Jaehyun rushed to the counter while muttering, "I’m late! I’m late!" However, if he calmed down and was a little aware, he would realize that the coffee shop seemed not to be crowded, and luck was still on his side.

The boy ordered his drink and paid for it without sparing a glance at the menu, as he was so familiar with all of these. Jaehyun didn’t pay attention to the staff at the counter either of course because he was in a hurry. It was only when a familiar voice came to him from the other side of the counter, full of teasing.

"Got sound sleep huh?"

Jaehyun looked up and widened his eyes. When he realized who that was, he exhaled and grinned reluctantly. "John hyung!"

"I said that was Johnny for you."

Johnny, the tall staff who was taking Jaehyun’s order, flicked his fingers at the orange-yellow name badge with his name Johnny typed in black letters on it pinned on his uniform shirt, making the item shine under the characteristic orange lights of the store as he emphasized his words and smiled in response to the younger.

Not just some coffee shop staff, Johnny was a college senior also Jaehyun's roommate. For Jaehyun to say, the younger felt lucky for having a chance to meet and become friends with the Chicago guy. Johnny was two years older than him, and he always cared for Jaehyun as his own younger brother. The older was also trustworthy and very funny (even though his sense of humor was not always good and made Jaehyun feel embarrassed sometimes).

Johnny gave the bill and the waiting number to Jaehyun then grinned teasingly at the younger again.

"Surely I’ll be in charge of waking you up from now on, right?"

"I promise this is the last time." The younger pouted.

"Boy, I heard that two days ago. If you continue staying awake to play games with Sicheng, then I suggest that you do not say that again."

"John hyung!" Jaehyun whined bashfully. Johnny took it as a joy entertaining him from his work.

"Anyway," the Chicago guy said before the younger wanted to say anything. He had already known what it could be, "that table is still available, and the one hasn’t come yet. So, just go there."

This was the benefit of having your friend working at a place that you visited frequently. Jaehyun had a chance to get updated almost every piece of information in this coffee shop, especially the most useful and necessary ones for him.

Jaehyun blushed as he understood the meaning of Johnny's words although its information helped his heart beat a bit calmer and his worry was somehow reduced. Mumbling something like "I will not cook dinner for you anymore!" which made Johnny burst out laughing, Jaehyun listened to the Chicago guy and left the counter quickly to go upstairs though.

To his date.

Excluding the ground floor for taking orders and payment, the coffee shop had three floors for guests with relatively spacious spaces. However, Jaehyun's destination was always only one floor. The second floor.

The boy couldn't hide his joy when seeing the available table in the corner of the room which was near the glass wall towards the stairs. Moreover, as he glanced at that important position in the room, the face that he was waiting for hadn’t appeared there yet. Now Jaehyun believed that luck really acted nicely to him.

No further delay, Jaehyun came to sit at the said table. He took out his necessary stuff from his backpack and placed them on the table: an A3 sized sketch book was used a half, some pencils were sharpened, an eraser was cut into a triangle, and a small paper knife was to sharpen the pencils when he needed. The boy set things up, warmed his fingers up by doodling some cute characters on a paper, and waited.

It was when the screen of his phone nearby lighted up suddenly; there was a new message. Having realized the sender was Johnny telling him to get ready, and though Jaehyun was so accustomed to all of this, still his heart beat uncontrollably while his eyes were casting a glance immediately at the glass door. It was when he caught sight of a very familiar figure.

The door was pushed. Jaehyun swallowed hard.

His date was here.

Actually, let’s start with that Jaehyun was an art student and on his summer break first.

Although Jaehyun had some time to relax, the boy, as a hardworking student who he always was, practiced drawing frequently to improve and enhance his drawing ability. However, more than two weeks ago, the process was slowed down because Jaehyun just couldn't continue drawing anything.

It was technically called art block. No warning signs or a certain time, just one fine day came, and you opened your eyes and lost all inspiration, motivation, and ideas for drawing all of a sudden on the way getting out of the bed. After that, despite how much time you spent holding your pencil and sitting in front of a paper, you couldn't draw normally. Or you couldn't draw anything at all. Or you even didn’t want to hold your pencil to draw.

That was it, the hateful thing that made life miserable for Jaehyun.

