It was a warm, dry day in Gyeongnidan-gil, Itaewon. The street bustled with young men and women, Korean and tourists alike, looking for a place to eat amongst the trendy restaurants, bars and coffee shops. However, one café nestled away in one of the many back alleys, seemed to attract the most traffic amongst the female population. It’s name is Universe Café.

Universe café is a BL café established by recent graduate Kim Joonmyeon as a side business after accidently stumbling upon a BL café himself during a vacation in Japan. After discovering their popularity, Joonmyeon quickly investigated if it was possible for him to open his own. The café was then opened two years later to great success.

The café’s interior is polished, beckoning it’s visitors to stay. The large space is modern yet cozy, with white walls surrounding the room. Wooden accent pieces can be found strewn liberally throughout the café as well. The café’s tables have a glossy, red wood finish along with the wall columns and the bar’s backsplash donning a realistic cool-toned wood wallpaper. This along with the deep, red curtains hugging the windows makes the shop feel homely and cottage-like.

However, the most attractive feature of the store would have to be the staff. Most of the staff hail from Joonmyeon’s old school: Daeil High School. A prestigious all-male high school located in the heart of Seoul. Noted for its exclusivity, only the wealthiest of families can afford to send their sons to this school. Being the Dux of his year as well as one of the faculty’s most loved students, Joonmyeon still had a hand in his school’s affairs. This included being able to recruit a handful of the school’s most attractive and alluring students to work for him. 

 

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“Hey, you ready for work today?” Tao whispers, nudging Luhan on his shoulder.

Flicking his hand away, Luhan hushes, “Yeah.”

Luhan then turns his head back to the class whiteboard.

As he continues jotting down math equations in his notebook following along with what his teacher is writing, Tao interrupts him.

“Do you think the new staff member will come in today?”

Luhan side-eyes his annoying neighbour and starts writing a message in his book.

‘Yes kris said hes coming & that he wants me to train him today’, the note reads with Luhan turning the book so his classmate can read it.

Tao hums in approval and draws a small heart next to Luhan’s message. Luhan’s brows furrow at the symbol, clearly disproving of Tao’s graffiti. Unbothered, Tao continues his writing, ‘ok ^^’ it reads. Then turning back to the front, he starts copying what’s on the board. Luhan blank stares at his neighbour for two seconds before imitating his actions.

 

Luhan and Zitao have been friends since early childhood. Both the sons of first immigrant Chinese parents living in Seoul, they quickly become friends. Growing up, they were repeatedly praised for looks by adults. Being Chinese however, they were often the loners of their grade. Luhan, especially, was picked on for his feminine looks. But, grew to draw the attention of the opposite once he matured into his own skin.

 

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The bell sounds signalling the end of fifth period. Scraping his chair back, Tao stands.

“I wanna go to the bathroom, Han.”

Luhan smiles, “Ok, bye!”

A frown and a huff later, Tao turns and walks slouched to the door, frustrated in his classmate’s lackadaisical attitude.

Soon after Luhan scans the room, guessing if anyone in his own class will be the new employee. His sight locks on a specific face. Minseok. Minseok’s figure often caught Luhan’s eyes. He could usually be seen donning an oversized hoodie enveloping his slim frame. His long, black hair covered one of his eyes but still managed to shine through his hair as he talked to his friends. A permanent timid smile plastered on the boy’s face. Which when lucky enough to witness, bloomed into a charming gummy smile.

Minseok was one of the class’ wallflowers yet often thought about by Luhan. He would usually try and sneak glances at the boy from the back of the class. He then imagined to himself if Minseok could be the new trainee. ‘Impossible’, he thought. Working at a BL café requires it’s waiters to do a large amount of fanservice including scenario roleplay and Pepero kiss games. Suddenly, his mind flashed an image of himself doing a Pepero kiss game with Minseok under him and his blood burned.

 

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The school day finishes and Luhan and Tao make their way to Universe Café. The walk to the store filled with chatter as they throw out possible names of who the new employee is. Weaving through the crowded streets, they reach the store. Entering through the back door, they walk through the kitchen. “Hey, Kris and the new guy are waiting in the staffroom. Hurry up, ”one of the cooks, says. 

The pair make their way to the staffroom, opening the door.

The sight inside stunning Luhan causing his eyes to widely open. Kris was standing with his classmate Minseok. HIS CLASSMATE MINSEOK.

“Hey”, Kris started, ignoring Luhan’s gaping mouth. “This is Minseok, he’s starting today. Minseok, this is Tao and Luhan”, he gestures to the boys. “Lu, I’ve already taught Minseok the basics, you just need to teach him how to interact with customers and stuff. Tao and I will leave you to it.”

