Opening my eyes, I blinked sleepily before turning over and reaching for my phone. Blearily, I looked at the time and groaned. 7:58. I had woken up two minutes before my alarm. Grumbling in annoyance, I turned my phone’s alarm off and decided to get up since I was already awake. Leaving the warm comfort of my bed, I entered the bathroom that was connected to my room. It was in between Ilhoon’s and my room so we shared it, but Ilhoon didn’t have any morning classes today (the lucky bastard) and was probably still dreaming about his favourite girl group.

                A good thirty minutes later, I exited my room fully dressed and prepped as well as I could considering how tired I was. My dyed blonde hair was styled messily and I was wearing a comfortable dark green crew neck along with skinny black jeans. I entered the kitchen and saw Sungjae walking around, still in his pajamas, preparing coffee.

                “Morning,” I mumbled as I approached the kitchen counter. Sungjae nodded in response, still half asleep judging by the look on his face and turned back to the coffee maker. “Here,” I chuckled after Sungjae almost poured boiling hot water over his hands, “let me do that for you. Go get ready.” Sungjae nodded in thanks and stumbled to his room in a trance. Looking down at the instant coffee mix Sungjae was about to prepare, I shook my head and put it back into the cupboard. I hated instant coffee, it seemed like cheating so I never liked to use it unless I absolutely had to (like during exam season).

                I grabbed the saucepan from the drawer underneath the sink and filled it with water before placing it on the stove. Turning the stove on and changing the heat to medium, I reached back into the cupboard and grabbed a box of coffee grounds. I had ground them at home (where I had better equipment) and had recently brought a bunch to this house after the winter break. I added a couple tablespoons into the saucepan and let the water slowly boil, stirring the mixture every so often. As the water began to boil, the scent of freshly made coffee began to flow through the room, the aroma waking me, and I smiled softly. Although I was never one for early mornings, coffee was one of the few things that made it worth it, the smell and taste were great, obviously, but the process of watching it slowly form was peaceful and almost meditative. I turned the stove off and let the grounds slowly sink to the bottom before preparing two cups. I poured the rest of the liquid into a thermos and placed it on the island where it could be easily seen for Ilhoon when he woke up later.

                Peeking into the hallway that led towards the dormitories, I noted that Sungjae had fallen back into bed before walking towards the front door. He’d wake up sooner than later and I was still a bit irritated from our cafe hunt yesterday so I let him be.  I put on my boots and jacket before leaving the house. I had a couple classes to attend today but they were all in the morning, which freed up my afternoon. I was planning to go to the cafe (Starlight I think it was called?) that Sojin mentioned yesterday in the evening in order to look around and see if it was an appropriate working environment – whatever that meant.

                The morning was relatively uneventful; my classes were actually fairly interesting so I managed not to fall asleep (of course, the coffee in my thermos helped a lot too). While walking towards my last class, I noticed a large crowd of people. My curiosity got the better of me and I walked towards the crowd. Taking note that the majority of the people were female (although I saw a couple males too, probably drawn by the large amount of people) I looked to see what they were so interested in. There I saw a girl my age (probably a freshman) standing beside an older looking boy. He was quite attractive, that’s for sure, with a nice jaw line and broad shoulders. Judging by what I could see from his clothes, he looked well built and muscular, someone who spent time at the gym but not so much that they looked like a body builder. His face contrasted with his body a bit; it was more boyish and young looking. There was a mischievous glint in his eyes that could have caused unease; if not for his bright smile (those dimples were fantastic).

                “What’s going on?” I mumbled, half to myself. The girl was standing in front of dimples boy had tears in her eyes and trembled slightly. She was cute I guess, large eyes and a small round face. Her stature was petit but her legs were a bit too short for my liking. To be honest I was never quite sure with which gender I preferred. Both had their pros and cons, yet nowadays I found myself leaning towards males. It might be because all my noona’s friends had constantly squeezed my cheeks and called me cute when I was younger (and the turned around to discuss... womanly things) so I didn’t quite see girls as attractive.

