The café shop was not like what Joohyun imagined it to be, although it did exceed her expectations on terms of visuals. The shop was wide; several types of tables, be it rectangular, square, or circular, were placed around the shop with different types of chairs surrounding it. The menus were small, thick booklets, looking like a Polaroid scrapbook that Joohyun kept at home on her desk. It was not too crowded despite the fact that the shop had their grand opening a few months ago, and it was also kind of quiet, considering how there were students studying with their laptops shining bright against their faces and textbooks sprawled all over the table they were sitting at.

A waitress donning a cute apron over her casual clothes and a fedora gently resting on her head accompanied them to a table at one of the far corners of the shop. She handed them their menus while they made themselves comfortable on the couches.

“This shop is really cute,” Seulgi muttered as soon as they sat down, her bright eyes wandering the interior to admire the decorations.

Joohyun followed her eyesight to find a couple of shelves filled with books or antique-looking items sitting on top of it, but she gazed back at Seulgi not that long after.

Honestly, she would rather gaze at the being in front of her.

If anyone were to ask her about this shop in the future, then Joohyun would not be able to provide an answer since she was busy staring at Seulgi the whole time. But it wasn’t like anyone would ask her about this place anyway, since almost the whole school understood that she spent most of her life in the library.

“What are you going to order, unnie?” Seulgi asked.

Joohyun broke from her train of thought and noticed that the younger girl was already peering at the menu, flipping through the pages to observe the variety of coffee, teas, and smoothies the shop was offering. She looked down at her closed menu and scrambled to open it to the first page.

“O-Oh, I’m not sure yet,” she said. “Maybe a hot latte?”

Seulgi looked up and propped a hand under her chin. “Like the one with the art, right? I saw a lot of pictures and some of them looked really cute! There is even a bear one.”

“Ah, r-really?” Joohyun’s finger slightly trembled over the page to trace down the latte options. “I think I’ll get a green tea latte.”

Seulgi mentioned something about a lemonade or a chilled coffee that she was debating between the two, but Joohyun was unfortunately too busy attempting to calm down her nervous being. She nodded to whatever Seulgi was saying, hoping that the latter would take it as a sign that she was just being her usual quiet self.

As soon as the waitress from earlier took down their order and took back the menus, Seulgi had both hands propped under her chin now, staring straight at Joohyun since she already took sight of the interior of the shop.

Joohyun was staring at the back of the waitress instead, watching her hide behind the front counter to jot down their order—but it was more like she knew Seulgi was staring at her instead and she wasn’t prepared to return the gaze just yet.

“You’re graduating soon, unnie,” Seulgi mentioned. “Are you excited?”

Joohyun averted her gaze to Seulgi, who was now tilting her head over the back of her two hands. The latter’s gaze was too strong for Joohyun to handle, and it did not help that her eyes were one of the many features that she adored. It might not be as big as hers or it might not have a crease over her eyelids, but it was still charming and intensifying to stare into.

Focus at the task at hand, Joohyun! she mentally scolded herself.

Sooyoung would have done the same if she was in the same room.

“I’ve been too busy studying to realize graduation is so soon….” Joohyun mumbled.

Seulgi pouted. “You’ve been stressing yourself out too much.”

Given her stubborn, hardworking nature, Joohyun would have believed it was a lie if she told herself that instead. But, yes, she had been studying so much to the point where she woke up with her nose buried in her textbooks sometimes. The stress of maintaining a 4.0 grade point average by the time she graduated (just so she could head to the college of her dream) did become too much to the point where it might even be her lifestyle. But she would lie to herself, saying that she was okay, that she could do this for one more month and she would not have to stress as much as she did in high school when she would be in college (but little did she know, it was going to be the exact same thing).

Having someone else telling her otherwise was a new perspective she wished she didn’t listen to. Hearing it from her junior made it more believable that if someone like Seulgi noticed these signs of stress in her, then the rest of the school would know as well.

But that was education for you.

Stressing out so much to the point where you might not be able to retain this information afterwards just so you could receive proof on a piece of paper that you had been living in academic hell for four years.

“It’s a bit worrisome to see, unnie,” Seulgi remarked, and she frowned a bit. “You should start taking ten to twenty minutes breaks every now and then so you don’t tire yourself out too fast.”

Joohyun wearily smiled. “I know. You don’t have to worry too much about me, Seulgi.”

“But I do,” Seulgi said almost immediately. She dropped her hands onto the table and reached over to grasp onto Joohyun’s folded hands, allowing the latter to feel the warmth emitting from her palms. “Don’t want you to die by the time you walk down to get your diploma.”

“Hey!”

Seulgi retracted her hands when Joohyun made a motion to hit her across the head. She cowered into the couch and giggled behind her hand, demonstrating that her comment was light-hearted, and she only desired the best for her unnie.

“I mean it, though,” she said after recovering from her fit of laughter.

Joohyun stared at her and delivered a small smile, her gaze dropping down onto the table.

Their drinks—a green tea latte and a passion fruit tea lemonade—were placed gently onto their table on top of a rectangular coaster with a small, delightful snack sitting next to it. Joohyun stared down at the steaming mug to find an adorable white art of a bear gracing the green tea latte. The features were small on the art and it reminded her of the girl sitting across from her. She looked up to see Seulgi admiring the mint leaf and the slice of lemon in her orange gradient lemonade with so much awe; it was almost as if Joohyun was watching an adorable kid having their first sips of a new drink.

“Do you have a boyfriend, unnie?”

Joohyun was about to have her first sip of the hot latte when the question was harbored onto her suddenly. She became flustered quite rapidly, almost dropping her mug, but thankfully didn’t. There was that thing about Seulgi, how she would randomly start up a topic after a period of time dedicated to a silent transition. It was unexpected and caught Joohyun off guard almost 90% of the time.

“W-What? Why would you ask me that?”

Seulgi shrugged as if it was an innocent question to ask. “I don’t know. You have a lot of boys interested in you.”

“As do you, Seulgi,” Joohyun shot back. “Do you have a boyfriend?”

Seulgi sat up at the question fired back at her. She laughed through her nose. “No.”

“Interested in someone, perhaps?”

Seulgi made a motion as if she was pondering. “Maybe….”

“W-Who?”

“Secret,” Seulgi replied and warmly smiled at her.

She was halfway finished with her drink when Joohyun barely touched hers. The latter was not going to lie, it was a bit bothersome to know that although Seulgi didn’t have a significant other, she still had some sort of interest in someone. And she desperately wanted to know who. Just who in the world was lucky enough to require special attention from Seulgi!

“You never answered my question, unnie.”

“What?”

“You never answered if you have a boyfriend or not,” Seulgi said, her lips wrapping around the bent straw to finish up her lemonade.

“Oh... No…” Joohyun mumbled. “No, I don’t have one….”

She took a sip of her green tea latte, careful not to ruin the bear art.

Hm, sweet.

“But I am interested in someone, too.”

Seulgi raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

Joohyun stared down at the bear art and warmed her cold hands up from the mug.

“Secret.”

Seulgi groaned and leaned back against the couch. “You can’t do that to me, too!”

The older girl averted her gaze to the physical manifestation of her drink. She smiled at how Seulgi was pouting at her with crossed arms, further illustrating how never-ending her loveable being could be.

“Maybe you’ll find out later.”