Kris begins to leave the room with Tao following in suit. As he walks past Luhan he mutters behind his ear, “flies will enter your mouth if you don’t close it.” Luhan’s mouth shuts immediately.

“Hi, Luhan”, the new boy shyly waves.

“You know my name!?” Luhan asked incredulously.

“Well, we’re in the same class.”

“Oh haha, right!” Luhan manages to utter.

Silence then starts to envelope the room, both students unsure of what to say.

“Ok! Follow me,” Luhan says with a false confidence. “We should head to the front.”

The boys exit the room and begin to walk through a short corridor. Luhan’s mind going a mile a minute. ‘Why is Minseok here? Does this mean he wanted to work here? He doesn’t seem like the type, though? If he wanted to work at a café, why would he choose a BL café!?’ and more questions rushed through his head.

The two walk through an open doorway prompting Luhan to face Minseok, “Alright, the dining area is just through here.”

“Ah, ok!” Minseok responds with wide eyes.

Blushing, Luhan peels his eyes away Minseok’s and faces his front. “Um, ok I’ll explain how everything works. So, when a customer sits down a waiter will go up to them with a menu. Then you introduce yourself. You can also, depending on your chosen image, say certain things. Like if you had a flirty image maybe something like, ‘What is the princess interested in ordering?’. But, for you I think a cutesy image would be better. If you want… It’s up to you, haha…”

Luhan begins panicking, avoiding Minseok’s eye contact even harder than before, finding a new-found interest in what the floor looks like.

“Haha, should I?” the other boy asks teasingly.

“Oh, haha! It’s your choice!” Luhan weakly smiles back, feeling an imaginary pool of sweat run down his face. “Anyway, after they finish their meal. You and another waiter will go to their table and can start doing fanservice,” Luhan states, scratching his cheek. 

Luhan really wants to ask if he knew that he has to do fanservice when he signed up for the job, because why would one of the classes quietest students agree to do this? But refrains as he wants to finish explaining to Minseok the job and go run home ASAP, watch the World Cup in bed and pretend this never happened.

“Ok, so one of us will bring over a container of Pepero and for how many meals they ate they take out, we do the same amount of fanservice scenarios. But three scenes is the maximum. So, we’ll act out a scenario and since it’ll be a waste of Pepero not to use it we have to do a Pepero game towards the end of the scenario and t-then kiss.” 

“Oh! Ok! What type of scenarios?”

‘What type of scenarios? What do you mean what type of scenarios? I just told you that we are going to kiss and you ask what type of scenarios? Who kidnapped Minseok and replaced him with Tao?

“Just like boyfriend roleplay or confession scenarios like maybe one student confessing to his classmate… just things like that haha… Fake scenarios. Yeah.”

“Alright!” Minseok chirps.

Before Minseok can talk further, Luhan moves on. “Ok so we should practice scenarios now if you want?”

“Sure, please teach me well!” Minseok replies, drawing out the last syllable.

“Ok, let’s step fully out into the dining area then. The customers will probably be looking at us as we practice but people will be watching you even closer when we do it for real so it’s good training.”

The boys step off the back wall and towards an unoccupied chaise lounge chair. The café is half full but hosts an energetic mood inside as it’s clientele transitions to mainly high school and university students as their classes finish.

“You can sit down if you’d like, I’ll go grab some stuff,” Luhan gestures to the chair. After hearing a confirmation from the shortest of the two, he fast walks out of the room.

He later comes back with a jar of Pepero in one hand, and a plate in the other.

“Hey, I got us an omelette so we could feed each other,” Luhan greets.

“I see, looks good,” the sitting boy grins, small teeth revealing themselves into a smile

“Yeah, most people order omurice as an extra meal to get more scenes but leave us half so we can feed each other.”

“Ah, ok.”

“Oh, since you’re the newest person you’d probably ask the other waiter to feed you. Alright, let’s start?”

“Ok, um,” Minseok thinks pausing, “Sunbae, I’m hungry,” he comes up with on the spot with smile.

“Should I feed you?”

“Mhmm,” patting a seat beside him.

“O-oh, thank you,” Luhan says sitting down. He starts to scoop up a small amount of egg and rice onto a spoon making it easy for Minseok to eat.

“Say ‘ah’,” as he tries to smile confidently but ending up with a off-centered grimace.

“Ahhh-”

With shaky hands Luhan manages to get the spoon inside his mouth careful not to clash against teeth.

