wrote this for my good friend lily after being inspired by a twitter conversation on how starbucks spells our names ouo

“One Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino,” an drained sigh escaped a young teen's lips as she ran her fingers through her almost-hip length brown locks, “No whipped cream or syrup either,”

From behind the counter, the lone barista punched her order into the machine. As it was pretty late into the morning, there weren't many people inside the little coffee shop. If anything, there were about five other people scattered around the tightly-spaced tables, eyes focused on their unnecessarily bright laptop screens. The woman, dressed in attire that matched the darkness of coffee at it's purest, moved over to the side, watching the barista curiously as he prepared her order. Her attention from his delicate hand gestures shifted quickly when her mind decided to take course in profiling him. A young one, he was, evident in the seamlessness of his face. His brown hair covered decorated with auburn highlights brushed ever so slightly above his narrow, hooded eyes that slightly dropped downwards making him look like a seemingly approachable person.

“Bad day?” the barista's surprisingly gravelly tone, snapping her attention back to him. Now, his back was still turned to her looking like he was taking his sweet time in putting her drink together, but time wasn't a big concern for her anyway. Once more, a sigh was heard as she rested her head in her hands while leaning against the high countertop, “Yeah, something to that effect. You know, school. No big deal,”

“Speaking of, shouldn't you be in class?” Turning around, the barista grabbed a cup sleeve from the dispenser, “It's a weekday after all,”

“Eh, what's it to them if I'm a few minutes late?” she shrugged, waving it off like it was no big deal. Being late to class wasn't as big of a deal to her as it used to be back when she was in middle school. When she was younger, she was afraid of the staff getting mad at her. Now, whenever she arrived late to class, the teachers would make a rather dry joke about how she even decided to show up to class. Don't get her wrong though. She wasn't necessarily a bad student; moreso, it was simply the fact that school was boring and she just wasn't interested in it.

A throaty chuckle came from the boy as he walked over to the counter, sliding a black Sharpie from his apron and uncapping it single-handedly. Seeing that her order was done, the young lady straightened her position, eyes carefully watching his hands. Like they always did, he asked for her name in which she replied, “Lily,”

“Im Yoongi, by the way,” he returned as he scribbled on the cardboard holder; Lily gave him a light smile and looked down at her phone screen just to check how late she was to her class anyway. Not by that much. When he gave her drink to her, they exchanged brief goodbyes and in a matter of a minute, she was out of there, straw to her lips with her free hand situating a free earbud into her ears.

Now as simple as Lily's name was, there are a variety of ways to spell her name be it phonetically or be it creatively. And she knew this. So, just like always, she turned the cup in her hands only to let out a disapproving sigh. Rolling her eyes, she swallowed the contents in before outwardly judging, “L, I, L, I? Seriously?”

It's been a few weeks since Lily returned to the coffee shop for being late to class, but she found herself back there again after in-class exam preparation began. All the continuous drilling, board work, lame teacher-made games – one could only take so much before they got fed up with it. Lily just so happened to lose interest faster than a majority of her class full of nerds. It was her turn now at the counter, and her order left the tip of her tongue before the barista even had time to say their greeting, “One Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccino,”

“Oh look, it's you again,” that low voice from before came again, and immediately Lily remembered who he was (she remembers the name offenders after all). Looking up, she flashed an obviously plastic smile at Yoongi, before moving off to the side.

Thankfully for her, she had the freedom to this because this time, she had come a little bit earlier into the morning so there were still those employees who were just having a laggy morning. At the side of the counter, she mindlessly scrolled through her SNS profile timelines, shaking her head every once in a while at the stupid news and whatnots her so-called 'friends' were arguing about. Her disinterested eyes lit up only once when she saw a fantaken with a clear shot of a certain bum of a pro-gamer she had been completely obsessed with. That, and her fluffy prince in nice jeans. Hey, there's nothing better than a man in nice jeans, you know. Anyway, she was just about ready to post a tweet about said bum before she heard her name being called from over the counter.

“One mint mocha chip frappuccino, no whipped cream or syrup,” Yoongi's eyes pulled into upside-down smiles when he handed over her drink, “Enjoy,”

There really wasn't much words exchanged this time around though because the back of Lily's mind was currently occupied in saving all the glory shots. After a quick 'see you next time', Lily dashed out of there, lips taking in long, refreshing sip of coffee. Hearing the door chime behind her once the door closed, Yoongi let out a deep exhale after unknowingly holding his breath. An arm then draped over his shoulder, that could only belong to his co-worker and good friend, Namjoon. Glancing over his shoulder, Yoongi laughed out loud at the way-too-close dimpled face of his junior, “What are you doing?”

“It's so crazy how someone can be there without actually being there, don't you think?” Namjoon spoke in his default way of weird. One would think that by now, after three years of being good friends, Yoongi would have gotten used to Namjoon's preference philosophical speaking, but no. Shrugging his shoulders, Yoongi simply ignored whatever his friend said and went back to work.

“Yoongi, you have no jams,” Namjoon called out, shaking his head.

Meanwhile, not more than at least a block away from the cafe, a frustrated Lily was mentally cursing at the stupidity of people because of the new spelling of her name – Leelee.

It's the end of summer now, and in the six months Lily has been at school, almost every other day of that school year was spent at the cafe. In that time, she had learned that Yoongi had been spelling her name wrong intentionally, hoping that it would be a bit of a laugh since she always came on days when she was feeling stressed or 100% done with life. Thankfully, in the two months of summer she's been stopping by at the cafe, Yoongi spelled her name properly (although she had to admit, she was a bit sad that she no longer got to see the different names people could misspell her four letter name). After all, she always did post a picture of her drink on her twitter, receiving hilarious comments from her internet friends.

“One passion tea and lemonade-”

“Extra ice and honey sweetener? You got it,”

The corners of Lily's mouth pulled into a smile as Yoongi completed her order for her. Today was Friday, and that was the day she would head out downtown to go do whatever. Making her way to the side of the counter, she watched Yoongi from her spot, reminding herself of the first time she had seen him. Not much had changed about him other than the toning of his muscles here and there, but he was still the same. Just a bit more... attractive – one would say – in a light blue button-down with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Lily didn't even catch herself staring for that long until Yoongi waved a hand to her face, trying to grab her attention. Snapping out of her trance, Lily barely stuttered out a full sentence when she thought she saw a smirk playing on his lips, “Oh! Uh, yeah. T-thanks,”

“My pleasure,” A sweet smile from him almost set her heart ablaze. This had never happened before so of all the days, did it really have to be today where her mind decided to be embarrassing?

With a nervous laugh, she said her goodbyes and scrambled out the door, muttering incoherent phrases of how hot he looked in jeans mixed in with a series of curses. Shaking her head, Lily pulled herself together and composed herself once more. Now was not the time to be getting into boys especially with college just right around the corner. Not to mention, boys and chem during first year was just not a good mix. Like second nature, Lily checked the sleeve, expecting to see a properly spelled 'Lily'. However, her face pulled into a displeased expression when her eyes saw what was written on the side.

“I, L, Y?” Lily scoffed, shaking her head while her pointer finger traces the bold letters underneath the 'Caution hot stuff' warning message, “Seriously? After two months with a clean record too,”

Little did Lily know that she was completely missing out on something bigger than a spelling mistake.