Sugar, Coffee and Cake (ii)
(double update, 40 & 41)

Hours simmer away with the gentle atmosphere, small talk and the numerous questions. Everytime I linger on a question for too long, Daehyun will realise I’m stumped and offer to help even without me asking. He keeps rubbing his cheek too.

I find myself drifting off more so than usual, glancing up to meet Daehyun’s eyes occasionally. Even with my plain shirt and shorts, he still looks handsome. Studious, gentlemanly, kind, popular, sporty, musically talented… Daehyun and I are of way different levels. I’ve forgotten how daunting it felt to hang out with him when we first met.

Daehyun lifts his head and we make eye contact once again. I offer him a small smile and conjure up a random excuse, “Are you hungry? It’s lunch time.”

Daehyun pats his stomach and frowns, processing the question seriously. “Yeah,” he answers, “but I can wait a while more. What about you?”

“I’m okay. But let’s go get lunch,” I suggest. “Guess our study date ends here.” I brood over the few questions I had done in these two hours, quite disappointed with myself.

“Huh?” Daehyun returns in confusion.

“Are we going out to eat? If we come back, that’s a bit…”

“Oh, I don’t mind eating here,” Daehyun instantly answers. The food here is kinda expensive, but it’s not like I was planning on getting lunch anyway.

“Alright. You go order first.”

Daehyun questions, “You’re not hungry?”

“Nah. I’ll cook up something when I get home, promise,” I chime, going back to the question I’d been mulling over. Daehyun halts for a while before rising, heading to the counter. He takes a really long time before he returns, looking utterly bewildered.

“What’s wrong?” Daehyun looks to me in response and murmurs, “I tried to order... but I couldn’t.”

“What?” I muffle back a chuckle. “What did you buy?”

“I asked for two plates of aglio olio,” Daehyun confusedly replies. “But... Zelo and Chen started fighting. The other barista came over but he got dragged away by the boss.”

I look over to the counter to find Chen and Zelo whirring their heads away. “Two?”

A smell of cream wafts towards us and consequently, a shadow looms over the two of us. I lift my head to find Jaejoong standing with two dishes in hand, as if waiting expectantly for us to clear the round table.

“Carbonara?”

We stare up at Jaejoong and Daehyun starts, “Ah, we didn’t order this.”

“Oh, you didn’t?” Jaejoong gasps and looks around for a short moment before sighing, “I wonder who ordered this. Whoever did has such good taste. Our carbonara is the best.” He continues to stand in front of our table and declares, “Well, I seem to have gotten the orders mixed up. Here, please have this as lunch and stay longer.”

I blink rapidly as Jaejoong looks back without any hesitation in his eyes. He offered us a free lunch and asked us to stay longer? Don’t cafe owners usually chase out students?

“Oh, I… thank you,” I exhale, clearing our table. Daehyun thanks Jaejoong similarly as Jaejoong sets the table and disappears promptly. Daehyun and I stare at one another blankly before I melt into laughter, memories of our accidental meeting coming back.

“This remind you of something?” Daehyun joins in with his own bout of chuckles. He digs in almost immediately, chomping noisily. I scoop up a pile of bacon and plop it into Daehyun’s plate.

“Yeah, you flipping out when I came over,” I cackle unapologetically. I tilt my head one side and tease, “Do you think I’ll ever get to see what’s in that sketchbook?”

Daehyun lowers his head, a trace of an embarrassed smile hung onto his red cheeks. I nudge him underneath the table and coo, “You said you draw pictures of your crush, don’t you? That’s so sweet.”

“...You think so?” Daehyun hums. “I’m scared he’ll think it’s weird.” I shake my head fervently, a strange feeling stirring in my guts. That picture I’d seen of him, the details of his face obscured in the distance—it felt like I was seeing through Daehyun’s eyes. He was so far from him. “I’m sure he’ll be touched more than anything. You should show it to him.”

