If you were to tire of the gray skies and glass skyscrapers of Seoul, you could escape, leave for just a bit, to the vibrant countryside of the mountains a while away. The train takes two hours, and you can watch the dreary concrete houses fall away to bright green fields and clear blue skies. When the train stops and sweet mountain air fills your lungs, that’s when you’ll feel alive again, walking down the small concrete road to the town below. You’ll find that, despite being a modern town, Cheongsu still retains many of its rural charms, and you don’t mind it at all.

The most noticeable building in town is undoubtedly the clock tower of Cheongsu University, affectionately nicknamed the Big Ding-Dong by students and residents. Cheongsu is very much a typical college town, and you will find very little malice here. Even the manager of the small homestyle hotel you stay in, when you tell him how long you want to stay, offers you a discount if you’re staying more than three days, and the other townspeople, recognizing you as an outsider, will enthusiastically recommend places to eat and see.

You might feel pressured, but you know they don’t mean any harm.What’s the point in relaxing if you don’t explore a bit? They mentioned something about a cafe, incredibly popular with the university students. It was started by an outsider, they say when you ask. He moved here three years ago and it was a huge hit immediately. You learn through the students that the man who owns the cafe is friendly and kind, and his milk tea is to die for, having propelled the majority of the students through days good and bad.

If the thought strikes you to visit, which it will, the townspeople will point you through downtown, about a block away from the actual university campus, to a quaint little shop called Realitea. It’s in the perfect location, you’ll find, close enough to campus but also the general residential neighborhood, painted a nice shade of lavender and framed by climbing roses around the entrance.

When you enter, you’ll find a smiling man behind the counter who asks you what you want today, and you’ll stop and stare at the menu for a second before hesitating still and ordering the simplest plain milk tea, but he’ll smile with his eyes and when he goes to make it, you’ll sit down at a table near the back and look into the small garden, butterfly bushes and daffodils waving in the breeze, and then he’ll call out your name, eyes shining, and you’ll fall in love.