As Hana served the last customer of the morning rush hour, Mirae was passing a mop throughout the café. She was humming along to the music playing, even synching her cleaning movements with it. She bowed and thanked the client as they left, and suddenly, EXO’s “Love Me Right” came on.

“HANA HANA HANA HANA IT’S MY SONG.” She exclaimed, grabbing the mop as if it were a microphone stand. Mirae began to sing along off key, imitating their voices as well. Hana began to laugh, and she took out her phone to film her best friend. As Mirae noticed, she made her movements even more sloppy and eccentric, exaggerating their voices.

It felt good for Mirae to let loose. The café was stressing her out way too much for her own good, and she was thankful that for a moment there wasn’t anyone there to see her dancing and singing so badly. Having watched EXO’s performances online, Mirae was able to copy them, but of course her movements were far from perfect, and resembled more a dancing balloon at a car dealer.

Suddenly, the door to the café opened, and Hana recognized the two figures to be Kyungsoo, followed by Suho. Kyungsoo waved a timid hello towards her, but Suho’s eyes were fixed on Mirae who was going all out. Suho’s gaze caught Hana’s eyes, and he pressed his index to his lips, indicating that she shouldn’t pay attention to him. Hana was already laughing before, but now it was worse, as if someone told the greatest joke in the world.

Suho suddenly began to dance the right moves behind Mirae, but enough for Hana to film him as well. Kyungsoo simply stood on the side, smiling gently and trying not to laugh out loud. Hana was on the brink of tears, her hand holding the phone shaking a lot.

Mirae her heels to mark the end of the song, but as she did she came face to face with Suho. She immediately let out a scream. Suho jumped up, surprised, because he didn’t think he had such an effect on people. Her legs gave out, falling to the ground while gripping the mop against her chest. Hana was bent in two, unable to say anything.

Suho swore quietly as she fell, and quickly took a step to help her up. It’s as if Mirae were frozen, because the way she was lying on the ground was the same position she had standing up.

“Are you okay?” Suho asked while laughing, but his eyes expressed worry. Mirae’s face went beet red, and she just nodded, extremely embarrassed. Hana came around the counter and joined the two, Kyungsoo coming forward as well.

“You ready to go?” Kyungsoo asked Hana.

“Go? Go where?” Mirae asked, turning to the girl in question. Hana gave her an apologetic smile.

“We’re going out to be tourists today.” Hana said excitedly. “So I’m leaving the shop to you, I’ll be back tonight so don’t worry.”

Mirae sighed and shooed her away. Before Hana left she gave her best friend a hug and went behind the counter to fetch her bag.

As she came back to Kyungsoo, he stretched his hand out to her for a moment before making a face and awkwardly putting it into his pocket. He pointed to the door with a nervous laugh and waddled alongside with her outside the café, soon disappearing from the windows.

Mirae glanced at Suho, the red color of her cheeks making no sign of fading away. She sighed and continued to mop, hoping he’d get the message and just quietly leave. She was embarrassed enough, she didn’t need any more opportunities to worsen her case.

“I actually came to talk to you.” He said. “Do you have some time?”

No, please go away before I hurt you.

“Oh uh… Yeah, sure. What’s wrong?” she asked, focusing intently on mopping up the same spot over and over again.

“The members and I want to make a little party, and we’re slightly sick of being confined to the dorm. We were hoping we could rent out your café?”

Mirae was taken aback, and her cheeks finally cooled down and returned to their usual light pink color.

“W-What… Uh-”

“It’s just a small get together to celebrate us winning Artist of the Year.  So it will be just nine of us. And we were hoping you could provide some food, drinks, service…”

“We don’t really have a price for renting out the café so I’m not entirely sure how I should calculate this.” Mirae said, finally stopping to clean that one spot, leaning on the mop.

“If it’s possible we don’t want to attract too much attention, so it would be nice to just rent out the place from 9 until late at night, maybe 3 in the morning… So hopefully you won’t lose too much on sales.”

Mirae’s head was spinning with calculations. She tried to think how she could make a profit of the party, but then the costs for the food and drinks tumbled into her brain. She suddenly pointed towards a table and motioned for Suho to sit down while she walked to the door and flipped the Open card to Closed. She took out a pen and paper as well as the calculator on her phone, sitting in front of Suho.

“So far we have a daily profit of 1 518 000 won, so that makes it more or less 506 000 won morning, noon and night, add 3% for ingredients, so that makes it a total of 521 180 won (450 USD, 590 CAN) for renting the entire place from 9pm until dawn. Food, drinks, and service included.”

