“You know it’s a drug, right? Without it, your head starts hurting, you get tremors when you don’t have any after a short amount of time. You know, literal withdrawal symptoms. Fatigue, irritation. Etcétera,” Elkie says as she looks at the woman across the smoky wooden table pointedly. She crosses her arms for emphasis.

If Seunghee were to be honest right now, Elkie is the one irritating her right now. She pretends not to have heard her pseudo-lecture and drinks her large mug of piping hot coffee with even more gusto, doing her best to slurp as loudly as possible to piss Elkie off, not caring that the other customers in this café hear her. Seunghee’s victory comes easy; her best friend slumps in her seat.

“Seunghee. I’m serious. Are you even listening to me?”

Seunghee slurps her coffee again.

“Okay, you. Keep doing that and I’ll stop giving you my tablets for your period pains.”

Seunghee’s half-lidded eyes crawl to look at Elkie in the dark atmosphere and she sighs. She prefers her friend’s extra-strength tablets to the cheap ones she’s got at home, so she adjusts her seating in the metal chair to see if she can weasel her way out of this one. “Gimme a break. I've heard, like, three hundred versions of that same speech, Elkie! The only thing they ever convince me of is that I’ll be drinking coffee on my deathbed.”

Frustrated, Elkie checks her silver watch instead of replying to her. It’s 7:30 am, meaning it’s almost time. It soothes Elkie, that thought, and her feathers un-ruffle themselves just a bit. She adjusts her blouse and crosses her legs for good measure, in case a certain someone looks her way this time. Finally, she deigns herself to speak to the bane of her existence, or her best friend, depending on the day. “You’re obnoxious.”

“Another thing you say to me everyday. Change it up, will ya?” Elkie sticks her tongue out at Seunghee as the latter continues. “Besides, I may be annoying and infuriating or whatever but I’m also the coolest friend ever. Who else loves you enough to get up at such an ungodly hour just to see you chicken out on talking to your crush–two whole years in a row?”

Elkie briefly checks outside, past the ceiling-to-floor windows of Soul G’s Café, before answering, albeit rather stubbornly. “No one...” 

Seunghee doesn’t miss the way Elkie’s teeth grit as she admits that. She hides a smile and quietly drinks her coffee, deciding not to rub in this victory. Yet. “Today, Elkie. I want you to at least make her look in your direction today. Make all of this worth it.” 

Elkie looks at Seunghee in fear. It’s not for a lack of trying, she’s about to say in defense, when the sound of a bell softly ringing captures her attention. Both girls turn to look at the front of the café and see her walk in. 

RPG, they nicknamed her, code for Really Pretty Girl. Elkie doesn’t know anything about her, not even her name, as one can see, except that she’s nice, given how well she treats Soul G’s staff, and that she’s stunning. RPG’s dark hair is long, always either loose and straight or in a pretty ponytail; her big brown eyes are full of kindness and life; she’s tall, to boot, nearly a whole head taller than Elkie.

“God, Seunghee. Look at her. She walks like a goddess,” Elkie gasps out, hardly audible.

Taking a small break from drinking her black poison to look, Seunghee sees RPG walk up to the counter like... any other human being. She stifles her eye roll, for her best friend’s sake. Instead she says, encouragingly, “Let’s take bets on what she’ll order today. My money’s on a double chocolate chip frap.”

“Oh, no way. Today’s a cold day. She’s definitely getting a hot Survivor,” Elkie says matter-of-factly, referring to Soul G’s signature cappuccino with coconut and almond flavors. 

“Good guess,” Seunghee says, kicking Elkie’s nice shoes. “You owe me ten thousand won if I’m right, though. Now go!”

The smile fades from her friend’s face. “No, wait, Seunghee. I don’t think I’m ready.”

“Yes you are. You’ve been practicing what to say to her for the past six hundred days. No one is as ready as you.”

Elkie swallows hard. She has a point. “You’re right. I’m going.” She grabs the armrests of the loveseat she’s on and squeezes the cream leather with her nails, leaving deep imprints. “I’m going,” she repeats, less sure now that she’s thought about it for longer than .5 seconds. Seunghee puts down her coffee, which is a big deal, and mimics pushing her toward RPG. 

