Ding!

A tall figure entered the coffee shop. It was her third time going there for hi-tea ever since she moved into her new apartment in the area earlier that week. She decided to sit at the same table as she could overlook a nearby lake from the ceiling-to-floor windows.

She called one of the waitresses when another ding was heard from the door. A fair-skinned girl entered and went straight to the counter. ‘She looks familiar’ thought the tall girl. ‘Where have I seen her again?’

The table was being approached by a red-haired girl in pink apron. “Welcome to Next Door Café. May I take your order, ma’am?”

There was no response from the tall girl. The waitress was standing awkwardly in front of the latter while waiting for a response. “Ma’am?” She waved her hands but to no avail. But then, after a moment, she noticed the customer she was serving was actually staring at a particular someone.

Tiffany’s POV

“Ma’am?” I called to get the customer’s attention, but she seems to be looking at someone else. I turned my back to see what’s behind me and right there, the girl who never failed to become the center of attraction because of her angelic face. She is none other than my dongsaeng, Im Yoona.

I decided to turn back to face the customer in front of me. I smirked meaningfully before getting her attention. ‘Love is in the air, huh?’

“Beautiful…” uttered the customer absent-mindedly. I smirked even wider upon hearing the word.

 “Excuse me, ma’am!” I called, a little louder this time but still in a polite way.

“Uh?”

Finally, I got her attention. She glanced at me for few seconds before looking elsewhere to avoid my stares.

“I’m sorry. I was just thinking…”

“Or to be more specific, you were staring at someone.” I cut her word, still smirking.

Sooyoung’s POV

“A—Aniya…I was scanning through this shop. Yea…”

I’m a bit taken aback with the waitress’s teasing. I try to show calm expression, but my heart is still beating abnormally. Ugh, why am I like this?

I could hear giggles from the waitress before me. “If you said so. I’ll let this pass” she said with a sincere smile.

“May I take your order, ma’am?” she continued.

“Yes, please. I want hot chocolate with Cinnamon ground as the toppings, and Apple Cinnamon Muffin.”

She jotted down my order on a small notepad. “Cinnamon lover, I see.” I heard she said. I nodded twice in response with a stretch of awkward smile. I’m actually still battling with my uncontrollable heartbeats.

After she repeated my order, she went to the counter to key in something on the screen before approaching the girl that I stared at earlier. I couldn’t help but to stare at the two figures.

From my table, the waitress was back-facing me while the beautiful girl is standing across the counter, facing to my direction. When the girl glanced at me once, I turned to look at the lake view. That was close! She might think I’m a stalker.

Few minutes have passed; I was distracted when another waitress sent drinks to the table behind me. “Your order is now served. Enjoy your meal at Next Door Café~” I overheard the waitress said. Then another waitress says the same thing to the other table. I guess it’s the café’s policy to say that to the customers.

Author’s POV

The tall girl shrugged it off and waited for her meal to arrive. Just then, the beautiful girl that she stared at was walking to her table with a tray of her order.

‘Apparently, she’s one of the staff working in the café’ thought the tall girl. Sooyoung put on a poker face when the latter reached her table.

Yoona bowed slightly before placing the order on Sooyoung’s table. The tall girl was waiting for the beautiful girl to say those lines like other waitresses did, but none was heard. Once Yoona had finished serving, she bowed her head and smiled before leaving the table.

Sooyoung creased her eyebrows in confusion. ‘Shouldn’t she be saying those taglines after that?’ she thought silently.

She once again shrugged it off although a bit feeling of disappointment when she couldn’t hear the latter’s voice, because probably she was wrong about the entire policy thing. While she was enjoying her meal, the pink-apron waitress came to approach her table again.

“That girl at the counter…,” Tiffany pointed her finger to the counter and continued, she’s gorgeous, isn’t she?”

Sooyoung was obviously shocked and almost choked herself because she was chewing some muffin when Tiffany approached her. “Um. Are you, by any chance, a mind-reader? Because I’m starting to freak out now,” said the tall girl nervously.

The red-haired girl let out giggles which makes her eye-smiling appeared before saying, “In case you forget, she has been serving your order since two days ago. You’d probably missed the chance to notice her before because you were stressing out with all the things going on with your moving into the new apartment, which has already settled last night.” Tiffany explained it too fast which made the tall girl looked lost.

“Aigoo~ tell me you’re not dumb.” she tried to joke before taking a seat across Sooyoung.

“No. I mean, how do you know about me? Moving in and all?” she gave a questioning look.

“Because I’m your neighbor! Oh God! I even greeted you this morning, Miss. Choi. Sooyoung”.

“Omo!” she gasped while covering . “So you must be…..Miss Tiffany?”

The latter nodded excitedly. “Dae! You’re right. But I can’t really blame you though…you were holding piles of boxes when I greeted you.”

“Ahh…yes. The boxes were restricting my view. I didn’t really get to see your face. I’m really sorry”

Tiffany giggled in response. “No worries. Anyway, on a serious note, I noticed you were staring at her” she used her chin pointing at Yoona.

“Just like you guessed, she’s…hmm beautiful. So I probably noticed her now.”

The eye-smiling girl gave her a warm smile. “It’s quite surprising that you only noticed her on your third time coming to this café. Usually, everyone who comes here would notice her as soon they enter this shop. But….it’s great that you did notice her, because she did too.”

“What does that supposed to mean?” Sooyoung was confused with the waitress’s last statement.

Before Sooyoung could ask further, a voice called for Tiffany.

“Tiffany-sshi” It was one of the staff. The person pointed her finger to Yoona which meant that the girl was looking for her. She looked up to see Yoona was gesturing something with her hand which apparently is a sign language.

The eye-smiling girl replied by using hand gestures too, still sitting across Sooyoung. The tall girl looked at the two girls alternately with a curious look.

‘Wait a second. Don’t tell me that she’s mute? Or probably deaf??’ sudden thought appeared in Sooyoung’s mind.

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