one look at lee donghae and you'd never guess that he's been single for years now. the guy is a handsome, diligent and endearing college junior and you'd assume that a pretty girl has already snagged him before others can.

that assumption is far from the truth though.

donghae knows his good qualities, how could he not - everyone who's interacted with him always sung praises about him. except his own bestfriend named eunhyuk, but that doesn't matter because bestfriends are like that, he surmises.

also, he firmly believes that lee hyukjae is an idiot. 

naturally, a handful of girls had expressed interest in donghae, but even though most of these girls were attractive, he just couldn't have mutual feelings for any of them.

it came to the point when all his friends have made it their mission to find the girl that would make donghae fall head over heels in love.

setting him up on blind dates, signing him up for online dating sites, and other invasive things have already been done by his so-called friends and they only resulted into donghae experiencing all sorts of embarrassment.

it's safe to say that he's tired of his friends' antics, but he understands where they're coming from with all the they do.

he's only human, and he also wants to find the one for him.

it's crazy how he finds the one in a supermarket aisle.

 

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dara has always been a nice girl. she's polite and hardworking, and that's why she's loved by people around her. but she also has a bad side, a side that she doesn't show much.

but right now, her brother sanghyun seems to be testing the limits of her goodness. 

"noona, please. i'm dying over here." sanghyun whines as his sister enters his room. "i can't live without my favorite cereal."

dara rolled her eyes at her brother, who was currently wrapped up in his blankets, looking a human burrito. "go buy it then and stop annoying me!"

"but i'm sick." he emphasizes the statement by groaning in pain and rolling over his bed. 

she scoffed. "you just have a cold, park sanghyun. that's all you have. it's not like you're dying. get out of bed and go get whatever you're whining about."

in the end, even though the siblings argued intensely, it was still dara who had to go and buy his brother's cereal because sanghyun acted like he was really sick to the bone in front of their mother.

so now here she was, in the supermarket aisle where several cereals were stacked. She takes one pack of Oreo O's, begrudgingly thinking about how she's helping her little of a brother.

she turns around after getting the cereal, and sees a guy just a few steps away from her.

he's looking at her, seemingly dumbfounded.

creepy, dara thinks. but said guy is handsome, so attractively creepy? she almost laughs aloud because of her own thoughts, but she holds back since it'd be her who'd look creepy as hell if she laughed alone.

dara ignores the weird guy and makes her way to the cashier instead.

 

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"at the supermarket? really?" eunhyuk scoffs in disbelief when donghae shared his story. currently, the two bestfriends are making their way to a coffee shop that eunhyuk's girlfriend told them to go to.

"yeah, why are you so weirded out by that? hyuk, it's been days and i still can't forget about her. i'm freaking myself out. she's just a random girl at the supermarket and yet here i am all starry-eyed." donghae bemoans, leading his bestfriend to grin like a hyena.

eunhyuk's already plotting to seek help from his girlfriend to endlessly tease donghae about this when they meet in the coffee shop. "so you finally found a girl you like. your 'supermarket soulmate'." eunhyuk dubs the unknown girl with a cheesy nickname that earns him a whack on the shoulder by donghae.

"shut up, oh my god." donghae complains as if he's really annoyed, but the faint blush on his cheeks at the thought of the girl he saw a few days ago as his soulmate proved otherwise.

eunhyuk notices this unfortunately, and acts as if he's about to puke on the streets. their stupid banter continues until they finally reach the coffee shop.

donghae's been to coffee shops only twice in his life, mainly because of his caffeine allergy, so as they enter, he curiously takes in the surroundings of the coffee place.

from the decorations, chairs and tables, he finally focuses on the coffee bar in the middle of the establishment. 

his jaw drops as he sees one of the baristas.

"dude, what the hell." eunhyuk nudges his bestfriend who suddenly froze for some reason he didn't know. he pulls the bewildered guy towards the table where his girlfriend was waiting.

"sorry, hyo. this guy keeps delaying me." eunhyuk apologizes to hyoyeon, who was narrowing her eyes at the two men who approached her.

"delaying you how?" hyoyeon inquires with curiousity. eunhyuk grins widely, and donghae thinks his bestfriend looks like a shark.

they sit at the table first before eunhyuk started to open his chattering mouth. "donghae found the one a few days ago."

hyoyeon's eyes widen. "what? seriously?" with that, eunhyuk relays everything donghae told him just moments ago.

the teasing starts a little later and donghae tries to hush them. "shut up, you guys. she's here." he hisses at the two.

