Adjusting his grip on the notes in his hand, he makes his way towards the small cafe that his friend Jackson kept recommending, "They serve the best organic green tea!" Jackson exclaimed the other day, "Oh my God, babe, I understand that you're into that , but it's nasty." Jackson's boyfriend, Bambam, yelled from the other room. Jackson pouted at the comment and earned a chuckle from Mark, who was laying on his bed scrolling aimlessly through social media.

Jackson and Mark became friends 3 years ago when Mark decided to move into the college dorms and ended up with Jackson as his roommate. They didn't get along all that great at first, mostly because of how loud and social Jackson was in contrast to Mark. Towards the end of their first year together, they ended up getting a lot closer. Their friendship consisted of a lot of bickering over who got to use their shared bathroom first in the morning, fights over who gets to eat the last piece of pizza, and dragging Jackson out of parties when he would get drunk as hell.

Mark continues making his way towards Pepi's Cafe, he looks down at his watch, it reads 2:31 A.M. He definitely needs some caffeine in him before he gets back to studying for his final, which was in 7 hours. Finally, he stops at the door to the cafe and looks up to make sure he's got the right place. He swings the door open to be swarmed by the fragrant smell of coffee. He makes his way towards the counter to order, waiting for the man standing behind the counter to turn and face him. Mark was too sleep deprived to pay much attention to the man, that is until he turns to face him, THAT is when he actually pays attention. Mark accidentally lets a little squeal slip out of his mouth, followed by a cough to cover it up, idiot, Mark thinks to himself. The man behind the counter had soft brown hair, like the bark of an oak tree, not dark but simply gentle in any light. His eyes were the color of dark chocolate, with a mischievous glint that seemed to reflect the corners of his mouth, which were curled up to form a gentle smile. Mark was taken out of his trance when the man ahead of him cleared his throat. Mark mumbled an apology and collected himself (just a little bit) to order. 

The man went ahead and started working on Mark's order, and he couldn't help but steal glances at the man as he carefully prepared the order. He was definitely beautiful and Mark was in no way prepared to see such a handsome person at this time of the night. The man came back with Mark's order, "Good luck on your final exam," he said as he pointed at the notes now bundled up in Mark's arms, "I'm Jinyoung, by the way." The man, now known as Jinyoung gave Mark the softest, most gentle smile. His eyes turning into crescents as wrinkles formed beneath his eyes, the view was breathtaking, that was for sure. "Mark Tuan." replied Mark, now back to his nonchalant state (not really). 

"It's nice to meet you. I'll leave you to your studying now, enjoy your drink." Jinyoung pushes the caffeinated drink towards mark, and throws him a small smile as he makes his way into a room in the back. 

Mark sits down and lets out a breath he didn't know he was holding.

The next day, his exam goes a lot better than expected, considering all he could think about was the man from the cafe. Jinyoung. All Mark could think about was his smile and the wrinkles that would form when he smiled. "Earth to Mark?" Mark is taken out of his daze by his friend, Yugyeom, waving his hand in front of Mark's face. "The exam really ed you up this bad?" He said with a chuckle. "Uh, not really. Just tired." Mark throws him a smile as to say 'please don't interrogate me as I am currently lecturing myself over the fact that I may have a crush on this man that I had like a 2 minute interaction with'. Mark and Yugyeom are then joined by Jackson and Bambam, who are showcasing too much PDA. "It's way too early to be around these two," Yugyeom slings his bag over his back so he could get away from this scene as fast as possible, "You know, you don't need an invitation to join us." Bambam teases, and lets out a laugh when he sees the look of horror mixed with confusion on Yugyeom's face.

The day goes by pretty quickly, Mark returns to their dorm to get some sleep before he starts studying again, although his next final is still 3 days away. He wakes up at 2 A.M again, mostly because of how loud Jackson and Bambam are being in the other room, but also because Mark was never able to sleep for too long. He grabs his phone and a jacket and makes his way towards the cafe once again, in hopes of seeing a certain someone.

The cafe was only a 5 minute walk from the dorms. Mark looks up at the green LED sign that read 'Pepi's Cafe', he takes a deep breath and walks in.

