Stupid Mistletoe

By: sharl/zielddhy

-13 days before Christmas-

“ ! Of I’m so screwed!” Kyuhyun curses as he scrambles around his not-so-tidy-bedroom to get ready. The stupid alarm apparently has given up ringing after Kyuhyun has hit the snooze button for the fifth time and now is sitting silently on top of the bedside table, watching in smugness as its owner panicking. Kyuhyun has class in less than –he consults his watch– in twenty minutes and his Advanced Business Management professor is super strict. Add that to a bad divorce she just has, any student who comes in late is unquestionably doomed. Kyuhyun shudders.

Ten minutes later Kyuhyun is at the university’s gate –record time!– trying to unruffled his anxiety. He is pretty sure he did not just run over that cat with his speeding car. Pulling into an empty parking space, Kyuhyun decides he’s entitled to have some caffeine; it will undoubtedly help calming his nerves. Besides, with the spare ten minutes he can afford going into his usual café.

The décor inside has been changed with the approaching Christmas and Kyuhyun has to admit it looks especially pretty. There is a gigantic Christmas tree complete with its decorations glinting at one corner, some miniature snowmen standing cheerfully on each table, plastic snowflakes winking from the ceiling and a huge bouquet of mistletoe is at the entrance. With no customer in the line, Kyuhyun happily marches to the counter and is immediately served by a barista.

“Iced cappuccino, please, less sugar,” he orders after checking the menu he has seen countless times. Yes, although it is nearly freezing outside, he always prefers his drinks to be cold instead of piping hot, don’t ask him why.

“Sure,” the barista answers with a dimpled smile. Kyuhyun takes out his card to pay for the drink and hands it to the still smiling barista. One minute later, his drink arrives and the barista hands his card back with a receipt.

He is about to leave when he hears the barista speaks again. “Umm, I don’t mean to disturb you but I am desperate for you to know my name. My name is Choi Siwon,” the barista adds nervously.

Kyuhyun blinks. “Okay.”

“It’s just, well, I’ve seen you around here and…yeah.”

“Got it.”

“Look, I know you must be wary for strangers,” the barista says hurriedly as Kyuhyun moves towards the door. “But like I said I’ve seen you around and make your drinks for almost a month now, hoping that you would pause one day and look at my face.”

“Guess I didn’t,” Kyuhyun replies without stopping his stride.

“Well, will you?” the barista pipes up pitifully.

Kyuhyun huffs in irritation. He then glances behind him, takes one good half-second look at the barista’s face and says, “Okay. Bye.”

Siwon then jumps over the counter, making his way towards Kyuhyun as fast as his long legs will carry him, hoping to catch the student before he goes out the door. Kyuhyun tenses as he felt somebody touches his shoulder. He grits his teeth and turns around, ready to lash out at anyone who dares touching him. Instead, he can only stands frozen as the same horribly rude barista suddenly kisses him.

The barista releases him few seconds later and immediately goes to explanation, “I’m sorry I know I shouldn’t have done that but we are under mistletoe,” he points up with sheepish smile towards a bunch of greens hanging from the ceiling, “and all my exes told me that I’m a good kisser so I thought I should go with my forte.”

Kyuhyun stays silent for a moment, “Umm, Siwon…is it?” the barista gives a happy and rigorous nod, “you really shouldn’t have done that.” Without saying anything else, Kyuhyun opens his plastic glass and pours the iced cappuccino all over the other’s head.

After making sure there is not a single drop left, Kyuhyun smiles, leans closer and whispers, “And oh, your ex? They lied.”

-12 days before Christmas-

Kyuhyun hides behind a magazine he isn’t really reading. It is rather hard to ignore someone who just stole his first kiss just one day before, but hey he’s doing his best here. Besides Kyuhyun needs his daily dose of cold drinks (with caffeine, preferably) and the best way to get that is by not looking at the man who stands behind a counter as he orders. He contemplated earlier to go to another café, but after fifteen minutes driving around without finding any decent café he was forced to drive back into the same spot again.

However, it is proven extremely hard to ignore the barista as the said man is now glaring rather ferociously at him. In Kyuhyun’s defense, he feels he did nothing wrong, the man was very rude (his first kiss OMG his first kiss!) after all. Kyuhyun does his best to remind himself that he is a paying customer here and thus can’t be so easily intimidated. And it wasn’t that good of a kiss anyway.

Okay so technically, as it was his first kiss, Kyuhyun doesn’t really have anything to compare it with, but he is absolutely sure that being kissed by a complete stranger is not how his first kiss supposed to be like. It is not such a wishful thinking is it, asking to be kissed by someone you love, or at least know beforehand?? And the man even has the nerve to blame it on mistletoe no less. Kyuhyun scowls. Stupid mistletoe.

After one agonizing moment of pure awkwardness, finally his iced chocolate arrived (he has been craving for some sweets this morning). The same barista hands it to him and Kyuhyun has no choice but to lower his magazine so that he can take his drinks.

“It took me most of the day,” the barista says, “but I have forgiven you.”

Kyuhyun replies with a mocking smile, “I’m glad, I was concerned.”

“Okay, it was wrong for me to kiss you like that,” the barista admits but he still hasn’t let go of Kyuhyun’s drink, making the student scowled.

“You think?”

“I think it’d be great if you give me a chance to redeem myself and let me buy you dinner.”

“How about you give me my drink,” Kyuhyun tugs on the plastic cup still held tightly in the barista’s hand, “And I’ll give you my redemption.”

“Aren’t you at least curious to know why I want to go out with you?”

“Not at all. Now, are you going to give me my drink or do I have to call your manager?” the student finally snaps. Goodness, this thing is getting ridiculous. He just wants to get a drink, not an offer of a stupid date from a stupid barista.

