I still remember how I met her that day, at that place, and how it happened. The memories are still fresh in my head, like it just happened yesterday. Maybe, because every time I see her, I still feels the same way towards her: magical and beautiful. 

It was a sunny afternoon, and after classes, I decided to grab an iced tea. I was running out of the school pretty much, because the weather was too unbearable and I needed a damn drink. Baekhyun ran even faster to get his ice-cream, and I was laughing behind him because he looked retarded. He looked like a monkey that needed to go toilet, as fast as possible.

The cafe near our school was the usual hangout place that my friends and I always used to go. We may be boys, but we preferred quiet places over those rowdy places. I was still laughing when we entered the cafe, and that caused some girls to look up at us. They seemed shocked when they saw us, before they smiled at our direction.

And I flashed a smile back at them, and they squealed. Baekhyun rolled his eyes at me, “Geez, keep your damn smile to yourself. The ‘Park Chanyeol’s effect’ is getting too irritating.” And I snored at him, “Maybe, if you were a little taller, you could have your own effect on those girls but sorry, bro. Maybe, in next life, you may have like a group of girls as your obsessed fan-club.” 

“er.” Baekhyun swore behind and I broke out into laughter. We headed to the cashier and order ourselves ice-cream and drinks, that’s when I saw her. She looked scared, anxious and was heaving a sigh to herself. She then began whistling to herself, and shook her own leg. 

I smiled softly to myself, and approached to the counter, “Eh, where’s Kang Yumi? You know, the old cashier?” 

She looked up surprised, and furrowed her brows a little. “Oh, the old cashier was fired…I think, I am not sure. I just got this job because I saw there was a vacancy. If you want to know about her, I can just get the manager over here—“ 

I interrupted her and laughed at her cuteness, “No. No. I was just…Never mind. So you are the new cashier, huh?” She nodded her head enthusiastically at me, and when I read aloud the name tag on her shirt, “Choi..Soo..young. A beautiful name.” 

She smiled at me graciously, and said, “Well, thank you, random stranger. So what can I get you for today?”

“Uh, mint chocolate chips ice-cream and a caramel frappé for me.” 

“That would be 7000 won.” When I handed her cash, I whispered to her, “And oh by the way, my name is Park Chanyeol and definitely not random stranger.”

She looked up at me in surprise, and smiled, “Well, thank you Chanyeol-ssi, hope you enjoy your drinks!” 

“Thanks, and be sure to remember my name because it seems like you will be seeing me a lot, because I love this place.” And I might like this place a little more because you are there.

“Well, we’ll see.” She laughed.

And oh god, she looked darn beautiful. 

And days passed by, I frequented the cafe more than my friends, I made every excuses just to get to the cafe. I found out that she was older than me, and she was doing this part-time job because she felt bored. She was a university student who was having her break, while I was just a high-school student. Sometimes, I felt that she only saw me as a little brother of her, while I saw her something more than just that. I saw her as a woman, as someone whom I love dearly, somehow whom I want to cherish dearly.

I tried to help her job as well, by cleaning up all those empty plastic cups. She told me that my lone existence in the cafe helped to attract female customers, and the cafe shop has been blossoming in business. 

And every single day, after her shift ended, I would always walked her back to her home (although she said it was too troublesome for me, but I said that I wanted to. And I honestly wanted to spend more time with her.)

We were close, we knew each and every of our secrets, but I still didn’t dare to confess my feelings to her, because I feared that once I did it, we might not be as close as before. And I didn’t want that. 

“Noona, you are spacing out. What are you thinking about?” 

“…I…My ex-boyfriend contacted me.” She said.

“Oh…”I mumbled under my breath, and I could feel the pain shooting up inside my heart.

“He came back from USA, and he just texted me out of the blue, saying that he missed me. I-I couldn’t believe him when I heard that. He…he..” She chocked back her tears, as she bit her own lips. 

The first ever boyfriend that she ever had was someone named Park Bogum. He was insanely attractive, with that charming smile, I could see why she would fall for him hard. After a few years of dating, he suddenly disappeared. And after departing from Korea, he sent her a text message that they should break up, because he was studying overseas and a long distance relationship would break both of them.

Of course, she was broken by the news, and she couldn’t believe how cruel her boyfriend was. After all, he was the first love for her.

“Don’t let him fool you again, noona.” I whispered to her, and placed my hand over her shoulder, and patted her to soothe her a little.

“I…I told myself after the breakup that I would never ever get fooled by his sweet words, but I didn’t think that I would still be longing for his voice, and his face after all these time, Chanyeol. Sometimes, I think I am stupid.”

“You deserve someone better, someone who cherishes you better than himself. Someone who will love you unconditionally. Moving on is hard, especially from your first love, but you have to do it. He’s not worth it, you wasted your tears on him already, don’t waste it on him again, please?” I pleaded her, and I thought to myself, ‘It would be great if you looked at me, just at lease once. Once is all I am asking for. Please.’

“Okay.” She took in a large breath, and smiled as if she hadn’t been crying the whole time. “You wanna drink some good o’l coffee with me?” 

“If it’s your treat, then hell yeah, I would like a cup of coffee. Assignment has been killing me.” I groaned as I stood straight from the counter.

“Haha, wait till you get into university. It’s much worse than that.” She rolled her eyes sarcastically. 

“So, Chanyeol, I’ve seen that you have been pretty much famous with girls from your school.” She cleared , and wiggled her eyebrows at me.

I rolled my eyes, “So?”

“Please get a girlfriend soon, because you have been coming into this shop every single day that it’s getting kind of annoying.” 

“Please, I do help around in the cafe.”

“But…You deserve happiness too, like don’t waste your time here, and you don’t even get pay-checks for helping me out, hang out with your friends, get yourself a girlfriend—“

“No. I don’t want anything of that.”

“Chanyeol! You have your own life to live!” She was practically screaming at me by now. I took her hand, and spun her around.

I caressed her face, and looked right into her beautiful set of brown eyes, and smiled at her, “What more can I do to show you that you are everything that I need in my life?”

“Although you are older than me, you are still dense about everything around you, aren't you?”

“I love you. I love you, noona.”