Kyungsoo burrowed his face further into his wool scarf, hoping to protect his already wind burned cheeks from anymore damage the winter storm could inflict on them. It had been snowing for two weeks, four days, and five hours. If Kyungsoo had cared to put any effort into his analysis he would be able to remember the exact minutes and seconds as well, but as it was his train pulled up to the station and he hurried onto it with the rest of the early morning inhabitants. As the trained rolled on Kyungsoo pulled off his gloves by his teeth, digits too numb to bend correctly after the half mile trek. He unashamedly used his nose to pull up his email on his phone, scrolling through the new messages, garnering a few curious glances from wayward passengers. The regulars of this route were already use to Kyungsoo bizarre tendencies at this point and generally ignored the short male, too absorbed in their own personal lives, which Kyungsoo was grateful for.

He skimmed though his emails, bypassing a few from his father probably asking him why he was a general disappointment and couldn’t have become a doctor like his older sister. Kyungsoo had long ago stopped trying to appease his father, but was still lost somewhere in between wanting to be a filial son and wanting to make himself happy. The messages still made his chest constrict tightly and Kyungsoo decided to deal with them later, after he had had his morning coffee. He opened a few up from his boss asking him to bring him a plain black coffee and print off the agenda for the meeting that will be held at eight. Kyungsoo sighed, frowning down at the simple email. For a brief second Kyungsoo allowed himself to wallow in pity at what his life has become, then the train was rolling up to his station and the moment passed.

From an outsider’s point of view Kyungsoo’s life wasn’t that bad. Sure he was at a dead end job, but he made alright money, enough to keep him afloat with the occasional splurge. And sure his dad was disappointed in him, but a lot of people had that issue and they were just fine. And, yeah, his boss treated him like an intern when he had bust his for a master’s in business and international affairs, even going as far as learning Chinese, but at least he had a job. All this seems like pretty normal trivial problems when looked at on the surface, and even Kyungsoo admits that they are. However, that doesn’t mean that Kyungsoo can’t occasionally feel sorry for himself. Especially when he hasn’t had his morning coffee.

Kyungsoo walked along the street in a daze, squinting his eyes against the glare of the street lights off the snow, the sun having not yet risen over the city. Kyungsoo was not usually up at this time but his boss had thought it would be a great idea to give Kyungsoo eighty files that needed to be sorted out before the meeting that happened at eight this morning. Kyungsoo had managed to sort through most of them but still had about twenty to go. Which is why Kyungsoo is now standing outside of his favorite coffee shop, staring into the dark windows in absolute horror. He squints at the fine print of the hour’s sheets and groans aloud when he realize that it doesn’t open until five. It is four.

Kyungsoo stands outside of the dark café, staring into the window forlornly, where he can make out the faint outline of a light on underneath of the door that leads to the kitchen. He bites his lip and glances both ways, noticing the two other coffee shops on the street are also closed. So he has three options. One, he could wait outside in the below zero temperature until one of the baristas took pity on him and invited him in. This option didn’t seem likely considering no one was actually tending to the front of the store and probably wouldn’t be until a few minutes till five. Two, he could veto getting coffee this morning and try to sneak out during his lunch break. But that would mean that he wouldn’t be able to get his boss's coffee either so that idea is immediately throw out. Three, he could go to work and transfer his work onto his laptop and come back to get coffee. He could finish up those files while he drinks his coffee. This seems like the best and most plausible solution, even though he will have to do a lot of backtracking.

While he stands outside pondering this, he failed to notice that the light in the café had and an employee was walking towards the door. Upon the tinkling of the bells above the door, Kyungsoo looks up with wide eyes. One of the many baristas that works there smiles down at Kyungsoo, holding out two black coffees for him to take. Kyungsoo had noticed him a few times before because of his tall stature. Kyungsoo stares at him dumbly for a second before the tall barista grabs Kyungsoo’s hands (warming them thoroughly) and pushes the coffee into them.

A slow smile makes it way to Kyungsoo’s face before he realizes that he doesn’t have any cash on him to pay for the drinks. Just as he’s about to open his mouth and voice this the overly tall barista shakes his head and gives a deep chuckle.

“It’s on the house.” When he speaks his voice is just as deep as his chuckle and pours over Kyungsoo like molten honey. Kyungsoo admires him appreciatively, checking him out subtlety. He’s really tall and lean with large ears, but if Kyungsoo is to be honest with himself, they’re kind of endearing. His rat nest hair was shoved expertly under the uniform hat. All in all, giving of a warm, homey appearance.

“Oh, I don’t know…” Kyungsoo says, not really someone who takes a hand out. But the barista just smiles brightly, looking a wee bit hysterical and winks at Kyungsoo. Again with the weirdly endearing antics.

“Think of it as customer appreciation. There are a billion coffee shops on this street alone, but you keep coming back to this one.” He says in his deep sultry voice and only now does Kyungsoo realize that the baristas hands are still covering his own. If his face wasn’t already pink from the cold it would be now.

“Thanks.” Kyungsoo squints up at the tall man’s nametag. “Chanyeol.”

“No problem.” Chanyeol replies, hands lingering over his a few moments longer before he moves back into the warmth of the coffee shop, giving Kyungsoo one last wave before making his way to the back of the store.

Kyungsoo stands there for a minute, smiling stupidly to himself before he gets a phone call.

“Hello?” Kyungsoo works to juggle the two coffees and his phone at the same time.

“Why are you not here yet? I thought you said you would beat me to work this morning but I come in and your desk is empty. I had to hang up my own coat and no coffee was placed in my hand.” Kyungsoo’s boss says through the small speaker and Kyungsoo moves the phone away to check the time, 4:26. Why is his boss there this early? His boss usually rolls into work at 7:50. He probably did it just to spite Kyungsoo.

“Kyungsoo? What about those files? Are they sorted through?” His boss continues on and Kyungsoo grits his teeth before answering.

“I’ll get right on it boss.” His boss doesn’t reward him with a response, just hangs up the phone. Kyungsoo then runs to catch a cab, because at this rate taking the subway will just slow him down.

Upon entering the office he hands his boss his coffee and leaves his room to take his seat at his desk outside of his boss’s office. Thirty minutes and a full cup of coffee later, he has managed to do all but five files. He is feeling pretty good. That is until his boss comes out of his office and regards Kyungsoo with his dark beady eyes.

“Why does my coffee say-“at this his boss squints down at the cup, reading it word for word, “-I can warm up more than just your coffee, Chanyeol. 544-2316?” Kyungsoo gapes at him like a fish out of water for a few moments before his boss decides that he is far too busy to watch his secretary make an idiot out of himself.

“You do know that this job is excusive don’t you? You can’t have side jobs, no matter how hard up for money you are.” Kyungsoo’s boss then leaves the room and Kyungsoo stares at the cup that he had left on his desk, pondering what his boss could have possibly meant. It was only after another thirty minutes he figured out his boss was hinting at him being a e. With this he thoroughly face plants onto his desk and groans aloud. Time to have a small pity party for one.

He grabs the cups and glares at it, but slowly the glare turns into more of a smile as the memories of this morning play out in his head. Whether or not the note on the coffee made his boss think he was a e, he was still going to call the overly tall elf. Kyungsoo takes a moment before the meeting to feel content with his life, before his boss is busting out of his office, yelling impossible instructions at Kyungsoo, as Kyungsoo hurries to keep up, with a pen and paper in hand, a small smile plastered across his face.

A/N: It's cold and snowy outside. It feels like it will never end. I needed a little bit of fluff. Hoepfully this will warm you up as well:)