Time Again // C.SB

6

Going to the cafe became a routine for Soobin. For the past few weeks he would go up to the cashier every Tuesday and Thursday and ask for a iced American at exactly 1:35pm and every time the employee taking his order would be the dark brunette girl who's named tag said "Nari".
So like every other day, Soobin went up to cashier. "Let me guess," Nari started. "1 iced americano?" However what Soobin replied with caught the girl completely off guard.

"Actually um," the boy began. "I'll like 2 iced americanos please." He flashed the girl a smile. A smile that felt so familiar to her, senses of warm nostalgia filled Naris' heart.
   "2?" She blurted.
   "Yea," a stiff laugh escapes his mouth as he continues, "Got a date."

  "Your total is ₩7000," She uttered.

20 minutes passed and the boy was still here, once again, studying. Like every other time.
However, the second he saw Nari on her way to the break room he stood up from his seat and quickly walked over to the girl.

   Feeling a warm, loose grip on her inner elbow, Nari looked down at the bigger hand then proceeded to go look up at the stranger.

"Would you like to sit down with me?"

   Nari's heart started beating at an unnatural pace. Her hands became moist and she felt as if someone had wrapped a rope around her heart and pulled it in the hardest form possible.
   She thought she was having an arrhythmia.

She slowly pulled the cap off her head and fixed the hair-do she did earlier today, which ended up getting a bit rumbled. "Um, sure," she politely spoke. "Why not!" She gave him the same smile that she gave him every other day.

Nice and welcoming.

The girl couldn't believe her eyes right now as she was sat down in front of the man she was so accustomed to seeing as a small little boy with disheveled hair, millions of thoughts racing through Nari's head, each one confusing her more then the previous.

"Why does he want to have a drink with me?"

"Does he recognize me?" She cut that question off as soon as it came. "Is that even my Soobin? What if he's just another guy named Soobin who happens to look exactly like my Soobin."

   The boy in front of her cleared his throat, attempting to bring her down to earth.

   "Daydreaming?" He wondered.

Soobin pushed the iced americano in front of the girl. "Sorry, I just assumed you liked iced americanos." An apologetic chuckled ran out the boys throat as he ran his hand through his blond hair, the roots a bit darker.

   "Don't worry about it!" She insisted, pausing afterwards to take a sip of the drink most would call "Dirty Water".

   She swore, people who didn't like iced americanos were menaces to society.

  "But um, why did you want to talk about?"

   "Nothing in particular," he shrugged, not knowing. "I just wanted to properly talk to you seeing as all of our interactions were over what I'll like today."

   "All of our interactions?" Nari pondered, her heart breaking a little. "He doesn't remember me?"
  
   Nari recognized him the second he said his name. She recalls the way his eyes would shrink as his delicate cheeks would rise. The shining smile on his face making 2 dents form on each side of his mouth.

   "Oh," she giggled at his straightforwardness. "Are you a student or...?" She wanted to know more about the boy she no longer knew. "I'm a student at Koreas National University of Arts!" he boasted. "What about you? Are you a student or do you just happen to work at a cafe a block away from the school? Cause if you did go, that'll be pretty cool."

Nari's laughter filled up his ears as she tucked the fallen hair that had started to shadow her eyes, behind her ear. Looking at her uniform apron he pointed out the name tag.

"Lee Nari."

"Mhm?" She questioned. Looking down she realized the boy in front of her had been talking about the shiny tag clipped onto her t-shirt. "Oh yea!" She stuck out her hand. "I didn't get to properly introduce myself. I'm Lee Nari. A student at Koreas National University of Arts." She voiced, a sly smile forming on her face.

   "Really!" His eyebrows rose a bit. "How come I've never seen you?"

   "I don't know. Maybe we don't have any classes together? Or maybe we don't major in the same things?"

   He nodded his head taking in what she just questioned. "I'm majoring in Music and I've decided to major in dance too. Figured it'll be smarter if I went with both. You know, more job opportunities."

   "I'm a dance major!" Nari exclaimed, excitement running through her body as she found out her and the boy have another thing in common.

   In all honesty, the fact that Nari was so relaxed with the boy she was 98% sure was her ex-best friend came as a shock to her. It wasn't helping that he didn't even remember. Or at least wasn't showing that he did.
   The whole situation was a bit off putting and irritated the girl. However, in that moment, Lee Nari threw all her emotions away.

   And to be frank, she didn't really care as all she saw was him and that camera smile he had plastered on his face.