“I’m sorry, but he’s not available. But he works for me though, so I’m sure I can handle your complaint,” the barista says with a smug smile.

Kyuhyun looks at the other in disbelief, “the manager works for you? You…are the owner of this café?”

Siwon nods, “this and a few others.”

Kyuhyun is stunned.

Siwon raises an eyebrow and gives out a mocking expression, “Aah, so that makes it all the difference now that I’m the owner? Not just some low-paid barista and definitely not a majordomo anymore? You have to admit that it was wrong for you to prejudge me.”

Kyuhyun smiles and laughs rather awkwardly, “Okay I admit, it was wrong for me to dump the coffee on you. The owner, you say?” as the barista nods, Kyuhyun lifts his glass and pours its content all over the other’s head. Again. “He should get a chocolate,” he adds with a polite smile.

-11 days before Christmas-

Kyuhyun hates shopping. Well, not exactly, it’s definitely not the way how he wants to spend his valuable free time with but it is necessary to do grocery shopping now and then. Or less he might die from hunger in his little one room apartment if the weather went bad and somehow the whole city got snowed in. Come to think of it, it’s not such a faraway thought; this winter is said to be the hardest winter in the last five years. Maybe the global warming is catching up on them and causing the weird weather and all.

Anyway, he better be prepared. That’s why he is in a supermarket right now, filling his shopping cart with instant noodles, junk foods, waters, soft drinks etc. A shopping list is safely tucked in his jeans pocket, but after one quick rereading at the store’s entrance Kyuhyun has stashed it away.

“We meet again, must be fate.”

“Are you stalking me?” Kyuhyun throws a box of cereal into his half-full shopping cart angrily as he sees yet the same obnoxious barista from the café standing in front of him. What is it with this guy anyway, ever since he saw him two days ago (and that unwanted kiss, Kyuhyun shudders) suddenly this guy is everywhere! Or maybe he is always there before but Kyuhyun just doesn’t realize him.

“Of course not, I’m just buying some shirts in case you pour yet another drink on me,” Siwon answers smoothly.

“ … You look for a shirt in a grocery store?” Kyuhyun raises an eyebrow.

Okay so maybe that wasn’t so smooth. The barista sighs, “fine, you got me there. And no, I’m not stalking you, I just need to buy some milk, we’ve run out.”

“… You can’t ask one of your employees to do that for you?”

“I like to do these things myself.”

“… right.”

“Okay fine! I saw you come in here and I want to talk, happy? I believe you owe me an apology.”

Kyuhyun blinks and pretends to be so confused, “for what?”

The other’s mouth dropped open. “You don’t feel any sort of, I don’t know, guilt? Remorse?”

“No,” the student answers flatly. “I don’t even feel sorry, let alone guilt and definitely not remorse. I feel a bit of empathy towards your shirt though. After spending so much time on your sweaty back it even got dosed by some drinks for which the shirt may never recover its true color from.”

Siwon think about it for a moment and he suddenly smiles. “You were thinking about my back?”

“No.” Kyuhyun scowls.

“You just did!” the barista replies triumphantly.

“I am most certainly did not!” Kyuhyun says indignantly, but the smile on the barista’s face remains undeterred. With an obvious scowl still attached, the student turns and walks away, ignoring the other’s ‘You totally did!’ call.

Thankfully he sees an empty cash register and after paying for his meager groceries, Kyuhyun leaves the supermarket, eager to stay away from that barista as fast as possible. How dare he, Kyuhyun fumes as he walkes rather crossly (few passerby purposely scramble not to get into the student’s way seeing how hostile his scowl is), how dare he say that I’m the one that should apologize where he’s the one that kissed me in the first place!

After three minutes or so cursing the said guy, Kyuhyun reaches into his jeans pocket and takes out a grocery list he wrote earlier. Scanning the said list, he tries to recall the things he took from the selves making sure he did grab every item on the list.

Damn it, he forgot to buy some chips. Stupid barista, making him lost focus like that. Grumbling and muttering curses, Kyuhyun turns around and walks back towards the supermarket. With all the luck that stupid barista might not be there anymore. Or maybe he could scout ahead and stay away from him if needed. With that thought in his mind, Kyuhyun smiles and begins his stride with a renewed eagerness.

-10 days before Christmas-

The class ends early today, much to everybody’s delight. Rumor has it that the ex-husband was dumped by his new girlfriend, making Kyuhyun’s Advanced Business Management professor a very happy woman and thus is very willing to let the class ends much earlier than usual. Scary what you can know from Facebook and MySpace page these days, Kyuhyun shudders. Luckily he is not that active in the internet world, or at least in those kinds of websites (World of Warcraft totally rocks and it’s totally different!).

With his schedule now free, Kyuhyun wonders what he should do. He’s meeting up with Changmin later that day, but his friend is still in class for –he looks at his watch– another thirty minutes. Well, he might as well just wait for the guy; it’s such a waste of time to go back to his own place and drives back here after all. A cup of iced peppermint tea sounds good; the strong taste will help him spend his day in a brighter sense. Hopefully the barista is not there.

His hope is immediately crushed however; as yet the same barista from yesterday stands behind the counter. Squaring his shoulders, Kyuhyun takes a deep breath and steps inside. The barista turns around to greet the new customer but the smiles on his face falls as he sees Kyuhyun.

Kyuhyun imagines his own expression mirrors exactly the same one on the barista’s face right now. Huffing a bit, he marches towards the counter and places his order. Stupid Changmin, if only he doesn’t ask to meet up later, Kyuhyun would be on his way home by now! Who knows, as he has poured two drinks all over this barista’s head, this time he might pours his drink again. On a second thought, he won’t do that, he rather like an iced peppermint tea thank you very much.

