"Perfect." 

Without her eyes leaving the mirror in front of her, Jiyoon placed the shiny, metal tiara on top of her head and smiled. The girls were all over at Eunyeon's apartment, preparing for their first day of the royalty-themed week at the café. Although they had originally planned to prepare at their own respective houses, Eunyeon insisted that they have a sleepover the night before so that they could get ready for the day together. While all the other girls were still asleep, Jiyoon had set her alarm an extra hour and a half earlier than the others so that she had more time to get ready, since she knew that she normally took longer than most girls. 

Checking her reflection in the mirror once more, she lightly brushed her fingers over her onyx black hair that fell in soft curls over her shoulders. She turned a full circle and patted down her royal blue chiffon dress and slipped on a series of silver bracelets to match the silver gemstones on her dress (♕); she smiled in satisfaction and turned around, walking out to the living room where the other girls were still asleep. "Up, up, up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" She clapped her hands loudly. 

One by one, the other girls slowly arose, rubbing the sleepiness out of their eyes. The first one to stand up was the eldest in the 97line, Junghee. She swayed several times on her way to the washroom, completely unaware of her surroundings. Closing the door behind her, she the cold water and splashed her face to wake herself up; as soon as the water touched her face, her eyes widened at the cold feeling.  Taking one of the clean towels off the rack, she patted her face dry and left the washroom, allowing for the next girl to wash up. Since reality had finally set on Junghee, she finally turned to Jiyoon and noticed that she was already set to go. "Wait, how did you get ready so quickly?"

"I got up about two hours ago." Jiyoon grinned.

"That's amazing," Eunyeon came up to the two of them. "Jiyoon, you look really pretty, by the way." The younger smiled at the compliment and walked away to help the others get ready. "I'm guessing that the other girls haven't chosen their outfits yet." Eunyeon walked over to her closet, where she had hung up all the dresses she had bought with Seokmin the day before. "This one is mine." She pulled out a satin turquoise dress and held it up against her body in the mirror. Then she walked off to the washroom to change. When she came out, she tied her hair up into a neat ponytail as she always did when she was at the café. Once she lifted her light brown hair off her shoulders, the sparkled x-cross straps that revealed her back became evident (♕).

"Which one is mine?" Choim brushed her fingers over all the different colored dresses. When Eunyeon told her to choose whichever one that she likes, she chose the grey halter dress (♕); she was never very fond of pastel, bright colors, so this one was perfect for her. 

"And mine?" Aeri was still rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes when she came up to the two. Eunyeon pointed at the short red chiffon dress with a sweetheart neckline. It had a wide ribbon-like array of gems just below the chest (♕).

"I think that one would look very cute on you, Aeri. Since you're the youngest and the shortest of us all, I picked that one specifically for you since shorter dresses are cuter on shorter people," Eunyeon explained. Aeri stared at it for a couple seconds; she wasn't sure how she felt about how girly it looked, but she headed to the washroom to change into it anyway.

Just as she was walking in, Junghee stepped out in her short purple dress with silver embroidery lining along the sweetheart cut (♕). She smiled and spun around, letting her dress flow freely. "I love this color!" She walked over to the box of accessories and picked out a tiara that she found to her liking, placing it gently on her straight-ironed hair. 

"How do I look?" Junghee turned and saw Hyojung wearing a pastel pink high-low dress with silver embroidery across the waist (♕). "Is it nice? I like how flowy it is!" Hyojung was grinning from ear to ear as she looked at her reflection in the mirror. "So very many pretty!" She exclaimed in English, completely unaware of the thing called 'grammar.' She walked over to a laughing Junhee with a confused look on her face. The native English speaker simply brushed it off and helped place the gold tiara on the younger's head. 

"There, now you're officially a pretty princess," Junghee smiled, showing off her crisp English.

Sitting in front of the mirror, Miyoung was already dressed in her short white layered chiffon dress (♕). Even though her makeup was all done, the amount of sleepiness was still evident on her face. She didn't really like mornings and couldn't describe herself as much of a morning person. And even with the hot curling iron twirled in her chocolate brown hair, she still found herself nodding off. And she would have burned herself if it wasn't for Aeri, who had caught the handle of the curling iron before it fell out of her hand and onto her exposed skin. 

