Kyungsoo had a pretty curve on his lips, except it wasn’t a happy one because it was turned upside down. Baekhyun had accidentally knocked over his last glass of milk and that was what it took to ruin the supposedly beautiful morning of Do Kyungsoo. It all started with his broken alarm clock and it began a chain reaction of bad luck because waking up late meant missing his favorite cooking program on Channel 8.

 

Kyungsoo grunted and shuffled over the kitchen to get a carton of banana milk. This could not turn bad too. He sighed and poured the last drip of his milk into a glass. But much to his bad luck, the too happy roommate of his ran into him while screaming like a teenage girl and made him spill his last milk for the week. Baekhyun wanted to tell him about his little date after college with Chanyeol yesterday but he didn’t have the heart to go on when he saw the disappointed look on the younger’s face.

 

Kyungsoo kept his mouth shut but didn’t do anything to stop Baekhyun when he pulled him out of their shared apartment. Kyungsoo didn’t really pay attention to the words coming out of Baekhyun’s mouth but he caught some like ‘treating him to a nice coffee shop nearby’ and ‘cute baristas’.

 

The younger still refused to talk until he realized that he was still in his pororo pajamas.

 

“I’m still in my pajamas!” he shrieked and snapped his hand out of Baekhyun’s grasp. Apparently, the older hadn’t realized it either so he turned to observe his friend closely, then he dragged him again.

 

“You look fine, come on!”

 

“No! What the hell!” Kyungsoo swatted his hand again.

 

Baekhyun sighed and glanced at his yellow Kravitz sweater before taking it off and handed it to Kyungsoo, “There. Now stop being an angry Pikachu, I’m trying to make it up to you here.” the older pouted. Kyungsoo gave him a glare of who-are-you-referring-as-Pikachu-there-is-no-Pikachu-in-here but Baekhyun ignored him and continued dragging Kyungsoo with him.

 

Kyungsoo was too busy sulking and he didn’t realize that they were already in front of the coffee shop. The waiter gave them a polite smile and Baekhyun smiled back at her before going in with Kyungsoo. The younger scanned his eyes around and noticed that he had frequently seen this shop but never actually visit it. He normally would just go straight to college and went home without sparing any interest to his neighborhood. He didn’t find any necessity to go out except for buying groceries or when Baekhyun was forcing him into giving him a company somewhere. He guessed he should try going around for a little bit.

 

The coffee shop was not big but not small either. The wall was a shade of cream like a freshly made cup of vanilla latte, the furniture were dominated with light brown like café au lait and the floor was shiny with bright white tiles. Everything was kept simple and homey and it thankfully lifted up his mood by a little bit.

 

They stopped at the shortest queue, “You can choose whatever you want. We can have breakfast here too so you won’t need to cook. Sounds good?”

 

Kyungsoo just shrugged, not taking his eyes off the menu and Baekhyun pouted from the lack of attention. He took a note to not ruin his roommate’s morning ever again, whether it was by accident or not.

 

“Oh! Baekhyun! You came!”

 

Baekhyun looked up at a call of his name and he was so near to squealing when he saw his crush grinning cutely at him and holy sweet mother of jesus, he looked ing handsome in the employee outfit but wait, why was he wearing it except he—

 

“You work in here!?” he squealed. Kyungsoo looked up to the source of Baekhyun’s excitement and his eyes met a tall, crazy looking cashier’s. His eyes bulged like they were about to pop out of his sockets but the guy in front of him seemed to be used with similar reactions because his grin didn’t falter at all.

 

“Ah, yeah. I’m eyeing this newly released CKJ jacket but it’s quite expensive so I searched for a part time job and got hired here,” he explained, and then he turned his attention to Kyungsoo. “Hi! You must be Baekhyun’s roommate, Kyungsoo, right? Baek has told me about you, like how your eyes were big like saucers-hmpf.” Chanyeol’s rest of words were muffled by Baekhyun’s hand.

 

Kyungsoo blinked and just nodded. “Um, yeah, and you are...” he squinted at Chanyeol’s nametag, “Park Chanyeol.” he raised his eyebrows as realization hit him. So he was Baekhyun’s crush he’d been talking about 24/7.