“You might not want to do that or I might kiss you again.”

Kyuhyun blinks, “Do what?”

The barista, Siwon smiles a smug smile, “That thing, frowning, scowling. I might be tempted to kiss it goodbye.”

The student tries his best not to roll his eyes at the cheesy line and instead settles for a scowl, “Is this how this café treating its customers? By ually assaulting him?”

Siwon gapes. “ually assault? Hardly! It was only a kiss and you were the one who threw your drinks at me. Twice.” He lifts up two fingers to emphasize. “And no, I give you a special treatment because I think you are a special customer and look where that got me.”

Kyuhyun scoffs. “You’re lucky those drinks are not hot or you will have suffered some blisters on your face as well as broken nose.”

“Broken nose?”

“Yes.” With that, Kyuhyun swings his arm and punches Siwon right in the face.

Later that night, Kyuhyun curses Siwon again and again as he holds his throbbing hand tenderly. Two things he learns from punching Siwon that day. One: when you punch someone your hand will hurt like hell. Two: when you punch the boss, all other employees will scramble to get him back up while secretly few of them will give the attacker two thumbs up and in his case, a promise of free drinks for a week. Kyuhyun smirks, he will definitely go to the café again tomorrow; free drinks are hard to be passed after all and seeing Siwon’s bruised face will definitely be a terrific bonus.

-9 days before Christmas-

“Siwon is not here.”

Kyuhyun scowls, “I’m not looking for him,” he squints at the name tag, “Leeteuk.”

Leeteuk snickers. “Sure you didn’t. You just happened to search around the room and continuously looking at the door ever since you walked in here.”

The student’s scowl deepens. Yes it is true he happened to be continuously looking at the door ever since he walked in the café, but it’s to make sure Siwon will not walk in that entrance before he, Kyuhyun walks out of there. Hell, he even circled the neighborhood three times earlier making sure that barista is not in the café before walking in! Surely that counts as something and not as ‘looking for Siwon’, as Leeteuk so graciously put it earlier.

As much as he wants to see the barista’s bruised face (as a result from his assault yesterday, Kyuhyun notes rather proudly), he figures it’d be best not to see the other man anytime soon. Who knows, he might be still bitter about the punch and will raise a press-charge against Kyuhyun under the pretext of deliberate violence. Come to think of it, it’s not such an impossible notion. Anyway as a result, Kyuhyun needs to make sure that Siwon is not in the café before stepping in himself. Hey, he’s not going to pass out his free drinks for a week discounts, he is a student’s on a very tight budget here for goodness sake!

“You know, you’re kinda famous in here,” Leeteuk says non-chalantly. “I mean it’s not every day you see a customer pouring drinks and punching Boss,” he adds with a wink.

Kyuhyun on the other hand scowls deeper. Great, now he’s notorious as a dangerous violent customer! “Hang on,” he defends himself, “It’s not like I did those things without a justifying cause of action anyway, did you see what he did to me earlier?”

Leeteuk snickers even louder, “Yeah. He’s been dying to do that for a month now you know, I can’t believe he finally did that. He’s so into you and he believes that you guys are made for each other, don’t ask me why but I agree with him.”

Made for each other, my . The student rolls his eyes. “Well as I said before, I don’t believe I’m at fault here, not when I’m a victim of ually harassment environment.”

Leeteuk blinks, “Are you a law student?”

“No, business.”

The barista suddenly bursts out laughing, “Same like Boss then! You guys are so made for each other.”

“…how’s a same background major translates into destined love life?”

Leeteuk smiles wider, “I’m just a er for romantic notions. Besides its Christmas!” he adds laughingly as he hands Kyuhyun a drink the student hasn’t ordered, “The most wonderful time of the year, or so they said.”

Kyuhyun eyes the barista warily, but he accepts the offered drink nonetheless (a student on tight budget, remember?). “Yeah, that’s what Christmas is all about isn’t it? Thanks for the drink,” he adds with a smile and Leeteuk winks back at him. Kyuhyun smiles wider and proceeds to the door, ready to go home.

“Come again tomorrow!” Leeteuk calls out. “You still got 6 days worth of free drinks left!”

Kyuhyun turns around and gives the other a nod to say his thanks. Waving a goodbye, he steps outside, absentmindedly noting the same mistletoe hanging rather low on the entrance. Reaching up to fix the bunch of greens, Kyuhyun ties it higher so that people’s heads won’t bump into it when they come. He takes a sip after only few steps away from the café. God, this iced cappuccino tastes so good. For once in his life, Kyuhyun agrees with Changmin: Food never tastes so good when it’s given to you for free. 

-8 days before Christmas-

Okay so maybe carrying two cups of steaming coffee (yes Changmin has successfully convinced him to drink hot coffee instead of his usual iced blended) and a plate of two blueberry scones at one trip without any help of a tray is not such a good idea.

Kyuhyun finds out how true that is when he stumbled over a Christmas decoration and thus fell flat on his face about five seconds ago. But in his defense, it’s not his fault! Changmin is just being the usual lazy that he is and how can a Christmas decoration be on the floor anyway? Aren’t they supposed to be hanging from a ceiling or a Christmas tree or something?

Nevertheless, he tripped and somehow managed to knock over a porcelain cup that was on the table next to him. And now Kyuhyun glares at the broken pieces lying pitifully among a puddle of spilled coffee and scones crumbles. He feels sorry for the cup, he really does. And at the coffee. And the scones.

“Oh my.”

