I recommend listening to J-walk’s Frappucino while reading this.

crossposted on A03

-

It was on a particularly busy Monday morning when Tony saw the most adorable customer to ever walk through the doors of the cafe. It was a cold winter day and the customer was bundled up a thick grey coat, with furrings around the hood. Despite being in the warm coffee shop, he seemed still cold and kept rubbing and blowing into his hands. He wasn’t very tall, so the large winter coat seemed even larger on him. Once in a while, he would hop up and down, as if to chase off the cold. 

“Uhm earth to Tony? Stop staring, you’re almost drooling.” Woohyuk elbowed Tony sharply in the sides. “It’s Monday morning for god’s sake, we are busy as .”

A few minutes later, it was finally that customer’s turn. Seeing him up close, Tony almost groaned out loud. He was even cuter, with parted bangs framing a small face and black hair contrasting perfectly with his pale skin.

Noticing that he was staring, Tony stammered out a greeting. “He-hello, what can I get you?”

“A small latte and a croissant, thank you.”

“Name? To uh- write on the cup.”

“It's Jaeduck, Tony-ssi.” The customer squinted at Tony's name tag.

Even his name is adorable!!! And he said my name, oh my god.

“You seem new here.”

“Yea, I’m starting my new job near here.”

YES that means I can see him regularly.

Before Tony could ask him about his job, Woohyuk’s loud “NEXT” abruptly cut their conversation short, causing Tony to shoot Woohyuk a death glare.

“You’ll see him tomorrow anyway.” Woohyuk shrugged.

Over the next few days, Tony seemed like a changed man. He used to hate morning shifts, lamenting that the only thing he hated more than cleaning was waking up early in the morning.

“Say, Tony hyung, how come this is the 4^th morning I’ll seen you here?” Jaewon remarked.

“He’s a whole new man after this seeing this one customer” Woohyuk answered.

“Ya he even wakes up early for him! Amazing, we had to force him to take mornings shifts before. Now he just volunteers, ain’t that right, Tony?” Heejun chimes in, bumping Tony on the shoulder.

“Shut up.” Tony mumbled, ears turning rapidly red.

-

In their short morning meetings, Tony discovers many things about Jaeduck.

He finds that Jaeduck’s hands are the prettiest when Jaeduck hands over the money for his order.

He finds that Jaeduck’s eyes crinkle into a line when he laughs at Tony’s corny joke about coffee.

He finds that Jaeduck’s lips are really pouty, like a duck’s bill when he takes a sip of his coffee.

-

After one week of regularly seeing Jaeduck in the mornings, Tony was in a damper mood as Jaeduck didn’t appear in the morning.

In the mid-afternoon, the bell jingled and Jaeduck came in, causing Tony’s face to brighten in just a second.

“Jaeduck-ah! I didn’t see you in the morning.”

“Ah yes, my usual dance practice in the morning was moved to later in the day.”

“Oh you’re a dancer?”

“I’m a choreographer actually. For YG entertainment.”

Finally, after a whole week, I know what he does.

Over the next two weeks, Tony finds out more things about Jaeduck, in their short conversations over the counter amidst the morning rush.

He finds that Jaeduck has a dog, a white bichon frise named Alexanduck, which made Tony crush even harder as he proudly exclaimed he too had a shih tzu called Edworld.

He finds that Jaeduck loves sweet breads and desserts but can't eat them often because he's trying to control his weight. "Pfft you look perf--I mean, fine the way you are." Tony caught himself before he almost described Jaeduck as perfect. Luckily, Jaeduck didn't notice and just thanked him cheerfully.

-

One day, Jaeduck came in the morning with particularly dark eyebags and yawned several times even when ordering.

“A small latte and a croissant please.”

“Long night?”

“Yea, I had to be at the studio until 3am and now I have to go back again.” Jaeduck pouted, nearly giving Tony a heart attack at how cute he looked, even with dark eye circles and all.

"Oh man, cheer up!" Tony cringes internally, sighing at the fact that he couldn't think of anything encouraging to say.

"Hey, what’s it called when you steal someone’s coffee?" Tony blurts out.

"What?" "A mugging!"

The split second that Jaeduck took to get the pun felt like forever but when Jaeduck finally laughed, Tony felt like as if his whole week was made. 

"STOP HOLDING UP THE LINE, LOVEBIRDS!" a shout came from the queue, which unfortunately, cut their interaction short. Both of them laughed awkwardly at the mention of 'lovebirds', then Jaeduck thanked him and hurriedly moved on to the waiting area. 

When Jaeduck collected his order, he discovered he was given a medium latte and a matcha croissant instead. On the coffee cup, a message read “You look like you could need an upsize and a sweet pick-me-up. It’s on the house. Fighting!”

That message was warmer than any latte and sweeter than a matcha croissant.

-

Occasionally, Jaeduck made coffee runs to the café together with his colleagues. Back in the dance studio, Jiwon suddenly pointed at Jaeduck’s coffee cup. “What’s that??!!!”

