All though it had been annoying at the time, and came with unwanted consequences for me, the rainy days had been a welcomed break I realise, as I finish the probably hundredth iced coffee order of the day and have to squint as I hand it over to the right customer as the sun is blinding me with its bright rays. The heat is back above 30 degrees Celsius and I feel like cursing at every car I see passing by, judging them for contributing to global warming – the end of August is not supposed to be this warm! But I understand, even though I mutter “the weather is nice, you could have walked” under my breath every time I spot a moving vehicle, I completely understand that they would want to sit in the cool air conditioning rather than move around in this heat. And running back and forth between the heat outside and the heat of the coffee and machines inside is not helping me at all.
“How is this?” I turn and accept the beverage the tall boy beside me is offering, and take a sip.
“Much better,” I confirm after letting the cold coffee swirl around in my mouth for a minute before swallowing.
“Not too sweet or too strong and definitely chilled with the right amount of ice. Good job!” His face lights up and it’s hard not to chuckle at how pleased he obviously is with finally getting it right. The boy has been practicing constantly for the past few days, working really hard on getting the blending right for iced coffee and ice tea, eager to get it down correctly so that he can be of help to the rest of us. As the heat had come back, so had the customers, and so it had become quite difficult to teach Luhan the things he needed to know, but the boy had taken it on quite diligently on his own and practiced hard by himself. It felt weird, though reasonable, but looking at him so pleased with his own work I couldn’t help but feeling a bit of pride. Chanyeol was busy holding the fort and getting in some final work experience before graduating, so the boss had assigned me to Luhan duty, setting me in charge of teaching our newest member the ropes of the trade. This had led to Luhan following me around like a lost little puppy, and though I knew he was only doing it to learn and to observe, it had taken some getting used to. For the most part he didn’t talk much, only a few questions every now and then, and the occasional “how does this taste?”, but sometimes as I passed by I heard him muttering to himself in Chinese while practicing his coffee-making skills.
            I had been a little surprised when the boss had set me in charge of him, but I figured it was for the best; Chanyeol would be leaving us in not too long anyway, and if we were completely honest – I owed him after what he had done when I got sick after walking in the rain. Whenever I thought about it I felt both guilty and thankful and a little useless; I was very happy that he had helped me and done such a good job – even feeding me and cleaning my apartment – but I felt guilty because it had really not been fair that he, someone who didn’t know me, had been placed in such a situation, and then the uselessness set in, because I couldn’t find a proper way to thank him. I had of course said it out loud to him, several times, and I had praised his soup and thanked him thoroughly for the umbrella, but all in all I wished to somehow I repay him for the favour – I just didn’t know how.
“Do you want to try to make the next order for iced coffee then?” I ask, but I don’t give him the coffee back. I am warm and sweaty and now that he had made the drink correctly the taste and coolness was exactly what I needed. He looked at me with wide eyes, very eager but a little worried at the same time.
“Are you sure?” His eyes are round and blank and excited and I find myself staring at them a little too long before I take another sip of the coffee and make a wondering, thoughtful look.
“Definitely,” I say and turn to him with a wide smile.

---

“Wow,” Chanyeol sighs as he closes the door behind the last customer. We all nod in agreement, before we waddle over to each our chair and slump down in exhaustion. The sun is on its way down and the sky outside is bathed in part dark blue and part yellow to orange to pink to red and the heat is less burning, the shadows building up outside the café windows feel soothing on the skin and as silence sets in over the room we all feel a little relieved the day is finally over. We all sit there in silence, resting and waiting for our muscles to relax a little more before we can start the cleaning duties so that we can leave, until Joonmyun boss enters the room again and sits down next to me and Luhan.
“So how do you feel today went,” he asks Luhan.
“I saw you got to make some orders, how was that?” Luhan looks thoughtful for a moment before he replies.
“It was good, I think. I got to make some coffee orders, and I only messed up once,” he kept nodding, more to himself than anyone else, as he was talking.
“It was fun making orders for customers, and I liked watching their faces when they drank the ones I made – when they looked pleased I felt very good,” he finished.
“That’s good, that’s good,” the boss nodded back.
“And how do you feel about today, Minseok?” Still staring at the nodding Luhan I turn my gaze to the man opposite me and smile.
“He did really well, and the order he messed up was partially my fault – it was one of the more complicated, American ones and I should have taken it instead of him, but he was doing so well on his own that I forgot to pay attention.” The boss smiled at me,
“That’s good then – even if the order was ruined, he is progressing well and if you even felt like he did good on his own then things are good, but you need to pay attention so this sort of mistake doesn’t happen again.”
“Of course, of course,” I nodded in agreement, before we all got up and began our end-of-the-day duties.
            After most of it was done and all that was left for me and Luhan to do was to clean the machines, when I realised something.
“Hey, boss?” Joonmyun’s head appeared in the door to the kitchen in response.
“Could I stay with Luhan and work on some new stuff, as it seems he’s gotten the hang of what I have taught him so far? He needs to learn more stuff and it’s impossible to teach him during the day, there are way too many customers.” To my surprise I saw Luhan’s face light up with excitement at my suggestion, and he stared at the boss with anticipation as Joonmyun thought about it for a while. After a few minutes he came out of the kitchen with the keys to the door, agreeing that it would probably be for the best if we stayed behind and practiced after hours and thanked me for volunteering to teach him in my own free time.
“It’s not much, but I guess it can be a sort of repayment for him helping me,” I grinned and accepted the keys.