But not at that voice, Kyuhyun scowls. Sure enough, he turns around and is immediately greeted by Siwon’s smirking face. “What happened here?”

The student rolls his eyes, “Isn’t that obvious? I tripped.”

Siwon gives him a not-so-apologetic-smile. ”I’m afraid you must compensate it,” he says looking at the broken porcelain cup.

“Fine I’ll pay for that, how much is it? Five, six dollars?” Kyuhyun takes out his wallet and making a show pulling out a few bills.

“It’s 1013 dollars,” Siwon answers flatly.

Kyuhyun gapes. “For a cup?!”

“Yes,” Siwon smiles triumphantly, “it was an heirloom of my family, made from the finest silver and lined with 24-carat gold around the rim, complete with a pair of rubies and four diamonds on top of it.”

A pair of rubies and four diamonds? And here Kyuhyun thought it was cool that the Rudolph has red eyes and sparkling hooves. He narrows his eyes, looking at Siwon suspiciously and wonders if the man is lying. After all the man looked positively glowing, not at all like a man who has just lost his family heirloom. But Siwon is not a liar (he maybe a ert, body-groping barista who ually assaulted its customers, but he is not a liar) or at least Kyuhyun think so.

Kyuhyun gulps. He doesn’t have 1000 dollars. Hell, he doesn’t even have 100 dollars with him now! And all his credit cards are nearly maxed out (yeah, sorry dad). He can try borrowing money from Changmin though (the bastard has more money than what normal university student should have) but that best friend of his yesterday talked about how he wants to buy something ridiculously expensive for his boyfriend this Christmas. After all, Junsu is the best thing that ever happened to Changmin and Kyuhyun doesn’t want to ruin their Christmas by asking for some money.

“You have to work here until Christmas starting tomorrow. Surely it’s easier than spending 1013 dollars worth of money that you… might not have.”

On a second thought, asking money to Changmin sounds indefinitely better than working for this jerk. Turning around, Kyuhyun glances hopefully at his best friend who peacefully remains seated through the whole incident. “Min, lend me some money.”

To his surprise, Changmin shakes his head. “Kyu, it’s not like I don’t want to lend the money to you.”

“… but?” Kyuhyun prompts rather dreadfully.

Changmin gives him a sheepish smile. “But err, you know, I’m planning something…special for Junsu. Plus working here until Christmas is a huge deal compares to two maybe three part time jobs you will be doing in order to pay me back.”

Kyuhyun scowls. “I’d rather be working five part time jobs rather than working for him,” he gestures at Siwon with his thumb.

Changmin –that bastard– merely smiles wider, “All the more why you should work here then! Just consider it as another experience, okay?”

-7 days before Christmas-

“Say that again?” Kyuhyun frowns at the complicated coffee maker in front of him. Seriously, the one he has at home is very simple. You just click the button and voila! The coffee will trickle down. With this one however, you need to set the temperature, put the coffee beans inside (there are over 20 different coffee beans in this café can you imagine that), make sure the cream and milk and sugar are in their containers, double check the pipe so that it sparklingly clean, etc etc etc…

Siwon has tried his best to be patient, but really does this student is really majoring in business? He seems pretty slow in learning new things. Maybe it’s time for a different approach. He takes a deep breath and begins to preach, “Kyuhyun, coffee is a language in itself. In order to speak it, you have to learn understanding it first.”

Kyuhyun raises an eyebrow. “Does it talk back?”

“… no?” Siwon answers unsurely.

“Then how can I understand it? It’s not like there’s a written book about coffee language anyway.”

“Actually-“

“You gotta be kidding me.”

And so here Kyuhyun is, making coffee much to his unwillingness, applying knowledge he’s just received twenty minutes ago from a book he just flipped pages of. With Siwon manning the counter, he assigns Kyuhyun in charge at the coffee area, saying that the two other baristas (Leeteuk and some other guy called Sungmin) need to leave the shops to buy some ingredients. Why the two of them need to go out in the same time just to buy milks and creams, Kyuhyun doesn’t understand.

“I need triple-shot, tall, 10 percent, no-whip, half-and-half, semi-dry latte, double-cap and-“

“No wait wait wait, hold on, hold on,” Kyuhyun begins to get panic. He reaches for an empty cup and takes out a marker. “You can’t just bark it out like that, just… just slow down.”

Siwon smiles. “Tall black coffee.”

Kyuhyun throws him a withering glare, “Haha. Funny.”

“I want to see you panic, sorry about that.”

“Gee, glad I can provide you with some kind of entertainment.” Kyuhyun huffs and faces the coffee machine again. Now let’s see… A tall black coffee. Wait, Siwon didn’t mention what kind of beans the customer wants so maybe he should go with the normal Costa Rican kind? On a second thought, Javanese sounds good though.

Finally settling for Costa Rican beans, Kyuhyun put some of them in the machine and leaves it to roast. However, he forgot to check the temperature and now the machine is set up for sterilization instead of roasting while Kyuhyun sets the timer correctly for roasting. As a result, two minutes and thirty seconds later the machine begins to beep rapidly and Kyuhyun can only watches helplessly as it throws out the beans (obviously burnt now) he’s just put in earlier.

“Oh my,” a voice comes from behind him. Kyuhyun turns around to see Leeteuk standing in the doorway with Sungmin and only Leeteuk have a small grocery bag in hand. However he doesn’t have the time to observe anything else as Leeteuk burst out laughing, “Kyuhyun you are the funniest thing that ever happens to this café.”

Kyuhyun’s scowl deepens. He hates being laughed at. Then he heard a chuckle and sure enough, Siwon also laughs at him. “Yes you are,” Siwon says with a smile.

