Special Apperance

I leaned forward, looking outside the passenger side of the car’s window and watched the street life of Seoul slowly coming to life. Luhan had his eyes glued and focused on the road as he drove while I was busy consuming my breakfast—a buttered bagel—beside him. It’s been a while since I had been driven to work and Luhan thought it would be more convenient anyway if we both took his car to work.

The car made a right turn by the Central District road, bringing us farther away from the office building. Muddled, I turned my head at Luhan. “Are we taking a shortcut or something? I thought it was faster to take the road straight ahead to work.”

His smile made me suspicious of something I didn’t know that he knew. “I’m surprised you forgot.”

I had finished the rest of the bagel, wiping my fingers off with a napkin. “Forgot what?”

My question was answered as soon as Luhan stopped in front of a small little café. He stepped out of the car without another word. Still confused, I climbed off the vehicle and caught up with him. Looking at the sign in front of the café, everything suddenly made sense.

9 Extracts.

Luhan was just picking up my coffee—a normal part of his routine before work. As much as I drank their coffee, I haven’t actually taken the time to sit down and enjoy the place in a long time. I stepped inside with Luhan, a few tables occupied by an elderly couple by the east windows and a man on his phone by the entrance. It still had the familiar quaint feeling to it, I noticed, with the old fashioned wooden furniture. Luhan stepped up with ease to the front counter like he had done it a hundred times. Thinking twice, I realized that he had literally actually came here most mornings of his career.

A man—he looked to be in his early forties with the name Kang written in bold on his apron—that stood behind the counter greeted him. “Good morning, Luhan.”

It seemed like he was such a regular customer that the employees were familiar with him. Standing slightly behind Luhan, I bowed humbly in return when Kang noticed me as well.

Luhan leaned against the wood counter. “Good morning ahjussi. The usual please.” The worker behind Kang who had heard him instantly turned to make the coffee.

“Ah, there you go with your ahjussi again.” The man reached across him to smack Luhan’s shoulder who only reacted with a laugh. “I told you, don’t call me ahjussi. I’m your sunbae. Call me sunbae-nim. How many times do I have to say it?”

“Sunbae doesn’t match you!”

Kang shifted his attention to me, pointing at Luhan with a finger. “Look at this guy who’s disrespecting his elders so early in the morning— Oh, but wait...” He narrowed his eyes at me as if he thought I was just a vague apparition. “Luhan, who’s this? You never bring in a lady with you.”

Luhan grimaced and reached out to absentmindedly drape an arm over my shoulders. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Kang gestured behind him with his thumb. “Is she the one that drinks the second coffee? I know you don’t always order two for yourself.” There was a certain glint in his eyes that he had sent to Luhan that I couldn’t quite catch the meaning of.

“Yes, it would be for me,” I said, speaking for the first time.

“Then you’re the boss I’ve been hearing about from this guy?” Before Luhan or I could reply, Kang stretched out a hand to pat Luhan at the back proudly. “Good job!”

Luhan scratched at his head shyly. “Thank you.”

I looked between either of them, trying to decipher the sort of inside joke that I couldn’t understand. Good job for what?

“You come back after a few weeks from Jeju and she’s finally your girlfriend, huh? You could have told me yesterday, but I guess that’s why you were acting happier.”

Luhan nervously chuckled. “Did I not tell you?”

“No, but you work slowly and I almost doubted you but good job.” Kang smiled until his eyes crinkled and gave off the feeling of the type of grandfather that would have played baseball with his grandson. “I’ve heard a lot about you from Luhan. He mentions you a lot,” he said, speaking to me now.

I glanced at Luhan sideways. “He does?”

I knew Luhan probably felt like curling in a ball of embarrassment and hiding himself elsewhere for the rest of his life when he looked to his shoes to remove himself from our conversation. He moved behind me to duck behind my hair. The warm smell of the coffee overwhelmed me and I knew that Luhan’s apparently usual order was finished.

