Jihoon’s eyes had been glued to the small clock next to his register for the past half hour. Getting only more frustrated and tired as the minutes slowly ticked by. Somehow, his manager thought that staying open until 2am would make for good business on the weekends. Of course, Jihoon had gotten handed the shift. The manager didn’t hate any of the other employees enough to make them take it. It proved to be a waste of time, too, Jihoon decided as he glanced around the almost empty shop. The only customers were a pair of teenagers that had been making out in the back corner for what seemed like an eternity, their coffee’s sitting untouched on the table in front of them. Jihoon made a face, but didn’t move to stop them. He was too tired to care too much about anything.

    It had started snowing, he noted, turning his eyes from the clock to the large windows beside him. The snow fell gently onto the empty streets and sidewalks, quickly piling up. Jihoon sighed, it was pretty, but walking home would be a cold, wet pain. And his roommate would probably yell at him for dragging snow into their dorm again.

    The bell above the door chimed- much too loudly, both Jihoon and the couple jumped at the noise- as a new customer pushed through the door. Jihoon cringed as the cold air from outside seeped into the shop and crawled up the back of his shirt, and he turned to glare at whoever was holding the door open for so long. A tall boy stood in the doorway, looking around as if he had never been there before.

    “Choi Seungcheol,” Jihoon muttered, “Of course.”

    He took a moment to take in the older’s appearance as he glanced around the shop. He was bundled up in a long, gray jacket, a red scarf wrapped around his neck. But still his nose and cheeks were tinted pink. Snow stuck to his hair and shoulders and eyelashes; he looked almost like a painting. Jihoon shook his head at that thought, this was Choi Seungcheol he was looking at, the boy who would never be anything but a thorn in the side to Jihoon. Jihoon rolled his eyes at himself, he would blame his exhaustion for the ridiculous thought.

    Finally, Seungcheol approached the counter. Jihoon stayed seated on his stool, not moving or reacting as the taller boy approached him, a smile quickly spreading across his lips.

    “Hello, Jihoon,” He greeted. His voice was hoarse, almost as if he had been crying, “I haven’t seen you in forever.”

    “Yeah,” Jihoon replied, “Boss switched my shift, now I get to serve ghosts coffee.”

    “Sounds like easy money, I don’t think ghosts are too picky.” Seungcheol chuckled, “How have you been? Other than work.”

    Jihoon shrugged, “Studying mostly, and I still think I failed all of my finals.”

    Seungcheol laughed again, “I feel that. Uh, I’ll have a-”

    “Medium coffee. Black.” Jihoon finished for the older, “It’ll be ready in a minute.”

    Seungcheol only smiled in response and stayed in his place while Jihoon started on his drink. Jihoon could feel the boy’s eyes on him, but for some reason it didn’t bother him this time. Maybe it was because they were actually having a real conversation. No harsh words or flirty comments. Jihoon chuckled, it was certainly a difference from how they usually acted.

    “What’s so funny?” Seungcheol asked.

    “We just had a conversation without you hitting on me or me insulting you.” Jihoon said with a smile, “It was kinda weird.”

    “Ah,” Seungcheol smiled back, “It was nice though, wasn’t it?”

    “Yeah,” Jihoon hummed. For some reason his face felt warm, tonight was definitely strange. Quickly, he finished putting together Seungcheol’s drink, scribbled something on the inside, and rung up the order. Seungcheol paid and left with a quiet, “See you around,” being his only goodbye. Jihoon quietly returned to his seat on the stool, eyes following Seungcheol as the boy trudged through the newly-fallen snow.

<><><>

    Seungcheol was almost home when he remembered the scribbling on the inside of his drink. He had assumed it was his name, but it seemed weird that Jihoon would write it down, considering he knew Seungcheol and the shop wasn’t busy. He lifted the cup to his eyes. The dark-haired boy smiled as he made out Jihoon’s name and a phone number scrawled underneath. He wasted no time pulling out his phone and punched in the number, smiling as he stared at the new contact. Maybe things were finally turning around for him.

LMAO I HAVEN'T UPDATED THIS IN FOUR MONTHS. In my defense though, I've been busy with school and writing my other fic. But luckily, 만세! is finishing up soon, so I'll have more time to dedicate to this series and possibly starting a new multi-chap fic.

So, that being said, I've finally decided what I'm going to do with this series. This is still kinda going to be a short drabble series. It's going to have a general storyline, so it's technically not a drabble, but I'm going to still call it that because each update will only be about 500-700 words and I'm not going to have a true uploading schedule. I'm not sure how many chapters there are going to be, anywhere from four/five to nine/ten. Let me know if you want me to drag it out or keep it short and sweet and fluffy!

As always, thanks for reading!! i love each and every one of you <333333