“Mina! Have you heard of the new café that just opened at the main building?” Nayeon shouts at her as she puts down her bag, not caring that they are in the library. They earn a few frowns and Mina also frowns at her friend, who’s being so needlessly loud in the library.

 

“The Flower Girl Café?” Mina hasn’t visited the café before because it’s always crowded, but has heard many of her course mates talking about it already. It’s the craze in their university recently, not for their food and drinks, but for their cute baristas. It seems like there’s another new fan here, as Nayeon nods fervently.

 

“YES! Oh my god their baristas are so cute it’s unreal. How did the owner even find such cuties?” Nayeon squeals over them, not caring about her volume again, causing Mina to shush her.

 

“Please keep your volume down, Unnie.”

 

Nayeon huffs at what a spoilsport Mina is being. “You are just like this because you haven’t seen Jeongyeon in real life before, I bet you will fall in love if you do.”

 

“But you can’t fall in love with her, because she’s mine.” Nayeon adds quickly, wagging her index finger in front of Mina. The latter just rolls her eyes, thinking her friend needs a check-up. Who has the time to fall in love when they are at the point of the semester where it’s a blessing if they even get 6 hours of sleep every night?

 

“Just start on your assignment for that Accounting mod.” She tells Nayeon while shaking her head.

 

--

 

It’s a whole week after that exchange with Nayeon that she ends up at the café. It’s 9 at night and she needs a coffee to power her through the night if she is to finish her assignment on time, and thankfully, there isn’t a crowd in the café at this time (or else Mina might actually stab someone out of frustration). The cashier (Seulgi, Mina finds out from her name tag) smiles at her, eyes turning into crescents, and Mina feels her cheeks turning red as she stutters her order.

 

Holding onto her receipt, she moves to the pick-up counter, hoping that the blush on her cheeks has toned down. Nayeon wasn’t joking, the workers at this café are really good looking. Now she’s actually curious to see how the ‘Jeongyeon’ who has captured Nayeon’s heart looks like.

 

“Double shot espresso for Mina!” A bubbly voice calls out and she heads to the counter to pick up her drink. She looks up to thank the barista when her heart stops. Because standing behind the counter is a girl smiling at her, dimples so deep it could probably hold the Pacific Ocean in it, eyes so bright that Mina thinks she might be blinded by them.

 

“You are welcome.” The barista tells her, grinning now, her canines peeking out at the sides, making her look like a little tiger. Mina’s eyes fall onto her name tag, and she feels her heart shatter.

 

Jeongyeon.

 

She nods slightly, forcing a smile on her face before she leaves hurriedly. No wonder Nayeon is so smitten, this ‘Jeongyeon’ is so cute! Now she regrets snorting at her friend the other time, because she really might just be in love.

 

--

 

“Cute.” She thinks as she watches the flustered customer leaves. It’s not the first time she encountered a flustered customer, but it’s the first time she has seen such a cute one, with a blush that makes her look like a tomato. Just as the customer waddles out of the café, a scream comes out from the back room of it. “Yah yah Son Chaeyoung! How many times have I told you to wear your own name tag when you come to work?!” Moonbyul, the store manager shouts at her before appearing from the room, holding onto her name tag.

 

She gasps and immediately takes out the ‘Jeongyeon’ tag on her apron, taking over her own name tag from Byul. “Sorry, I forgot.” There was a crowd of customers when she came in for work, and she had just grabbed an apron and got down to work, forgetting to put on her own name tag before doing so.

 

“Stop forgetting it! Your name tag is important here!” Byul chides her. The main selling point of the café is their baristas, so it’s important for them to wear their own name tags so that the customers can recognize them.

 

“Yes mom.” Chaeyoung says while rolling her eyes. Byul is about to strangle the kid when Seulgi holds her back.

 

“Woah woah, she’s just a kid, she means no harm.”

 

“It’s because all of you have been pampering her so much that she’s like this now. Let me teach her some manners today!” Byul struggles against Seulgi’s hold as she tries to kick her and Chaeyoung just laughs. Man, there’s never a dull day here in the Flower Girls Café.

