That Saturday, I ventured to A Sweet Moment to Remember Cafe, alone with nothing but the shadows of the morning accompanying me. I had risen early, having spent my night in a restless sleep, and decided that a head start to the subway couldn’t do much to hurt me. The clothes I chose were old and worn with the years passed –recent findings I acquired when I unintentionally dug a little too deeply into my closet. Thinking that it was too early and no one would be awake enough to judge my fashion terrorism, I had scraped my hair into messy ponytail and secured it with a scrunchie (another recent find from the depths of my closet).

I arrived at the cafe a little earlier than I estimated; the lack of the people at the station made it a smooth journey. I was worried that I’d have to wait on the doorstep of the cafe for Donghae to arrive, but was spared the time and the humiliation when I spotted the half-raised blinds on the door that indicated his presence.

“We’re not opened yet,” a voice said to me when I pushed open the door. I turned my head to see Eunhyuk washing the windows. Figuring that he was too engrossed in his task to see that it was actually me, I decided on greeting him with a quiet ‘hello’ and hoped that he wouldn’t say Donghae was away.

“Oh?” he said in surprise, pausing for a moment with his arm outstretched. “You, Aeri?”

“I thought you’d abandoned me,” a voice piped up from further into the cafe. As usual, Kyuhyun was leaning against his counter, working on the dials and buttons to complete a task that I was not altogether sure of. He glanced up and flashed his cheeky grin as his greeting. “Nice to see you again, Babe.”

Ryeowook bonked him lightly over the head with the mug he’d been drying. “Manners, Kyu.”

“What? I was greeting her!” Kyuhyun argued, rubbing the sore spot and glaring darkly at his colleague.

“You can afford to do it politely, instead of making it so...” Ryeowook grimaced, “tacky.”

Kyuhyun pouted, but his response was cut off by Donghae’s appearance. In all my weeks of working here, I had never seen Donghae without his customary button down shirt that Tao and I had joked to have come in all the shades of the rainbow. Today though, he was wearing a plain grey shirt with a rounded collar, holding a brown box which he gladly set on the counter.

“Oh, Aeri,” he said, smiling pleasantly at me. “Come on into my office.”

His office was a small room in simple white. Despite his outrageous tastes in his clothing, he seemed to favour pastel colours for his walls and stationery. His chair was the only thing that bore resemblance to his colourful shirts, and it was on this that he settled himself into as he began to riffle through his files.

“Have a seat if you like,” he said, gesturing towards another, more plainer version of the chair which he had set in front of his desk with his free hand.

I declined politely, and waited patiently as he came up with a small, rectangular cheque with my name and several numbers written neatly across. “You did a good job,” he said with a smile as he passed the cheque to me.

“Thanks Oppa,” I said gratefully, glancing at my name and the numbers before quickly depositing it into my bag.

“Don’t tell how much I gave you to the boys,” Donghae said, winking secretively at me, “and by that, I mean the three monkeys I have manning the cafe outside –two actually, since Ryeowook is the only sane one.”

I laughed. “It’s a pleasure working with you. It was great experience.”

“And it’s a great loss losing you four,” Donghae said, shaking his head ruefully. “You guys had so much energy –a bit like Eunhyuk when he first started working here. Unfortunately, said enthusiasm didn’t last for as long as I hoped –especially when he met Kyuhyun.” He chuckled and I smiled along with him. “But really, you’ll be missed. Looks like I’ll have to get back into kitchen since we’re now short of workers.”

I smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry.”

Donghae shook his head. “You don’t need to be. I understand that you students have very little time in your hands.” He got up and opened the door for me. “Come on. I’ll give you a proper send-off.”

“Make sure you come again!” Ryeowook cheerfully told me as I passed by the register, Donghae in front of me. “We’ll give you a half-off on the deserts.”

“That’s not for you to decide, Ryeowook,” Eunhyuk said with a roll of his eyes. “But still, come again, Aeri. I liked working with you.”

“Yeah,” Kyuhyun said blissfully. “I think I’m going to miss seeing the two Star-Crossed Servers.”

I whirled around to face him with wide eyes, absolutely speechless.

“Oh come on now,” Kyuhyun said, grinning lecherously. “You don’t honestly think that we don’t know, now do you?”

I was saved by Donghae by grabbing my arm and dragging me away to the door. He said nothing, but I could see that he was struggling to contain his smile. I was positive that, by then, my cheeks were flaming in embarrassment.

