ANXIOUS | 12

Today, the weather seemed to be sunny and full of joy. For Minseok though, it was the complete opposite. A week has been wasted by him moping around, barely even listening and paying attention in his classes. There's no doubt that his grades would drop this midterm.

He entered the coffee shop he and Chorong used to go to with a sigh. The bell above the double doors rang and a new staff passing by greeted him with a nervous smile. Usually, he would smile back, but he wasn't in the mood to be happy in the eyes of other people. Minseok continued to walk towards the counter and waited for his turn.

"Good day, sir –" The employee stopped his words as soon as he saw who he was talking to. "Oh, Minseok-ah! It's been a while, huh?" The young man before him grinned and he tried his best to do the same, slightly turning the corners of his lips upwards.

Minseok nodded, "Yeah. I see you're a manager now, Luhan." He was slowly regaining his usual self... for now.

Luhan shrugged, as if it was nothing to him. "It's about time they did after all the years I've been working here, don't you think?" He laughed afterwards. "Anyway, how are you and your crush from before? Are you dating now?" He winked to , but Minseok couldn't reply to his question.

"Oh, tell me later. We don't want to keep the other customers waiting. What would you like?"

He spaced out for a while when he recalled what had happened before in this café.

"Yo," Luhan hit my arm slightly with his elbow. "I see you staring at that girl for an hour now. Just go and talk to her." He said while he was cleaning the desserts display on the counter.

I went back to my senses, blinking my eyes rapidly. "W-What did you say? Is there another order coming up?"

He simply shook his head in disapproval. "No order. There aren't even that many coming inside here." Luhan left the rag on the counter beside me and slung his arm over my shoulders, whispering quietly to my ear, "Go and get that girl Chorong a free dessert. From what I could remember, she likes cheesecake."

My whole face feels like it's burning up and I immediately gave him a punch on his stomach. "Are you crazy?! That would seem like I'm totally hitting on her or something!"

"That's the point, duh." He rolled his eyes, "If you don't want to do it, I'm going to do it for you then. Hold up." Without any hesitation, he sliced a piece from the cheesecake platter and placed it on a smaller plate. Luhan proceeded to deliver it to Chorong and I just stood there like a statue, not even trying to stop him. I should be, to be honest, but I couldn't.

I could feel my heart pounding in my chest and I decided to distract myself by taking over the cash register, seeing as there was another customer who came in.

Nervously, I smiled and greeted the young woman in front of me, "Good morning! What would you like to order?" But I know in the back of my head that the thought of Chorong seeing me as a weirdo is going to hunt me forever.

"One Iced Americano, please."

"Name, Ma'am?" I held on to the black marker, ready to write her name on her plastic cup.

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice shout. "Joohyun-ah!"

"Well, that's my name." She smiled while giving me her exact payment. Joohyun, if I was right, quickly ran towards Chorong's table. "What? Why are you shouting all of a sudden?"

Meanwhile, Luhan already came back with a giddy beam on his face and muttered, "Mission accomplished. Remember to pay for that cheesecake."

"Wait... what?! H-How – she's probably going to ignore me now!" I held on to his shoulders, frustrated.

Once again, he simply rolled his eyes at me. "Don't worry. I told her it was from a 'secret