It is a bright sunny morning and the birds are chirping brightly at the clear skies. It is a bit hot, a weather that is not bearable for the narrow-shouldered guy that is brisk walking towards a Café nearby. He is rushing (and frowning deeply) because the alarm he set up last night didn’t wake him up because apparently his freakishly tall roommate turned it off because it was too damn early and who the heck would want to wake up at 10 in the morning on a Sunday (which earned him a bonk on the head, a few curses, and a chokehold for five seconds).

Although he does admit, waking up early on a Sunday morning is indeed a sin, he does have a good reason why, a very very good reason why: Final exams. And being the grade conscious little nerd that he is, he needs to study 24/7 to get super high grades – because you can’t just get an average grade if you’re planning to enter the best Medicine School in the country – and he wants to be the best of the best.

Since starting college, Kyungsoo has been going to the same café to study and slave over his studies, because as a pre-med student, everyone has high expectations of him and his workload is too heavy that the only way he could get through it is through caffeine. Lots and lots of caffeine.

The café, named Renaissance, was a quaint average-sized place, and is never crowded, simply because it not many people has discovered the place yet. It was at the side of a community park not that near to their University (although Kyungsoo insists it’s just a walking distance away when Chanyeol whined when he took him there). He has been going there for more than 2 years now and has been a regular in the place that most of the employees know his name and that he can have a nice quiet conversation with some of the regulars that he is acquainted with when he needed to do so (a.k.a. to escape reality).

So imagine his surprise when he walks in and finds the café full of people – still quiet, but mostly crowded with college students also studying through their final exams. This has never happened before, and he is slightly confused and annoyed because why does this happen now when he’s in a very foul mood and is in desperate need of caffeine.

He then finds his usual seat by the window, with the view of the nearby park, occupied by an overly affectionate couple, meagerly tutoring each other in the subject of god knows what. He scans the room and finds that the only seat available, for now, was on the other side of the café, next to a wall, and is occupied by another regular as well. Kyungsoo doesn’t know him by name, but he’s familiar with him enough that he knows that the guy is usually there way way earlier than him on most days, but usually leaves earlier than him, headphones forever present either being used or dangling in his neck as an accessory, and music sheets and paraphernalia in hand.

Kyungsoo argues with himself. He could try another café for the day, although he doubts we would find a good seat (or a seat at all) because it is finals weeks and usually this is the time everybody is in desperate need of caffeine as well. Seeing as there’s no other choice but to ask if he could share the table, since the tables are big enough to accommodate two people, and that going back to his dorm is not an option because as much as he loves his roommate Chanyeol, finals weeks is usually the time when the dude was noising up the place to finish his finals composition piece, he decided to make his trudge towards the person with the available seat.

“Hi,” Kyungsoo shyly says as he stands next to the table awkwardly. “Is it alright if I share the table with you?” He asks.

The person, who doesn’t look Korean at all by his outer appearance, just smiled and nodded, arranging his items more neatly to give some space on the table as well, and Kyungsoo voices his thanks and started to take out his belongings. He stands up to order, and debated if he should say something to the guy because he will be leaving his stuff there, but the guy looks too engrossed in whatever it is that he’s doing in his tablet that he decided otherwise.

Queuing in line, he then thinks of all the stuff he needs to accomplish before the day ends. He has two major exams this coming Monday, and a finals essay regarding DNA polymorphisms also due the next day, and four more major exams for the rest of his week. He sighs while rubbing his head that is starting to ache from all the work he still needs to accomplish.

He smiles politely at Minseok, the barista at the café, and recites his order by heart.

“One large caramel macchiato—“

“—with extra pump of caramel syrup and whipped cream on top. The usual, right?” The barista grins. “We should just add this to our special menu and name it after you, Kyungsoo-shi!” He teases.

He smiles back at Minseok. After a few months of trying out the drinks in this café, he started to stray away from the menu and experiment new drinks, adding syrups and what nots in his drink. And since he discovered the one, he’s been ordering the same thing over and over and over again. It’s overly sweet, but the caffeine fix plus the sugar rush gives him the energy to get through his day-to-day studies. Plus, if he ever needs more kick, an extra expresso shot or two does the fix right away.

“Add an extra expresso shot too,” Kyungsoo says as an afterthought. “I have so much stuff to do, I think I’ll need it.”

Minseok scrunches up his nose at him and he could only laugh back. Studying college life is hard and Minseok is so glad he’s done with it.

