At the beginning of the year, Lu Han had set his usual New Year’s resolution of making this year his year. He would finish up his mediocre second year, prepare to pass third year with flying colours, and work an internship in the summer amongst other things.

But come March, a couple of college parties in, too many burning shots of soju, and assignments barely being completed at the break of dawn; it’s safe to say that his resolution has all but fallen through the roof. And suddenly, almost halfway through his fall semester after having wasted away his summer and going to noraebang with his friends every second night, Lu Han’s priorities have shifted from trying to achieve a perfect GPA of 4.5 to barely keeping it floating above 3.0 (he can’t shame his Chinese parents and their high expectations).

So whilst he studies incredibly hard for his midterms, it’s no wonder he freaks out at the sight of the little unseeming notice stuck on the door that indicates his favourite café on campus is temporarily closed until December.

He has half a mind to read the explanation of closure in fine print, but he spots Minseok, Psychology major, barista extraordinaire and Lu Han’s eternal saviour; from the corner of his eye and demands an explanation.

“What do you mean you’re closing for the next few weeks?” Lu Han’s voice is dripping with disbelief and slightly bordering on panic.

“Renovations?” Minseok replies, gesturing to the fine print that Lu Han had chosen to ignore. “To come back bigger and better?”

“It’s midterms week,” Lu Han’s pitch progressively rises. “Where am I going to get my fix of caffeine?”

Minseok looks straight past Lu Han to something behind him and Lu Han knows exactly what the guy is looking at. He also knows that going there to buy coffee would be a violation of all the rules he has personally set himself as an avid coffee drinker.

“Maybe you should start being a college student for once and drink overrated ty coffee,” suggests Minseok.

It takes approximately 7 seconds for Lu Han to respond after he convinces himself that any caffeine is better than no caffeine. He grits his teeth and says, “If I fail all my exams and get kicked back to Beijing and my parents ask me what happened, it is all your fault!”

Minseok’s face betrays no sense of anxiety whatsoever – perhaps that is why they seem to get along so well. Lu Han needs someone to ground him in his frequent meltdowns in hysteria.

“How?” is all Minseok responds with.

“All your fault,” Lu Han retorts with an indignant finger pointed at him. “ALL YOUR FAULT.”

“I GET IT.”

With that, Lu Han turns around and storms towards the café with obnoxious green block letters spelling out ‘Starbucks Coffee.’ He wills himself to push open the glass door and step inside, the café filled with students wandering about or settled on the tables with their laptop and books spread out on the surface. Quiet chatter saturates the ambience created by the warm lighting, and Lu Han notices that this is what college life must seem like to the deceived public.

He joins the winding queue spilling from the counter behind two girls chattering away about the newest album released by some boy group. Still annoyed at his caffeine addiction that has forced him to resort to Starbucks, Lu Han pulls out his phone and scrolls through his SNS before getting a text from Minseok.

you should get a pumpkin spice latte for the lols

In the midst of typing a reply, the worker calls him forward.

“Next please?”

Lu Han looks up and his mouth runs dry. The cashier standing in front of him is the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. He sports tousled black hair with brown eyes, a tapered nose, high cheekbones and a sharp jawline that Lu Han is sure can slice through steel. The name is Sehun according to his name tag.

“What can I get for you today?” asks Sehun.

“Um…” Lu Han can’t seem to get the words out of his mouth or his normal coffee order and ends up blurting out the first thing he can think of. “Pumpkin spice latte.”

.

What is he – some basic white teenage girl? But what’s done is done, and he can’t risk seeming dumb in front of Sehun and awkwardly changing his order, so he’ll take it with grace and see this one through.

If Sehun is judging him, he doesn’t show it. “Size?”

Lu Han eyes the cups on display for sizing and answers, “Venti.” Go big or go home.

“Okay that will be 7,900 won. Can I get a name for that order?”

“Lu Han,” he enunciates carefully. Even though he pronounces it the Korean way, the guy will probably spell it wrong. Lu Han glues his eyes to the countertop when he hands over the notes (also why the is Starbucks so overpriced), embarrassed by the whole ordeal.

Sehun passes him the change and smiles. “If you wait towards the left, your order will be ready shortly.”

