“Flat white for Miss Steppani!”

A pale-skinned, short blonde barista who wears a blue apron with weird-looking girl logo calls my name incorrectly as she puts my order on the counter. I stand up lazily from the pale brown stuffed chair, which matches well with all the wooden interior of the café, making my way to get my order while silently chuckle at the way the barista called my name. I clearly remember telling the barista that my name is Stephanie, not Steppani but the short blonde apparently still calls me with the weird name she invented herself.

“Do you really like coffee, Miss Steppani?” Greeting me with her friendly smile, which shows a dimple on her chin, the barista still stands in front of the counter, gently pushes my coffee cup closer to me. “You always come to our café at this hour everyday,” she continues her sentence. I study her for a moment, being a part of HR department somehow makes me automatically observe people only to make sure whether the person is worth talking or not. Fortunately for this barista, I can only sense her genuine friendliness towards me so I choose to reply her question nicely.

“I prefer chocolate actually but I need coffee to keep me focus on my work.” I smile back at her. “And no matter how often I come here, seems like you keep incorrectly pronounce my name,” I chuckle.

“Ah, I am sorry.”

I can see faint blush on her cheeks as she scratches the back of her head groggily.

“My English is bad,” She chuckles and grinned shyly.

“Hahaha, it’s okay, Miss…” I look at the nametag on her chest, noticing that I never really know this barista’s name even after coming here couples of times already, “Taeyeon,” I finally manage to read the name on the tag.

“I promise to watch some youtube videos to train myself in pronouncing your name later tonight. So I will be able to pronounce your name correctly tomorrow, if you come here again.” She keeps grinning cheerfully, while she lifts her right hand, making a peace sign with her index and middle fingers.

I laugh at her cute gesture, “You better keep your words, Miss Taeyeon.”

“Oh I will,” She winks at me playfully, “And please call me Taeyeon.”

“Okay, Taeyeon.”

“Hey dwarf! You get another order to make!” An equally short girl with short hair shouts from the cashier counter.

“Yah Soonkyu! Why are you calling me dwarf? You are even shorter than me!” Taeyeon yells back at the cashier named Soonkyu. I laugh a bit too loud at their quarrel also at the name of her friend. I can’t believe hearing such a name in this era. It sounds too old for such a young person.

“I’m sorry for that, Miss Stepp… ffani,” She makes an attempt to pronounce my name correctly, making me smile in amusement.

“It’s okay. You don’t need to push yourself too much to pronounce my name anyway. Just call me in that silly sounded name before: Steppani. I’m fine.”

She grins sheepishly.

“Yah! Midget! Move your to the coffee maker now!” Soonkyu yells at her again.

“I think I have a duty to do now, Miss. See you tomorrow, I guess?” She smiles at me.

“Sure, Taeyeon,” I smile back.

“Have a nice day!” She winks again before leaving me alone in front of the counter, taking her way to her station, in front of the coffee maker. I take my order and sit back to the seat I left before, enjoying a short break in the middle of my pack schedule, sipping my coffee while breathing the scents of freshly brewed coffee filling the room.

****

I walk in lifelessly to the café across my office with a stack of documents to be work on and a pair of visible dark circles under my eyes as a result of my lack of sleeps recently. A familiar greeting soon heard from behind the coffee maker, with the voice’s owner smiles warmly at me. Just hearing her voice recharges my drained energy, and I can’t help to smile back at her. I proceed to Soonkyu at the cashier counter to spill out my order and pay for the bill before taking the closest seat from the coffee maker.

“You look lifeless, Fany,” Taeyeon steals a glance at me from behind the machine. Ever since the day I protested her for not pronouncing my name correctly, she made several attempts to call me right only to repeatedly fail. She called me with various failing Stephanie pronunciations from Steppffany, Stiphanie, Step-hani, and the last one that finally made her give up was Stip-fan-nyi. I offered her to call me by any nickname that can be pronounced easier by her and at the end we agreed with the nickname ‘Fany’.

“Works have been crazy recently,” I reply as I flash my infamous eye smile. She only makes an ‘O’ with and nods as if understands my situation. The thing she possibly won’t understand. I try not to judge people especially those who do not have professional relationship with me but to see how Taeyeon enjoys her life somehow makes me envy of her. I do not know her very well to guess what kind of life she has but her friendly and free-spirited personality is one of the charms that I do not have. The charm that makes me somehow attracted to her and want to know her better.

“You should take a leave and go for a vacation,” Taeyeon talks to me again without stopping her hands working with the coffee maker.

“I wish I could,” I sigh.

“I wish you know you could,” She chuckles at her own joke. “But I mean it. Why can’t you? Every employee has the right to take a leave right?” She asks while keeping the tip of steaming wand low into the milk, making sure she does not break the surface of the milk to make a perfect flat white.

“But my boss is taking her leave at the moment, leaving me her whole works to be done,” I replied; looking at the stack of documents I put on the table. My original portion of work is actually only one-fourth of the documents. “In addition, since my boss is not in office, who will approve my leave request? No one,” I sigh again.

“How ironic to hear such a thing from an HR staff,” She shakes her head in amusement as she finally puts my cup of flat white on the counter. I immediately leave my seat to take my order. That is when I notice that Taeyeon just left my coffee on the counter without calling out my name and waiting for me to take it. It is unusual for her to do that especially she once told me that calling the customer’s name and waiting for them to take the orders is one of the standard operational procedures in this café.

I wait for her patiently, standing in front of the counter, taking a deep breath to capture the coffee scents around the air.

“I haven’t called out your name, why are you there already,” The short girl comes from the food container, bringing a chocolate muffin on the plate in her hand.

“I thought you forgot the procedure,” I shrug my shoulder.

