“You guys are discussing a freaking soap for freaking hours like it is a damn serious business.”

Sooyoung arrived early at the cafe staright from her last class that Friday, which was thankfully, ended earlier. Her working hour actually started from 6.45 pm, but the cozy atmosphere inside it was tempting to her to arrive earlier and ordered a cup of cappucino as a regular customer, as it was mid November.

The brunette sat at the farthest corner after changing into the uniform. She brought along her assignments to kill the time until her shift, not forgetting to tell both her dear neighbors in their group chat.

As she wrote the last sentence of her essay, she heard the chairs in front of her being pulled and sat on. She didn’t need to look up to see who they were as she noticed the mixed smells of hygiene and baby-like smell. She gathered the papers on the table and brought the then-hot now-warm cup close to and sipped the remaining of its content. And as quick as a cat stealing a fish, Baekhyun grabbed the cup and gulped its whole content.

She flashed him a murder look. “Buy your own, will you?”

She called Seohyun, a waitress whose shift was before them and whom she knew well, to order the same cup of cappucino for the three of them. “What were you writing?” Baekhyun asked, eyeing the paper.

“An essay,” she replied shortly as if it was the most obvious answer. It was. Baekhyun didn’t bother to ask more.

She noticed their hair that got damp from the snow on their heads that melted as soon as they got into the warm and cozy cafe. Sooyoung restrained a smile noticing the boys looked like puppies who had just taken a bath.

More people were coming to the place and the bell above the door rang continuously, but not to a level of being too crowded. The Jungs’ cafe wasn’t ornated in fancy walls and ornaments and those classical designs but people kept coming back. The place was enveloped with the smell of brewed coffee that please everyone’s noses, adding the already comfy and cozy atmosphere.

“Our shift starts in one hour. Why?” Sooyoung asked in between her sips. Chanyeol just shrugged. He rummaged through his backpack, pulling out what to be a bottle of  shower body foam. Baekhyun studied the thing which was now placed on the table. “What’s that?”

“Oh you know that thing you use when you take a bath, soap?” Chanyeol explained. Sooyoung waited for his proper answer.

“It’s my family soap which all of us have been using since long, we always buy in packs. I have lots of them,” he added, “you’ve been obsessed with my smell,” he pointed to the bottle with his eyes, “so I think I could recommend you my soap, well my family’s.”

She brought the bottle close to her face and studied it, sniffing the healthy hygienic aroma of pine. ‘Right Chanyeol smells just like this.’ She confirmed herself, nodding her head. “Yep, smells like you.”

“WAIT.” Baekhyun boomed, being extra as always. “What do you mean you’ve been so obsessed with his smell? Like, this sounds wrong oh God. People might think differently. You know what I mean?” Sooyoung cooed at him with a raised eyebrow. “And besides, what is to be obsessed with a smell of pine other than its hygiene? This is the reason why you hug Chanyeol more frequently?” He stopped and leaned in to take a sniff of the said friend in his left.

“Need I remind you that you smell like a baby?”

Baekhyun grinned at her remark. While Chanyeol smelled like pine, Baekhyun smelled just like a baby as he had been using baby soap since he was baby. He insisted he didn’t want to change it. Apparently, none of them used cologne like most boys in her class who smelled of expensive cologne.

Her neighbors were just that special. In their own ways.

Baekhyun then sighed quite loudly. “Maybe Taeyeon like someone who smells masculine. I’m not masculine enough, I smell like a baby. I should buy cologne sometimes.” His shoulders dropped.

“No. Who knows Taeyeon might like someone unique. Now enough of Taeyeon,” she remarked, turning to the tallest of them. “And Chanyeol, is this for free?”

“Yeah. You might want to try that. Inform me if you want to use them from now on so mother can order extra of them. We never found that in any store. She buys them from her friend.”

“Oh okay.” She put the bottle of the liquified soap to her bag, itching to try the new soap as soon as she got home so that she could sniff herself because its aroma of pine lingered on Chanyeol for basically all day she wondered if it was expensive.

Sooyoung noticed when Seohyun had changed her uniform to her casual clothing, indicating the end of her shift and the start of the three’s. “You should change quick. More people are coming.”

Chanyeol and Baekhyun made way to the back room to change, greeting Jessica who was currently visiting as doing so.

***

Sooyoung immediately used the body foam Chanyeol gave her as soon as she got home that night. And she was right, the smell lingered on her through the night even hours after the shower. Not like her previous which she used for shower that its fragrance usually disappeared after ten minutes. And she never felt cleaner in her life.

However, she didn’t smell like her friend. She smelled quite different. So she confronted Chanyeol about it the next day they were waiting for their work shift.

“Do you think you know why? You don’t use any perfume, right?”

Shaking his head, Chanyeol was lost in a deep thought. “Maybe it is the shampoo?”

“Maybe it is. What do you use?” Baekhyun was there watch