2032.

“Urgh, look at that kid,” Saeeun grumbled, pointing a boy her age sitting one table behind Naeun. Naeun turned her head and looked at the boy. He was probably in high school, Naeun thought, since he and Saeeun wore the same uniform. Naeun arched her eyebrows. Saeeun’s school was a pretty expensive prestigious school, but the boy looked like he was in a yakuza gang or something like that. He dyed his hair blonde, and he have around five to six piercings on each side of his ear.

“Kris totally doesn’t belong to Cosmos High. I don’t even know how he got there in the first place!” Saeeun kept her gaze at the boy, boring holes on his head.

“Kris? His name is Kris? As in K-R-I-S or C-H-R-I-S?”

“K-R-I-S. I know, right, even his name is weird.”

2014.  – Kris.

“So, you’re sitting right in front of the cashier?” I asked Naeun. “Yes, right infront of it.” Naeun replied, and I could hear the ‘ka-ching!’ noises in the background, presumably from the cashier.

Two months ago, I have accepted Son Naeun as a tenant. After my first e-mail to her, she decided to take the room that I rent. We e-mailed each other pretty frequently, well, actually, it’s more to I e-mail her and she replies.

 She had told me that she’s an eighteen years old girl from Seoul, South Korea, and she will be in Japan as an exchange student for a year. Naeun also did explain about her school, but, with her broken english it was hard for me to understand. After a couple of e-mails, I told her I’m also fluent in Japanese and Chinese, beside English. And that my Korean is good enough to get by. And so, we e-mailed each other in Korean since then on.

We agreed to meet at Byeol Café, the café that Lu Han and his Korean girlfriend, Hayoung owns. As I reach the café, I pushed the door open and searched everywhere for a girl in red plaid shirt. This Son Naeun was nowhere in sight.

I felt someone tap my shoulder lightly. “Kris? What’cha doin’ here?”  I turned around to see Hayoung, Lu Han’s Korean girlfriend standing before me.

“Hayoung, hey!” I greeted her and pulled her into a hug.

“Good to see you, Kris,” Hayoung said, patting my back. “So, what do you want?”

“The usual, please,” I said, choosing a random chair and sat down. Hayoung nod at me before tying up her hair into a ponytail and went behind the counter. I watched her pretty back as she was making my coffee expertly – nothing out of the ordinary.

I recalled my, I mean, our (Lu Han’s and mine) first encounter with Hayoung. She was Minseok’s junior in his barista school. Me and Lu Han were attracted to her almost immediately when we met at Minseok’s bar. She was cute, pretty, funny, she has all the traits any guy look for in a girl. To put it simply, Hayoung was perfection. It didn’t came out as a shock to me when she chose popular guy Lu Han over stiff guy me, Kris.

“Kris?” A feminine yet unfamiliar voice woke me up from my train of thoughts. I looked up to see a girl with dark brown eyes and thin lips. Her black hair was straight and long, and it was a little messy, like she had been running for three hours non-stop. “Kris Wu, right?” She asked me one more time.

“Yes?” I replied, still eyeing her disarrayed hair. “YES! I FOUND YOU!” She pumped her two fists into the air and grinned widely. I finally realized she was Son Naeun when I looked at her outfit. Red plaid shirt.

“I thought you said you sat in front of the cashier?” I asked her and straighten up my back, fixing my posture. She sat in front of me and placed her shoulder bag on the table. “Well, I tried to find ‘Byeol’ café, but it was hard because I can’t exactly read katakana yet. So I just went in a café that I feel like it could be ‘Byeol’ café.”

“And how did you find me?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The café that I was at before was just across this café. I saw you walking in to this café,” she said while fixing her hair.

“Well, then, we haven’t introduce our selves yet,” I said, “I’m Kris Wu. Twenty-five years old. I’m a businessman. I go home around one in the morning everyday, but don’t worry, I’m going to give you your own key.”  I bet my voice sounded pretty robotic, as I could see Son Naeun narrowed her eyes at me by a bit. But it can’t be helped, since that was how my voice sounded usually.  “Your turn?”

Naeun shook her head a little before introducing herself, “I’m Son Naeun, eighteen, and I go to Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku.”

Right when she stopped speaking, Hayoung approached our table and put down my order. “I made Macchiato for you too, dearie,” Hayoung smiled warmly at Naeun and set a cup of coffee in front of Naeun. Naeun smiled back at her, “Thank you so much, but I don’t drink machi-“

I glared at Naeun knowing that she wasn’t going to accept the coffee my Hayoung made for her with efforts. No one, and I mean no one, can throw away Hayoung’s efforts. They all have to go through me.

I could see Naeun avoiding my eyes. “I mean, thank you, very much, I will definetely enjoy it.” Hayoung smiled wider before she returned to the back of the counter.

Naeun sipped on her coffee nervously after Hayoung walked away. , I just realized I just let two of my biggest flaws show up. First, how possesive I was over people and things I love, and my glare at Naeun definetely scared the crap out of her.

“Psycho.” I heard Naeun mumbled quietly. She wasn’t that scared, apparently, if she could still insult me. I shot her another glare.

My phone rang and ‘Cozy Hotel Meeting – Shibuya X Building’ was shown on the screen. “Anyway, I have to go now. Here’s your keys,” I handed her her keys, “you know the address already right? I put a sign on your room’s door with your name on it.” We bowed slightly at each other before I walked out of the café, feeling pissed off at Naeun for calling me a psycho.

2014 – Naeun.

I’m pissed off at Kris. What’s the deal with him, anyway? Good thing he left early, so he didn’t catch me walking out the café without drinking the Macchiato. Did he like that lady so much? It seemed so. He sounded and looked dead when he was talking to me, but when that lady appeared, he looked like a kid that just got his birthday present. Even his eyes were twinkling. Ew.

When I reached the apartment door, I inserted the key that Kris gave me in the café. I pushed the door open when it unlocked and went inside after taking off my shoes. The apartment was spacious. It looked as beautiful as it was in the website – I have to say I’m quite satisfied. The living room has a comfy sofa with a huge smart TV and two small coffee tables. Across from the living room, the kitchen and dining room were there. I walked straight and found my room. 

I opened the door and screamed my lungs out at the sight before me.  I felt like living in a fan fiction right here, right now, in this exact moment.