It was a sunny day for a Tuesday afternoon, something rather rare for this small town close to the sea. Usually cloudy days with a cool breeze would fill the town during the winter season, however that wasn’t the case for today. It was warm and sunny, perfect weather for anyone to consume something cold in this season.  

“Maybe I should have suggested an ice cream shop by the beach rather than a café by the beach.”

A small pout colored the female’s expression as she sort of regretted her decision. But the desperation for a well-made latte was too much for her to ignore. This latte craving also reminded her of the day she met her lover and soul mate, as they bonded through coffee and comparing the taste of espresso to all the coffee shop chains around.

Yes, she and her husband were snobs about coffee, but they were snobs together.

She giggled at the thought, her eyes closing as her smile grew. Covering her lips to be polite and not let out the sounds of her loud giggles, she remembered sharing those words with him before.

“It’s okay Ahyoung, you and I know good coffee versus bad coffee. We can say these things because we’re experienced about telling the difference. We’re snobs, but the good kind of snobs.”

She clearly remembered when he stated that, on their seventh date at the café her sister and brother-in-law owned. It was supposed to be a date where she’d finally introduce her lover to her sister, as that would have been the ultimate test if their parents would accept him. However, that date went beyond what she imagined.

It was a thing that her sister, brother-in-law, and her fiancé, boyfriend at that time, knew coffee by heart through training at coffee shops prior. They were certified baristas, and they knew everything about coffee. Through these relationships, Ahyoung built that knowledge of coffee and could comprehend anything they said without having any prior experience. Due to this knowledge and experience, the entire date was filled with all of them bonding through coffee and the three baristas having a small challenge of who could make the best latte art.

All in all, that was probably one of the best dates she had with her lover, as it was clear he was accepted by her sister.

“Twelve-ounce latte with an extra shot for here!”

The order call brought Ahyoung back to reality, as that was the drink she needed to claim. Cautiously she got out of her seat, leaving her bag in the chair to still claim that table, and made her way to the bar. Her eyes immediately caught the sight of the art in her drink, a beautiful rosetta.

“Oh my gosh, this is so pretty, Minhyuk!”

The barista, an old friend of hers, let out a soft chuckle at her compliment. He glanced over at her direction as he was in the midst of steaming milk for the next drink.

“Well I’m glad the great Ahyoung has approved of my work since your fiancé does some fancy latte art whenever he visits here. Jeez, I can’t keep up with him. By the way, when is he coming up today?”

Ahyoung hummed softly, looking up above to see the clock that hung right in the center of the wall.

“Well, Jihae is going to be here any time soon. And assuming that the movers take the amount of time that they need, he’ll be here in two hours.”

Minhyuk nodded his head, properly multi-tasking as he was preparing a drink and holding the conversation with Ahyoung.

“Alright, that sounds like a good plan. Make sure when he does come, that he doesn’t try to take over my job. I need to earn money, you know?”

Ahyoung let out a soft chuckle before nodding, quickly excusing herself to leave and for him to focus on work. Carefully she wrapped her hands around the mug and brought it to her table. Once she settled herself back in her seat and took a picture of the drink, she quickly took a careful sip. A relaxed sigh escaped her lips, as this drink was perfectly made.

Her attention went back towards the scenery outside of the window. The café was placed nicely on the board walk of the beach in their little town. It had a good spot to see the beach, at an angle where one can see the tides kissing the sand. To the right of this scene, the part where the board walk extends towards the water is visible. It was a nice view to see people enjoying their time on the beach, be it in the water or not. This was the perfect place to people watch, which was Ahyoung’s favorite hobby.

Which, she ended up indulging herself in. Taking sips of her coffee, she let her mind and eyes wander with whatever they’d like to do. While her eyes were fixated at the sight of a seagull right outside the café, her mind was going in circles about approaching a certain situation.

And that was how to tell her best friend about her fiancé.

She knew it wouldn’t be too hard to tell her, but she wanted a way to make telling her fun. It was always cliché to just go straight to the point, and the creative side of Ahyoung did not enjoy that. She was known to be unique about these things, so exactly how could she be unique about this specific case?

As her mind began to go in depth of this issue, she heard a familiar tone ringing. Placing the mug back on the table, she reached within her bag to find her phone. Instantly a smile grew on her lips to see the picture of her and her future husband glowing on the screen, and quickly she answered it.

