As the magnificent eruption of intense orange and yellow slowly starts to paint the horizon, Sehun, already on his bicycle, races up to the coffee place, a few blocks from his small run-down apartment he shares with a friend. He speeds away as cold morning air makes him shiver a little, but he doesn’t mind as he even fills his lungs of the fresh morning breeze. Good old Seoul. He grins and pedals even faster.

He reaches his destination and parks on the side of the building. He enters through the back door, and proceeds to the locker room. Inside, he is greeted by his co-workers who are all changing into their uniform.

“Morning maknae!” Luhan beams at him.

“Good morning hyung!” He returns the gesture.

“Hey there, Sehun” Yixing mumbles.

“Oh! Yixing hyung, I thought you are on vacation till tomorrow.”

Yixing stifles a yawn. “Nah. I can’t have you guys missing me too much.”

He smiles at his hyung’s joke but suspects that Yixing forgot he is still on leave, the slight tilt of his head and an obvious frown tells him Yixing is trying to remember whether he is still indeed on vacation. Hyung is forgetful as ever.

Luhan does not say a thing, clearly used to Yixing’s forgetfulness, and only smiles at Sehun. “Hurry up maknae, we have lots of customers to serve.”

“Ne.” He then hurries to get on his work-clothes.

The sun gradually ascends in the sky and floods their shop with warmth and light that passes through the glass walls. The undeniable aroma of coffee beans being brewed envelopes the whole place, as the crowd of loyal customers, pour in. Also a wide variety of sugary sweet goodness ranging from different kinds of muffins to mouth-watering assortment of cookies, and cakes are arranged neatly in the glass-displays as orders are punched in and served.

After serving a couple dozens of their coffee shop’s patrons, it is already mid-morning when a hurried “until later” and a few “listen to your professor well” with “hurry back ok?” were exchanged, only did Sehun run to catch a jam-packed bus to go to his university.

He is a student on scholarship in a university not very from where he lives and works. Every day, he helps to open the shop first before he goes to uni and returns to work, between mid-afternoon and dusk, until it closes at night. Joonmyun, the owner and manager, is kind enough to give him liberty to fix his schedule in order to balance his studies and work.

After a few good hours of enduring the monotonous voices of his professors that drones on and on, along with lessons scrawled messily on his notepad only then does he finally heads out of the lecture hall and goes to the library. He might have stayed in the library for a while now that his neck cramps a bit and his eyes stings somewhat due to dryness so he chooses to catch up the next bus back to the coffee shop instead.

He enters through the backdoor and witnesses how Jongdae struggles to carry a sack of coffee beans. Jongdae kicks the sack due to frustration.

“Hyung, what are you doing?” Sehun chuckles.

“Oh, maknae, you’re back.” Feigns ignorance.

He opts not to prolong Jongdae’s agony any further by lending him a hand. “Oh, thanks Sehun-ah.” Jongdae pats Sehun on the back, after the younger one took care of his ordeal.

“Old age is catching up with you, hyung.” Sehun teases. He then changes to his working clothes.

“Yah! Sehun! What are you talking about huh?” Jongdae snaps back. Sehun laughs loudly. It is a reverse of roles as he is always on the receiving end of Jongdae’s pranks. “I was supposed to break a news for you, a very good one, but since you decided to be the overly spoilt brat maknae that you are….”

“What is it?” Sehun asks prematurely.

“Yah!” Jongdae is not amused that he was interrupted. He plans to lead Sehun on. Aish

But Sehun is already running towards the shop’s main, since he has a vague idea what Jongdae is about to tell. He skids to a sudden halt when he notices the familiar figure having coffee on the table nearest the glass windowpane. And before he knows it, he is already smiling like a dope while staring at her. He is enticed by the way she drinks her coffee. She waves the cup up her nose to catch the addicting aroma, takes a small sip of the hot bitter liquid and automatically a smile will light up her face, obviously enjoying the drink. She then rests both her palms against the mug as if absorbing the heat from the cup in order to warm her probably cold hands. There is twinkling in her eyes that Sehun notices even from afar.

He is abruptly pulled from his reverie when he hears footsteps walking towards him. Must be Jongdae, who finally catches up. He hopes Jongdae didn’t see anything. He composes himself, acts like nothing happened then walks coolly behind the counter, next to Luhan.

“Oh you’re here.” Luhan breaks into his famous smile which most female customers absolutely fall head over heels for.

“You can take your break now, hyung.” He stealthily glances at her direction.

“Ok, thanks. How’s uni?” Although not making any move or indication to take his break.

“Same, same.” He mumbles at Luhan, as he steals yet another glance at the person enjoying coffee.

Luhan follows his line of sight and ends up smirking at Sehun. “I was the one who served her. What took you so long anyway?”

“Schoolwork.” He puffs his cheeks and gives Luhan puppy eyes.

Luhan chuckles. But Sehun’s all attention is at her now and the dopey smile is back on his lips.

“Sehun-ah, stop smiling like that while staring at her, it’s creepy.” Jongdae jokes. Heat creeps up Sehun’s face as it reddens in the process.

“Jongdae, stop being a troll and let our maknae be.” Luhan chastises.

“Thanks, Luhan hyung.” Luhan always takes Sehun’s side.

“Besides, we only see him break from his ice-prince façade when BoA-sshi is around.”

“Hyung,….” Sehun protests. Ok, maybe not always. Jongdae snickers.

“But it’s true.” Luhan is unabashed.

A part of a routine in his rather repetitive life, which he totally does not mind at all, is BoA. She is a regular customer at the café that Joonmyun gets to be on a first name basis with her. Sehun learned, from the manager slash owner, that she works in a bank near the café and rents a place nearby too.