Daehyun pauses before he chuckles, “Maybe I will.” The discomfort doubles within my ribcage, as though something heavy had found its way in and weighed down on my lungs. It feels like a glimpse of the way I’d felt countless of times throughout my life—when my parents missed my soccer game back in middle school, when Jaebum and I drifted apart, when Minsoo and I had that date… and just recently, when Himchan had recoiled from me.

“That’s the spirit!” I cheer, adamantly shoving the thoughts out of my head. “Your drawings are beautiful, Daehyun. You should show them to the world.” I stuff my mouth with food and swallow down the whole chunk, along with the tension caught up in my throat. We chat over lunch, warm smiles and glace laughter dribbling like melted toffee. L clears our plate and we return to studying.

Lately, I’ve been noticing more and more details of Daehyun. He has bigger hands than me and they’re awfully wrinkled. His shoulders are more narrow than mine but his thick arms make up for it. He slouches too. His habit of his lips hasn’t gone away, just that I’ve gotten so used to it, having spent so much time with him, that I don’t seem to realise. These little things about him are so endearing.

He looks up from his work and I flash him a small smile, watching as his lips quirk into another charming, blinding grin.

I kind of wish…

...God, what am I thinking? I’m out of my mind.

“Tiramisu?” A sudden voice hauls me out of my thoughts and I perk up at Jaejoong standing over us, two small cakes in hand.

“Oh, we didn’t order this,” Daehyun slowly replies.

“Oh, you didn’t?” Jaejoong gasps once again and glances briefly around, before he sighs harshly. “I wonder who ordered this. Whoever did has such good taste. Our tiramisu cake is the best.” He sets the plates down in a blink of an eye and continues, “Well, I seem to have gotten the orders mixed up. Here, please have this as a snack and stay longer.”

“I… Thank you…” We look from the cake to each other and Daehyun rises. He slips out his wallet, digging through for some bills. “Thank you. Let me pay for the lunch and the cakes-”

“Oh, no! It’s perfectly fine. It’s my mistake.” Jaejoong steps back and seems to regard both of us for an extended moment.

“I have a husband.”

The sudden declaration has Daehyun and I staring blankly at Jaejoong, the latter simply looking back without any hesitance whatsoever.

“His name is Jung Yunho. My name is Kim Jaejoong. What are your names?” His eyes bore through me and I return, “Ah… I’m Yoo Youngjae. Thank you so much for the free lunch and the cake.” Jaejoong nods smoothly and turns to Daehyun.

“I’m Jung Daehyun.” Instantaneously, Jaejoong claps and hums loudly, eyes enlarged and nostrils widened. “Oh, my, god!” He nearly shrieks in English, scaring me a little. “What a coincidence!”

He starts gesticulating quite violently between me and him, announcing, “We both have ‘Jae’ in our names!” He then points sharply to Daehyun. “And you, you’re a Jung! Just like my hubbie! This is so cool, don’t you think?” He then flaps his hand vigorously between Daehyun and I.

I flutter my lashs and offer a smile, nodding lightly. Is he insinuating…

“Sajangnim,” a dreary sigh comes from behind and L grasps onto Jaejoong’s sleeve. “Please stop.” He lugs Jaejoong away while Jaejoong obstinately protests, “What did I do!? It’s true, isn’t it?”

I glimpse to Daehyun and we both struggle to hold back laughter, the situation growing more comical with time. Wow, with the exception of L, all the staff here are really quirky. Guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

“Funny things always happen here when I’m with you,” I chortle, crossing my arms and nudging my plate over to Daehyun. The cake really does look good. “Here, you have it.”

“You’re not hungry?” I shake my head and veer my attention back to my work. Not long after, something invades my line of sight and pokes my lips. I stare down at the piece of cake on the fork and look up at Daehyun, laughing softly.

“You eat it, Daehyun.” Daehyun continues to hold out the fork and I assure him, “I’m not hungry.”

“Just one bite?” He insistently hovers the fork near my mouth. “Please?”

