Last Night at the Café

13 | Iced Latte

A / N

This chapter is dedicated to SouthMarie

~

HAZELNUT LATTE.

Then apologise.

Hazelnut latte.

Then apologise.

Her thoughts in order, she reached a hand out for the door.

But what do I say?

Seollal chewed on her lower lip as she faltered at the entrance of Home.

Through the glass doors, she spied a queue within. If she kept her head down, she could avoid being detected by the staff before she reached the counter.

What do I say?

I'm sorry for being rude that day.

I shouldn't have said we weren't close.

I didn't mean it.

I'm the one who's silly.

"Excuse me, are you going in?"

"Ah, yes, sorry!" she exclaimed before bustling into the shop.

She swallowed heavily, keeping her gaze down as she joined the queue. The clicking of cups, the hiss of the espresso machine, the cheery voices; they barraged her senses. She could almost feel where they were; Jieun gaily taking orders, Anna bringing orders to customers and Kazu busy behind the machine.

"Seollal unnie!" Jieun exclaimed sharply. "Hazelnut latte to go?"

She winced. At the girl's loud voice, a few heads had popped up.

"Yes, please."

"It's always good to see you," she said with a wide grin.

Seollal stole a glance to the figure now scooping ice from the freezer. The cubes dropped noisily into cups before he set them down on the counter. With his head bowed, his hands moving quickly with practiced ease, his brow knitted in concentration, he began the process of churning out ground coffee.

No short glance, no small smile, no cheerful greeting.

Maybe this wasn't such a good time after all.

Then a shock of cold landed on the front of her shirt.

Anna let out loud gasp as she set the empty cups aside.

Seollal stumbled back, her eyes wide at the stain. Some of it had gone onto her coat and pants. Those didn't matter. But what a nice canvas she made with a large, brown patch all over her cream-coloured sweater. Her feet were rooted in surprise as she stared down at herself, her mind a blank.

There was Anna, apologising profusely. She had never seen Anna so frantic before. Customers had turned to look. From somewhere in the buzzing in her mind, she heard someone say, "Jieun, make up a new order for table 3."

Footsteps approached them.

Seollal could only look down at the coffee dripping off her shirt, shiver at the cold seeping through her skin.

"Anna, get the mop. It's fine."

Then there he stood. Before her.

"Come with me," he said with a hand around her wrist.

She followed him silently into the empty kitchen, her face burning. The metal countertops had been scrubbed clean. They glimmered under the bright lights of the kitchen, devoid of evidence of the major food preparation that took place there every morning. She had only heard about it from Jieun, how Kazu and their baker came in at 5 in the morning, preparing ingredients for the sandwiches, the pies, the tarts, the breads.