Hyukjae enjoys routine.

He enjoys the practiced movements in his bones as he gets to sleep the extra few minutes as his body acts on autopilot. Getting up from bed, making those steps towards his laid out clothes for the day, and heading for the toilet are all things Hyukjae can proudly proclaim he does out of habit. 

He leaves the house feeling only slightly tired.

Hyukjae takes the familiar road to the other side of the street, letting his mind wander freely as he walks with practiced ease. His eyes are drawn to the beautiful aftermath of the sunrise; the buildings and mountains behind them are painted in a soft blue hue. Letting out an exhale, Hyukjae digs his hands deeper in his washed denim jacket.

There’s barely anyone awake at this time, just a few joggers and some old ladies who enjoy taking a morning walk. Hyukjae sympathises. There is a therapeutic glow to the world so early in the morning.

When he stops, it’s at one of his favourite family owned coffee shops. 

It’s a quaint little place that Hyukjae frequents often. When he first discovered it, he’d fallen in love with the cute decorations, sweet treats, and kind lady at the till. Mrs. Lee, the lady at the till, had gotten to know him through the months that he’d been visiting the coffee shop with a similar order every time. Hyukjae would often tell her stories of his life and his friends, as she would laugh heartily, and recall similar stories her two sons had told her. 

As Hyukjae is about to open the door, he hears the loud, almost desperate sound of someone running. He turns slightly, and is met with a whirring sight he’s barely able to take in before he’s swept off his feet and tackled onto the ground.

“I’m so sorry!” comes a frantic voice. Hyukjae can barely register the dull ache in his lower back and the fact that he’s on the ground with a handsome guy in the coffee shop’s uniform stumbling to get off him. 

“Sorry!” the attractive brunet man apologises again, bowing slightly when he’s standing. When their eyes finally meet, there’s a small pause before the man then rushes quickly into the shop either because he was in a rush to get there in the first place, or because he’s extremely embarrassed. Hyukjae suspects it’s a bit of both.

Getting up, he rubs his back a bit to soothe the pain. It’s not too painful, but Hyukjae is too stunned to do much else. He realises suddenly, anticlimactically, that he hasn’t actually said a word to the man. No apologies, no forgiving words, nothing. 

However, deciding that it doesn’t really matter, Hyukjae follows into the small coffee shop.

It’s basically the same as usual. The fresh scent of Mrs. Lee’s home grown mint leaves at the back fill the air, and the lower note of coffee blends easily into it. The chairs are still on the tables, as if the shop hasn’t officially opened yet. Hyukjae is a bit confused but rather likes the look of it; it makes the whole store seem a bit homier somehow.

Walking up to the counter is the same, essentially. Except for the fact that nothing is there, and the man that had bumped into him earlier is frantically trying to organise himself behind the register. It’s honestly kind of painful to watch. 

“Hi, uh,” Hyukjae starts hesitantly. He’s not sure whether or not this is an appropriate time for the man, who is situated awkwardly around the coffee machines. He jumps up slightly, and turns around as if he didn’t expect anyone to be there. He’s much more attractive in this setting, Hyukjae notices, and when he’s not apologising profusely trying to run away. His brunet hair is slightly tousled, and though it looks intentional, Hyukjae is pretty sure it was from the earlier incident. His eyes are a warm, deep brown, and complement his golden tan skin perfectly. Frankly, he’s damn good looking.

Hyukjae observes his upside down name tag and decides to just proceed anyway, because it doesn’t seem like Donghae - is it Donghae? Hyukjae wasn’t trained to read upside down terrible handwriting - is going to start talking first.

“Could I get a strawberry and banana almond smoothie please?” 

Hyukjae considers it safe to order his usual drink. He doesn’t particularly feel risky today with his order. Just a simple smoothie. He watches Donghae’s face falter slightly before it’s replaced with a  bright, yet confused, smile. 

