Lee Taemin


It had been two weeks ever since my last, real customer … and with that I mean a customer that paid. Not that Jonghyun Hyung never paid – which he rarely ever did – but I was in a ton of debt and was grateful for any cent given to me. Anyway, the guy that came in a while ago, the one that had obviously fallen into a giant puddle, he didn't come back to 'Cute Cups' again.
Not that I blamed him, though. My shop was a mess.





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“You just don't get it. It's difficult to run a shop nowadays.” I puffed my cheeks and tilted my head so I could look up at Taesun, my older brother. “I'm doing all I can.”

“I know you are, but …” he buried his face in his hands for a moment and looked at me with a somewhat helpless expression. “Taemin-ah, I can't continue to borrow you money. I'm not rich myself and you just use up all of it without paying me back. It can't go on like that.”
I frowned hard and said: “That's not true. You know that's not true. I've paid you back a lot by now.”

“You've paid about a quarter.”

“For me that's a lot!” I gasped when he raised his brows as if he didn't believe me. “Sorry I'm not as successful as you.”

“You should have just staid in college.”

“… you know why I left.”

“I still don't approve of it. You could have pulled yourself together.”

“Leave.” I replied with a cold tone in my voice. “Right now. I never asked you to support me, you did that by yourself. You know why I left college and you know damn well I had to leave. I didn't choose to be poor, Hyung. I didn't want to live this kind of life.”
He just looked at me with a sad, yet cold expression and just let out a sigh. He told me to give him a call once I had calmed down and just left my shop. There was an uncomfortable atmosphere now. I knew he was right. I should have paid him back more by now. It had been three years since I opened my shop and it was going everything but well. Altogether I think I've had about three hundred customers ever since I opened – that was less than a customer a day.

I sighed heavily and grabbed the broom again. I started wiping the floor – it was closing time, after all.



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I reached home about an hour later – my shop was somewhere near the center of Seoul, but I lived in Ginpo, somewhere near the airport. And since I could not afford a car I had to take the train everyday for an hour and then walk for a bit until I was there.
Once I opened the door I could hear my puppies run over. A smile crept onto my face – they were just so cute.

“Heya …” I crouched down next to my pup called Eve and talked to her for a while before turning to Adam and doing the same to him. Sometimes I felt like they were the only ones listening to me. But anyway, I went after my usual routine and walked them around the block, fed them, took a shower and then went to bed. Like everyday, it had been rough on me. Not only that Taesun had verbally upset me to no end, but I hadn't had a single customer today. Not a single one.

I was already in the red, but I was getting into it more and more by day … and I couldn't afford that at all.

When Adam and Eve crawled into bed with me I had to make room for them. My flat consisted of one room and a small bathroom. My bed took up most of the space in my room, right next to it was a table with my brother's old laptop from ten years ago – as long as I could check my mails and play some small games it was fine. I had one chair, a small bookshelf that was way too small for all my books – so they were stacked right next to it – and my kitchen consisted of less than a table and an oven with a stove.
But, oh well, it might have been small, but it was alright. It was enough for me and my pups. And since I was never going to get a girlfriend anyway there was no reason to get a bigger place.



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There was a surprise the next day at the shop.
For some reason there were four girls entering my shop. Four at once. That was more customers than I have had all week!

“Hi!” I hurried over when they entered, my small notebook in my hand. “Welcome to Cute Cups, where the cups and the shop are equally as cute!” my smile only grew when they smiled at me and laughed. “May I show you your table, Miss?” I bowed to them and grinned as widely as I could, but that smile vanished quickly when one of the girls asked whether she could use the bathroom. I sighed and showed her the way, then went back to the others. “Would … any one of you like to eat or drink something here …?” when they all just shook their heads I felt my heart drop – the bathroom, of course. “Uhm, well, you can wait here.” I showed them a table and walked back to the counter, but stopped when I heard the doorbell chiming, telling me that someone had entered.
Suddenly the girls started giggling and whispering. When I turned around I could understand why – it was the guy from two weeks ago … the guy that had fallen into a puddle and lost his stuff … what was his name again?

“Hello!” I said loud enough for him to hear as he was just standing there and came back over. “Welcome back to Cute Cups where the cups and the shop are equally as cute. May I show you your table?” when he gave me a warm smile I couldn't help but to smile back and blushed a bit – though I couldn't explain why. He looked much more handsome than last time, but I couldn't really explain why. He was just like in my memories, a wide smile, small and cute eyes and hazel brown hair.
The girls were still giggling when I showed him to a table not too far from them, but he ignored it completely. For some reason he kept on glancing at me.
“Do … do you need a menu?” I asked and bowed my head to him once he'd sat down.
“Uhm, yes, please.” he nodded, took it and just looked through it for a long time. I stayed next to him so I could take his order right away. My hands were shaking in anticipation of having my first, real customer in ages. Since the girls only needed the bathroom they didn't count at all.

