𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐒𝐂𝐄 | woohwa

𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝟳

Mingi groaned in his hands in frustration.

It's been nearly three hours of spending his night in the cafe to do his work with Yunho who had to leave earlier and an hour of him sitting there alone, writing his essay and pouring all of his ideas out, only to get stuck at the conclusion. He stared boringly at his laptop screen, waiting for ideas to come out of nowhere even though it's not possible at this point. He's been using the maximum level of his energy and his brain cells for his shitload of assignments but he'd like to finish the essay he started.

He let out a sigh in defeat and decided to wander his gaze around the new coffee shop that's also his comfort place to study with Yunho at. And then his eyes shifted toward the counter, where the small, skinny boy was standing at and staring at him. It's the third time he caught this and as their eyes met, the barista widened his eyes, like before, and turned his head away. Mingi just blinked, now intrigued at this. 

He did notice him sneaking glances at him when he came with Wooyoung to meet whoever he needed, and it bothered him a little. He told Yunho earlier about it who just said;

"He probably has a crush on you, Minmin." With a laugh. That didn't help at all. He just rolled his eyes at his joke.

It was nearly 11 p.m and it was closing time for the cafe. Mingi quickly put his laptop as well as his books into his bag and stood to leave. Feeling too exhausted, he didn't realize he left his phone inside until he's halfway toward his bus stop and he needed to text Yunho something. "Ugh, what is wrong with me tonight?" He spun around to head back to the cafe and luckily for him, there was a staff locking the door from the outside. When he got closer, he saw that it's the barista at the counter.

"Um, excuse me." Mingi started behind him, scaring the boy who jumped on his feet. "Yes? H-how may I help you?" The boy stuttered as he clutched his chest.

"Sorry for startling you, but I just left my phone inside and wanted to ask if you saw it?"

"Oh, yeah, I got it." The guy fished his fingerless gloved hand inside his leather jacket pocket and took out Mingi's phone. "Here you go." He handed it and Mingi nodded, thanking him with a small smile. The lights above them didn't do justice for the boy when Mingi saw a tinge of pink on his cheeks. He thought nothing of it and turned to leave, taking a long stride with his long, long legs. He needed to hurry to catch his bus.

Though a minute after that, he could hear small sounds of footsteps behind him and it got louder when he slowed down near the bus stop. He stopped walking while the footsteps got louder and closer to him. Mingi whirled around in alarm just to see the same barista from the cafe. "Are you following me?"

The boy looked up at him before glancing around the empty street. "Are you talking to me?" He pointed at himself in confusion.

"Of course, I'm talking to you. Who else is here beside us?" Mingi put his hands in his jeans pockets. "First, you kept on looking at me, which is weird. And now, you're stalking me?"

"I'm not a stalker." The boy answered defensively, ignoring the first point Mingi said. "It looks like we're taking the same bus."

"Are you talking about that bus?" Mingi asked, pointing his finger at the coming vehicle and the barista nodded. 

"Yes, that one." 

They fell into an awkward silence until the bus stopped for them to get on. Mingi took the back seat, which was behind the barista. Just because. (Or maybe he's just overthinking things and thought the boy's a creep.) Anyhow, he still felt embarrassed from his accusation toward him, which he just rolled his eyes at himself.