Minji dragged her feet into Café Café. It was a cheesy name but the café had become her refuge this semester. When he advisor suggested taking an economics class to get a feel for the major, she thought it was reasonable. Why wouldn't you take an intro course? It's supposed to be the easiest class for the major. She could just grind through it and then decide if taking more econ classes was worth it.

What her advisor didn't tell her was that not only was the material really boring, but the professor teaching the course had the most m o n o t o n e voice she had ever heard. He was even infamous on campus for his ever so captivating voice.

Her advisor also forgot to mention that the class began at 8 in the morning. But it was too late to drop the class now, so Minji found herself walking, very slowly, into the café almost every morning.

"Good morning, what can I get you?" the cashier asked.

"The usual please," Minji groaned.

"One small latte with an extra shot of espresso coming right up," he said.

Minji handed her debit card to the cashier, avoiding as much eye contact as possible.

The cashier that worked the earliest shift was also why she went to the café every morning before her econ class.

"That'll be right out for you," he smiled at her as he handed her the card back.

Minji smiled as she quickly took her card and walked to the counter where she knew her latte would be handed to her. She used to watch the barista make the latte, but once she accidently made eye contact with the barista and got so embarrassed she left the café without her latte. The next time she came in to get her daily caffeine, the barista was nice enough to give her the latte for free. Minji blushed the whole time she was waiting for her latte.

"Small latte, extra shot expresso shot," Minji heard her drink called.

Minji walked over to the counter. She finally really looked at the barista. His hair had been dyed a light brown for a couple of weeks now. She thought she wasn't going to like the change, but the light brown made his dark eyebrows stand out more and accentuated his large eyes. She was always a er for eyes and his always seemed to exude energy and even mischievous.

"Here you go, have fun in class," he called to her. His gums showing as he smiles at her.

"Yeah, thanks," Minji said quietly, she could feel herself blushing.

She turned around and hoped she could find a seat in the front of the class, to hopefully not fall asleep during lecture … again.

Minji sighed. She did fall asleep during lecture again, thankfully her friend Chaerin nudged her awake every so often and she was able to take legible notes.

"Do you want to go to the café to study?" Chaerin asked Minji as they walked out of the lecture hall.  "I have an exam for my anthropology class at 1:00pm and I don't want to go back to my dorm yet."

Minji sighed. She didn't have a class till two, but there was always reading she needed to catch up on, not to mention the notes she needed to organize from today's lecture.

"What café do you want to go to?" she asked Chaerin.

"We could go see your boyfriend," Chaerin said with a smirk.

Minji glared at her.

Chaerin giggled. She knew about her friend’s frequent visits to the café. Her friend would argue that the frequency was just because of the convenience of location and her dire need for caffeine, Chaerin knows better. Minji would often come into their econ class and gush about how cute the barista was at

Café Café. Of course, she had to go and investigate herself. She would sometimes meet her friend at the café before lecture, and every time she was happy she woke up those extra 15 minutes to get to see her friend flustered and blushing through her interaction with the barista.

"What?" Chaerin asked trying to keep a straight face.

"He's not my boyfriend," Minji huffed. "Besides, I already bought coffee today," showing her empty coffee cup.

"You do know you can order other things other than coffee right?" Chaerin narrowed at her eyes at her friend. Her coffee addiction was really something else.

Minji pouted.

"But why would I wat to do that?" Minji asked.

Chaerin rolled her eyes.

"Well you can get a muffin and read or catch up on notes, come on, you're just gonna go back to your dorm and sleep any way," Chaerin said trying to convince her friend.

"Fine, you've got a point," Minji said as they headed towards the café.

"Do you even know his name?" Chaerin asks. "You go there so often."

"No, he doesn't even where a nametag," Minji said.

Chaerin nudged her arm.

"Look at you trying to get on a first name basis," Chaerin teased.

Minji rolled her eyes at her friend.

"I mean, I feel bad just calling 'the guy that works at the coffee shop'," Minji replied.

"Still," Chaerin replied.

As they walked over to the coffee shop, Minji wondered if he would still be working. She had gone to the café in the afternoon to study, but she never saw him there. She always assumed he worked the earliest shift. She kinda hoped she wouldn't see him again, embarrassed to see him again in such a short amount of time. What would he think of her? Some crazy obsessed caffeine freak?

But she had already agreed, and Minji was a woman of her word.

As the two girls walked in they were hit by the warm aroma of coffee. It was this scent that captivated Minji and she knew she was going to order another latte.

"Minji, I'm going to go get us a table, order me a large black coffee okay, nothing extra," and with that  Chaerin took off to find them a table.

Minji narrowed her eyes at her friends back, Chaerin did this on purpose.

Minji turned to the counter and saw that cute barista was still working, along with a new face she hadn't seen before. Chatting with Cute Barista was a male about the same height as him, he had dark brown hair and slightly up turned lips, as if he had a permanent smile to his face. It was a bit odd but it didn't take anything away from his other features, long eyelashes and cheek bones Minji could only dream about. She steadied herself, took a deep breath and approached the cashier for the second time this morning.

"What can I get for- " he stared.

"Small latte, extra shot?" the cute barista asked.

"Oh, no, not this time," Minji said, she could feel her cheeks start to warm up.

"Let the customer finish her order, Minseok," new face scolded.