"oh? where?" eunhyuk asks, surprised. hyoyeon starts scoping out the coffee shop. donghae sighs, and tries to discreetly point at the barista up front.

hyoyeon gasps when she looks at where donghae was pointing at. "dara?"

eunhyuk and donghae's jaws drop at that. "you know her?" they ask in unison. hyoyeon only laughs, then nods. "i've been a loyal customer here. she's my favorite out of the baristas here."

donghae cannot believe this. the girl of his dreams that he thought was out of reach, was actually connected to one of his friends.

the universe probably hates him. or loves him. he doesn't know.

in the middle of his overthinking, he doesn't realize that hyoyeon has called dara and and the girl is now approaching their table.

and the moment he realizes that fact, he feels like dying.

"hyo, you're back again." dara greets hyoyeon warmly, familiarity obvious between the two.

the latter grins. "of course! the coffee here is the bomb." she compliments, making dara's eyes twinkle in happiness.

coffee is obviously her passion, donghae muses as he observes this, oh god, i'm allergic to her passion, i'm so ed.

"thanks, hyo! we always try our best to make the best coffee since coffee just gets people going, you know?" dara excitedly says.

donghae can't believe how perfect she is. 

"oh, by the way. this is eunhyuk, my stupid boyfriend. and this is donghae, my stupid boyfriend's equally stupid bestfriend!" hyoyeon jokingly introduced.

eunhyuk pouts at that playfully, but donghae silently wants to die because he wanted to make a good impression.

well that went well. he mopes.

"oh my god hyo, you are so mean." she states without any bite, laughing heartily. hyoyeon only shrugs smugly and smirks, "you can't blame me."

dara goes on to say hi to the two newly introduced peers, and donghae feels his heart go up his throat when their eyes met.

ever the best friend donghae could ever have, eunhyuk lets out a whoop that catches the attention of the others.

"so this is your supermarket soul-" donghae covers eunhyuk's big mouth in mortification. never will he tell his bestfriend anything ever.

dara's eyebrows furrow at eunhyuk's interrupted statement. "supermarket soul?"

hyoyeon watches the scene in front of her in amusement.

and as much as she would like to join her boyfriend at this 'make donghae suffer' game, she wants to be nice for once.

"donghae just told us about how he saw someone who looked like you at the supermarket, that's all." hyoyeon explains.

dara turns her attention to donghae after hyoyeon's explanation, and donghae can feel the heat in his cheeks intensify.

she's so pretty. he thinks.

dara giggles. "thank you. you don't look bad yourself."

eunhyuk and hyoyeon laughs at donghae, who chokes on nothing after realizing that he said it out loud.

before anyone could say anything else, dara gets called up by the coffee shop manager and has to leave.

"come up to me when you guys are ready to order, alright?" dara says before she walks away, and it's addressed to the three of them, but she's looking right at him.

i'm so ed. his mind screams at him.

"damn, donghae's awkwardness must've interested dara." eunhyuk muses, nudging at hyoyeon to fuel the fire even more.

hyoyeon grins at him before turning to donghae. "that's the first time i've seen dara flirt, hae. congratulations!" the couple laughs louder when donghae rushes out.

 

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she sees donghae rush out of the coffee shop as she was talking to the manager, and wonders why he left without all of a sudden.

eunhyuk and hyoyeon approach the coffee bar to order two caffe lattes. dara asks them about donghae.

"oh donghae? we too much and he couldn't take it, that's all." eunhyuk responds with a twinkle of mischief in his eye.

dara smiles at the thought of an embarrassed donghae.

"anyway, you seemed very interested in him, dara." hyoyeon says, tone heavy with implications.

dara tries not to be embarrassed as she shrugs. "well, he's cute. and i remember seeing him at the supermarket as well."

dara gets confused as the couple in front of her looks at each other and says, "soulmates." at the same time.

"jinx!" eunhyuk shouts immediately after, and gets hit by hyoyeon.

the coffee barista sighs. "just pay for your order so you can stop the PDA in front of me, guys."

eunhyuk smirks as he takes his wallet out. "don't worry, you'll get PDA from donghae soon if  he doesn't mess up."

hyoyeon cackles at dara's red face as she rings up their order.

 

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regret is the first feeling that hits donghae as he walks away from the coffee shop. he left because he felt like he was going to combust in there.

it seemed like a good idea to get out of there immediately but now he regrets it because he won't be able to talk to dara.

donghae worries about what dara would think. would dara think he was rude for leaving so suddenly?

with that thought, he backtracks and goes to the direction leading to the coffee shop. it doesn't matter if hyoyeon and eunhyuk teases him again.

he goes back to the coffee shop and is surprised to see that the couple left already. it's only been a few minutes that i left.

