I am not alone, that I would love to believe.

"Can I go back to sleep? Why are we here?" Baekhyun whined while he allowed himself to be tugged and pulled by Jiyoon who dragged him by the arm to a cafe he has never been to in his life. He was extremely cranky, sleep-deprived from gaming til late night with the usual hardcore gamers and had to be dragged out of bed in the early morning by Jiyoon who never took "no" for an answer.

"For good coffee." Jiyoon grinned, tightening her grip around Baekhyun's arm. She was unable to contain her excitement because this was the first time she was bringing the boys to the cafe she called home to for over a year, and of course meeting her good friend Emily after a few months of zero contact.

"Meanie Yoonie."

The cafe's doorbell tingled when Jiyoon pushed the doorbell open and she caught sight of the familiar girl behind the coffee counter. A large smile found its way onto Jiyoon's lip as she unwrapped her fingers on Baekhyun's arm and flew to Emily's side, throwing her arms across her neck. "Emmie, oh my god I missed you so much!"
 

Although she was surprised by Jiyoon's sudden attack, Emily regained her composure and shoved Jiyoon away, faking anger. "Says the one who didn't even call in like what? 2 whole months? That's 60 days of no news my dear."

"I'm sorry, I terminated my phone line to save some money." Jiyoon stuck out a tongue apologetically. "Forgive me?"

"Yeah, yeah." Emily pried off Jiyoon's fingers off her shoulders, her gaze falling onto the boys standing awkwardly at the door. They looked nervous, eyes darting around the cafe. It was quite the funny sight especially the cute boy standing at the far corner trying to peer behind the cafe counter with his not-so-tall height.

"Are they your friends?"

"Oh," Jiyoon turned to the boys and smiled. "Oppa, meet Emily!"

"Emily, meet Xiumin, Luhan, Sehun, Suho, Chen, Baekhyun, Kris, Chanyeol, Lay, Tao, Kai, Kyungsoo."

"Woah, woah, woah slow down girl." Emily was overwhelmed by the long string of names and she only caught the cutie's name. Xiumin, was it?

"I probably can't get them right but I'll try."

Jiyoon gestured the boys to the long table by the windows while she settled herself behind the cafe counter making drinks for the boys. A year spent at this cafe wasn't for nothing and she cracked her knuckles before getting down to work. 

"So which one's your boyfriend?" Emily breathed onto Jiyoon's neck cheekily. She was so concentrated in the twelve cups of drinks that she didn't even notice Emily creeping up behind her after she served one of the customers.

"None." she whispered back harshly.

"Oh really? Well I don't believe that." Emily wriggled her eyebrows at Jiyooon teasingly, slipping onto the high stool. She directly faced the boys and met eyes with the same boy that caught her interest. "I quite like that kid there, is it Xiumin?"

"Yah, don't you have a boyfriend?"

"Not husband~ We can break up anytime." Emily refuted.

Jiyoon clicked her tongue at the girl. She disapproved of her colorful relationships that lasted less than a season each time but there was nothing she could do to change the girl's lifestyle. Placing the cups on her tray, she walked to the table of boys who was waiting for her.

"Mocha fraps," she squeezed into the gap between Sehun and Baekhyun, setting the two cups on the table.

"Mhm." Sehun wrinkled his nose in displeasure thinking if the drink was edible. He never liked coffee, milk was more of his thing and what was that? Whipped cream on coffee? He totally needed to look up on coffee with Google, his best friend. 

"Don't be fussy." Jiyoon rolled her eyes. Sehun was known to be very hard to please, much more than Kris and she learnt that after being his seatmate for a few good months. She sneakily peeked into his stationary box once and saw all his pencils and pens neatly arranged in colours and types from ball-point pens to gel ink and she thought he had a serious OCD.


"Two green tea latte." Kris smiled at Jiyoon while Lay mouthed a 'thank you'.

"Strawberry mango fruit juice for Chen Chen and honey macchiato for the oldest kids."

"We're not kids," Xiumin grumbled, poking his straw into the drink. His eyes lit up in amazement, the drink was surprisingly good.

"Says the one who plays football in my club room~ Red tea for my hero." Jiyoon placed the last mug before Tao and slipped into the seat between Suho and Chanyeol.

"How do you know what we like?"

"I guessed." Jiyoon shrugged, pointing to her head. "Instincts."

"Like you have a brain." Sehun muttered under his breath, quite reluctant to put the drink into his mouth down his systems. Who knows that girl might have poisoned it without his knowledge or added diarrhoea pills in them. It was a huge risk to take.

