“Yah! Yuna, where are you running off to?” Chaeryeong calls after a blur of bright red zoomed past her. She and her best friend were supposed to walk home together like they did every Tuesday. At least, that’s what she thought.

“I’ll make it up to you!” Yuna replies, without even turning back. She was rushing to the school’s bike stand, her eyes already locked on her bright yellow bike. This has become a brand new routine for Shin Yuna. Everyday, the bell rings. She books it to her bike. She pedals to a certain coffee shop a few blocks away from campus. She orders an iced tea. She waits.

4:15 p.m. on the dot, the coffee shop’s bell rings. A girl with dark mid length hair that has blonde tips walks into the shop with a pair of robust headphones on her neck. 

“Hello, Ryujin!” The friendly barista greets. Ryujin smiles back, her whisker-like dimples appearing on her face. Yuna can barely fight back the squeal in as she watches.

“I’ll have the usual, Minji-unnie.” 

“Warm americano with one sugar?”

“You know it.”

Ryujin sits down a couple of tables away from Yuna, opening a large black sketchpad in front of her. She puts her headphones back on, nodding to the music as she starts sketching. Yuna lets out a dreamy sigh as she watches her new but endearing crush. It’s been almost a week since Yuna started coming to this coffee shop. To her friends it didn’t make sense because Yuna’s always hated coffee. It tastes bitter and undrinkable so she’s never understood why anyone liked it. But after seeing Ryujin drink it so eagerly and happily everyday, she’s inclined to change her mind. 

Yuna realizes she’s staring again and quickly reverts her attention to her phone. She sees a text notification from Chaeryeong.

Chaeryeongie 
Are you at that coffee shop again?  

   
    Me
Maybe…

Chaeryeongie
What do you even do there?
You hate coffee!    

    Me
I told you! I come here to study :)

Chaeryeongie
You’re dating someone aren’t you?
How could you not tell me! 
I’ve been your best friend for years and this is what I get?
Yah
Shin Yuna!
Hello??    

    Yuna chuckles as she puts her phone away. She makes a mental note to finally tell Chaeryeong about her daily “caffeine fix.” To be honest, Yuna knows next to nothing about Ryujin. All she knows is that Ryujin goes to the same school, is in the same year as Chaeryeong, and goes to this coffee shop at least four times a week. The first time she tried the place was purely out of curiosity but the moment she saw that cat-like smile, she’s become a silent regular. 

    It’s already been a few days since Yuna started “casually observing” Ryujin as she tells herself, but Yuna still hasn’t event attempted to talk to the high school senior. Yuna knows that she’s pretty. She knows she’s pretty enough to ask out anyone she wants to. She’s no stranger to having people fawn over her. She’s received love letters from boys and girls from her school but no one has ever piqued her interest. Now here she is, her eyes practically boring holes into the oblivious Ryujin. Yuna tells herself that she’s going to talk to Ryujin soon. She swears that she just doesn’t want to disturb the older girl. But if she were to be honest with herself, she’d say that Ryujin made her nervous. 

    “Excuse me, young lady.”

    Yuna looks up, her eyes meeting with the shop owner’s.

    “Sometimes we take photos of our customers with the shop camera and put the polaroids back on our wall. I noticed that you come here regularly so I hope I’m not assuming wrong that you like it here.”

    “Ah! Yes, I really like your iced tea.”

    “Thank you. You’re always so polite. I was wondering if you’d like to take a picture. You’re a pretty girl and would fit in great on the wall. You can also write whatever you want on the polaroid.”

    Yuna nods and picks her drink up. She eyes the wall and spots Ryujin’s photo. She sees that Ryujin is the only one who took a picture with the shop owner, the polaroid taken being the lone selfie. Ryujin and the shop owner have warm smiles on their faces and Yuna can tell that Ryujin is more than a regular customer. 

    “Ready? Smile!”

    Yuna lets out her famous energy giving smile as the camera’s light flashes. It’s a smile that can light up a whole room and make anyone’s knees go weak at the same time. The shop owner can’t help but smile as well as she takes a photo of the model-esque high schooler.

    “Wahh. You’re such a pretty child. Thank you. Please, feel free to write anything you want and you can place it anywhere on the wall.”

