“You know, it’s about time one of you two grows a pair of balls and asks the other out. You’ve been thirsting after each other for what? Almost a year?”  Kyungsoo could feel the heat rise in his cheeks and prayed that Luhan wasn’t talking loud enough for anyone to hear.

-“I am NOT thirsting after him, okay? He’s a regular costumer that happens to look good that’s all”, Kyungsoo squeaked unconvincingly and got back to wiping off the coffee spots on their working surface a little too forceful than necessary.

-“Careful, violence is never the answer”, Luhan commented. Kyungsoo only sent the other one of his infamous glares to make him shut up and lift his hands in defeat.

When Chanyeol and Jongin left after about an hour, Kyungsoo awkwardly waved goodbye. Jongin did the same but almost ran into the glass door in the process.
-“You know, just watching you two makes me ually frustrated”, Luhan said after they finally were out the door, pushing his black bangs back, blowing a raspberry.
Kyungsoo hit him with a table cloth.

///////////

Throwing himself on his bed, Jongin let out a long, exasperated groan. To Chanyeols question about what was wrong he simply let out another one. (Friends understood each other without words, right?)

 Running into the glass door right in front of the cute baristas eyes, way to go, Jongin.

He should’ve seen it coming. This time had run too smoothly, usually his visits to the café practically oozed with awkward happenings. That was partly because, unless the student was dancing, there wasn’t much gracefulness or mysteriousness in his nature and as far as Jongin knew, the barista was a little oddball himself-Which was cute but didn’t really make things easier.

-“Dude, is it because you ran into the door in front of that barista-guy?”, Chanyeol, his best friend and dorm mate, asked after Jongin had subconsciously begun to let out weird dying-whale like noises. Jongin lifted his head: ”No, it’s because it’s a little humid outside!”

-“Wow, didn’t know you were so weather sensitive-”

-“Of course it’s because I ran into the stupid glass door you walnut”, Face first, Jongin let his head drop into his pillow again.

-“Dude, you need to ask him out, like, for real. It’s getting really frustrating to watch,” his best friend said, rolling across the room in his swivel chair, because, well, he was Chanyeol, what else would he do sitting in a thing like this. Jongin only mumbled intelligible words into his pillow that went something along the lines of “You know it’s not that easy”. Maybe the pillow would understand better than Chanyeol.

-“Why isn’t it easy?” the maroon haired giant asked. His ears heard everything.

-“You know exactly why”, Jongin whined as he his back, burying his hands in his dark brown hair.

-“Yes, okay, I understand but take it as a chance to overcome this problem.”

-“But it’s not that easy…”, curling into foetus-position, Jongin proceeded to sulk in silence as Chanyeol entertained himself with his swivel-chair.
 

//////

-“Why don’t we take up almond milk in our repertoire?” Kyungsoo asked Yifan amidst cleaning the counter, trying to make the suggestion sound as trivial as possible.

Yifan and Luhan had gone to the same university as Kyungsoo back in the days, both studying business and economy with the plan to open their own coffee-house chain one day. However, their wealthy parents weren’t too excited about their ambitions and neglected to financially support the whole ado. But Yifan was stubborn and Luhan one of the most determined people known to mankind (in Kyungsoos opinion at least), so they ended up buying a run-down, empty business-space that used to be a toy store before the owner went bankrupt.

The shabby state of the establishment was the only reason the young men could afford buying it in the first place. They renovated the whole thing all by themselves after getting Kyungsoo into the boat of their idea. They knew it would be easy to convince their owl-eyed friend since the youngest of them only studied because his parents forced him to and he had no idea what else to do with his life. He immediately agreed to the project, even if the three of them had to survive on cheap ramyeon and ready-meals for half a year in order to pay for the materials they needed for restauration.

That was three years ago.

Tons of sweat, tears, arguments about the menu and a lot of annoying paper work later, Yifan was the manager, Luhan the Co-manager and co-barista and Kyungsoo in charge of serving customers as well as coming up with new coffee or smoothie creations once in a while. Theoretically he owned a third of Little Buffalos Café but he didn’t like having this kind of responsibility, which is why he had to ask the tall Chinese man when he wanted to change something.

 -“I’m sorry, what?” Yifan was putting the stools up the tables since they had closed a few minutes ago.

-“Almond milk,” the black haired barista repeated, “You know, some people prefer it over lacto-free.”

-“You mean Jongin prefers almond milk over lacto-free”, Luhan snickered from where he stood, obvious amusement glinting in his eyes.

-“Who the is Jongin?” Yifan asked clearly confused.

-“No one”, Kyungsoo quickly said, hoping he didn’t blush too hard, “So what do you think?”

-“No”, the owner simply stated continuing to turn the wooden chairs over to set them on the tables. The furniture always looked like it belonged in a doll-house compared to the ridiculously tall man.

-“But why?”

-“Because things like “almond milk latte” sound like some vegan-hipster- and I don’t want this to become a vegan-hipster-coffee-shop. Remember, we swore to each other that we would never ever let that happen.”

-“Yes, yes, I remember”, Kyungsoo sighed. In deed he did. How could he forget how the elder made them clutch their right hands over their hearts, each holding an almost burnt down tealight in the other and vow to “never ever ever ever do something to Little Buffalos that would make it seem like one of those modern, overpriced coffee brewing wannabe-coffeeshop abominations. “ They were all mildly drunk and overworked back then, three days before their official opening.

-“But”, the younger wouldn’t give up that easily, ”It’d just serve as a second alternative to regular milk.”

-“Soo,” the other rubbed his temples in an overdramatic gesture, “It all starts with almond milk and in the blink of an eye there are low-sugar, soy-induced coffee-atrocities on the menu and our baby is crowded with hipster-glasses wearing students draped in giant scarfs and dip-dyed hair!”

Luhan and Kyungsoo snorted at how serious their friend took this matter. Thus, the topic was officially dropped. The black haired barista tried to tell himself it that it was okay, even if it still bugged him more than it should. Luhans knowing grin was probably the worst thing about this situation right now. Lucky for him that blond haired little didn’t say anything further because it wasn’t a tablecloth Kyungsoo was holding this time but the freshly cleaned blade of the smoothie blender.

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a/N: Thumbs up if you get the Drake & Josh referece. 
*rolls ino the sun bc what even am I writing*