Jongdae yawned and stretched.

“You slept during the whole lesson”, someone called and hit his head.

Jongdae grunted and turned around. Suho frowned at him. “Didn’t you get any sleep last night?”, he asked worried.

Jongdae sighed and got up. “Let him be”, Chanyeol called and patted Suho’s shoulders.

“Let’s go, I want to get out here. I’m hungry”. Jongdae nodded and grabbed his folder and stuffed it into his bag.

“You didn’t change at all since high school”, Suho complained. “You neither”, Jongdae murmured and shrugged.

“I thought you would take university a bit more serious”, Suho went on. “Who are you, my mum?”, Jongdae groaned.

Chanyeol shifted and looked around. “Can we hurry up and have this conversation later?”, he asked.

“Who are you looking for?”, Suho asked and raised his eyebrows. Chanyeol’s cheeks turned red in record time.

“Ah, no one. I’m just… hungry”, he said. Jongdae and Suho exchanged short gazes, knowing that Chanyeol was definitely looking for that small boy from the singing class.

“So where are we going to?”, Jongdae asked as they made their way through the hallway.

“Ah, don’t know. I have to be at home by 3 pm, so I don’t have much time”, Suho murmured and looked at his watch.

“Let’s just grab a coffee, I need one”, Jongdae said and poked Chanyeol’s sides.

“You look like you had a twitch or something, calm down”, he said. But in this very second the door to their left opened and Chanyeol stiffened. “H-Hi”, he stuttered. The boy who was just passing them by looked up. “Uh, hi”, he said surprised and smiled a little. Then he disappeared with his friends in the crowd.

“Can you stop grinning, you look like an idiot”, Jongdae groaned and shoved Chanyeol further through the hallway.

“Have you finally brought up the courage to talk to him by now?”, Suho asked as they left the university building. Jongdae suppressed a laughter.

“I don’t think the two advanced from their ‘hi’ stage”, Jongdae said. Chanyeol glared at him.

“Do you even know his name by now?”, Suho asked and sighed. “Baekhyun”, Chanyeol murmured and hid his smile in his scarf. Jongdae rolled his eyes.

“There’s a new coffee shop nearby, why don’t we go there?”, Chanyeol suggested to change the topic. The two others agreed and so they got on the next bus to the new coffee shop.

“Looks nice”, Suho said as they jumped off the bus. “Yeah, like a place for couples”, Jongdae said and looked at Chanyeol. Chanyeol didn’t seem to notice it and went ahead into the shop.

The coffee shop seemed to be pretty popular by students as it was packed and most of them were people the three friends recognized from their university.

“Is there even a free table?”, Suho asked worried and tiptoed. Chanyeol shook his head. “But we could sit at the bar, hurry up”, he said and dragged them towards the bar.

They ordered their coffees and sat down at the side. For a moment they were silent and just blew at their hot beverages.

“Man those cakes look good, too. Should we get some?”, someone behind them said. Jongdae and Suho didn’t even need to turn around to know that it was Baekhyun alone by watching Chanyeol’s facial expression change.

“Baekhyun”, Chanyeol said as he turned around. Baekhyun was with another boy who looked really sleepy and a extremely tall guy who seemed rather disinterested. Baekhyun looked up from the cakes.

“Chanyeol… are you often here?”, the smaller boy asked. Chanyeol nervously smiled. “A-Ah, not really… you?”, he asked back.

“Neither, we just came in since it started raining and we wanted to get something to drink”, Baekhyun said with a smile.

“Have you ever tried those cakes? Do you know which are good?”, he asked and leaned over the cakes again. Suho and Jongdae grinned at each other, but stayed silent.

“Well… uh”, Chanyeol stuttered surprised. “Maybe I can help”, another voice intervened.

Behind them there was a boy standing in a white apron that had the logo of the coffee shop on it. He smiled at Baekhyun.

“The cheesecake is the best in my opinion, but the chocolate cake is awesome as well”, he said and pointed at the said cakes. Baekhyun turned around.

“Yifan!”, he called out to the tall guy who was leaning against the wall staring out the window.

“I want the chocolate cake, buy it for me, please? Please!” The guy turned around and grunted.

“Don’t you have money yourself?”, he groaned. Baekhyun pouted. “He never buys food for us, why are you even asking?”, the sleepy boy standing next to Baekhyun murmured.

“He could make an exception for once”, Baekhyun said and crossed his arms.

“Uhm… if you want it so much, I can… buy it for you”, Chanyeol murmured. Baekhyun looked at him in surprise and somehow he looked a bit embarrassed. “Ah, well… you don’t have to. I mean…”

Chanyeol smiled. “It’s alright”. He leaned over and grabbed his bag to take out his wallet, then he turned to the boy in the white apron.

Suho and Jongdae didn’t pay much attention when Chanyeol bought the cake for Baekhyun and started a conversation with him and the sleepy looking boy.

“It’s almost 3 pm! I really need to leave or I’ll miss the bus and be late. See you tomorrow, alright! Don’t oversleep”, Suho called and patted Jongdae’s shoulder and shortly Chanyeol’s elbow before he left.

“Do you also want something else, or are you fine with just a coffee?” Jongdae jumped as the boy in the apron suddenly stood on the other side of the bar right in front of him and smiled at him.

