It’s not often I find myself challenging my own heart, but for the past few weeks, you’ve been making my mind go crazy...my insides are twisting and turning at any opportunity where I can see you, and I feel like I’ll be drowning within the depths of your eyes if I don’t try to get out now.

You don’t know, do you, the kind of effects you have on me? I want to tell you, I want to let you know...But I’m scared, I’m scared of all the indifference you’ve shown your guy friends when they professed their loves, and I don’t think my childish, clingy self can takes your rejection.

Would it be too much to ask for a single, meaningful glance from you? Would it be too much for me to hope for something more? Can you look at me not as a man who’s younger, but as someone who can protect you for the rest of your life?

~~~

The first time I met you, I clearly remembered you as the customer who always frequented our coffee shop with the most melancholic expressions on her face. I didn’t know why, but I found my gaze trailing toward you every time I’m on breaks, and even though you caught me gawking several times, your emotionless smiles whenever our eyes met broke my heart. It was as though you saw something beyond me, something that even the ones closest to you couldn’t grasp.

I didn’t know who you were, didn’t know what you do, but you remained as the nameless stranger I never want to leave. Even though you tried to pass yourself off as strong and confident, I could see the fragile little girl that needed protection past your facade. I wanted nothing more than to envelope you in my arms and cover you from everything bad in this world, but what could a naive high schooler do?

~~~

It was by chance that I was able to place a name on the beautiful stranger I always see...and at the same time, it slapped me harshly back to reality. Our worlds were too different for me to even consider you as anything but a customer to my poor barista self, and I resented myself for being unable to do anything.

You were Amber, world-famous member of f(x), the newest girl group SM Entertainment has debuted. It was a fateful afternoon when I first discovered your true identity, and the fact shocked me to my core. I had just gotten to the coffee shop where we would usually meet, and suddenly, you came in with a trail of screaming fans after you. Despite the initial confusion, I soon realized upon one look at the fangirls’ clutching cell phones that you had been on hiatus for the past month or so, and news exploded all over that the ‘famous tomboy’ of f(x) may have quitted the group.

I was finally able to placed a reason on your wistful looks that enraptured my heart.

~~~

A few days later once we met again, I summoned up my courage and waltzed by your table, laying a cup of cappuccino down gently. You suddenly gazed up straight at me with those gorgeous hazelnut eyes, questions clearly evident, but I simply smiled.

“It’s on the house,” I whispered, trying my best not to shiver at the electrical impulses you unconsciously sent through me. “You need those, Amber noona,” I shyly said before scuttering away in embarrassment.

For the rest of the day, I made sure to avoid all contacts with you in case I would not be able to keep the ticking time bomb from exploding.

I later learned that you had asked for my name. “Mingyu,” my colleague had said, and my world changed forever.

~~~

“Barista Mingyu, would you like a signed CD?” You asked with a cute smile, pushing the said disk across the counter toward me. I noticed your features consisted of the genuine crescent smile I always wanted to see, and I couldn’t control the grin from blooming across my own face.

“It was on the house,” I managed to say without choking on my own words, and pearly laughter resonated from your throat, enrapturing me in the alluring melodic sounds.

“So is this,” you giggled before you gave me the cup of latte I had carefully crafted for you, “I believe you deserve this more than me. Maybe we’ll meet again, Mingyu ah,” you gave me a dazzling smile before you strolled away from my life.

~~~

“Mingyu ah! Mingyu!” Jeonghan hyung shook me awake from my day dream, and I gazed up at him confusingly. “Mingyu, you’ve been off into your dreamland for so long, what happened?”

“I…” I stumbled, unable to put my current feelings into proper words. “I think...I saw an angel in my dream.”

The long-hair self-proclaimed angel of our group chuckled before he clubbed my head lightly, “You mean Amber sunbaenim? After all, you’ve been mumbling her name for quite a while now. We all thought you were having some sort of teenager dreams and even covered up poor Dino’s ears,” he smirked before running away.

It took me a full minute to register what he had said before my cheeks flushed bright red and I immediately got up to chased the second oldest. “Hyung!”

~~~

“Annyeonghaseyo, SEVENTEEN imnida,” all 13 of our members bowed, and as I reclined myself from my position, I was greeted with the stunning smile I never thought I would see again. After all, ever since that first real encounter that set my heart fluttered, she disappeared from that coffee shop and I had only heard the news that f(x)’s Amber has returned after an injury recovery much later. It was of course by chance that I was discovered by an entertainment agency, and even though my dream has always been to be in showbiz, my desire to enter the business only grew with my determination to see her again.

As she glimpsed down the line at each of our faces, I felt my heart breaking when she didn’t stop when she saw me and instead focused on the foreign-looking Vernon, who was standing next to me. I thought we had something special, I sullenly thought, but I could not break the false smile that was spreading across my lips.