“Come again,” Donghae said as he opened the door for me. “And hopefully, I’d see you bringing Joonmyun along with you,” he added in a whisper, offering me a secret wink before closing the door of the cafe.

Dear You,

Beautiful day, isn’t it?

But not quite as beautiful as you. ;)

Your guardian,

Me.

The gasp of surprise that escaped my lips when I saw the note was something involuntarily done. It had already become a habit of mine to check my desk the minute I arrive at class, and Monday morning was no disappointment when I found one neatly taped onto the polished wood, at the exact space I’d angle my paper on when I wanted to write. The content though, was something that came as a surprise.

“What’s wrong, Aeri?” Hyunji asked me, turning to see my shocked expression with a concern in her eyes. Her eyes landed on the note in my hands. “What’s that?”

Realising that I had it in plain sight (a mistake that I once took great precautions to avoid from happening), I quickly stuffed it into the pages of my notebook, smiling nervously at her as her eyes narrowed suspiciously. “Grocery list. I realised I forgot something.”

She frowned at me. “Then, why are you blushing?”

Unconsciously, I touched my cheek; it was warm when my fingers brushed against it. “I’m not,” I lied, quite pathetically might I add.

“Good morning, ladies,” Jonghyun said, setting his bag onto the table and sliding into his seat. I sent a silent thank you in my head to him for his impeccable timing. “What’s up?”

“Good morning,” I cheerfully greeted him, thankful for the distraction.

Jonghyun regarded me with raised brows. “Are you okay? Your cheeks are red.”

Gosh, why do people have to be so keen to point that out, I thought, grimacing inwardly as I forced a smile onto my face. “Oh, it’s nothing...,” I said, trailing off and letting the sentence hang in the air.

“Do you think it’s nothing?” Hyunji asked, turning to Jonghyun. I knew what she was doing; she was trying to get him to back her up so she could wring the truth out of me.

“So, Jonghyun!” I began a little too enthusiastically than I should. “It’s you’re last day, today, isn’t it?”

Jonghyun eyed me with a raised brow. “I didn’t think that you’d be so happy about that. Are you looking to get rid of me too?”

“No!” I exclaimed, horrified, “I was just –”

“Wait, you’re leaving today?” Hyunji asked, eyes wide as she turned to stare at Jonghyun.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. I supposed having to look into the eyes of someone you like and remembering that she and you weren’t meant to be would send a heavy pang through your heart, no matter how you’ve come to accept it. “Yeah.”

I heaved a sigh of relief when Hyunji fired her next question, thankful of the diversion. I made a mental note to apologise to Jonghyun, maybe get him a parting gift too, since I couldn’t have done any worse than putting him in such an uncomfortable position for my benefit.

I got him a goodbye card and a pen from the school bookstore during lunch, a detour that I miraculously made all the way on my own. I half expected Jongin to materialise from the shadows sometime on my way there, given that he’d been doing that a lot for these past few days.  Somehow, I managed to shake off Hyunji (though thinking back, it wasn’t much of a feat really, since she seemed just as eager to get rid of me. She must have had an impromptu date with Yixing at the garden.)

The card was a simple goodbye card, silverish-white, with a picture of a bouquet of yellow flowers printed at the front. I tried to make up for its simplicity with the sincerity of my message, hoping that Jonghyun wasn’t too fussy with his cards and would be able to see that I meant everything I said. The pen was a last minute decision. I chose the smartest one I could find: a gel pen with a sleek blue metal cylinder –to remind him of the time when we were once teammates at the sports festival. Personally, I thought it was a good choice.

The boy behind the counter told me the price, and I rummaged my wallet for some money. I pulled out a few bills from the compartment and handed it to him, frowning slightly when I realised that my cheque was missing.

“Are you okay?” he asked me concernedly, hand hovering over the counter with my change as he watched me frantically search through my wallet.

I bit my lip, took my change and my things, and gave him a quick bow in thanks, still searching through my pockets on my way out. Since my mother was the one who handled the transactions with my bank account, I had decided to keep it in my wallet for safekeeping while I waited for her announce her schedule free enough to bank in the cheque. I knew I left it in the top compartment of my wallet, the place where I usually put my money, and hadn’t taken it out since.

I paused down the hallway, trying to think back as to where I might have left the cheque. Could I have dropped it? Possibly, since I remembered pulling out my wallet to lend Chanyeol some change for the vending machine. Did the cheque somehow slip from my wallet and flutter to the ground while I wasn’t looking?

I groaned and knocked the wall with my fist in frustration. At this rate, I’d have to go searching for the whole school looking for it.