“Hehe, it’s good,” Minseok mumbles, pouty lips moving around as he finishes chewing his food. With a of his lips and a gulp, Minseok finishes eating. Luhan tears his eyes off his mouth as he begins to talk.

“Should I feed you now?”

“Sure.”

“Ok, open up Sunbae!”

Luhan doesn’t even tear away looking at Minseok’s face as he opens his mouth, only to barely get his lips wrapped around the spoon to keep food in his mouth. Hand immediately going under his mouth in case a stray grain of rice falls out. He manages to make a small smile while chewing.

Minseok looking now at the spoon in his hands blurts out, “Oh! It’s an indirect kiss right? Haha,” with his voice lilting upwards.

“O-oh. Yeah, haha!”

Satisfied with Luhan’s answer, Minseok put’s the spoon back in his mouth.

“W-what are you doing?!” Luhan asks incredulously.

“There was some rice left…” sadly murmurs around the spoon.

Oh, haha. Um, do you want to practice another scenario now. We usually do scenarios were we’re dating. We can also practice using the Pepero.

“Alright!”

“Ok, I’ll lie on the chair and pretend to read some manga, ignoring you. You can sort of try and get my attention by acting cutely, eventually I’ll give in and do the Pepero game and then yeah. If you want. Up to you again haha.”

“I’ll try my best but I don’t know if I’ll be very good,” Minseok says as he looks down.

“It’s all good!” Luhan tries to hurriedly console, “No one is good on their first go!”

“Hehe, thank you Sunbae!”

Luhan moves to lie down, grabbing an old manga out of an end table next to the chaise.

“Ok, ready to start?” says Luhan receiving a powerful nod of the head back. Face full of determination, Minseok steps toward the chair.

“Hey, o-oppa.”

‘OPPA!?’

“Why are you ignoring me?” says Minseok sadly, continuing in his role.

“I’m not,” Luhan grumbles back, position unmoved with his manga covering most of his face as he pretends to be disinterested in his new boyfriend.

“Um,” he mumbles, thinking of what to say next. “Hey, I want a kiss!”

‘WHAT!? A KISS!?’ Luhan’s mind feels like it has just shattered into a million shattered glass fragments.

“I’m busy,” he mumbles again, fake agitation in his voice which couldn’t be more opposite to how he feels inside with his nerves bubbling towards the surface.

“Fine, let’s break up if you don’t wanna kiss,” enunciates Minseok with a pout, crossing his arms.

“Fine, let’s kiss,” he slowly says, taking his time to put his manga away and sits upright. “Sit down,” he says patting a spot next to him.

Minseok wordlessly sits down, joining his hands on his lap.

Taking his behaviour as nervousness, Luhan decides to take a more active role. Grabbing a Pepero out of the jar on the table, he brings it to his mouth.

“Ready?” Luhan quietly questions out of character to make sure Minseok is comfortable. After receiving nods back, he places it in his mouth. Fingers tremble as the slowly move off the couch and lift up to very gently brush under Minseok’s chin to raise his head up. Leaning his body in towards his partner, Minseok moves his neck forward slightly to grasp the Pepero with his teeth and then purses his lips around it. Luhan maintains shaky eye contact as he slowly starts nibbling towards the centre. Minseok then begins, albeit a little slower. A few bites later, only a two-inch chocolate stick separates their lips from touching. After a three second pause, Minseok closes his eyes, a silent confirmation for Luhan to continue. With his fingers still under his chin, he uses his thumb to slightly pull down on the front, gesturing for Minseok to slightly part his lips. Pulling the short stub of Pepero with his teeth in his mouth, he leans forward to capture Minseok’s lips. A chaste kiss later, Luhan pulls back to see his partner’s reaction. Minseok seeing Luhan look at him for a sign, smiles gently eventually blooming into a toothy grin, gums and all.

“Ahaha, Ok! Uwaa, this is how it is, huh?” Minseok provides energetically.

“Haha, yeah,” Luhan smiles back in kind, catching his breath. “Ok, that was good! How about you go to the staff room and see if your uniform fits, I’ll be right there in a lil’ bit.”

“Oh, ok,” he replies back in a slightly saddened tone before continuing, “Alright! See you there.”

Luhan pushes his self off the chair and begins to walk through the entrance from where they came. After a pause, Minseok begins to motion to get up too and follows in Luhan’s previous footsteps.

Pausing in the hallway, Minseok looks left and right aimlessly, seemingly lost as to where the staff room is. After walking forward a tad, Minseok decides to go through the door first to his left, quietly pushing the swing door slightly. Peeking his head through, he realises that it’s a men’s bathroom. One of the stalls is also occupied, however before he can leave, someone talking begins to fill his hearing.

