Not Your Forever Only

A Cafe in London

It was a fairytale I knew I had to wake up from...

1 Year Ago...
A Cafe in London, England

I had the privilege of traveling to London for organization work for my youth music foundation. It was always a dream of mine to visit London especially after my love of Harry Potter, Narnia and all those fun fantasy movies that took place in England.

The year after the pandemic when things opened up in 2021 I had the chance to go. I traveled on my own for the first time and found myself in a super cozy, floral themed cafe in London on a cool spring day.

I arrived at the counter to order a chocolate croissant and a cup of black tea. When I finally took my eyes off the menu a young man around his mid twenties with a dimple and smile greeted me.

"Hello, what can I get for you today miss?" I read his name tag real fast not sure why I did, but I did and it read..

Jaehyun

"Oh umm.." for a second I totally forgot what I wanted to order.

Jaehyun giggled and said, "No worries miss I can definitely wait, at least until I'm off in 10 minutes..." his dimple appeared as he giggled again.

I nervously laughed briefly and then ordered. Jaehyun had an American accent, that was rather relaxed in tone with a low tenor. At this time I was a bit frustrated at myself for stumbling over my thoughts while in front of him. He was also quite tall and had grayish colored wavy hair that gave him this classy preppy look.

I apologized for taking so much time ordering. "I'm sorry I had totally lost my train of thought, my apologies for holding you up." I said.

Jaehyun replied to me and said "Maybe you can repay me over a cup of tea, I'm off in a little less than 10 minutes now." Jaehyun said while closing up the cash register and pulling off his apron.

I didn't know how to answer, his response after that made me stumble over words all over again. I've never been asked out in a charming way like that by a guy who in so many ways looked and acted like a prince. "I, I ummm wait, let me see what I have to do next today..." I was doing a terrible job of stalling and not to mention, I had nothing on my schedule for the weekend.

Just say yes! Part of my brain was telling me whilst the other side was fighting the urge to say yes. I broke and told him, "Hmm sure, I guess we can have tea why not." I cracked a smile to make sure I looked inviting as well. I was so surprised at the whole moment, still wondering if it was all real.

I stood near a window with a group of pretty pink carnation plants on the sill and acted as if I was looking at all the indoor florals. I waited for a few minutes constantly wondering how and why he asked me for tea. I looked at the entrance door not far from me and thought what if I left right now and avoided these butterflies in my stomach. I stirred up the courage and stood there a bit longer.

He came and sat down at a table in front of me. "If you are weirded out by me asking you to tea, please let me know.." Jaehyun said as he sat down with his cup of earl gray tea asking me out of concern. "It's just when you came up to order, you sparked this interest in me and I had to say something."

I was holding my cup of tea for extra comfort as he explained why he asked me to tea. This was all very nerveracking. "Oh wow, I don't know what to say!"

"It's okay, anyways I also thought your moment of forgetting what you wanted to order was flattering." Jaehyun teased while giving off a little sarcastic smile. "So, I'm Jaehyun and what's your name?"

I was halfway between laughing and trying to come up with an argument for my embarrassing moment.
"I'm Y/N."

"Hello Y/N, it's nice meeting you, what brings you to the beautiful and famous London?"

"Well I'm here for work on my music organization." I replied

"Music, wow we have that in common. I'm actually a singer and a songwriter, if I do say so myself I dance some too." Jaehyun said with a little bit of a confident smirk showing his dimple.

"Your just all that aren't you." I said rolling my eyes but still slightly smiling while admiring his charm and confidence.

"How long will you be here? he asked intently.

"Hmm... why do you ask?" I respond back with out of total curiosity.

Jaehyun replies with an honest tone, "I'm asking because I want to know if I'll be able to see you again."

~End of Part 1~