"Careful," Aeri said quietly, handing the iron back to Miyoung, who seemed to snap herself awake from the shock. 

In response, the older girl uttered a quick "thank you" before finishing up the curls on the other half of her head.

In the center of the apartment, where all the girls had slept on the floor the night before, Jiyoon was in the middle of an attempt to wake up Mirae, one of the two heavy sleepers in the group - the other being maknae Aeri. "Mirae!" she screamed. "Wake up! Or you won't have time to princess-ify yourself!" After shaking the girl several times and receiving no response, Jiyoon frowned. 'How could she not be worried about that?' she thought to herself. Clasping onto the sleeping girl's wrists, Jiyoon forcefully pulled the latter up off the floor and onto her feet. 

"What the-" Mirae's eyes shot open, but she stopped herself mid-sentence when she realized that it was just Jiyoon - there was no way she was going to yell at her boss, even if they were friends. "I'm up, okay?" With a satisfied grin, Jiyoon handed Mirae her dress - it was black on top with a salmon colored high-low cut (♕). The girl took the dress and dragged herself to the washroom to change.

"I don't want to wear a dress," Junghwa frowned when it finally hit her that the Prince and Princess theme meant she would actually have to dress like a princess. "I've never worn a dress in my entire life and I don't plan to start now." Perhaps it was because she was accustomed to wearing jeans, shorts and pants all the time, but Junghwa just didn't like the feeling of wearing a dress or skirt; it just wasn't comfortable. "Can't I be a prince or something? Or maybe a princess in disguise!" 

Hearing her friend's complaints, Jiyoon walked over and handed Junghwa a simple black lace dress with short sleeves (♕). "Here, Eunyeon said this one was specifically for you since it's not as revealing as the others, but it's still a dress." Junghwa shook her head, but lost when Jiyoon practically forced the dress into her hands. "No complaints or arguments allowed. Now hurry and change." 

As Junghwa reluctantly made her way to the washroom to change, Aeri had found her way to the couch and sat down with Eunyeon in front of her. "The dress looks really nice on you," Eunyeon nodded, glad that she had picked it out in the first place. Pulling out her makeup bag, she set out all the things she believed she would need: foundation, concealer, blush, eyeliner, eyeshadow and mascara. Since Aeri was still young, she still didn't know how to apply her own makeup; that's why Eunyeon was helping her. After applying the lightest amount of foundation, concealer and blush, the eldest picked up her eyelash curler and carefully shaped Aeri's eyelashes into a nice curve. She picked up her palette of eyeshadow and blended the perfect mix of red and gold on the youngest's eyelids to match her dress and tiara. She added a thin line of eyeliner and finished with mascara. "Perfect!" Eunyeon exclaimed, satisfied with what she had done. She held up a small mirror to Aeri, who had widened her eyes at her own reflection.

"Wow," Aeri turned her head left and right, admiring herself in the mirror. "I like it. Thanks!" 

Eunyeon smiled. She always loved helping others. Even if it was with something small, if she could help someone and make them happy, then she was happy too. That was one of the reasons why she invited the girls to stay over that night. If they were going to have to do this every morning of the theme week, she would gladly have them over every night.

∞

The Seventeen boys, on the other hand, weren't nearly as concerned about preparation as the girls were. Taking a little less than half the time the girls took to prepare, the boys were already gathered at the café. Dressed in uniform black suit and tie, they were waiting for their female employees to arrive before they could open for the day. (♕) In the backroom, Junghan was adding the finishing touch of gel to his spiked hair. "Jisoo, does this look okay?" No response. "Jisoo?"

"Hm..?"

"Does this look oka-" Tearing his eyes away from the mirror, Junghan turned to look at his best friend. He scoffed, "Get off your laptop. We're opening soon!" In response, the younger shook his head; Junghan let out a sigh, walked over and slammed the laptop shut on the latter's fingers. 

"Ow!" By instinct, he immediately pulled his hands out of the laptop and let it slide down to the ground by his side. Standing up and brushing his suit off, the American boy jumped onto his friend's back; he swept his fingers quickly over Junghan's hair and smiled. "There, now it looks better."

Rolling his eyes, Junghan latched his arms around the younger's legs to keep him from falling off. "Thanks."