After waiting for a few minutes or so for the other barista to make his drink and give it to him, he starts to trudge back to his usual table – almost in a programmed way – when he remembers that he isn’t sitting there at the moment.

Sighing, he walks to his place for the day— where there is no window to gaze out on when he’s tired, but only a wall with an ugly shade of green.

Setting his drink in the table caught his seatmate for the day’s attention, and he shyly smiles at him, whispering an apology for the trouble. The guy just smiles back, and goes to his work again.

Then, like entering a sort of trance, Kyungsoo takes out the things he needed to use for the dayand starts going through the pile of works in front of him.

♫

One hour later, Kyungsoo decides to take a break and observe his surroundings because Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy is not something you want to marathon (and it is such a pain in the ).

There’s this guy two tables infront of him who’s seemingly trying to study but is actually just pretending because opening a book and playing clash of clans is not studying, bro. Then, three tables in his front are two girls chatting loudly about their latest conquest – wait too much information Kyungsoo, stop listening to them no.

Then he observes his seatmate – ah his interesting seatmate. Apparently, his current seat mate is not only carrying music sheets, he is also composing his own song by the looks of it, because he keeps on writing, scratching, editing notes in the sheet and also testing out how it sounded in an app in his tablet.

He also finds out the boy’s name written clearly in his cup with a too big smiley (that looks like Minseok’s handwriting). Yixing — clearly not Korean, and clearly an interesting specimen. Yixing realizes Kyungsoo staring too long and started waving his hands in front of the other, causing Kyungsoo to flush because of embarrassment because did cute guy just caught me staring at him?! and apologizes shyly.

The rest of the day passes by without much interactions because cute dimply guy was too absorbed in his work too, and Kyungsoo was too buried in his tasks that he did not even realize that’s it’s already past one and Oh Jongdae would kill me for being late at his afternoon recital!

Packing his bag hastily, he stuffs all the item as neatly as he could in a short amount of time, downs the remaining contents of his drink, which isn’t that much anymore, and bolts right out of the door of the café, of course, remembering to say goodbye to Minseok and thank the stranger— Yixing for sharing the seat.

Belatedly, Kyungsoo slaps his forehead with an embarrassed expression because I called him by his name even though he didn’t give it to me. And that damn I sounded like a creeper.

♫

The next day, he drops by the café again as his usual routine. Today, he has a 5 hour break in between his classes, so logically he wanted to spend it finishing all the other stuff he’s required to do rather than spending his free time doing non-academically related things.

Entering the café, it was again packed. Of course.

His usual seat is again taken, and so far there isn’t an empty table in sight. He contemplated about the idea of asking someone to share a table again, but he’s drained from his morning classes and the least thing he would want to do right now is to share a table.

Deciding to try his luck and wait out until somebody leaves, he queues in (the unusual long) line first to order his drink.

Minseok tells him that apparently, some famous college Tumblr user from their area recently blogged about this café as the perfect place for a quiet study place… or for simply enjoying a cup of coffee after discovering it a few weeks back, and now Kyungsoo’s perfect study place is now filled with all kinds of people— students, employees, professors, etc.— leaving Kyungsoo with no table and no space.

With hawk-like precision, he scans the room and observes the people which are most likely to leave in his opinion. Sadly, other people in line are doing the same thing as well, and apparently better than him because once he notices someone leaving, there’s already someone who beat him to it and is standing next to the now-vacant table.

His order arrives, and his mood goes down as well. He would look like an idiot scouting for seats while having his ordered beverage already— he tells himself that— so he decides to just leave and find a good space in their University’s large oval. But before he gets out of the door to leave, it starts to drizzle.

Kyungsoo curses his bad luck.

He was planning his next course of action when a hand is suddenly placed at his back. And he flinches – suddenly jerking back and nearly spilling his drink. He traces the source of the hand and finds a startled (but definitely cute looking, not that he’s going to admit it) Yixing looking back at him… and he feels the heat rushing towards his cheeks and dammit Kyungsoo now’s not the time to blush like a schoolgirl.

Kyungsoo belatedly realize that Yixing was speaking to him about something— the only coherent words coming out from his throat was a “Huh?”.

Yixing blinks back at him, confused, but repeats his sentence – offer – once again.

“I have a free seat in my table again… if you’re up to it?”

Kyungsoo couldn’t have said yes faster in his life.

