What happens to the days after has been a series of conversations that leads for them to know more about each other, and Seunghyun gaining weight from all the cookies and caffeine. He was yelled at by his health instructor and noticed that some of his pants were getting a tad bit too tight, though he didn’t mind, eating the cookies and coffee is the only reason for him to see her. But she soon started to give him the non-fat ones and even stop serving him coffee, telling him that tea is better, and he listened, and he was even more glad. He realized the  that if she were to say that poison is healthy, he would chug it down without questioning. The young barista even called him as ‘whipped’ once, and he couldn’t counter the child with a snarky comment because he knew that deep down, it’s true. Everyday after that one fine day, Seunghyun has found out a lot about her and noticed that he has been leaving little pieces of himself in this cafe he calls home.

And he wonders if she’s collecting them.

He now knows her name is the same as the once small child actress, Kim Yubin. Lovely name, befitting for someone  like her. He decided he liked the way her name sounds when he say it, and he loves the way his name sounds coming from even more.

“Kim Yubin.” He repeated her name.

“Yes.”

“Kim Yu-bin.”

“You keep on repeating my name, does it bother you, Choi Seung-hyun?”

“No.” He shook his head. “It’s not bothering me at all, it’s just that I love your name.”

She smiled and laughed. “Well okay then.”

“I hope you didn’t mind.” He looked to the ground, looking away to hide his flushed face.

She shook hers. “I don’t mind, Choi Seunghyun.”

They both laughed it out and went into comfortable silence.

“Choi Seunghyun.” She suddenly spoke again.

“Yes?”

“Choi Seung-hyun.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head and copied his answer. “It’s just that I love your name.”

And Seunghyun was sure, he liked hearing his name roll off her tongue the most.

Her voice sounded like an aubade, ephemeral yet everlasting. It sounded like the voices of angels, like the soft orchestral songs that plays in movies whenever a new joyous season started and there would be sunshine everywhere. Her voice could light up the dark and scare away his demons in the most delicate way, hell, he thinks even the demons would turn to angels or sell whatever is left of them just to be in her loving presence a little bit more. Because he would do so in a heart beat.

He realized that she lives upstairs and that she owns the cafe because she liked waking up and smelling coffee and baking, and he also he notices that she has twelve young men as baristas and workers on her nice antiquated cafe. He was about to interrogate them one by one with his signature glare that can impregnate a woman just by looking into her eyes and make a man cut off his right on the spot (he likes the terms that people of internet use to describe how sharp and intense his glare is, he found most of them hilarious), until he found out that all of her workers are gay and is paired up with one another.

“Wait, what?” He asked, dumbfounded.

The boys laughed. “Yeah, hyung. We’re gay and we would never ever be with her no matter how incredibly hot and gorgeous and sweet and lovely and nice and-”

“Okay! I get it!” He let out the loudest sigh of relief mankind has ever heard, and got laughed at by a bunch of flower boys for being too ‘flipped’. Seunghyun felt stupid afterwards.

He also learned that one of those twelve boys are her little brother, he should’ve known by now they were related, the two shared the same tan skin and soft facial expression when staring off the window. Besides, he should have known from the last name and the almost similar name as well, but there were so many kids that has the surname ‘Kim’ there that it was hard to predict. And he can tell that her brother abhors him by the malicious glares and how he would always seem to ignore Seunghyun’s existence. That kid is the only person that can look at Seunghyun dead in the eye for a whole minute and send a telepathic message that said “I hate you” to him and lived to tell the story.

He didn’t know why her brother hated him, maybe it was a brother and sister thing; to hate anyone that can be a potential lover for the sibling that you love, because he still hates his sister’s husband until to day no matter how nice the older man has been to him. But then Seunghyun doesn’t want to jump and be her lover or anything just yet, they were just warming up with each other and starting to get comfortable. Why label it and then realize that the expiration date was long overdued?

Over the times in that small vibrant cafe, there were rare occasions in which he can hear her sing, rare occasions where he can listen to the string of notes being assembled into a nice melody of a song from her own mouth. She would sometimes sing his songs that she had rearranged to sound a bit jazz like for her liking or she would even sing a song that he has never heard before. He thinks that she composed those songs, he knows, he searched it online and none had come up. There were times where he heard her rapping with the twelve not so little dwarfs of hers as they work as well, he swore she could throw CL off her throne any day.

“You’re like the urban and asian version of Snow White.” He once said.

She laughed and grinned. “I even have all of my twelve little dwarf around me right? But didn’t Snow have only half?”

He smacked his head lightly, laughing as he did so. “Right! Snow White and the seven dwarfs!”

They both would laugh along until they heard a voice yelled from behind them.