“I am not that old to start forgetting things, Fany,” She chuckles cutely. Her baby-like face really fits her friendly attitude well.

“But you are old, Taeyeon. You are even older than me. Thanks to your cute face that people won’t be able to tell how old you are.”

“Now I regret for telling you my real age,” Taeyeon fakes a sigh as she put the plate of muffin on the counter. “I wonder how many more visits you will need until you can find out too many things about me, Miss HR manager.” She rolls her eyes playfully.

“Trust me, I can do that in just one visit if I want to,” I giggle. It is always refreshing to have a simple conversation with Taeyeon. She always makes me forget my works for a while just by talking about silly matters like this.

“Don’t tell me you want to do that, please,” She gives me a pair of pleading puppy eyes, earning a laugh from me.

“And why is that?”

“Because once you find out too much about me, then there are no more things to talk about. And I will not be able to have this fun conversation with my favorite customer,” She winks at me, trying to look cute but fails and makes a creepy wink instead. This is also one of her antics. She is just naturally cute, but when she tries too hard to look cute, it always ends up failing.

“Stop trying to be cute, Taeyeon,” I laugh at the sight in front of me.

Taeyeon laughs along as she gently push the muffin closer to me, “Flat white and chocolate muffin for Miss Fany,” She suddenly calls out my order and puts up her friendly smile.

“I don’t remember ordering muffin,” I look at her questioningly.

“You didn’t actually. That’s my complimentary snack for a hard-working woman like you.”

“Why thanks!” I almost squeal in happiness, “That’s so sweet of you.”

“I am sweet. You haven’t found it out yet?”

“No.”

“Now you know it then,” She grins proudly.

“I am regretting my choice of words, then,” I chuckle in amusement. I wish I could spend more time talking with her. Meeting Taeyeon in the middle of my hectic work life is like finding an oasis in the middle of dessert. She comes in my life in the most unexpected situation, and washes away my weariness ever since.

“You can’t take back your words, just like I can’t take back the muffin. Now, take your order and go finish your works. Shoo! Shoo!” She playfully gesturing me to go back to my seat. I laugh once again before finally taking my flat white and muffin to my seat and start working on my tasks.

I do not know which one works better; whether the refreshing conversation I have with Taeyeon, my cup of flat white, or the complimentary muffin she gave. But by the end of the day, I manage to finish all the works, and miraculously feel less worn out than I am supposed to feel.

****

Taking my works to the café has been my routine for these past three months. I always take a break at three o’clock in the afternoon, bringing stack of documents with me to continue working from the café. My boss doesn’t protest at all as long as I can finish my tasks on time, and being contactable. There are three reasons why I choose to work from this café instead of finishing them in the office. First, the scents of freshly brew coffee helps me to tense down the stress I get from works; second, the espresso shots in my flat white, even though is mixed with milk, surely helps me to concentrate better in finishing my tasks; and lastly, just because I want to have a short refreshing conversation with the barista, Taeyeon.

Meeting Taeyeon is a now becoming a new routine I cannot miss during my working days. Just like the scent of coffee in the cafe she works in, talking to Taeyeon for couple minutes a day takes my tension away. And like the perfect flat white she always makes for me, all the positive energy I get from being around her somehow helps me to get through the day. Simply put, Taeyeon is now on my list of needs to pass my weekdays, or so I believe.

Weekend for me is like the other side of coin of my weekdays. It is the only time of week I can spend my day without haste. It is when I can feel fully loosen up without the help of calming fresh coffee scent, the time I do not need a cup of coffee to keep me focus on my job. I usually have various activity I can choose to do from lazing around in my decent apartment, reading my favorite romance novels, go shopping, or attending parties with my friends, and other activities than can make me feel liven up. But today, as weird as it sounds to me, I start to feel uneasy when I wake up from my sleep. It is eight o’clock in the morning. I sit up from my bed without any excitement for anything to do. I do not want to stay in my apartment, I have no appetite to go shopping, and I turn down my friends’ offers to go to parties.

Wearing my simple pink hoodie and denim short pants after taking a shower, I put a pair of white sneakers on my feet before finally leaving home, bringing only my wallet, phone, and an unread romance novel just in case I get bored and want to read it later today. I do not know where I want to go to yet but I let my legs lead me to wander around the neighbor I live in, walking through the streets I usually walk by on weekdays since my office is also in the neighborhood. I do not really pay attention to my surrounding until my nose caught a scent of freshly brewed coffee, making me halt my steps only to find out that I unconsciously walk to the café where Taeyeon usually works in. I shake my head in amusement, failing to understand why do my unconsciousness brings me to this place. I then decide to enter the café. Maybe, meeting Taeyeon on weekend can be a new experience for me.

I immediately turn my head around, scanning through every corner of the café once I walk in. But I fail to find a certain blonde I just thought about seconds ago. I walk to the cashier to make my order before sitting on the comfortable sofa in the corner of the room. I rarely choose this spot because it is a bit too far from where Taeyeon usually stands and it makes me a bit uneasy in some way. I lean my back comfortably, flipping the cover of the novel I bring. I only manage to read a paragraph in the prologue chapter, when suddenly I hear a familiar nickname I wish to hear rings in my ears.

“Fany?”

I look up to find the person I was looking for; Taeyeon stands in front of me, wearing loose white tees tops it with oversized denim shirt, but this time she does not wear the silly blue apron she usually wears. She also wears a pair of denim short pants but with darker colors than mine, showing off her flawless milky white legs. I just look at her in disbelief, starting to question, am I starting to imagine things? Does Taeyeon really have this kind of effect to me? I hear a chuckle and get distracted with her waving hand in front of me. That is when I realized I have been staring at her for much longer than I should. I blink my eyes rapidly, earning another chuck