                “Hey Hyuk,” I turned to the side and spotted one of my classmates. She made her way over to me and stood beside me. She was short (although at 184 cm I was taller than a lot of people) and only reached my shoulder but she managed to whisper quietly anyways. “That’s Lee Hongbin,” she motioned towards dimples boy with a flick of her head, “one of the most sought after and attractive boy here at Haepari. He’s pretty much boyfriend material but he said that he’s not one to flirt around. At least, that’s what he just told the girl there, I’m not sure what her name is but she just confessed. He said something about her not being ‘right’ or whatnot. Personally I think this looks like a scene right out of a drama.” I nodded slowly at her explanation and looked back up to see the girl burst into tears. A murmur of empathy flowed throughout the crowd but dimples boy (yeah I know his is Hongbin but it’s much more fun to call him dimples boy) simply stepped towards her and patted her on the head. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear, which caused her to stop crying, before leaving promptly. The girl was immediately surrounded by her band of friends and the crowd began to disperse.

                “Well that was interesting,” I whispered to myself before bidding my classmate goodbye. I checked my phone and saw that I had less than 10 minutes to get to class so I hurriedly made my way to the lecture hall in the east wing. Hopefully I’d get to class in time, and if I didn’t, let’s just hope the professor would be in a good mood.

                He wasn’t in a good mood. I ended up having to wait an extra 20 minutes outside the door until he let me in only to berate me in front of the class for another 5 minutes. With sigh I ran my hand through my hair before deciding to get moving. I had a couple assignments to finish but first things first, I wanted to check out the cafe Sojin mentioned. I looked at the business card to reaffirm the address before catching a bus.

                I arrived at Starlight Cafe a good 10 minutes later and looked around. The shop was a modest size; it was built on a corner of space between a dental clinic and small clothing store. It looked homely and almost cottage like, and from what I could see through the windows, the interior continued with this theme. I decided that it was a good enough place as any to work and walked through the front door. A small bell rang as I pushed the door open and I looked around the room to see a couple of customers. They were all sitting down at separate tables enjoying their coffee except for one who was speaking to a dark skinned male at the counter. The worker looked older than I was, although it was difficult to tell considering his face was definitely impish and childish. He had shocking red hair (that surprisingly fit him), narrow shoulders, and an overall slender build. I hung back as he dealt with the customer’s order and watched as he brewed coffee with ease. He was done within minutes and even managed to keep a pleasant conversation with the customer at the same time.

                “Hey, are you the one Sojin noona mentioned?” the red haired man asked as the customer left the shop. I jerked my head up in surprise before nodding slowly. “You look a lot younger than what she told me, get over here so I can look at you properly!” the man seemed to constantly speak with excited tones but I decided to walk over anyways.

                “So,” I began as the man began to inspect my face, “I’m assuming that you’re Cha Hakyeon then?”

                “Hakyeon hyung to you thank you very much,” Hakyeon replied sassily, putting a hand on his hip. “Anyways, how old are you?” Hakyeon narrowed his eyes as he tried to decide if I was a minor or not (although I could’ve worked part time even if I was a minor).

                “19, I’m a first year student at Haepari University,” I replied, already tired from dealing with Hakyeon’s sudden changes in conversation topics. I could already tell that this man had too much energy inside of him (the red hair was a pretty big clue) and I just knew I was going to go home mentally and physically exhausted.

                “Oooh! That’s awesome, Haepari’s a pretty prestigious university, what’re you studying?” Hakyeon leaned over the countertop. There didn’t seem to be many customers so he took his apron off as he awaited my answer. I heard a shuffling from the back kitchen but no one came out so I paid no heed to the noise.

                “Social sciences,” I replied. “More specifically, archaeology.”

