"You can stop staring at my brother now," comes Baek Ah's voice as he pulls the visor on top of her head down to cover her eyes.

"I wasn't staring!" Ha Jin pathetically defends herself. Even if she couldn't see, she turns around and jabs a finger into his chest.

Baek Ah holds in his laughter and feigns surprise as he says, "Oh, hyung! Can I take your order?"

He hears Ha Jin audibly gasp and fumble to look nice by tugging her green apron down neatly and trying—failing—to pull her visor back into place.

The moment she turns around and sees nothing, she grabs the nearest empty paper coffee cup and chucks it at Baek Ah, who was laughing his heart out.

When he was finally done exaggerating wiping off his tears, he mocks her in a high-pitched voice. "I wasn't staring!"

That earned him another paper cup to the face.

While she was scowling at him, something catches his attention. As Ha Jin is about to berate him for teasing her, Baek Ah speaks up first; but it wasn't directed at her.

"Hyung!" Baek Ah smiles.

Nice try. I'm not falling for that again.

Ha Jin crosses her arms and scowls at him.

"I don't want people to know we're related. Keep your voice down," says a deep voice behind her.

"Aw, hyungggggg," Baek Ah whines.

Ha Jin whips around and comes face to face with Baek Ah's brother. Her eyes widen. Up close, he looked even better than when she was staring observing him.

He smiles at Baek Ah and proceeds to place his order—all his words going through one of her ears and out the other. All the while, she could only stare at him and his perfect teeth.

