The silence was unbearable.

Or was it pleasant?

Indescribable was the word decided on. Was it normal for a fairly popular place that seems to be semi-busy to be so quiet? The silence was nice for thinking. But something made the atmosphere tense; not the potential atmosphere for a local cafe. A petite girl sat silently drinking her pumpkin spice coffee. She drank it black; and she was silently beating herself up for not ordering the decaf. She came to this cafe often. Maybe too often. She went Tuesdays and every other Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with her best friend, occasionally going Mondays as well. But she never actually sat down in this cafe. She would always get what she wanted and left.

Today was a Thursday and she had decided to avoid school for the day. Living walking distance from the cafe, she decided to walk there and get her usual coffee. She then decided upon drinking it there instead of the usual plan of walking back; She wasn’t sure if she regretted the decision or praised it.

Cafe Dór.

She always found herself laughing at the name of the cafe; Dor was a nickname of hers between her and her best friend, who also had a similar nickname.

How these nicknames came to be are unknown and irrelevant. The only importance is how they call each other odd nicknames and the nicknames’ ability to make them laugh.

So there she sat. She had sitten in a window seat, in the very right corner of the coffee shop. The silence that was lingering throughout the room gave a nice atmosphere for thinking. But thinking isn’t always a good thing. It made her realize the loneliness that unknowingly corrupted her. Slowly growing more and more distant from everybody and even herself. How could she not have realized?

She can’t say she’s upset over this fact. She likes being alone. If that’s so, why is this silence so insufferable? She kind of wanted to leave, but another part of her wanted to stay. “If I leave now, i’ll just have to go back home and deal with a much worse situation. I’d better stay.” She said silently to herself. She frowned and stared out the window. She saw multicolored trees; all different shades of reds, oranges, yellows; Autumn was her favorite season. She described it as “being able to breathe”. There was a small lake that the trees all crowded around, the reflection of the trees was almost prettier than the trees themselves.She looked to the small road leading to the cafe to see a lady waiting for the bus with her groceries, but oddly enough, turning down the bus when it came around. “Huh? What is this lady doing?” The small girl found herself chuckling at the situation and turned back to her coffee to take another sip.

She turned to the inside of the coffee shop and realized something unusual. Every single person was alone. Nobody here came in pairs; All that was there was men on doing business work on their laptops, women staring either outside or down at what was in front of them, and the occasional teenager who would come in and order a coffee and then leave. “Is everyone here the same? Does everyone come here for the silence? Or is it that everyone is just lonely?” She was on to her final sips of her coffee.

She was resting her head on her hand and stirring the leftover liquid in the mug in a circular motion when a sudden sound was heard. She jumped; She had been there for about 30 minutes and the only sound that occured in the cafe was the stirring of coffee and the tapping of keys. It was a vigorous laugh which seemed to echo throughout the tiny cafe. It probably wasn’t even that loud, but any noise seemed to be loud when you’re stuck in such a quiet room. The girl looked at all of the other customers, and they all seemed to be curious to who made the noise as well. There stood a tall boy at the counter who, what seemed to be, attempting to order.

“Oh! I’m sorry Miss!” Said the boy, in between laughs.”I’ll clean that up!” He had a soft yet strong voice, almost feminine but not at the same time.

She couldn’t make out his features that well for he was facing the opposite way, but what she could make out was his height and his fluffy blondish/brown hair. He was wearing jeans, and a black leather-ish material jacket with an orange hoodie underneath, considering the semi-freezing 36 degrees it was outside. He was flailing his arms and laughing wildly in-between numerous apologies. There was a brown liquid running down the counter and puddling onto the floor.

He ran in the direction of the girl who was drinking her coffee in the corner of the room. She was laughing silently at the boy’s embarrassment. “Did he actually just spill his drink on the cashier oh my god what a ”

She was looking out of the window to cover up her laughter, but caught herself glancing at him from the side of her eye. He was approximately three feet from where she was sitting, and she turned towards him ever so slightly. Her eyes widened at the sight of the boy, her chuckles faded away at first glance.