"When did you learn to make the drinks?" It was an eye-opener for Luhan, watching Jiyoon move seamlessly behind the cafe, mixing the drinks as if she had them memorised in her head without her friend's help. 

"When I was-" Jiyoon bit her lips, almost exposing herself. "I just knew how to."

Suho nodded his head in approval, being the gramps he was. "You're a psychic."

"She's observant." Kyungsoo corrected.

Even Baekhyun's morning temper faded awhile ago from the sweet drink, "Jiyoonie's the best!"

"Speaking of which, where's yours?" Kris pointed to the empty space in front of Jiyoon. It was only then that she realised that she was too engrossed in preparing those drinks that she forgot one for herself.

Just then, a mug slipped before Jiyoon, "Hot chocolate with extra marshmallows coming right up!" 

Emily grabbed a chair from the neighbouring table and nested herself between Jiyoon and Kris, resting her palms beneath her chin. It was only 11 in the morning and there wasn't any customers in the cafe besides one couple who'd rather be left by themselves. "How's school with these hotties that you never told me about?"

Jiyoon forced a tiny smile onto her lips as her fingers curled into two tight balls underneath the table. She was literally restraining herself from smacking Emily on the head - a habit she unknowingly learnt from the boys.

Xiumin coughed, he did not fancy the fact that Emily was speaking in such a crude manner. "Hottie is such a..."

"You want me to call you a pretty boy instead?" Emily smirked, causing Xiumin to turn his eyes away in embarrassment. "Sorry that's reserved for my boyfriend but maybe I can make an exception if we become closer."

"Emmie!" Jiyoon hissed, pinching the girl on the thigh. She turned to the boys apologetically. "I'm sorry she's only been in Korea for a year.

Chanyeol only shrugged, slurping onto his drink messily. He liked how straightforward the girl was. "She isn't fake, that's a good thing."

"I like you!" Emily extended a hand to Chanyeol. "What's your name again?"

He gladly took the hand for a short handshake, his pearly white teeth showing off in his wide grin. "Chanyeol."

"Nice to meet you, I'm sure we'll be great friends"

After some time of mandatory self introduction on Emily's part and her epic story of how she escaped the evil clutches of her parents (who really, were genuinely nice) and ran back to Korea, sought help from her cousin and landed herself a job in this cafe, owned by him. As well as the boys making small talk, laughing at her jokes which appealed to them, alot. Jiyoon even found Sehun to be paying attention to her little stories, the same type of expression he'd make in class when he's focused, biting down his lips and eyes attached to Emily. Maybe it was the reason that she was very blunt and straightforward that she was a comfortable person to be around.

"Well let's get back to the start shall we-" Emily focused her attention back to Jiyoon after a great laugh, "How was school?"
 

"What's he doing?" Jiyoon squinted her eyes at Sehun far apart from the boys. 

"Not... too bad?" Jiyoon's voice ended with a questioning pitch. Truthfully, she wasn't sure of it herself. It was a fact that the students in school saw her as a strange alien that dropped from the sky out of nowhere and it was also true that she fit nowhere there- Including the fact that the girls would love to exterminate her existence for being close to their oppas. But after all that horrible events, she had this dozen of amazing friends who made her unsure of whether she should laugh or cry at their antics. 

"Thank god, he'll kill me if you aren't fine." the last phrase was mumbled quickly by Emily, overlooked by the rest. "I thought you wouldn't fit in after a year of not schooling, I mean- not like you do fit in anywhere. You're plain weird."

Xiumin furrowed his eyebrows, thinking he might have heard something wrong. "A year of what?"

"Not schooling." Emily repeated casually, delighted to reply the cutie's question.

"A year?" the boys gasped simultaneously. Even Sehun stopped poking his drink with the black straw and looked up at the girl. It was something new that they never heard of Jiyoon speaking about.

"You didn't attend school," Kyungsoo asked carefully, speaking in a slow monotone manner. "For a year."

"For a whole damn year." Jiyoon flinched slightly at Tao's harsh words.

Suho sighed in defeat, piecing the information together. It made perfect sense to him how Jiyoon was able to make such perfect coffee and drinks that he was sure that Kyungsoo wouldn't know how to mix.

"Guys, it's not what you think." Jiyoon spoke in a not-so-convincing voice. She puffed her cheeks with air as she watched the boys stare back at her, trying to digest the information that was thrown to them. She stood up from her chair, wanting to clear the awkward atmosphere.

"I'm going to the washroom for a bit."

"Okay, let's get down to serious business." Now that Jiyoon was gone. Emi