The first time he met her, she had a little smudge on her cheek. Jin had stared at the spot for a long time until she cleared .

“Yes, good afternoon. How can I help you?”

“A double espresso, please.”

He punched in the order. “Rough day, isn’t it?”

The girl stared at him, before grunting a yes.

Jin gave her a small smile. “Anything else? Cakes?”

The girl looked at the display beside Jin. “A vanilla pretzel, please.”

“Okay, that will be four thousand won.” Jin picked up a cup and a marker. “Miss?”

“Jisoo, my name is Jisoo.”

The lady had left in a breeze, but her name had stayed inside his mind. Later on he met her at the university. Then and there, Jin knew the cause of the smudge, Jisoo was a painter. He thought the light of dusk that shone on her features made her look very pretty. He called her name, but her brows knitted when she saw him. She did not recognize him. Well, who would recognize a person working behind the counter?

The next day, she had come again and ordered the same things. But when she paid for them, she had eyed his nametag. She looked embarrassed when Jin caught her in the act.

“Thank you for coming.”

“You’re welcome, Jin.” She said and went away with her orders. He watched her choose an orange sofa near the window to sit on. Her hair fell to her cheek as she started to draw. Since then, the corner had been her usual spot to draw and the place had become Jin’s favorite.

No matter sunny day or rainy day, Jisoo never missed coming to the coffee shop. She had become the highlight of Jin’s busy day, the one p.m. customer. However, they had never had a normal conversation. Jisoo could talk to his colleagues, laughed at their jokes, but the most Jin could get from her was a yes or a no.

“Maybe she is shy. You can be intimidating at times.” His colleague Jimin had said.

Jin stared at him. His day had not gone well. A customer had thrown a fit when she found out she had a single instead of a double. The coffee had been splashed across the counter and a large brown stain had stayed on his white shirt.

“See? Intimidating.” Jimin said and returned to his work.

“Ding dong.” Somebody sang.

Jin turned back to his counter to greet the customer, but he saw no one.

“Ding dong.”

Jin looked down. A small boy was grinning at him. His left hand was waving money while his right hand was holding a blue marker. He corrected the position of his big glasses and said, “Ding dong.”

Jin smiled at him. “Hello, what can I get for you?”

“A large choco hazelnut.”

“Okay, do you want any cakes?”

“Nope.”

“That will be two thousand won.”

“Okaay.” The young boy started counting his money. “One thousand, two thousand, one thousand.” He gave two thousand to Jin and placed the one thousand inside the tipping jar. He then grinned at Jin.

“Thank you, you can wait for your order over there.”

The boy moved to the side and Jin served the next customer. It was not long before he heard Jimin shouting in broken sentence.

“Hey, kid, counter!”

Jin had looked to the side and saw the boy drawing on the counter board. Jin excused himself from his customer and came out to see the boy.

“Hello, please don’t draw on the wood.”

The boy turned to him with a frown. “But I want to draw!”

“I will give you paper to draw, better?”

“No!” The boy started screaming and kicking Jin. At some point, he was aiming his blue marker at Jin’s face. It almost touched Jin’s nose before it was yanked away from the boy. Jin looked up to see Jisoo holding the marker and she did not look happy. Jin now knew the real cause of the smudge on her cheek.

“Jihoon, get up and go back to the table.” Jisoo said.

Jihoon had turned quiet instantly and walked away from them. When he had properly sat on the sofa and obediently sipped his drink, Jisoo bowed to Jin. “I am so sorry.”

“It’s fine. No harm done.” Jin said and smiled. 

“I have thrown away the previous marker, but I think he gets a new one from our father’s workshop.”

“Well, that explains the smudge.”

Jisoo looked at him questioningly. Jin pointed at his own cheek.

“Oh, yes, yes. He drew on my face when I slept last time. Luckily I was awake the instance the marker touched my face,” Jisoo looked at Jin, “Sorry I speak too much.”

Jin could not believe his luck. “It’s okay, it is nice speaking to you.” However, at that time Jimin gave a signal for him to return to his counter. “I wish we could speak more, but I must get back to my work.”

Jisoo blushed. “I am sorry.” She pointed to the wood. “I will pay for the damage.”

“Boss won’t mind, I think. It’s not that damaged.”

“But I feel so bad. Allow me to repay you the very least. You got kicked.”

Jin thanked his lucky stars for not allowing his mind to freeze. He smiled. “Sure, how about dinner?”

The instance it came out of his mouth, he felt stupid. It sounded so frontal, but Jisoo had nodded and said, “Okay, the ramyeon stall near the corner there. See you at seven, Jin.” After that, she went out of the shop with her brother. When she saw that Jin was still staring at her, she gave him a kind smile before walking away.

Jin turned to Jimin. “Did I just score a date?”

Jimin nodded. “Yes, you did. Now go back to the counter, Namjoon is so going to kill you.”

See you at seven. Jin thought and smiled.

One date was followed by another and soon they were meeting regularly. Jisoo would come earlier to the coffee shop so they could have lunch together. Working at the coffee shop became more durable.

“One caramel macchiato, please.”

“Anything else.”

“No, thank you.”

“Okay, that will be three thousand won.”

"Here.”

“Three thousand won, thank you. This is your drink. Thank you for com-

“Bye Mr. Jun.”

Even though people still forgot about him, Jin learned to appreciate them, the people queuing to buy a cup of coffee. After all, he did not need a lot but one to remember his name. One was more than enough.

“Hello Jin.”

She was enough.

“Hello Jisoo.”