Instant

From outside the “closed” sign can perfectly be spotted but, anyway, someone swings the door open and enters, stepping inside Mujabee.

Minho, caught drying glasses and cups looks at the stranger - it’s a pretty one, he can tell, with round eyes that glance everywhere around and he looks as perplex and lost as Minho is with his sudden appearance. It’s five minutes before chaos (before opening and letting in the rush of customers ordering loud and most of the time demandingly and rudely, complaining at him for nothing) and they have no time to deal with whatever this pretty little student wants.

Minhyuk must have heard it too, the bell ringing and the wind coming in, the change in the atmosphere of his shop since he peeks from the staff room and smirks as if knowing something Minho isn’t aware of.

Surprisingly, he shakes the mysterious person’s hand joviality and the other response at the gesture with a shy demeanor and a tiny, but heavenly, smile. There is something fishy there, Minho thinks, still holding the rag he was using a second ago, staring at the scene developing right in front of him and utterly ignoring the pile of dirty mugs he was supposed to wash and sort off like ten minutes ago.

“He is Jinwoo” Minhyuk explains, once he is done talking with the stranger - that is no longer a stranger but a Jinwoo - and, somehow, it’s all that Minho needs to know - his boss doesn’t elaborate and he is left behind wondering what it all means (Jinwoo nods at his direction, bowing politely and, with his face lighted with the afternoon sun, colouring his skin with the soft hues of the fall (red and orange and golden reflexed inside his irises), this Jinwoo looks adorable, fascinating and Minho stares obviously at him as if they were alone and Jinwoo couldn’t notice a thing (not his glances, not his cheeks flustering, not the way he was contemplating him as if he was a dream).

As later Minho will recall, Jinwoo happens to be his new partner - hired at his back due to the increment on the affluence and Minho’s incapacity to cope with all by himself, not that he minds, after all it is not his business and it will be great if Minhyuk leave them alone since, with a new barista he won’t be needed anymore, his presence a nuisance to whatever Minho can plan. Not that he is idly thinking about anything in particular, like asking him out.

Next morning, with the shadow of a sleepless night pressed on his face, Minho shows Jinwoo around, explaining to him how to work with the coffee machine and to deal with the annoying customers that align at 8 am, the opening time, to get their dose of caffeine and causing their first annoyance to him.

Jinwoo literally beams - and customers seem to love him, the office girl that comes all moody every morning to demand her expresso with one and a half shoots with a bit of vanilla extract and goes mad if she doesn’t get it right is all smitten and soft and it only takes a greeting from Jinwoo. He works magic it appears and Minho can’t be more thankful for it - he contemplates Jinwoo taking the orders and dealing with nothing because, truly, he has been just an hour into working fully and he is already loved by all, some have even gone as far as to ask for his number or when he will be done with his turn. Not that Minho minds much about what he does outside the coffee, not that he wants to particularly knows. Not that he will ask him all these questions during they shared break. But break needs to be used to teach him how to be a professional barista and Minho has never been so happy before - his hands slightly touch his skin while working with the cash register and he casually presses his fingertips on his bones, his head so close to him that he could smell the sweet sweat of his nape, his hair lulled by the fan and fluttering under his piercing glance that followed ever one of Jinwoo’s steps. He tries to talk with him but Jinwoo is absorbed in getting used to the job, practising drawing with foam and milk something that it was supposed to be a rose - but that looks strangely like a mess of white over coffee but Minho finds it adorable (Jinwoo is deeply focused and he is free to shamelessly stare at him and dream about romancing hands over his skin) and also, who cares about latte art when Jinwoo is art itself?

Jinwoo has been with him for the past eight hours but Minho still has a lacking knowledge about him - and a pounding headache developed due to all the thinking he has done pondering how to talk to his new hyung.

Seungyoon laughs at him, chest bending and clapping at how hilarious Minho is telling him about his day - about Kim Jinwoo.

“Should I do it for you?” he offers, suspecting that Minho won’t get any improvement alone and wanting to have more craig with this one-side instant romance that Minho is immersed in.

“Don’t even try it” he bangs the door at his face but, even then, he can hear Seungyoon’s laugh across the room, reverberating through the walls like the bells that announced yesterday arrival of an angel named Kim Jinwoo.