“Where the hell are you?” someone seethes angrily. Minseok’s eyes fly wide open as he recognises the voice belongs to his classmate Luhan. He stalls in the bathroom deciding to listen in.

 

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“I’m at Kris’,” Tao replies via phone speaker. Luhan curses him in his head.

“What are you doing there?” he asks incredulously, “You have work today!”

Met with high pitched laughter and a sarcastic ‘So?’, Luhan continues, “Anyway Minseok from class is the new guy.”

“What!?” Tao shreeks, “Kim Minseok? The chipmunk, the baozi: Kim Minseok?

“Yes,” he shouts back.

“Oh my god, Luhan.”

“Listen, I know, and even more is he is actually good like really good at doing roleplay. He’s cute and charismatic too it was like he was born for this job. What is happening here Tao? I’m going crazy.” Luhan blurts out a mile a minute, exasperatedly.

“W-woah, ahahaha, what are you even saying, haha.” Tao answers in amusement

In the loudest whisper he can muster, Luhan states, “I think I like him! I think I ‘like-like’ him!

After no response, Luhan shouts “Help me! Tao! Say something you freak!”

 

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After ten minutes of a mind-numbing back and forth, Luhan unlocks the stall to an empty bathroom. Looking in the mirror he prunes his hair and practices a neutral expression that isn’t the hazard one which he is currently sporting. Leaving the men’s room, he walks out at a snail’s pace to the staff room, knowing who is inside. Taking a deep breath he pushes the swing door open.

“Oh! Hey, Minseok!” Luhan says casually in a mix of pretend excitement and surprise.

‘I’m not supposed to be surprised, I asked him here, god damn it.’

Minseok’s head slowly turns from its position laying on his folders arms on it’s table to view the voice’s owner.

“Ohh, hey Luhannie~.”

‘LUHANNIE?!’ Luhan feels like jumping out the window before Minseok can see him sweat out of every orifice.

“Ahahaha hello, um, do you want to go back to the dining area, one of our regulars came in and I think it’ll be good to have our first trial with them instead of some randoms.”

Pushing his chair back, Minseok smiles as he gets up standing directly in front of Luhan, “Ok, let’s go!”

The pair walk through the hallway this time towards the entrance with Minseok leading this time and Luhan trailing behind. Minseok stops at the entrance and waits for Luhan to lead them to the regulars. The table they were previously at is now occupied with two high-school girls.

“Hey, Seulgi and Yeri.” Luhan greets the two.

“Isn’t it supposed to be Princess Seulgi and Princess Yeri,” a blonde girl chastises back, drawing out the words ‘Princess’ slowly.

“Whatever, um, this is my classmate Minseok”, he says, gesturing towards Minseok. His sight currently planted on his chin as he can’t bring his eyes to create eye contact. The two students greet him cheerfully in return.

“Anyway, we need to practice doing some scenario’s so I’ll let you ask for one for free. As long as it’s good, though. No more Disney roleplay.”

The pair hum in thought, when a girl with black hair excitedly suggests, “How about Minseok confesses to you and then you can kiss to celebrate your new love?” 

“Ugh, what the heck is that Seulgi? Fine, are you ok with doing this one?” He looks at Minseok’s eyes for the first time since being in the staff room.

“Sure, I’ll try my best! Ok, please lie down for me.” Luhan moves towards the chair and promptly lies back into the chair facing Minseok.

“Sunbae,” he starts off with a sly grin, “do you have a boyfriend right now?”

“O-oh, I don’t.”

“Hm, I see,” Minseok says softly as he places a knew in between Luhan’s thighs and reaches over his body to the Pepero on top of the side table. A dainty index finger and thumb grabbing one as he continues, “Do you think I’d be a good boyfriend for someone?”

Luhan’s brain is on the verge of mechanical shutdown, “Oh, ah, yeah you’re very likable!” He whimpers lamely in reply.

“Oh?” Minseok raises an eyebrow in jest, placing the Pepero in Luhan’s open mouth forcing Luhan to close his lips as he brings his body back to hover above Luhan’s.

“That’s good because I like you too.” Popping the other end of the Pepero in his mouth, he starts to nibble his way towards Luhan. Mimicking Luhan’s previous actions a thumb is placed on his chin, dragging Luhan’s bottom lip open. Minseok smiles around his Pepero and captures the lip, kissing him and then placing a chaste kiss on the corner of his mouth. He then quickly moves his head past Luhan’s to whisper in his ear:

“Date me?”