“Wow he’s actually… So beautiful?” His eyes were sharp but not too sharp. His lips seemed to be in the perfect shape of a heart, and his hair was curled perfectly. He laughed nervously, throwing napkins all over the place in a hurry. The girl was stunned by his flawless appearance. She couldn’t bring herself to look away. That is, until he turned from the napkin counter to her direction. They made eye contact for maybe a millisecond; but that millisecond allowed her to see something new about him. His eye smile.

He turned towards her and suddenly, his nervous laugh was replaced with a huge smile. His smile spreaded to his eyes, causing them to scrunch up to the point of his eyes barely being visible. She felt her heart stop; automatically blocking out every other being in the room other than him. She turned away from him after that millisecond of contact, cheeks red from embarrassment. “How could I allow myself to stare like that? He probably thinks I’m such a freak..”

The boy walked away from her after hesitating for a moment. He had forgotten about the cashier that was soaked with his hot chocolate and the tiny puddle turning into a pool on the floor. He ran to the woman whom was holding her soaked apron away from her body.

“I’m so so sorry! Ahh ottokaji!!” He exclaimed, dabbing her apron with the napkins. The cashier faked a smile, trying to hide her angry expression.

“No, it’s okay. It happens i guess.” She replied, with an obvious annoyance tone. He wiped the counter and floor after apologizing over and over again to the lady working. He looked up at her, handed her $5.00 and bowed deeply. “I am so, so sorry! Have a good day.” He turned to walk out of the door, his smile faded into a serious expression.

The girl was still watching him, not exactly caring if he saw or not. She was sad to see his laughter and smiling disappear. “Why is it weird that I long for his happiness to such an extent? I don’t even know the guy.”

The boy opened the door to walk out, but paused when his eyes found the girl who was still studying his appearance. She wanted to put everything about him to memory; every single thing she could remember. She didn’t know what caused her to be so bewildered when it came to this boy. He looked at her for a second, and then bowed to her from across the room.

“What? Why is he… I only looked at him?” Her eyes widened, and then she subconsciously waved to him. Her face softened and a slight smile spread across her face. The boy, on the other hand, waved his hands furiously. That dumb perfect eye smile was back on his face, and he stood there for a moment waving before he headed out the door.

She felt fairly sad at his disappearance; but that wasn’t bothering her. What was bothering her, though, was the sudden silence that filled the air once again. This random guy walked in the door and changed the mood completely with his laughing and obnoxious actions, making everybody forget about the solitude they were sitting in moments before. But he left, and they returned to their previous state.

The small girl looked down at her coffee, which went cold from the sudden abandonment. She went up to the cashier, who had taken her apron off and still seemed slightly annoyed, and gave her the mug before bowing slightly. The girl walked out of the door and headed back home with a smile on her face. She wasn’t worried about never seeing him again. There was no doubt in her mind that she would see him again.


~Next day~


“WhaaaAAT? WHO WHERE WHAT” A girl with short hair, wearing a camouflage jacket with a black ‘New York’ t-shirt and black leggings exclaimed to a significantly shorter girl, who also had short hair. She was wearing a navy blue sweater and flower-printed pants.

The girl wasn’t tall, but was tall compared to the petite girl in front of her. They were sitting at a lunch table with 3 guys, and the taller girl seemed to be yelling a little bit too loudly.

“Shhh! Calm down, Kai! Nobody can know about this!”

“WHAT HAPPENED WHO IS THIS GUY OR IS IT A GIRL WHAT WHO WHERE WERE YOU WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN"

She didn’t seem to get the point. The other girl sighed, and gave up on calming her down. “Yesterday at the cafe. I went there because I had nothing else to do when I stayed home and-”

“-eXCUSE ME STAYED HOME WHY DID YOU STAY HOME WHY DID YOU LEAVE ME YESTERDAY'S LUNCH WAS THE ONE WITH MARU I HAD TO SIT WITH MARU DID YOU HEAR THAT YES MARU” ‘Kai’ stood up from her seat. The shorter girl pulled her back down.