To his disappointment, Jinyoung wasn't standing behind the counter like he'd hoped, instead there was another guy, mullet, dark hair, dressed in all black except for the green apron on top of his clothes. This guy was attractive, Mark wont deny that, but he wasn't Jinyoung. Mark then makes his way towards the counter to order since he couldn't really back out of the cafe now. The guy's name tag read 'Im Jaebum'. Mark orders his usual and waits while replying to Jackson's concerned text as to why Mark left the dorm. 'I am BEYOND betrayed that you left without giving me a hug ;-(' The text from Jackson read. Mark chuckles lightly at his friend who seemed to require attention and love at all times of the day.

Mark looks up to check on his order when he hears the sound of the door of the cafe closing, he turns his head and is met with no other than Jinyoung being followed by a younger male who looked less than happy to be here. Jinyoung looked breathtaking, despite the fact that he was dressed very casually in an over sized pink hoodie and black jeans. Mark felt disappointment creeping up when he averted his gaze to Jinyoung's hands, to notice that he was holding the other boy's hand. Now making his way behind the counter, he yells "Jaebum! Come collect your boyfriend before I throw him out." Mark lets out a sigh of relief knowing that the younger boy has nothing to do with Jinyoung, Jaebum on the other hand looks confused as he watches the scene in front him unfold, despite the confusion, Jaebum looks fondly at his boyfriend and drags him to the back room as he tells Jinyoung to finish up Mark's order. 

Jinyoung then turns around to be greeted by a confused Mark. "Oh Mark! You came back." Jinyoung states and throws Mark the same smile that lingered in his head all day long. "Yeah, I uh, couldn't really sleep. My roommate was loud as hell and I decided to take a walk and ended up here." Mark doesn't notice that he accidentally started ranting. He mumbles an apology before grabbing his drink. Jinyoung lets out a small laugh that has Mark's stomach doing back flips, "It's okay, I understand. I'm glad you ended up here." Jinyoung says with a mischievous smile. "I was supposed to be here an hour ago but waking up Youngjae is an absolute nightmare." He points to the back room. Mark laughs as he imagines the scene in his head, Jinyoung just eventually giving up and dragging Youngjae all the way from his bed to the cafe.

Mark makes his way to one of the booths and sips on his coffee, he tries to steal a glance at Jinyoung, who was previously bickering with Youngjae, only to find Jinyoung looking at him. Mark lowers his gaze back to his phone, hoping that Jinyoung hasn't seen him stealing glances.Unfortunately, Jinyoung did notice the stolen glances, he then makes his way to Mark's booth, "Is that seat taken?" Jinyoung points at the seat opposite to Mark. Mark shakes his head quickly, too quickly. Jinyoung smiles and takes a seat. 

An hour and a half pass by and Mark and Jinyoung are still talking, Mark managed to get over the stuttering and inability to form proper sentences around Jinyoung. It turns out that they actually have a lot more in common than Mark would've thought. Youngjae then approached their booth to ask Jinyoung about some book, and then introduced himself to Mark. "Hello! I'm Choi Youngjae." His smile was very bright and contagious, Mark introduced himself and smiled in return. 

Mark also learnt that Jinyoung actually co-owns this cafe with Jaebum, he dropped out of college because according to him, it was too stressful and useless, they don't teach you anything you would actually need, so he opened his own cafe. Jinyoung is also a year younger than Mark. Jinyoung got to know that Jackson was Mark's roommate, "Ah Jackson! His visits to the cafe are usually the highlight of my day but dear God, does this boy give me a headache sometimes," Mark laughed at that because, same. 

It was 4 A.M now and Mark hasn't noticed how fast time passed by and decided it was time to leave and get some sleep before his first class. "Thank you for hanging out with me, I'm really sorry for taking away so much of your time." Mark apologized before grabbing his phone, "There is no reason to apologize, Mark. I had fun." Has Mark mentioned how nice his name sounds when Jinyoung says it? Because it is really nice. And Mark really likes it. 

Jinyoung walks him to the door and keeps a hand on his back the entire time and Mark tenses before relaxing into the younger's touch. He keeps thinking about holding Jinyoung's hand, but you dont really do that on your second time of meeting someone. They say their goodbyes and Jinyoung waves and gives Mark his best smile as he walks away from the cafe. Mark makes his way back to the dorm with thoughts of a certain cafe owner.