“He said a lot of things, especially when I finally asked him why he always bought two coffees. He said it was for his boss—Sora. After that, it just always ‘I swear, Sora has the prettiest eyes. Sora laughed at this joke I said yesterday. Sora’s this and that and everything wonderful’” Kang mimicked Luhan by raising the pitch of his voice.

Behind me, Luhan coughed as if to protest but kept quiet anyway.

“It was pretty obvious that Luhan loved you, and so I suggested that he asked you out over dinner or something. But you know what he said?”

“Don’t listen to him.” Luhan whispered against the back of my head.

“He said ‘She’d never like me. I’m too nervous to ask anyway.’ And I called him a coward and chicken for so many days, but now here we are.” Kang gestured at the two of us with flailing arms. “You’re finally together.”

I just stared, not knowing how to respond and how to react. I was too overwhelmed with an emotion I couldn’t quite name. If anything, I felt so glad. Glad that I had chosen the paths that led to that moment. Glad that it was Luhan who I had by my side. I couldn’t regret anything and I wouldn’t want to trade shoes with anyone else in the world because only I had Luhan in the end.

“Sunbae-nim...” Luhan croaked.

“’Sunbae-nim’ isn’t going to work for you now. I’ve said too much.” Kang laughed heartily, placing both coffees on the counter in front of him. Luhan dug in his pocket for his wallet. “You know what? Put that thing away. Coffee’s on the house.”

I didn’t have the courage to look at Luhan in the eye while I was swallowed in by my own emotions, and it seemed like it was the same for him.

“A-Are you sure? I can pay.” Luhan held his wallet up.

“Nope. I’m not taking it. Just have these.” Kang patted the lid of our coffees, and we gratefully took them, muttering sincere thank you’s.

“Wow, I did not expect that. Sorry.” Luhan sipped his coffee as soon as the doors of the café slid close behind us. He drank like he was avoiding himself from talking more.

I hoped that the smug smile I had on was enough to hide how hot my face appeared. Luhan unlocked the car with the remote at his hand and I called his name before he could circle around the front to take the driver’s seat. “Luhan?”

“Hmm?”

I saw his still-shy expression that he wasn’t so successful at shrugging off. “Was all that true?” I asked, taking a bold step. “That you said... those things?”

Luhan laughed shakily. “Of course. Why would I lie about that? I told you. I’ve liked you for a long time.”

An urge bubbled at my chest, causing my stomach to stir full of butterflies. I held out my coffee to Luhan. “Could you hold this for a second?”

He grabbed it with his free hand. “Okay.”

“You have to hold on to those tight.”

Luhan was confused but didn’t ask for my purpose. “Okay?”

Contended that I had both my hands free, I craned my neck and threw both arms over Luhan’s shoulders to kiss him. In the sudden surprise, Luhan steadied himself after accidentally stepping a foot out of the curb, coffee still at his hands. I could taste the Americano off his lips. When he smiled into the kiss, it felt contagious and I couldn’t help but return it to him.  Whatever tension he had in his body disappeared and melted away almost instantaneously.

“Did you really think that I would have said no if you asked me to dinner?” I asked when we separated unfortunately, because the people walking by on the sidewalk reminded me where we were.

“You would have!” he insisted.

“Wrong,” I said, taking back my coffee and opening the passenger door. “C’mon, we’ll be late.”

He circled the car in a hurry. “I know, I know.”

If he had asked me out earlier or not, I thought that some force in the universe—fate, maybe—wanted the two of us to come together in Jeju anyway.

I stepped out into the grounds of the parking lot, clutching my jacket tighter around myself as the wind picked up. The quick beep beep sound from Luhan’s car went off as he locked it, and he caught up by my side a moment later, swinging his car keys around a finger. Checking the time on my phone, we had made it just in the nick of time.

“You know, if we—” I started but then cut myself off as soon as I saw a black Mercedes-Benz car stopped at the reserved parking area of the lot. Weird. It was familiar. A car I’ve seen too many times, but it wouldn’t make sense if the car was there because the owner...

Shaking my head, I reasoned with myself that a lot of people owned the same car in Seoul alone. But yet there was a feeling.

“If we, what?” Luhan followed my gaze and s