Stepping to the side, Lu Han watches as Sehun grabs a cup and scrawls Lu Han’s name onto it, frowning as he figures out how to write it. Then he turns around and nudges a coworker with his hair bleached silver. After Sehun leans in to whisper in his ear, the coworker looks straight in Lu Han’s direction and Lu Han quickly turns to the phone forgotten in his hand and pretends to be concentrating on it. By the time he looks up, Sehun is behind the coffee machine and capping the lid on a finished drink.

“Lu Han?” he calls out.

“Thanks,” Lu Han says as he accepts the latte, flashing a shy smile. He is halfway to the door, cup gripped tightly in his hand, when he hears the sound of his name cutting through the quiet music.

“Um.” Lu Han is one of the many people who have turned their heads to look at Sehun who is shifting back and forth. The barista chimes, “Have a good day!”

Lu Han nods at him in appreciation, tucking his chin into his scarf and walking as fast as he can out of Starbucks, trying to avoid all the curious stares he is currently attracting. Once he is out in the cooling weather of October, he takes a sip of his latte and cringes at the taste. Grabbing his phone out from his pocket, he texts Minseok as aggressively as his fingers will let him.

you i hope you fail your midterms

He eyes the Venti cup in his hands and wills himself to finish the entire thing because he ing paid almost 10,000 won for this goddamn piece of trash.

 

❄ ❄ ❄

 

Similar to how they usually are, their study session tonight has turned into Chanyeol’s one man show as he recounts to Baekhyun how the whole Starbucks debacle had panned out that day.

“And then he shouted ‘have a good day’ and I swear the entire ing campus population was staring at the two of them. The poor boy looked like he wanted to ground to swallow him up.”

Baekhyun bursts out laughing, squealing until his eyes narrow into slits, but then again those are his eyes almost 100% of the time so it’s not really saying much. He shakes his head at Sehun disapprovingly and asks, “Who even is this anyway?”

Sehun scowls at him and scratches his head. “Lu Han?”

He definitely wasn’t expecting Baekhyun’s face to light up in realisation. “Is he Chinese?”

“I guess?”

“Looks like he is eternally 5?” continues Baekhyun.

“I’ve seen him once,” replies Sehun.

At the same time, Chanyeol says, “Yes, I can attest to that. I thought Sehun was totally being a pedo.” This statement earns a glare from Sehun.

“What the is he doing at Starbucks.” Baekhyun’s face is etched with confusion.

“You know him?” Sehun asks, curiosity piqued.

“He’s in my Mythology class,” explains Baekhyun. “Real nice kid. Can’t believe you violated him like that.”

Just as Sehun is ready to push his textbook aside and lean in to hear more about Lu Han, Chanyeol interrupts, “As much as I would love for you interrogate Baekhyun for this Chinese kid’s life story, I think we should really get back to work. This assignment ain’t gonna do itself.”

Sehun has this theory that all silver-haired people are out to make others’ lives miserable. Or maybe that’s just Chanyeol. From all the anime that Sehun has spent his days binging, he can conclude that it’s probably the latter theory.

 

❄ ❄ ❄

 

“Why are you tagging along?”

Minseok blinks at Lu Han, widening his eyes as far as they can possibly go to feign puzzlement. They’re standing outside Starbucks, two days after the time Lu Han ordered a Pumpkin Spice Latte for the first and last time in his life – a truly traumatising experience.

“I just want coffee?” says Minseok.

“Don’t try anything strange,” warns Lu Han. He should’ve known nothing good would come out of telling Minseok about the cute barista who worked at Starbucks.

When they join the long queue, Minseok cranes his neck to catch a glimpse of Sehun.

“Not bad,” he comments, nodding his head in approval. “You have good taste after all.”

Fortunately, Minseok is called first to the cashier on the right, and Lu Han does not have to offer his soul to the heavens and pray for his friend not to sell him out there and then.

When Sehun calls out for the next customer, he takes in Lu Han’s dishevelled hair, round eyes and horrible dark circles and drops his mouth slightly in realisation. Though he quickly composes himself and plasters on a wide grin.

“Iced Americano,” replies Lu Han when he is prompted for his order. He had convinced himself that even as terrible as Starbucks was, they couldn’t possibly mess up the simple combination of espresso and water.