“I’m fine, thanks”, Jongdae quickly said. He flinched again when Chanyeol grabbed his arm out of the nothing. He beamed at him and Jongdae saw how Baekhyun was leaving the shop with his two friends.

“He gave me his number”, he called excited. Jongdae sighed. “Fantastic”.

Then Chanyeol’s mobile that was lying on the bar vibrated.

“It’s Baekhyun”, Chanyeol murmured and he looked like he was about to explode. “Didn’t he just leave?”, Jongdae asked unbelievingly.

“Well, yeah but I texted him so he had my number as well and he replied to it”, Chanyeol said.

Jongdae rolled his eyes and rubbed his temples, he was so tired and had a horrible headache.

“Oh, our band’s rehearsal starts soon, I gotta leave. See you later, Jongdae”, Chanyeol called in the middle of texting.

Jongdae waved, not that Chanyeol was looking at him anyway as he rushed out of the shop. Jongdae slowly shoved the warm cup from one side to the other, when he noticed that the boy in the apron was still standing in front of him. When he looked up, he saw that he was grinning. “What?”, Jongdae asked.

“Uh, I just thought you looked rather lonely”. Jongdae grimaced.

“Thanks, please no pity. I prefer to be alone, people who are in love give me headaches”, he said and cupped his chin in his hand.

“Okay”, the boy just said. He looked a bit taken aback and Jongdae blushed as he realized that he must have sounded like an incredible jerk.

“Yeah, no... it’s just”, he started quickly. But the boy shook his head with a smile.

“I know what you mean… I work here every day and it’s just packed full with couples. That’s rather depressing”, he laughed.

“You don’t have someone?”, Jongdae asked. The boy shook his head.

“No, no. I think most people prefer someone who’s tall and… slim”, he said and poked his chubby cheeks. Jongdae opened his mouth and hesitated.

“What are you saying? You sound like a girl… I don’t get why everyone’s so concerned with their looks, isn’t it about your personality with whom you fall in love?”, Jongdae said.

The boy looked at him for a while. “People with an attitude like you are rare”, he finally said.

“Did someone turn your down recently because of your looks or why are so worried about your looks?”, Jongdae asked. The boy blushed.

“Ah, yeah. Last week”, he murmured.

“Oh”.

Jongdae didn’t know what to say anymore and then a few girls appeared and wanted to make orders. And the boy in the apron was busy for the next minutes, when Jongdae had emptied his cup, he was just serving a young woman and could only smile at him for goodbye.

He got on the bus and leaned his head into his neck. He was so tired that he almost fell asleep again, but when the bus stopped and a pack of girls got on, while chatting loudly, he was woken up again. He rummaged through his bag to find his earphones and just as he was about to turn on his music he caught a few snatches of their conversation.

“… the new coffee shop? The cute one, near the university?”, one of them said.

“Yeah, the cakes are superb”, another threw in.

“There are three coffee shops close to the university” – “You know the one we were in just last week”

– “Ah, oh god. Don’t remember me of this barista guy”

– “I thought you two attend the same classes at university?”

– “So what? Why would that make me go out with this little fatty, please!”

There was a sudden sting in Jongdae’s chest and he turned around. He was facing the girl who kept on ranting about the boy with the chubby cheeks. She was pretty, but that didn’t give her the right to make fun of other people’s appearances. He remembered how sad the barista boy had looked and anger walled up inside him.

Suddenly the girls started giggling.

“Yes, can we help you?”, one of them asked. Jongdae blinked as he realized that they had talked to him.

“Not really. I was just thinking that my barista friend deserves better than you anyway”, he said and got up. He shouldered his bag and got off the bus. While he made his way home he thought that the next time he would ask for the boy’s name and tell him he shouldn’t be sad about a stupid girl.

-

The next day he went alone to the coffee shop, but his plan to talk to the barista boy didn’t work out. The shop was so full, there was no free spot left. Although the queue was ridiculously long, Jongdae lined up and bought the same coffee as last time. The barista seemed to remember him as he gave Jongdae a wide smile, but there was no time for talking and so Jongdae had to leave. But before he closed the door, he turned around and stole one last glance at the busy barista.

As Chanyeol seemed to be busy texting or meeting his lover, Baekhyun and Suho was always busy studying since the exams were approaching – “You should study, too!” – Jongdae found himself going every day after university to a certain coffee shop.

Whenever the barista wasn’t too busy, Jongdae suddenly thought it would be awkward if he talked about that stupid girl on the bus and so he didn’t say a word at all. And so the only words that he and the barista – he still hadn’t asked for his name – exchanged were:

“Hi” -“The same as usual?” and “Have a nice day” - “Thanks, you too”.

Jongdae couldn’t tell Suho or Chanyeol since he and Suho had always made fun of Chanyeol and Baekhyun. He kind of understood Chanyeol a lot better, but it wasn’t as if he was head over heels for this barista guy, he wasn’t in love or anything.

So there was no need for more words, sure he wished he had the courage to properly talk with the barista and ask for his name, but for now it was okay to just watch how the boy prepared the coffee and smiled at him.

Yeah okay, maybe he had a little crush on this barista, but he wasn’t really in love…

I'm having so many Xiuchen feelings recently *cough* all the time *cough*

this is another story for lovely Penny ♥♥

PS: I know I'm late again with updating my Daejae story, but I'll try to update this weekend. >__< sorry...