Man, she was so screwed.

~~~

Ha Jin furiously wipes the countertop down with the dirty rag she has in her hand.

Luckily for her, the coffee shop was unusually empty today, except for a few regulars. Otherwise, she wouldn't be able to explain her weird behavior if a customer came up to order.

"Are you trying to drill a hole through the counter?" asks a very amused Baek Ah.

She glares at him, and he holds his hands up in defense.

"Wow, if looks could kill...To think, I was going to set you up with hyung," Baek Ah trails off.

"Do you not recall what happened last time?" Ha Jin rebukes.

***

"Just go," Baek Ah whispers, shoving the coffee cup into her hands and shooing her away.

Aish. How was she to do this?

Ha Jin walked so slow, that even in the short distance it took for her to reach him seemed like miles. The coffee was bound to get cold.

"Any day now, ahjumma," Baek Ah whispers—not so subtly—to her as he passes by on his way to give another customer their order.

Rolling her eyes, she forces her feet to move and her hands to stop shaking. If not, he wouldn't have much to drink when—if—she got there.

"Excuse me...sir," she said in a voice that was almost inaudible.

Too absorbed in his drawings, he didn't hear her.

She tries to take a peek, but he finally notices her presence and promptly closes his notebook.

Were the tips of his ears turning red?

Ah, there she went again. Being delusional was a habit.

"Your order," she points to the coffee in her hand.

He smiles at her, and she swore she never saw anything more beautiful. Ha Jin was too shy to make eye contact, so she settles for looking straight at the cup.

"Thank you miss—he looks at her name tag—Ha Jin."

The moment he reaches out to take it from her, she hands it to him at the same time and their fingers brush ever so slightly.

She hoped he couldn't hear her heartbeat.

The moment was over all to soon though as she moved her hands away from whatever it was she had felt between them.

Bad mistake.

The cup topples out of their grasps, and instead of crashing onto the floor, it splatters all over him and his clean, crisp, white button up shirt.

Oh no.

This was not how she wanted to make a first impression.

Frantically, she utters multiple apologies and tries to find something to clean up the mess.

Digging in her apron, she pulls out her handkerchief with a peony embroidered in one corner.

She holds it out to wipe his shirt, but retracts her hand on second thought.

"I'm so sorry, sir." Ha Jin rambles on, and to her horror, he chuckles.

"It's alright.” Seeing her hesitation, he adds, “Really, it’s no big deal. I have plenty of shirts like this."

She's still holding her handkerchief in midair. "Let me pay for your shirt, or another coff—"

He stands up and holds onto her shoulders. Lowering his head down, he looks her straight in the eyes.

They were a perfect shade of brown that no artist—not even the best—could ever think to create.

"There's no need to be so sorry, miss Ha Jin. Just make Baek Ah do all the work with cleaning and making another coffee." His effort at lightening the mood and the small reassuring smile he gives her did not help.

Stupid heart. Stop beating like that.

Did he know what he was doing to her?

To her dismay, he lets go of her shoulders and pulls at his now sticky shirt.

"I should go clean this." He looks at the handkerchief in her hands, and grabs it, winking at her. "I'll borrow this and accept this as an apology ok?"

Even when he turned to leave and the bell signaled his departure, Ha Jin still felt bad.

But, all she could think about now was that their hands had touched once more when he took the handkerchief.

***

"Come on, you know hyung wasn't mad. It was an accident after all."

"It's just as bad that I made a fool out of myself. All thanks to you." She hits him with her rag.

"Stop hitting me!" Baek Ah slaps the rag like a punching bag.

When the feisty, petite woman in front of him finally calmed down, he sighed in relief.

He holds out a coffee cup towards her.

"What's this for?"

"Over there," Baek Ah points.

Following the direction of his finger, she sees that once again, his brother was sitting there in his usual spot. Always looking out the window with a small notebook in front of him, she notices.

"I can't possibly bring this to him!"

"Why not?"

"For one thing, he looks like that. Second, I like him, and third—well I don't know, maybe it's the fact that I spilled his order all over him the last time!" throwing her hands up, she tries to get her point across.

"Well, don't spill it again then," Baek Ah says exasperatedly.

"Ya! It's me we're talking about here."

She shoves the cup back into his hands. "You take it to him."

Baek Ah pushes it back. "No, you take it to him."

She hands it to him again. "You're his brother."

Baek Ah stubbornly refuses and it ends up in her hands again. "You're in love with him."

"I'm not—" before she could say anything more, he turns her around and shoves her in his brother's direction.

"Second time's the charm!" Baek Ah gives her a thumbs up from behind the counter.

That's what they say about the third time...

Once more, she heads over to his table, fearing the worst. What if it ends up in his hair? Or on his face? Or...?

Deep in thought, she hadn't realized she made it to his table.

Crap.

He looks up from his notebook and seeing her, he says, "This won't end up on me this time, will it?"

Despite knowing that he was teasing her, she still blushes, embarrassed.

Ha Jin didn't know where her courage came from, but she jokingly says, "Unless this table moves, I think you're in good hands." She places the cup onto the table and turns to leave.

"Wait, Ha Jin-sshi," he calls out to her.

Turning around once more, she's met with him placing his notebook in her hands.

He rubs his neck sheepishly as he says, "Promise me you won't open this until I leave?"

She nods, confused.

He quickly grabs his cup and dashes out the door before she gets a chance to ask why.

When she comes back to the counter again, Baek Ah is leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

Looking around, he no longer sees his brother at his usual seat.

He looked awfully crestfallen with his head now hung low. "Did you spill it on him again?!" He pinches the bridge of his nose while sighing.

"Have a little more faith in me, will you?" She waves the notebook in his face.

"Woah. Hyung never lets me touch this, let alone have it." He eyes her skeptically. "How'd you bewitch him? More importantly, how did it even work?"

"I didn't bewitch—oh never mind!" She looks down at the notebook and finally sees a page bookmarked with her handkerchief.

Baek Ah peers over her shoulder. "Well, aren't you going to open it?"

She rolls her eyes and then begins to slowly flip to the indicated page. What was on it probably shocked them both. Maybe Baek Ah even more than her, because he had stopped talking.

On the left hand side was a stunning pencil drawing of her working at the counter.

She rakes her eyes over the detailed sketch until it lands on the right hand side, where his neat handwriting was imprinted.

Tracing over his words as she reads the message, a grin breaks out on her face.

He likes me too.

How about grabbing that coffee you promised to pay me back with, together?

-Wang So

No copyright infringement intended. All references and inspirations are from the original writers/directors.