“Go! I’m rooting for you!”

Elkie stands up like a newborn deer and makes her way to the front of the café, where, by luck, she manages to beat some man to the spot in line just behind RPG , and this is is good but also really really bad, because she is not ready. It’s the closest she’s ever been to her crush. 

Elkie lifts a cowardly finger to tap one of the taller girl’s shoulders when they suddenly slump.

“I swear I had it with me! I’m so sorry,” Elkie hears the girl in front of her say, and then she watches her tap her pockets nervously. Today, RPG has her hair in a ponytail, so her ears and forehead are exposed; Elkie can easily see that her entire face is bright pink right now and that her eyebrows are deeply furrowed. 

And then– and then she turns. RPG’s eyes travel down and look straight at Elkie.

Straight. At. Elkie.

Oh my god, Elkie thinks. 

“Sorry for holding up the line,” RPG says with a strained smile. She’s blushing deeper now.

“No, it’s fine, take your time!” She tries to sound as friendly as possible, but frankly, Elkie isn’t sure if what she said was even decipherable . The girl in front of her seems to have understood, though, as she sends her a more relaxed, thankful grin. 

Elkie might as well have been blasted by the sun.

She’d bask in it more, like a cat at a window, but then she notices RPG walk away, her hands empty. 

“Sorry. Guess I left the card at home.”

Home. No. No, she’s going home! This is the first time in two years they’ve even talked, Elkie can’t let her go home yet!

Elkie’s brain barely registers her own mouth’s movements by the time the full sentence is out: “Wait, hey, I’ll pay for you!”

It’s like the whole world stops, but really, only the girl in front of Elkie does. Same thing.

“Really? Uhm, okay.” She hesitates for a moment, understandably. A stranger just offered to buy her a drink out of the blue! “Could you get me a Survivor?”

Elkie nods and quickly orders two of them. They’re told to wait at the side for their order and Elkie feels like she’ll die. Now she has to make conversation. What should she talk about? She looks to Seunghee, who is mouthing ‘ Say something you idiot say something you idiot.’

“So. You like coffee?” It’s the most normal topic Elkie can come up with. 

“Yeah. Can’t live without it,” says RPG, her smile infectious as Elkie finds herself smiling too.

“Wow. Me too. I… I love coffee so much, I drink it every day!” Elkie’s blood runs cold immediately. Where the hell did that lie come from? She would literally rather bite a raw onion than take a sip of that stuff.

“Elkie, two Survivors!” The employee behind the counter saves Elkie before she starts spitting out more lies. (She’s almost sure she would’ve said she attends Yonsei University, or that she’s a part time firefighter.)

Elkie grabs their drinks and hands one of them to RPG. Her crush takes it gratefully. “Thank you so much,” she breathes out after taking a long sip. “My name is Tzuyu, by the way.”

Elkie’s heart beats faster. Tzuyu. Rhymes with Gorgeous. Synonym: Beautiful. 

Tzuyu checks her phone and hisses. An apologetic look crosses her face. “Hey, I gotta run. Thanks again for the cappuccino. You seriously saved my day,” Tzuyu says, her tone stressing that Elkie really did her a huge favor.

“Yeah, no problem. I hope I see you around!”

“You might! I come by here every day, same time!”

“Hey! Me too, haha. Guess maybe we’ll see each other sooner than we thought.”

Tzuyu bows respectfully and heads out, but not before saying “See you tomorrow then, Elkie.” The bell jingles above the door once again.

Elkie stares out the window. She said her name. Tzuyu said her name. And– oh lord, and Elkie knows Tzuyu’s name now. She’s not sure what to do with herself. She’s progressed further than she had imagined, and now she’s unsure of what’s next. After knowing her name, what’s her next move?

“Elkie!”

She snaps out of it. Suddenly she’s no longer on cloud nine. She’s in Soul G’s Café and she’s in people’s way.

“Elkie!” She hears her name again and turns away from the window to see Seunghee furiously wave her over with her empty coffee cup.

Wait. Coffee. 

“Seunghee, oh my god,” she says as she rushes to her best friend, “I need your help— also you owe me ten thousand won.”