Maybe it’s because the guilty feeling for blowing up the coffee machine begins to creep up inside him, or maybe it’s just to be polite, or maybe a relieve feeling because apparently Siwon is not mad at him, Kyuhyun smiles back a sheepish smile. “Oops?”

-6 days before Christmas-

“Here your change sir, you can take your coffee over there or if you want you can ask one of the staff to bring it to you,” Kyuhyun smiles at the customer in front of him. The customer gives back a smile and nods his thanks. Yes, once again Kyuhyun finds himself working peacefully at the cashier, much to his own relief. He does not want a repeat of coffee machine incident thank you very much.

“Junsu, are you okay? What are you doing here? Do you need something?”

Junsu sniffles, “Just a cup of coffee. Black –like my ex-boyfriend’s soul.”

Kyuhyun can hear warning bells ringing in his head at the word ‘ex-boyfriend’. He gives an apologetic look at Siwon and the owner nods his permission for Kyuhyun to take a short break. After making Junsu’s black coffee, Kyuhyun steps out from the counter and steers his friend towards an empty seat. He focuses on the sad-looking friend in front of him while internally cursing the said ex-boyfriend-slash-his-best-friend. What the hell did that bastard do now breaking up with Junsu? On six days before Christmas nonetheless! Doesn’t he suppose to prepare something special?

“Junsu, what happened? You know you can tell me.”

Junsu turns a pair of bloodshot eyes at him. “Changmin, he… He breaks up with me.”

Kyuhyun tries his best not to roll his eyes. Really, he already knows that by now. But why they are breaking up? That’s what he wants to know. Thankfully, Junsu immediately explains, “We have a fight. You know that his family always has Christmas dinner together at the mansion right? He wants me to come with him this year.”

“And you don’t want to?” Kyuhyun guesses.

Junsu shakes his head. “It’s not that I don’t want to. But you know that they hate me right? They want him to marry some nice girl and have kids and all that and they’re always looking at me like I’m some kind of a worthless piece of garbage. So I said no to Changmin’s invitation, saying that I’d rather spend the holiday with people who love me than people who obviously don’t like me. And then he got mad, saying that I don’t love him when I really do.” Junsu begins tearing up again and Kyuhyun gives him a tissue to blow his nose into.

“I got frustrated in return, I mean, who wouldn’t anyway? How can he says that I don’t love him enough when we’ve been together for three years now and still together even if his family doesn’t approve of me? So I started screaming at him saying he’s the one that doesn’t love if he wants me to suffer and then well, we have a fight and he breaks up with me.” At this point Junsu’s tears spill over.

Kyuhyun curses his best friend. Stupid . “Junsu, you know that Changmin can be, well, such an idiot sometimes. But that’s when you’re supposed to come in. I mean, you guys are contemplating each other so perfectly. Think about it this way, the two of you already spend the last three years as a couple and that’s the longest I’ve ever seen Changmin with someone. The idiot obviously loves you.”

Junsu stares into his coffee.

“Now if you don’t believe me, just wait for a few minutes, he’ll call you. And you’ll forgive him because like you said, you love him,” Kyuhyun leans back in his chair. Sure enough, one minute later Junsu’s phone begins to vibrate, Changmin’s name (or at least Kyuhyun think so because the name has been changed into ‘’) appears on the display.

“What?” Junsu barks into the phone, “What do you want now, ?” Kyuhyun glares at his friend as a warning and receives a pout in return. He watches as the pout on Junsu’s face slowly melts and his expression softens. He imagines Changmin must now be saying something apologetic as sweet as his snarky behavior allows him to, which is not much by the way.

“Fine,” Junsu finally says. “I’ll be there in ten minutes. I know, love you too.” he ends the call. A smiling Junsu is definitely better than a crying Junsu, Kyuhyun decides, Changmin is right when he says Junsu’s smile can lit up the world. “I gotta go, thanks for the coffee Kyu.”

“Don’t mention it,” Kyuhyun stands up as well.

“Thank you for the… talk as well. Changmin is lucky to have you as his best friend.”

“He’s lucky to have you as his lover.” Junsu smiles again and in springy steps, he walks out the café. Kyuhyun sighs as he watches his friend’s retreating back. He shakes his head; those two can be such idiots sometimes. But it’s lucky they have found each other in the first place. He can only wish the same thing will happen to him, preferably soon.

“You’re a nice guy,” Siwon suddenly says.

Kyuhyun looks at him and shrugs, “His boyfriend is my best friend and I like them together. They are perfect for each other.” He realizes he’s not really answering Siwon’s topic but then again he doesn’t want it to anyway, he’s never good when someone compliments him. Not that it happens often, though.

“Have a dinner with me. Tomorrow.”

Kyuhyun whirls around. “What?”

Siwon gives him an amused smile. “Why do you look so surprised? Don’t think that by pouring drinks at me twice and punching me in the face you can get away from me that easily. I said have dinner with me. Tomorrow,” he repeats.

The student thinks about it for a moment. “Okay,” he finally answers. Hey, it was the least he could do. After such a disastrous day two days ago with the coffee machine, he owes the man something. Besides Siwon isn’t so bad, he made Kyuhyun smile yesterday, no matter how sheepish the smile is. Plus –Kyuhyun thinks triumphantly– if he agrees to the date he might get a day off on working his 1013 dollar debt. God knows he needs it if Changmin and Junsu don’t make up soon.

