latte ☕️ ᵖ. ˢᵘⁿᵍʰᵒᵒⁿ

06

today was another day of working at the cafe. ryujin had already opened the doors, awaiting for aeri to return her texts.

"god, where is she?" ryujin mumbled to herself. she put her hair up into a ponytail before bunning it up. putting on her apron as a few customers took their seats, she started preparing their orders.

—

"here is your iced mocha, enjoy!" ryujin said as she served the finished drinks to the seated customers.

out of the few that sat down, she served drinks to most, except one who sat at the bay window seat. without ordering any drinks, without a partner, just some boy in a mocha coloured trench coat.

walking back to the counters, ryujin glanced over at her phone.

she let out a small gasp under her breath upon reading a text on her phone.

mom

ryu-ah, grandma fell down at home
could you please rush home now?
please call an ambulance
hurry

before she could even type a response, the screen darkened and her phone started ringing.

bzz! bzz!

the caller id flashed "aeri<3".

she quickly grabbed the vibrating phone from the counter and scurried to the staff bathroom.

"aeri! where are-" ryujin started, immediately after picking up the call.

"i'm on the way to work! so sorry i got held up by consultations today, mr kim decided to reschedule to after school. i'm 2 minutes away, will be right there." aeri spoke, taking little gasps of breaths between sentences as she ran to the coffee shop from the bus stop.

"please hurry, i've got to go. emergency at home, my grandma fell down. please cover for me today?" ryujin pleadingly replied.

at that moment,

ding!

the doorbell rang, and aeri had reached the cafe.

she hung up on the line and ran towards ryujin, quickly placing down her items at the back area and wearing an apron.

"go, your family needs you," aeri spoke, placing a hand on ryujin's shoulder and pulling the girl in for a hug.

ryujin cherished their brief moment of embrace, uttering a "thank you" before breaking the hug, taking her bag and rushing off.

( aeri's pov )

as ryujin left, i settled into the shift. as i twirled my hair into a bun (for the standard dress code), i noticed that the cafe was particularly emptier, which was sort of a good thing for me.

i glance over bay window seat that i sat at a few days back — there sat a boy wearing a mocha coloured trench coat over a black turtle neck. his back faced me, but for some reason, it was so familiar at the same time.

did i recognise him somewhere?

i tried to peek over to see if i could view his side profile. it was hard to see any features since he wore a black mask and his messy dark hair covered his eyes. but he slowly turned his face towards my direction and—

just then, the doorbell of the cafe doors chimed.

a girl walked in. she had long black hair that was curled at the ends, and she wore a black spag babydoll dress with spaghetti straps that showed her fair-skinned collarbones and shoulders.

she was, probably, drop-dead gorgeous.

she walked over to the bay window seat, heels clacking; to the same one that the boy from earlier had sat at.

she placed down her purse and took out her wallet, them exchanging greetings for a brief moment before walking over to the counter — where i stood at — to order.

"hello~ i would like to have 1 hot regular latte," she said delicately. her voice was so soft and pretty too, i thought.

"mmm..." she trailed off for a bit as her eyes looked up to the menu behind me. the glitter of her eyeshadow made her eyes look so captivating.

"also one iced peppermint mocha."  she says , making eye contact with me as she handed me her debit card.

"sure no problem, may i get your name please?" i reply, cup in one hand and a marker pen in the other.

"jaemi, jang jaemi."

i nod and signal her to go take a seat, where i would serve her drinks to her and her supposed date.

the blender whirred as i couldn't help but be lost in thought.

who was that guy she sat with? why did he look so familiar?

i turn around to look at his back profile again. well groomed hair, clean fashion style... who was it?

i racked my brain for an answer, before i thought of someone.

surely it couldn't have been sunghoon?

i took a double take.

i really think.. i really think it might've been him.

( 787 words )

a/n : kinda a short chapter i'm sorry! been really busy lately TT next chapter will be kinda interesting ~~!

also thank you for 150 reads ^_^