When I first saw you, I didn’t fall for you,

The second time I saw you, your smile was so pretty,

The third time, my heart slowly started to race,

The fourth time, I knew it was you.

 

 

 

Youngjae shouted in frustration when his favorite mug broke but he didn’t do anything to clean it up. Nothing’s going well. He was about to smash his phone in to pieces when it rang but he stopped when he saw Zelo’s name. “What do you want?”

 

“Noona!” Zelo shouted excitedly, pulling your covers before swishing the curtains open, letting the light enter your room. You sat up and smiled, pulling your little brother down with you as you rolled over him.

“Noona you’re heavy!” he exclaimed but it was muffled since you were squishing him beneath you. He laid still for a minute before pushing you over and tackling you. “I prepared breakfast.” He smiled cheekily, wriggling his eyebrows.

You eyed him for a moment before giving in. “What do you want?”

 

When I first saw you, I didn’t fall for you...

“This is my friend, Youngjae.” Zelo introduced, laughing a little at the awkward atmosphere that seemed to surround the two of you. Youngjae gave a few mandatory greetings, some his and hellos and some shy smiles along your way and honestly you were fine with it since you didn’t even know why the kid would introduce you to him randomly, and it didn’t bother you.

The three of you sat in the café quietly, with Youngjae fiddling on his phone, you playing with your straw while Zelo looked back and forth to you guys, distaste clearly painted on his face. “So… are we going to continue it like this?”

“Like what?” you said in unison, earning a big wide smirk from the tall guy.

And so the day ended when Youngjae declared that he has a class and you had a meeting and Zelo could do nothing about it. Instead he grabbed your phones and wrote each other’s numbers, making the two of you uncomfortable than it already is.  Youngjae gave you another shy smile and left off.

The moment you left, you received a text from ‘Jae’: Sorry for the atmosphere later, I guess I was a bit off (and Junhong is stupid), sorry again, let me make it up to you next time?

You didn’t know what to say so with a blink of an eye, you typed: Sure.

But of course, you knew those words were just complimentary and just some kind of reassurance or an act of manner. Not that you cared, you were too busy to be acquainted with some random stranger that your brother introduced. You rolled your eyes in annoyance when a thought of Zelo doing all that because of a bet that Yongguk dared.

Or maybe not. Touché.

 

The second time I saw you, your smile was so pretty…

Youngjae was walking near the shop when he saw a glimpse of Zelo that made him turn around and head to the coffee shop nearby, hell, he was craving for some Americano anyway so why the hell not if this was the only way to avoid the nosy guy. He walked to the nearby chair on the side of the window and plopped his things before going to the counter.

“Good morning, may I take your order?” a light voice asked him, making him look up from his wallet and down at you who stood before him. Well the counter was between you but let’s ignore that fact.

Youngjae nodded and stared at the menu as he totally forgot his cravings.  It’s been a couple of weeks since the awkward meeting and he won’t admit it but he kind of forgot about her.

“I personally recommend the Hazelnut brew.” you said, shrugging a little when you found yourself involuntarily looking up to the menu as well.

He nodded once more. “I’ll take it then.”

Unable to keep a smile, you nodded back. “I’ll take it to your table when it’s done.”  You said, watching as he bit his lower lip and headed back to his table.

Meanwhile, after making his coffee, you pulled out a sticky note and wrote something before handing it down to Youngjae who was engulfed in typing in his laptop. “Here you go.”

“You work here?” he asked, closing his laptop to look at you.  Youngjae felt like a creep when he noticed that he wasn’t taking his eyes off you, you with your messy hair tied in to a bun, you with your brown apron, you with the annoyingly captivating smile placed on your lips.

You sat down on the other side and placed your cheek in the palm of your hand. You looked at him dead on and rolled your eyes, making him blink in surprise. “Part-time job, because college is coming near and money doesn’t rain down from the sky.”

“Really? It doesn’t rain money in your place?” Youngjae exclaimed, taking his first sip on the coffee while you give him the are-you-kidding-me look at his fail attempt at joking. He seemed unfazed at your look and he smiled back, his apple cheeks rising as his eyes turned in to two crescent moons.

You shook your head and grabbed your tray. As you stand up to leave. “Well, please do call me when it does rain money so I can come over, eh? You chuckled as you take a few steps before turning back to him only to see him still looking at you. “And not awkward at all, I’m impressed.”

“What?” Youngjae muttered lowly, turning his cup and saw a bright yellow post-it.: I hope you’re not ‘a bit off’ today Have a good day~ my coffee’s good right?

 

The third time, my heart slowly started to race…

Youngjae tossed in his bed, trying to sleep but it was futile. Oh for the love of anything holy, he needs his precious sleep and he’s deprived of it. How will he be able to even take the exam tomorrow if his brain is abused right now? Human rights! No, wait, brain rights!  Youngjae groaned and pulled the covers closer when he heard his phone buzz, making him hiss in annoyance.

 “I’m asleep!”   he said, grabbing his phone, only to realize that it was a text message. Oh dear lord he felt so stupid.

 

I know this is random but I can’t sleep :/ Sorry for bothering, I just wanted to pest someone.