Just then, Mingming burst in through the door. "Can I-" Tilting his head, the boy stopped in his place and simply pointed to the container of hair gel. Immediately slipping off Junghan's back, Jisoo picked it up and handed it to the younger. "Thanks. Oh, and the girls are here."

Taking one look at each other, the two 95liners ran out the door into the main room, only to run straight into the backs of their friends. 

"Hey!" Seungcheol and Doyoon shouted in unison, turning around to face the ones who had just hit them. "Oh, there you two are," Doyoon smiled. "Now that the girls are here, we can open soon." Glancing at the clock, it was almost 8am. Normally, they would've opened an hour earlier, but for their theme week, they changed their schedule around a little bit. 

"Joshua!" Hearing the sound of his best friend's voice, he turned and saw Junghee walking up to him. "How do I look?" She spun around, allowing her purple dress to twirl around with her. When he gave her a thumbs up, she smiled in satisfaction. "You don't have a crown yet, right?" — You see, when Eunyeon and Seokmin were sent out to gather the outfits for their theme week, they had come up with an idea that would help some of the boys stand out from the others: the girls would be given little crowns with surrounding jewels that matched the color of their dresses, and with that crown, they were supposed to choose one of the boys to give it to. Though it doesn't mean much if a guy and girl are matching, it was a test of dignity and pride for the guys while for the girls, it was fun to see if the guys would fight for their crown. 

Shaking his head, he responded with a soft 'no.' Before Junghee could open to speak again and offer her purple-jeweled crown to him, Miyoung popped up beside them. "Jisoo! Will you wear my crown and match with me?" Miyoung held up her gold crown with off-white gems circling around it. "Come on, you're my best friend; if you don't take it, I don't know who else I'd give it to." Frowning, Junghee wanted to oppose and say that she wanted Jisoo to take her crown, but she was silenced when she saw him nod and place Miyoung's crown on his head. "Awesome, thanks!" Jisoo gave an apologetic look to Junghee, who simply nodded. Honestly, he was close with both of them, and couldn't bear to say 'no' to either of them - it was just Miyoung who had asked first.

Feeling slightly rejected, Junghee dismissed herself and turned to look for someone else to match with. She spotted the Jang siblings talking - Jiyoon seemed excited about the silver crown in her hands as she was counting the amount of sapphire jewels that were on it, and Doyoon was simply staring at the headpiece, wondering if she was going to offer it to him. She didn't. With a similar feeling of rejection as Junghee, Doyoon's mouth curved into a deep frown when his sister suddenly turned away with the crown still in her hands. Watching the scene, Junghee couldn't help but feel a bit sympathetic for the boy, since she had just experienced a similar feeling. So she walked up to him. "Doyoon?" When he realized someone had appeared next to him, he snapped back to reality and put on a composed, 'nothing-is-wrong-with-me' image. "Will you match with me..?" She squeaked out in English. 

At first, Doyoon couldn't understand what she had just asked, until she repeated the line in Korean and held up her gold crown with purple gems on it. "Really?" She nodded slowly, making his eyes widen. "I'd love to." Unable to hide his smile, Doyoon broke out into a wide grin as he took the crown from her, lightly brushing his fingers over hers in the process. Placing the crown on his head, he felt as if his pride had just been built up again. "Thanks! For this week, even if I'm your boss, I shall be your prince." He bowed slightly, sending a quick wink to her when he stood back up. "And you're my princess."

Nearly gagging on his boss' greasiness that he had just overheard, Seunggwan rolled his eyes. "Can you believe him?" He twitched, turning to Aeri. "Did you hear him?" She nodded. "How can you stand cheesiness like that?" Seunggwan shuddered just thinking about it. "Anyway, what are you doing with your crown? You're going to give it to me right?" Raising an eyebrow, Aeri shook her head. "What?! You're not? You better not be giving it to Chan becau-"

"I'm not." Aeri cut him off, running her fingers over her gold crown with ruby red jewels on it. "It's for Mingming."

"What?" Because he had 'accidentally' overheard their conversation, Chan stomped over to the two friends and crossed his arms. "You don't even talk to Mingming hyung."

Aeri shrugged. "He's cute."