♫

After settling down in his seat, Kyungsoo immediately switches on his work-mode and starts to list down the things he needs to accomplish. Scratching out the things that can wait, he decides on what he wants to be done in the remaining three and a half hours of his break, and starts on working on it. The noise, however, is keeping him distracted and his focus is waning. It also makes it hard for him to focus because he needs to keep reminding himself to stop staring at the dimple-guy in front of you and work.

In his effort to continue “studying”, he already memorized some quirks of the Chinese guy in front of him— like when he chews the back of his pencil in contemplation, and when his face lights up brightly when he seems to find the correct rhythm or notes or lyrics to what he’s composing, and when his face scrunches up in annoyance and confusion, which is a sign that he wants to redo everything he did in the past sheets or so. He also notices that for the past two days, Yixing’s orders are the same as well— Iced Americano, plain and simple.

Kyungsoo doesn’t mean to observe— it’s just that he keeps finding himself staring at him when distracted, and he was distracted a lot today which is very unusual for him.

Two hours in and Kyungsoo decides to stop studying all together. It’s not that he’s not in the mood— it’s just that the place is now unusually loud thanks to the new occupants of the place. He wishes that this hype on the place would just last a week or so, so he could go back to his regular dynamics.

In his trance, he doesn’t realize that he is staring again, but this time a hand is currently waving in front of his face— Yixing’s to be precise.

“You’ve been staring for a while,” the boy in front of him says and Kyungsoo turns red because , I got caught again!

Kyungsoo wills his reddening cheeks to calm and utters an apology— to which Yixing just shrugged off, smiling.

“A penny for your thoughts?” The Chinese asked, curious eyes peering down at him.

“It’s just…” he starts, “the noise.” It’s annoying, he wants to say, but he’s afraid he might leave a bad impression and he doesn’t want that.

“It’s distracting you too, huh?” Yixing opens his tablet and offers his headphones. “Would music help you drown the noise out?”

Kyungsoo thinks for a moment, then declines.

“Music is good, but it just distracts me further by signing along so I guess I’ll pass,” he explains as he shakes his head and smiles.

Yixing nods and contemplates for a moment… before closing his tablet. “I’m kinda distracted too so… do you mind having small talk?”

Kyungsoo smiles and takes the offer and they started talking about small things like the weather and his University life, throwing questions back and forth.

Zhang Yixing, Fourth Year Composition Major

Yixing tells him stories like it’s no big deal, like how he came from Changsa, and how he originally hoped to be a doctor too someday, but music filled his life and it became his life

Vice President of the dance club, proficient in guitars and piano,

He learns that Yixing frequents the place because his best friend— which is apparently Minseok-hyung— co-owns at the place and he gets a discount on the drinks as best friend perks.

And most importantly, s i n g l e.

Kyungsoo, lost in Yixing’s stories, receives a message from Kim Junmyeon asking where the heck he is and he realizes that he’s late for his last evening class (because dammit why do I have a 5 hour break in between my classes what the ) and hastily stuffs his things in his bag and dashed out of the café like a madman— of course, not forgetting to leave his number to Yixing, and uttering a quick (and hopeful) See you again tomorrow!

♫

As he hoped for, Yixing was indeed there again the next day, an iced Americano in his table ready to be consumed. The café was still too damn full and he still finds himself sitting with Yixing.

In fact, this kept happening for the next three days as well.

Kyungsoo doesn’t know his stand on all of this— yes, he gets to talk and be closer to Yixing, but he also keeps on getting less of his usual studying done, which is no big deal because he’s Do Kyungsoo but it’s still bothering him nonetheless.

It doesn’t keep him from going to the café regularly though. He still orders his usual drink, surprisingly without the extra expresso shot, because is it just him or is he getting a lot of energy lately? Kyungsoo voices this thought to Chanyeol, and Chanyeol suggested that maybe it’s because he’s been consecutively in a good mood lately— to which Kyungsoo doesn’t deny.

♫

On the fifth day, a Friday (a.k.a. the last day of the week hooray) Kyungsoo arrives at the café a little after before lunch time and is surprised to see it mostly free of people.

He finds his usual seat near the windows free, and he’s elated because he missed this seat and the view of the park.

He queues in line, with one person in front of him, and he’s kinda confused because where did all the people go?

Kyungsoo asks Minseok, whose reply was just a simple shrug. “Maybe it’s because it’s the Friday of Finals week?”

