February 2^nd 2016 at 3:30 PM

It’s a typical afternoon for the two coffee princes working behind the counter of Snakes and Ladders. Jungkook is happily taking orders at the register while Taehyung makes the drinks. The two boys are on a roll today, busting out coffees and lattes since 12 in the afternoon.

The jingles of the front door opening made the two boys turn, a smile on their faces as they say the words, “Welcome”. It was a reflect, something all the baristas that works there has it wired into their brains. Even sometimes, when they’re off duty and they hear that familiar chime, a slight smile can still be seen from the boys. Old habit.

Two familiar faces enter the café, one belongs to Jungkook’s lover who is also Taehyung’s best friend, Park Jimin. The other one belongs to you, who is known as Cinderella to Jungkook and the angry bookworm to Taehyung.

You hide your face under your blanket scarf, trying to conceal your pink cheeks that seem to be burning hot at this moment. You are walking behind Jimin, your pulse vibrating in your ears, making it hard for you to hear anything else. But you see him, you see his mesmerizing eyes that once made you feel so vulnerable and weak. Today he has his pitch-black hair parted to the side, similar to his lover’s. The more you look at him, the more lightheaded you feel. Maybe it’s because he seems so damn perfect from head to toe, maybe it’s that bunny teeth of his that would peak out once in a while when he smiles, or maybe its those eyes that reminds you so much of the color of hot cocoa sprinkled with thin dark chocolate shavings.

“Y/N?” said Jimin, nudging you lightly on the shoulder.

You blink a couple of times, fixing your eyes on Jimin who seems a bit worried. You wonder how long you’ve zoned out for. “So-sorry, what was that?”

Jimin lightly laugh at your awkward behavior, “I said, this is my boyfriend Jeon Jungkook.” He flirtatiously pokes Jungkook’s chest.

You push the heavy feeling of jealousy off to the side and forces out a smile, “Nice to meet you, I’m—“

“Cinderella,” Jungkook interrupts, a playful grin spread across his face “I took your order before, and you told me your name is Cinderella.”

You scratch the back of your neck, remembering the nickname you gave yourself two weeks ago when you first entered this café. “Yeah, you can call me that… I guess.”

Jimin calls out the boy who is chatting away with a few girls on the side of the counter, “Tae, come here for a second.”

Taehyung’s eyes meet with yours, the heavy feeling of nervousness you got in your stomach from meeting Jungkook has mix itself with a hint of annoyance and anger.

The cocky barista turns his head back towards the girls standing in front of him, “sorry ladies, I have to go back to work,” his words were followed by a group of disappointed whines from the girls.

The whole scene made you want to hurl. Kim Taehyung knows he has those girls wrapped around his fingers, toying around with them by using sugarcoated words that probably mean nothing to him. The tiny sliver of kindness you were going to use on him has disappeared. You truly do believe in second chances, but seeing what just happened, you don’t even feel like wasting your time and energy on a guy like Kim Taehyung.

Taehyung struts his way towards us, a playboy smile spread across his face. Your lips are sealed tight in a straight line, unamused by his arrogant attitude. You lean in Jimin’s ear, “I’m sorry in advance if I act like a total towards your best friend.”

Jimin elbow you lightly on your rib, “I didn’t even introduce you yet, just give him a fair chance at least!”

“Jimin, you called?” ask Taehyung, his eyes are fixed on you.

“Yeah, I just wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine.”

Your lips didn’t move, they stayed sealed and shut. You didn’t bother to give him a proper greeting. He didn’t deserve one, you thought to yourself. You simply just raise both of your eyebrows and stare him down. Jimin and Jungkook can literally feel the hefty tension building between you and Taehyung.

Taehyung snaps his fingers, his face lighting up like he remembered something. He pushes Jungkook lightly on the shoulder, “she’s the angry bookworm!”

You scoff at the nickname he made for you, “It’s so nice to meet you again, Mr. Modesty.” The heavy sarcasm coming out of your mouth did not match the pretty smile on your face whatsoever.

Jimin clears his throat and awkwardly laughs, “Okay! Enough for the introduction, what would you like to order?”

