Title: Almond Bubble Tea

Characters: Sehun and Sulli (f(x))

Poster by Korpride

Sulli spastically dragged her best friend Krystal into the glass door of her favorite café in town: The Exotic Corner. It was a perfect little shop decorated in colorful flowers and ornaments, located at the corner of a street right across from Sulli’s high school. Naturally, the café was an immensely popular dating spot for young, teenage couples, particularly those from the Seoul Arts High School.

The reason The Exotic Corner was her favorite café in town was mostly due to its numerous flavors and superb tastes of their Bubble Teas. Sulli had been introduced to the Taiwanese drink by one of her guy friends, Kim Jongin, when she had won a bet against him a year ago, resulting in Jongin having to treat her to a drink. Ever since, Sulli had made it a routine for herself, to find anyone who had the time and patience to accompany her to The Exotic Corner at least once a week for her Bubble Tea. Usually, that accompaniment fell to her best girl friend, Krystal.

“Krystal, why don’t you ever come here with Hyungshik? Don’t you want to introduce him to the most delectable drink in the world too? He’s been your boyfriend for like, five whole months,” Sulli said to her friend as she slid into a seat at a two-person table.

“Hyungshik would probably rather die than come to a neat place like this,” replied Krystal, circling her head around the brilliantly decorated café and letting out a sigh, “For Hyungshik, dating mostly means just hanging out with his other guy friends, with me attached to his belt. Maybe occasionally a movie or so.”

Sulli raised one of her eyebrows questioningly. “What a loser! What kind of boyfriend is that!?” she retorted.

“One who’s probably not going to take it well when I dump him,” Krystal muttered, frowning at the thought of her apathetic boyfriend.

“Welcome to The Exotic Café, you two fine, pretty, young girls! I’m new here, so let me introduce myself: my name is Kim Heechul, and I’ll be taking your orders today. What can I get for you?” a voice interrupted.

Sulli jumped in her seat in surprise at the startlingly quick arrival of their waiter. She looked up at him with a small smile, and was taken back once again by the intensity with which the waiter was directing his attention to her. He had very large, almond shaped eyes that seemed to call mischief, and a narrow face, with pale white skin. His straight black hair nearly fell to his shoulders, with parted bangs on his forehead. It wasn’t wrong to call him handsome, but at the same time, there was something about his appearance and the way he was looking at Sulli that made her smile loosen.

“I’ll have a Lime Bubble Tea please,” said Krystal politely to the man. He started scribbling Krystal’s order on his notepad.

“Can I have a Mocha Bubble Tea?” ordered Sulli, tearing her gaze away from the waiter’s stare a little forcefully.

“Alright, so a Lime for the nice young lady to my right, and a Mocha for the charming miss here on my left. Will that be all?” the waiter asked. The girls nodded politely, and the waiter, giving each of them a small smile, left their table.

Sulli waited until the waiter named Heechul had disappeared behind the counter at the front of the café before asking Krystal in a low whisper, “Did that guy seem weird to you?”

“Hmm? No, I don’t think so. Why?”

“I don’t know…” murmured Sulli, eyeing the café counter uneasily.

“Well, as I was saying, I’m letting you know before anyone else. I’m dumping Hyungshik,” said Krystal, crossing her arms on the table.

“Really?? So he’s seriously that not worth keeping?” asked Sulli. She forgot about the waiter and began to recall in her head about five months ago, when Krystal and Hyungshik first started dating. Hyungshik had made a huge proposal to Krystal, in front of the whole school. Now that Sulli thought about it, Krystal hadn’t even been interested in Hyungshik before that; it had just been inevitable for her to reject the guy, since the whole school had been watching. Sulli had actually even thought at the time that Hyungshik’s plan had been just that, to gain Krystal’s acceptance by putting her on the spot.

“Hyungshik will never change. He’s got it all too good for him. Friends who are more like servants than real friends, money to go out and do whatever he wants, and of course, the ego to treat everyone around him as inferiors,” said Krystal.

“Ohh wow… I guess you’re right about that. He acts like he’s some kind of royalty around school,” Sulli agreed, “You’re not even into him, are you?”

“Nope. I just hope he doesn’t take it too harshly,” Krystal responded coolly. Sometimes, Sulli wondered how she always managed to find such calm, blunt friends, when she herself was full of spastic energy, all the time.  

“Excuse me!” said a voice. With a start, Sulli realized that the waiter had returned to their table. “Here are your drinks!” he exclaimed loudly, placing two clear plastic cups filled with colorful teas and dark boba pearls on the table.

“So, where do you girls go to school?” the waiter asked.

“The Seoul Arts High School,” Krystal answered, stirring her Bubble Tea with her thick straw.

“Oh I see. Are all the girls there pretty like you two? Like I said, I’m new here, so I don’t really know what kind of customers come here often,” the waiter continued, leaning down at Sulli and Krystal slightly to talk better. As the waiter again turned his attention to staring at Sulli, she forced a smile toward him, trying not to show her uneasiness. The waiter’s large eyes, bearing into Sulli with unfaltering concentration, sent goose bumps down Sulli’s arms. “Well, regardless, you two girls are very charming and beautiful, and I’d love to see you here often! What’s your name?”

“uhh… Sulli,” stammered Sulli, unable to ward off the discomfort she kept feeling from the waiter’s forwardness.

Heechul nodded slowly. “Oh, how pretty,” he said, and turned toward Krystal.

“I’m Krystal.”