He still looks confused so Minseok tossed him a smile “At least it’s nice and quiet again?”

He shoots a smile back and orders his regular drink, which was made 2 minutes tops, and he’s seated back in his chair in a matter of minutes.

Kyungsoo then tries to go on his routine before all this fiasco started, taking out his lecture notes of his classes and starting on skimming them. Since his schedule this semester is messed up, it also means his finals schedules were messed up too, so instead of having his final exams later on this day, it was moved to next week, giving ample time for make-up classes to be held. He tries his very best to focus, but then every now and then he keeps on absentmindedly glancing on the empty chair in front of him.

So maybe he misses the cutiepie Chinese boy. He glances around and finds that Yixing too is nowhere in sight, and their usual seat next to the wall is currently occupied by an elderly reading the day’s newspaper. Maybe he’s done with his Finals as well..?

Kyungsoo contemplates on asking Minseok about Yixing, but decides otherwise when he remembers that Minseok has been shooting them suggestive winks and weird looks for the past few days. He doesn’t want him to get the wrong idea or anything, so just Kyungsoo tries his best to focus on his lecture notes and study, slapping himself lightly every time his thoughts drift towards the dimpled Chinese guy.

He regrets his decision of not adding an extra expresso shot on his drink an hour and a half later when he feels his focus waning and energy dropping. He recalls Chanyeol’s statement about his energy levels going up when his mood is up, but disregards it because I am not in a bad mood now, right?

Fifteen minutes later, after he decided that this wouldn’t do, so he starts to take out his wallet. His money can afford one more cup of coffee, but he does have to spend on nothing else for the rest of the day. Kyungsoo contemplates— sure he could last the remainder of the day without spending on anything, but does he really need the coffee tho?

His train of thoughts is interrupted, however, when someone taps and placed two drinks in his table.

“Is this seat taken?”

He doesn’t even need to look to know who owns the voice, he’s been hearing it for a few days now.

He shakes his head, eyeing the coffee cups at the table and a confused expression painted in his face.

He then realizes that the café is not packed… so why bother sharing tables?

He looks up and stares dumbly at Yixing— watching him sitting on the empty seat in front of him, Yixing staring back at him equally, smiling brightly.

After a few minutes or so of staring, Kyungsoo finally snaps out of the staring contest, seeing as it wasn’t getting them anywhere.

“You’re usual seat right there is vacant…” he starts, “so… why are you here? I mean, I’m not shooing you or anything I’m just curious because the café is mostly empty and there’s not use in sharing tables at the moment so—”

He continues to ramble on, as Yixing takes out his tablet and headphones, plugging them and offering it to Kyungsoo.

Kyungsoo, still confused as to what is happening, just obeys and takes the headphones, listening to the track Yixing plays.

The track was a piano instrumental, and it takes Kyungsoo to another world as he’s listening to it.

The track ended quickly; a mere two-minute instrumental that was beautiful beyond words.

Kyungsoo is still confused though, so after about a minute or so after the track finished, he shoots Yixing a questioning look

A grin breaks through Yixing’s face as he excitedly explains how he aced his finals using this piece of work, and he breaks into a story on how he was so in a writer’s block for a few days already.

“I was actually giving up and was planning to submit a half-assed composition or something, but then then one day, this penguin cutie asked me if I could share my table with him, and there in an instant, bam! Inspiration!”

Kyungsoo feels his cheeks redden at the story because you mean me, right?

He doesn’t notice that he said that out loud, earning him enthusiastic nods and bright smiles from Yixing.

Kyungsoo turns redder at this, and Yixing just laughs at his cuteness.

“Are you free tomorrow night?”

Kyungsoo stares blankly for a moment, shocked, because this is not happening... but it is and Yixing is waiting for an answer and—

“—The song,” Kyungsoo starts. “What was the title of the song again?” He asks, a bit shy and all.

From his periphery view, he can see Minseok-hyung sending him two thumbs up and raising his eyebrows suggestively at the two of them, but Kyungsoo doesn’t pay mind at the moment, waiting for Yixing’s reply.

Yixing just smiles, understanding that that was a green light for his question, a yes, and offers him the coffee cup.

Iced Caramel Macchiato~

♫ The End ♫

Author’s notes:
♫ First try writing this pairing! Hope it worked? :)
♫ Writing a coffee shot au at a coffee shop is both ironic and amusing at the same time