---

“Like this?” The boy with the white hair turns to me in anticipation, pointing to the cup in front of him. I nod approvingly and he turns back to continue, doing his best to follow my instructions, but forgetting to add the syrup and have to start over again. After trying fifteen times, I decide we need a break, and grab the pot from his hand and guide him over to a chair. The disappointment and frustration is quite clear on his face, and I try to comfort him by explaining that making a latte correctly is a difficult and takes lots of practice – creating separate layers is a tedious thing to learn, but as soon as he gets it down it’ll come automatically – hoping that my words will encourage him a little. I can’t tell if it worked or not, so instead I decide to change the subject for the time being.
“So you’re from China, huh? That’s cool. Why did you decide to move here? I bet you miss your family a lot, am I right?” The boy stiffened a bit in his chair, and all though I was glad the frustration disappeared from his face, I didn’t like how it was replaced by something sad and vulnerable and possibly a little bitter.
“Things… Turned out this way,” he said, without looking at me. The silence bubbled up between us and I guess he could feel it to and decided to break it by asking questions too.
“How about you? Boss mentioned you lived far away before, why did you work here already then? And why did you move here? And why are there no pictures in your apartment?” Just like I had seemingly done, he too chose the wrong questions to begin with and I could feel a scowl appearing on my face and anger and sadness replacing my curiosity of what memories the other had been thinking of because of my questions. I tried my best to let it slide, but the scowl just wouldn’t leave my face, and even as I tried to straighten it out I could tell that he had detected his mistake.
“Let’s not talk about it,” I managed to say, barely avoiding to growl. And so silence fell down upon us like a tight mask preventing us from breathing, making the atmosphere so uncomfortable that going back to frustratingly trying to make coffee felt less stressful.

---

As we entered September, the temperature dropped a little to more tolerable conditions, and the rush of customers evened out a little bit and became more tolerable – even creating for opportunities to practise with and teach Luhan more things, which again had helped removing the tension between us after the agonising session alone. The bell rang as new customers entered while I was standing and watching over Luhan, leaving Chanyeol to deal with the orders. Luhan was finally getting the hang of creating the layers of the latte, and as he was pouring in deep concentration, I was watching with so much anticipation I barely caught Chanyeol’s greeting of the new arrivals.
“Hello, welcome to the Black-…”
Silence.
“Eh, the Black Pearl! Welcome. Yeah. Errh… May I… uhm… take your… order..?” His voice trailed off the further into the greeting he got, and suddenly Jongdae appeared by my side.
“Oh, watch this…” He whispered over his shoulder, staring at Chanyeol at the other end of the counter. I looked at Luhan and found him staring back at me, and without a word we agreed he would set down the pot and all three of us stood together staring at the short scene unfolding before us. To our utmost surprise, Chanyeol’s cheeks were tinted slightly pink as he was staring across the counter at a young boy with brown, somewhat fluffy, hair. The boy was staring boldly and directly back at Chanyeol, but judging by Chanyeol’s body language you would think he was poking the tower that was the Black Pearl’s best barista with sharp needles made of ice.
“One mocha please,” he said casually. The boy was actually really good-looking, with clear skin and very nice, appealing features and a triangle jaw. His clothes were good too, his sense of fashion suited his body well without making it seem like he put too much effort into dressing according to his looks. Chanyeol turned around quickly and stuttered “One mocha coming up,” as he began making the beverage. I thought his blush had been surprising, but I had never seen him like this; his hands were shaking, he dropped the cup several times, he spilled the chocolate syrup and had to start the order over three times before he could make it without any mistakes – Chanyeol, the never-failing coffee-maker who was about to graduate from barista school was showing a completely new side to him. The boy stood patiently by the counter and waited, paid without hesitation as Chanyeol handed him the coffee while apologising for making him wait and went over to sit by a table in the corner, drinking his coffee while listening to music on his iPod. As soon as his back was turned to walk over to the table, Chanyeol grabbed on to the counter and gasped in air in frustration and perplexity, cursing at his own shaking, before he turned to clean up the mess he had made while closing his eyes obviously embarrassed and flustered. “Wow,” was all I could whisper as Jongdae stood there chuckling to himself in amusement.
            “What the heck was that all about?” I ask him when I’m sure Chanyeol can’t hear me. Luhan leans in to hear our conversation as well while we’re cleaning off the tables before closing time.
“What do you think it was?” Jongae asks while looking at me with an expression telling me that I clearly should have picked up on something. Seeing that I am just as confused, he sighs and closes his eyes while shaking his head.
“Hyung, you are too innocent and blind.” He leans in and stare directly into my eyes before he continues.
“That’s Chanyeollie’s crush of course! Or boyfriend… I don’t really know for sure. But he is definitely in love with him.” I can feel my jaw drop in shock and I stop doing what I’m supposed to, my arms hanging unmoving by my sides, but Jongdae has already turned his back and left to clean another table. Out of the corner of my eye I notice Luhan moving away from me, his expression unchanged but his movements a little sharper, and all though the surprise isn’t obvious on his face I guess he must have been caught off guard too. I look back and Chanyeol who is back to normal and busy cleaning off his barista equipment. “I guess we all carry secrets then,” I think to myself, and with this thought I find the strength to continue my work and the initial shock wears off quite quickly. I don’t notice Joonmyun boss standing in the door to his office, listening in on our conversation with his back turned against us.