“Aish, Kai! I’m sorry! I forgot! But listen to me!"

The taller girl fidgeted her fingers. “Whaao, okay okay. Sorry Dor go on.”

“I was at the cafe and I was drinking a pumpkin spice coffee-”

“-WHY DID YOU DRINK THAT WITHOUT ME YOU ALWAYS GET PUMPKIN SPICE WHEN I GET MINT HOT CHOCOLATE AND YOU WENT WITHOUT ME AND GOT IT WOW I BET YOU HAD A NICE TIME WITHOUT ME WOW” ‘Dor’ shushed her and continued.

“So yeah I was drinking pumpkin spice and wow the atmosphere was really tense and it was literally completely silent in there so it was not a nice time at first but then all of a sudden this guy walks in-”

“-ooOOH A GUY?? Was he cute what did he look like did you talk w hao” Kai asked her, with wide eyes.

“He was very cute!! He was dressed very nicely and he was tall and he had perfect hair and a really nice face and his eye smile wOW HIS EYE SMILE WOW KOR HIS EYE SMILE WAS?? SO NICE” She exclaimed, a huge smile covering her face with the thought of him.

“Soooo? What happened? Did he talk to you? Did you doniverse”

“Yes we doniversed no I wish, he walked in and spilt his hot chocolate all over the cashier and started laughing like a maniac”

“Wow he sounds like such a gelato” “Yeah”

Kai smirked at her. “What actually did you do Nami were there 'no more seats left' so he had to sit with you or he went up to you and tried to say hi but fell on you and kissed you by accident oOOOoooO”

Nami laughed at her best friend’s odd thoughts. “We made eye contact and he smiled and I looked away because embarrass but then on the way out we waved to each other yes it was very nice lets go today okay? Okay”

Kai suddenly started laughing really loudly. Nami went to see what she was looking at, and noticed the faces of their three best friends, Siwoo, Shinwoo, and Teo. They were all sitting there with confused expressions, not knowing anything about the situation in front of them. Nami started laughing too, and told them not to worry about it.

A few minutes later, the bell rang, and Nami, Siwoo, and Teo walked to Biology while Kai and Shinwoo walked to Journalism. The group of friends all exchanged peace signs before they departed, earning giggles from Nami and Kai afterwards.


~A few hours later~


Nami and Kai had a routine of meeting outside after the bell rang on Fridays and walking home to Nami’s house. Kai slept over every other weekend, and went over every Tuesday.

They moved to Seoul together about a year and a half ago and planned on living together, but Nami’s house was undergoing construction, so Kai had been staying with Shinwoo until things got straightened out, and in about a week or two Kai would move in. Normally they would walk back to Nami’s house, drop off their backpacks and Kai’s belongings that she needed for the weekend, and then they would walk to the cafe and walk back either to Nami's or to the park. Whatever kind of day it was.

But this time, Dor didn’t want to wait. She didn’t want to go all the way home first. What if he was there and she missed him? Nami forced asked Kai to walk to the cafe before they went home, and Kai accepted when Dor offered to buy her the mint hot chocolate she adored.

They walked into the cafe with high hopes of the boy being there, but were disappointed to only see the regulars at the cafe. Nami sighed. “But I really had a feeling that he would be here..?”

The two girls took a seat in a window seat in the middle of the room since Kai wanted to be on the left side and Nami wanted the right.

They ordered the regular, pumpkin spice coffee-black, remembering decaf this time-, and mint hot chocolate-specifically no whip cream-from a different cashier than the one that was working the day before.

“So he’s not here, huh” “Nope”

Nami tried to hide her sad expression. How could she expect him to come here two days in a row? He wasn’t in school the day before either; So he’s probably busy?

“Hello ladies m y name is Chanyopng.”

The girls jumped at the random stranger with triangle bangs attempting to make conversation. Who is this guy?

“Uhhh…” Started Nami.

“What do you want?” Kai finished her sentance.

“You gorls are very prety do you like american boys look at this col style yes boys in american dress liek this”

Nami and Kai exchanged confused glances. Since the two were both from America, they had absolutely no idea what this guy was talking about. He was wearing a Boy London sweater and a snapback which was worn backwards; Not anything like american fashion?