Suho listened intently to her calculations, and smiled when he heard the final price. Mirae looked back up from her notepad and she blushed again, internally cursing the extra blood circulation in her face.

“Came out a lot cheaper than the other places we visited.” He said and took the notepad in his hands, looking over at the calculations. “Would it be possible to put drapes over the windows for privacy?”

“Sure, what about decorations?” Mirae asked, taking her notepad back and writing everything down.

“The atmosphere is nice enough just as it is, maybe for the music we could have acoustic versions of popular songs?”

“Food?” she asked.

“For sure we want Hana’s famous cupcakes and other sweets, but if you could make some hors d’oeuvres that would be perfect as well.”

I burn water and Hana will most likely chop her hand off.

“Anything else you’d like to add?” she asked.

“We want to have a low-key presence. We barely have any time to ourselves and for one night we don’t want any attention. So... You know…”

“Got it. Would you like something to drink before you leave?” she said, pointing towards the coffee bar. Suho thought for a moment, and without a word he walked over to the machines and turned behind the counter.

What the hell are you doing.

“I’ve always wanted to try out being a barista.” He said, grabbing a mug and a coffee bean bag. Mirae stared at him, and something clicked.

“Ah well, not many people have been coming by so it can’t hurt for you to try.” Yes, maybe I’ll gain his favor. “I just need to write a few things down so… You have fun.”

She turned back to her notepad and began jotting down ideas for food, music and other minor details that she deemed important. Suho on the other hand looked like he was having the time of his life using the machines and trying to make a regular coffee. Mirae turned around from time to time to glance at him, and to see if nothing was burning. He seemed rather concentrated with his tongue partially sticking out and his eyebrows knitted together, eyes focused on the coffee machine.

The coffee made an inhumane sound and Mirae couldn’t help but laugh quietly. Based on the sound he didn’t break anything, only forgot to add something. And soon enough he came back with one cup of coffee and placed it in front of Mirae, taking back his seat. He stared at her with anticipation, but all Mirae did was put the back of her hand against , trying not to show her condescending smile. The contents of the coffee were three shades paler than what coffee was supposed to look like. She took the cup in her hands and took a sip, immediately letting out a muffled laugh.

Suho raised an eyebrow, still anticipating her answer.

“Well…” she started. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Suho’s face suddenly turned red, and he let out a sheepish laugh.

“It’s literally three diluted coffee beans." She laughed, taking a large gulp of it and grimacing. Suho stared at her, as if intrigued by the fact that she was able to laugh, as she never did that in front of him before.

Silence fell between them again, and Mirae couldn’t look back up from her mug. “I’m really sorry for what I said the other night. I didn’t mean to pry or make you feel any worse.” She said almost in a whisper.

Suho shrugged. “It’s alright, sometimes you have to hear those words, you know?” he said, smiling towards her. God did she want to kick him in the shin. He was supposed to get mad at her, tell her off for what she said to him but no, he just had to act like Prince charming.

Suddenly, Suho stretched his hand out to her. Confused, she took his hand into hers, but it only made Suho laugh incredulously.

“I meant give me your phone.” He said, looking at her endearingly.

Mirae’s face flushed red again and she almost dropped her phone as she got it. He took it, and punched in his number.

“If you need help with the party, just let me know okay?”

Mirae nodded, taking her phone back with both hands and looking at her new contact. Suho excused himself and left the café, turning the Closed card to Open.

****

“… And then, she simply gave up on life and went outside where it was 5 degrees, in nothing but shorts and a hoodie. No shirt, no bra.” The number of Mirae stories Hana had could possibly fill up a whole saga of books, as well as be completed by a two-hour documentary. Kyungsoo laughed at most of them, though he wanted to hear more stories about her. Unfortunately, Hana wasn’t too proud of mostly failing at life.

“Mmm…” she thought for a moment about something that wouldn’t scare him away. “A few stories come to mind. Once I wanted to get Mirae’s attention, but I was looking somewhere else, and I hit her repeatedly thinking it was her arm when in fact it was her .” Kyungsoo laughed, tears forming in his eyes. “And one time Mirae took me kayaking.” Kyungsoo began to laugh again and she swore at him that that wasn’t the joke. “We were sitting in the kayak and I was in the front and she was in the back, and she told me that since it was my first time she’d let me go in the front since it’s easier. And uh, well it started off well, until we couldn’t sync our movements and ended up going in zig zags for about a mile. Poor Mirae was completely exhausted trying to keep up with me and not get tangled in the weeds. The people passing us by in kayaks thought we were drunk, and I’m pretty sure I heard a bird laugh at us.”

