“Hyung, that looks terrible, put it on the other side. No, not there, over there. Oh gosh, okay, just let me do it.”

Sungjong grabbed the glittery red bauble I was holding and gave an exasperated sigh.

I stood on the ladder and stared. Why on earth did I even bother asking my diva of a cousin to help me out with the Christmas decorations?

Oh right. Because I am just as clueless when it comes to making things look nice as I am about the Korean Hallyu wave. I thought having fairy lights strung across the clock was enough.

But no, I am proven wrong every single time.

“Jongie, there was no difference between there. And there.” I pointed, with a blank look on my face.

He gave one look and I held my hands up in the air in surrender.

Never argue with the diva about decorating anything, or anything associated with fashion for that matter.

I began assembling the great big plastic oak tree I bought as a Christmas tree three years ago. Somehow it seemed harder now than it was constructing it all them years ago.

Hmm.. I fumbled with the bottom plastic trunk before grabbing another straw branch.

“I think that’s for the top branch, Gyu.”

That voice.

I whipped my head around and my face immediately lit up.

“Oh hi.”

“Surprise” He grinned.

10:07

Not bad. I’ll have to keep that in my head. I’ll figure out some kind of average time graph or something. Mentally. Of course.

“I can see you’re kind of busy, not many customers today?”

“Yeah, thought I’d get a move on with the whole Christmas season coming in and all. It’s before the lunch break, everyone’s busy working and getting on with their lives. They’ll be here in an hour.” I shrugged and bent down to pick up the correct branch that connected with the trunk.

I tried to put the two pieces together, but it just didn’t fit. I furrowed my eyebrows and was about to give up before a strong hand brushed past my fingers and took hold of the useless piece of plastic.

Why did I even buy that?

“Here, let me.” He smiled, obviously amused that I couldn’t even get a branch to connect with the tree trunk. It was harder than it looked, for goodness sake.

But obviously not, since he got in one try.

I starred with my mouth gapped open.

“How. How did you. what. That’s it. You’re staying here until I finish decorating the whole café.” I chucked a green bauble at his chest, it left an imprint of the coloured glitter on his grey shirt, and he looked at me with a large grin.

“You did not just do what I think you just did.” He grabbed a handful of the baubles and rubbed glitter all over his hands in preparation for the worst. The worst for me, I mean.

My eyes widened in terror and started to back away slowly, as if the grease apocalypse was about to occur.

“No. no Hyun, I was kidding. No, please don’t.” He came towards me ever so slowly and started chuckling like a madman.

As he started chasing me around the café, him doing the chasing, I was just dodging because I was too lazy to run, I hid under a table and crawled on my knees.

I felt a moment of silence before he jumped down from the chair he was standing on and knelt right in front of me.

“Found you.” He whispered.

Within his close proximity I could feel his breath on my face and immediately I felt my cheeks heat up. Turning away, I held my hands up in front of my face and begged him to stop.

He reached out with his finger, covered in glitter and lightly touched my nose.

He chuckled, “Now you look like a green Rudolf.”

I crinkled my nose and tried to rub the remains off my face. But no avail, as the glitter still had some glue on it that made it difficult to simply rub off.

Woohyun wiped his hands on his jeans and with another finger, clean this time of course, wiped it off for me.

“There you go princess, good as new.” He smirked.

I stayed where I was, yes, still on my knees and blinked, clueless, up at him.

“Yah. Are you guys going to decorate this or what.” Sungjong huffed with a loud whine.

Woohyun gave a light sigh and got up off his knees. He held out his hand to me and said with an enthusiastic smile,

“Shall we?”.

I gave a laugh and nodded.

Oh Sungjong, the amount of hatred I have for you right now.

Two hours later, I was mixing up an extra large Caramel Frappé with extra cream and hazelnut sauce for a customer when I heard a loud exclaim of victory.

“Finally! Hyung, look! Oh Woohyun, you’re awesome, Hyung needs more people like us to help him beautify his café more often.” He gave a look of approval and stuck out his chin.

“Got to admit, I am impressed. Thank you, both of you. It looks amazing, It’ll attract so many more customers.” I let my eyes run over all the bright flashing lights and the colourful glittery baubles hanging off the ceiling. It was truly stunning, I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do this myself.

Sungjong and Woohyun hi fived and laughed about a joke they just shared between each other. I smiled, seeing my cousin approve so much of the guy I was dating, okay went on one date with, it was a nice feeling.

Woohyun had to go run some errands and meet for a job interview at this classy restaurant, but he left me a note before he started for the door and said he would call me. I nodded, thanked him and gave him my luck for the interview.

And of course, I handed him over his favourite drink. Which I still didn’t understand how he could consume a substance like that.

I closed the glass door as he went out and gave a small wave before returning back to the register. Sungjong was already placing the unused materials back into the cardboard boxes, and started sweeping all the glitter off the floor.

“I like him.” He simply stated.

I hummed in reply.

“He likes you.”

“You think so?”

“You like him.” He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

“U-um, I guess. But it’s not like I-“

“Oh please, the way you guys are exchanging love sick puppy glances at each other I was about to throw up my Mochaccino. It’s like worse than a Korean drama.” He took another sip out of his drink.

“Which, by the way, the Mocha’s perfect, Hyung, as always.” He praised me with a grateful smile.

Embarrassed, I looked everywhere but into Sungjong’s eyes as he continued his daily gossip session.

“So, a little birdie told me you went on a date last night.”

Dongwoo.

Little birdie, my . He’s got the mouth of a parrot, telling everyone. Actually, he laughs like a Hyena too. Suddenly, I felt so much sympathy for Hoya.

My eyebrow twitched in annoyance, I gritted my teeth and looked at my smirking cousin.

“Yes. Yes I did.”

“With Woohyun?”

“No, with your mum.” I took a sharp intake of breath before giving a soft sigh.

“Of course with Woohyun, who else? Do we need to have this conversation, Jongie?”

“I think it’s important for me to know about my own cousin’s love life.”

“Which by the way, does Woohyun have any hot friends?” His eyes twinkled, full of hope.

I knew it would come down to this.

Lee Sungjong would never ask about something without anything to gain.

Typical.

I shook my head and laughed “Trust you to say that. I’ll get back to you okay?”

He nodded eagerly and twiddled with his thumbs, a little bit disappointed.

“He does have an older brother.” I whispered, with a smirk.

Immediately Sungjong’s head raised up and widened his eyes in excitement.

“Y-yeah?” He nervously giggled.

I patted his head and turned back to my register, holding Woohyun’s note.

“Oh Jong, I needed to ask you, do you want to become a part-time regular? I need the extra hand around here.”

“You mean you want more breaks to go on dates?” He grinned at me, with a knowing look in his eyes.

I laughed and gently opened the folded note in my right hand, my heart beating faster in anticipation.

‘Meet me at 8pm again?

I promise it’s not Mexican this time.’

#

yes, another date coming right up! I think a few more dates, (need the fluff), and my fic will end. probably for the better anyway i need to study! haha i'm in ym last year of high school, so exams and assessments are piling up :'( but i have another idea floating around in my head so i might! we'll see haha.

I'm nearly on 50 subscribers! I'm so happy right now, i love reading and replying all your comments, so please do shout me one to tell me what you think!