---

“Wait, you like football?” I exclaim loudly as Luhan shows me his new phone. Obviously not prepared for such a question when showing off a cellphone he stares at me in curiosity and I point to his Manchester United wallpaper. Even without the sound, you can see his face express the “oh!” when he realises how I figured it out, before he smiles slyly and nods.
“Yeah – I even dreamt of becoming a professional football player when I was younger.”
“Wow, me too!” I say as I grab his phone from his hand. “Hey, what-…” I enter my number and give him his phone back.
“You need contacts now that you’ve finally got a phone,” I say, but at the back of my head I can’t help but question what had made me so spontaneously give him my number – I haven’t even exchanged numbers with any of my co-workers whom I have known for years now. I can’t find a good answer, but I guess it’s partially because we’re the same age and partially because I feel like I have the responsibility to take care of him now that he has become my protégé on Joonmyun’s orders. He stares at the phone in his hand, almost in disbelief, before he smiles surprisingly warmly and nods while pocketing the phone.
“So, are you ready to begin?” The weather had been quite a lot milder recently, but the sun was still shining even though the leaves were slowly, finally, beginning to change in colour and the changes were making me feel fresher and more energetic. I have always been a summer person, but for some reason this year the break of fall seems to have caught me and my mood is good – not as warm and nice as during the summer, but I feel awake and energised and my body is for some reason trembling with anticipation, though I’m not quite sure of what. Something good I hope. That would be nice.