 

--

 

It’s weird how you never notice someone when you don’t know of their existence, but once you know of their existence, you can’t ignore it, and even see them everywhere. That’s how Mina feels, because she sees ‘Jeongyeon’ everywhere. She sees her in the cafeteria, along the hallways, and her running on the tracks during the track club’s training as she walks past to get to the dance studio for her dance practice. But what hurts the most has to be seeing her with Nayeon.

 

She sees the two along the hallways as she’s getting to her next class, Nayeon’s arms linked with hers. Nayeon is talking about something, while ‘Jeongyeon’ just nods, listening attentively. But the bunny spots her, immediately waving excitedly at her while dragging ‘Jeongyeon’ over.

 

“Mina! Heading for your class?” Nayeon asks, arms still linked with the smaller girl beside her. (Mina tries not to focus too much on their linked arms.)

 

“Yeah, don’t you have class too? Mina asks.

 

“I’m walking this little baby to class first.” Nayeon says before turning to coo at ‘Jeongyeon’ beside her, who just frowns at her.

 

“I told you I can get to my next class by myself just fine, Nayeon-Unnie.” The blonde rolls her eyes at Nayeon’s antics.

 

“Oh hush,” Nayeon shushes her before realizing she has forgotten to introduce her friends to each other. “Oh, sorry I forgot to introduce you guys to each other.”

 

She turns to ‘Jeongyeon’, stretching her hands out to gesture at Mina. “This is Mina, my nerdy friend and this is…”

 

Mina doesn’t want to hear it, doesn’t want to hear her introduce the girl as her girlfriend. “I’m sorry Nayeon-unnie, I have to rush off to my class now. See you next time.” She smiles courteously at the two of them, and she hates how her heart skips a beat when she sees how ‘Jeongyeon’ nods and beams at her, her dimples showing.

 

--

 

“Sorry, she can get pretty shy sometimes.” Nayeon brushes off Mina’s sudden departure as her being shy, but Chaeyoung doesn’t even take it to heart, just grins as she watches Mina waddle away. She remembers her very vividly, she’s that cute flustered customer at the café that day. She’s generally pretty decent at memorizing faces, and there’s no way she’s going to forget a pretty face like that anyway.

 

“She’s cute.” She makes an offhanded remark, but Nayeon immediately gasps and grabs her, stopping them in their tracks. “Like cute as in you want to date her kind of cute?”

 

Oh no. Chaeyoung looks at the bright sparkle in Nayeon’s eyes, and she knows the older girl must be scheming something in her mind again, and that something doesn’t bode well for her. “Don’t.”

 

“I can give you her number, or set you guys on a date!” Nayeon rambles on, ignoring her. “Omg we can go on double dates together, you and Mina, me and Jeongyeon! That will be so cute!” The older girl squeals and hops around, making Chaeyoung wonder if she’s really the younger one out of the two of them.

 

“Whatever, I’m just going to go for my class.” Chaeyoung runs for her class, ignoring the older girl who is screaming at her. She sighs when she gets into her class safely, plopping down onto a chair. She really hopes Nayeon doesn’t try to set them up, because blind dates are just weird and awkward. If she wants a date with Mina, she will earn it herself.

 

--

 

Chaeyoung drags her feet, sighing as she steps into the café. She’s not even supposed to be working today, but Jeongyeon has asked her to help her cover her shift so she could go on a date with Nayeon, and that’s why she’s here to report for work on a Saturday when she could be sleeping it away. She sees the long queue and sighs internally again at another busy day of work. Jeongyeon better buy her lunch for a week for this. She enters the counter and greets Yoojung who’s working at the cashier with a small wave of her hand. But she recognizes a customer standing in line, and she immediately brightens. Removing her earpiece, she greets her happily.

 

“Hello, we meet again.” She greets, seeing the girl jump a little before replying her with a curt nod and a small smile. “Mina-ssi, right?”

 

Mina nods again. “Working today?”

 

“Yeah, my shift starts in a few minutes.” Chaeyoung tells her, suddenly not that upset about having to work on a Saturday anymore.