Days passed by while the worn out lines kept repeating and the unfinished drawings kept coming out lifelessly. Jaehyun felt depressed while his hands became lazy. He knew that this was an unavoidable stage, especially for people who did art related things like him, when he did one thing repeatedly day after day. Nonetheless, he felt uncomfortable and annoyed with that he himself stumbled in one place like this.

Jaehyun searched for all kinds of ways to change the situation. He sketched whenever and wherever he could. He found new inspiration by listening to new music, visiting new places, trying new foods, or even going shopping for new drawing stuff. Still Jaehyun got nothing better. The inspiration, motivation, or ideas that he needed still ran away from him.

The surface of the next page in Jaehyun's sketch book was only worn out more and more and full of wrinkles for being rubbed too much and drawn over and over again in spite of all his attempts.

And then, just like those inspiration, motivation, or that freaking art block had challenged the boy enough and felt pity for him, Jaehyun was finally given a lifebuoy and saved from the sea of ​​despair, in a very unexpected way.

One afternoon, Johnny, after having witnessed Jaehyun struggling for a few weeks with art block, decided to become the best brother ever on Earth for the younger. Johnny dragged him to the coffee shop and promised him that as soon as the older found out someone to hand over his shift, he would take the boy to the movies and buy him a meal even though Johnny hadn’t received his monthly salary yet.

To the younger, Jaehyun himself was in a bad mood, so he just let Johnny do whatever the older wanted.

The first floor was full on that day, therefore Johnny told Jaehyun to go up to the second floor so that he could have a seat while waiting for the older. Jaehyun went upstairs and found an available table in the corner (which was his table now). He sat at the table without hesitation.

Despite a thought in his mind kept repeating “I’m mad, I won’t draw anymore,” Jaehyun took out a pencil and his sketch book to do doodling. Part of this came from that Johnny encouraged him not to give up, and another part was that he himself hoped this little practice would be useful in some ways.

Jaehyun shuffled his pencil till he felt bored and threw the pencil aside, choosing to relax his mind by looking around the room instead.

At that very moment, it happened.

Among those strange and boring faces, accidentally appeared a really outstanding one. That was a man with a small face and slightly high cheekbones, and a fair enough skin. His eyes were on the book on his hands while his thin rosy lips pressed slightly. Someone could say that those facial features were just common, but it couldn't be denied that they were really harmonious as they were put together, creating inadvertently an entirely full of charismatic whole. Once you looked at it, you couldn't take your eyes off it anymore.

It’s called 'beautiful', isn’t it? Jaehyun thought for a moment.

It was just until the moment he saw the corners of the stranger’s lips curling up slowly into a subtle smile at the same time he lifted his head up and revealed his mostly perfect face and his eyes— those beautiful doe eyes with dark chocolate orbs sparkled like there was a river of moon and stars in them. Jaehyun could tell those were the most mesmerizing pair of eyes he ever seen.

No, it must be called 'absolutely gorgeous'!

Jaehyun looked down hurriedly before that beautiful stranger spared a glance around incidentally as he relaxed his mind like what Jaehyun was doing and could meet the younger’s weird gaze.

The boy counted down from five seconds then raised his head. Even Jaehyun didn’t understand why he held his breath to have to breathe out dramatically like this. He fixed his eyes curiously on the stranger once again.

The late sunrays of the afternoon went through the clear glass wall at that part of the room, letting their golden hue as honey that somebody was clumsy with his hands and let it pour accidentally on the beautiful boy, making him look all warm, sweet, and heartbreakingly gorgeous. That also made his average frame become a little smaller in Jaehyun’s eyes, and the younger couldn't help thinking that was so cute and huggable.

The stranger tilted his head away so that the honey-like sunrays wouldn’t fall into his eyes. His black hair followed along softly and bounced slightly as he adjusted his seat. Suddenly Jaehyun just wanted to go there and asked for a chance to touch the stranger’s hair to see if it was really soft as he saw it. However, of course there was no ways he would do that. It would be a shame. Besides, Jaehyun didn’t have enough courage to do that either.

The stranger’s thin hand with slender fingers took the phone on the table as lightly as a feather. He focused on what he read on the device, but the tense moment lasted only a second then his doe eyes turned into pretty smiling eyes at the same time he beamed the other corner of the room more than any other sunrays round him.