Feeling as if she had just stabbed him in the heart, Chan looked away in disbelief. "Am I not cute?" He brought his eyes back to her, using the puppy-dog look that he had practiced so hard to perfect. "Can't you give me your crown?" She shook her head and turned to find the Chinese boy that she wanted to share her crown with, only to see him engaged in a conversation with one of her older female co-workers. "Look, he's probably going to get a crown from Junghwa noona. So can't you share yours with me, instead?" 

"No, give it to me!" Seunggwan jumped down from the stool he was sitting on and began dancing to Sistar's 'Give It To Me.' Sighing, Aeri silently placed her crown on Chan's head and walked away.

Smiling from ear to ear, as if he had just won the lottery, Chan celebrated on his own - jumping up and down for joy in his victory. "Yes!" He turned to Seunggwan. "Hyung, I think she's finally opening up to me." 

Defeated, Seunggwan scowled. "No, you were just standing closer to her." The younger shrugged it off - he was just happy at the fact that he had gotten the crown, and not Seunggwan, who was supposed to be Aeri's best friend. 

"Junghwa, you're really not going to give your crown to your own brother?" Junghan poked his sister's arm repeatedly. 

"No, why would I?" Junghwa harshly pulled her arm away from him and turned back to Mingming. "Will yo-"

"Wait, what about me?" Soonyoung popped up beside her, making her jump in surprise. "Aren't I your best friend? Let's match!" He smiled, causing his eyes to curve into little crescents. He nudged her several times, hoping that it would sway her thoughts in his direction. 

Feeling conflicted, Junghwa looked down and began to fiddle with her fingers. When she felt someone lean close to her ear and whisper, 'It's okay. I don't need the crown. Give it to one of the hyungs,' she immediately pulled back, slightly red in the face. When she turned to her side to see who it was, she saw Mingming nod and walk off to find Junhui. She opened to speak, but realized that he was already too far to hear her if she said anything; then she turned back to Soonyoung and Junghan. "Right.. let's match." She smiled, placing the silver crown with black gems on Soonyoung's head. 

"Some sister you are," Junghan felt bitter. "And I can't believe you're wearing a dress - you never do." 

"I know," Junghwa sighed before linking her arm with Soonyoung's. "Let's just say that Jiyoon is very convincing." With that, she turned and walked off to the backroom with Soonyoung to prepare for opening.

As they walked in, Hyojung made her way past them while still holding her gold crown with light pink jewels in her hand. She quickly scanned the room, hoping to find one of the guys to share her crown with. From the looks of it, there was still Jihoon, Seungcheol, Mingyu, Samuel, Seokmin, Seunggwan, Junhui, Mingming, Junghan, Dongjin and Hansol - she figured Hansol would want the crown from someone else, though. "Oh, Wonwoo!" Laying her eyes on the blonde-haired boy, she smiled. It's not like she favored him over the others in any way; she simply found his behavior quite peculiar and she wanted to figure out the reason for it. 

Once called, Wonwoo turned around to see the girl waving at him as she walked over. "No, w-wait!" He yelled, though only loud enough for her to hear. She stopped in her place when he became jumpy, scrambling away from her without even allowing her to reach him first. Feeling dejected, Hyojung frowned as she watched his figure disappear in the crowd of boys wearing the exact same suit. 

Alone, she whispered, "What just happened..?" She glanced down at the pastel pink dress she had on, but something inside of her felt incomplete - like she wasn't fit to be one of the princesses. She felt hurt but wasn't exactly sure why. "It's nothing," she told herself, brushing her fingertips over the gems on her dress and over the jewels on the crown in her hand. "I wonder if Junhui will match with me!" Pasting a smile on her face, Hyojung skipped off to find the quiet baker in the kitchen.

∞

"Hey kid, just because I gave you my crown, you shouldn't be so confident." Choim sat at a nearby table as she took a break from cleaning. Watching the others work, she turned her attention back to Jihoon, who was setting the microphone into the stand. "I gave it to you because I know that kids always throw a fit when they don't get something that they want." 

Raising an eyebrow at the girl, Jihoon stepped down from the stage and walked over to the table she was sitting at. He placed his hand on the table and sent her a glare. "I didn't accept your crown, you gave it to me. And I'm not a kid," he let out a long sigh. "How old do you think I am?" 

"I don't know," she shrugged. "Fourteen. Or thirteen, maybe?" 