 

“Cool.” Mina is originally quite shy by nature, so she doesn’t talk much, but now that she’s standing next to the other girl, she finds that she might as well have lost her ability to talk, her mind combusting and going blank. But that doesn’t seem to deter ‘Jeongyeon’, who just shoots her another dimpled grin.

 

“It’s your turn.” ‘Jeongyeon’ tells her, and it’s only then that she realizes that she’s already at the cashier.

 

“Right.” Mina clears , causing the other girl to laugh.

 

“I will see you around.” She waves at her, before heading to the counter. Mina nods, but her eyes doesn’t leave her, watching her as she fist-bumps the cashier and leans in to whisper a few words to her. The girl at the cashier wriggles her eyebrows at her, and she just rolls her eyes before waving one last time at Mina and disappearing to the back of the café.

 

The cashier turns back to look at her, a smile on her face as she addresses her. “Hello, what can I get for you today?”

 

Right, she’s here to get some refreshments for her two annoying roommates, Mina shakes her head to remind herself. She’s so rattled by the meeting with ‘Jeongyeon’ that she has forgotten all about it. Rambling off an order of three smoothies and a few cakes, she fishes out her wallet. “How much is it?”

 

“On the house.” The cashier, Yoojung, tells her, already handing her receipt over to her. “The cub has it covered.”

 

“W-what, no-“ She’s about to protest, but the customer behind her clears his throat impatiently, causing her to shoot a wronged look at Yoojung, wanting her to take her money. But the small cashier just shrugs her shoulder and she has no choice but to move to the collection counter with her receipt.

 

Friends do this for each other all the time, but one, she is barely friends with ‘Jeongyeon’, second, and more importantly, she doesn’t like how this simple treat is making her heart flutter, because she shouldn’t be feeling all these feelings for someone who is going to be her friend’s girlfriend. Thankfully, her order comes out quickly, and she grabs all of them and leaves hastily. It’s rude to leave without thanking ‘Jeongyeon’ for the treat, but it’s even ruder to have feelings for someone your friend likes, so she picks the lesser of two evils.

 

--

 

“Yo, your girl left.” Yoojung tells her as Chaeyoung comes out from the backroom, still in the midst of tying her apron.

 

“She’s not my girl.” Chaeyoung rolls her eyes as she puts on her own nametag onto her apron. No more mistaken identity.

 

Yoojung scoffs. “Who are you lying to, she was totally going to melt with the way you were staring at her.”

 

Now is Chaeyoung’s turn to scoff. “Says the one who breaks her neck daily to stare up at Doyeon.”

 

Yoojung sends a flying kick to Chaeyoung, who avoids it nimbly. She sticks out her tongue childishly at her before chuckling and running to the coffee machines. She picks up one of the empty cups to read the order and gets down to work. Her mind wanders back to Mina, and it brings a small smile on her face as she works the coffee machines. The girl is so shy, so it’s going to be hard to get close to her, but it’s okay, she will get there eventually. Like how it takes time for the shot of coffee to be done, it will take time for her and Mina to get to know each other. And when they do get there, it’s going to be very good, like this cup of coffee which she places a cover and a sleeve on.

 

--

 

“Mina-ssi!” A cheery voice greets while she is bent over the water cooler, and she stands up to greet the person back only to choke on the water in . Because standing in front of her, is ‘Jeongyeon’ in her sleeveless track jersey that shows off her toned arms and the body-hugging tights that accentuate her toned legs.

 

“Woah,” ‘Jeongyeon’ pats her on the back, “Are you okay?”

 

“I-I’m fine!” Mina’s voice comes out a little high-pitched, obviously not fine. She does see her during her track practice often, but it is always from a distance, so to see her so up close now where she can see her toned body so clearly is making her lung capacity decrease drastically. Thankfully, ‘Jeongyeon’ doesn’t push it, just lifts up her water bottle (with her toned arms) to the cooler and turns on the tap.

 

“So, you are from dance?” Chaeyoung asks, glancing at the words emblazoned across her whole shirt. She wouldn’t have pegged Mina to be a dancer with her introverted personality, but that would explain her straight posture and the way she walks with her legs pointing out.