 

—

 

There are two hints that tell Elkie that something is very, very wrong, like maybe Seunghee is getting a bit of petty revenge for the three hundred coffee lectures.

i. The cup Seunghee gave her is shaped like a giant plastic soy sauce bottle, red cap and everything. It’s bold, brash, and terribly ugly, but her friend swears it’s a trend within the coffee-drinking community, something that started in the States. But she acts weird as she explains it. Well, Seunghee always acts weird, but Elkie recognizes Seunghee’s malicious grin when she sees it. Unfortunately she doesn’t think much of it at the time, because she’s too preoccupied with keeping up the lie she told Tzuyu. 

She’ll regret that later.

When Tzuyu walks in and her eyes land on Elkie, her eyes are more drawn to the ‘cup’ in her hands. 

“Hey,” Tzuyu greets as Elkie meets her at the front. She points to the thing in her hand. “Hazelnut?”

Elkie racks her brain for the coffee terminology Seunghee taught her earlier. Not once did she mention hazelnut or what it could mean. She giggles nervously. “Uhm, what?”

“Or is that Pumpkin Spice flavored?” Tzuyu tries again.

Elkie jumps. “Oh! Flavor! Let’s see.” She takes a sip and tries not to recoil from the taste. This stuff is awful, she says inwardly. She’s had coffee before but whatever this is may taste ten times worse. “It tastes like– oh, what’s wrong?”

ii. Tzuyu looks like she just watched Elkie eat a worm, the way her eyes are wide and her stance is leaning away from her. “Is it...good?” Tzuyu asks, and Elkie’s blood pressure drops.

“It’s great,” Elkie lies bullet-quick, and Tzuyu blinks once, slow and deliberate, before she laughs a little and relaxes. 

“You know, when you said you like coffee, I didn’t think you drank the creamer too. I’m not judging, though.” Tzuyu says this very innocently, calmly, but Elkie feels like she shatters at the words. It’s like she can almost hear Seunghee’s evil cackle from across the café.

A quick glance is all it takes for Elkie to confirm her suspicions. Seunghee better enjoy her last moments on Earth laughing it up all she wants because as soon as Tzuyu leaves, she’s going to break that white mug of hers over her dumb head. For now, though, Elkie needs to survive this conversation and rescue whatever shred of dignity she has left.

“Oh? This is creamer, huh?” Elkie looks at the cup with new eyes. Honestly, now that she thinks about it, she can’t fully blame Seunghee when it’s very clear this wasn’t ever a cup to begin with. It’s just a flavored creamer dispenser. Elkie has seen these with her own two eyes at the market and never connected the two dots. “It did taste kind of funny, but my friend”—she gestures at a grinning Seunghee—“kindly gave it to me, so how could I turn it down?”

Tzuyu smiles and her eyes disappear behind her cheeks, but they still show a curious glint. “You didn’t recognize the coffee creamer? As a coffee lover?” Together they step into the line, and it feels so natural that Elkie forgets she’s being questioned for a second.

The second ends, and her palms sweat. She figures it’s time to come clean. She slumps a little. “Okay, you caught me. I lied yesterday. I actually hate coffee. I just got really nervous and the fib slipped out.” She bows her head as much as she can to show she’s actually very sorry for compulsively lying like that. “My friend is the one that likes coffee. Not me.”

Tzuyu shrugs coolly, surprising her. “It happens. Sometimes I lie when I’m nervous too. That begs the question, though: why were you so nervous, hm?” Her eyebrows rise and disappear behind her bangs today. 

Elkie coughs into her fist, feeling a rush from finally having an opportunity to tell the truth. “I’ve actually, erm, wanted to talk to you for a while, so once I got the chance to, yesterday, I was unsure of what to say. Never thought I’d actually work up the courage to talk to you, so I didn’t plan ahead. Guess all I could do was lie to seem cool to you.” Once it’s out, a weight is lifted off her shoulders. Are confessions always supposed to feel this good?

“You’re so cute,” Tzuyu decides then, blushing at her own bold words. “Do you mind if I sit with you two today? I kind of want to meet your tricky friend and tell her that she could have at least made you drink the Funfetti creamer.”

Elkie feels herself start to buzz, but whether it’s the creamer finally hitting or the excitedness of knowing Tzuyu wants to spend time with her, she doesn’t know.