 

Youngjae’s cheeks rose up when he read your message, maybe making him chuckle a little too, He bit his lip but before he could reply, sleep decided to barge in.

-----

“Okay!” Youngjae shouted in pure hatred, glaring at the alarm clock which he insists as the ‘instrument for torture’. Doing all his daily routines, he passed through the coffee shop where you worked but you weren’t there so he headed to class.

Every hour seemed to pass with him winging the quiz because flip out everything else, he is Yoo Youngjae. But right now, it didn’t seem to matter. He feels empty and lonely for no reason and he hated it and on the other side, he hated everything else so…yeah, rock on,

“Cats are cute, you agree with me, right?” a voice exclaimed somewhere not far away, catching his attention. “Aigoo, no, I only love cats. Dogs are cute too but I only look at you.”

Youngjae smiled so widely he thought his lips might’ve stretched too. He felt his heart flutter when he saw your small figure slumped up on the nearby bench, cuddling with a black feline creature. “You do know black cats are unlucky, right?”

He smiled wider, if that’s possible, when you gasped and held the cat closer to your chest protectively before giving him a look that’s supposed to be murderous but to him, it was all pretty. All is well.

“No, kitty! Don’t listen to that mean ahjussi.” You cooed, pouting as the cat nuzzled closer.

Youngjae swallowed up another smile before sitting beside you. “By any chance, you’re not stalking me, aren’t you?”    he asked, tickling the cat with his index finger.

“Don’t touch my cat. I’m not following you. I have something called life.” You replied, rolling your eyes in your fake annoyance that made him chuckle. He held out his hands and carried the cat who willingly followed him, making you sulk in betrayal.  “My cat…you stole his love from me.”

He laughed by now and pinched your cheeks, only to realize what he did three seconds after doing so. “S-sorry.” He muttered as his face turn red.

“You didn’t reply to my text last night, were you asleep?” you asked, not looking at him as you keep yourself busy playing with the cat.

Youngjae shook his head. “I was lazy,” he replied but quickly back pedaled. “…and I was studying.”

“I see.”

“Yeah.”

“You never called though.” You muttered silently, looking at him, making him gulp as he felt butterflies terrorizing his stomach at the look you’re giving him.

Youngjae chuckled nervously as he rubbed his neck. “I guess it never rained money.”

“I see.” You repeated, mentally slapping yourself for thinking the wrong thing, For goodness sake you’ve only met twice and one of them was awkward as hell, you surely hated yourself for expecting something. “I…should get going now.”

“Yeah.”

 

The fourth time, I knew it was you…

“I think Youngjae hyung likes you, noona.” Zelo mused, poking your cheeks as he made himself at home, lifting his foot up. “He asked me where we live.”

You sighed and pushed him off your bed, giving him a dark look. “Give it up, Junhong.”

Zelo apologized and nodded. You rarely called him by his real name unless it’s really important or unless he’s being completely annoying that you can’t take it anymore. You looked at the kid with pity when you saw his guilty expression. Zelo didn’t have anything to do with it though; it was entirely your fault for hoping too much.

Starting today, it’s been a month since your last talk and you were pretty sure the thing you felt when you saw him was a little fizzle and he clearly did not feel the same way…or so you thought.

“Zelo-ah, forgive me?” you asked wrapping your blanket around your little brother who pouted and looked away. “Aigoo, are you still mad? Such a shame, I was about to treat you cherry toma—“

Zelo jumped to his feet and hauled you up. “I forgive you, I forgive you.” He chanted as he dragged you out to buy.

Outside was not pretty. Snow covered everything and you hated it, you hated snow unlike every other normal and sane person on this planet. You wanted to go back to your house where the fluffy and warm pillows welcomes you but Zelo was stubborn and once he got your word, you could never get it back.

 

The two of you were about to go home when you passed a bookstore and in it was a guy you didn’t want, or rather expect to see.

“JaeJae hyung!” Zelo shouted, catching the elder’s attention whose eyes widened at the sight of you. Youngjae dropped the book back to where it landed and ran outside, stopping himself as he felt the urge to hug you.

You looked down and bit the insides of you cheek, refusing to look the newcomer. Youngjae’s heart fell at the sight of that but he didn’t show it, not with Zelo hanging around. Apparently, Zelo was smart enough to understand because he took off before you could even stop him.

“Hey.” Youngjae breathed.

“Hey.”

“Long time no see.” He said in a nervous voice, his hot breath warming up your cheeks.

You rubbed your hands together through the mittens and clutched your jacket tighter in an attempt to shrink away. “Y-yeah.”

Youngjae sighed, throwing mental curses at himself for being a goddamn coward that he is. He literally spent the previous month looking for you but nothing happened. Take this chance you dimwit, he shouted to himself.  “I missed you.”

“What?” you asked with furrowed brows.

Youngjae wanted to back pedal but hell no. “I mean…yeah. I know you find me creepy as hell like now but w-would you…like to g-go out with me?”

“What?” you breathed in relief, fighting the urge to throw yourself to him.

He bit his lower lip and nodded. “If...if you’d like to.”

 

“I thought you’d never ask.”