You set aside your burning feelings and order your drink, “I’ll have caramel macchiato.”

After the chaotic introductions, Jimin links his arms around yours and pull you towards a two-table seat near the window, déjà vu. The warm and cozy setting with the warm, natural lighting shining through the window reminds you so much of your old café. You your trench coat and put it aside along with your scarf. “Do you come here often?” You ask Jimin.

“I do! Most of the time, I come here for Jungkook, but now I find myself coming here even when he’s not working. It’s like my second home, a place I think of when I’m off my classes.” He takes a sip of his latte, “Enough about that, what was that between you and Tae?”

You let out a sigh and roll your eyes, “Didn’t I apologized to you in advanced for my rude behavior?”

“You did! But my question is still not answered! What was that?”

You lean in closer, resting your arms on the table, “Did you see him?! He was so arrogant. Did you see how he was cozying up to those girls he was talking to before us? The dude thinks he’s all that! I’m sorry Jimin… You seem so cool and fun to hang out with, but your friend is nothing like you and your boyfriend. He’s clearly in over his head. I hate people like him, and I’m not going to act nice around him.” You take a sip of your macchiato, watching the cocky barista busily working behind the counter, “It’s too bad his personality is , because he’s pretty good looking.”

Jimin finally give in, grabbing the tissue paper on the table and swinging it around, “White flag is out, the white flag is out. I won’t try to get you to become friends with Tae.”

A sincere smile spread across your face, “Is that okay? Can I still be friends with you and Jungkook?”

Jimin’s eyes widen up like you said something that shocked him, “What? Of course, you can! Y/N, I could care less if you like my friends or not, if I like you and you like me, then I’ll be your friend.” He looks down on his cup, “It’s just that, I thought you can change him.”

You raise an eyebrow, you didn’t know what Jimin was talking about. What does he mean by he thought you could change him? You’re just an ordinary girl he met this afternoon, you’re not some angel that could change people’s life for the better. “What do you mean by that?” you ask him.

He laughs and shakes his head, “sorry, I do that sometimes. I ramble on without thinking… Forget what I said, it’s nothing you should be worried about.”

You let it slide, even though it’s low key bothering you in the back of your head. You hate when people do that, telling you things half way and then dismissing it without finishing what they wanted to say. It is one of your biggest pet peeves! It’s about Taehyung anyways, you thought to yourself, why should I even care? So you continue talking to Jimin and without even realizing, you totally forgot what you were so curious about.

A few hours that you promised Jimin you’d spend with him turns itself into the night. Unlike the other kids who tried to befriend you, it was easy for you to open up to Jimin.

Why?

Who knows…

Maybe your soul knew Jimin’s in the past life.

You showed him some of your favorite books, and he proceeds to show you some of his ‘top-secret-sketches’ (that’s what he calls them). He is an amazing artist, most of his sketches are of Jungkook. Sleeping Jungkook, smiling Jungkook, Jungkook working. It has love and adoration written all over it.

You let out a giggle as you flip the page. Jimin lightly push your shoulder, “You promised not to laugh!” His cheeks turning red as he pulls his sketchbook closer to him.

You try to grab the book back, “No! I swear, Jimin. I’m not laughing at you,” trying your best to hold back your laughter, “I swear!”

Jimin quickly close the book and tuck it under his two arms that are resting on the table. The cute boy pushes his fringe out of his face and lightly pats his cheeks, “Aish, this is so embarrassing.”

“Jimin, I swear,” your lips pressed together, holding back the laughter that is just at the back of your throat, “I wasn’t laughing at you. I just thought it was so cute how most of them are of Jungkook. From your sketches, I can tell how much you really care for him.”

Jimin’s eyes dart up to look at yours, a hint of smile can be seen from the corner of his lips, “Okay, fine,” he said, pushing the sketch book back towards you.

“Junkook is so lucky to have someone like you,” you wink.

In all honesty, saying those words felt like a jab in your stomach. It’s ridiculous, but while you flip through the pages of Jimin’s sketchbook, not only do you feel his love and adoration for his boyfriend but you also felt a pang of jealousy. It’s wrong, you know that too. But you can’t help it. A tiny speck inside your body want someone to love you as much as Jimin loves Jungkook.

