“I told you, he only wants to be served by you.” Sandeul comes back with a caramel macchiato with bubbles, sent back from Chanyeol the second time.

“Well, Sansan, you can tell him that we don’t do requests here.”

“Come on, this is the second drink he’d ordered.”

“Let him order more, then. That’d be good for business.” Isa says without looking at Sandeul.

“Now, I don’t know what you’re playing at, but I’m not playing with you. You take this drink and you give it to him before I wake the Bear up.” Sandeul shoves the tray into Isa’s hands and grabs her shoulders and pushes her gently in Chanyeol’s direction. He’s sitting in his seat the other day, where it’s kind of hidden from the rest of the café.

Isa takes a deep breath as she steps into the evil lair. She can feel his eyes on her as she sets down the drink.

“Can you sit down for a minute? You don’t have that many customers right now, so it wouldn’t hurt, right?” So this is what it’s like, to have that voice pleading you to sit with him. It’s so much better than I ever imagined.

Well, that era is over. Not gonna go jelly over his deep gorgeous voice anymore.

“Do you hate me that much?” Chanyeol asks softly as she steps further from him.

“No, I hate you more thank you think!” Isa almost screamed. Chanyeol winces.

He winced, Isa thinks. Shoot.There’s no way he’s gonna find me attractive now. Wait, what? Who said that?

“I’m sorry.” Chanyeol says, his face turning red, blending in perfectly with the crimson walls behind him.

“You’re sorry.” Isa repeats, her tone unforgiving and cold. Isa, forgive him already. Look at his face. Could that be the face of a liar?

Yes. Yes it could.

“I’m sorry that I was mean-no, evil. Really evil. I’m sorry that I was really evil to you the other day. I went overboard… Is there any way for me to get you to forgive me?”

I like the way you phrase your words. Careful. Not demanding. Like the power’s in my hands now. BUT COME ON, YOU SOUND LIKE YOU’RE READING OFF A FREAKING SCRIPT! You’re not even saying it properly, messing up your lines and stuff.

“Forget it. Just… Don’t come here again.” Isa says with a heavy heart, walking back to the counter. That’s right. Let him go. Giving him a chance to properly apologize would just mean he’d sneak his way back to your heart again, just to rip it open from the inside.

“But please, give me a chance to explain why I was acting that way.” Chanyeol had stepped in front of her.

“Okay, do you need more props or are you fine with just that?” Isa asks, pointing to the caramel macchiato still in his hand.

Chanyeol grins, but turns serious in a split second.

“Look, this is going to sound stupid and you’re gonna judge me so hard after this, but I’ll just go ahead and tell you anyway.”

“Oh, I’ve been judging you hard already since the other day.”

Chanyeol grins again and tells his story of the dare.

“So let me get this straight. Kai dared you to be a jerk for a day?”

“Half a day.”

“Okay, half a day. And that’s why you were mean to me?”

“I was evil to you. I’m really sorry for that. But Sehun told me that you’re really nice and I decide that if I’m gonna have to involve someone in this dare, it’d have to be someone nice and forgiving.”

“Well, I can be nice, but I’m not really a forgiving kind of person.” Isa says, looking away from Chanyeol who is now the bubbles from the bottom of the cup with such adorable concentration. He’d ordered her one, too. She doesn’t even need to use her employee discount if EXO members and Jinyoung keep buying her bubble tea.

“Don’t you like bubble tea though? Why don’t you drink it? Sehun told me to just pick the weirdest flavor out of the menu and you’ll love it.”

“Durian’s not a weird flavor! You just had it before your macchiato.”

“I love durian. But most people think it’s weird.”

Isa melted a bit inside to find out that Chanyeol loves durian. Damn EXO. Always letting me in their private lives. And how can you love durian too? You’re so perfect. Well, you would be if you’re not evil.

“I’m trying to maintain a firm unforgiving stance.” Isa says, sliding her cup to Chanyeol. “So tell me, what do you get if you lose the dare? Do you get punished?”

“I get flicked on the head.” Chanyeol says, his face becoming redder.

“Wow. How humiliating that would be, getting flicked on the head by a guy who’d you been living with, in front of what? Six plus manager, I presume? Six other people that you have also been living with. What pain. I know now why you choose to trample on my dignity in front of your fellow bandmate and my employer instead of sacrificing your sacred forehead.”

Chanyeol’s face had turned dark, like the color of red wine. “I’m sorry”, he says. Isa blinks. This is turning out worse than she’d ever thought.

 “I’m really, really sorry. I just need you to know that I might be stupid, like you said, I might be… Well, I came here, originally, to let you know that the Happy Virus you see isn’t fake. That’s me, it really is. I’m stupid, selfish, irresponsible, and I have a thousand other flaws, but I’m not the guy you met that Monday. This is turning out worse than I thought. I’m sorry to just march in here and expect your forgiveness. It was stupid to act the way I did over a stupid dare. I’m sorry for taking your time, too. I’ll leave now.” He gets up and leaves.

Isa stares hard at the table. Yup, this IS totally worse than I thought too.

She no longer feels the hate burning in her heart from three days ago. Now it’s just empty.

Sandeul comes over not too long after Chanyeol had left, and she’s still at that table, like a girl who just broke up with her boyfriend.

When Sandeul speaks, it’s in Chanyeol’s voice. “Okay, not too sound crabby or anything, but do you want that durian drink? If you’re gonna throw it out, might as well let me have it. Or give it to your friend over there. Just… Don’t let it go to waste. Durians have seasons to them, you know.”

Isa looks up. It’s Chanyeol, not Sandeul. He’s not looking at her, but has his hands extended. She hands him the drink and walks away to the kitchen area, facing the back part of the cafe.

When she hears the bell go “Ti~ling!” and she sees his reflection leaving in the window, Isa goes to the sink and wipes her eyes.

“Dude.” This time it really is Sandeul. “Dude, what did you say to that guy? He was crying rivers! Did you guys broke up? You told me you never had a boyfriend.”

Isa sniffs. “He wasn’t my boyfriend.”

“Why are you crying then? What did he do to you?”

“He... He... He apologized to me.” Isa stutters.

Sandeul stares at Isa. “Ooo-kaaayyy.  I’m so confused right now... You know what, I won’t even ask anything.”

He wasn’t my boyfriend. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t break my heart. Again.