“What’s what?”

Taking Jaeduck’s coffee cup from him, Jiwon pointed at the message written here

“‘Work hard on your dance practice!’ and look, there’s even a cute emoji there ‘^~^’ oh my god!!!”

“Wh-what? It’s nothing” Jaeduck stuttered “He leaves messages like that all the time, they’re really generic.”

“ALL THE TIME?" Jiwon shouted. "Yah, do you see any messages on mine?” Jiwon held up his coffee cup, which only had “Jiwon” messily scribbled.

“Pfft, mine doesn’t even have a name, it just says ‘JJ’” Jaijin held up his own cup.

“I mean, he kinda knows me and he doesn’t know you guys….”

“We have all been that coffee shop too and we’ve never gotten messages.” Jiwon glanced at Jaeduck, who seems to have a slight blush on his cheeks.

“Looks like someone has a crush on you.” Jaijin teasing nudged Jaeduck, noticing his blush grew deeper. “Oh god and you like him too!”

“Is it that Tony dude?”

“Yes yes, he always fights to be at the counter whenever Jaeduck comes in. One time I think he even pushed the tall skinny barista away and he almost fell.”

“Oh right!” Jiwon and Jaijin burst into laughter, almost falling over at Tony’s antics in order to talk to Jaeduck.

“Stop it! He’s just…idk he’s really nice, and he makes these corny jokes sometimes that are actually funny, and he’s kinda cute…but I don’t even know if he likes guys.”

“I don’t know about guys, but he definitely likes you. I mean, look at the messages! And the way he rushes to talk to you.”

“If you want to be sure, just bring Suwon when you go to the café and look at Tony’s reaction.”

“Why Suwon? Tony's reaction? Huh?”

“You’ll see.” Jiwon smiled mysteriously.

-

The next morning, Jaeduck brought Suwon along. Perhaps it was the chilly winds that day, but Suwon was particularly touchy at morning. In the queue, he backhugged Jaeduck, complaining that it was too cold, rubbed his and Jaeduck’s hands ‘for warmth' he said, and even laid his head on Jaeduck’s shoulder as he said the queue was too long and he was so so sleepy.

At the counter, when ordering, Jaeduck noticed Tony seemed gloomier than usual. He greeted them a little less brightly than usual and addressed Jaeduck formally instead of his usual 'Jaeduck-ah' or 'Jaeduckie'. 

“Morning. What can I get you two?”

“2 small lattes and- yah Suwon, what are you doing?” as Suwon slipped his arm into the crook of Jaeduck’s.

“Hyuuung, I’m too cold.” Suwon whined.

“Sorry, and 2 muffins.” Jaeduck noticed that Tony’s gaze had moved to where Suwon’s arm was nestled.

“Uhm and 2 muffins?” Jaeduck repeated his order, as Tony didn’t seem to have registered what he said.

“Oh right ok. Coming up.” Tony finally snapped to attention, but he made no further attempt to make conversation like he usually did. 

-

“So….was that guy Jaeduck’s boyfriend or what?” Tony asked his colleagues glumly as the morning crowd thinned out. “Damn the cute ones are always taken.”

“I don’t think so, we were in the same college band and I heard he has a long-time girlfriend.” Jaewon piped up.

“Really, Jaewon?? You’re 100% sure he has a girlfriend?” Tony rushed up to Jaewon, shaking his shoulders.

“Uhmmm hyung stop shaking me! I’m pretty sure…You can ask Jaeduck tomorrow?”

"Ehhh isn't that a little too obvious?"

"I think you are wayyyy past the stage of being obvious, hyung. Just ask him casually, I mean, Suwon was being pretty touchy."

-

When Jaeduck stepped into the café alone the next day, Tony was wracked with nervousness. 

Alright, I can be causal. Just be causal hmmm, I'm a casual guy. 

“Hey, so uhm where’s your boyfriend from yesterday?”

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Jaeduck laughs at the absurdity of Suwon and him being a couple. “He’s just a really annoying junior. I'm uh- single right now.” 

Tony glanced at Jaeduck, who had the shyest smile on his face.

“Oh, alright...so the usual for you today?” Tony tries to keep the joy of his voice, but he’s pretty sure he’s just radiating happiness right now. When Jaeduck handed over his money, he swore Jaeduck's hands brushed his and lingered a little longer than normal. 

At the dance studio, after taking out his order, Jaeduck spotted another message on the coffee cup.

“I like you a latte ❤. Call me? -Tony”, followed by a phone number.

Jaeduck smiles widely to himself as he takes out his phone.

 -

The final thing Tony discovers about Jaeduck?

He finds that Jaeduck’s eyelashes are impossibly long, fluttering gently onto his cheeks, just before Tony kisses him.

-

Author's note:

Thank you for reading ❤
I love cliché tropes if you can’t tell. A college au is (probably) next?