 

The said name owner Baekhyun’s palm and he shrieked before taking his hand away in reflect. “Yes, I’m Chanyeol! How did you know?”

 

“It’s written on your nametag, idiot.” Baekhyun cringed while wiping his palm with a tissue.

 

Chanyeol chuckled and nodded, “Can I get your order now?” this time, his smile turned into a professional one. It took a lot of Baekhyun to not blush. This job really did Chanyeol no justice. With that smile, he swore Chanyeol could be the face of CKJ Korea models, got additional money plus the jacket he wanted for free all at once.

 

“Uhh,” Baekhyun tried to say but it only came out as incoherent noises. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and eyed the menu again.

 

“I want vanilla milk,”

 

“Huh?”

 

“And croissant with butter.”

 

“But we don’t have milk,”

 

“But I want milk.”

 

“Uh, Chanyeol,” Baekhyun smiled sheepishly, “You see, I spilled his last glass of milk and I’m making it up for him,” he reasoned. “Can you give him what he wants? You guys have milk for latte, right?”

 

Chanyeol scratched his head, “As much as I want to help, it’s against the policy so I can’t, sorry.”

 

Baekhyun sighed and turned to Kyungsoo, “How about vanilla latte? It’s really tasty too—”

 

“Milk.”

 

“Kyungsoo, please,”

 

“You spilled my milk so I want milk too.”

 

“This is a coffee shop oh my god.”

 

The younger pursed his lips. His common sense realized that he wouldn’t get what he wanted in here so he gave up, “Fine.”

 

Baekhyun grinned, “Okay! One vanilla latte for him and I’d have one Americano and a tiramisu.”

 

Chanyeol nodded, inputted their orders and clicked enter to get the amount of their bill, “That will be 30,000 won.”

 

The older blinked and peeked at his wallet before giving Chanyeol the exact same sheepish grin from earlier, “Can you give me your employee discount? I only brought 25,000 won with me.” he whispered.

 

“But...”

 

Baekhyun pouted with hopeful eyes. He knew it was Chanyeol’s weakness, and the cashier sighed almost immediately and said goodbye to his spare as he hit ‘17% employee discount’. “There.”

 

“Thank you! I’d repay you somehow.” Baekhyun beamed and Chanyeol nodded.

 

He handed Baekhyun a pager, “Your order will be up when the pager buzzes. Thank you and please come again! Without taking my discount spare, hopefully.” he grinned teasingly (still looks extremely charming in Baekhyun's eyes) and the shorter guy didn't know whether to laugh along or to cry. Kyungsoo eyed the older that seemed to have a hard time collecting back his feels so he decided to leave him at his spot. He sat on the corner near the plant and fumbled with his iPod.

 

Already recovered Baekhyun finally moved after his dongsaeng and took a seat in front of him, “Wow, how did you know that this is my favorite spot?”

 

“I sit here because I like it,” he mumbled, not taking his eyes off the final level of Wedding Dash he was playing right now.

 

Baekhyun huffed, “Hey, I already tried to apologize. I even used the last bit of money in my wallet—”

 

“With the help of Chanyeol’s employee discount.”

 

“Well—yes but the point is I’m trying, okay? I’m sorry for your milk but please put up with it for today, I’ll buy you a carton of banana milk later!”

 

Kyungsoo ignored him.

 

“Oh god you’re unbelievable,” Baekhyun groaned and raised up from his seat, “I’m going to the toilet.”

 

The younger still had his eyes glued on the screen.

 

Baekhyun gave up on getting his attention and left.

 

Kyungsoo was still busy struggling with the flooded wedding guests until he heard an annoying buzz from his front. He tried to ignore it but the buzz wouldn’t stop, so he punched the pause button of the game and raised his head to see the pager Chanyeol gave earlier. He sighed. He had to take the order, didn’t he?

 

He tried waiting for Baekhyun but the older took too long so he got up from his seat, snatched the pager and marched off to the cashier.

 

He looked at his tray and there were only three orders there. Where was his latte?

 

“Excuse me, where is my latte?” he asked politely, but a tint of annoyance was heard from his tone.