                “Wow, fancy huh?” Hakyeon responded, smiling brightly. “Moving on, Sojin told me you know how to brew coffee? I’m the only barista here so it’d be useful having another one. It’s hard to be the manager and make orders at the same and Leo dislikes talking to people so he won’t run the register.”

                Before I could ask who in the world Leo was, the answer was given to me in the form of a tall, broad shouldered man who walked out of the kitchen. He had dark brown hair that was almost black and stared at me coldly. He was wearing a uniform (like Hakyeon) and according to the name tag this was the Leo Hakyeon had just been talking about.

                “Ah, speak of the devil. Taekwoonie come here and meet Hyukkie,” Hakyeon motioned with his hands and Taekwoon, with a deep sigh, walked over reluctantly. “This is Jung Taekwoon, he might look intimidating and scary but to be honest he’s just a ball of fluff,” Hakyeon introduced the taller man and was rewarded with a smack on the shoulder.

                “I thought his name was Leo?” I asked, confused at the different names. Taekwoon’s nametag read Leo and now that I looked closely, Hakyeon’s nametag said N instead of his real name.

                “Ah, we don’t use real names here. It’s kind of an interesting twist don’t you think?” Hakyeon answered pride evident in his face. I nodded politely which caused his smile to widen even further (do his cheeks not split from smiling all the time?).

                “Hakyeon aren’t you supposed to give him an interview or something,” Taekwoon mumbled. Or at least, it sounded like he mumbled. He had a soft voice and combined with the fact that he didn’t project his voice very far I could barely hear him. Hakyeon didn’t seem to have a problem with Taekwoon’s volume however; he merely nodded and turned to me.

                “Well, do you have a resume or something? Actually, screw that, it doesn’t really matter. If you passed Sojin noona’s test than you passed mine. Isn’t noona so pretty? We met ‘cause we were filming for a drama. We were just minor characters mind you, we entered and won a contest so we got to act in it and it was a lot of fun. Oh I remember how nervous she was before we started filming! It was honestly adorable, let me tell you,” Hakyeon continued on with his ramble. Gesturing widely as he continued to talk about his drama filming and experiences with Sojin. I zoned out within three sentences and from the looks of it, Taekwoon had too.

                “He’s not going to stop for a long time,” Taekwoon whispered (well not really, I’m sure he thought he spoke normally but seriously, I could barely hear him), “come back tomorrow with your resume and I’m sure you’ll get the job in no time.”

                “A-ah,” I replied. What kind of business gave out jobs with interviews or resume checks? Heck I could be a serial killer for all they knew! Then again, what would a serial killer be doing in a coffee shop? “See you tomorrow then,” I bid Taekwoon goodbye and merely waved at Hakyeon as I left the cafe. He was still talking about Sojin and the drama when I closed the door although no one was listening since Taekwoon had escaped into the kitchen and the other customers were all on their laptops of phones.

                “That was weird,” I whispered to myself. I was definitely mentally exhausted from that encounter and I had only spent a total of 15 minutes with the duo. Hakyeon seemed to be an outgoing and loud person. He was probably going to be annoying to handle during stressful days but from what I could tell, he meant good. Taekwoon was intimidating for sure. He regarded everyone with a cold indifference but if Hakyeon’s word was truthful, he’d warm up to me after a while. Right? Hopefully. With nothing left to do, I caught a bus home and tried to remember where my resume was.

Uuugh. I wanted to post this yesterday but I was legit so busy. >_< So here it is now? Better late than never?

Thanks to intoxified for Hyuk's subject... thing. I've pretty much figured out what everyone else is taking so yay? 

This chapter was actually supposed to have a bit more action but uhm, it kinda got long and I realized I haven't updated lately so yeah... But then again, my chapter lengths are probably gonna be erratic so stay on your toes.

Once again, thanks for reading and I do not own anything in this story other than the idea and plot, any similarities to other works of fiction are purely coincidental or have been used as sources of inspiration. Please do not repost this anywhere without my permission; plagiarism isn’t nice!

Hope you're smiling!

~ Alateni