"  O f   C o f f e e   A n d   T e a  "

Coffee and tea absolutely do not blend well together. They were two separate drinks with each its unique taste.

At least that's what Jihyo felt while working as a barista. She never understood why coffee shops sold tea when it's called coffee shop, and hated making tea with a passion.

That was, until she met a certain someone, who ordered only tea without fail every time he came to the shop.

- 

Jihyo was having a hard time simply focusing on anything right now.

Flipping idly through the magazine, she found her gaze darting frequently between the glass door and the clock instead. She pursed her lips, forcing herself to look back at the colorful printed pages with a slight frown. The minute hand was currently moving too slow for her liking, and the shoes advertised on the magazine were too ugly for her taste.

Yet another sigh escaped from her as she flipped through more meaningless pages of the magazine. Business was slow at this time of the day, and with the dark clouds looming in the sky outside, it was just overall a rather dreary day for her and the shop’s business sale.

When the tinkling sound of the door chime echoed across the place and reached her ears, she jolted up almost instantly. Her expression was akin to that of a child receiving presents–until she realized it was only her fellow barista who had went out to dispose the trash bag. She turned back to the magazine and continued flipping through the pages with furrowed brows.

"Waiting for that handsome fellow to come?"

Jihyo jumped back in her seat, rather startled by the voice breaking the tranquility of the quiet atmosphere, but was more shocked by the fact that she didn't notice the presence next to her the whole time.

She rolled her eyes and gave a pointed look in the culprit's direction.

"I’ve no idea what you're talking about," Jihyo responded calmly as she picked up the fallen magazine and resumed what she had been doing all along. "Beside, you were supposed to take out the trash bag, not order another person to do it for you, Youngjee your highness."

"That’s a false accusation! He volunteered to take the trash out, I didn't force him to."

Jihyo paused in the midst of flipping the pages and sent her friend a knowingly look.

"Yes, fine, I know he has a crush on me and I’m making use of it, but that's not the point. The point here, is that the muscular handsome fellow you're in love with is late today! He should be here fifteen minutes ago!" 

Jihyo's face reddened almost instantly and stared at Youngjee who was beaming from ear to ear.

"W-who said I'm in love with him!?" Jihyo cursed silently at herself for stuttering. Youngjee only smiled even wider if that was possible.

"Really, Jihyo? Do you honestly think that I wouldn't notice you secretly snapping a picture of him with your phone every time he's here? It's either you've a huge crush on him, which I think it's adorable by the way, or you're turning into some psychotic stalker. I could recommend you some doctors if you need it."

If Jihyo didn’t know any better, she would have thought Youngjee was serious about it, but she knew her friend too well.

"You have three seconds to scram before I do anything that’d make you regret ever saying that," Jihyo threatened, but Youngjee was completely composed about it and she shrugged her shoulder, mouthing 'you have customer' before scurrying back to the kitchen. Jihyo sent another glare at her friend for good measure before turning around to face the customer, only to stiffen at the sight of the familiar face. 

"Oh, hi! You're late today ack- " Jihyo squeaked, her cheeks becoming more rosy by the second upon realizing what she had just said. That wasn't meant for him to know!

"I-I mean you're usually on the dot and and..." Her voice trailed off when he started chuckling. While it might have been embarrassing for her to make a fool out of herself in front of the guy she liked, no less, Jihyo thought it was all worth it if she get to see his smile and hear his laughter more often.

"Busy day at work."

His reply surprised her, for Jihyo didn't expect him to answer. She nodded her head absentmindedly, trying her best to hide the smile that was creeping up on her face.

"Aren't you going to take my order?"

She jerked out of her reverie and clumsily keyed into the cash register. So much for trying to leave a good impression on him. Jihyo swore she did not wake up from the wrong side of the bed this morning. Or maybe she did and forgot about it.

"The usual? Caffeine-free tea?" Jihyo asked, trying her best to avoid eye contact with him at the moment, and instead almost burned a hole through the cash register.

"Yes, please."

Jihyo could almost hear a hint of amusement in his voice, but thought she might be imagining things.

"That’ll be 3100 won," Jihyo held her hand out to receive the exact amount of money from him, feeling rather dazed. She just hoped the blush on her face wasn’t too obvious. And she couldn’t help but noticed he was smiling a lot today, even more so than usual. Did something good happen to him while at work? He had a really dazzling sunshine smile, did he know that?

"Thank you, and enjoy your drink." She smiled shyly, never once taking her gaze off him even when he walked away from her to sit by the window. It had became a habit of hers to look in his direction whenever there were no customers to attend to, which was pretty much most of the time since it's usually non-peak hours for the cafe during her shift.

And there he was, drawing on his sketchbook again.

-

"You're such a creep, ogling at him all the time."

Jihyo's eyes twitched at the sight of Youngjee smiling so cunningly beside her.

"How do you know I'm ogling at him all the time? You're the creep here, ogling at me like a ert." Jihyo countered, grabbing a piece of cloth to wipe the counter and suppressing her urge to stare at him again.

"If I admit that I'm a ert, would you go up to him and ask for his name?"

Jihyo turned to look at Youngjee as if she had just seen two horns growing out of her friend's head. "Are you crazy? No! I'll only further embarrass myself in front of him." There was no way she was going to do that. If she had the courage to, she would have done that months ago.

"But it's only fair since he knows your name."

"He does?" Jihyo’s eyes widened at that revelation.

"Yah! No wonder they say people become stupid once they fall in love, that's what the tag on your uniform is for, silly!"

The expression on her face visibly fell, and she felt a tinge of disappointment in the pit of her stomach despite telling herself it was nothing. It was as if she had reverted back to her high school days where she would have this fluttery feeling whenever her crush was in her sight.