A few cups of macchiato later…

You look at the time, it’s already 10:53 PM. You’ve been chatting with Jimin non-stop since 3:30 this afternoon. I swear, I’ve talked more today than I did in a year. You thought to yourself.

You are currently listening to Jimin talk about a funny incident he encountered a few weeks ago. Your eyes fall behind him, catching Jungkook tiptoeing behind the orange hair boy. His index finger placed in front of his pouting lips to keep me quiet. I fix my eyes back to Jimin, who didn’t seem to notice a thing. Jungkook’s smile widens as he gets closer and closer towards Jimin.

“BOO!” he shouts, squeezing Jimin on his shoulder.

Jimin jumps from his seat, his head turn towards the culprit that made his heart skipped. “That’s not funny!” he lightly pushes Jungkook.

The sound of laughter fills the café, but once again yours had a hint of bitterness.

“That was pretty funny actually…” said Jungkook, pulling the smaller one closer to him by the waist.

You look down on your drink and take a sip to avoid staring at the couple. It was faint, but you swear you heard the sound of lips smacking together. “I missed you,” Jungkook whispers.

“Ew!” you turn your head towards where the voice came from, it was coming from the green-fringed boy who is busily wiping down the tables, “Can you two get a room please?”

You giggle at his witty comment, but stopped yourself when you soon realized whose jokes you were laughing at. But not without Taehyung catching it as well.

The four of you ended up being the last people to come out of the café, (since Jungkook and Taehyung had to close). As the four of you step out of the café, you look at the three people standing around you. How do you say good-bye? You thought to yourself, you’ve never done it before. You stand there, not knowing what to do.

“Do you have a class tomorrow?” Jimin asks you.

“Yeah, morning class. Do you?”

“Same! I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he walks towards you and embrace you in his arms. The unfamiliar gesture made you feel a bit flustered, but you proceed to hug him back. You turn to look at Jungkook, who looks so different without his work uniform and give him a smile, “Bye Jungkook!” You drain your expression of any sincerity and turn to face Taehyung, “bye.”

He gives the familiar rectangle smile you used to see so often on Baekhyun and wave, “G’bye angry bookworm!”

You decided to walk home because waiting for the bus at 11:30 at night sounds like an invite for rapists or murderers. You were kind of hoping that they would walk the same direction as you, but unfortunately, they were all going to the bus terminal and that’s on the opposite direction as to where your house is. You didn’t want to ask, because you just met them, and you don’t want to sound needy and annoying. So you bite your tongue, pull out your headphones and blast some music to get your mind off the quiet and dark road you’re walking on.

Just a few minutes after you said goodbye to the three boys, Taehyung slowed his pace down. To be quite honest, leaving you to walk by yourself in the middle of the night made him feel iffy. He wanted to offer you a company, but just the way you said bye to him already made him think its better off if he didn’t. So he watched your back walk farther away from him, while different scary scenarios of what could happen to you play in his head multiple times.

“Damn, I forgot my wallet in my locker,” he lied, stopping behind the couple.

“Aish, you know the next bus after this is in half an hour right?” said Jungkook.

Taehyung is already jogging back towards the café, “You two go on ahead, and I’ll catch the next bus!”

It wasn’t long for him to catch up to you. He was a few feet away, watching his distance as he hides under the shadows of the night. He watches your petite figure strolls down the sidewalk, your hands in your pockets and your face buried under your scarf. Taehyung let out a chuckle, you kind of look like a little girl from the back. You seem so tiny compare to him, and with that huge scarf you are always wearing, you seem so much smaller.

A pang of fear hits him at the sudden realization how defenseless you look. What if he wasn’t here to watch you get home safely? He thought to himself. Someone could easily snatch you and kidnap you! Just the thought of you being in danger makes his stomach drop.

Taehyung hide behind a board sign as he watches you walk up the stairs of a building. As you open the door to the building, he begins to walk towards the bus stop. A genuine smile on his face, knowing you went home safely. 

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