“Just a cup of hot cocoa thanks, freezing today ain’t it?”, asked Myungsoo, as he quickly gathered his change and gave me a slight anguished look,
“I hate this weather”.

“ah, but this is the time I get the most customers, so I’m not complaining.” I gave a light smile, and handed him back his change. I grabbed a large choc chip cookie and placed it on the counter.

“On the house, I’m sure Sungyeol would love it along with his extra strong coffee, which I’ve already put in the order for too.”

Myungsoo blushed slightly, and shook his head with a grin, “you know us too well, Sunggyu-shi, I think we ought to change coffee shops. But then again, who else could provide us with the best coffee and give us freebies?” 

I smiled and gave him a look, “don’t you even think about changing coffee shops, I’m your number one MyungYeol fanboy” I gave a laugh and waved my fisted hand around in a cheerleading pose. The black haired man blushed even harder and gave a shy laugh as he shook his head in embarrassment.

“Have a good morning, say hi to Sungyeol for me, will you?”

“Will do. Thank you Sunggyu, you’re one of the nicest people I know.”

“Just doing my job, Myungsoo-shi, just doing my job.” I grinned and gave him the same smile every day as I knew he’d be back again the next day.

A little input on this mysterious regular named Kim Myungsoo. Despite his cold exterior, on the inside he was as talkative and as kindhearted as his boyfriend, Lee Sungyeol. Three years ago, on a hot summer day, he ran into my coffee shop covered in red paint with a distressed look on his face. I remember standing for a few seconds, stunned, before leaving the coffee I was making to go into the storeroom to get him a tea towel. He looked at me gratefully before sitting down, wiping at his face and dabbing on his stained white shirt. I didn’t ask for a reason, nor did I ask for a name. I simply asked the first thing anyone rational who worked at a coffee shop asked,

“would you like a coffee?”

The next day he walked briskly into my shop and hastily took out the same tea towel from the day before, but this time it was freshly cleaned and bleached, with no sign of a red stain anywhere. I gave him a light smile, and he smiled back, handing over the towel. “Thank you.” He whispered, with a flicker in his eye that told me his character was so much more complex than a normal businessman who had an unfortunate accident.

After that event he came in every day, promptly at 7am every morning, asking for a different drink every time. It was 2 weeks later that he realised he had ordered and enjoyed every single drink on the menu and started his cycle again, occasionally mixing it up for ‘some fun’, he said with a lopsided grin on his face. He would come back every day at 7:15am to get another extra strong coffee for a special someone, who I later found out was Lee Sungyeol. But I’ll you about him when he comes in at exactly 2pm, also every day.

I realised I had zoned out whilst waiting for coffee to be drained, and quickly dried my dirtied hands before continuing to pour the black liquid into a paper cup. An expresso for this young gentleman, a hot lemon tea for this female student, and a low sugar hot cocoa for this middle aged woman. The said woman was dressed in heels and in a business attire as she said told me she couldn’t deal with caffeine well. I smiled and nodded understandingly as she went on about how she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all if she drank even the hint of a coffee bean. I quickly glanced at the brown cuckoo clock situated in the middle of the café. nine am. Perfect, two minutes later and I would get to have a break. I knew my customers well, and if everything went accordingly, no one wanted a coffee at exactly two minutes past nine.

I wiped my hands on the tea towel and gave a small sigh before grabbing my cup of caramel latte, it had long cooled since I made it before my first customer came in at 6:59. I leaned across the counter and observed my shop. I let my eyes run over the antiqued brown shelves carrying numerous volumes of encyclopedias, early 20^th century books on the discovery of coffee beans, to even the latest copy of Vogue girl. For the younger ones, I said when my best friend Dongwoo asked me why I even bothered. Wooden tables, some grouped in pairs, some grouped in four rounded around the cuckoo clock, all facing the glass door.

Grandpa Choi was on his fourth cup of coffee, on the far right of the shop right next to the glass window, flipping through the daily newspaper. He narrowed his eyes and furrowed his eyebrows together as he thought about all the vocabulary he had learned within the last seventy years of his life to find the perfect word that fit in the daily crossword. He would stay for a little longer, maybe I should start making his fifth cup of coffee now, I mentally noted to myself.

I placed my finished cup into the sink and began wiping down the tables. The old bell rang three times as the glass door opened, surprising me. I turned towards the irregular customer and grinned. First timer, it was always a bit exciting to have a first time customer.

I smiled widely and gave the young man, (my age maybe?), a few minutes to decide on what he would like. I observed what he was wearing, different to what people usually wore around here, I mused. He was wearing a black and white cardigan, over navy blue skinny jeans, and finished the look with some black Dr. Martens.

Not bad, I thought.

Impressed, I look back up just to meet the eyes of the stranger and lightly blushed. Crap, did he just see me check him out. Shoot, okay act busy. Act busy, I’ll clean the table, no wait I just did that, okay I’ll wash this cup, wait why are there no more cups to wash.

Damn it, Kim Sunggyu, why are you so efficient. I stood there dumbly and stared for a few seconds. A light cough cleared my thoughts and brought me back to the stranger, who now had an amused look on his perfect, I mean amused. Yeah I said that already, okay amused face.

I stood there, not making an attempt to smile or ask him what he would like.

A few seconds passed with both of us just standing there, staring at each other, before he smiled nervously and said “hi”.

I hummed in reply and gave a small smile, too dumbstruck to do anything more.

Okay, there are two things I could do. Give a bright smile and ask him what he would like, or offer him the special for today and then ask him what he would like.

I decided I would do neither of those things.

Instead I walked up to the counter and just stood there like a tree. Literally, not exaggerating. I bet you I could replace that cuckoo clock and do an even better job at just standing there. I think I might quit my job and just become one of those busking statues covered in silver paint, but then again I might be allergic to that. Hm, okay maybe not. I’ll just stick to my beloved coff-

He laughed. My goodness, that was an attractive laugh. Okay I’m kidding, though that was extremely se-

“can I have an Iced Matcha Chocolatte with a shot of caramel?”

“No. I mean yes. I mean, wait what?”

Oh god, Kim Sunggyu.

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First chapter done! i need your advice, do you guys want to bolded parts when talking or do you just want it normal? i'm totally new to this and all these buttons above this text box is kindve confusing and i don't want to risk clicking them all haha! oops :S

thanks for subscribing and commenting! :)

and i think i might make this a three shot rather than a one shot!