 

“Ah, can I get the pager?” the barista took out his hand and Kyungsoo wanted to throw it at him but he managed to hand him with peace eventually. “Thank you.” and he turned off the annoying buzz of it.

 

“My latte?” he tried asking again, still without looking at his face.

 

“Oh! It’s done, but I like to make customer’s favorite pattern so I waited for you to come here. What would you like to have on your latte?” he asked and this time, Kyungsoo looked up to see his face.

 

A handsome barista with slightly tousled hair and y tan was smiling at him. The guy still looked young, probably a year younger than him, had a pair of deep eyes, perfectly pointed nose and plump lips which looked so tempting to ki—

 

“Are you with me?” the barista waved his hand in front of Kyungsoo and he didn’t realize he was dozing off. He couldn’t help but to blush. God, he was so embarrassing!

 

“Ah, yeah, um, I was... thinking about what I want on my latte,” he reasoned, and the barista looked like he wanted to laugh but still managed to pull enough amount of politeness in his smile.

 

“Sure. Have you come into a decision?” he raised up the metal pot and Kyungsoo blinked.

 

“Pikachu?”

 

This time, the barista couldn’t help but chuckle and Kyungsoo wanted to bury his own body somewhere and never came back. “Okay.”

 

Kyungsoo looked at his name tag. It said ‘Kim Jongin’. Jongin. He tried the word on his mouth and it gave a nice ring to him.

 

“Yes?” Jongin blinked and the red on Kyungsoo’s face was blooming even more. He didn’t mean to call for him but the words just came out.

 

“Er, um, can you please hurry? I’m hungry,” he murmured. Jongin smiled and nodded before proceeding to tilt the pot and pouring the cream on Kyungsoo’s latte.

 

He glued his eyes into the shape Jongin was making, then up to the pot, to his hand, to his arm, his shoulder, his face—

 

And their eyes met.

 

Kyungsoo quickly darted his attention back to the latte and the barista chuckled. This customer was pretty cute.

 

“There you go.” he tilted the pot up and put it back on the island. Kyungsoo mouthed a thank you, put his cup of latte on his tray and walked back to his spot.

 

“Kyungsoo! I'm so sorry I didn’t mean to leave you to take the order! The door lock was broken so I have a hard time there,” Baekhyun puffed his cheeks.

 

“It’s okay,” Kyungsoo sat down quietly. The older blinked at his sudden change of tone.

 

“...are you alright? Are you sick?” Baekhyun put the back of his hand on Kyungsoo’s forehead.

 

“I’m fine, Baek.” he took Baekhyun’s hand off his head. The older squinted his eyes. There must be something wrong in here.

 

“Are you mad at me for leaving you for too long? I told you—”

 

“I’m not. Can we please eat now?” the younger didn’t wait for an answer as he peeled off the butter pack and started carving on his Croissant. He should’ve known that his hyung wouldn’t let it left unanswered, so Baekhyun looked around at any possible source of Kyungsoo’s change.

 

Then he spotted Jongin who was grinning while staring at Kyungsoo.

 

“Jongin?” he blurted and Kyungsoo choked on his food. Baekhyun mouthed an ‘o’ in amusement and smirked, “It’s Jongin, isn’t it?”

 

“W-what about Jongin. There’s nothing wrong with Jongin.” he stuttered, adding more butter to his croissant. Baekhyun clicked his tongue as he propped his chin on his elbow and leaned closer to Kyungsoo with a smug grin.

 

“I know he is cute. He is still single.” Baekhyun cooed.

 

“I didn’t ask,” Kyungsoo jabbed the croissant before putting it into his mouth and munched on it.

 

Baekhyun had wider grin on his face now. “I know. I’m just letting you know so you won’t need to seek for information to him.” then he leaned back to his chair and sipped on his Americano. Kyungsoo had a hard time to swallow his food before changing his attention to his cup of latte. He reached for the saucer and noticed a sticky note was adhered on the cup. There was a messy scribbling on it, but it was still readable. He held up his cup to take a better look at it.

 

‘Smile, you’re cute :)

 

Nice pajamas by the way.

 

-Jongin’

 

He was sure his face was just as red as tomato now.