It never got any easier to eat my food in peace when I finally got off work. All six of my friends had been hanging around the café in which I worked for several hours, being loud and trying to distract me, just like they always did. Honestly, it was kind of a wonder that I had yet to get fired or at least told to get my friends to either behave or get out. Of course I had tried to talk to them about it but they claimed that there wasn’t anywhere else they could go hang out and eat while simultaneously bothering me, which I guess was kind of true. Still, I wished they would at least let me eat in peace since I had been starving for far too long by now.

No such luck.

Taehyung kept stealing my food while Jungkook actually used my own food to attack me with like the rude bastard he was. I might be the eldest of the group but they rarely seemed to remember that. Maybe I was too sweet, too accepting of their behavior in any given situation. I could barely remember the last time I had put my foot down for any reason although I had had plenty of opportunities to do so.

Usually, I did my best to ignore everything going on around me and eat as much of my food as possible before it was stolen from me for whatever reason, but something made me break my pattern and look up, straight into the eyes of a girl I knew for sure I had never seen before in my entire life. She only met my gaze for about a second before she returned her attention to some girl sitting in front of her, laughing the prettiest laugh I had ever heard while she attempted to cover with one of her hands.

I dropped my jaw, completely forgetting everything about the food in front of me. I didn’t even notice when Namjoon actually took the entire bowl, my attention completely on the girl. She had long black hair which fell straight down her back. Her eyes were big and brown and there was some kind of sparkle in them which I had never seen before. Her cheeks were round although the rest of her face and her body in general appeared to be slim. A faint pink blush covered her cheekbones, which was the only color on her otherwise beautifully pale skin. She was wearing a loose, white summer dress and a leather jacket, small feathers dangling from her earlobes, almost hidden behind her hair.

She was absolutely perfect.

Her friend, I assumed, said something else, gesturing wildly with her hands in the process, which caused the girl to laugh loudly again. If possible, I wanted to hear that laugh over and over again on repeat because I had never heard anything more beautiful in my entire life.

“Who is that?” I breathed, not even meaning to say it out loud but I couldn’t stop myself, too focused on the girl.

At first, it didn’t seem like anyone had heard me (or maybe they just decided to ignore me, which definitely wouldn’t be the first time) until I realized someone was waving a hand in front of my face. I blinked in confusion and tore my gaze from the girl to Taehyung, who looked slightly confused, as well.

“Hyung, you’re zoning out,” he complained and I realized he must have tried to say something to me and had gotten upset when I didn’t answer him like I usually did.

“Yeah, what are you staring at?” Yoongi chimed in, turning around in the booth to be able to look in the general direction of the girl I had been blatantly staring at.

Fear crept up my spine at the thought of how much embarrassment these guys were able to bring to me if they realized I had been staring at a girl. For some reason, that rarely happened.

“Nothing!” I quickly said, attempting to regain their attention by waving my arms around a bit since they had all turned around in an attempt to figure out what had caught my attention. Neither of them seemed like they were willing to give up the search, however, and I shot the girl one last look before I covered my face with my hands, fearing the oncoming slaughter of either merciless teasing or humiliation.

“Wait, guys, look…” Jungkook said and I could just make out between my fingers that he was actually pointing towards the girl and I already wanted to die. Why wouldn’t they just let me live? Just once?

“Were you staring at a girl?” Hoseok sounded dumbfounded and I shook my head in defeat. I had already accepted my destiny, whatever that might be. I was terrified that the girl would notice that she was being pointed at, though, but I didn’t even have it in me to tell Jungkook to lower his hand, knowing full well that the kid would most likely ignore my request anyway.

Maybe I really should start putting my foot down more often and demand the respect they treated everyone else with. For some reason, they just seemed to thoroughly enjoy teasing me and I had no idea how to make them stop.

I dropped my hands from my face when someone gently slapped my arm and met Hoseok’s dark eyes. I didn’t have to look at the rest of his face to know that he was smiling that huge, goofy smile of his and I really didn’t want to know what he wanted my attention for.

“You should go talk to her,” he told me and I actually scoffed in disbelief.

“I can’t do that,” I answered honestly. I was very aware of my social skills, and as if I wasn’t, I was reminded daily of just how awkward I was as a person by at least one of my friends.

“Sure you can!” Namjoon countered, nodding at me like it was a fact and like I had absolutely no reason to doubt him. I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering whether he was being supportive because he actually wanted me to talk to her for some reason or because he wanted to see me fail miserably. The last option seemed more likely and I was in no mood to embarrass myself.

“It’s really not that hard to talk to girls, Hyung,” Yoongi added when I didn’t say anything and I turned my attention to him.

