Hong Jisoo didn’t even like coffee. 

All of his friends knew that well enough, he knew that about himself too, so why he was standing in line at the university's resident coffee shop was beyond him. There was a good two more people before him, which gave him enough time to stare at the menu board and figure out what to get. The normal solution to his problem was to just wing it and order the first thing his eyes land on, but that would mean it might be coffee. He was, surprisingly, not in the coffee shop for coffee. 

At least not his coffee, since he was buying for Mingyu and the younger boy wanted it to be from this shop specifically and that was the only reason he was here actually so he might as well get something for himself and—

"You should really step forward now so I could take your order." 

Shaken out of his thoughts, Jisoo looked in front to realize the space that was originally occupied by the two people in line before him was now empty. Why did people already know what they were going to get so quickly? Why was that a thing? The barista behind the counter smiled teasingly at Jisoo as he leaned forward a bit, brown hair getting into his eyes that he had to shake off. 

"As much as I would love to stare at you there all day, there are customers behind you, too," the barista said, grinning wider when Jisoo finally registered what he was saying.  

“S-sorry,” Jisoo stuttered out, finally reaching the counter with a few small steps. Jisoo couldn’t find himself looking at the barista though, who merely chuckled and leaned away from the counter to ready himself at the cashier. He was cute and Jisoo just didn’t function well around cute boys. “One java chip coffee with two pumps of hazelnut syrup and one, uhm. Does the vanilla frappe come with coffee?”

“No, darling, it comes with just milk and lots of whipped cream.”

Jisoo couldn’t help but blush at the sudden term of endearment, but chose to ignore responding to it since he was pretty sure the people standing in line behind him was already judging him for how long he took. Not to mention, how he had to ask about whether the frappes had coffee, when it was written in small print below the word on the menu that it was caffeine free. He really should get glasses soon, maybe tomorrow—

“Would that be your order?” The barista ended up interrupting his thoughts again, already preparing two cups that he placed by the side.

“Yes,” Jisoo said quickly, handing him the money. “Sorry for taking so long.”

“I’m not the one you have to apologize to, I quite enjoyed looking at your face,” the brunette replied with yet another teasing grin as he punched at the numbers and soon handed Jisoo the receipt and some change. He took the two cups and spoke again before he left to make the drinks. “Jihoon over there looks like he could strangle you, though.”

“I do not,” came a voice from behind Jisoo that made him turn around to see a rather annoyed looking boy, looking very much like he wanted to strangle him, actually. The boy named Jihoon must have noted Jisoo’s worried expression since he rolled his eyes. “Don’t listen to him, this is my default expression. You’re done ordering now, right? We’ll be fine. Just move.”

Jisoo nodded, unsure what to say in the situation as he finally moved away from the line to wait for his drink.

It didn’t take long before the cute barista from earlier showed up with the two drinks in hand. He placed them on the counter and grabbed a marker before asking, “which of these two is yours?”

“Uhm, the frappe?” Jisoo said, unsure why he was being asked, but the other boy just nodded and wrote something on the cup before giving it to Jisoo. 

“See you around, darling.”

The words made Jisoo want to rush out of the coffee shop immediately, not even bothering to check what was written on the cup as he grabbed it. He figured it was his name, but he didn’t even say what his name was, right? The barista waved him at him cheerfully until he was out of the door. It wasn’t until he had reached Mingyu’s room and had given the boy his drink did he realize what was written on his own cup. The word ‘darling’ was marked on in capital letters, dark and black, quickly catching not just Jisoo’s eye as Mingyu let out a loud whistle.

“You should go to that coffee shop again.”

“Never again, Mingyu.”

It was exactly one week later when Jisoo found himself in front of the coffee shop again, debating whether things were actually worth it or not. He wasn’t sure what possessed him to agree on that bet against Mingyu when he always lost, but here he was. He was actually pretty sure Mingyu had forgotten the whole coffee cup incident and just wanted free coffee, but all Jisoo could think of as he stared at the front doors was the barista from before.

It didn’t help that it was nearing winter. The cool breeze gave him no excuse to continue standing outside in the cold instead of heading inside the warm, cozy coffee shop.

Still, he continued to weigh his options. At that moment, the doors opened to reveal Jihoon, the guy who was behind him in line from before. The shorter boy raised his eyebrows at him in surprise, probably wondering what on earth was he doing standing around in the cold. Jisoo smiled at him sheepishly, embarrassed at being caught.

“At least I wasn’t behind you this time,” Jihoon quipped as he passed by. “You should enter. He’ll love to see you, too.”

Did he mean the cute barista? He sure hope he meant the cute barista because Jisoo kinda wants to him too and maybe actually learn his name—

Wait. No, no, he doesn’t. He wasn’t here to see the brunette from before. He was here to get Mingyu’s coffee and maybe another one of those frappes. It wasn’t so bad last time. With that mindset, Jisoo finally pushed open the doors and headed inside. Hopefully the cute boy wouldn’t even be around today.

“Sweetheart!” came the joyful, familiar voice as soon as he stepped inside. 

Jisoo blinked, taking in how that was a different pet name from before, and then soon realizing that he had managed to grab the attention of everybody in the coffee shop. A few eyed him weirdly while a few also chuckled and shook their head. The combination of events made him blush deeper than normal, face warm despite being in the cold for so long. His eyes met the barista’s, who was watching him from the counter.

There was surprisingly no line today as he stepped to the front, suddenly nervous.

“Hey there, what’ll it be this time?”

“Same as before,” Jisoo said, surprised his voice came out fine, before suddenly thinking that maybe there was no way the barista would have remembered his order anyway. “I mean, one j—“

“Java chip coffee with two pumps of hazelnut syrup and a vanilla frappe for you?” The boy suddenly interrupted with a bright smile, leaning against the counter. “Do I get anything for remembering?”

Jisoo flushed, answering before he could stop to think, “no.” 

“Too bad,” the barista said, his smile still in place. He accepted Jisoo’s money and punched in the numbers again while he left to make the drink. Jisoo regretted his answer immediately. He probably could have responded better—flirtier? Did he want to flirt?—but it was too late now. Hopefully he didn’t actually hurt the boy’s feelings. Probably not, since the brunette was singing a little as he made the drinks.

His voice was nice, Jisoo noted.

“Here you go, sweetheart,” the barista appeared again just a few minutes later. 

“Thanks,” Jisoo replied, grabbing them and making a quick beeline for the door before the boy could grab a marker again. His heart ignored the pet name.

Unfortunately, Jisoo must have been distracted by something earlier because he missed when the barista managed to write something on the cup already. No wonder he still had a cheeky grin when he gave the drinks. It was probably when Jisoo was too busy going over what he said to pay proper attention, but nonetheless, the side of his cup now had the word ‘sweetheart’ written on it. Mingyu’s laugh was even louder this time. 

“You don’t even know his name?” Seokmin asked incredulously. 

Jisoo groaned, “no. He doesn’t know mine either, if that helps.”

“How would that help at all?” His friend said again, shaking his head. “That just makes everything harder. Neither of you could look the other up anywhere. We can’t even ask around for whoever knows him since we can’t just go hey, do you know the cute barista? The world doesn’t work that way, Hong Jisoo. You should ask for him name next time.”

“Next time? Who said there’s a next time?”

Mingyu snorted, “of course there is, if you’re already this smitten.” 

“Who’s smitten?” Jisoo asked again weakly, earning judging looks from his two friends. It’s only been a few days since the sweetheart incident and the first time Seokmin had heard about it. He needed better friends. Those who wouldn’t treat him this way and who wouldn’t ask him to go on coffee r