“Hello?”

Instantly she was asked with the typical questions of what she was doing and how she was. And quickly she answered that she was where she needed to be at and she was waiting for her friend.

“Yes, my best friend is very excited to meet you, love.”

Ahyoung couldn’t help but chuckle at the excitement of her fiancé. She found it cute how he wanted to meet her friends and to finally be known.

Yes, he technically had no identity amongst her friends. To which made this meeting and many more with other friends rather exciting for both Ahyoung and him. It was going to be a big reveal to all her childhood friends, which added to the fun of it.

“Of course I’ll talk about how we met. I mean, isn’t that rather important?”

Hearing his worry about how they met made her smile. She remembered how uncomfortable she was at the beginning of their relationship, as they met online, specifically a mobile app. It was the thing to do during that time when they were both in college, which was understandable. But for both to do that and to meet through there rather than it being natural, it felt weird for them, especially for Ahyoung.

She truly wasn’t the type to do things like that, especially for the fact that this mobile app made her have a lot of hook ups prior to her fiancé. It was weird to explain to her sister at the beginning, but for the fact that she met her love through this app, she didn’t regret joining it. After accepting that feeling, she wasn’t afraid of telling her friends the journey of how she met him.

And that’s when it hit her, how she was going to tell her best friend.

“Don’t worry, love. I don’t care if she judges that we met online. All that matters is that we’re going to have a happy life together from now. And don’t worry, she’ll like you. I can guarantee that.”

She listened to her lover’s words, hearing how he immediately relaxed after she said those things. It was the effect she had on him, how she could easily relieve any stress from him. Which was nice, as he did the same for her.  

At that moment, the awaited friend dashed in. Her heels clicked against the tiles of the café, announcing her arrival rather loudly. She waved towards Minhyuk, who instantly began to make the usual sweet drink she ordered every time. When she was in Ahyoung’s sight, her smile only grew.

“I have to go love, she’s here. I’ll see you in two hours, okay? And thank you for letting me see my friend when the movers are coming today. I love you so much.”

The moment Ahyoung hung up, her friend quickly took the seat in front of her. The sight of her friend, Jihae Woo, made her rather happy. To see the familiar face again after all these years, and noticing how she matured and looked made her feel excited.

“Okay, so I know this meeting is supposed to be us catching up. But let’s be real Ahyoung, we’ve been messaging nonstop when you moved back here. I know you’re fine and you know I’m okay. So let’s get to the heart of this meeting.”

Seeing the excitement Jihae had only made Ahyoung laugh. It was if they were in high school again, where Jihae needed to hear all the juicy details of a story she was dying to hear. It brought back so many memories, and it only made Ahyoung appreciate the friendship they shared.

“Who is this mysterious Mister Right and how did you guys end up engaged?”

Ahyoung took a quick sip of her coffee, letting the other catch her breath. The sight of her was rather comical in her perspective. Then again, who could blame Jihae for being this excited to reveal the truth? Essentially, she would be the first to uncover the mystery amongst her friends.

But Ahyoung wouldn’t make it too easy for her.

“Well wouldn’t it be nice that you waited for your drink before we begin to catch up? Or more essentially, as you describe it, me telling you about my love life?”

The mentioned female couldn’t help but let out a groan, frustrated by how her friend played this game with her. At least at that point, Minhyuk had finished making her usual drink and was kind enough to deliver it to their table.

“Here’s your usual twelve-ounce chai tea latte with an extra pump of vanilla syrup.”

Jihae smiled towards the male, mentioning how she would pay before leaving. Soon enough he left and her attention went back to her engaged friend.

“Okay, I have my drink. Now please tell me about this guy! I swear, Ahyoung, you need to tell me now. I seriously will go crazy if you don’t mention anything.”

Ahyoung took a sip of her drink, fingers wrapped around the mug. The tip of her index finger gently tapped against the rim of the mug, figuring out what she should tell her friend specifically.

Then again, she did have a plan for her.

“Jihae, you want to hear how it all started too, right?”

Quickly Jihae nodded, soon reaching over to take a sip of her drink in order to satisfy her taste buds. It was visible that she relaxed the moment she took that sip, and a smile grew on Ahyoung’s lips.

“Well, how about this, let’s have game out of this.”

Confusion colored Jihae’s face, and Ahyoung couldn’t help but laugh at the expression she made.