"back so soon?" he turns to where the voice comes from and sees dara wiping a table. donghae stutters out a reply that doesn't make sense and dara smirks.

"are you gonna order coffee or just stare at me while i work?" she teases, and donghae shakes his head as he once again blushes. "uh, yes, um."

dara takes pity on the man and goes behind the coffee bar. "okay, so what would you like?"

donghae's feet manage to take him in front of dara. "uh, black coffee?" he winces to himself as he remembers his coffee allergy.

dara rings up his order and smiles up at him. "pick a table and i'll bring your black coffee to you in a bit."

donghae nods. "great. i love coffee, coffee is great. um, yeah." he babbles nervously, and donghae internally cringes at how nonsensical and awkward he is.

thankfully, dara doesn't call him out on it and only smiles at him curiously. he manages to find a table to sit at without embarrassing himself any further.

he half successfully avoids staring at dara while she works, and distracts himself by texting threats to eunhyuk for being the worst friend.

annoyingly, eunhyuk only sends him a selca and a bunch of emojis.

.

true to her word, dara brings a cup of black coffee to his table. donghae thanks her, and to his surprise, she asks. "can i sit with you? you're my only customer now."

donghae nods fervently. "yeah, yeah. sure." dara sits in front of him, and they start a conversation that initially started awkwardly, but soon went smoothly.

they talk about how their common friends, eunhyuk and hyoyeon, and discovered that they both had an inclination to music.

everything was going well, except for the fact that donghae was drinking something that would probably kill him. an exaggeration, but seriously.

nonetheless, he couldn't mess it up so he pretends to drink the coffee as if he didn't know the consequences.

"you know, i think i saw you that time too." dara blurts out. donghae gets confused at the turn of conversation.

"what time?" he asks.

dara laughs and replies, "that time at the supermarket. you were hard to miss because you were kinda staring at me."

"i'm so sorry, i'm not a creep i swear! you were just so beautiful and-" he cuts himself off.  he hates his careless mouth so much.

this time, it's not him who blushes, but dara instead. "thank you, donghae. i think you're handsome as well."

donghae sees this an opportunity. that maybe she might be attracted to him as well. but before he could ask her out, his eyes well up with hot tears.

dara stands up in alarm. "are you okay?"

. my allergy's starting up already. donghae thinks in shame. he already feel the tell-tale itch spreading throughout his skin.

pretty soon, he knows he's be breaking out with rashes. he hope he doesn't vomit.

unfortunately, luck was not on his side, and donghae can't control as bile rises up to his throat.

and when it happens, dara freaks out and immediately tries to call an ambulance.

donghae watches with watery, red eyes as dara fusses over him, and mentally promises to himself that he will always be honest from now on.

 

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in the emergency room, dara and donghae are reassured by the doctor that it was only mild coffee allergy and not something severe.

"i'd suggest that you buy an over-the-counter antihistamine lotion for your rashes.  and please, don't drink coffee."

well, of course donghae knew about his allergy. but dara is surprised. "you're allergic to coffee?" she  ask as they leave the emergency room.

donghae nods sadly, "i'm sorry i didn't tell you. i just thought-"

"you thought i wasn't gonna give you the time of day because i make coffee and you're allergic to it?" she supplies.

"yeah." now that he hears it from another person, the more it sounds stupid.

dara sputters out a laugh. "donghae, allergies don't affect the level of attraction i have for you, you know."

donghae opens his mouth to defend himself, but dara's words sink in. "wait, you're attracted to me?"

the girl chuckles at his dumbfounded face and replies, "yeah, you're cute, why wouldn't i be? your awkwardness is a bonus too." she grins.

donghae smiles widely at her admission. "really? so can i take you on a date sometime?"

dara looks up at him with mischief in her eyes. "sure. as long as you don't take me on a coffee date."

donghae flushes at the joke and thinks it won't be long before he falls in love with this girl.

also, he can't believe he scored a date while his skin was covered in rashes. amazing.

 

 

author's note:

confession: i abandoned this while i was halfway done with it, because i lost confidence in my writing.

but i'm trying my best again and i hope i didn't disappoint you guys after making you wait for like, a year or something?

i'm sorry guys T_T

(unbeta-ed so there might be typos etc.)