In the last few weeks, Jinki found that he was drinking a lot more coffee than he was strictly supposed to. Of course, being a junior in college on the pre med track meant he had to replace sleep with something, and coffee was a logical answer. But things were rarely that simple.

When Jinki and his friends had a bit of time off, they went  to their favorite haunt, their campus’ Starbucks. They placed their orders and shuffled over to one of the booths in the back corner, to defrost from the biting cold outside. On this particular occasion, Kibum was recounting a tale of something that happened in one his classes and Taemin and Minho were staring at him with a mix of amusement and uncertainty.

Jinki would have been paying attention too...if he weren’t extremely distracted by a new entry behind the counter. His eyes seemed to shine with cheerfulness and innocence, but the body that his uniform was hiding told a different story. He tried not to stare too obviously because that is not socially acceptable behavior. But his seat gave him a perfect view of this boy in full action. He greeted customers with a genuinely welcoming smile, which turned slightly more playful when he turned to banter with his colleagues. Jinki was transfixed by him, and had to force himself to keep from staring like an idiot. This boy was making it a little difficult to breathe.

He came back to the place every day after that. This new habit was ever so slightly inconvenient, because it was costing him time that he should probably be using to study. So he lugged his homework down to make use of the time, but ended up watching Coffee Boy (as he began to refer to him) instead. It was a strangely comforting habit. He got no work done in those 3 hours everyday, but he did enough research on this boy to fill three scientific journals. He was about 73.4% sure that he had fallen somewhat for this boy. But Jinki was nothing if not rational. There was no way that this would ever work out. Not that he had taken an active effort to make conversation with him, but it was the principle of the thing. So Jinki remained in his corner of the store, and preferred to watch from afar. Eventually, routine gave way to habit, and Jinki found himself returning to Starbucks every day.

The most royal pain-in-the- exam was later on in the week, and Jinki was back in the coffee shop just like every other day in the past two weeks. Jinki was persevering in his effort to defeat this chapter. Just 3 more pages and he’d be finished with the most difficult part. But the dull chatter and dim lighting was seducing him into sleep. The pin straight posture he held at the beginning of the evening degraded into a Jinki bent over the table with his chin on the edge of the book. He could see words on the page, and he knew those words were supposed to mean something, but the ambiance was lulling him further and further away from consciousness. Soon, he was fast asleep with his nose buried in the spine of the book.

Jinki woke up to a gentle tapping on his shoulder. Something told him he had to wake up, but Jinki was far too comfortable to follow those instructions. He mumbled for five more minutes of respite, and snuggled further into the crook of his arm. The tapping intensified into a gentle nudge of his shoulder, and Jinki could no longer ignore it. He lifted his head off of the table and blinked around blearily for some indication of what was happening. A white t-shirt was blocking a good portion of his vision. He looked up to find the owner of the t-shirt, and froze. He pushed his glasses back into position and blinked a few more times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. That was definitely the beautiful barista that was grinning down at him. Jinki regained consciousness as quickly as he would have if he were plunged into ice cold water.

“As cute as you look when you’re asleep, I’m going to have to have to kick you out now. We closed 10 minutes ago and accounting homework won’t do itself!” He said with a slight grin.

Jinki felt his face flush. He shot out of his seat and quickly gathered all of his belongings while spouting apologies like a waterfall. Just as he was slapping himself mentally for being such an idiot and falling asleep in public, Coffee Boy’s voice cut through his internal monologue.

“Hey! That’s okay!! That book looks scary and boring as hell! I would have fallen asleep too!”

Jinki meekly smiled back in response and apologized once again.

“Actually, if you’re not in a rush, why don’t you wait for a few minutes? I’m going to finish up a last minute thing and we can go together!” He said as he made his way back behind the counter and wiped it down one last time and hung his apron on the rack behind the door.

“Sure I guess” Jinki responded. He wasn’t entirely sure yet if this was just a very cruel dream. All he could do was stare transfixed at the grace with which this boy was moving around the small shop. It was as though he was watching a puppy. The way he was going about his tasks made it look like there was nothing more he enjoyed in the world than being here.

“You sound unsure! Don’t worry I don’t bite! Not people I just met anyway…” He trailed off suggestively with a wink thrown in Jinki’s direction. This was definitely a dream. “I’m Jonghyun by the way!! Junior at this fabulous institution, that I’m going to assume you go too, and part time barista at this old place!” he said as he extended an arm in greeting. He had his jacket on and a beanie pulled over his tricolor hair. Jinki shuffled to get his own coat and scarf on quickly.

“Jinki” He responded. After weeks ( 2 to be exact but who’s counting) of staring in awe from a-far, Jinki finally found out his name. And he’s a junior. This was too good to be true. “And yeah, i go here too.”  

“Here take this!” Jonghyun was offering him a warm cup of...something. “It’s hot chocolate on the house! It’s too late for anyone to check anyway.” he said with a smile as he took a sip of his own drink.

Up close Jinki could see that Jonghyun’s eyes were probably the exact shade as the hot chocolate in his cup. He had a smile that could probably stop wars if he put it to good use.

“So! I’m going to go out on a limb and say you have an exam tomorrow?” He said as they made their way down to the student center.

“Not tomorrow. Thursday. And it’s organic chemistry. I hate this subject. I’ve been tempted to set my book on fire multiple times during the last few weeks”

Jonghyun boomed with laughter beside him, leaving Jinki melting on the inside. He just made him laugh. He has a really nice laugh.

Jinki spent the next hour or so with Jonghyun in the student center just talking. Before either of them realized, they were being kicked out of the student center.

“That was fun!” Jonghyun remarked as they were waiting for their buses. “Let’s do this again!” He sounded like he meant it. Once again, Jinki couldn’t believe his own luck. He barely had time to formulate a response before Jonghyun took off towards the approaching bus.

“That’s my bus!! See you next time!” he shouted as he ran to get it line. He waved at him through the window seat and continued to do so as the bus pulled away.

Jinki stood at the bus stop for a few moments processing whatever the hell just happened. He physically shook his head to clear his mind and allowed himself a dopey grin. He nearly skipped to the trash can to throw his cup away, when he noticed writing on the side. Upon closer inspection he found a phone number and a ‘call me’ with a wink on it. Jinki was never going to throw this cup away.