“Yep sure! Right, that’ll be, uhh,” Donghae begins quickly, before turning around and leaning back slightly so he can look at the menu on the wall. Hyukjae habitually pulls the exact change out of his wallet while he watches Donghae’s eyes scan for the price on the menu. 

Clearly, Donghae has not given this any thought as his back is contorted awkwardly on the desk, his head mere centimetres away from Hyukjae’s own. 

“Four thousand won,” Hyukjae continues for him as Donghae turns back, now slightly red. Whether it’s from leaning back, or from embarrassment, Hyukjae will never know.

“Right, sorry, thanks,” Donghae mutters as he takes the change and puts it in the register, giving Hyukjae a receipt. “What’s your name?”

Hyukjae pauses, caught off guard. “Excuse me?” 

“For the cup,” Donghae explains quickly. It seems as if Donghae had immediately understood what Hyukjae was thinking. He looks a bit embarrassed, Hyukjae notes. A good thing, or a bad thing?

“Oh, it’s Hyukjae,” he says, trying to play it off as a cool mistake, but it is completely unbelievable.

The man behind the counter immediately turns around to fetch the ingredients and Hyukjae turns to go and find a table near the counter so he can pick up the drink as soon as it’s ready, but not before he hears Donghae say, “mine’s Donghae. If you were wondering.”

As Hyukjae settles into his seat to wait for the drink, a few more customers come in. It’s a small group of mid teens, conversing happily amongst themselves, clearly in to get a drink and maybe a bite to eat before school. He looks over to Donghae, simply observing how the man’s eyes widen slightly in panic. 

He bites his lip as he watches everything unfold.

The teens order, each one talking and piping up over each other, still clearly in their previous conversation. One of them giggles, and another one jabs the giggling one in the ribs which causes the entire group to snicker. It’s typical, and Hyukjae smiles softly remembering his own experiences in high school. It’s quite nostalgic, really.

However, the only one who’s not smiling is Donghae. His brows are furrowed as he keys the orders in, his eyes flitting from the cash register to the teens awkwardly.

“U-Uhm,” Hyukjae hears him stammer. He can’t help the small smile. “Could you…repeat that? I have the, uh, caffè mocha, one English breakfast tea, and…”

Donghae is filled in with the orders patiently, and he looks like he’s concentrating hard to get everything right. When he repeats the orders, and gets a thumbs up from the small group, he lets out a drawled sigh paired with a grin that makes them laugh. 

“Got it,” Donghae says, but Hyukjae knows that he hasn’t got it. “You can take a seat first and come up when they’re ready.”

It’s cute, for the first minute or two, watching Donghae stare at the orders, clearly overwhelmed. He starts by boiling the water for the tea, taking out all the cups. He counts them out, laying them neatly on the counter. He squats so that he’s eye level with the cups, and writes the orders on them. At this point it’s probably been a few minutes.

Hyukjae considers going up to help him. Because when the man holds the bag of ground coffee beans upside down and they spill all over the floor, it starts to become painful. But it’s when Donghae panics and turns to try and get the tea bags, slipping on the coffee beans and knocking the cups off the counter that Hyukjae feels like he should be hospitalised from second hand embarrassment. 

Donghae picks himself up from the floor, his hair even messier than it was before. His stained hands are loosely gripping at the counter edges, and he looks up meekly, as if to see if anyone had witnessed anything. Their eyes meet, and Donghae’s face breaks out into a charming smile. Hyukjae can’t help but smile back as he lifts his hand up for a slight wave.

Suddenly, there’s a look of shock and realisation as Donghae gets up quickly, face flushed pink. He turns back around hastily to tend to the forgotten ingredients of Hyukjae’s smoothie.

“Hey, do you need help?”

Donghae lets out a small, mangled sound from the back of his throat as he turns around to find Hyukjae right behind him, closer than he had expected, brought even closer by the proximity of the space behind the counter.