“Yo, Triangle. I have no idea what you’re talking about, but could you, maybe….. Leave us be?” Kai stated with an annoyed tone.

“Yeah.. You’re kind of weirding us out?”

“wAIT!!!! THIS IS THE MAIN SHOW!!!”

The boy started doing.. Cheerleading? In the middle of the cafe? Nami and Kai couldn’t help but start laughing uncontrollably at the boy. When all of a sudden…

“Hua ha ha! Yong Yong, cut it out!”

Nami whipped her head at the very second she heard the laugh. It was him.

“K-Korni!” She exclaimed. Kai yelped and jumped out of her seat, hand over her heart.

“Dor I swear to lasagna why do you do this to me why do you always scare me”

“KAI SHHHHhh!” Nami lowered her voice to a whisper. “It’s him! He’s here!”

Kai turned to the boy Nami was so fascinated with. She saw him…. and 2 other boys by his side.

“Yong-hyung! Hurry up we’re going to be late to our show!” Yelled the boy to the right of him.

Chanyong whipped his head quickly towards his friends and then towards the two girls still sitting in front of him. Kind of bird-like.

“Rokhy, Jong, Hyukjin, I’ll be right out! Let me say goodbye to these beautiful American petunias.”

The boy with curly hair and the boy to the left of him with darker hair exchanged odd looks, then walked out the door. Kai secretly had her eyes on the boy with the dark hair.

“Well ladies it looks like I have to leave now. I will be back for you here have this baloni.”

He hesitated for a moment with his mouth open, then ran back to his friends.

“Have this… Bologna? What was he talking about oh my god”

Nami, on the other hand, could not answer. She saw him again, like she had hoped. She was smiling like an idiot, but honestly could care less.

“Hey Nami are you there helllloo”

“I saw him. I actually saw him again did you see him did you see his eye smile Kai did you see it”

“Heh, yeah I saw him but woW HIS FRIEND WAS CUTE”

Nami sprung out of her seat when she heard this. “TRIANGLE? TRIANGLE WAS CUTE?? KAI WHAT THE HECKY”

Kai automatically erupted with laughter. “NO the guy with the dark hair and the grey shirt!” She stated, a little too loudly. “Triangle? What do you think of me Dor!”

“Oh thank god.” Nami replied, relieved. “But really? I would’ve thought that you would think that the boy to the right of him was cute.”

The boy standing in the middle, the guy from yesterday, was wearing a white sweater and red plaid jeans. The collar of a matching red plaid shirt underneath his sweater was sticking out.

The boy to the left of him, the one that Kai fancied, was wearing a blue jean-material button up, a blue, red, and white striped tie, and dark jeans.

The final boy, the one to the right of the one in the middle was wearing a black and white argyle sweater with a red plaid collar sticking out, and jeans.

Kai giggled. He did look like more her type, but the other guy appealed to her in some unexplainable way. “Huh? Oh, he was cute. But the other guy oh my lasagna” She then picked up her belongings and returned her mug, with Nami following behind her. “So, Rokhy, Jong, and Hyukjin, was it? Which one do you think was your guy?”

Nami thought about it for a moment, placing her finger on her lip. “I have a feeling that those were just nicknames… Well, Rokhy and Jong at least. I have a good feeling about Rokhy, though.”

“Hmm, I feel you.” Kai held the door for Nami, followed by Nami holding the door for an elderly man who was walking in the cafe. After a bow from the man and a smile from Nami, they finally started on their way home. “I feel like it was Jong. The guy I liked, I mean.”

“Yeah! I feel the same.” Nami had the same feeling as she did the day before; She know that she would see him again, so she wasn’t worrying. “The other one must’ve been Hyukjin. That is, if we got the names right..”

“We probably did. It seemed right.” Kai played with Nami’s long fingernails as they walked down the street. “Do you think you’ll see him again?”