“How would you know, have you ever talked to a girl like that?” I asked him. I knew he hadn’t and I simply wanted to point out that I knew he was bullting.

“I’ve had no reason to, but I could if I wanted to,” he shrugged, not letting my comment bother him. I wish I was able to brush off things like he was. No matter what he was told or how much we about something, he never seemed like it bothered him all that much. At most, he would just tell us all to shut up and we would all laugh, because the way he would say it wouldn’t give away how much the topic affected him. Yoongi was, in general, very hard to read.

I huffed a little and allowed myself a glance at the girl. She was no longer hiding her laugh behind her hand but was instead smiling the cutest smile while she sipped her tea, still listening to her friend talk.

For some bizarre reason, I felt the need to listen to my friends, man up, and go talk to her. I had never seen anyone like her in my life and I had never felt so attracted to anyone before, especially not by simply looking at them once, and it felt almost like a crime to let her get away without even attempting to talk to her. Maybe she would find my awkwardness cute. Maybe she wouldn’t turn me down and just maybe she would agree to go out with me.

My heart started to beat faster as I mentally gathered all of my non-existing courage to actually get up. I could already feel my palms getting sweaty and I had absolutely no idea what I was going to say, but I was sure I would regret it if I didn’t try. I had to try.

I placed both of my hands on the table, ready to push myself up, but just as I did it, the girl pulled out a glittery phone, glanced at the screen and pressed the device to her ear. She looked very cute and very focused while she talked, a cute little frown line appearing between her eyebrows. I waited until she ended the call, but didn’t get to move a muscle before the girl got up, looked at her friend with an apologetic look on her face, and then left the café in a hurry.

I stared after her, feeling just as devastated as I would have if she had actually turned me down.

“Too slow, man,” Namjoon told me and patted me on the shoulder like he wasn’t two years younger than me. I wanted to glare at him, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so.

It felt so silly, but I was sure the girl had managed to take my heart with her as she walked out of the door. I had only heard her laugh and seen her smile, but I had never felt more in love before and it hurt that I would probably never get to see her again.

I could feel my face fall even before Hoseok made an unnecessarily huge deal out of trying to make me smile. I did my best to appreciate his efforts because I knew he did it for my sake, because his ever so happy persona couldn’t bear to see one of his friends sad.