He doesn’t move, frozen in shock as Hyukjae leans in gets more cups, writing names and orders on them quickly yet neatly as he lines them up. He flitters around the small area, sliding next to Donghae who has stepped back and situated himself in a corner, still speechless.

When all the orders are complete, Hyukjae calls the group back. He smiles and gives them their drinks when they bound up to the counter happily. They thank both him and Donghae, who, still situated in the corner, smiles meekly. And then as quickly as they had entered, they leave.

Once again, it’s just Donghae and Hyukjae in the coffee shop. But this time, they’re both in the small area behind the counter and there silence is heavy and awkward. 

Ignoring Donghae’s silence, Hyukjae grabs a brush and pan and gets on his knees.

“What…are you doing?” Donghae asks softly. He doesn’t sound angry at all; in fact, he sounds a bit shy. 

“I’m doing you a favour,” Hyukjae answers smoothly.  

Conveniently, as Hyukjae is cleaning the floor, a few customers walk in. Thank goodness, Hyukjae thinks, as Donghae finally wakes up from his strange shyness and bounds up to the counter, stepping around Hyukjae. He takes their order, writes on the cups and goes to get a slice of cake.

Hyukjae throws the spilt beans from earlier in the trash, then takes the cups Donghae had written on and easily fulfils the orders. Donghae, thankfully, is okay with the task of putting a slice of cake on a plate and serving it.

The rest of the day goes by like this. Hyukjae had moved his bag to behind the counter so that he wouldn’t have to keep looking over to it, and could get properly into the work. Donghae had been picking up a little bit of momentum, and they seemed to get into a rhythm really fast.

Of course, Hyukjae had casually eaten the strawberries on the counter that Donghae had prepared for the smoothie that was now long forgotten.

They didn’t have much time to converse or communicate, as it was quite a busy day; Mondays were always one of the busiest days. Hyukjae doesn’t know whether he’s thankful for this, or annoyed by it. On one hand he’s glad the customers constantly save him from any potential awkward silence with Donghae, but on the other side, he really, really wants to talk to the cute man.

It’s nearing eight when the coffee shop starts to slow down. Not just the influx of customers, but just the whole feel of it starts to slow. There were only a few customers, if any at all, and Hyukjae is sure Donghae can handle it by himself.

When it’s especially quiet, Hyukjae feels extremely awkward. Usually he’s fine with silences with other people. He knows when to respect if they want silence, and when to talk and make jokes to liven up the atmosphere. But for some reason, for some really strange reason Hyukjae can’t quite pinpoint, he feels almost nervous.

He doesn’t know whether it’s because he’d suddenly asserted himself into the situation and felt guilty, or maybe if it’s because he finds Donghae extremely handsome - boyish charm and all. 

And so when it’s quiet, Hyukjae decides that he should probably leave; he’s sure Donghae can handle it by himself for now, and besides, he wants to avoid a prolonged silence before it becomes awkward. He looks at Donghae, who’s already looking at him as if he wants to say something. It’s silent for a few moments more before Hyukjae decides to speak first.

“Hey, I-“

“Hey, tha-”

Both of them stop immediately, widening their eyes when they realise they’ve spoken at the same time. 

“You first,” Hyukjae says out of habit. 

“Thank you. For everything today.” 

“No problem,” Hyukjae says quickly, almost a bit too quickly. He doesn’t know what comes over him, but he’s nervous at the sudden intimacy of the conversation.

“Really, I don’t know how I would have managed without you.”

“Don’t sweat it.” At this point Hyukjae is beating himself up. He wants to have a genuine conversation with Donghae (in fact, he wants so much more), but for some reason, he just can’t find it in himself to be brave. “Anyway, I have to go. I’ll catch you another time, Donghae.”

As Hyukjae is walking out, still mentally yelling at himself, he hears Donghae’s soft voice call out, “wait.”

He turns around, heartbeat picking up its pace.

“Wait,” Dongh