Taken back by her answer, Jihoon coughed loudly. He hadn't expected her to see him as someone that young. "I'm almost seventeen." This time, it was Choim's turn to be shocked; the whole time that she had been working there (which was about three weeks by now), she had assumed he was about the same age as her younger brother. "I'm actually older than you, you know. You should have more respect." Choim was speechless, she wasn't sure what to say to him anymore. When Jihoon realized that she wasn't going to speak anymore, he rolled his eyes and walked back to his place on the stage to prepare for their upcoming performance in a couple minutes. 

Just then, Samuel came running to the stage. He smiled, proud of the silver crown with salmon-colored gems that he had gotten from Mirae. "Mirae noona just gave me cookies!" He held up the bag of crown-shaped cookies and hugged them protectively, not wanting to share them with his fellow entertainers. 

Looking out the window that connected the kitchen to the main room, Hansol couldn't help but frown as he watched his friends walk around with the crowns on his head while he didn't have one at all. Earlier, he had this mindset that told him that he would receive one even if he didn't try to convince one of the girls to give him one; so he didn't ask for one. In the end, none of them came up to him and offered him one like he had hoped - not even Aeri, who was probably his biggest bet as one who would share with him, but nope. "Sorry Hansol." He turned to see Junghee with an apologetic look on her face. "If I had another crown, you would definitely get it!" 

He chuckled, "It's okay, noona. I think Doyoon hyung would throw a bigger fit if he didn't get a crown than I would, anyway." Hansol shook his head, trying to hide the fact that he was actually feeling pretty hurt. 

"Hansol, Eunyeon says someone wants an oreo castle cupcake; can you make one?" Mirae popped her head through the window and relayed the order to him. 

"Yeah, sure," he said monotonously. Hansol told himself that he wouldn't let it bother him that he wasn't one of the 'official princes,' but he just couldn't help but feel like he lost. "Here," he set the finished cupcake on the window sill and rang the bell, indicating that the order was ready. Mirae turned and thanked him, expecting another one of his infamous pickup lines as he usually did, but he remained silent and turned his back. She didn't pay much attention to it though, and handed the cupcake off to Eunyeon, who went to deliver it to the customer. 

"Here's your order, Namgyu," Eunyeon placed the cupcake down on the girl's table. 

"Thanks, unnie!" Namgyu, another one of their regular customers, smiled at the pretty cupcake in front of her. "I really like the theme, by the way. But how come only some of the boys have crowns while the others don't? Does Mingyu have one?" 

"Isn't it nice?" Eunyeon smiled back at her. "Our resident Jang siblings decided on it - though it's no surprise since they're both so into the whole royalty thing. But doesn't everyone look so beautiful and handsome?" Eunyeon looked around, admiring how well the first theme week was going - the girls looking like true princesses and the boys putting aside their mischief to be like princes. "Some of the boys were given crowns by our female workers - each girl was allowed to give a crown to only one of the male workers," she explained. "I gave mine to Seokmin, since we were the ones to pick out the outfits, I figured he deserved to wear what he worked so hard to choose out. And no, Mingyu didn't get one," Eunyeon smiled, knowing that as Mingyu's twin sister, Namgyu was always looking for an excuse to . Namgyu nodded and smiled in understanding, finally taking a bite of her cupcake. "Is it good?" The customer nodded. "Hansol may not seem like it, but he's got real talent when it comes to the baked delicacies like this." Eunyeon bowed slightly to Namgyu, "Anyway, enjoy your treat!"

∞

Jiyoon couldn't help but smile the entire day; in fact, her face even began to hurt a little when she couldn't stop smiling. She glanced in the mirror and never felt more satisfied to see her reflection before. "I love this theme. I wish it would never end," she whispered to herself. She gently swept the loose strands of hair behind her ear and adjusted the silver tiara on her head before turning to walk out of the washroom. "Oh, sorry!" She immediately apologized when she realized that she had hit someone with the door when she swung it open. "Jisoo, are you okay?" 

Rubbing the arm that had come in contact with the door, he nodded. "I'm alright." 