-5 days before Christmas-

Kyuhyun has to admit, the date is not so bad. Granted he might be under an influence of alcohol right now, but really even before he consumes that 1997 Bordeaux everything went pretty smoothly. Somehow, the first date with Siwon ends up exactly like how Kyuhyun imagines his perfect date will go like. They have a nice dinner in a small Italian restaurant. And after a platter of antipasti (grilled artichoke drizzled with truffle oil), some home-made pasta (Linguine with basil and tomato sauce for him and Gnocchi dressed in mushroom cream sauce for Siwon) came the dessert. He chooses a slice of Crostata di Fichi e Pere while Siwon prefers the more traditional Panna Cotta.

The wine came even before the appetizer arrives and as the night goes on they slowly consumes it until only one-third of the bottle left and Kyuhyun begins to feel a little bit tipsy. And as if the mouth-watering foods and excellent wine are not enough, Siwon apparently is a decent guy.

The man reads a lot, something they find in common (much to Kyuhyun’s surprise) and almost every book that Kyuhyun reads, Siwon has read it as well. They discuss the books, argues different point of views and comfortably badmouthing few characters they both don’t like.

Siwon likes large varieties of music, starting from classical, jazz and even some country music. The man also travels far and wide to various countries in order to learn more about coffees before opening his coffee shop. He’s lost his parents few years ago but thankfully there is no family business he has to take over. In fact, Siwon used what little inheritance money his parents left him to open his first café and since then his business has expanded into five more stores.

The meal comes to an end when the waiter asking them if they want to order anything else as the kitchen will be closed soon. Siwon suggests that they take a walk in the park (again, as how Kyuhyun imagine how his perfect date will go like) and so here they are, two guys walking in the middle of the park, discussing more books and more music.

“It’s late, I’d better get back,” Kyuhyun finally says.

“I’ll walk you back,” Siwon offers.

Kyuhyun immediately scowls, “I’m not a girl, I can go back by myself.”

“I know,” Siwon replies, “but I like walking you back.”

Knowing from past experiences that nothing can deter Siwon when the man has made up his mind, Kyuhyun chooses not to argue. Instead, he merely huffs and begins to walk faster, hoping to get away from the man as soon as possible. Siwon immediately falls into steps beside him. The rest of the walk is filled with Siwon’s inane chatter, in which Kyuhyun responses with mono-syllabic answer. By the time they arrive at Kyuhyun’s apartment building, some snow has fallen.

“Well, goodnight. See you tomorrow, Kyuhyun.”

The student doesn’t answer; he merely nods and immediately goes inside the building. As he climbs the stairs however, he stops for a moment, the snow apparently has fallen harder. Then he remembers: Siwon doesn’t bring any umbrella. But then again, what’s that got to do with him anyway? Shaking his head, Kyuhyun resumes his steps upstairs.

-4 days before Christmas-

He didn’t mean this to happen, Kyuhyun ponders in the dark, eyes staring ahead at the wide screen displaying some cheesy Christmas family movie. He was just casually mentioning at Changmin that there is a new movie playing at the cinema and the movie has pretty good review. He mentioned that because it seems that Junsu is still a little bit angry at Changmin and it might be a good idea to take him out to see the movie because well, Junsu likes cheesy movies.

That’s why he’s so surprised when Siwon waved two tickets of said movie at his nose that evening. With much pleading and begging from Siwon’s part (since smiling charmingly doesn’t work at Kyuhyun, the owner decides to go with his second best attribute: puppy eyes), Kyuhyun finally agrees.

The thing is, Kyuhyun doesn’t like cheesy movies but he can’t possibly tell that to Siwon since the man obviously has gone to a trouble of purchasing those tickets earlier and even buys him soda and popcorns before the movie starts. With a sigh, Kyuhyun pops in the last popcorn and sets the empty container down. After taking few gulps of his soda (now emptied as well) he also puts it down. With nothing else to do now, Kyuhyun has no choice but wait for the movie to finish.

Then he felt it.

For a split second it feels more like he imagines the whole thing rather than really feeling it. But that second passes and still Kyuhyun feels it. The slightest touch almost embarrassed but rather more to shyness than anything else, the feeling of Siwon’s hand on his.

At that moment the movie shows a scene of something bright, the children are making snowballs during the day while their parents watch over happily, those kinds of cheesy scenes. Kyuhyun sneaks a glance to the man seated beside him and he can almost swear he sees a blush covering Siwon’s face.

Kyuhyun wants to smile. He finds it almost hard to believe that this shy man is the same one who so rudely stole his first kiss ten days ago. The man that he pours over drinks at, the same man who apparently likes to read everything from science fiction novels to self-motivation books and even histories.

He is so engrossed in his thinking however; he doesn’t realize it when Siwon takes his hand off Kyuhyun’s and moves slightly in his chair so that he seats a little further away. Kyuhyun was strangely disappointed when he didn’t feel it again for the rest of the night.

-3 days before Christmas-

Their third date goes almost like how their first date went like. They went to have dinner (Japanese restaurant this time), had some sushi and a nice pot of green tea. Siwon offered to order some sake but Kyuhyun refuses, saying he prefers wine instead of sake.

“See, we’re getting to know each other,” Siwon had replied, face forming that dimpled smile again.

After the dinner they take a walk at the park again. Finding out a small 24 hour minimart, they both go in and Siwon buy a chocolate, saying he want to eat some dessert but Japanese sweets don’t sit well with him. They take the chocolate with them as they walk around after that. Few moments later Siwon opens the wrapper.

“Strength is the ability to break a chocolate bar into small pieces with your bare hands - and then eat just one of those pieces and only one.” Siwon says with a smile as he offers one of those pieces to Kyuhyun. “I read that quote once but I have a confession to make, I prefer not to be a strong person when it comes to chocolate.”

Kyuhyun stares at the offered chocolate and suddenly Siwon put it against lips. “Come on, promise I didn’t put anything in it, it’s totally safe.”

