latte ☕️ ᵖ. ˢᵘⁿᵍʰᵒᵒⁿ

08

sunghoon sat at the window seat of kreams as he waited for aeri to end her shift. in the meantime, he savoured his hot latte. as time passed, the fog also went along with it, and his drink cooled down.

his mind was still racing on how he would explain everything to aeri afterward.

why did he have to do that?
how would he explain to jaemi?
what should he do?
what about his career?
what would happen to aeri now?

inner voices plaguing his head, knocking on every closed door within his mind. he closed his eyes and covered his ears, trying to ward off the voices in his head.

aeri on the other hand, was still busy as always, mending the store. she'd still wished that ryujin could make it for the shift today: not only because she would have been much less preoccupied preparing drinks, serving customers and cleaning the tables, but also because she wouldn't have been stuck in this situation with a random person she barely even knew, now even being introduced to someone else as his girlfriend.

time passes fast when you're busy. it wasn't long before her shift ended and another co-worker took her place.

aeri slowly took off her apron and changed into a more casual outfit, putting on a pink and white checkered oversized cardigan over her workwear — a maroon checkered skirt with pleats, and collared white top. she took her hair out of her bun and styled it into a half up ponytail, in which her now wavy hair framed her face nicely.

she looked over at sunghoon — who was mindlessly staring out of the window of the shop — and looked over at the display shelf.

there were still plenty of cakes left, so she decided to grab one to go.

she took cautious steps towards sunghoon, and tapped him lightly on his shoulder.

he turned around to face her, making eye contact once again.

"ah erm, would you like to go have dinner together?" he offers.

aeri replies hesitantly, "i think i'll pass, i'm not really hungry at the moment."

the cake!

"right! also, we had leftover cake today, so i took one out for you," she says, placing the box on the table.

curious, his hands grab onto the box and tikts it such that he can see the cake, almost resemblant of a cat.

"it's tiramisu," aeri says, scratching her ear in slight awkwardness and embarrassment. "sorry if you dont like—"

"i love tiramisu," he replies, looking up at her. his mask was down and he flashes a smile, showing his fangs among his teeth. "it's my favourite, thanks aeri."

how cute, she thought, blushing slightly.

"do you.. want me to walk you home or something then?" he offers again, wanting to find a window of time that he could talk to her and clear things up.

"alright."

—

( aeri's pov )

just as he said, he would accompany my walk back home. as we walked on the pavements, i walked in front as he followed quietly behind me, the sound of his footsteps faintly pairing with the rustling leaves as the evening sunset dawned.

i paused and turned around to face him. pointing towards a nearby park, i said, "how about we head there to sit for a bit?"

"sure."