“I'll take … a Dainty Latte and a piece of Mignon Cake, please?” he looked at me with slightly confused eyes but just smiled when I had to laugh a bit – I had made up those names when I opened Cute Cups three years ago and never bothered to change them.
“Of course.” I said and bowed my head again so that my blonde hair fell into my eyes. “But it'll take a few minutes!”

“That's fine.” he said calmly and pulled out a tablet from his bag. “I … will just keep myself busy then.”
I smiled widely and felt more and more excitement rush through my veins. Although it was going to take a while he was staying, could this day get any better?

Once I wrote it down I hurried away and started preparing the Mignon Cake. It consisted mostly of strawberry and chocolate cake with cream and a physalis on top. Since I hadn't had anyone in my shop for ages I had to get the cakes from the cooler in the back, defrost them and then arrange them in a nice way.
I returned to the front just five minutes later and blinked in surprise that the girls were now gone and that the guy was now sitting at the front, right in front of me.

“Oh, hi?” I said and blushed once more when he looked up at me. A smile played on his lips as he put the tablet down.
“Hi.” he replied and rested his head on his palm. “How's it going?”

“Mhm …” I blinked and put the cake onto the counter. “Now that you're here alri– I mean, now that I have a customer everything's going great.” I nodded and just kept my eyes fixed to the cake. “Like, I don't really have a lot of customers … usually.”

“Why's that?” he looked at me. His smile had suddenly turned into a pout.
“I don't know … I opened three years ago and … never really had any customers.” I shrugged and just finished up the piece of cake. When I put the physalis on top of it he chuckled a bit and said: “Well, your slogan you use to welcome people seems to fit. It does look cute.” he pointed at the cake and I couldn't help but to smile. His words made my heart flutter, most probably like because I was so excited to have a customer.

“Thank you.” I replied and put the cake in front of him, then started preparing the Dainty Latte. It was basically just a coffee latte with caramel syrup and lots of milk. It looked nice. “I hope you will like it.” once I had given it to him I bowed and turned away in order to do something else, but his voice got my attention again. “What's your name?”

“Eh?” I looked up at him and noticed how my eyes got a bit wide in surprise. “My name?”

“Uhm, yes?” his smile was a bit crooked, it made him look really cute. “I'll give you my name first if you want … Lee Jinki, nice to meet you.”

“I-I'm Lee Taemin.” I felt myself grin in quite a goofy way and tried to fix it but couldn't. “Nice to meet you, too …” when he held out his hand I quickly put the notebook away and shook it, bowing all over again. I felt like I needed to show him respect. “S-So … what do you do for a living …? My friend, Kim Jonghyun … talked to you last time … you're a, a teacher, right?”

“I … no. I'm unemployed, to be honest. I used to be an elementary school teacher, but left that job when I was offered a job at a University.”

“You didn't take that job at the Uni?” I pouted a bit, feeling sorry for him.
“I wanted to, but after the job interview they said they didn't want me.” he shrugged. “So … now I'm unemployed. But that's alright, I mean, I'll find something.”

“Of course!” I agreed quickly and nodded. “You will, I'm sure! You seem smart. And you have a tablet.”

“… what does that have to do with anything?”

“Stupid people don't have tablets, do they?” I felt my cheeks burn, but this time it wasn't because my heart was fluttering, but because I felt like I had said something embarassing. “I only see smart people with tablets …”

“You know …” he grinned at me as he ate the cake. “It's not like there's an IQ-Test when one buys a tablet.” when I didn't say anything he just chuckled. “Don't be embarrassed, it's cute.”
I pouted more and said: “I feel stupid now.”

“Don't. Like I said, I find it cute.”
I gave him a thankful smile and we continued chatting about all sorts of things – mostly about his old job as elementary teacher – and he only left when I was about to close the shop.

“I'll drop by again soon.” he promised when I locked the door behind myself. I turned to him and grinned widely, nodding. “When is your shop open?”

“Everyday, basically.” I said quickly and covered my smile with the back of my hand. “From ten am to then pm.”

“Then I'll come back soon.” he bowed to me and nodded at his own words. “See you soon, Taemin-ah.”

“B-Bye!” I replied and waved, bowing as well. I continued to wave all the time until he had vanished around the next corner. I just stood there and stared at the spot where he had vanished, my heart racing. That guy was perfect. “… wow.” I breathed out and felt my smile growing and growing with each second that passed. “Wow, wow, wow.” I let out a squeak and jumped up and down, I even spun around myself once. I had never met someone that handsome, cute and nice in my entire life. How could someone be so perfect?

On my entire way home I felt like I was on cloud nine. I could have never imagined that a man could make me feel so happy and touched. My whole life I had believed I was straight, I had been in love with girls before, too, I didn't know where these feelings were coming from.
But maybe all these feelings were still just the excitement from having a customer that was nice and that gave me a tip of five dollars?

Whatever it was, I liked it.




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Sorry for the wait, but I was on holiday in Japan and had to take a break ^^

Thanks for reading (if you did)!!~