After her work, she would habitually drop by and have a cup of coffee, which Sehun can only gladly serve. This is the part of the day he looks forward to the most. Can you blame him?

It’s been three days now, four if you include today, that BoA’s not been around. Sehun would promptly look up every time someone opens the door and enters through it only to be dismayed that it is not the person he is expecting.

He gives Joonmyun a look and for the first time the manager cannot give his famous blinding smile but only gives Sehun a shrug of sorry-but-I-don’t-know. Even Jongdae seems to feel sorry for him while he gives him light slaps on the back with a sympathizing look.

“It’s alright, Sehun-ah. Don’t worry too much. She might just have taken a vacation.” Luhan seems to be the only sensitive person around.

“Or she might have gotten married and moved in somewhere else.” Expect Jongdae to make him more miserably than he already is. Sehun should have seen from a far that those pats on the back are too good to be true.

“Jongdae!” Luhan hisses.

“What? I am just stating a worst-case scenario here, hyung.” The insensitive hyung defends himself.

“Sehun-ah, don’t listen to him.” Luhan placates the sad maknae. “She’ll be back.”

“Still no sign of BoA-sshi?” Yixing asks as he emerges from the back room.

“None.” Sehun sighs as he is too dejected to say anything more.

The youngest is so determined for the count not to reach four days, but as the clock continuous to tick on with no sign of the pretty lady around only makes Sehun’s hope burn into ashes and the soot are even blown into the air by none other than Jongdae. He bet Jongdae is always on Santa’s naughty list.

It’s Saturday already and BoA hasn’t been around since Monday. Sehun’s faith and fragile feelings have been played around by Jongdae too many times which makes the former felt the need to strangle the latter but he is seriously too crestfallen that he doesn’t have much energy to fight off the troll. Luckily, Luhan comes to his rescue by kicking the said troll on the shin.

Sunday.

Sehun steps out of the bus after going around the city. He never got to catch a glimpse of BoA this entire week so he spends his day-off going around the city to brighten himself up. At first he thought of inviting someone to accompany him, maybe Luhan but he decided he is not really a good company right now, considering he is all gloomy and such.

He is about to head towards his apartment building when suddenly down came a heavy rain. Great.  He will be stuck at the bus stop because he does not have an umbrella. He looks at the sky and all he sees are masses of black angry cloud, a promise of an endless pour of rain. He sighs. Very reflective of his current emotional state.

After a while, he contemplates whether to make a run for it and hail for a cab because the shed is getting cramped as more people seem to take shelter under it. Then he notices sitting at the far end, the person he’d been looking forward to see the entire week is BoA. Judging by how her clothing’s all a bit wet, she seemed to have taken refuge after the rain poured.

Now, the idea of getting home is out of the question as he ponders on whether he should approach her or not. He steals a few glances of her while having a debate with himself on what to do next. Sure, he serves her coffee almost every day but he’s not sure that’s enough interaction for him to casually talk to her outside the coffee shop.

Sehun is concerned about how she appears to lack her usual glow. Whenever she is at the coffee shop, she emits this certain aura of happiness and confidence that is now missing. It clenches Sehun’s heart knowing how she must be going through something.

And before his brain can catch up with his actions it is already too late.

“Hi.”

BoA looks up, frown graces her forehead before she is able to recognize Sehun. “Hi.” She smiles but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. “Se—Sehu--?” She falters.

“Sehun.” He provides.

“Yeah. Sehun.” She looks sheepish.

A few seconds of awkward silence passes by before Sehun comes up with the lamest comeback. “Terrible weather.” Like it is not obvious enough.

“Yeah.” If BoA finds it awkward, she has a good way of hiding. She lightly smiles, it does not reach her eyes --- again.

She shivers a bit, maybe because of her wet clothing and the cold condition because of the rain, which didn’t fail to grab Sehun’s attention. He strips off his hoodie, which leaves him on a black cotton shirt, and takes the initiative of putting it around BoA’s shoulders then takes off after telling her, “Wait here.”

He is soaked by the time he reached the nearest 7-eleven store, which is thankfully not very far. Then with a can of milk tea and a cup of hot coffee in a brown bag, he makes a run for it in the rain --- again.

His slightly long fringe is messily wet, blocking his view of her a bit but he does not miss how BoA stares at him as if he had gone crazy. He might have, considering he just ran to and fro a convenient store under a storm, so yeah, he is drenched. He pushes his hair back. Don’t look stupid. Look cool, Sehun, look cool.

He hands the hot cup to BoA, much to Sehun’s delight because the coffee survived the storm. She is dumbfounded, but she is able to smile as she says the sincerest “Thank you.” in her entire life. She hands his hoodie back to him. Sehun is about to argue but BoA pleads, “You’re wet. Please put it on or you might catch cold.”  Sehun puts it on and melts in a puddle of goo because BoA worries about him. His heart swells with so much happiness.

She holds the cup to take in the warmth. She smiles the usual way that leaves Sehun breathless. Dimples showing, eyes half-moon shaped with the adorable glow he always admires about her.

She sips the coffee. “Is it any good?” He asks referring to the coffee, as he sits next to BoA. He is careful not to get too close.

“Yours is better.” She supplies. They both laugh, not minding how they are stuck because of the rain, both with wet clothes and shivering under the cold, because honestly, they are both warmed up.

a/n: Click the next button and read the second part. ^^ thank you for reading!! comments are much appreciated. ^^

thanks to ~ xExBxRxUx Cookie Shop ~ for making this poster.