7.

"Ah, don't sweat it. I'm a regular person too. That's just one side of my life and career." He takes a bite of his honey bread.

Before I show him what I wrote on the notepad, I look up at him. His eyes are concentrated on the honey bread. He takes another bite of the bread and a piece of walnut sticks to his nose, while a small white fluff of whipped cream sets up camp on the right corner of his mouth.

"Excuse me," he mumbles as he picks up a napkin to wipe off the walnut from his nose.

I guess he can't feel the cream on his face.

"All gone?" He questions.

Shaking my head, I point to the side of his mouth.

"Oh," his eyebrows rise and he proceeds to wipe the cream off.

"Okay?" he gestures with his fingers. I respond with a thumbs up.

"So why are you here all the time? Shouldn't you be busy? With singing and dancing... meeting fans and stuff?"

"I am a little bit busy, but we mostly practice at night and when we do have performances, we do pre-recordings early in the morning."

"Ah, I see.."

"But, as you can see, I'm quite addicted to coffee and my dreams to become a barista always lead me to the nearest coffee shops. This one, in particular, is one of my favorites... I think it's number one on my list," he chuckles to himself before picking up the cup to take a sip.

"Well on behalf of grandpa, thank you. Grandpa takes pride in his coffee. Every time he brews a new batch, you can tell he enjoys what he's doing. Every weekend, he goes to the market to buy what he needs to last the week. At first, I didn't know there were so many kinds of coffee beans. He also has a special vendor who helps him get imported coffee beans. "

"Wow, your grandpa seems like the person I want to learn from. I love making coffee. I feel in love with coffee even more after making my own coffee from start to finish. I'm currently working on getting a barista certification and to eventually open my own small café."

"Maybe you can. You should ask him. Showing him your kind of passion for it would be enough for Grandpa to start teaching you."

"Wait? Are you serious? That's wonderful...Oh my goodness," he brightly smiles. Trying to calm himself, he swiftly picks up his mug to take a sip of his Double Expresso.

"HOT! Hot.. Hot," he exclaims, slamming the mug down, spilling drops of his coffee onto his tray and play.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Sorry. I get really excited about coffee and what you said about your grandpa got me riled up. And I have yet to ask him," he sighs, wiping his mouth and around the cup.

"No, it's cool. No need to apologize. I totally understand. I do work at a café." I smile.

"So you like coffee too? Is that why you work here?"

"Not as much as you, but I do admire baristas. I mostly work here because of my close relationship with grandma and grandpa. When they first opened, they needed a lot of help and I had nothing else to do, so it just worked out like it did." I shrug.

"You seem close with your grandparents. What about your parents? Are they around or are they abroad?"

"Umm...well my parents died when I was ten."

"Oh I'm sorry...I didn't mean to.."

"It's okay. They were good people."









 

Good people.

Who unfortunately had me as a daughter..

Author's Note:

This chapter is short because its filler for the next chapter, where you'll get to see a bit of Aya's past...

Don't forget to comment!

Umm.. y'all can we talk about this? WHY?!? *dies*