Suho’s breath caught in his throat. Was he dreaming? No, he could feel his nails digging into his palms, could hear Kai’s voice asking him what he wanted to drink. He replied without turning, a part of him afraid that if he looked away she would disappear.

When they entered the café it would never have occurred to him that he would see his dream girl there, would have laughed if someone had suggested it. But there she sat, exactly like he had always pictured her. Sitting alone at a table by the window, nose buried in a book, a nearly untouched cup of hot chocolate in front of her and the sunlight hitting her hair in exactly the right way, creating a halo effect. But in his imagination she had always been korean, not this foreign beauty. Yet it was undoubtedly her. He could feel it in the deepest recesses of his soul, as surely as he felt his quickening heartbeat.

He was roused from his thoughts by Kyungsoo’s hand on his shoulder, telling him they had already ordered, pushing him towards a table close to the girl. While his friends chatted jovially Suho kept his eyes on the girl. In his dreams he always walked up to her, completely fearless, and brushed a stray lock of her beautiful hair out of her face. She then looked up at him through her lashes and the connection was instant.

In real life, of course, this was impossible. Even if he had some excuse to talk to her, how could he? Suho was well aware that, despite his many talents, foreign languages were not his forté.

For a while he contented himself with watching her. He could not make out the title of her book but, from her facial features, he guessed it was a novel. Her face was quite expressive; the girl smiled openly one moment, frowned or pouted the next.

“So cute…” Suho muttered, not realizing he had said it out loud until Sehun asked:

“Who is?”

Suho blushed, quickly looking away from the girl. “Hmm?” He asked, feigning ignorance.

“You just said someone was cute.” Sehun stated, looking around. “Hyung, who did you mean?”

“No one.” Suho said at the same time that Baekhyun said: “That one.”

“It’s that one, right hyung?” Beakhyun repeated, pointing out the reading girl. “You’ve always been into bookish girls,” he added, looking smug at having figured it out so easily.

“Aigoo, Suho-hyung, she’s quite cute. You gonna talk to her?” Chanyeol asked, nudging Suho with a wide grin.

“Ah, come on guys,” Suho made an attempt to stop them but his band members were insistent. “What would I say anyway?”

“Don’t worry, hyung. You’re quite charming when you want to be.” Kai told him encouragingly.

“I don’t…” Suho looked up at the girl again, his words trailing off as he took her in once more. What did he have to lose?

Complete humiliation and loss of pride, of course, but did that really matter? He would never forgive himself if he walked away from his dream girl without even talking to her.

The guys were still talking, making japes at his expense, but he had stopped hearing them. With a deep breath he stood up. His friends gaped at him, clearly none of them had expected him to actually talk to the girl. Silently they watched him walk over to her, hesitating a moment before saying:

“Excuse me?”

The girl started, her eyes taking a moment to focus on Suho. He felt his heart skip a beat when her eyes found his, her wide eyed stare seeming to look into his soul.

“Ah, sorry,” Suho began, unsure how to continue, “ I just, um... I mean… is this seat taken?”

He wanted to sink into the ground then. Here he had babbled like an idiot and the girl probably didn’t even speak korean.

To his surprise her features softened and she replied: “It’s not. Feel free to sit here if you want.” Her korean wasn’t perfect, a cute accent clearly audible as she spoke, but who cared about that? She spoke korean!

Happily Suho sat down opposite the girl, who was still watching him with a small smile. He looked back at her, found his fears melting away in those soft eyes, and said: “So, what are you reading?”

__________
 

A/N: Requested by Anon on tumblr ^^