"If this comforts you, that guy’s probably just too shy to ask you out."

Jihyo looked skeptically at Youngjee, "I don't know where or how you derive that from, but it's absurd."

"It's called wisdom, Jihyo. Something you seemed to be lacking in,” Youngjee ignored Jihyo’s death glare and added, “you're a lot more hopeless than I thought you are, for goodness sake."

Paying no attention to her friend, Jihyo continued wiping the already stainless counter. Part of her wanted to believe Youngjee's words, but how was that possible? He didn't even show any sign of wanting to talk to her, and was always very focused on his drawings. His sketchbook was much more interesting than she was, it seemed.

"The counter is going to sparkle if you continue wiping, Jihyo-ah~"

She continued on ignoring Youngjee, wiping the counter with more fervor than before.

"Seriously Jihyo, stop wiping the counter."

The more her friend told her not to do it, the more Jihyo wanted to do it.

"...am I disturbing you?"

Jihyo opened to say yes, but stopped and froze in mid-way when she realized that the voice didn't belong to Youngjee. Whose voice did that belong to then?

She looked up and blushed hard when she saw him with an amused expression on his face.

Youngjee once commented that his eyes were so small that she didn't know if they were opened or closed at times. Jihyo, however, thought they were more like stars in the night sky that shined and twinkled whenever he smiled. It was obvious she didn't dare mention that to Youngjee because she would definitely laugh at her for being so cheesy.

At that moment she felt like murdering her dear friend, for it was her fault that she didn't notice him leaving his seat and coming over.

"N-no... you're not disturbing me at all. I-I finished wiping the counter anyway," Jihyo reprimanded herself mentally for stuttering. How old was she already? She wasn't even a young schoolgirl that would giggle even at the slightest thing anymore.

"Are you knocking off work soon?"

"Huh?" The word rolled off Jihyo's tongue before she could even register what was happening. She stared at him wide-eyed. He, on the other hand, could be seen feeling quite uncomfortable. His gaze was flickering everywhere and he even faked a cough to cover up his nervousness.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"I've still got three hours to go," Jihyo replied, a grin slowly appearing and adorning her pretty face. This was the first time he spoke to her on his own accord. That was... something, right?

He nodded, seemingly deep in thought. The atmosphere around them turned rather cloying all of a sudden, like some sappy romance drama. Jihyo unabashedly stared at him when he began rummaging through his bag, wondering if she should take the chance to ask for his name. Youngjee was right. She was beyond hope.

"I... this is for you."

There was a few good seconds of flurry movements, and then suddenly he was gone from the cafe before Jihyo could even blink her eyes. She stood rooted to the ground for a good few minutes, wondering what had just happened as Youngjee skipped out from the kitchen with a devious look.

"Oh my dear, did the star-struck Jihyo just receive a present from her prince charming?" Youngjee crooned, curious with the sketchbook Jihyo was holding in her hands, earning another death glare from her friend in the process. "Is that the one he's always drawing on with?"

"I think so..." Jihyo stared at the plain cover of the sketchbook, but was too stunned to do anything else.

"Aren’t you going to open and see what's inside? Stop daydreaming." Youngjee suggested, nudging and trying to bring Jihyo back from her trance.

Steadily, as if afraid it would vanish into the thin air, Jihyo opened the sketchbook. She gaped at it in surprise when she saw a portrait drawing of herself in pencil. As she flipped through it, each and every pages were all drawings of her in various poses and expression. Her face grew hot when she realized he might have noticed that she had been gawking at him all the time.

"Gosh, I didn't know he's a stalker too. It's like you guys are a match in heaven." Youngjee remarked and subsequently got herself a jab in the shoulder. She was still making fun of Jihyo endlessly when she got forced to get back to the kitchen.

Jihyo breathed a sigh of relief and continued looking through the sketchbook. She laughed quietly to herself when she saw the handwriting on the last page. It was too cute for someone like him. However, what really made her day, was the stuff written on it.

He had literally just confessed to her through his sketchbook.

"He... likes me too," she mumbled to herself, and almost danced in joy when she realized the full impact of the confession.

-

Jongkook oppa, over here!" Jihyo waved animatedly, a huge grin on her face when she saw the all too familiar figure of his from afar. She bit her lips and refrained from running into his arms this time round, as she would whenever she had the chance to, but only because the ground was icy and she didn’t want to risk them slipping.

"Yah Jihyo, didn't I tell you to wait in there? It's cold outside and I don't want you to get sick," Jongkook reproached, tapping the tip of her nose affectionately with his finger when he reached her. Jihyo pouted, before tiptoeing and kissing his lips lightly in tease. The effect was almost immediate as he blushed at the contact. She giggled at how shy he was.

"Oppa, you're really cute," Jihyo remarked, smiling happily at him. Jongkook held back the urge to kiss her soft pink lips on the spot, and instead settled on pinching her rosy cheek.

"Jihyo-yah, calling a man cute isn't quite a compliment at all," he chuckled, holding a takeaway cup out to her before she could protest and hit his chest for pinching her. "Your Americano, drink it while it's still warm."

She accepted the drink meekly, a look of bliss as she handed a similar takeaway cup to Jongkook too. "Your caffeine-free tea," she chirped, and soon they both burst out laughing at how they bought hot drinks for each other in sync even without communicating.

"Let's go before we freeze to death in this ridiculous weather," Jongkook remarked, putting his arm around Jihyo's shoulder to shelter her from the biting wind. Jihyo looked at him tenderly and nodded her head, a warm feeling enveloping her even under the cold temperature.

Maybe coffee and tea do mix well together after all.

-

//end

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