It was late in the afternoon, the sun setting slowly against the horizon, bathing the café in hues of pale orange and pink through the large windows. She sat at the counter, twirling on one of the stools out of boredom. The café was quiet, almost peaceful at that time since there weren’t many customers today, only a couple who sat at the corner of the room, talking sweetly as they exchanged loving gases.

She wondered if she would be able to experience that. Anytime soon.

Maybe it was just the hormones talking because she felt a slight pang of jealousy, stealing glances at the couple as they enjoyed their date.

She let out a tired sigh, rubbing her face as she contemplated about her sad life. Most girls her age would be having fun with friends and boyfriends but not her, she didn’t have time for that. Not when she was juggling her internship at the hospital and taking care of Hongbin while their father was busy at work.

She didn’t have time to fall in love. But she wanted to, deeply. To wake up missing someone, wanting to spend every second with the said individual but sadly she was horribly, miserably single.

Suddenly a certain male popped up in her mind. Remembering the tanned skin, the red and plump lips, the sweet lull of his soothing voice. The kiss.

Her cheeks flared with warmth, her thoughts moving a little too far the more she thought about him. She hoped she would meet him again tomorrow and the day after that, hoping he would still meet her even after that incident. She wanted to know more and more about him and he had left in a rush yesterday, saying he was late for a meeting before running off, leaving her flush faced and feeling fuzzy.

He didn’t visit her today. And she was worried she had scared him off.

What was she thinking? Forcing herself on him like that.

 God Lee Hyebin you’ve ed up this time.

“Earth to Lee Hyebin.” A voice spoke up, a hand flashed right in front of her, disrupting her train of thoughts. She shot the person a confused glance as she twirled her chair to face him before realising who it was.

“S-sorry Taekwoon. I was just thinking.” She apologised as she felt the heat slowly fade from her cheeks. The said male gave a small shrug of indifference.

“What were you thinking about? You were smiling and blushing like an idiot.” He spoke, voice quiet so as to avoid disturbing the customers while he cleaned a set of coffee cups. Glancing between her and his moving hands.

“N-nothing. Just someone I met at the old tree today.” She replied, her gaze still unfocused as she stared into space, her mind clearly still elsewhere. Noticing he was still giving her that intense stare that on a daily basis sent people running away from him and no matter how many years of friendship even she would flinch at the coldness.

“It’s nothing seriously. You’ve just been busy with your shifts and I’m busy with mine and we never have the same break times,” Hyebin started, staring at anything but his eyes because she knew Taekwoon could read her like a piece of paper if she did, “I met this stranger who was sitting at the bench near the old tree. The one we used to sit at. And we talked. That’s all, I swear.”

“You were talking to a stranger?” Taekwoon asked quietly, his eyebrows perked up slightly in surprise but his eyes were still filled with that cold nature and it was starting to ebb at her, silently telling her to put everything on the plate.

“Yeah. We’ve been having light conversations, nothing personal. He wanted someone to talk to so I just talked to him. I swear he’s a nice person.” She replied, hoping he would drop the topic about her and Hakyeon so they could talk about something else.

Taekwoon’s broad shoulders which seemed tense the whole time eased a little as he turned his head towards the entrance of the café where the bell jingled and the honey-blond locks of Jaehwan came into view, coming in from his break five minutes earlier. He was humming a light tune, his mood peachy as always.

Hyebin looked towards the younger male and let out a sigh of relief as he strode merrily towards her, she was thankful that with Jaehwan around Taekwoon would have to drop the topic of her talking to Hakyeon knowing that Jaehwan liked to stick his gigantic nose into the conversations of others.

“Hyebinnie noona~,” he chimed in his usual cheerful and cute tone, “You’re here early.”

“Well I haven’t been meeting with Taekwoon for lunch at the hospital so I thought I could hang with him in the café since we both got off early today,” she explained but Jaehwan seemed overly engrossed in his own thoughts, “You seem overly bubbly today, Jaehwan. What’s gotten into you?”

Jaehwan’s cheeks turned a bright shade of red at her question and she couldn’t believe her eyes. Jaehwan rarely got shy.

“He’s got a girlfriend.” Taekwoon said bluntly which made Jaehwan blush even more. Hyebin knew Taekwoon knew she was changing the topic but he gave her a knowing glance, a silent message saying that their conversation from earlier wasn’t over and she prayed to whatever God out there she would come out of that conversation later alive.

“A girlfriend?” she asked, utterly shocked as Jaehwan gave her a small nod and immediately cupped his burning face.

“I can’t believe it. Our baby Jaehwan is in a relationship. And I don’t even have a boyfriend yet! “

“Eyy, noona. I can