Sanghyun notices him first, as he takes the order from the woman in front of him. His hair is a light shade of blond, styled up with what he assumes is an ungodly amount of gel. He has a pair of the most sinful looking lips Sanghyun has ever seen in a man—full, red, probably soft—and he briefly wonders what it’s like to kiss them. His cheeks are tainted with a soft pink color, probably from the wind outside. He has a deep blue scarf wrapped around his neck, though his clothes are light; while it is mid-November, the weather isn’t cold enough for thicker clothes, so the scarf stands out.

Sanghyun keeps his face impassive, listening attentively as the woman looks at the menú board over and over, still indecisive. He wants to yell at her, hurry up, lady there are other customer’s behind you, but he knows Jihoon will kill him if he’s rude to customers.

The woman starts talking, a long string of coffee orders come out of and Sanghyun wants to bash his face into the cashier because, four macchiatos later, she’s still talking. The blond guy with the full lips is scribbling into a small notebook, so Sanghyun can’t see his face properly. Finally, after four macchiatos, two lattes, three mochaccinos, and half their stock of orange and chocolate chip muffins, the woman moves away, and the blond cutie Sanghyun had been watching the whole time steps up, holding up the notebook, after a short wave of his free hand.

“Hi,” Sanghyun replies, and his smile is genuine this time. Cutie smiles, and taps the notebook twice. Assuming he wants him to read it, Sanghyun looks down into the lined paper and reads the neat handwriting. “Americano?” he reads out loud, to confirm the order. Cutie nods, and taps his finger to a lower part of the paper. “Seungho?” Cutie, Seungho, nods again. “Alright.”

He types the order into the computer and grabs a cup and carefully writes S E U N G H O on it.

“Anything else?” he asks, hopefully, because he doesn’t want this guy, Seungho, to leave too fast.

Seungho takes a moment to think, before pointing at the line of sandwiches on the display. “Chicken sandwich?” Sanghyun says, confirming the order, and Seungho nods, his smile wide and happy. He adds it up to the order, and has to hold back a disappointed sigh when he sees Seungho extending his credit card to him.

He keeps an eye on Seungho as he moves away to wait for his order. While Sanghyun rings up another two customers, he can’t help but wonder about Seungho and his little notebook. He looks around to see if there are a bunch of giggling idiots watching him, but he only sees a young man, perhaps around Seungho’s age, outside the shop, looking at Seungho through the window, a worried frown on his face. Not a dare then.

When the line of customers has died out, and there’s only a few people milling about the shop—Seungho left with the man watching him from outside after a brief conversation—, Chaerin comes up to him, a sly smile on her face as she leans against the counter. Sanghyun rolls his eyes at her and turns back to the cashier, pretending to be busy.

“So,” she says, her lips turning up into a smirk. “Seungho.”

“Just another customer, Chaerin,” he replies, ignoring the heat at the back of his neck.

“Go back to work.”

“Uh-huh. Sure.”

*****

Sanghyun returns to the shop three days later, half his mind on Seungho and the other half on the project he has due in two days.

“What?”

“Seungho.”

“He’s a customer,” he says, rolling his eyes. “And it’s not like I’ve seen him again.”

“It seems he wanted to see you, judging from the disappointed look he had when I took his order yesterday.”

“Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Well, tell him that,” Chaerin says, with a slight gesture of her head towards the door.

Seungho has just walked in, and is heading towards the counter, a slightly annoyed look on his face, that quickly melts away at the sight of him, and Sanghyun wonders if Chaerin’s words are true.

Seungho quickly pulls out his notebook and points at the paper.

When Seungho sees he’s added the sandwich, he starts shaking his head, but Sanghyun shakes his head, smiling. “It’s on me,” he says, and Seungho blushes.

Chaerin raises an eyebrow at him when he hands her the slip of paper with Seungho’s order. He shrugs and turns back to the customer ordering.

He keeps watching Seungho, sitting in a corner, his laptop on the table and typing non-stop on it, and he asks Chaerin to make him another coffee. She looks at him surprised, but does it nonetheless, and when she’s done she hands him the paper cup, and pushes him in Seungho’s direction.

“This one’s on me,” she whispers to him. “Go get him!”

Sanghyun feels the blush creeping up his cheeks but goes over to Seungho and sets the cup next to him, taking the empty one away.

Seungho looks up at him surprised, and pushes the coffee back into Sanghyun’s hand.

“It’s okay,” he says, “I can see you’re very busy. No wifi at home?”

The silent man grimaces and quickly types into his laptop and then points for Sanghyun to read it.

At the end of what Sanghyun assumes is a line of code of some type—he assumes because he has no idea— is the phrase Byunghee brought a girl home.

“Ah. I understand.”

He’s about to leave when Seungho stops him. He types again. I want to repay you for the sandwich and this coffee.

“There’s no need,” Sanghyun says, and he feels himself blushing again. He may have kind of, sort of, admitted to Chaerin he might have a crush on this guy, but he’s not going to admit it to his face. Seungho gives him an insisting look, and he sighs in defeat. “Alright. Maybe…” He clears his throat, trying to get rid of his awkwardness. “We could go out for coffee…” Seungho gives him an incredulous look, and lowers his eyes to the steaming paper cup, a few inches from his fingers. His blush intensifies. “Well, not coffee, then.”

Seungho smiles, and types again on his laptop.

Not-coffee sounds nice.

Sanghyun can’t help but grin widely as he leaves Seungho’s table, and he ignores Chaerin’s all-knowing look.

He keeps the big smile on his face for the rest of the day, much to Jihoon’s pleasure and Chaerin’s amusement, and he sends her to Seungho with another Americano. She giggles as she takes the coffee to him, and comes back, a smirk firm in place. He ignores her for the rest of the day.

When his shift finally ends, he takes off his apron with a relieved sigh. Seungho is still at his table, and he brightens up and smiles when Sanghyun walks up to him.

“Ready for not-coffee?”

The answering smile he gets is the best payment he ever got.