“… Yah.”

The charcoal in HakYeon’s hand stuttered on the paper in front of him. He glanced at SeJung. “Hm?”

“You totally weren’t listening, were you?”

“… Ah… No. Sorry.”

SeJung tilted her head, puffing her cheeks out. “What’s wrong, HakYeonnie?”

“Mmm nothing?”

“Wrong. You’re super distracted. Don’t tell me…” SeJung’s eyes grew wide, mimicking the ‘O’ her eyes became. “You saw – ”

HakYeon quickly interrupted. “Not exactly.”

“WHERE?!”

Charcoal may or may not have suddenly streaked on SeJung’s face, but HakYeon had to slap his hand over for fear of her loud bursts of obnoxiousness getting the two kicked out of the studio. Already, the old man was sending them distasteful gazes.

“Noona! Please control yourself.” She wriggled in protest, so HakYeon’s hand remained. “It happened when I was at work, but I still didn’t see who it was. They must have left while I was in the back or something. And nothing’s changed. I’m… still the same.”

SeJung whined, her eyebrows morosely turning upward. HakYeon laughed and sat back to let her breathe again. Her cheeks were marred with his charcoal fingerprints, but she was barely fazed.

“HakYeon-goon. Please try a little harder. This is so exciting! She could seriously be right around the corner! Aren’t you excited?!”

“Well, yeah.”

“… That is not excitement.”

The reason for that is because HakYeon neglected to tell SeJung that it had already been almost two weeks since his second-chance encounter. During his work hours, he refused to step back to the kitchen even if he was aching for a restroom break. When he was off from work, he frequented his coffee shop and loitered for as long as he could hover around an empty mug. When nothing happened at either location, he would retreat back to his apartment and listlessly hope for the next day. Needless to say, his morale was lowering.

“Kind of a slow day…” SangHyuk muttered, fiddling with his phone. There were only two customers at one table in the whole shop at the time.

“Mm.” HakYeon continued absent-mindedly wiping down the glass of the large display case.

The kid heaved a sigh and slid his phone back into his pocket. “You’re boring these days, hyung. Did something happen?”

“Hm? Nothing happened.” It was the truth.

SangHyuk pursed his duck lips. “See? Normally, if I said something like that, you’d suddenly assault me or something. Hmmm…”

“Is that so?” HakYeon laughed. “I guess I’m distracted, then.”

“With what?”

He didn’t get to answer as the customers to the side waved him over. The door chimed as he trotted his way over to the table. Somewhere in the back of his consciousness, he heard SangHyuk greeting the customer who had just walked in.

“Sure thing,” HakYeon said graciously to his table. “I’ll be right back.”

As he made his way behind the counter, SangHyuk suddenly piped up, “Oh, sonnim! You’re back!”

“Ah… You remember me?” The customer’s voice sounded a bit abashed.

The customer’s voice…

HakYeon’s head spun so quickly his neck could’ve snapped in two.

“I’m pretty good at remembering faces,” SangHyuk rambled. “To be honest, yours is kinda memorable.”

“Hm… Thanks…?”

The customer finally took note of the other employee standing behind the counter.

Nothing registered for a long time.

The last thing HakYeon remembered was widened eyes and a back leaving through the door, the chime signaling a departure.

“HakYeon-hyung?! HakYeon-hyung, what’s wrong?!”

Somehow he had collapsed to the floor, heart hammering and tears streaming endlessly.