“Of all the things you could have brought back from Japan, wasabi flavoured kit kat?” Kyungsoo exclaimed with disbelief, his mouth agape from shock and frustration.

“I didn’t only bring back kit kat,” Hayoon huffed, crossing her arms across her chest. “There’s Osaka’s famed kurumi mochi too.”

“One tiny box,” snarled Kyungsoo, then pointing at the significantly larger bag of kit kat to emphasise his point.

“I only had one small carry on luggage ok? Limited space.”

“And yet you managed to bring back some fancy coffee beans for Minseok.”

“Hey, don’t drag me into this!” Minseok frowned, defensively holding onto the coffee beans.

“This is preferential treatment,” Kyungsoo declared with certainty.

Leaning against the counter and propping her chin on her hand, Hayoon just rolled her eyes.

“Minseok doesn’t force feed me weird food made with flavours that I dislike.”

“You should be thanking me,” Kyungsoo countered, leaning towards Hayoon from the other side of the counter. “I’m introducing you to a whole new world by expanding your taste palate.”

Silence ensued as Hayoon and Kyungsoo initiated a staring contest, neither willing to back down. Fearing that the two were scaring away the customers in Dear Me, Minseok pinched both Kyungsoo and Hayoon’s noses, forcing them to look away from each other and frown at Minseok instead.

“Time to cool it down,” quipped Miseok, looking ever so calm. “Hayoon was in Japan for Music Bank in Osaka for work and went out of her way to buy gifts for us, just show your appreciation Soo.”

“Exactly.” Hayoon agreed. “Oh and why don’t you consider making pistachio mochi next time?”

Batting her eyelashes at Kyungsoo, the corners of her lips curled up into a feline smile. Hayoon tilted her head to the side, patiently waiting for the male to agree. Kyungsoo however simply gave her a blank stare, remaining unfazed by her antics.

“So Hayoon, how’s your masters going? You’re studying broadcasting right?” Minseok interrupted, not wanting another stare down battle to commence.

Giving Kyungsoo a low snarl — which reminded the male of a kitten rather than a tigress — Hayoon turned her attention towards Minseok.

“Yeah,” Hayoon quipped. “My bachelors was all theory based, so the work experience provided by my masters in broadcasting is a nice change of pace. I was quite lucky to be assigned to intern at KBS Music Bank, so I get to travel too, though it does keep me quite busy. On the plus side it has alleviated my mum’s constant worry that I will end up being a starving researcher.”

At the final sentence, Hayoon pulled a face, earning a hearty chuckle from Minseok.

The door of the Dear Me opened in that moment, letting the smothering August air sliver its way in the air-conditioned coffee shop. In stepped Jongin, his recently dyed purple hair sticking to his face from the heat.

“Here’s my favourite customer!”

Seeing Jongin’s appearance, Kyungsoo’s face broke into a welcoming smile, his mouth widening into a heart shape. His comment referring to Jongin as his favourite customer was clearly a direct juxtaposition to Minseok referring to Hayoon as his favourite customer, but it took Jongin by surprise nonetheless.

Taken aback by Kyungsoo’s uncharacteristically enthusiastic welcome, Jongin threw Hayoon an accusatory glance.

“What did you do?”

“Nothing,” Hayoon mumbled into her cup of hand brew coffee, relishing the warm caress of the drink on her tongue.

“I still don’t get how you enjoy that so much,” Jongin pondered. “You add no sugar, no milk, just plain and dark. Like you soul.”

“Sugar and milk would just taint the subtle notes of single origin coffee beans,” Hayoon responded, rolling her eyes in offence at Jongin’s disrespect towards her beloved hand brew coffee.

“Ignore her silly blabbering about coffee,” Kyungsoo interjected, receiving an indignant look from Minseok. “Here, I kept a slice of cinnamon infused brownie with caramel drizzle aside for you.”

At the sight of his ultimate favourite brownie made by his favourite baker, Jongin swooned. Hayoon in the meantime scrunched her nose, unable to understand Jongin’s inexplicable animosity towards her choice in coffee and his unhealthy sweet tooth. The tan male would certainly wrack up quite a dentist’s bill in the future from all the sugar he consumed.

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Minseok clapped loudly, garnering everyone’s attention.

“We should get ready to go. We need to be at the theatre by 5 and if we are late Junmyeon will skin me alive.”

“Baekhyun will probably complain to us until we go deaf,” Jongin mumbled as he bit into the brownie.

Tonight was Baekhyun’s debut musical performance. Soon after graduating, the actor joined the same company Junmyeon was signed with, making them colleagues. As the main lead for the performance tonight, Junmyeon had invited his close friend Minseok and by extension Kyungsoo too. Baekhyun on the other hand had invited Jongin and Hayoon to share his mo