part(v)

It becomes a daily routine for Chaerin to visit the cafe immediately after school and stay late into the night. Jiyong sits opposite her as she highlights paragraph after paragraph of her textbook and although he’s a little noisy at times, Chaerin hardly minds. He makes coffee and small jokes which jolt Chaerin wide awake with laughter when she feels she might actually collapse on her books in exhaustion.

Midterms begin and Chaerin breezes through them easily. Practicals are easy peasy because Chaerin is a music major for a reason and the reason definitely isn’t for the theory work. It also might have something to do with the fact that Jiyong gives her small doses of encouragement by doodling “u can do it!” with little smiley faces on her notes, but mostly Chaerin thinks it’s because she’s worked hard.

The night before the last exam, Chaerin has her book open and her eyes closed, mumbling the same information over and over again until it almost becomes a prayer. Jiyong is watching her from the counter and he seems to be making something new, probably some bizzare recipe like coffee with pineapples but Chaerin doesn’t have time to wonder because she has an exam to study for and the huge chunk of blah in her book is really hard to memorise.

She hears Jiyong come over from the counter, ice clinking in the glass he’s holding and opens her eyes to be met with a wide grin she’s grown familiar with. It invokes a natural response from her to smile back and she does, momentarily forgetting about memorising anything except the areas on Jiyong’s face that crease when he smiles, the way his gums sort of show a little when he smiles wide, like now, and the way his ha—

“Ahem,” Jiyong clears his throat and Chaerin jumps in her seat, smile disappearing now that she realises that she’s been staring.

“S-sorry,” she’s stuttering, nervously flipping her book to whatever page and staring intently. “A lot to memorise,” she mumbles and can almost hear Jiyong’s smirk.

He plops himself down his usual seat opposite of Chaerin and silence ensues.

The only qualm Chaerin has about late nights in the cafe alone with Jiyong is the fact that they are literally alone. Together. Late at night. In an empty cafe. Awkward moments in this context becomes very, very awkward because there’s no Youngbae to chat with or Suka to throw incredulous looks at. There’s only Jiyong, eyes burning through Chaerin as the textbook she flips makes obnoxious rustling noises.

There’s no reason for them to be awkward, but the air is filled with some sort of tension that Chaerin isn’t quite sure of so she continues flipping as her eyes scan through the huge mess of words.

“Hey, take a break for a moment.” Jiyong says, voice cutting through the deafening silence. He sounds serious and Chaerin looks up, slightly surprised.

Jiyong is grinning, but there’s a hint of nervousness in it that has Chaerin making a double-take. In his hands is a drink she’s never seen him make before, some sort of coffee-ice-thing with ice cream on top which Chaerin figures is the one he’d been working on the past four hours.

Chaerin complies by shutting her book and shifting it to the side of the table.

“I guess I should.” she chuckles and eyes the drink. “What’s that?”

“It’s a new drink I’ve been working on. Try it.” He stirs the drink before handing it over to Chaerin, who takes a small sip (just in case there’s something weird inside) and it tastes really nice. Kind of like caramel latte but an upgraded version.

“This is really good,” Chaerin says, lifting the cup up to observe it’s contents.

“Of course, it’s made by me after all.” His expression is smug and Chaerin rolls her eyes, sliding the cup back to Jiyong.

“So what is it?”

Jiyong smiles.

“Hunchae.”

Hun— what?

“What?”

“Hunchae,” he repeats and Chaerin is still confused.

“It’s your drink.” he says finally, sighing and shaking his head. “Hun for warm and Chae for Chaerin.”

Chaerin looks at him stunned because what? Her drink? He made a drink, for her?

“Why would you make a drink for me?” she asks, genuinely curious as her stomach tingles in the most pleasant way.

Jiyong shrugs but Chaerin doesn’t miss the blush that creeps up his neck. “Well, you come here often and you know, Youngbae and Suka really like you, so I thought I would make this drink?” he says, and sounds really unsure and it doesn’t make sense either but still, Chaerin is flattered.

She takes the drink and brings it to . “Thank you.” she says before taking another sip and hopes her excessive happiness is not radiating and showing up on her face.

He chuckles nervously and looks away, seemingly embarrassed and it’s a cute change from what Chaerin is used to from Jiyong, who is usually confident and not shy in the least.

She’s halfway through Hunchae when Jiyong shoots the most unexpected question at Chaerin and makes her choke on her drink.

“So you really like me?”

She’s coughing as she puts the glass down and looks up at Jiyong who seems alarmed now thinking that Chaerin might just choke to death in front of him. He quickly pulls the cup away to prevent anymore danger.

“I—what?” Chaerin forces out as she regains her composure.

“You like me?” he asks again, leaning forward and looking at Chaerin straight in the eyes.

A part of Chaerin tells her that she should laugh it off and pat Jiyong on the back and go all what the hell are you saying we’re just friends haha you’re being weird dara was just joking but the way Jiyong is staring so seriously at her makes her stop, and instead she finds herself telling him the truth.

“Yes,” she replies almost immediately, facing his gaze head-on.

Jiyong’s face goes through mild shock and confusion—probably because of the straightforward admittance— before he’s smiling again, and the nervousness that this same smile had contained a few minutes ago vanishes.

“Okay.” he replies simply.

Chaerin doesn’t know what to make of it.

She returns to her studying as Jiyong prepares to close up the shop, having noticed it’s close to midnight.

As he locks up the entrance, Chaerin waits for him like she always does.

“Come by tomorrow to celebrate.” he says, and Chaerin nods. She plans to bring her friends over to the cafe to introduce them and maybe they can have coffee and some of that cake on display Chaerin’s been wanting to try since she stepped into the cafe, but never had the mind to. Just a small gathering to celebrate the end of exams.

Jiyong smiles again. It’s dark at night and Chaerin can barely see, but Jiyong’s smile is bright and beautiful.

“Good luck for the final one,” he says, placing a hand on Chaerin’s shoulder and pressing it slightly in encouragement before they part ways, leaving Chaerin to brood on his ambiguous reply to what was essentially a love confession on her part.

She doesn't figure out very much.