It was winter break, a period of peace when soldiers and cadets across all countries were allowed to go home and spend Christmas and new years with their family. For Chaeyoung, this meant being back in Seoul, helping her mother at their small but busy cafe with her little brother. The weather was starting to get quite cold, but not enough for it to snow yet. Inside the cafe, the heating created a warm, cosy atmosphere much appreciated by the inhabitants. 

"Hi, can I take your order?" Chaeyoung smiled politely to the young couple who'd just entered the establishment. She worked mainly as a waitress, taking orders and cleaning up after customers. Her 15-year-old brother helped with registration behind the counter. The two worked well together.

"Ah, could I please get-" As the customer was speaking, Chaeyoung heard the familiar twinkle of the door, signifying another customer. She glanced up briefly and froze in surprise. 

The familiar tall, intimidating figures of her captains entered, Chanyeol in the lead and Sehun behind him, gaze flickering around uninterestedly. A second later, they landed on Chaeyoung and widened in surprise. 

She gulped, suddenly feeling nervous. In the last few weeks before winter break, Sehun had been acting strangely distant, even cold, towards her. It confused her, especially since he'd just begun warming up to her, and to say it didn't hurt at least a little bit would be a lie. She bit her lip when after a second, Sehun looked away, gaze still set in that cold, uninterested look of his. She felt a small stab of disappointment and hurt - for a second, she could have sworn she saw his expression falter, but it had been so brief that she wondered if she'd just imagined it. However, it was at that moment Chanyeol finally noticed her small figure standing in the midst of the lively restaurant, eyes lighting up in surprise and delight. 

"Chaeyoung!? What are you doing h-" Chanyeol called out loudly, drawing the attention of many other customers and causing Sehun to hit him on the head. Without another glance at her, the latter dragged the lanky giant towards a booth by the wall. Blinking flusteredly, she glanced back at the two customers who were staring at her expectantly. Flushing, she smiled apologetically. "I-I'm sorry, could you please repeat that?" She hadn't been paying attention when they'd been listing their order.

The young woman smiled understandingly. "No problem. Was that your boyfriend?" Chaeyoung blinked again, her face flushing red as she shook her head quickly.

"O-Oh, no, just some friends," she smiled awkwardly. "Your order, ma'am?"

As soon as she'd dropped the order off at the kitchen, she headed over to where Chanyeol and Sehun were waiting, gulping nervously. 'What were they doing here?'

Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the small notepad she used to take orders and approached them. "U-Uh, may I take your orders?"

"Chaeyoung!" Chanyeol smiled brightly at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Idiot, she's obviously working here," Sehun pointed out, rolling his eyes. Chaeyoung couldn't help smiling slightly at Chanyeol's pout. 

"My family runs this cafe, so I sometimes come here to help out when I have time," she explained, mainly to Chanyeol since Sehun was looking out the window again, looking as uninterested as ever. Biting her lip and deciding to ignore his strange attitude for now, she smiled brightly. "What about you?"

"We have to attend this event with our grandfather tomorrow night and we're staying at a nearby hotel, so we thought we'd check out this place and get something to eat. Good thing we did, it seems," he grinned. 

Chaeyoung tilted her head curiously. "Event?"

At that, Chanyeol grimaced slightly. "Basically a super fancy reception held by the government each year to celebrate the military's achievements and whatnot. It's basically an excuse for the government officials to show off the military's power and flaunt their own wealth. We're forced to attend with our grandfather every year," he explained, shrugging. 

"I see-" 

"Noona," a voice interrupted their conversation, and Chaeyoung turned to see her younger brother standing there, eyeing the two strangers flatly. "Who are these people?"

Chaeyoung blinked, flushing slightly as she realised she'd been carried away with her conversation instead of taking orders. "Ah, this is Sehun and Chanyeol, my superiors in the military."

Park Hyunjae stared at the two tall, muscular males her sister was talking to, his face unimpressed. He was a rather reserved, serious-minded kid, very much unlike his sister. Ignoring the two, he turned to his sister. "Mum needs help at the back. She said Minji can handle taking orders for now."

Nodding, she turned back to Chanyeol and Sehun. "Well, I'll get going. I hope you enjoy your stay," she smiled warmly before turning heel and leaving.

**

A while later, Chaeyoung exited the back room, now dressed in casual clothes, her shift over. Unconsciously, her eyes searched the cafe for her two superiors, eyes landing on the booth they'd been sitting in. She found Sehun sitting alone, looking down at his phone, with Chanyeol nowhere to be found. 

She bit her lip, contemplating on whether or not to say hi, while also trying to ignore the fact that he looked hella attractive in casual clothes. Shrugging, she walked over and slid into the seat opposite him in the booth. He glanced up uninterestedly, his eyebrows furrowing when he noticed it was her. 

"What are you doing here?" he asked flatly, voice cold. Resisting the urge to flinch, she smiled at him. 

"After my mother heard my friends from military school were here, she let have a break," she explained cheerfully. "So I thought I'd come and say hi."

Sehun scoffed. "I'm not your friend," he muttered disparagingly. Chaeyoung raised an eyebrow, ignoring the small stab of hurt those words caused. 

"And who said I was talking about you?" She pointed out. "I could have been talking about Chanyeol." She'd meant it as a joke, but it didn't escape her notice when his hand clenched and his eyes darkened slightly.

'Of course, you idiot. She's closer to him that she is to you, you . Stop getting your hopes up.'

Surprised by his sudden gloomy silence and worried she'd offended him, she hurried on to say, "I'm just joking."

He scoffed again, but he looked away, hand still clenched. "Well I wasn't," he replied scathingly. "You're not my friend."

'Why are you doing this?' A small voice at the back of his head wondered. 'You're just making things worse.' He plainly ignored it, just as he ignored the stab of guilt at the falter in Chaeyoung's eyes. 

Awkward silence descended over the two, neither of them willing to say something to bridge the sudden icy gap that had appeared between them the past few weeks.