“Yeah.” Nami said without hesitation. “I know I will.” She didn’t realize the small grin upon her face as she recalled him. Kai noticed, though. She smiled at the state of happiness her friend was in.

“Are you going to talk to him?”

Nami stopped dead in her tracks. She should, shouldn’t she? But what if this was all just a coincidence? What if it actually wasn’t her that he was smiling at the day before? “..I don’t know.” She started to chew on the inside of her lip as she thought. “Maybe. Maybe one day I will.”

Little did she know what would happen when she did.

~


Nami had gone to the cafe almost every single day after that. With or without Kai, she would still go. And the boy who she hoped to see whenever she went? He was always there. He and Nami would exchange smiles and waves, but nothing more than that. Sometimes he came alone, and other times he would come with a friend or two. Never Triangle, though. Nobody knew what happened to Triangle.

It had been almost two weeks after their first ‘meeting’, and every single day they saw each other. Every single time Nami set her eyes on the boy, she was overcome with swarms of butterflies, and when she would walk home she would finally notice the soreness of her cheeks from smiling so much. The thought of him made her smile; Everything about him seemed perfect to her. Even his clumsiness and his obnoxious laugh and the way he seemed to find a way to mess up everything he touched. Little did she know that he was watching her, too.

It was a Wednesday at exactly 2:30 PM. That was the time she got there everyday after school, which ended at 2. From 2:53-2:57 PM, he would walk through the door. The second that he would walk in the door, he would look to the very right corner of the coffee shop. If what he was looking for was not in the booth at the right, he would look at the very middle booth; and there she would be. Then he would smile; Seconds later Nami would look to the door, always knowing if it was him walking in the door or not. Then she would smile back. They would wave, his eyes would scrunch up until they weren’t visible, and he would sit on the completely opposite side of the cafe; stealing glances at Nami and laughing whenever he got caught.

At about 3:30, Nami would leave the cafe. When she got about halfway down the street, she would look back at the cafe and see no other than the boy leaving as well; getting picked up in a black car. Sometimes, he would see Nami looking at him, and would wave to her crazily; These little things that he would made her heart skip a beat. She wanted so badly to talk to him, but she was scared. She was happy with the smiles and waving they would do on a regular basis. She didn’t want to ruin that.

This day seemed like no other. Since it was Wednesday, she was alone. He came in alone, too. They did their daily smiles and waves, the only thing Nami had to look forward to every day. The only reason she had motivation, really. Little did she know, that today would be different; that their daily routine would be.. Broken?

It was that time again; 3:30 PM. Nami dreaded this time, but she always told herself that it would be weird if she stayed at a coffee shop for over an hour only drinking a coffee. She sighed and picked up her black bag, swinging it around her shoulders. She was at the door, and turned around to look at him. But he wasn’t looking at her?

This was unusual. He was always already looking at her, smiling that dumb smile of his.. But he had his back faced towards her this time.

“Maybe.. He forgot.” She turned her back towards him, walking out the door with a heavy heart. She wasn’t sure why she was so disappointed, all that happened was he merely forgot to wave goodbye.

Forgot to wave goodbye.

Forgot about her. No. How could he forget? They’d been doing the same thing for almost 2 weeks now. He couldn’t have forgotten. No, he must have. What other reason for him not waving goodbye could there be? None.

She started to walk home with a saddened face, when all of a sudden someone grabbed her shoulder. Lightly, yet it had some force in it. She turned around to be faced to face with no other than the boy who she had been crushing on for weeks now.

She looked up at the boy. The height difference was huge; He was nearly an entire foot taller than her. But seeing him so up close made her nervous. This was the first time that they had been so close to each other, let alone physical contact. Nami felt her cheeks and ears turn bright red.

He started to giggle at the sight of the embarrassed girl. “Hey, no need to be embarrassed! It’s just me! I mean, we practically know each other, right Nami?”

“Nami? How does he… Know my name?” “Uhh… I… I guess we do?” She nervously stuttered. This only made him chuckle a tiny bit louder.

“Heh, yeah. Do you know my name?” He asked with a grin, chewing on the inside of his lip.