“Nice to meet you, Krystal and Sulli,” the waiter said, nodding, “You guys said you go to the Seoul Arts High School, right across the street? Every day of the week, I assume? Then, what time do you guys finish school each day? Since this café is right outside the school, it would just be easy for you girls to come and visit me each day after school is out, and I can treat you to as much Bubble Tea as you want, you know?”

The waiter had now leaned his upper body very far down onto the table, closer than ever to Sulli. He had turned to look at her again with those large almond eyes, whose pupils, Sulli now noticed, were extremely black. He was seriously creeping Sulli out, and she desperately felt the need to leave.

“Well, uhmmm… we have to go…” she breathed, getting up from her chair. Krystal looked at her with questioning eyes, and Sulli motioned at her, very faintly, to get up as well.

“Oh please, stay a little longer!” said Heechul, bringing himself up from the table and towering over Sulli.

“No no, we really have to get home and study…” Sulli murmured, and pushing her head down, she rushed past the waiter and out of the café. Krystal hurriedly left a few bills on the table in front of Heechul and followed her friend out, shouting behind her, “keep the change!”

Sulli didn’t stop walking until she was well away from The Exotic Café. The drops of water accumulating on the outside of her drink kept dripping onto her feet.

“Yah, Choi Sulli! Where are you going??” called Krystal, jogging to catch up to her friend. At Krystal’s call, Sulli stopped, waiting until her friend came up to her. “What’s gotten into you?” Krystal asked breathlessly.

“That guy was majorly creeping me out. I can still feel the goose bumps on my arms,” Sulli explained, staring past Krystal in the direction of the café.

“Really? Well, I guess asking us what time we got out of school so we could visit him was weird…” Krystal agreed, “Are you okay though? You look really pale.”

Sulli let out a deep sigh. She took a sip of her Mocha Bubble Tea and let the cool drink soothe her. “I’m okay for now. But not if that guy is still working there next week…”

The ring of the bell signaling the end of the school day echoed throughout the Seoul Arts High School building. Students of all ages and grades rushed out from their classrooms, some headed for home, some headed to the practice studios, and some, to their extracurricular activities. Choi Sulli, one of the last students to exit the general music classroom, turned her head up and down the bustling hall, looking for her friend Krystal. She was having one of her bad cravings for Bubble Tea; it had been three days since her last trip to the Exotic Café. Unable to see Krystal in the hall in front of the general music room, Sulli began making her way out of the building, keeping an eye out for her friend’s long, gleaming black hair.

Sulli finally spotted Krystal outside the building on a small flight of concrete stairs, her boyfriend Hyungshik’s arm casually slung around her. Trotting over to the pair, Sulli motioned for Krystal to come toward her. Hyungshik looked at Sulli with a frown, but Krystal manually removed herself from Hyungshik, smiling at him slightly and waving at him goodbye before joining Sulli a distance away where Hyungshik couldn’t hear them.

“Still together?” asked Sulli, glancing at Hyungshik past Krystal’s head.

“Hah, yeah, I don’t really know how to find the right time… anyways, what’s up?” replied Krystal.

“Bubble Tea craving,” said Sulli, grasping her stomach, “I’m scared that creepy guy is going to be there again.”

“Crap, what if he is?”

“Ahhhh I don’t know! I want my Bubble Tea Krystal~!! I don’t want to have to stop going to my favorite café just because of some creepy guy!!!” Sulli whined, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

“Well maybe he won’t be there! We can always try, right?” reassured Krystal, taking Sulli’s arm. With a small nod, Sulli followed her friend out of the school grounds, across the wide-stretched soccer field in front of the school, and into the city street.

“Pretty Sulli!! Pretty Krystal!!” cried a voice as soon as Krystal and Sulli stepped into the Exotic Café. Sulli recognized the voice, and she wasn’t at all pleased when the familiar face of the waiter named Heechul, with his close cropped, black hair and large, pitch-black, almond eyes, appeared from the café counter.

Sulli found herself backtracking centimeter by centimeter toward the door, but before she got far, Heechul came toward her and grabbed her by the arm. “I’m so glad you came back to see me! Can I treat you two to some Bubble Tea?” he said.

“Uhmm, no, that won’t be necessary…” Sulli muttered, the waiter’s cold touch making her queasy.

“Aw, come on, lighten up! Let’s have a chat over some Bubble Tea!” Heechul exclaimed fervently, the corners of his lips permanently stuck in his crooked sneer.

“Oops! I forgot! I’m really busy today, and Sulli needs to help me go shopping! So… we gotta go!” Krystal butted in, grabbing Sulli’s other arm and dragging her to the door. The waiter seemed hesitant to let go, and held onto Sulli for a few more seconds despite Krystal’s pulling.

“Alright, but girls, please come tomorrow?” said Heechul, his mouth immediately turning down into an overly theatrical pout. He even went as far as to raise his fist up to the bag of his left eye, pretending to wipe away a fake tear.

“Umm, we’ll have to see,” Krystal muttered, as she hauled her friend away from the waiter and out of the café. Once in the street, the two friends quickly walked away, not looking back for fear that the waiter may come chasing them.

“Oh my goshh, that guy is freaky!” cried Sulli, exasperation turning her lips into a frown as the girls slowed to a stop, catching their breaths. She shuddered, rubbing the place on her arm where the waiter had grabbed her.

“Way freaky. From now on, make sure to find me afterschool so we can walk home together, and not by yourself,” said Krystal, biting her lower lip anxiously at the thought of either of them running into the creepy waiter alone.