“You guys are so young,” I heard her gushed, and I humbly nodded in enthusiasm along with everyone else. However, I knew that the moment we were out of there, I would be the first to retreat to my room for emotional recovery. This was definitely not the direction I expected my first love to go toward...even though I had already known first loves are equivalent to pains…

~~~

“-Mingyu love!” I heard someone said my name, and I snapped out of my daze in a stubble. Glancing around wildly, I thought someone had managed to dig up the true feelings deep within my heart, and I could feel all my veins pulsating chaotically.

Nudging Vernon, I looked at him questioningly but he simply chuckled before pushing me forward. “What’s going on?” I heard myself mumbled before I was suddenly enveloped in a tight hug.

“I found you, Barista Mingyu,” her voice was right beside my ear, and this time, I could not keep the shudder from surfacing across my body. “I knew I recognize you from somewhere...Thanks for giving me the support I never knew I needed…” she pulled away, and I only had the time to stood there flabbergasted before she was taken away by her manager for her next schedule.

I later found her number hastily scribbled on a napkin in the pocket of my stage outfit, and I never felt such happiness in my life.

~~~

“I heard you used to work as a barista, Mingyu ssi. Is that true?” her piercing gaze was shot straight at me, and I once again felt the same tremors awaiting to emerge. “S.Coups ssi told us previously that you had a special encounter while at that job, would you mind telling us all your story?”

I glanced around at the dozen of my members, and all of them avoided my eyes expertly as though they had been prepared.

“I…” I stuttered, unable to let my eyes wandered toward hers and show how genuine I am. “I…” I tried to start, but immediately stopped once I realized my voice was on the verge of cracking mid-sentence.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw a grin overtook her face before she stood up and waved for the recording to be pause. “PD-nim, I’m gonna take Mingyu out for a bit. He seemed to be hyperventilating,” she chuckled teasingly before she grabbed my hand in hers, pulling me out of the studio hastily.

I didn’t notice shortly afterward, but by the time I realized that we had been running down the busy streets of Seoul, we already arrived at that fateful coffee shop that had connected our two lives together.

And then as though the floodgates of emotions inside me were finally broken down, I gripped tightly onto her hand before pulling her toward me in one swift motion. “Noona,” I said amidst the bright lights of flashing cameras, already knowing the scandal I’m causing. “You’ve been on my mind ever since I first met you in the shop, with how sad and regretful you were about everything. All I wanted ever since was for you to smile, to feel happy again...and before I know it, you were all I could think about.”

“I know,” she smiled gently, patting my back. “I know, Mingyu ah. Trust me, I saw you...I saw you so clearly, and yet my clouded mind refused to believe my good fortune. I thought nobody would accept me because of my tomboyish appearance and personality...but then you came by with that cup. You were so shy, so cute,” she chuckled, looking up into my eyes, “I think I ended falling for you more than I thought I would.”

It was embarrassing to admit, but my dazed mind had completely glazed over the most important part of her sentence.

“B-But then you left?” My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion, “I was so lost when I couldn’t see you anymore.”

“Mingyu ah, you and I know perfectly well you had your way of seeing me again. After all, unless I’m wrong, I wasn’t the one who accepted that proposal to enter the industry a year later, hmm?” she detached herself from my arms, and I felt the blush creeping up onto my cheeks. Deja vu, I would later recalled.

“I-It was the only way I could see you!”

“I know. I’m glad you decided I was worth all the trouble,” she fondly reached up to my hair before she suddenly sent the both of us tumbling toward the safety interior of the coffee shop, into the strange silence that would not have encompass the place at this hour of the day.

“N-Noona…” I mumbled, several emotions latching on to that one word the moment we were truly alone, “I--I...I love you,” I fumbled with my nonexistent sleeves, eyes down-casted as I braced myself for the rejection I was sure was coming. Despite the connection we forged, I knew she was just talking to me to be nice, to smoothen out the sad misunderstandings I gathered one-sidedly over the years. I could only hope she would be gentle in her refusal.

“You silly goose,” she chuckled before shyly reaching on her tiptoe to pressed a chaste kiss against my cheek. “Didn’t you hear what I said before? I already professed that I love you, babo.”

Unable to believe my ears, I looked up a bit too quickly and a moment later, the sense of strawberry soft lips against mine made me jumped back in shock. With us both beet red to the tips of our ears at the sudden unexpected contact, the tension that hung in the air was anything but awkward.

It was more of something along the line of infatuation...perhaps?

“Oh my god,” she mumbled in English, already bracing herself for the news articles the next morning. Someone had definitely captured our accidental kiss, and while I should be mortified, I was slightly relieved that fate has given me the chance to claim hers as mine and unavailable to anyone else.

“Mingyu ah, we’re ruined,” she shook her head sadly, but the goofy smile on her face told of a different story. Opening my arms wildly to welcome her, I grinned in satisfaction when her petite figure stepped into the crook of my body and I enveloped her in my protection. “Mingyu, you realize that we’re knee-deep in trouble?”

“I do,” I muttered an answer, laying my head on top of hers. “I do, noona. But believe in me, trust me...I’ll do whatever I can to defend us against the world…”

“You’re one cheesy, cheeky guy,” she poked my cheek as she huffed, and I simply laughed before letting her bury her face in my chest. “But I still love you.”

“I love you too, noona” Ever since I first saw you, I’ve been drowning within the comforts of your love.

How do you guys like the cheesiness and fluffiness? I think I might've given you guys a heart attack at the beginning...did you think this would be a sad story? ^~^

With how recently I've been updating, you must've noticed that I got a lot more free time. And yup, you would be right! Summer vacation had started for me, so I'm gonna try to give you guys, my patient readers, as many fluffy stories as I can during this summer~! Hope you guys enjoy and comment your thoughts!