            Time has passed by both quickly and slowly; the hours spent practicing and teaching have been tedious and hard, but before any of us could really gather our thoughts – Luhan had become really skilled with his coffee making and could handle several orders completely fine on his own. Today was the first day we were going to work on making patterns and pictures in the foam, a difficult but more fun task to tackle; even the easiest ones were still very hard to make and required lots of practice and a steady hand. Spending hours and hours with Luhan had become a comfortable habit by now, and so it was only when we finally decided to take a break we realise how late it had become. Taking the opportunity to try out his new phone, we text the boss and ask if we can make ourselves some food in the kitchen as the stores have already closed. Before long we receive a reply expressing shock over the fact that we are still there, and urging to make ourselves some food on the house as we’ve been working so diligently. Luhans hands are tired and sore after hours of repetitively making the same patterns, so I offer to make us some sandwiches while he rests his hands for a bit. It feels weird, but nice, I realise as I’m standing in the kitchen, making us sandwiches, to have become this close with a friend – spending time together, sharing meals and passions, and talking about almost anything. The preparation of the food takes no time at all, and I barely get to place the plate on the table before we both find ourselves devouring the food like wolves, glomping them down like wild beasts. As the hunger is slowly satisfied we find our words again and Luhan begins asking me questions about why I’m not in barista school and how I learned to make coffee so well, and I explain that I needed a job so I took a few quick barista courses, but that I had always dreamt of being able to make good coffee so it wasn’t something I just ‘fell into’, and added that it was actually Chanyeol who had taught me how to make the images in the foam. Luhan’s chewing begin to slow down at the mention of Chanyeol’s name, and his expression become thoughtful.
            “So, what do you think of what Jongdae told us?” he finally asks. A little surprised, but at the same time also expecting it, I think for a bit. I’m not really sure what he wants an answer to, so I ask back “If I believe that he has a crush, or about who Jongdae says he has a crush on?” Ever since that first day, the brown haired boy had been coming by eat least twice a week, always ordering the same thing despite the changes in temperatures, always sitting by the table in the corner, listening to music.
“Both?” My Chinese friend seems to question his own question as he voices it, but he watches me carefully while waiting for my response. He has completely stopped chewing now, I realise, and all though he is still holding half a sandwich, it is also half resting on the plate in front of him. Ever after Jongdae had told us his secret, and the boy had begun appearing regularly, I had started paying attention to Chanyeol whenever the boy was present – even taking it as far as avoiding taking the boys order just so that Chanyeol would have to face him every time, and the result was always the same; stuttering, blushing, shaking, muttering curses under his breath, embarrassment and a huge mess.
“Yeah, he’s probably in love with him.” I smile at the thought of how reduced the strong, great Chanyeol becomes in the presence of the tiny, pale boy, and I grab another bite of my sandwich. Luhan’s face, for a split second, displays a weird mixture of disappointment, relief and confusion at my response.
“So… You don’t care that he likes a guy?” I look at him, wondering what he was thinking and questioning if maybe Luhan could be homophobic.
“No. Should I?” He looks at me with clear surprise this time.
“Shouldn’t you??” I place my sandwich on my plate, cross my arms and lean back in my chair while staring at him sternly.
“Now why on earth would I care about that? If he is in love, then that is great for him, but it is none of my business what so ever.” Could it really be that he is homophobic? I had become so accustomed to having similar thoughts with him on things that we discussed that it never occurred to me that he could have a different opinion on this matter.
“But he is a guy and he likes another guy! What if he liked you?” I’m beginning to feel annoyed, but his questions are so common in discussions like this that I can’t get completely angry with him either.
“Then that would , because I’m not in love with him, though it would be worse for him, because he would have his feelings hurt. However, that is not the case thankfully; he likes someone else and who is to say that the boy he likes does not like him back? I can’t see no other reason why he would be coming by so often when Chanyeol’s feelings are so blatantly obvious!” I can feel my voice rise despite my efforts to keep a cool attitude about this. Luhan seems to calm down a bit while thinking.
“So if they became a couple, you wouldn’t mind?” he asks, but this time with a more childlike curiosity.
“Absolutely not, I would be thrilled for him. Love is a great thing!” I can’t help but let my irritation seep through when I respond.
“What if they kissed?” His eyes were still very childlike and innocent, but I still felt anger coming.
“What??”
“I mean, what if they kissed, in front of you? Or somewhere you could see it? Or in public?” I can tell that my stare is becoming ice cold, but I really don’t get this friend.
“Why the would I care about that??” I snap back. But instead of pushing it further or asking more weird questions, Luhan’s expression changes into a bright, happy one and he breaks out into a huge smile, an action so unexpected to me that all of my building anger drowns in a pool of confusion and my arms drop a bit off of my chest.
“So what about you?” he asks as he begins eating again.
“What?” Wait, where did this conversation go? I can’t stop staring at him, while he is eating. Through huge mouthfuls he manages to get out a muffled
“What about you? Do you have a girlfriend?” I have no idea what just happened to our conversation or how he jumped from annoying me with homophobia to questioning my own love-life and I’m so perplexed that I find myself just answering.
“Well, errr… No, I don’t have a girlfriend. I have never had one, actually. I tried dating a few times, but they were all set up by friends – I’ve never really liked anyone, so I’ve never actually asked anyone on a date.” His eyes widen, but his grin stays as he exclaims in surprise.
“Really??”
“Yeah, really. I do see some cute girls from time to time, but I guess I’ve never really found anyone that have appealed to me on that level. Honestly, more than a few times I’ve thought that I may be aual or something, but I don’t think so – I just think I’ve never found anyone that appeals to me.” His grin changes into a sly smile.
“You’ve questioned your uality as aual, but not homoual? What if you haven’t found anyone because you’re gay?” I can tell he is mocking me, but I still think about it seriously, and as I take another bite of my sandwich, his expression tells me that he was not prepared for my honest answer.
“Then I hope Mr. Right will appear before me soon.”