Releasing a sigh of relief, the girl smiled again. "Is that Miyoung's crown on your head?" He nodded. "It looks good on you - Prince Joshua!" She laughed, pronouncing his English name with a slight accent. "I still have my crown, but I don't think I plan on giving it away.." her voice fell into a soft whisper as her gaze fell down to the ground. She then shook her head and looked back up at him with a smile. "Don't you like the theme this week? I think it's really cool, and I like it a lot." Jiyoon repeated for the millionth time that day - she honestly felt like she would never get tired of saying how much she loved the theme. Jisoo opened his mouth to agree with her, but no words seemed to come out when he did. Tilting her head, she continued speaking, "Will you take a picture with me? I want to get a picture with every one of the employees before the week is over; oh, and a group picture later too!" She smiled, holding up her camera. 

"S-sure." For some reason, he was never able to speak around her. Jisoo wasn't sure if it was because she was his boss and he was afraid to make a mistake around her, or because she was a girl and he just wasn't used to talking to girls. Jiyoon, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to how nervous he was and slung an arm around his shoulder, bringing him down to her eye level. She held out the camera and smiled. Jisoo brought his hands up to make two v-signs and smiled as well; she snapped the picture. 

Turning the camera around to look at the photo she had just taken, Jiyoon showed it to him too. "Perfect, thanks!" She threw the camera strap over her shoulder, letting her camera hang by her side. "Time to get back to work, now. See you!" She waved to him and went back to the main room to check on how the others were doing. 

Jisoo watched as she walked away and made his way into the washroom; he really didn't have to go or anything, but he went in anyway. Stopping in front of one of the sinks and mirrors, he stared at his own reflection. He turned his head and adjusted his earring, which had somehow gotten too tight, then let out a sigh. He wasn't sure if it was because of the theme of the week, but he couldn't find himself to talk to any of the girls, not even Junghee or Miyoung. He couldn't find himself to tell them how nice he thought they looked with the theme outfits, or how thankful he was that he received a crown. He couldn't seem to compliment any of them on how well they decorated or made the desserts and drinks looked. Even now, with Jiyoon, he couldn't find himself to even tell her that he thought she looked like a real princess in her royal blue dress.

Turning the handle on the sink, he splashed his face with cold water, thinking maybe he was just feeling tired. 'Maybe I'll be better tomorrow,' he thought to himself. Drying his face with a towel, he nodded at his conclusion and walked out to head back to work. 

∞

"Welcome to Seventeen Café!" Doyoon greeted the customers with a slight bow as they walked in. "All this week, everyone is a prince or a princess," he repeated, as he did with every customer who entered; he led the group to an empty table. "Someone will be right with you to take your order." As he walked away, he tapped MingMing on the shoulder and told him to tend to the new group of customers. Then he headed to the kitchen to check on the other employees. "How's my princess doing?" Junghee, hearing his voice, glanced up and shot him a shy smile before returning to the batch of cookies that she was working on. "Café's kind of slow right now, want to take a break?" 

"Hyung!" As soon as his ears picked up the word 'break' from Doyoon, Hansol dashed over to the two. "Can I take a break too?" When Doyoon shook his head, Hansol made an expression. "Why not? Are you biasing her just because she gave you a crown?" Doyoon, of course, shook his head, but everyone else knew otherwise: it was obvious that the manager was playing bias, no doubt. "Can I get five minutes?"

"No, you ca-"

"You can go, Hansol." Glancing over to see the other manager standing in the doorway, Hansol grinned and blurted out a quick 'thank you' before rushing out the door to take his long-awaited break. "Loosen up, Prince." Jiyoon hit her brother on the arm, causing him to wince in pain. He furrowed his eyebrows and stuck out his lower lip, almost as if he was glaring and pouting at the same time. "Don't be mad, you had it coming," she laughed, nudging him again before turning to Junghee. "Can you make me a batch of white chocolate drops? In one of the lavender castle boxes, thanks!" Junghee nodded at the request and shoved the tray of cookies into the oven, walking off to the backroom to gather materials for the next order.

"Speaking of princes, who's yours?" Doyoon asked her.

"Nobody," she replied simply. When he gave her a confused look, she continued, "Don't worry about it." She turned, "Oh, and Chan - get back to work, please. You haven't forgotten about your performance, right?"

The young boy's head shot around when he heard his name. Truthfully, he knew he wasn't supposed to be in the kitchen, but he had been sticking to Aeri like glue ever since she had given him the crown. "But.." he protested. When Jiyoon shot him a stern look, he immediately closed his mouth and nodded, running out the door and up to the stage where he was supposed to be. 