    Yuna takes the polaroid and marker in her hands, bowing to the shop owner with gratitude. She walks over to the wall, getting a closer look at Ryujin’s photo. She feels butterflies in her stomach, biting her lip as she fails to fight back a giddy grin. Ryujin’s message on the photo is simple but cute. 

“Minji-unnie jjang! Coffee jjang! ♥Ryuttaeng”

    Yuna memorizes Ryujin’s nickname on the spot. She writes a caption on her own photo and grabs a thumbtack, pinning it on the wall. She carefully puts it up on the wall, right next Ryujin’s polaroid. 
Little does Yuna know, Ryujin is watching. Ryujin eyes the younger girl with interest, chuckling at how she moved like a princess. She noticed that Yuna walks on her tiptoes, bouncing with every step. She also noticed that Yuna’s default expression is a bright smile, if not an even brighter grin. Ryujin noticed Yuna the first time she came to her regular coffee shop. After all, it was hard to miss the vibrant red locks. Ryujin quickly looks away as Yuna turns around, instead looking at Minji-unnie who shoots her a knowing wink. Ryujin rolls her eyes and shakes her head, returning to her sketch.

Soon after, Yuna gathers her things and leaves the shop. Ryujin can’t help but feel a little disappointed. The café was a lot livelier with the freshman around. Minji walks over to Ryujin, coffee pot in hand. She pours Ryujin a refill, looking at the student with expectant eyes.

“What?” Ryujin caves.

“Nothing.” 

“You’re being weird, unnie.”

“She’s pretty, yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean- No. Wait, what?”

The shop owner laughs at Ryujin’s reddening cheeks.

“Aigoo. Why don’t you talk to her?”

“Me? Talk to her? Maybe in another universe.” Ryujin answers nonchalantly, taking a sip from her coffee and letting out a satisfied sigh.

“You miss all the shots you don’t take, Ryuttaeng.”

“It’s a good thing I’m not a basketball player, then.”

Ryujin puts her sketchbook away, putting it and the rest of her sketching materials into her backpack. It’s about time she headed home and did schoolwork. Before she leaves, Ryujin walks over to the photo wall, looking at the newest addition. 

“It’s Yuna! Fighting! :)”

    The next afternoon, Yuna is back again. She’s sitting at her usual table with an iced tea and a half eaten slice of cheesecake before her. She looks at the time on her phone and realizes that Ryujin was later than usual. She was sure that the senior always shows up half an hour after classes end and spends about an hour working on something in her sketchpad. Yuna’s never actually seen Ryujin’s work but she’s pretty sure Ryujin makes great art.

    Just as she’s about to be sure that Ryujin wasn’t going to come, the café’s bell rings. Yuna eyes the door with anticipation but her expression quickly turns grim. Ryujin arrives with another girl who’s a bit shorter than her. She has long dark hair and a soft shy smile. The way they ordered and sat comfortably together made Yuna’s stomach churn. This is the most Yuna has ever seen Ryujin smile. This is the first time Yuna has heard Ryujin laugh. Whoever this girl is, she must make Ryujin really happy. 

    Yuna watches as the two enjoy what looked like a date. The two were clearly close. Ryujin looks at the girl across her with an attentive expression, holding onto every word she said.They even shared their food and drinks. Yuna doesn’t  notice how hard she’s clenching her jaw and fists while they take selfies together. Unable to withstand the sight, Yuna grabs her bag and leaves the café in a hurry. As she’s walking off, the girl Ryujin is with notices.

    “Isn’t that her?”

    Ryujin catches a brief glimpse of red walking away from the café. 

    “Yeah. I wonder why she’s leaving in such a hurry.”

    “Maybe she has to do something at home. By the way, are you coming with me and Yeji to the movies this weekend?”

    “And be a third-wheel while you guys drown each other with googly eyes for two hours? It’s gonna be a no from me, Lia.”

    “Oh please. It’s not that bad! It’s mostly Yeji.”

    “But you love it.”

    “I do. So… When are you finally going to talk to this Yuna?” Lia asks in a singsong tone. 
    
    “Uhh,” Ryujin drones.

    “Ryujin. Seriously. You can’t babble about this girl and then just pretend she doesn’t exist!”

    “Why not? I’m fine just watching her from over here. Over here is nice.”

    “You’re so dumb.”

    “I am not! She’s just too pretty.”

    “And you aren’t?”

    “You know what I mean.”

    “Whatever. If you don’t come to the movies this weekend, I’m telling Yeji you made me cry.”