Minho is dammed - he knows it the moment his roommate and nemesis Kang Seungyoon comes to Mujabee smirking devilish. At that moment he regrets all the decisions that had leat him to share a roof with him. He is also cursed because Jinwoo is wearing the navy apron that matches his and he can’t stop thinking about how lovely he appears, how much as a pair they could ever be (they have known each other for over a week but Minho has already planned everything; Seungyoon might have found a crumpled paper with all the love songs available and the cheesiest love confession with ideal scenarios and little doodles of him all over the white surface - at least Minho drawn him well).

Seungyoon orders his infamous vanilla latte that Minho prepares with an extra bit of hate that probably he won’t notice and chats with Jinwoo taking advantage that it’s late and there aren’t other people around.

A few minutes win over a week and, back at home Seungyoon shows up all he has discovered about Minho’s co-worker and love of his life and more. Seungyoon has managed to coax Jinwoo to tell him where he lives, what he studies and that he also shares a flat with a guy names Kyung - who happens to be his best friend too and Minho is already praying for this man to come over so he can talk to him and learn more about Jinwoo.

But Kyung doesn’t come over much to Minho’s dismay and all he knows it’s thanks to Seungyoon’s inquiries that Jinwoo answers with such honesty that marvels Minho - but, in the end, he is happy because, even if he isn’t talking too much to him, he has learnt about Jinwoo in his own way (he has observed that he only drinks green tea and works harder than any other, that he puts extra efforts and attention to details  and that he likes to make others happy but not Minho).

After a month of Minho longing and pinning over Jinwoo, who doesn’t take a bait nor seems to understand the effect he has on Minho - how one look can leave him dying, his heart beating like a trapped hummingbird and all his blood running wild, his body in ecstasy and his mind a puddle of lust and desire because Jinwoo is damn hot and all the girls that come to Mujabee agree with him.

He isn’t jealous of those girls flirting brazenly with him, he isn’t; he can play that game as well - but whenever he tries to have a conversation Jinwoo decides to do something completely different instead and Minho has lost so many nights wondering what to do to get to Jinwoo, to open him up and, at least, befriend him a little bit more - Minhyuk thinks they aren’t getting along and he is worried that his employees might hate each other. In order to sort it out, a meeting is scheduled and Jinwoo comes in all preoccupied, looking ashamed and guilty of all the charges (but the only crime he has committed is stealing Minho’s heart).

The door is closed again but this time Minho doesn’t bother when it slaps open and the cold wind of the winter’s streets smashes his face, he is waiting for his own sentence - that Jinwoo loathes him.

Minhyuk talks separately with them both and, later on, they are left alone to resolve whatever non-conflict that is going on between them.

“Where did you all get the idea that I hate you?” he wonders ones Minhyuk has gone with the promise of giving them both a free day tomorrow - for the inconvenience of having to stay here all night trying to resolve something that is nonexistent.

“Well, you don’t seem to like me” Minho explains, words slurring as if afraid, shuttering because this will be the first, real conversation flowing between them - more than the polite greeting and exchange of orders. “You have never talked to me but to anybody else. You get along better with Seungyoon but not with me and we spend a big deal of time together hyung!” it’s a complaint that sounds like a pout and Minho is sure that all the sadness that he has stored inside his chest is now showing up on his face. Jinwoo looks at him, incomprehension painting his orbs and his lips

“But I like you” he replies, gleaming into the night. Minho’s chest expands at it and it hurts in the way that swings his heart.

“It doesn’t look that way” he manages to reply, relaying in how he has always treated him, nicely but distant as if a wall were standing between them.

“I’m sorry, I’m - I’m not good at talking,” he says, rose-colored cheeks and eyes on the floor that breaks Minho’s resilience - he has none when it’s about Jinwoo anyway. He grabs his hands in his and swallows him all in his arms.

“I like you a lot” his voice comes out trembling but he hears him, his fingers are gambling on his back and it sends shivers down his spine.

“Do you think I don’t like you?” Jinwoo’s answer goes straight to his ears, a whisper made with all the love he has trapped for him and that has grown inside with all the passing days. “But, again, I’m terrible with words. If I never really talked to you was because I didn’t want you to think that I’m dumb. But I guess I am because I fall for you and nearly lost my change because of it”.

“Are you going to do something tomorrow, hyung?” Minho wonders, his hands holding his sides, thumbs playing over his hips, drawing reassuring circles that speak louder than his chest pounding hard. Jinwoo likes him back.

“Nothing planned” he replies smoothing.

“Change that to a date with me”.

Jinwoo doesn’t answer instantly. Actually, he doesn’t say anything. Instead, in the dim dark of Mujabee, he finds his own way to kiss him.