look what craving for some hot black coffee did to me. thanks to jason for the inspiration! <3

“Well, here’s your coffee, sir,” Chanyeol his lower lip after placing a cup of espresso on a table by the window.

The beautiful boy looks up from his phone and throws him a challenging look.

“Umm, okay. Here’s your coffee, Baekhyun.”

“That was easy, wasn’t it? Aside from your towering height, I think we share the same age? So don’t sir me or I won’t come to this coffee shop ever again,” Baekhyun smirks and wraps his dainty fingers around the cup to take a sip and Chanyeol has to tell himself not to attack this petite boy sitting before him right away. “You know what, Chanyeol, my legs are perfectly fine so I could’ve just walked up to pick up my order.”

A tint of pink decorates the barista’s cheeks and he just sheepishly grins to hide his embarrassment. “You looked so busy with your phone so I didn’t want to disturb.”

Baekhyun opens his mouth to say something but then a tall boy with piercings all over his ears just has to come at the smaller man’s table that time and Chanyeol feels out of place so he just walks away.

Minseok nudges his co-worker’s side with his elbow when the last customer in line has received her Americano. “What’s with the sigh, Yeol?”

“Look, hyung,” Chanyeol glances at the usual table owned by none other than Baekhyun to spill out what’s bothering him. “He’s with different stunning boy again.”

“So?”

“So? So I have no chance. Final.”

“How so? You’re tall and hot enough, I think.”

Chanyeol rolls his eyes and proceeds to make himself a cup of Cappuccino. “I’m nothing compared to those boys. I’m just a lame barista who can’t even do latte art.”

“That’s it? Latte art?”

“Well, not really,” the tall barista salutes at a customer who is leaving before facing the master of latte art again. “But somehow remembering I can’t do latte art brings all my confidence down, hyung.”

There’s this evil smirk on Minseok’s face that Chanyeol hopes will be gone soon because he definitely dislikes it. “Promise me you’ll confess after mastering it or else I’ll make a banner using the photo I took when you were cross—”

“Fine, ugh!” Chanyeol presses his palm against Minseok’s face harder but quickly pulls away when Baekhyun suddenly turns his head at him and flashes a small smile. His heart skips a beat and he knows he shouldn’t hold on any longer. “Deal.”

After spending liters of espresso and steamed milk plus hundreds of not like that, Yeol from Minseok, the lanky boy finally gets it right. A simple latte art is perfectly done after Chanyeol continuously learned how to do it overnight. And since Minseok hates it when someone wastes their drink, Chanyeol ended up drinking almost everything last night.

He has just flipped the sign open when Baekhyun suddenly shows up. “Oh, you’re early.”

“Good morning to you, too,” the way Baekhyun just thins his lips to smile tells Chanyeol that something’s off. “Can I spend my morning here? I just don’t feel like going to university.”

Chanyeol hurriedly steps aside to make way for the shorter boy. “Sure, come in.”

“You didn’t sleep last night?” is all Baekhyun says after sitting at his table. “Your eyes look awful.”

Oh, he cares. “Drank too much coffee last night.”

“Problems with your study? Parents?” Baekhyun chuckles. “Or lover?”

“None of the above,” Chanyeol swears the fast beating of his heart isn’t caused by the coffee. “So, the usual?”

Baekhyun winks. “You know me too well.”

Before he collapses on the spot, Chanyeol excuses himself to make the order. It’s hard to make latte art even with normal heartbeat, so the giant barista has to be extra careful in order to get this one done right. It’s for Baekhyun afterall, the one he’s having a crush on.

The pleasantly surprised look on Baekhyun’s face when Chanyeol puts the drink on his table is priceless. “You did this?”

“Who else?”

Baekhyun heartily laughs. “Just one heart-shape latte art and you’re so full of yourself already?”

Chanyeol doesn’t know where he suddenly gets the boosting confidence from but he finds himself taking a seat across Baekhyun and tells the latter that he can make other shapes, too. Their conversation goes on and on; they don’t even notice that Minseok and other customers have come.

“It’s been a month, Yeol, and you’ve showed him many different shapes of latte art. When is the confession?”

Chanyeol heaves out a sigh and leans against the cashier table, longingly watching Baekhyun’s figure slowly getting further away from the coffee shop. “Maybe he likes me just as a friend, hyung.”

Minseok frowns. “What makes you think so?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like that.”

The senior barista thinks that the downcast expression Chanyeol is putting on right now doesn’t suit h