“Rokhy. It’s Rokhy. No, but what if I say that and it turns out to be one of the other names!” She contemplated on what to say, but before she knew it she was already spitting out the name. “Rokhy.”

When he heard her, his face lit up and his slight grin grew very very wide. “Wow! You actually know my name!” He laughed a little, and then grabbed her hand. “Go on a walk with me, will you?”

Nami jumped at the sudden action he had made. She stood there for a moment before intertwining her fingers with his, and looking up at him with a shy smile. “Mhm!”

Rokhy smiled down at her and started to walk down to the lake. They walked in silence, but it didn’t bother either of them. It was a welcoming silence. They slowly made their way to the lake, smiling the entire time and not letting go of each others hand.

When they got to the lake, Rokhy led her to a bench. And there they sat, looking at the lake for about 5 minutes in silence.

..

....

......

“It’s really beautiful here, huh?”

Nami looked over at the source of the sudden statement. “Mmm. Yeah. I’ve never been down here before, only admired it from inside the cafe. It’s a lot prettier down here, though.”

Rokhy turned from her and back to the lake, still holding her hand. “I come here occasionally. It’s soothing. It’s kind of comforting, in a way. But… No nevermind, I’ll sound extremely cheesy if I say it.” He turned to his left, the opposite direction that Nami was sitting.

“Hm? It’s okay, just say it! Cheesy sayings are cute. To an extent.”

He turned back to Nami, who was looking at him with big eyes. was curved ever so slightly; Rokhy had never wanted to kiss her so bad before. And trust me. He’s wanted to.

Rokhy laughed nervously. “Well… The view is a lot prettier with you here.. Heh”

Nami laughed softly at his embarrassment. She leaned over to him and kissed his cheek. His cheek was warm, yet cold; Also extremely soft. His eyes widened, and his cheeks turned a bright shade of red.

She wasn’t fully aware of what she had just done. But she didn’t regret it. She always thought that doing things without thinking was a bad thing, but sometimes that’s not the case, she guessed.

Rokhy turned his face towards Nami. He smiled calmly, and before he knew what he was doing, he was leaning in towards her. Was he really going to… Kiss her? Is this right?

His eyes were closed; And when he opened his eyes right before he pressed his lips against hers, her eyes were closed as well. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, letting their breaths mingle for a moment or two; And before he knew it, their lips were pressed together ever so softly.

He waited a moment, as if he was asking if this was okay. Nami responded by slowly moving her hands to intertwine them with his curly strands of hair, and kissing him back with a little more power.

Rokhy swore that he would die at that very moment. This was what he had been waiting for ever since he set his eyes on her. But, this wasn’t just another fantasy of his. This wasn’t just his imagination. This was reality. He was actually kissing her.

He cupped her cheeks with his hands and started kissing her with a little more lust. Still softly, but with more passion than before. He felt the slight smile that somehow formed on Nami’s face, and found himself smiling as well. They stayed kissing for a little bit longer, trying to make it last as long as it could. They had both wanted-no, longed-for this for weeks. Slowly, they pulled away from each other. Sad it was over, but eager for more kisses to come in the future. Rokhy kissed Nami’s forehead, and she nuzzled her face in his neck.

It was silent again. But at that time, silence spoke louder than words did. They both realized what just happened, and nothing seemed to come out of their mouths after that. Until Nami decided to speak up.

“Rokhy?” She asked, after she regained her normal breathing pattern.

“H-Hm? Yeah?” He responded, with a smile.

“Why did you bow to me that one day? The very first day we saw each other?”

Rokhy was surprised at her sudden question. He looked over at her, and then looked back at the lake in front of them. “Because I knew from the second I laid my eyes on you that you were going to make me very happy.”

“How weird,” Nami thought. “I felt the exact same way” Nami sat there for a moment, and then wrapped her arms tightly around the boy. “Thank you, Rokhy.”

He didn’t bother to ask why. He already knew. Because he felt just as grateful to her. He hugged her back securely, and then rested his head on top of hers.

Maybe silence wasn’t such a bad thing afterall.