“Excuse me sir, you left your free coffee yesterday,” he tells the said man who is now paying on his one hot espresso, yesterday is a buy one get one free promo where everyone suppose to get a one free coffee for each one coffee that they bought on the 2nd week of the month at XOXO Coffee Shop at Incheon Terminal.

“I was aware by that, it’s because I only need one, I should lowered my caffeine needs,” he replies politely and smiles to the cashier boy who looks lost.

“Not even for anyone? Your crew or girlfriend?”

“I don’t have anyone to share with.” he weakly smiles.

“Ah.. I see..” Chanyeol hates seeing the pilot crew who seemed to be unwell, “Then it’s bad for you..Mr. Kim..Joonmyeon, you missed a chance of a free coffee from our place, how about a free candy from me?” he takes one mini orange flavored lollipop from his pocket and offers the guy in uniform with the name plate on his chest.

“..Why?”

“You look sad, and candy is sweet, it might cheers you a little. I don’t know, it might not helped a lot, you can reject the coffee, but no one should reject a candy!

“You’re really funny,” Joonmyeon grabs the orange covered lollipop stick, “Thanks,” he says, “I’ll remember your face, the coffee in here is nicer than Starbucks in the other hall, what’s your name?”

“Chanyeol. It’s Chanyeol!”

“Chanyeol, I like your name, see you if I landed here again,” he bids goodbye to the cashier and Chanyeol realises that he’s in love with the way Joonmyeon pronounces his name.

The next day some stranger man drops a letter to Chanyeol, he is also in a uniform, but a police uniform. Chanyeol knows that this place is not a post office but Wufan, the sender of the letter tells him to give it to Kim Joonmyeon. He told Chanyeol that Joonmyeon informs him to just give it here to a cashier called Chanyeol and he’ll take the letter after he landed on his Busan flight later that night.

Chanyeol is in awe, Joonmyeon looks very cool in his double ed pale brown uniform, while Wufan also look tough and masculine in his pale grey shirts and black tie. While Chanyeol himself is only in his usual worn out band t-shirts and ripped jeans, he knows that he doesn’t belong in that kind of organization, he has his own dream that he wants to chase and it doesn’t requires him to wear a uniform.

One of the waiter who works there, Jongdae is being curious and grabs the letter from Chanyeol hand soon as Wufan leaves. Chanyeol already nags at the shorter guy to not reading it but there’s nothing much to do because he didn’t want the paper to be teared too if he fights with Jongdae.

“Oh God, this is sad.” Jongdae reads through the letter,

“What is it?” Chanyeol knows that the curiosity is actually there when he looks at how anxious Jongdae acts when he is reading the letter.

“They’re breaking up, he leaves the apartment key inside the letter too, aww” he frowns.

Few hours passed by when Chanyeol’s spot Joonmyeon who is walking towards the coffee shop area with a luggage on his hand, he just landed, and Chanyeol isn’t sure if he really has to give the letter to him or not.

“Good evening,” Chanyeol bows, Joonmyeon orders the same thing again, the hot espresso. Chanyeol nods and writes on Joonmyeon’s name on the cup and gave it to Minseok, the barista at the place. As Joonmyeon pays the coffee, Chanyeol breaks the silence:

“You should try the salted caramel latte, it’s our new menu,”

“No it’s okay, I’ll stick with the espresso.”

“But it’s really good! I swear! If you didn’t try it you wouldn’t know if it’s gonna be nicer or worse!” he ensures Joonmyeon.

“Ah…” he mutters, “You’re great, thanks for waking me up from my delusional thoughts, who knows even younger people like you are actually making more sense than me.”

“Eh..What?”

“I’m the espresso,” Joonmyeon points at himself, “Anyone drops you a letter today?”

“Ah-” Chanyeol eyes are looking left and right nervously, “The letter…”

“How is he?” Joonmyeon asks, “What do you think?”

“He’s good, he looks guilty but .. he’s cool, he’s a police and he is armed with gun, and he’s tall, he looks more like an actor rather than the real police!” he mentions as he goes to the drawer at the cashier machine where he puts the letter, “here you go.”

“You can blame him as the reason why I couldn’t take the free coffee yesterday,”

“I..I’m sorry to hear that.” he doesn’t know what to say, he wishes he could goes ‘I’m sorry can I give you a hug right now, or maybe a kiss? You look so fragile and  I just want us to curl you inside me on the bed until you sorrow has gone’ but that might sound too horrible and freaky for a second meeting.

