Minsung Oneshots

His smile

Café Rock had a wooden theme.

Pieces of fake wood were handcrafted together meticulously to resemble letters cut out from actual tree trunks. Plastic vines draped from the open terrace of the café, falling over the entrance to make a sort of green curtain covering the glass doors.

The interior was just as eye pleasing, with dim yellow fairy lights, wooden chairs laden with comfy cushions, the walls texturised and painted brown to resemble wood and flower pots placed artistically along the black polished shelves.

This Café was Jisung's favourite place to go. He could sit there and sketch for hours and hours on end without having anyone disturb him. While most people usually got their best story or painting ideas in bathrooms, in bed or in other odd places, Jisung would get those ideas in the café. Such was his connection to the place.

Jisung had just entered the café one rare Saturday morning, a sketchbook tucked under his arm as he twirled a pen between his fingers. He walked up to the counter, Chan, who was the barista, greeting him cheerfully.

"Hey Ji!" He exclaimed enthusiastically, the bags under his eyes in stark contrast with his tirelessly excited voice. "Didn't expect to see you here today"

Jisung chuckled. "Hey Chan. I had no assignments due today, for once, so I decided to visit."

"Ahh" Chan nodded in understanding. "Well, are you getting the usual?"

Jisung smiled. "You know me"

The barista huffed. "Why can't you ever try something new?" He grumbled, as he bustled off to prepare Jisung's order.

"Doesn't really give that......" Jisung experimented with various hand gestures, trying to use them to convey his words. "Feel, y'know?" He finally finished, laughing as the older shook his head in exasperation.

"Oh I know" Chan muttered, pouring the coffee in a large, black cup. Jisung set the sketchbook on the counter, fiddling within his pocket in search of his wallet.

"Aha!" The boy congratulated himself quietly having found the wallet withing the mess in his pant pockets. He fished out a few bills before handing them over to the cashier and turning back to get his drink.

Picking up his sketchbook and pens once again, along with the coffee cup, Jisung turned around, about to make his way to his usual seat before stopping short within the first two steps.

"Who's that?" He asked, wheeling around abruptly towards the older who was kneeling underneath the counter evidently searching for something which had fallen over.

"Huh?" Chan asked, emerging from underneath the wooden slab with a worried look on his face. "Who?" He asked distractedly, now searching for that something amongst the shelves of coffee bean jars.

"The guy sitting at my table"

"Huh?" Chan asked again, finally tearing his eyes away from behind the coffee machine and looking over to where Jisung was pointing at, not so subtly.

"Oh he's a new customer" the barista said, shrugging nonchalantly and returning back to his search. "Came in this morning. Seemed pretty stressed with college assignments and all, poor kid."

Jisung rolled his eyes at Chan's sympathy, turning to get a proper look at the guy once again.

The boy was staring hard at his laptop, evidently used to the sharp glare produced by the device, which did not do his tired eyes any good. His eyebrows were furrowed as he poked the inside of his cheek with his tongue with concentration. He had a stack of binders and notebooks piled beside him, a half empty coffee cup balanced on the pile, another empty one rolling around dismally next to him, almost on the verge of toppling over from the table. The boy barely noticed all this though, his fingers typing away furiously on the keyboard as his head bobbed along slightly to the rhythm of the song blasting through his headphones. His lips, however, from the angle where Jisung was standing, seemed to have been pulled down into a frown, his forehead creased with prominent worry lines.