How did they do it? How could they always make such beautiful and cute and unique designs in the lattes? She tried not to squeal with joy when the waiter put down a steaming cup of creamy latte in front of her, with an adorable teddy bear design. Latte art was magical! She quickly whipped out her phone and snapped a picture, and the waiter smiled with a mixture of pride and amusement – their lattes and cakes made customers have a tendency to click photos!

"Thank you!" she said. "This one is so pretty!"

"Better than the bunny?" the waiter teased. "You said that one was the best the other day!"

"They're all so good! How can anyone even do such pretty latte art?"

"Practise and skill, of course! Wait for a week or two and see, we're releasing a new design – a very cute one!"

Eyes sparkling, she said she would make sure to come to hype over the new design, and the waiter laughed and had to hurry to tend to the two women who had just entered the shop.

It was such a pity to drink this! She picked it up very carefully, not wanting to ruin the pretty teddy bear design, and tilted it gently and took a sip. Delicious! Warm and creamy and sweet and just the right amount of coffee! Sighing with contentment, she pulled out a thick textbook and a notebook from the backpack she had placed on the chair next to her. Time to study!

Almost an hour went by – reading, writing notes, and sipping coffee. The smell of coffee and cakes kept her company, and she liked the little bell that jingled whenever the main door opened.

Her classmates had been pretty surprised when they found out she did most of her studying at the little cafe twenty minutes away from her apartment – "Isn't it noisy and distracting?"

This might sound silly, but silence is louder and more distracting to her. Silence is the louder than the loudest of noises, a vast empty blanket of nothingness that pressed against her so hard, like it was trying to suffocate her.

It's not that she didn't enjoy being in silence. She did. It's just that silence can become unbearable and suffocating if she was in it for too long. That's how she had picked up the habit of studying at cafes, or at parks. Especially the past year and half she moved to Seoul. For her, that was the hardest part of living here alone– not college, not travelling far when she went to visit her parents, but loneliness.

Mind starting to drift, she realized an hour had gone by and it was time for a snack. She left her things on the table and headed towards the counter, where the cakes were on display. That was one of her favourite things about this cafe! The cakes were so pretty, and they tasted as good as they looked. There were eloborately decorated ones, cute ones, more simple ones, and ones that the chefs were in the mood to make – sometimes they would get fits of creativity for their cakes. She will never forget the cake they had decorated to look exactly like a burger, or the green mermaid.

She took her time looking at the cakes, enjoying the pretty display and pondering over which one she should try today. But of course, she made up her mind when she saw that the angel food cake today had chocolate shavings on the very generous layer of whipped cream on top. Seems like no matter how many different cakes there were, she went for the angel food cake the most.

"Huh? I don't understand..." a worried voice said from the counter. It was that tall man she had seen around here sometimes, who always sat and read at his table alone – like her. "I don't understad how none of them work..."

"You might want to check with the bank," suggested the girl who worked at the cash register. "Anyway, you can pay in cash."
 

So his credit card got denied.... and judging from his furrowed brows, he was worried. She knew how scary it could be to have a card rejected...

"That's just it," said the man. "I don't have any..."

"E-excuse me?" Her voice came out small and quiet; she wondered if it had been heard at all.

The man and the girl both looked at her, and before she lost the courage, she said, "I could pay for you..."

He blinked. "Thank you... that's very kind of you... but I wouldn't want to impose..."

"It's ok," she said hurriedly.