Jaehyun just couldn't explain how every of the beautiful man’s movements turned out to be all sweet, soft, and bright like that. Maybe it was because the sunrays had melted him or something.

But the younger lo—

"Jeong Yoonoh!"

That was when Johnny hit the younger’s shoulder and called his birth name, and Jaehyun was awake. It was not that he was simply awake. Jaehyun jerked and almost shouted if his eyes didn’t catch Johnny's frame standing right next to him just in time for the younger to calm down. The boy then realized that he was frozen for a while.

He turned back to Johnny. The older's expression was a mixture of amusement, teasing, and surprise, and it was definitely all for him.

"Calm down, boy, calm down. It’s John Suh, your Johnny hyung."

"You’re so mean, hyung! What if I got a heart attack?" Jaehyun was embarrassed, whining sulkily at the older. Johnny just laughed.

"But I'm sure I'm not the reason why you got a heart attack."

Johnny pointed his finger to something on the table, in front of Jaehyun. The younger looked down at it. Then he gasped in surprise.

Of course it had to be astonished. It was because in some miraculous ways Jaehyun did sketch the portrait of the beautiful stranger unconsciously while beholding mesmerizingly him and forgetting almost everything around. Surely there were some of the lines which were technically incorrect, some were spread to wrong parts, some were unfinished or blurred to the point of not being able to see clearly, or some were too bold to be fixed later. However, the face sketched on the paper was definitely the stranger’s. Obviously Jaehyun had drawn that person.

It was obvious and important that it was Jaehyun who drew it.

Jaehyun didn’t expect himself to do this. But he really did it.

He could draw again.

Also, it was important to emphasize that he did draw with full of inspiration.

All thanks to that beautiful stranger.

Jaehyun turned to the table in the other corner of the room again happily and looked for the man’s figure. Unfortunately, this time the said boy no longer sat there. He had finished packing all his stuff instead and now left the table, headed towards the door.

Realizing that the stranger was approaching towards his direction, suddenly Jaehyun felt overly embarrassed. He lay down awkwardly on the table to hide his face and also his unexpected sketch for the stranger not seeing it. It was until Jaehyun heard the door shut and Johnny poked in his arm then the younger dared to raise his head up. Jaehyun sighed relievedly when he realized the beautiful stranger was completely out of sight though he started feeling a little regret at the same time.

The boy looked back to see Johnny’s face becoming all flushed from holding his laugh for too long. Jaehyun guessed he himself blushed hard too, he could feel his face now was all hot. The younger wanted to say something to defend himself but couldn't let half of a word out.

Maybe Johnny understood how embarrassed Jaehyun was, so the older just stopped his tease though he couldn't get rid of the teasing smile on his lips. Johnny pulled a chair to sit across from Jaehyun and reached his hand to pat his little brother’s head.

"Come on. I think it's a good thing."

"Johnny hyung—"

"I'm not kidding, Jaehyun. You sketched that person really well and beautifully. It’s not so perfect, but it's soulful and inspirational, just like your previous drawings. I can say that this sketch is even better than those. Just have a look at it again."

Jaehyun took a deep breath as if he was taking all of his courage to look at the unexpected sketch. Once again from under his arms, the stranger's face on the paper appeared at the same time his real figure was replayed in Jaehyun’s mind from the stranger’s whole gorgeous face to his detailed features as doe eyes and thin rosy lips, his smile, the movements of his slender fingers or his soft hair. Everything was so vivid and beautiful, like that pretty man was still in front of Jaehyun’s eyes.

The younger stared at the sketch silently then looked up at Johnny, who was still smiling and waiting patiently for the boy to react.

"Johnny hyung,"

"So?"

"I think— No! I found my inspiration!"

"Yes! That’s it!"

Johnny grinned, held his fist towards Jaehyun. The boy grinned back, bumped his fist to the older’s.

"Well," Johnny said all of a sudden. Jaehyun widened his eyes in question. "Actually that person looks quite attractive."

The younger groaned. He knew it. How could Johnny pass the matter easily?

"I really mean it. He looks pretty. Oh, I should say that he’s handsome when giving a compliment to a boy, shouldn’t I?"