    “What?! She’ll kill me-“

    “You better show up, then. And bring a date. See you on Saturday!” 

     Before Ryujin can argue, Lia is already halfway out the door. Ryujin groans at her best friend. She loves Lia but sometimes she can be a pain. It didn’t help that she had a tall and intimidating girlfriend that would literally do anything for her.

Ryujin sighs as she finally opens her sketchbook for the first time today. She has her work cut out for her and it’s about time she got down to business. 

    It’s been a couple of  days since Yuna has been to the café. After seeing Ryujin being cozy with someone, it made it difficult for Yuna to come back. Yuna even finally told Chaeryeong everything but ended up getting an earful from her best friend about waiting too long to make a move. But Yuna realized that even if she mostly visited the coffee shop for Ryujin, she really did enjoy their iced tea and pastries. Ryujin or not, Yuna loved food.

    As soon as Yuna arrives, she sees that Ryujin is already there. Still the same. She has headphones on and is diligently working on something in her sketch pad. Yuna walks towards the counter and is greeted warmly by Minji who let her know that it’s great to have her back. Yuna orders her usual iced tea and makes her way over to the photo wall. She glosses her eyes over the photos and sees a few new pictures. Finally her eyes land on Ryujin’s polaroid but to her surprise, her own photo that used to be next to it is gone. She looks around the photo wall thinking that maybe it was moved but she’s almost sure that it’s gone.

    The sound of someone clearing their throat pulls Yuna out of her mini “Where’s Waldo” game. 

    “Hi. Yuna, right?  Ryujin greets, her voice slightly cracking.

    Yuna’s eyes go wide and she stares. She’s at a loss for words because she can’t believe that Ryujin is talking to her right now. The same Ryujin thar she stared at for days. The same Ryujin that she hated to admit that she had a crush on. The same Ryujin-

    “I’m Ryujin. I’m in Lee Chaeryeong’s class. I think I’ve seen you two have lunch together at school.”

    “I- Yes. Hello! I’m Yuna! Shin Yuna!” Yuna mentally slaps herself for practically yelling. 

    “It’s nice to meet you, Yuna. Look, I’ll be honest and say that I actually couldn’t help but notice you whenever you’d come by the café. I hope it doesn’t creep you out or anything.”

    “No, not at all! I actually come here just to watch y- Young! People! Like us. Hang out here after school.” Yuna mentally punches herself this time. Ryujin laughs a little because Yuna has even more energy up close. Yuna melts a little inside.

    “I was wondering. You see, my friends asked me to go see a movie tomorrow but they’re a really gross couple and being a third wheel gets old really fast-“

    “Oh! So it’s a double date?” Yuna’s famous grin comes back to her face and her eyes light up. 

    “No! I mean. I don’t know. I’m sorry. I don’t want to scare you. We just met. I’m talking too much. I’ll go away now.”

    “No, no please. It’s okay. I want to go. Whether or not it’s a date.” Yuna looks at Ryujin with the brightest eyes she’s ever seen. Ryujin couldn’t explain how but her heart felt like it was about to drop onto the floor.

    “Great! Great. Thank you.”

    Just then, Ryujin rummages through her backpack and pulls her sketchpad out. Yuna watches as Ryujin flips through the pages before ripping one out. Ryujin then hands Yuna the page, her hands shaking a bit as she does so. Ryujn is nervous but she does her best to maintain a calm and collected expression. Yuna takes the paper and gasps at the sight.

    On the upper right hand corner is the polaroid that she thought went missing, attached by a paper clip. The middle of the paper has a pencil sketch recreation of the photo that Minji had taken of Yuna for the café’s photo wall. Around that sketch are other rougher sketches of when Yuna had visited the café. 

Yuna realizes that Ryujin has been watching her just as much as she’s been watching Ryujin. 

Yuna for the second time today is at a loss for words. Not only was her assumption of Ryujin being a fantastic artist right, but Ryujin took the time and effort to draw her. 

Ryujin anxiously waits for Yuna to give some kind of reaction because it’s been a few seconds of silence. Finally, Yuna looks up and Ryujin sees that her cheeks are tinted pink. Yuna thanks Ryujin at least ten times for the work and Ryujin tells her it’s nothing enough times to match. The two then decide for the first time to finally sit together and enjoy their usual orders. One iced tea. One americano.