 

“Yeah.” Again, Mina has lost her ability to speak more than one word at a time.

 

“Cool. Invite me when you guys have a performance or something, I will be there.” Chaeyoung isn’t deterred by Mina’s one word reply and grins, showing off her dimples.

 

“Won’t you be busy?” Mina is surprised that ‘Jeongyeon’ will be interested to come watch her performance when she barely knows her.

 

Chaeyoung stops the tap of the water cooler and caps her bottle, turning to look at Mina with another small smile. “I can just make time.”

 

“Well, nice chat, but I have to get back to practice. All the best for your dance practice too, and I will see you around.” Chaeyoung shoots her a finger gun before jogging slowly back to the field.

 

Mina blinks at the retreating figure of ‘Jeongyeon’. Did the girl just flirt with her…? But isn’t she together with Nayeon…? Nayeon had always gushed to her after their dates, so she knows for a fact that they have been on a few dates, and are pretty much stable even if they aren’t exactly ‘official’ yet. Maybe she’s just thinking too much, maybe ‘Jeongyeon’ is just friendly like that to everyone. She shakes her head to clear it, walking briskly back to the dance studio. She has to focus and not let herself be distracted by things, or people that shouldn’t be in her head (and her heart) in the first place.

 

--

 

The Flower Girl Café is the nearest to her faculty, but she would rather walk 30 minutes to the arts faculty to get her coffee fix than to go to the Flower Girl Café and risk running into ‘Jeongyeon’. But it seems like the heavens have other plans, because she has just stepped out of the café when she runs into the one person she doesn’t want to run into.

 

“Oh hey Mina-ssi!” ‘Jeongyeon’s’ eyes drop down onto the cup she’s holding. “Man, so this is where you are getting your caffeine fix now huh? No wonder why you haven’t been coming to our café recently…” She says with a pout, but the teasing tone in her voice tells Mina that she’s just joking.

 

“You keep track of all your customers?” There’s nothing wrong with keeping track of customers, but it makes it seem like the other girl is paying attention to her which does weird things to her heart and Mina hates how it does.

 

“Just you.” She smiles at her, the dimple showing.

 

Woah. Hold up. The previous time at the water cooler can be passed off as a friendly thing, a friend supporting another friend at her performance, but this, this one right here sir, is definitely not a friendly thing.

 

“Are you… flirting with me?” Mina asks incredulously, she knows there are flirty people everywhere, but this one in front of her takes the cake. ‘Jeongyeon’ knows she’s friends with Nayeon, so why would she hit on her when she has something going on with Nayeon? Is she an idiot, or does she think Mina is an idiot?

 

“Have been for a while, but thanks for just noticing.” The girl’s grin grows bigger, and Mina resists the urge to slap her in the face. She also has the urge to tell Nayeon, because there is no way she’s going to let her friend date this greasy trash bag.

 

“You are so shameless.” Mina scoffs. She’s usually non-confrontational, preferring not to engage in arguments but this person in front of her is too much that she can’t just let this slide.

 

“I’m sorry…?” The blonde girl in front of her asks, eyes wide with confusion.

 

“Jeongyeon-ssi,” She addresses her with venon in her voice, “You might not be a thing with Nayeon-unnie yet, but don’t you think it’s not right to go around flirting with other people when you are dating someone else?”

 

There’s a beat of silence, and Mina gloats a little internally, taking the other girl’s silence as guilt. But the next moment, the blonde girl bursts out laughing, throwing her head back. Mina frowns, not understanding what is so funny. It takes a few more seconds before the girl finds back her composure, wiping the tears away from her eyes from laughing too hard.

 

“I think I need to introduce myself. You probably saw me with Jeongyeon-unnie’s name tag then but,” The blonde holds out her right hand, “My name is actually Chaeyoung and I’m single and definitely not dating Nayeon-unnie.”