“Venti?” Sehun confirms. When Lu Han nods, the barista continues, “5,300 won please. Not too cold out for you?”

“I can stand anything for coffee.” As Lu Han hands him a 5,000 won note and a couple of coins he’d gathered over the course of the week, he notices Sehun’s smile falter a little.

“If you could wait just to your left please, it won’t be long,” says Sehun.

“You’re not going to brew it for me this time?” asks Lu Han before he realises it’s a dumb question and hurries away from the counter without hearing Sehun’s answer. He buries his chin in his grey cashmere turtleneck sweater and pulls on his gloves as he waits for his order. It might occur to others as strange, seeing his gloved hands clutched around an iced drink, but Lu Han can afford to sacrifice appearances to satisfy his cravings.

His order is handed to him by the silver-haired worker he had seen last time. Chanyeol, Lu Han learns from the name tag pinned onto his green apron. After he grabs his Americano, he turns to leave but is stopped from doing so with three light taps (read: heavy slaps) on the shoulder.

“Cake,” Chanyeol states as if Lu Han should know exactly why there is a brown paper bag being held in front of his face.

“I didn’t order any cake though,” stutters Lu Han, replaying the brief moments he had spent ordering his coffee in his head but doesn’t recall mentioning anything about cake. He mirrors Chanyeol’s look of confusion.

“You didn’t?” Chanyeol scratches the back of his head and steals a glance towards Sehun who is still busy with a customer at the counter. “I guess it’s on the house then. Enjoy.”

By the time he reaches an impatient Minseok waiting by the door, Lu Han’s frown hasn’t left his face. Minseok takes a sip of his own cappuccino and wrinkles his nose, sticking out his tongue, visibly disgusted by the concoction that has defiled his cultured tastebuds as a barista. He points curiously at the bag clutched in Lu Han’s hand, but doesn’t need an answer to figure out the item inside or the situation.

“He got you cake?” Minseok cries. Then he shakes his head in disbelief and chuckles, “This kid is so whipped.”

Lu Han shushes him as they start to make their way towards the library to catch up on three weeks worth of notes from missed lectures, but as he peeks inside the brown paper bag to see a slice of tiramisu, he suppresses a smile. It’s his favourite.

 

❄ ❄ ❄

 

The next time Lu Han frequents Starbucks, exams have come and gone.

Although he can’t afford to, Sehun has already fallen back into his habits of cramming assignments into the limited hours before its due date and crawling into bed with his blanket thrown haphazardly over the same clothes he has worn repeatedly for a straight week. He blames this mostly on his job. They are severely understaffed.

A longing peek at the clock hanging on the wall tells Sehun it’s eight o’clock, a time that he spends four out of seven days of his week counting down to. On his working days, he can barely feel his feet by this time. His body has succumbed to pain throbbing from all directions and is only moving through Sehun’s sheer determination to make it to the end of his shift.

When he hears the jingling of the bells at the door, Sehun wills himself to look up. The sight of a white and grey beanie pulled over the fluffy brown hair of a boy with his lips pressed together chases away all the fatigue plaguing him.   

“Chanyeol,” Sehun hisses at his best friend perched by the espresso machine. “Switch with me.”

“Why?” Chanyeol refuses at first, but agrees after noticing a certain Lu Han closing in on the counter. “With your level of subtlety, I’m 90% sure the whole campus knows you want to get into Lu Han’s pants.”

It’s agonising for Sehun to work like clockwork through the orders lined up as he waits for the only one that matters to him. He sees Lu Han standing in the waiting area and a grin spreads across his face against his own will.

“How did your midterms go?” Sehun asks he prepares Lu Han’s order. Today, it’s a Grande Pomegranate Green Tea Latte.

“As well as one can do with 2 hours of sleep and five cups of caffeine per day.”

“Isn’t that all of us,” empathises Sehun.

He has never been a good conversationalist, never one for seeking out new friendships and relationships. For the first time in his life, he curses his introverted genes for not gifting him with the abilities to strike up conversations and more importantly, carry them. And so, this visit from Lu Han results in another missed opportunity as Sehun gives him his latte and waves him off.

But he doesn’t have to lament for long because he begins to find Lu Han’s presence in the store several times a week. Well, not like Sehun would know how many times he comes in, but in almost all of his shifts, he notices the familiar tufts of soft brown hair entering the door. When Sehun realises, he will gravitate towards the espresso machine, shoving Chanyeol towards his cash register to take care of those duties.