Kyungsoo had to stop walking to catch his breath from laughing so hard. Just the thought of two girls screaming at each other mixed with laughter in a kayak going in zig zags brought him to tears. Hana couldn’t help but to laugh with him as well, recalling the memory she shared with her best friend.

Hana would be lying if she said she was comfortable with him. In fact, she was nervous beyond her imagination. Her palms were sweaty and she kept talking, a nervous habit of hers. Whenever she’d meet his eyes her heart would skip a beat and she’d look away, pointing to something and asking for an explanation. After so many years of liking him, she never imagined this in her wildest dreams, and though it was nerve-wrecking, she did wish the day with him wouldn’t end.

Hana and Kyungsoo had already finished up with eating ramyun at a convenience store and went for a decent lunch to a small family owned restaurant. They were touring the town, where Kyungsoo would point out to points of interest just like a tour guide, and Hana would just stare in awe and nod her head. They exchanged small stories about each other, but Hana was the one to speak more about her life and useless facts about things she learned on the internet. Kyungsoo didn’t mind though, he seemed rather intrigued by her stories and didn’t mind at all that she led the conversation. He was thankful actually, that they didn’t have awkward silences.

Before they knew it, the sun was setting on the horizon, and they were making their way towards Namsan tower. Hana stared at the edifice coming into sight with great admiration, but to Kyungsoo it was like any other thing around Seoul: it was just there. He walked a few steps behind her, smiling at the way she was acting all excited about seeing the last thing on their trip. She pointed to it like a child and took thousands of pictures, even grabbing Kyungsoo and taking a picture together. He only asked her not to post it online as he wanted to keep his private life personal.

They boarded the tram that would bring them all the way up. Hana couldn’t stay still and her smile made no sign of disappearing. Kyungsoo on the other hand, couldn’t take his eyes off her. But Hana didn’t notice that, she was too busy looking at the Tower that they were approaching little by little. It was twilight by the time they got to the top, and Hana jumped out of the tram.

She breathed in the evening breeze, exhaling with satisfaction. “Wah, even the air is different here.”

Kyungsoo simply nodded and smiled, putting his hand on her back and leading her to their last stop on the tour. She pretended not to notice, when in fact she was screaming internally and all the alarms in her head went off. They boarded the elevator, and after a quiet and long ride they finally got to the top.

As the doors opened, they found themselves in the gift shop. Hana paid little attention to it, as her eyes were fixated on the outside. She instinctively grabbed Kyungsoo by his coat and led him slightly forcefully outside. By then the sun had completely set, and Seoul’s night life was reborn.

Hana stared at the scenery, completely in awe. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought, “Wow, I’ve finally made it.” Kyungsoo called out to her, and pointed to the binoculars. Hana almost skipped towards it and began looking through. Kyungsoo slowly slipped away from her, but she didn’t even notice.

Suddenly, she felt a tap on her shoulder, and Kyungsoo was back with two locks and two sharpies. Hana giggled excitedly, looking down at the blue and pink lock. He handed her the pink one as well as something to write with.

“How about we write something to each other?” Kyungsoo suggested. Hana thought for a moment, and she finally settled on EXO fighting! Do Kyungsoo fighting!!~

Kyungsoo glanced at what she wrote and smiled, writing himself, Sunrise fighting <3

Together they went to find a spot to hang the locks. Hana waddled over to a place where there weren’t many locks, and finally hung them onto the fence. Hana clapped quietly, while Kyungsoo threw the keys over, making it impossible for them to ever open up the locks again. Finally, Hana’s wishes were complete, and she had Kyungsoo to thank.

Well if she could, she would have given him a kiss on the cheek, but her heart was beating so fast and she knew about the intimacy level in Korea, and so she simply gave him a pat on the shoulder and thanked him for the day. He smiled awkwardly towards her, making her blush.

Kyungsoo suggested they call it a night, and seeing as there was nothing left to do, Hana agreed to leave the place. But not without a few more pictures of the scenery and with him. As she took the last photo, she set her background to the two of them standing against the city lights. Kyungsoo put his hand in the middle of her back and led her towards the elevator, glancing from time to time at her who was focused on looking at the pictures on her phone.

But there was another thing she had missed that evening.

On the back of Kyungsoo’s lock, he wrote: I think I’ve fallen for you.