“There’s nothing to be sorry about, nothing last forever anyway.”

“I’m sure you can find someone to share your coffee with later!”

“I hope so, thanks for the word, Chanyeol.”

And so it starts to become a routine. Where it is always 10 PM above when Joonmyeon would find himself walking towards the secluded quiet coffee shop that is considered as nothing compare to the always crowded Starbucks, talking with the tall and lanky cashier about his flight and the every bits of world where he travels. And Chanyeol talks about his dream, the dream that he wishes to fulfill once his saving is enough from working part time in here and he graduates from the college.

His california dreaming, as he titled it.

“I heard the song when I was a kid from my grandpa’s cassette, California, sounds foreign but exciting, I think of Los Angeles and the beaches, and the warmth of the sun, and Hollywood, where all the world wide famous musician lives and performs, I wish I could be there, living my life and creating my music.”

“Funny how your childhood dream hasn’t changed a lot, most people would definitely changed theirs,”

“What’s your dream when you were a kid? Joonmyeon hyung?” Chanyeol turns to ask back to Joonmyeon, he pauses for a while and sighs, but finally answers back.

“A police. It looks cool from the drama and movies, but airplane pilot should be cooler, huh? I mean, the pay is much better,” he laughs dryly.

“I’m asking a wrong question….” Chanyeol bows and apologizing, “Sorry..”

“It’s fine… You said sorry too many times!” he wants to pat on the guy’s head but he’s to tall and Joonmyeon couldn’t reach it so he tiptoes to reaches Chanyeol. Chanyeol finds it cute that Joonmyeon tries and smiles back.

when another door is opened for his heart, Joonmyeon develops a crush for Chanyeol, though sometimes he isn’t sure is it because Chanyeol has a similar height with Wufan and it reminds him of his past lover or not. But on a day where he courages himself to asks Chanyeol for a date, as usual after he finishes his schedule, Chanyeol is nowhere to be found at the cashier of XOXO Coffee Shop.

“He said he wanted to chase his California- I don’t know, that kid is sort of cranky and weird.” Jongdae the other waiter at the place tells Joonmyeon, “He told me that he only wants to see you until he finally made it.”

The only thing that Chanyeol left for Joonmyeon is a tissue paper with the pen handwriting of “Chanyeol’s first solo concert tour, zero won for you, special, the venue is up to you, I could come by anytime!”

2 years later, Chanyeol walks at the immigration hall of Incheon, with guitar in his left hand and passport, landed at his home country for the first time. A bunch of people in DSLR cameras are taking his pictures in a certain distance and they’re all following his steps.

He told his manager that he wants to go for a quick walk at the coffee shop where he used to work at. When he reaches the coffee shop he notices that it’s getting crowder compare to last time where he works, and someone the cafe seemed to be changed into Los Angeles-themed  style with the bright blue sky wall and beaches painting that grazes the wall.

“Joonmyeon hyung-” he glances at the tiny figure in a white polo shirt,

“Someone finally made it? I saw your song on billboard chart. I still can’t believe it, Park Chanyeol made it into Los Angeles music scene- even America, world wide.”

“It’s because of hyung, you always encourages me to follow my dream,” Chanyeol believes that his heart beats faster when he hears his name being mentioned by Joonmyeon again.

“And what are you doing in here?”

“Waiting for you to come back, ” Joonmyeon cringes on his word but that is the only reason why he resigned and rebuilds the coffee shop again, “And I still keep the ticket, anyway, when will it be available?”

“Manager-nim, when will I have a free schedule?” he shakes Luhan, his manager that stands beside him.

“You’re free tonight, but tomorrow you had to be ready in the morning for a radio show,”

“I can be free by tonight, if you want to,” Chanyeol figures.

“And today is the 2nd week of the month where you can get your buy one get one free coffee,” Joonmyeon adds, “Do you want to share a coffee with me?”

“Definitely, yes. One hot espresso?”

“No, salted caramel latte,”

“But why? Don’t you said that you would only drink the espresso?”

“Because some wise boy changed my mind. There’s nothing wrong with trying a new thing, and apparently it tastes better than the hot espresso,” Joonmyeon explains and his eye forms a cresent shapes when he smiles, and Chanyeol swears it feels like sunshine and Los Angeles’s warmth when Joonmyeon smiles to him and he finds his true California dreams beneath the lashes.