Sehun is brewing Lu Han’s Christmas Chai Tea Latte when he feels a surge of spontaneity and decides to take the advice of Baekhyun (self-proclaimed certified cupid) and promptly attempt flirt.

(“Use some cool pick up lines or something,” suggests Baekhyun. “I’m pretty sure he’s into you.”

“No, he has been demolishing every single drink off of the new seasonal menu for Christmas. I think he’s into the drinks. He loves coffee,” argues Sehun.

“That’s the point!” Baekhyun shouts as he throws his arms up. “He loves coffee!”

“I don’t understand.” Sehun blinks and scratches his head. He watches as Baekhyun proceeds to raid Chanyeol’s cupboard for peppermint tea in order to calm himself down, pacing back and forth through the room and Sehun still doesn’t ing understand.)

“If you were a library book, I would check you out first,” says Sehun in a voice that he believes is very suave. He tries to recall the sentences he had read all those weeks ago when he had googled ‘cool pick up lines’ on his phone.

Lu Han waits.

“Sorry my brain to mouth filter has been malfunctioning a little,” Sehun coughs.

Lu Han has a smile on as he nods. Sehun had meant to make that excuse up but he doesn’t think it is a lie at all. He has grown up with the misfortunate talent of blurting out stupid his entire life. It’s why he feels the need to continue down this trainwreck of a conversation meant to impress Lu Han by saying, “I’m just practising.”

“Yeah?” echoes Lu Han.

Sehun’s whole body (and probably Chanyeol who is eavesdropping on this whole conversation and is hardly able to retain his professionalism in front of the customer he is currently serving at the cashier) is screaming at him to abort abort abort and shut the up before he scares the poor guy away for good, but it still doesn’t keep him from proposing, “Would you like to practise with me?”

Fortunately, Lu Han takes it with grace, as Sehun has noticed he does with many other things. This is one of the many qualities of Lu Han’s that Sehun admires, knowing completely that it is not easy to deal with someone as embarrassing as him.

As he receives his chai latte, Lu Han shrugs. “Sure, why not.”

 

❄ ❄ ❄

 

It seems everyone had underestimated how lovestruck Lu Han was. Including his best friend.

Minseok doesn’t believe his ears.

“You volunteered to practise pick up lines with him?” he shrieks, voice soaked in bewilderment. “Like I know you’re weird – heck you’re really weird – but he is really really really weird and I didn’t think that you would be so weird to agree.”

To be truthful, Lu Han ceased listening at the first ‘weird’ but there is still nothing Lu Han can say to defend his impulsive actions but a meek and high-pitched, “It might be fun.”

“You ing , spend your brain capacity memorising those B-LAW cases or something,” Minseok reprimands.

“I’m allowed to have a reference in the exam so why would I spend time memorising them instead of memorising these glorious ty pick up lines.” Lu Han rolls his eyes and shoots back with rivalling fervour.

“Your priorities are ing weird.”

“I’m sorry not everyone is a part-time honour roll student part-time barista extraordinaire.”

Minseok responds by snatching Lu Han’s phone out of his hands and shoving his head back into the thick text book splayed out in front of him as Lu Han attempts to catch up on the reading for his past seven classes. His eyes drink in the words but his nerve cells must not be functioning properly because all the sentences morph into an image of Sehun in his head.

 

❄ ❄ ❄

 

Sehun hears his voice before he sees him or his order.

“I hope you’re ready,” Lu Han says, the determination in his tone makes Sehun’s heart flip. “Prepare to be beaten at your own game.”

“So this is a competition now?” Sehun grins. He prays he has successfully hidden the fact that he has spent the past three nights curled up under his covers and rote learning page after page of cheesy pick up lines.

“Is your name Naver? Because you’re the answer to everything I’m searching for,” says Lu Han.

“Charmanders are red, mudkips are blue, if you were a Pokemon, I’d choose you,” Sehun replies without missing a beat.

“Is your dad an art thief? Because you're a masterpiece.”

“Do you have a map? I'm getting lost in your eyes.”

“I'm not a photographer, but I can picture me and you together.” Lu Han winks.