Seeing how earnest he is, I decide to just relent—I’m sure we’ll just end up squabbling if I disagree. Taking a bite, a sudden squeal emanates from somewhere behind us and we spin our heads to find no culprit, the customers glancing at the counter but the staff looking down nonchalantly.

The sound of buzzing resounds and Daehyun claws out his phone, frowning at the caller before picking up. Abruptly, a low voice reverberates deafeningly over the phone.

“WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU!? WHY AREN’T YOU AT HOME!?”

Daehyun flinches and pulls his phone aside, I staring in shock at the demanding tone. He struggles to turn down the volume, distracted by more scerams. Oh god, is that Daehyun’s father? Did I get him into trouble by asking him to sleep over?

“Hyung,” Daehyun sighs, “I’m out with my friend.” Oh, thank god, it’s not his father.

“LIES! YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS!” The voice booms over the phone. “WHERE ARE YOU, JUNG DAEHYUN!? YOUR HELPER SAID YOU DIDN’T COME BACK LAST NIGHT!” I have a good guess who Daehyun’s talking to—probably his tutor, Yoochun. He’s yelling so loudly people are turning to look at Daehyun.

“ARE YOU DEAD!? OH MY GOD, DID YOU GO TO A STRIP CLUB? GOD FORBID, WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO MY INNOCENT CHILD!?”

“If I’m dead, I wouldn’t be talking right now, hyung.” Daehyun exasperatedly clutches his forehead and I burst out laughing. “I stayed over at a friend’s place and we’re at Coffee Cojjee now.”

“YOU HAVE NO FRIENDS, STOP LYING TO ME! OR- OH MY GOD, ARE YOU OUT WITH THE BOY YOU LIKE? THAT-”

“No, I’m not. Shut up, hyung,” Daehyun growls dangerously, cutting the call as he massages his temple. I smother back more laughter as a stray tear slips from my eye, my stomach hurting. A tinge of that queer feeling lingers in my guts. Daehyun dissolves into a light smile and reaches over, pinching my nose bridge tenderly. I yelp and nurse it with a pout.

“Maybe you should go back,” I chuckle. “Your hyung seems really freaked out.”

“It’s best to ignore him during these kind of situations,” Daehyun deadpans, earning another laugh from me. I look around to find most of the customers have gone back to their work, some sparing weird glances at us. I lean my head into my propped up hand and sigh, twirling my pen around.

“Tired?” Daehyun asks. I nod and bury my head into my arms, groaning. “I don’t want to study anymore, Daehyun.”

“You should take a short nap.” Daehyun hums lowly and after a pregnant pause, I feel his hand rest on my hair. Another shrill scream emits from somewhere but I’m too caught up by Daehyun’s fingers weaving through my hair to care. The last time this had happened, he thought I’d been asleep.

He knows I’m awake this time round, right? I nestle my hair against his palm on purpose and besides a short pause, Daehyun continues in his tender ministrations. This means he’s clearly not embarrassed by me knowing. So, it was my mistake that I thought so much about this the last time.

I ruffled his hair just this morning too, so why did I get so worked up over it the last time? If he’s suspicious, I’m more than anything in the same boat as him. Even now, I’m feeling so tense. I will myself to relax and shut my eyes, enjoying the warmth of Daehyun’s rough palm on my head.

After getting used to the intimacy, Daehyun’s gesture is actually pretty soothing. I find myself drifting into sleep, just as Daehyun mumbles something, like a toddler pronouncing his first words.

“...Jaejae.”

All traces of my previous sleepiness dwindles away as my face scrunches up in bewilderment. I slowly lift my head and stare at Daehyun, who briefly looks at me before averting his gaze and clearing his throat. I didn’t hear that wrong, did I?

“Did you just call me…” I begin hesitantly, flush climbing all over my face. Daehyun snaps his head back to me and rasps gruffly, “S-Sorry. I just, uh, because Zelo called you that, so I thought I could call you that too, and… yeah…” Daehyun coughs awkw