The student has no other option but to oblige and open his mouth. The moment the sweet treat touches his tongue, it practically melts and Kyuhyun feels like melting with it. If he is barefoot right now, he swears his toes must be curling in pleasure. Siwon apparently shares the same thought as he pops a piece into his own mouth and moans delightfully. Kyuhyun has a hard time ignoring that moan but he conceals it with looking at the wrapper, wanting to know what brand is it because damn, it tastes so good.

Kyuhyun frowns, this is the same brand as the one he used to eat but somehow it tastes better now. Much, much better.

Suddenly his phone beeps and Kyuhyun fishes it out to see he has just received a new text message from Changmin. Kyuhyun scowls, that bastard know that he’s going out with Siwon again tonight, so why texting him? Shouldn’t Changmin be doing something right now? Or rather, shouldn’t Changmin be doing Junsu right now? Nevertheless, he opens the text message and immediately reads its content.

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be engaged in lightly.

What the hell?

He scrolls down the message and oh look, a picture of Changmin and Junsu French-kissing, Junsu biting a half-bitten grape while Changmin a trail of juice trickling down his boyfriend’s lips. Kyuhyun rolls his eyes; well at least they didn’t send him a picture of them doing ing each other. He still hasn’t recovered from the last time they sent him that (, mind you) for their second year anniversary last year, he suppresses a shudder.

“Is that the boyfriend?” Siwon peers over his shoulder, making Kyuhyun jumps a little.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he gave him a sheepish smile.

“You didn’t.” Kyuhyun scrolls back up again. “And yes, that’s the boyfriend.”

His eyes catch the same words again. Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be engaged in lightly. Kyuhyun freezes for a second as he remembers that was exactly what happened between and him just a moment ago. Sharing food. He reads the sentence again. Intimate act? Really?

“Hey, are you okay?” Siwon waves a hand in front of Kyuhyun’s face, obviously trying to catch the student’s attention.

Kyuhyun snaps out his daze. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he answers. Siwon throws him a smile and he starts to feel butterflies fluttering in his stomach. Stupid Siwon, making him feels stomachache. Kyuhyun looks down at his phone again. Intimate act. Really?

-2 days before Christmas-

“I’ve got two tickets for Christmas Charity concert.”

“I’m not dressed for a Concert,” Kyuhyun answers as he wipes down a table, purposely ignoring Siwon who is standing near him, two tickets blinking happily at his hand.

“Don’t worry about it, we’ll be seating at the cheapest seats anyway. Come on.” Siwon pesters, “Besides it’s a Charity Concert, it’s a good cause and people say that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. Let’s go.”

With that, Siwon has forcibly dragged him out of the café, with apron still on and all, and Leeteuk waving goodbye at them from the counter rather cheerfully. They get into Siwon’s car, get rid of Kyuhyun’s apron and by the time Siwon notice that Kyuhyun is visibly shaking from the coat, he takes off his coat and wraps it around Kyuhyun while muttering apologies all the time. The whole thing takes so long and they arrive just in time before the concert begins. The concert is awful in Kyuhyun’s opinion. It’s filled with singers who can’t sing and actors who can’t act but then again as Siwon said, this is a charity concert so he shouldn’t expect much.

They grab a quick dinner after the concert (nothing special, only a bowl of ramen at a stall at one street corner). Siwon suggests that they take a walk at the park but Kyuhyun refuses, saying that he’s dead tired. He doesn’t mention the real reason though, that Siwon’s coat is on him and the man might catch a cold if he walks in the park in this state, only wearing jeans and turtleneck.

He feels pretty stupid for refusing the offer however, when Siwon drives back to the café and fetches Kyuhyun’s coats later. He shouldn’t have said no so quickly. Siwon parks his car and they once again walk to Kyuhyun’s apartment. This time Kyuhyun doesn’t bother to argue, he knows it’s pointless and Siwon will still walk him home no matter what he says anyway, just like he has done for three nights in a row by now.

They are halfway to his apartment when Kyuhyun first feels it again, the same slightest touch he first felt two nights ago.

He hides a smile as the same fingers reach out to find his, still embarrassed, still shy just like two nights ago. But this time Kyuhyun is not stupid like two nights ago, he unfurls his own fingers. Siwon takes the hint, he reaches out rather more surely this time and one second later their fingers entwined.

Kyuhyun tugs his hand free, a little bit embarrassed that they are actually holding hands. Seriously, two guys holding hands strolling in the middle of the night with snowflakes falling around them might sounds romantic, and it really is, it’s just hasn’t happened to him yet. Until now that is.

Siwon however, doesn’t take the hint this time as he not only continues to hold Kyuhyun’s hand, he tugs him closer and tightened their hold. Kyuhyun has spent so much time with this man he doesn’t need to turn around to see that gorgeous dimpled smile must be adorning the other’s cheek by now. Kyuhyun has no choice but to burrow his head further into his red scarf, hoping it would hide his blush as a bunch of teenage girls sneaking seductive glances and giggling at them.

“Can I walk you upstairs?” Siwon asks when they reach Kyuhyun’s building. “I won’t do anything I promise,” he adds hurriedly, “I just want to walk you to your…doorstep.”

And so, they hold hand for a much longer time that night and Kyuhyun feels the butterfly in his stomach flutters much happier.

-1 day before Christmas-

With tomorrow a Christmas day, Kyuhyun should be on the way to his home town by now. If only that was true. His mother screamed at him on the phone earlier this morning, obviously not pleased that her only son can’t go home this year because of a stupid cup (he’s left out the detail of the kiss or his mother will be so freaking out). His father is not pleased either, he even offers to give Kyuhyun some money to pay the man but Kyuhyun refuses, saying that this problem is his own doing and he should be the one who solves it without anyone’s help. His father then proudly replies while tearing up, ‘finally oh god finally my son has became a fine man.’