“What do you mean a game? I just want to know the story about how you guys got together and specifically the name!”

“Well, Jihae, the thing is, it didn’t begin with me meeting him honestly. At least the heart of this story. And I know you want to hear everything and anything about this, so why not have a game out of this? I mean essentially, he and I did meet through a game.”

Jihae’s confusion only grew, and it got worse with each second she tried to think about what Ahyoung meant. See, it was true how Ahyoung could go about these things in a unique manner.

“Ahyoung, what in the world do you mean by that?”

“I mean, we met through Ablaze.”

Jihae’s eyes widened when she heard that name. Ablaze. She took a second look at her best friend after hearing that name. Ablaze, the mobile dating app.

“Wait you met through there? Wait, what? Ahyoung, you did that? You don’t look like that kind of person to even join that kind of app.”

Ahyoung’s smile only grew and she simply nodded to answer, which surprised Jihae. As expected, anyone who knew Ahyoung well enough would be surprised for her to join an app like that. She was rather the traditional kind of girl, who believed that whatever one saw in novels or dramas could happen in real life.

Yes, she was essentially a hardcore romantic.

So hearing that Ahyoung met her future husband through an app, especially one that was known to have a bad reputation of it being only for flings and hook ups, shocked Jihae. She would never imagine Ahyoung doing those things. It’s not like doing those things or even participating in that app was bad or wrong, it’s just something different.

Something too different for Ahyoung to even step into.

“Yes, I really did meet him through there.”

“Did you meet other people there too? Or was he the first guy you connected with and you got so lucky?”

“Nope, he wasn’t the first guy I connected with.”

“How many guys did you meet on Ablaze then?”

Ahyoung tilted her head in thought, a gentle hum escaping her lips as she thought about the question.

“I’d say about twelve guys including him, though I only met six or seven guys in person.”

“Wait twelve guys? Did you actually have legitimate moments with them? Or did you do those kinds of things with them?”

Ahyoung could only laugh at how Jihae worded those questions. Even through Jihae’s words, Ahyoung could tell how surprised she was by this fact.

“I did a lot of things honestly. Which is why I posed the idea of us playing a game with this story. Or more like you playing the game.”

Jihae paused, taking a sip of her drink as she let her mind lingered at the thought.

“Well, exactly how is this game going to work?”

“Easy, Jihae. I’ll tell you the story from the very beginning. The moment when I got the app. I will talk about all the guys I talked to and met with through this app. You get to guess who my fiancé is, as some of these guys sort of made it farther than some.”

 Jihae raised her brow, getting intrigued by this idea more and more.

“Well when should I guess the guy? And would that effect how I get to hear everything else?”

Ahyoung hummed softly in thought about those questions. She never really thought about that aspect when it came to telling the story in this unique manner.

“Oh, how about this? I will tell you about all of them first, going in chronological order. After talking about the twelfth guy, I will ask you if you want to hear one more story before deciding. Or you can even guess throughout the story as well. Entirely up to you, though I do just recommend that you just hear all the stories for each guy first and then guess who. As I will tell you now, it’s pretty easy who to eliminate out of these twelve guys.”

A moment of silence was shared between the two, Ahyoung gazing into the other’s eyes as if testing if she would play this game. There was nothing to lose regardless of the game, Jihae would end up learning about who her fiancé is.

And without a moment to spare, Jihae pressed her hands against her thighs and sat up straight, giving the other her complete attention.

“Alright, deal. Now start, because we both know I will be able to tell who your fiancé is.”

Ahyoung let out a soft giggle, taking one more sip of her drink before relaxing against her seat.

“Well, it all started in my third year of college, around the middle of October…”

 

- - -

hello loves! here's the beautiful first chapter! i'm still debating about if i'm going to make this a mature story or not, as i can have it all in this one story or cut out any mature content and make another thread for it and have it the whole optional thing for it. i don't know, still debating. but now you can see how i'm approaching with writing this story, where you get to guess along with Jihae who Ahyoung's fiance is. i thought it would be fun, and i've seen a fanfic done that way before and i enjoyed that concept. so i'd like to challenge myself writing that way. so eep, i'm very excited to write this story guys! oh and yes, Jihae is in fact the former member of Girl's Day. just so that you don't get too confused about who she is.

i hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, and i'm excited to be writing this story!
- marie ❤