“Are you a camera? Because every time I look at you, I smile.” Sehun isn’t lying with this one. In all honesty, he wasn’t lying with any of them.

“So you wanna hang out sometime?” asks Lu Han.

“That is a really bad pick up line.” Chanyeol has to elbow Sehun awfully hard and sharp in the spine before the absolute thick-headed idiot that Sehun is realises what has just happened. He screams internally and fumbles over his words, “I mean yes, please, definitely, any time I’m free as long as I’m not in this apron.”

Sehun hears the loud sound of Chanyeol slapping his palm into his face behind him and desperately wishes that Lu Han will not be fazed by this particular incidence after all of the previous times he has embarrassed himself.

“Okay great!” Lu Han smiles as he accepts the Santa Hat Dark Mocha that Sehun had somehow brewed with shaky hands through their exchange of pick up lines.

 

❄ ❄ ❄

 

Sometime comes along the week after finals.

Starbucks is relatively empty when Lu Han stumbles in with a yellow scarf wrapped haphazardly around his neck, blowing warm breaths of air against his hand to heat up his frozen fingers. The last time he had been here was well over three weeks ago, forbid by Minseok to step foot anywhere near the café and forced to study.

“I’m sure Sehun would appreciate a smart boyfriend,” had been his reasoning. Lu Han learns that there is a reason Minseok is able to flourish in university, balancing his studies and a successful job on the side. It all boils down to the fact that he is really ing smart, and even smart enough to know that the incentive he proposed had actually glued Lu Han to his desk. The last time he had worked this hard must have been in high school.

Standing behind the cash register, Sehun still looks as gorgeous as Lu Han remembers, and he thinks that it is a crime for someone to look this good after the hell that was finals.

“Do you have time right now?” Lu Han manages to ask before Sehun can greet him.

“Um,” Sehun glances at the clock and frowns.

“Go, I’ll cover for you,” Chanyeol says. He is already untying Sehun’s apron. “It’s going to be a slow night anyway.”

It takes Sehun five minutes to come out from the back dressed in a grey sweater and dark-wash skinny jeans while rubbing the nape of his neck as he avoids Lu Han’s gaze. “Sorry, if I knew about this I would’ve dressed better.”

“You’re perfectly fine,” reassures Lu Han. He uncoils his scarf and arranges it around Sehun’s neck, tickling the Sehun’s chin affectionately after he’s done. “You might be a little cold though.”

“Could you two not have waited until you were somewhere I couldn’t see you and have to be subjected to this torture,” Chanyeol yelps.

Lu Han takes Sehun across the road with their fingers intertwined.

“Here, I treat you to real, authentic coffee,” Lu Han says proudly as he pulls Sehun to the countertop seats. “Minseok, two lattes please.”

“I’m honoured that you would let me brew your coffee for your first date,” remarks Minseok.

As Sehun takes a look around the interior of the café he asks, “Is this what Baekhyun meant about you loving coffee?”

“You know Baekhyun?” exclaims Lu Han. He had thought that Baekhyun’s knowledge of everything related to Starbucks had been courtesy of Minseok but perhaps Lu Han had been wrong.

“Do you hate Starbucks?”

“Hate is an understatement,” Lu Han admits. “It took you far too long to realise that.”

“You may have noticed I’m a little more thick-headed than your average idiot,” Sehun says. “Still wanna stay?”

“I didn’t spend a whole two months forking out money for ty coffee to let it all go to waste,” whispers Lu Han, tightening his grip on Sehun’s hand. “Anyway, I don’t have to step foot into that horrid place which completely butchers coffee to see you now, right?”

Sehun just grins at him, pulling Lu Han in for kiss, and he tastes like peppermint and toffee and gingerbread and all the disgusting flavours of the Starbucks Christmas specials but Lu Han thinks he can deal with that if it means he can spend his nights like this.

 

 

---

A/N: thank you for reading and i hope you enjoyed it!! merry christmas everyone! 🎄
*i know psl isn’t sold in korea but for the purposes of this let’s pretend it is - tbh im pretty sure half the drinks mentioned here aren’t on the korean menu im sorry
*prices were estimated
*gpa grading was based off of korea university’s
*b-law = business law in case anyone is unsure? (usually w/o hyphen but added to prevent reading as one word)