“She’s not the only girl in the world,” Yoongi told me, like that piece of information was somehow going to make me forget all about her and return to being happy. I lowered my head to the table, allowing myself to wallow in self-pity and sadness.

~~~~~~~~~

Almost two weeks passed where I mobbed around, feeling sorry for myself and beating myself up for not being outgoing and brave. My friends had grown tired of my soppy attitude rather fast, pointing out that I didn’t even know this girl and I knew they were right. I had no real reason to act like a was heartbroken but I simply felt sad. I was so sure I would never get to see anyone like her ever again and it literally made me want to give up on love in general, no matter how melodramatic that made me.

That was exactly why I quite literally dropped my jaw as well as the small notebook meant for writing down orders when I saw her walk past the café, her long hair waving gently behind her. She was on her phone again although this time, no cute frown line appeared between her brows. Instead, she laughed that beautiful laugh of hers and I instantly wished I was outside solely so I could hear it again.

My heart almost stopped and jumped out of my chest at the same time when she stopped and pushed the door to the café open, walking inside.

This seemed way too good to be true. My luck did not allow this to happen to me, it had to be a dream, good things never happened to me.

She looked around the crowded room until her eyes fell on a small, vacant table by the window. She continued to speak into her phone’s receiver as she walked over and sat down, pulling the small menu card in front of her and casually flipping through it.

“Hello?”

Fingers snapped in front of my face and I realized I had been in the middle of taking someone’s order. I could feel myself turn bright red as I bent to pick up my tiny notebook, mumbling apologies under my breath. I could feel how the guy looked at me with a judgmental look before I straightened back up, just in time to see him roll his eyes, making the girl in front of him hide a giggle behind both of her hands. The way she did it was nowhere near as cute as the way the girl who had just entered did it.

“Would this be all?” I asked, trying my very best to keep the embarrassment out of my voice and ignore the state of my face. The guy nodded once, clearly done with dealing with an idiot like me, so I hurried away to give his order to the kitchen. I looked around the café while I poured their drinks, terrified that some of the other waiters were going to spot the girl and go wait on her before I was done with this table.

Of course I should have known, that trying to hurry like this was going to backfire. I just hadn’t been prepared for actually being attacked by the iced tea, and I wanted to scream and cry at the same time when the brown stain on my white button-down shirt touched my skin.

Why was this happening to me? I was a good, decent human being, did I really deserve this?

A little slower, I poured another drink and made absolutely sure to spill none of it as I walked both drinks over to the table. I remembered to apologize for the delay after placing the drinks carefully on the table, successfully not spilling anything else. The girl offered me a small smile although the guy now opted for completely ignoring me.

The food wouldn’t be done right away so now was my chance to go wait on the girl, which, in my head, was the perfect excuse to talk to her.

“Seokjin! Have you seen her yet?” Jungkook suddenly hollered from the booth he was sitting on with Namjoon, Jimin and Taehyung. I had never felt like strangling him more than I did in that very second. I could tell he was about to shout something else, so I quickly marched over so he would at least stop shouting, causing everyone to look.

“What do you want?” I hissed as quietly as possible as to not draw anymore unwanted attention to myself.

“We want you to go talk to that girl so you can stop acting like a little girl. Have you not seen her yet? What’s taking you so long?” Namjoon said, looking at me with a pointed, disappointed look. It was a perfect time for me to remind him of his place but I didn’t.

“I’ve been busy waiting on a table and now you guys are keeping me here,” I told them honestly, because I had every intention of doing my best to talk to her. If Jungkook hadn’t shouted, I would have gone to take her order already.

“Are you going to talk to her while looking like that?” Taehyung asked, pointing at my iced tea-stained shirt like it was the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. I glanced down at myself, not realizing exactly how big the stain had gotten. What surprised me even more, however, was the fact that the liquid had made the thin fabric almost see-through, which I had not at all considered until now.

“I guess I could change first…” I mumbled, not wanting her to see me like this the first time I attempted to talk to her. I didn’t want her to think I was some kind of gross slob.

Jungkook was about to say something else, I was sure of it, but something else caught my attention and I completely missed whatever my dongsaeng said to me. One of my colleagues were on his way over, clearly preparing for taking the girl’s order before I got a chance to and my heart started racing again.

No.

Completely gripped by fear and without another word to my three friends, I started sprinted through the café towards the girl with every intention of beating my colleague to her table. I was not going to let her slip away without talking to her again and I was not going to let someone else take away my perfect opportunity to talk to her.

My colleague sent me the weirdest look as I booked it past him, already out of breath, but I didn’t spare him a second glance. All of my focus was on the girl and how I had to get there before anyone else did.

I came to a skittering halt by her table, but I had been running too fast for the sudden stop I had made, causing me to actually have to lean across her table until my face practically touched the glass on the other side. Already as red as a firetruck again, I quickly pulled back and straightened my spine, trying to look as confident and kind as possible.

I momentarily forgot how to breathe as the girl met my eyes, offered me some kind of crooked smile. Ever so slowly, her eyes trailed down the front of my shirt and she pursed her lips.

“Aren’t you cold?” she asked. I didn’t know whether I was insanely happy that she decided to ignore the fact that I had just assaulted her table or insanely embarrassed that she could see straight through the light brown stain on my shirt.

“I spilled a drink, and it was a little cold since it had ice in it, but I just sprinted across the café, so it’s not too bad anymore,” I said before I could think it through. The urge to turn around and hide behind the bar was so overpowering I almost couldn’t refuse it.

My eyes widened as the girl laughed that beautiful laugh, yet again hiding it behind her hands. Her eyes left my shirt to lock in my own eyes again and I felt like the entire world fell away around me. I could stare at her forever without ever finding a flaw, I was sure of it. She was even more perfect up close, as if that was even possible, and I could feel myself fall even more in love with her.

