yifan has been having the tiest day.

his alarm had apparently run out of batteries in the middle of the night and his roommate luhan failed to wake him up. consequently, he wakes up forty minutes late for his eight am financial accounting midterm. in a rush to leave, he throws on the first clothes he pulls out of the closet, unable to go through his daily hour-long ritual to get ready before dashing out of the apartment. he doesn't realize it is raining until he is outside, but he has no time to run back for an umbrella. he just happens to miss the hourly campus shuttle, which would have halved his commuting time.

he makes a grand entrance into the exam room a minute past nine am, drenched and disheveled. the professor gives him a disappearing glare and an exam and he quickly finds an empty seat in the front row. as he takes out a pencil from his pocket, he realizes that he forgot his calculator.

coming out of the exam room two hours later, he realizes the calculator wouldn't have helped him much. apparently the professor thought it would be fun for the students to take an impossible test.

resigned to the fact that he most likely failed the exam, yifan dejectedly wanders to the cafe on the northeast corner of campus to get his daily coffee.

while waiting in line, he notices that there is a new barista today. not giving much thought to it, he takes out his phone to pass time, not realizing when he is at the front of the line.

"hello, may i take your order?"

yifan quickly puts his phone away and opens his mouth to order, but when he looks up into a pair of warm brown eyes, he's so entranced he forgets he's supposed to say something until the barista waves a hand in front of his face.

"um... are you alright?"

embarrassed, yifan clears his throat. "um, yes i'd like a medium americano please."

"that'll be $2.50. and what's your name?"

"why do you need my name?"

"for your order, of course," answers the barista with a chuckle.

"oh, um, of course. it's kris," yifan coughs out awkwardly while reaching into his pockets for money. and oh dear. things can't get any worse for yifan. "um…" he looks at the barista's name tag. "yixing, i didn't bring my wallet today. i'm sorry but i'll have to cancel my order."

almost immediately, yixing responds, "oh it's fine! you're a regular here right? just pay for it next time." and he turns around to make the drink without waiting for a response. "is kris your real name? you don't really look like a kris," yixing teases.

unsure how to respond, yifan replies with a huff, "of course it is. but you can call me yifan if you want instead."

"okay, yifan. so how has your day been so far?" he asks in such a sincere and cheerful matter that yifan forgets about his ty day, and can't help but say,

"it's been great." because i met you.

"oh that's good," yixing comments as he turns around to hand yifan his coffee. "here's your coffee. enjoy the rest of your day and i'll see you around!" and then he smiles, and in that moment, yifan thinks he might've fallen a little in love.