part(ii)

Chaerin returns to the cafe regularly, mostly when she has long hours of homework to complete or pain-inducing projects to work on. It suits her needs well— quiet atmosphere, comfortable seats, relaxing classical music (it really helps while she’s doing music theory), not to mention the coffee is really good. She and Jiyong have gotten pretty close over the past few weeks, chatting casually while she waits for him to make her drink. Sometimes he adds extra caramel and passes it to her with the twinkle in his eye that never seems to vanish. She thinks it’s pretty safe to consider him a friend, although she’s never actually seen him anywhere else except behind the counter.

There are days when Chaerin feels particularly adventurous, and she orders one of the exotic specials on the far right of the huge menu like “Flaming Dragon Mocha” and “HEPHAP macchiato”, which taste...actually pretty good, but Chaerin is glad the ingredients are not listed so at the very least she wouldn’t know what she was drinking. Because that one time she ordered “Suka’s dishwash espresso” for a little pick-me-up, there was actually the taste of soap in the small cup.

But there are also days when school is stressful and assignments pile up and there are deadlines to meet and all Chaerin really needs is a warm cup of caramel latte to comfort her.

Today is one of those days. She orders and watches as Jiyong creates a pattern with the frothy milk on her latte. She tilts her head to make out the picture, brows furrowed. It looks like… But then the milk stops flowing into the cup and she feels Jiyong’s eyes land on her.

She stiffens for a moment under his gaze before jerking up, startled as her ears turn an embarrassing red, earning a laugh from Jiyong.

“Can’t you tell?” he says when his breath evens out, turning his attention back to the latte. “It’s a fireball.”

Chaerin snorts, her dignity almost disappeared for a second there. “I thought it was you, what with the spikes and all..” Chaerin says, gesturing to her own hair.

Jiyong looks up, false hurt plastered on his face. “Hey hey, I spend hours on this every morning.” He smooths his hair down and gives Chaerin a charming smile, which is really charming and handsome, but it’s not like Chaerin would ever admit it so she simply rolls her eyes, smile playing on her lips as she grabs her latte and strides back to her seat.

"Enjoy!" Jiyong shouts from the counter like he always does and Chaerin finds herself full-on smiling as she sets the cup down.

She looks pulls out her school materials and is about to begin an in-depth analysis on Mozart when a wolf whistle interrupts her.

She looks up and.. wait, did Youngbae just whistle at her?

Since Chaerin started visiting the cafe regularly, Youngbae and her have never had a proper conversation despite her many futile attempts so this is a big deal. Although considering Youngbae never really does talk, Chaerin knows quite a bit about him, mostly from Suka and his loose mouth.

According to Suka, Youngbae seems really quiet but is actually the biggest party animal amongst the three of them. Apparently he goes to clubs and strips and gyrates and all that and Chaerin is having a very hard time picturing it because when Youngbae smiles he looks like snoopy and it's just way too cute.

He also wears 4-inch insoles and is nicknamed Taeyang, which, from Chaerin's knowledge, means Sun, and that's pretty weird.

Chaerin picks herself up from shock and smiles amiably at Youngbae. "Hi Youngbae."

"Did.. Jiyong make that for you?" He asks, voice soft and expression unreadable.

She looks up at him quizzically. "Yes, he did? Well, he is the only barista here." She chuckles and Youngbae is still void of expression.

He stares intently at the latte before his mouth twitches slightly and that endearing eye smile appears.

"Wow, you must be really special."

"Wh-"

"Jiyong never custom makes latte art for just anybody," he points out.

Chaerin is rendered speechless as Youngbae smiles again, this time suggestively, and walks away to arrange more books. (The bookshelf looks perfectly fine and Chaerin has no idea how this job actually works)

When Chaerin reaches home that night, she pours some hot tea and snuggles into bed with latte, snoopy and (mostly) Jiyong on her mind.