“So…?” she said after a while, a faint pink spreading across her cheekbones in the prettiest way possible.

“So?” I repeated, not sure what she was trying to say.

“Did you just sprint through the room to stare at me or do you want to take my order?” she asked. She might have sounded like she was sort of mocking me but the small smile on her lips made me completely ignorant to that fact. She could mock me as much as she wanted as long as she kept smiling at me and look at me with those beautiful eyes.

It took a little too long before I understood what she had asked me, and once I did, I realized I must have been staring at her for far too long. As though the stain on my shirt wasn’t bad enough, I now came off as a complete lunatic.

Great.

“Oh, yeah, of course, just…” I rummaged around in the pocket of the apron around my hips and gently closed my eyes in denial when I realized I had left my small notebook behind the bar. “I forgot my notebook,” I told her honestly, hating how much of an idiot she must think I was. Honestly, this encounter probably couldn’t have gone any worse.

“Oh, it’s okay, I’ll wait,” she answered, smiling at me again, this time flashing her teeth, which were of course pearly white and straight. Prettiest teeth I had ever seen, which was a rather weird thing to notice, since I had never paid enough attention to anyone’s teeth before to know whether I thought they were pretty or not.

“No, no, you don’t have to, I’ll just try to remember it!” I quickly offered, praying that my short-term memory wouldn’t fail me today. Based on my luck today, it most probably would, but I didn’t want to leave her table in case someone else swooped in.

“Oh, okay. Then I’ll just have an iced tea and a piece of cheesecake, please,” she ordered and I nodded in understanding, already in the process of repeating the two items over and over in my head like she hadn’t just given me the easiest order of all time.

“Sure,” I smiled and turned around to leave although I really wanted to stay, just to watch her smile or maybe even hear her talk. Her voice sounded like a beautiful melody to my ears, and I quickly made a mental note never to tell Yoongi that because I knew he would never let me hear the end of it. Neither would the rest of the guys.

It was probably better to keep the level of my obsession to myself.

“Don’t spill the tea on yourself, it’s cold,” I heard her call after me and I froze. I turned my head to look at her, feeling how huge my eyes were in my head but she just grinned at me before she picked up her phone and started texting away. I continued to stare for longer than I ought to, too shocked by her words to figure out how to function properly.

She thought I was a moron.

I cursed myself to the end of the world and back while I placed a slice of cheesecake on a plate and poured the iced tea. I cursed myself even more when I realized how careful I was not to spill it, not because it would be embarrassing and stupid, but because she had told me to.

I was already whipped and I didn’t even know her name.

Ever so carefully, I carried her order to her table. She put down her phone and smiled at me as I placed the cheesecake and glass of iced tea in front of her and I felt my heart soar. Her smile was amazing to me, so indescribably beautiful and pure, just like she was. Maybe, had she acted like some stuck-up girl, I wouldn’t have continued to fancy her this much, but the way she joked with me and smiled at me only made me adore her more.

“Thank you,” she said and I bowed slightly, not knowing what else to do. I felt how my chance to talk to her was ending and I wanted to fight it with every fiber of my being. I didn’t want to stop talking to her, not ever, and I was scared that I wouldn’t be lucky enough to see her again if I left it like this.

“I’m sorry,” I started, blurting out the words before I could think too much about it and chicken out. She looked up at me with the spoon in , a questioning look in her eyes.

She looked so cute, I could hardly stand it.

“I don’t normally do this and I know this is extremely unprofessional and all but… Would you like to… I don’t know… Maybe do something? At some point? With me? Like, a movie or something?” the words tumbled from my lips and I hated how utterly un-smooth I was being, but at least I said it. I saw how her eyes widened slightly and her smile grew a tiny bit around the spoon still in . “Like, it doesn’t have to be a movie, it could be something else, like… Like, a walk? A walk is good, the park is nice,”

I had no idea why I kept talking, but the fact that she simply smiled at me while staring with those huge eyes made me nervous and I felt like I had to fill the silence somehow.

“Like a date?” she asked after removing the spoon from and I nodded and gulped.

“It doesn’t have to be a date…” I trailed off, making her breathe a short laugh.

I hardly understood what she was doing as she reached for a phone and tapped at it a few times before holding it out for me. I stared at the screen, not at all understanding what I was supposed with the ‘new contact’ page she showed me. When I finally started to understand, I didn’t understand why the name-sloth had already been filled out if she was offering it to me until I noticed what it said.

Cute waiter.

Oh.

“You want my number?” I asked incredulously. I had such a hard time believing that she was willing to give me a chance after everything I had done within the last five minutes, but she simply smiled even wider and I carefully took the phone from her hand and typed in my number. It felt weird to not correct my name, but a very big part of me liked that she had already filled it out, not to mention what she had decided to fill it out with.

She thought I was cute.

“I’m Jiyeon, by the way,” she told me with another smile as I handed her phone back to her.

“That’s a pretty name,” I said without thinking about it, because I honestly thought it was the prettiest name I had ever heard. I probably would have thought that no matter what her name had turned out to be, but that hardly seemed to matter.

“Thank you. And your name is…?”

“Oh… Seokjin. Kim Seokjin,”

“Nice to meet you, Kim Seokjin,” she flashed me that gorgeous smile again and I could literally feel myself melt from the inside. I smiled back at her, hoping she knew how extremely happy I was to meet her as well but I didn’t trust myself enough to say it, scared that I might say something extremely wrong. Like the fact that I was pretty sure I already loved her.

Instead, I directed another short bow towards her before turning around. I still didn’t want to leave her table, but I had a feeling that I should probably get back to work, especially since the food for the previous table had been put out and waited for me to bring it to the table.

I was stupid enough to look towards the table where my three friends sat and they must have been able to read me like a book, because they instantly started cheering and howling way too loudly and I turned red all over again. I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder at the girl, Jiyeon, only to realize that she was laughing visibly while looking back and forth between my friends and myself.