 

Mina stills, trying to understand what’s happening. She still isn’t very convinced because well okay, getting the name tags mixed up is very possible, but Nayeon was all over her the other time she chanced upon them! Chaeyoung/Jeongyeon (whatever her name is) seems to sense that she still doesn’t really quite believe her, so she digs out for her wallet from her bag, opening it to reveal her student card.

 

Son Chaeyoung. 23 April 1999. And a picture on the right side of the card, one that is undeniably of the girl in front of her even though she had long black hair in the photograph. Mina immediately feels herself heating up at her mistake. She just totally embarrassed herself. “I’m sorry.”

 

Chaeyoung laughs, throwing her wallet back into her bag. “Well… if you are really sorry, how about a date this Sunday?”

 

--

 

Chaeyoung grins when she sees Mina making her way over to her, immediately pushing herself off the wall she’s leaning on.

 

“Sorry, did you wait very long?” Mina is on time, but Chaeyoung looks like she has been waiting for a while. But the girl just shakes her head with a smile.

 

“I just reached not long ago too.”  Chaeyoung tells her, immediately looking through the picnic basket she’s holding for something. She pulls out a small bouquet of roses, giving it to Mina. “Happy birthday.”

 

It takes a few seconds for Mina to respond, the girl finally reaching out for the bouquet. “Thank you. How did you know?”

 

“Nayeon-unnie.” Chaeyoung says it, because of course it’s her chatty friend who told her. She gestures ahead, and they start walking side by side leisurely towards the park. They don’t talk much, but the silence between them isn’t uncomfortable.

 

They find a spot by the tree, and Chaeyoung lays out the picnic mat before they sit down together. Mina is cursing her decision to wear a skirt today, she obviously didn’t think this through just now when choosing what to wear, only thinking about having to dress to impress. Thankfully, it seems like Chaeyoung has expected this situation, pulling out a blanket from the picnic basket and putting it over her exposed legs.

 

“Thank you.” Mina says with a grateful smile and Chaeyoung just waves it off, taking out lunch boxes and placing them on the picnic mat. She opens the lids, and it’s filled to the brim with all kinds of food; there’s kimbap, omelette, some weird looking salad and strawberry on ham and cheese(?).

 

“I got my grandma to make the kimbap and omelette, but I made the salad and strawberry dish myself.” Chaeyoung tells her. “It may look kind of iffy, but I swear it taste good.”

 

Mina picks up a strawberry, popping it in while Chaeyoung just looks at her expectantly. The combination may sound weird, but it actually tastes really good, the sweet strawberry being balanced out by the saltiness of the ham and the creaminess of the cheese. She nods, “It’s really good.”

 

Chaeyoung visibly lightens up at that, beaming widely. They dig in, slowly filling themselves with food while chatting with each other, getting to know each other better. (Chaeyoung is an art major, her favourite animal is tigers because she looks like them, likes Sesame Street, and her favourite MCU character is Black Panther. Thank god it’s not Cap A, because the Iron Man fangirl in her will not take that so easily.)

 

Now, they are lying on the mat, looking up at the clouds and tracing out the patterns they see. She doesn’t know if it’s because Chaeyoung is an art major, but her imagination really seems endless, pointing out shapes like turtles that have been flipped over onto its back and a chimpanzee lying on its side and having an arm up, making her crack up with laughter.

 

“Oh! That one over there looks like a kissing couple.” Chaeyoung points out again, and it really does look like a couple kissing, their hands on each other’s nape.

 

“Yeah, it does.” Mina agrees. But Chaeyoung doesn’t say anything back, causing her to avert her gaze to look at the girl beside her. The blonde is staring at her silently, as if asking for permission to do the same. She inches closer, slowly, but Mina doesn’t pull away, just closes her eyes instead. Lips meet hers hesitantly at first, but they start moving in momentum, dancing together in harmony. It’s only when the lack of air hits them that they pull apart, both panting.

 

Chaeyoung leans on her elbow, staring down at Mina adoringly, and Mina thinks she can really get used to this. “Happy birthday, Mina.”

 

“Thank you, Chaeyoungie.”

 

And that, was the story of Mina’s best birthday ever.

 

--

a/n: happy birthday minari!!

don't worry, this won't be the last you see of this story!