And so here he is, with tomorrow a Christmas day, Kyuhyun finds himself in a local bar where the singers are two gay guys who performs dirty dancing on stage. Or so Kyuhyun thought the moment he walks in the bar with Siwon. Yes, Siwon has dragged him here and no, you will never find Kyuhyun by himself here thank you very much. That dirty dancing perceptions gradually changes into a much more positive notion as the night goes on however, as he finds out that the two singers can actually sing pretty good and the reason why they do such an dance on stage might be because all the ual frustration pent up inside, or that these two are really a couple and they don’t mind performing public displays of attention.

He finds out the second guess is the true reason when the singers French-kissing on stage after they finish one of the songs, ignoring the catcalls and wolf-whistles around the room. A moment later, the two of them hop down and make their way (to Kyuhyun’s astonishment) to where Kyuhyun and Siwon are. Siwon exchanges fist bump with those two as a greeting. “Hey Siwon, nice to see you here. Who’s this?” says one of the singers gesturing at Kyuhyun.

“A guy I want to be my boyfriend since about a few months ago, but apparently he hasn’t agreed because all he’s done are pouring drinks on my head twice and punch me in the face” Siwon answers with a smile.

Kyuhyun scowls and opens his mouth, wanting to retort that hey, he let the man hold his hand last night, but the singer beats him to eat by burst out laughing. “I like you already, kid. Not many people can say no to that handsome face, I can tell you that. My name is Donghae, what’s yours?”

“Kyuhyun and don’t call me kid, when you’re not much older than myself. Unless of course you wear too much make up covering your hideous facelift marks.”

The singer next to Donghae is the one who laughs this time. “I can assure you Kyuhyun, he is really as young as he looks,” the man pokes Donghae’s cheek as his other hand casually wraps around the waist, “he’s just like to act older sometimes.” He then offers Kyuhyun a hand, “The name is Hyukjae, nice to meet you Kyuhyun.”

Kyuhyun warily shakes the other’s hand. “Nice to meet you too. You guys are great up there by the way.”

Hyukjae smiles again, much more genuine this time. “Thanks.”

The time flows faster since then, and with the two singers seated at their table, free drinks are pouring like waters. Besides once Donghae gets over Kyuhyun’s intentional insult earlier, he immediately chatters and Kyuhyun found that the guy is actually very funny. He and Hyukjae are so into each other as they exchange lewd suggestions and smiles even sometimes visible s all the time. At about two A.M. Siwon decides to call it a night. They parted ways with the singers and this time, just like last night, Kyuhyun doesn’t argue that Siwon is walking him home, not at all.

Fifteen minutes later they are at his doorstep again. Kyuhyun opens the lock, and turns around to face a smiling Siwon. “Thank for taking me out,” Kyuhyun says and he can see Siwon’s smile grows wider, if that is possible.

The next thing he know, Siwon has leaned in and place a kiss on his cheek. It lingers for a second too long for Kyuhyun’s comfort but somehow this time the student doesn’t mind that. “Goodnight Kyu,” Siwon says as his hot breath whispers sensually against Kyuhyun’s skin. With one last smile, he walks off, leaving Kyuhyun standing alone at his doorway, too frozen to move for few moments. By the time he’s able to move his hand, Kyuhyun touches his cheek where Siwon kissed him earlier. It tingles.

-Christmas day-

Kyuhyun scowls as he watches Siwon wiping out the counter. Really, what kind of idiot working at a Christmas Day? Siwon insists that they keep open the café from midday as no people will venture out to find a coffee on Christmas morning anyway. And Kyuhyun, as the receiving part of a horribly unfair bargain, has to obey the boss. No surprise though, the business is rather slow that day and before long Siwon gives up and decides to close early.

Perhaps it’s the song the carols singing at the street corner, their voices filters down through the night. Perhaps it’s the Christmas light, or the snow falling softly around him or it’s just the cold. Or maybe some alien possesses him on Christmas day. Kyuhyun doesn’t know what is causing it, but as he waits for Siwon to close the door, he walks to the other, leaning closer and kissed his mouth.

Somewhat as if experiencing a kind of Déjà vu, Siwon stands frozen on the spot just like Kyuhyun did when they had their first kiss two weeks ago, under the same mistletoe. Then Siwon smiles.

Kyuhyun buries his face deeper in his scarf, hoping the red color would somehow hide his blush (he does that often these last few days). It doesn’t help though when Siwon let out a small chuckle, making Kyuhyun scowls and almost regretting what he just did. Almost.

“We’re under mistletoe,” the student says lamely.

Siwon doesn’t bother to hide his smile, “Of course. This is the last day you’re working for me by the way.”

Kyuhyun looks away and mumbles, “I don’t mind working for you a little bit longer.”

Maybe this Christmas is not so bad after all. Maybe this year he doesn’t have his family with him and most probably right at this second his parents are both crying and lamenting the fact why their only son has the heart to abandon them on Christmas day. But it’s okay, nothing that a phone call and an apology can’t fix.

They say that Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. And this year, for Kyuhyun is the best year of all. Thanks to Siwon and that stupid excuse of a mistletoe. Before Siwon closes the door and locks it, Kyuhyun takes one last look at the bunch of greens hanging from the ceiling and sends it a small smile. He can almost see the holy leaves winks back at him.

-End story-

Author’s Note: sorry for any grammar mistakes, it’s my first time writing in present tense, so… yeah. Anyway, hope you enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it ^^ this one will definitely goes to one of my favorite self-written fics xD