Satisfied, Jiyoon laughed when Aeri whispered a soft 'thank you' and walked back out to the main room as the performance was supposed to begin soon. Just then, Hansol walked through the main entrance as if on cue - he was participating in the performance, even if he wasn't an entertainer, along with Seunggwan and Dongjin. She watched as he looked at the clock and realized what time it was; he scrambled into the back room to change and was back out on the stage in a mere second. Walking over to the light switches, Jiyoon dimmed down the lights and the spotlight for the stage. Miyoung and Jihoon sat in the back of the stage since they weren't partaking in this particular performance; they had their own coming up later in the day. Nodding, Miyoung pressed 'play' on the mp3. (♕)

Precise footwork. Sharp movements. Smooth waves. Perfect synchronization. The five of the youngest male staff members put aside their playful hearts for the two minutes and thirteens seconds of their performance, replacing it with pure concentration and focus. It was as if they were different people, and it was noticeable to others as well. The other workers, along with the customers as well, stopped what they were doing as soon as the lights went down and focused on the boys on the stage. 

As they ended their stage, the boys all bowed at once and returned to their respective places. Samuel took a seat on the ground next to Jihoon, who was about to fall asleep before his own performance came. Seunggwan ran off to find one of the managers, still hoping to convince them to let him be a performer instead because he 'belonged on that stage,' as he would say. Dongjin, afraid of getting in trouble if he wasn't doing his job, went straight to the backroom to change and return to his table rag. Chan ran back into the kitchen.. again. Hansol walked up to the counter where the baristas were and took a seat. "How was it?"

Mingyu and Wonwoo gave him a thumbs up, Seungcheol gave him a pat on the back, and even Eunyeon complimented him as she swept by to pick up an order. Mirae, on the other hand.. "If you're waiting for me to compliment you, I'm not going to." Typical Mirae. 

"I wasn't," he shook his head and began fanning himself with his hand. The performance drained a lot of his energy, but he wasn't about to end his day after it - of course not. "Is it hot in here, or is it just you?" Mentally cringing, Mirae turned her back to him. He laughed, "Can you make me an iced coffee?" She nodded - 'so she's still listening,' he thought with a smile. When she handed him the cup, he thanked her and left her alone, knowing that if he kept bothering her, she'd be even more distant; he knew his limits. 

Hansol returned to the kitchen with the cup of coffee in his hand, only to find Chan hovering over Aeri's shoulders. What a surprise.. not really. "Did you watch?" He was grinning with an aura of sunshine surrounding him; he was really proud of the performance he just put on and he wasn't hiding it one bit. "I thought I saw you from the corner of my eye and you were smiling!" He was persistent, but all the others thought it was cute. "You were smiling, weren't you? You thought I was cooler than ice and hotter than the sun!" 

Aeri turned around, immediately stumbling backwards when she realized how close he had been standing, and he did the same. While the boy had a flustered expression on his face, she showed no emotion. "Technically you can't be hotter than the sun, unless you're burning hotter than 5,778 Kelvin. And I doubt you're cooler than ice because then your temperature would be below the freezing point of water." 

Chan's mouth hung open at her response. "That's the most you've ever said to me," his lips slowly curved up into a wide smile.

Facepalming at his best friend, Hansol watched the scene unfold in amusement. While he felt sympathetic for Chan, he didn't feel like he had any say in the relationship (if you could even call it a type of relationship) because if Chan was happy, what else could he do? Though he was more like a lost puppy looking for love from his owner, Chan was still as happy and bright as ever. 

∞

"Why?" Hansol questioned his younger friend when they were alone. They were over at Hansol's house; the older of the two invited the latter over to help him try out new recipes that he had come up with for the cafe's menu. He wanted to make sure that they were good enough for the menu before he actually met with one of the managers to suggest it. "You two don't really have much of a history, but you seem to like her a lot. I mean, it's been a while - I'd say you were lucky that Seunggwan suggested her for the job like he did. Now that it's summer, you can see her every day." Hansol glanced over at his friend, who had his nose buried into the notebook he was writing in. "You must really like her if you're trying so hard."

"I don't know why, or what it is, but.." Chan shrugged. He refused to look up from the notebook he was sketching in; he was currently writing out plans and drawing out steps for the upcoming performance that he had to prepare for. "She's worth it."