Love is a game (Love in the air collection)

Saw You Sitting There in that Cafe

Summary:

Rain has been staring at a sketching the handsome big bike phi that comes into his favorite coffee shop all summer. Too bad the man never notices him, or so Rain thinks.

The coffee shop is small and would normally be much too expensive for a student to afford but Rain's father gives him a generous allowance as long as he keeps his grades up and doesn't get into too much trouble. So what if he chooses to spend it here, this place has such a nice atmosphere and the staff members, who he knows by name, don't care if he sits here for hours on end. It's a good place to work.

Rain takes his drink from the barista with a sunny smile and a polite, "thank you, P'Lee." He takes a minute to admire the cute kitten design on the top of his cappuccino. That's why this is his favorite place to spend his mornings when he isn't at school. The little attention to details is so fun. P'Lee knows he loves cats, and she almost always gives him something cat related.

However, the main reason he likes this shop is that it's a good place to practice his favorite activity. Sketching strangers. When he was in high school, before he had decided his heart lay in architecture, Rain had taken some art classes. One of his art teachers had recommended going into public spaces and sketching strangers in action to get a good idea of how to draw the human body in motion. Even after realizing he didn't want to pursue art as a career, he still enjoys this aspect of it. He will often come here or goes to the park or the mall and draw on his days off. Sometimes strangers will even strike up a conversation asking about his drawings. This allows Rain to engage in his second favorite hobby, talking.

Rain takes a seat in the back of the Cafe and pulls out his notebook and pencils from his bag. He begins by making a sketch of the inside of the cafe. He then sketches the few customers, two young women doing a food blog, an old man reading a thick book, and a businessman typing away on his laptop.

Rain looks up automatically when the Cafe door opens, then he freezes with his mouth slightly open. His pencil falls from his hand without him noticing. The man who just walked in is the most handsome man Rain has ever seen.

Rain can only see his profile from this angle but it's enough. The man is tall with his black hair drawn up in a partial bun at the back of his head. His skin has a slightly golden sheen and there is a mole beside his sensuous lips that Rain can't help staring at. Rain pulls his gaze away from the man's mouth but that only draws his attention to the broad shoulders and the way wisps of his hair, loose from the bun, are brushing at the nape of his neck.

It's only when the man gets his coffee and turns in Rain's direction does Rain drop his gaze to his notebook and pretend to be busy. He looks around for the pencil he had been using and only then realizes that he had dropped it when the man had come in. He ducks under the table with blazing cheeks to retrieve it.

"Please don't let him be looking my way," Rain prays as he takes a few minutes to calm his racing heart and catch his breath before he emerges from under the table. To his relief, and maybe slight disappointment, the man is sitting at the counter and is looking at a car magazine. He isn't paying the least bit of attention to Rain.

The voice inside Rain's head, that can be a little mean sometimes, says of course he isn't paying attention to Rain. Someone like that probably has a girlfriend, or a dozen girlfriends, hell someone like that could have his own harem. He probably has never looked at a guy twice and even if he did happen to like guys he would have been way out of Rain's league.

Rain had gone on a journey of self-discovery during his last year of high school. Studying and sketching people for his art classes had opened up a whole new world for Rain. What he had discovered is that he found many people attractive regardless of gender. It had been a little of a shock when he had realized it, up to that point Rain had assumed he was straight.