Minji turned to Minseok, the cute barista, and saw him rubbing his hands together.

"Heh, heh, sorry about that," he said.

"Jeez," New face said, "Now, what can I get for you?"

Minji replied Chaerin's order and added on her own (a medium vanilla latte, no foam and a blueberry muffin). After New Face handed her her muffin she went to stand by the pickup counter again.

"You're back earlier than usual,"  Minji heard someone say.

She looked up to see Minseok looking at her. She felt her cheeks become even warmer. She really hoped that he didn't notice.

"Ah, yeah, my friend, she said she wanted to study here and suggested we come here," Minji said.

"Ah. Large black coffee, here you go," he said handing her the drink.

She took it with a smile, as he walked off to make her latte.

Minji took a deep breath, this was the first he had initiated any conversation. She walked a little closer to the espresso machine to watch him make her latte.

"And you ordered something new?" he asked.

"Ah, yeah, I wanted something I could sip on, not my normal 'I need to be awake now!' drink," she said.

He chuckled.

"I always assumed that's why you asked for the extra shot. I hope it does the trick," he said with a smile.

"It does, my econ professor is a pretty bad lecturer," she replies. Her blush had faded a bit.

"Which econ?" he asked without looking up, he was putting the final touches on her latte.

"Econ 101," she replied.

"Ah, you must have Professor Choi, I had him my freshman year and I could barely stay awake during  lecture," he said.

"Yeah, he doesn't have the most interesting lectures," she said.

"He's straight up boring," he exclaimed. "And here is your latte, medium vanilla latte, I'll remember it for  future reference."

He handed her the drink with a gummy smile.

"Thank you," she said as she took her latte.

"Good luck studying," he called after her.

She smiled one more time before turning around to see Chaerin smirking behind her.

"Here Minji, let me help," she said loudly.

Minji furrowed her brows.

"Why are you yelling?" Minji asked as followed Chaerin to a table she had picked.

"Well, I wanted your cutie of a boyfriend to hear your name. You know, so he can 'remember it for  future reference'," she said with a giggle.

"Chaerin," Minji grumbled.

"What? I did nothing wrong," she said as they sat down. "Besides, it looks like he already knows you're name."

Minji gave Chaerin a look disbelief. Chaerin pointed at Minji's latte.

There, written in red marker, was her name.

"He probably knows my name since I always pay with my card. It's no big deal," Minji said.

Chaerin rolled her eyes.

"Don't you have an exam to study for?" Minji asked her friend.

Chaerin just stuck her tongue out as she pulled out her notes.

About two hours later, Chaerin decide she needed a break. Her coffee long gone, she decided she needed something else to drink.

"I'm getting tea, do you want anything?" Chaerin asked.

"No, I'm good," she replied without looking away from her laptop screen.

Chaerin got up with a post it note in hand and walked over to the cashier.

That's weird, Minji thought. But she went back to her reading. But prior experience had taught her to  follow her gut feeling when it came to Lee Chaerin. She looked over to where her friend had walked off to and her gut feeling was right.

Chaerin was talking to the cute barista, who she now knew was named Minseok, and Minji watched in confusion as she saw her friend hand the post it note to the barista. Minseok looked over at Minji. She felt her cheeks heat up again (that can't be healthy) and quickly turned back to her computer screen, hoping he had not seen her blush again.

When Chaerin came back to sit down, Minji glared angrily at her friend.

"Now what did I do?" she asked when she noticed her friends glare.

"What did you give the cute barista?" she asked.

"Oh, Minseok," she said casually. "I gave him your phone number."

Minji's eyes widened.

"You what?" she shrieked, not caring about the glare of the other café goers.

"I told him you were in the middle of doing something, but that you wanted to get to know him better  and that I should give him your number," Chaerin explained.

Minji put her head down on the table.

"Chaerin, I like the coffee here, why did you go and embarrass me?" Minji groaned.

"Oh, come on Minji," Chaerin said as she patted Minji's head. "We both know the coffee isn't that great."

Minji whined, face still down on the table.

"Besides, he's definitley gonna text you," she finished.

Minji lifted her head.

"How do you know that?" she asked Chaerin.

Chaerin pointed at her at Minji's cell phone on the table.

"Because, he's already sent you two texts," she said.

Minji picked up her phone to see she had indeed received two new messages from an unknown number.

The first simple said "Hey, this is Minseok (the barista from Café Café)"

While the second read, "I'd like to get to know you more too :)"

Minji blushed as she read the last text.

"See," Chaerin said when she noticed the blush on Minji's face. "You should be thanking me.

"Study for your exam," Minji said.

Chaerin stuck her tongue out at her, but did go back to her notes.

As Minji unlocked her phone to reply, she thought if things went well, she might actually have to thank Chaerin.

AN: Fun fact, this story is kind a combination of an experience I've had and an experience of a friend of mine. I used to go to a coffee shop right after my first morning class to kill time and read during my last sememster of uni, and there was this really cute barista who always took my order, he was always really sweet (he however, made a not so good latte lol) . And my friend went to the same coffee shop so often ( a different one to the one that I went to) that the barista there knew her order and didn't even bother asking her what she wanted. I used to and say that their relationship was her most consistent relationship she had made in college. 

Also, I'm living for the new EXO Cafe AU they're going with for this comeback.  

Enjoy ^.^

ps. Can you guess who New Face was in this?