1Derland

I

Alex

Lounging my back on the wooden seat, I comfortably cross my legs lifting the cup of caramel tea from the table as I take a good long sip with my personal pink straw. I flip the pages of the newspaper on my lap, scanning through the invariable stories written by crude journalists about different aspects. As usual, there's this never-ending feud between opposite football fans, the rising fame of so-called legends of Golf, fashion industry, new artists in Hollywood, and flashed in front page is the grand come-back of The X-Factor Season 21.

Now, this is something new. It's been years since the X-Factor ended, well, as everybody presumed. I never imagined they'll be opening for new aspiring artists. Reading the whole article, it says that Louis Tomlinson is the one who pursued for this event to finally happen and it is because he'd like to discover more talented artists for his recording label. Interesting. Harry hasn't mentioned about this yet, I bet they're keeping it for a surprise.

Placing the newspaper under the table, I grope for my phone inside the pocket of my jeans, plugging the earphones in as I turn the volume up shuffling through the songs.

I like your smile

I like your vibe

I like your style, but that's not why I love you...

I stared blankly outside the glass window, swaying and singing along as the music plays, watching the rush of people passing the night street. It's been three years since Harry, Faye and I decided to start up this café, it's true that time really flies so fast you wouldn't even notice it. All my life I thought being a famous singer is what I really wanted to be, but then, life has its own scroll of choices and options. If everything won't work out after several times of trying, maybe it's the time for some change. And this isn't even a big change.

I've always wanted putting up a coffee or pastry shop of my own, and here it is. We built this café through tons of love and inspiration. It's exactly what I wanted; Vintage One Direction themed coffee shop. It took up nearly three years to make it this perfect, to gather all of those rare 1D merchandize, to have those authentic shirts and stuffs of the band from different side of the world, to hang all of their albums, photos, and all of it displayed over the place. I'm living my dream every single day.

I've been so fond of One Direction ever since and I never thought any of this would happen, not even in my wildest dreams. Here, living in Doncaster for good, managing my own coffee shop, it's like a dream come true. I don't even need to think about any other themes for this business because this idea was naturally planned long ago, it's like a huge tribute to the band. They literally change my life and I wouldn't have any of this if it wasn't for them and of course if I haven't tried auditioning for Louis' recording label years ago, I don't think I'd be here sitting flawlessly in my own café.

I owe a lot of these to him and Harry. Louis managed my career for a year, and it was the best times of my life. We've put out couple of records, and I even released an album for such short period of time. It was nearly a breakdown when my career didn't worked out well afterwards. I actually thought I was good enough, but there are really loads of great artists out there who happen to outrun my career in just a blink of an eye. I was good, but that isn't enough.

Louis, Harry and I had been great friends since I worked with them. Louis was the one who suggested of starting up a business after I lost my career, he really is the master of all wisdom. He taught me not to be depressed after everything happened, and that Harry will be helping me with everything afterwards.