Skye wasn’t ready to admit that the bed was a dream to sleep on, but she woke up feeling more at ease than she could ever remember. But that could also have been from the glowing sunrise streaming through her balcony door, the complete utter silence telling her that she had the place to herself, or the faint smell of coffee drifting through the window she’d left ajar (after a lot of internal debating, considering that it was a completely open window meaning no bug mesh whatsoever). And she would have loved to lounge in bed, but a growling stomach forced her up and to her shower (thanking that her father had at least picked a place with a Western style shower, she wasn’t really in the mood to figure out anything else).

                Hair fluffed and in a towel above her head, Skye’s mood was surprisingly bright and she decided that since Junmyeon’s muffin was long gone, she might as well try and find the source of the coffee smell outside and hope they served breakfast. Seeing as how it was daylight, Skye donned her light coloured clothes. Light blue wash jeans and an adorable white blouse put her ‘daytime persona’ in place.

                It was a system she’d devised, because Skye’s main problem in life was that she was interested in so many different parts of life, parts that usually didn’t intersect. And she reacted so differently in each place, she had to, if she didn’t adapt when she was in dirty bars with a bunch of no-good out of towners then she had no doubt she would have been robbed pretty quickly at the least. But the rash, loud, impulsive person she became there wasn’t fit for the society that ‘Haneul’ belonged to. Hence, daytime clothes and nighttime clothes, to help her align herself to who she was expected to be.

                On impulse, she pulled a thin pink scarf out of her bag, twisting it and wrapping it on her forehead like a headband, tying it at the base of her neck. Honestly, she looked adorable. And Skye loved this part of herself too, she enjoyed being fun and lighthearted, it was just so difficult to combine the pieces of her that were so different. That difficulty was what landed her here. Her parents had even agreed to let her study journalism, no doubt as a bribe to get her to come to Seoul without making a fuss. She knew they hoped that she would ‘straighten out’ here, and lose the rebellious side of her, but she was only getting started.

                The morning air was brisk, but comfortable. The chill running up her spine made her feel awake and alive. But not quite as alive as the sight of the coffee shop across the street made, right outside where she’d sat on the phone yelling at her mother yesterday.

                “Hello!” A cheery voice greeted her as she entered the little shop, and Skye diverted her eyes from the comfy looking chairs to a man behind the counter.

                “Hi!” She smiled back at him, eyes flickering back to the board with drink specialties written all over it. “Sorry, I only got here yesterday, I’ll be ready in a second.”

                She saw his grin widen, “were you the girl on the phone? We all had a bet going that you were going to smash the phone when you were done with it.”

                Skye felt her cheeks flush, what a great first reputation. “I wasn’t having the best day.”

                He chortled, “trust me, we could tell.”

                “We?” How many people had been watching her, exactly?

                “Just my co-worker and I. Chanyeol!” He yelled over his shoulder to the sound of falling pans, “The angry girl is here!” He turned back to her, “I’m Xiumin, it’s nice to meet you.”

                “Skye.” She replied, about to order when he raised one finger to her and darted to the other end of the shop to answer a phone. A much, much taller boy took his place. Where Xiumin had been all hidden mischief, this elf – who she assumed to be Chanyeol – had it all out in the open.

                “Welcome to the Café, I’m Chanyeol. What can I get for you?”

                “Just a coffee would be great. With milk and sugar?” What kind of Canadian would she be if she didn’t try and re-create a double double?

                Chanyeol nodded, going about setting nozzles and grinding beans for her individual drink, and then his big eyes slid over to her again, “so you’re feeling better than yesterday?” He was making fun of her.

                “Yes, much better thank you.” Skye hid her smile at his joking, finding this pair surprisingly easy to talk to. “What about you, how was your day yesterday?”

                He shrugged, “can’t complain. Came to work, then biked to my friend’s house for practice.”

                “Practice?”

                Somehow, his grin grew even wider, “yeah, I’m in a band.” He winked at her, playing on the joke that it was some kind of pickup line.

                “Very impressive.” Skye played along, humming and aweing at his coffee making skills, until a beautifully made cup was sat in front of her.

                “It’s on the house.” Xiumin called as she reached for her wallet, “consider it an investment that you’ll come back again.”

                Chanyeol chuckled along with her, and said, “well in that case,” he pulled out a breakfast muffing from the display case and put it on a plate for her, “here’s a free muffin for the entertaining show yesterday.” Another free muffin? Score!

He bustled away to help someone else and Xiumin was still on his phone call, so Skye took her breakfast to an open table in the corner, sitting with her back to the wall to watch the little café. Chanyeol was bending slightly to talk to the next customer, a little old lady order what sounded like a tea in very quiet Korean. Honestly, Skye was impressed her Korean was still as good as it was, given that she rarely spoke it back in Canada. But evidently she still had a Canadian accent in her words. Or American she thought, thoughts leaking back to last night where that had been touching her bike (which was now happily parked in the underground parking in her building).

Sehun. What a prick. To think that he was just touching her bike, who did he think he was? And the way he’d just invaded her space, acting like he was god’s gift to women with his stupid sharp jaw and brows that gave a sly, inquisitive look to his face…   

No Skye. Don’t focus on how incredibly good looking he was. Think of what a he was. Exactly.

She swallowed a gulp of her coffee to distract herself, succeeded as burning pain swelled up on her tongue. But it was good coffee, she had to admit that. For a second she almost thought the buzzing sensation on her burned tongue was travelling to her legs, but then a chirp sounded from her pocket and she remembered her phone.

Automatically, her good mood was gone. It was a string of messages, from her dad.

Heard you made it to the apartment. He was keeping tabs on her?

Would love to see you. Right. Sure.

The family is having dinner tonight, come join us. ‘The family’. It was almost enough to make Skye sick.

I’ll send a car, be ready for 4. What?

See you tonight. No! No way!

He’d left her no room whatsoever to have an actual discussion about this. Did he think that after 13 years Skye was just going to waltz back in his life? The divorce hadn’t been his fault, her parents had just drifted apart. Her moving to Canada hadn’t been his fault, her mother had wanted to be with her family. But they hadn’t kept in touch, it didn’t matter that he was biologically her father, Skye barely knew the man. She had no desire to become a Kim, or meet the new ‘Byun’ part of her family, she was perfectly happy as a Park.

Apparently her bad mood was visible, Chanyeol walked by and shot her a wink and a playful smile, slipping a 'cheer up' cookie on her empty plate.  

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So if you guys have any fun tid-bits about Korean culture, feel free to share them in the comments! I won’t lie, part of the reason I picked a Canadian character is because then I won’t be completely butchering anyone’s culture, so I’d love to lean more that I can incorporate into this story!

And we get to meet Xiumin and Chanyeol, how adorable are they!