At some time, and some point, Sehun found himself visit the coffee shop a lot more than he usually did. Instead of his free Wednesday’s and the hour long afternoon break on Friday, he went there whenever he had free time over. He brought his homework’s to the shop and disguised himself in black glasses – as if that would have Sehun look any different, everyone who’s seen Superman knows that glasses are the worst disguise ever – and baseball caps. Not to mention he always dragged Luhan with him and had the older male order his bubble tea and occasional mint tea for him. He was so captivated by the smiling female who did her best to serve the people there. It wasn’t only her beauty, Sehun convinced himself, but the fact that she put in so much effort into anything that she did. And she way the so sincerely did it as well. She didn’t do anything to benefit herself, but to the people around her. And that, to Sehun, was one of the most attractive things about her.

He found himself staring at her one Thursday evening as she was making a hot cocoa to a mother with her young boy. Her eyebrows were slightly furrowed as she struggled to have the milk foamy and light. Sehun smiled widely at the adorable sight, making his friend roll his eyes.

“Sehun-ah, why don’t you act like a sane, normal person and talk to her instead of staring like a boy in his early puberty?”, Luhan laughed, intensely satisfied with his cocky choice of words.

To that, Sehun’s grin faded and he stared tiredly at the boy and grimaced. “Haha, very funny hyung. Drink your bubble tea… and help me out with my homework”.

Sehun didn’t bother to listen to his hyung any further and missed out on the word that had become his nickname lately, ‘brat’, but went back to his admiring of the girl. She was giggling as she sat down the to-go mug on the counter, offering a similar giggle from the young boy who accepted it nicely.

“I put on an extra cover so you won’t burn your hand”, she said to the boy and looked up to his parent. “That’ll be 1000KRW”.

The mother showed no expression but laid the amount on the cashier before pulling the boy with her. The female sighed sadly, Sehun noticed and in that moment, he just wanted to scoop her up in his arms and protect her from the world of disappointed and unsatisfied parents with judging opinions.

But how could he ever? He suffered something much greater than the sudden moment of sadness that the girl’d just experienced – shyness and awkwardness in an amount bigger than the Fuji mountain in Japan.

So, he sighed and disappointingly stared down at the open novel that he was supposed to read and write a thorough analysis of. He loathed doing those things. Reading was one thing he enjoyed if he were the one to choose a book, and analyzing was another thing he’d easily do if the topic was interesting enough to do so about. But, the book on the table was an ancient one of a Korean emperor during the Joseon era, and to be quite fair, Sehun didn’t give a rats about the past of his mother country. He had no plans of becoming a politician or a history teacher, so why even bother?

“Oh, are we studying?”, Luhan excitedly asked and leaned over the table to shoot a charming smile.

Sehun rolled his eyes and pushed his hyung’s face back, his hand spread over the handsome face as if it was some kind of virus that threatened to spread over to him. To Sehun’s defense, Luhan had an awful breath at that moment.

“No, you’re doing the “study” and I’m doing the “dying”. Get it?”. It was quite remarkable how Sehun could pull off such a lame comment with a straight face and having the words roll out his mouth in one big sigh. He was heartbroken.

“Aye. Don’t be like that. It’s actually interesting. I read it last year”, Luhan replied, tapping his fingers on the open page.

“Hyung, I don’t mean to be rude, but everything you find interesting is kind of either super lame or simply boring. And I feel like dying, so please, let me continue doing that”. This time, his voice came off a bit more high pitch in a perfectly bratty whiny sound, and his eyebrows fell in a sappy, sad expression.

So, Luhan allowed him to be depressed. Even though he’d much rather go and watch some re-runs of the shows he loved, he decided to be a good friend and let the boy do whatever he wished.

All too suddenly, and way too early for Sehun to wake up from his intense misery, the third wheel of the two bubble tea lovers came along, reeking of sweat and deodorant. A mix that to Sehun was hell.

“What’s up losers?”, Jongin grinned as he took the chair beside Luhan, only to frown once he registered the sprawled books and long faces of his supposedly best friends. “You’re not actually studying right now, are you?”.

“If by studying you mean Sehun stalking the barissa, then yes, we are”, Luhan murmured lowly, his voice soft and friendly, even though his words dripped with sarcasm and hopelessness.

Jongin laughed and looked over his shoulder. “Her name is Sooji, hyung”.

Upon hearing those words, Sehun widened his eyes and almost lunched forward in bewilderment. How the hell did Jongin know her name?

“To answer your question, Hun, she has like, a little thing on her chest where it kind of says ‘Sooji’”, Jongin grinned and raised a brow. “Don’t tell me you haven’t seen that earlier?”.

“Unlike you, I don’t stare at girls’ chests”, Sehun grimaced, though his cheeks heated up. How could he have missed that?

“Exactly Jongin, Sehun respects women and doesn’t objectify them like that”.
“That’s not – oh my god, don’t even start hyung, I am not in the mood to be lectured by a –“.
“What makes you think I’m a ?! For your information, I’ve had lots of –“.
“Oh god”, Sehun interrupted with a disgusted face. “Too much information!”.

Annoyed, he got up from the table, shook his head disapprovingly of his friends’ disgusting choice of argument and gathered all of his strength and courage to walk up to the counter. Unfortunately for him, there was no line, so he couldn’t prepare what to say to her. Why was he even up there?

“Hello”, the girl – oh yes, her name was Sooji – said warmly, like she always did. “What can I get you?”.

Ouch, Sehun thought and bit onto his upper lip. He had frequented that place so many times, and he always ordered the same. Oh right, he never ordered – Luhan did. Damn it.

“U-uh”, he murmured and choked on his own saliva, in which resulted in a nasty, violent coughing.
“Oh my goodness, are you alright?”, the girl – Sooji, damn it – asked, concern visible on her soft angelic features.

Sehun raised a hand and waved it fast. “Am. Okay”, he choked out and balled the same hand into a fist to suppress any sound from coming out, because he was making such a huge fool out of himself at that moment and God damn it why was he even there.

“Let me get you some water”, she said with a light chuckle before spinning around to pour some cold water into a plastic, see-through mug. “Here you go”.

The ends of his lips twitched painfully as he begged with all of his might to God or whoever was in control of him, because he sure as hell wasn’t, to not smile like a goof. He was so thankful, and just –

“How about I make you some nice, hot cocoa?”, she asked him with a small smile. “I’ll add extra whip cream for you”.

He nodded quickly and turned around, his face suddenly boiling and his eyes tearing up so suddenly. Why was she so goddamn nice? And just… everything that he loved. With the exception of whipped cream. He, unlike so many others, had a weak stomach for milk products. And whip cream was the worst.