The way Johnny raised his eyebrows teasingly made Jaehyun just want to hit the older’s face with the piece of paper in his hand. OH NO! That piece of paper was the sketch for his precious man now— No, no, no! He meant that was a precious piece of paper that he used to sketch that beautiful man— Ah, really.

Jaehyun sighed, guessing that now his ears were also flushed. He was so embarrassed.

Anyway, no drawings to hit Johnny.

Today would become the most glorious history of Jaehyun's art student life also undoubtedly his darkest history in Johnny's list of possible teases.

"But, Jaehyun," Johnny called him, chuckling as he saw the younger look at him warily. He leaned over and patted the boy’s head again. "I think you’re fine now, right? I was worried as hell too and even ran everywhere today to ask for changing one of my shifts so that I could spend some time with my baby brother."

"I'm sure I'm fine now." Jaehyun beamed. "Thank you, really, hyung."

Johnny chuckled, feeling relieved. After all those days, the younger was able to smile so brightly again that his precious deep dimples also had a chance to come back.

"I think I can stay up all night to draw. I’m full of inspiration now."

The older chuckled. "So I guess today we'll be home early and have dinner at home?"

"I’m sorry, hyung." Jaehyun said apologetically, recalling that Johnny had asked for changing his shift to be able to spend time helping him. However, the older just waved his hand.

"Don’t say sorry, and don’t worry. I can handle it, you know. I think the one you should worry about is that beautiful boy."

"Ah, hyung!"

"What? Did I say something wrong? I think that boy can come back here, so I’ll help you take notice of his arrival. Instead, you should consider visiting here frequently and helping me raise my salary."

"What?" Jaehyun giggled, his face blushed again. "How could it be?"

"Who knows, just hope so. By the way it's good for you, too. You’ll see your inspiration often in return, you know."

"Let me think about it."

Jaehyun understood that Johnny knew that "Let me think about it" thing of him was an acceptance already, so they didn’t say anything else but rolled carefully the precious sketch which marked the return of Jaehyun the art student and also marked the beginning of his fluttering feelings then both left the coffee shop.

Johnny made sure to keep that table in the corner available for Jaehyun as well as take notice of the stranger’s schedule if he returned. Everything Jaehyun had to do to thank the older was cooking high quality dinners for him (with Johnny paid for all the going shopping), and, of course, visiting the coffee shop frequently to 'help him raise his salary' just as the older said.

That night, Jaehyun stayed up all night for feeling excited about how he was able to draw again, feeling fluttered when he thought of the beautiful stranger, and worrying whether he would be able to see that person again or not. Johnny said that he would help him, but if that person didn’t come back then how the older could help and how Jaehyun could handle all these fluttering feelings. The boy kept thinking like that and only fell asleep sometime before the dawn.

However, it seemed that good fortune smiled on him. On the afternoon of the next day, when Jaehyun wasn’t fully aware with his sleepy eyes still closed, Johnny's voice filled with excitement through the phone said that he had asked the staff, and some of them confirmed that the beautiful stranger visited their coffee shop quite often; they noticed him because of his absolutely good look. Also, it seemed that the said boy always came in the early afternoon. Johnny would give Jaehyun the coming and leaving time of the said boy later.

No needs to say how Jaehyun got awaken immediately and became overwhelmingly happy for the rest of the day. He couldn't go to the coffee shop that day since he had some unexpected work at university and the younger was quite upset about it before, but by the new positive news from Johnny, Jaehyun believed everything would be alright.

That evening, Johnny came back home and the first thing the older did was reading out loud the beautiful stranger's schedule along with the confirmation of his familiar seat which was the table Jaehyun had found him. The younger added the day to his best-day-ever-in-life list mentally right away.

Still when Jaehyun went to bed, the boy held the note paper about his beautiful stranger in his hands and mumbled repeatedly what written on it as if he wanted to print those words into his mind.

Afternoon. Come at two, go at half past four. Sit by the glass wall, that one place.

"Afternoon. Come at two, go at half past four. Sit by the glass wall, that one place. Got it."

I want to see you again. I will see you again.

So, that's it. That's how Jaehyun set up his so-called date with his inspiration, that beautiful stranger.

That's also the beginning of the whole story. 

Once again, Thank You for reading~