Leaf Me Alone // minsung

「⸙ ch.29 ⸙」

JISUNG

"Was the mask really necessary?"

Two galaxy eyes blinked up at me in confusion. At this point, the only bit of him I could see were his eyes, since the rest of him was tucked inside a variety of clothing that I had haphazardly shoved on to him. A cap was perched on top of his head, followed by a hat with two cute cat ears, followed by the hood of his jacket tugged over all of that. And yes, I made him put on a face mask before wrapping a scarf around his neck, covering the lower half of his face. Soon, his eyes were also covered by the pair of sunglasses placed gently on his face, obscuring him completely.

"Yes, the mask is necessary. You're lucky I didn't make you wear a balaclava." I didn't tell him about how I hovered over the 'add to basket' button for ages, before finally giving up on the idea as I imagined shoving Minho's beautiful face into what was basically a sack with three holes cut into it.

"We're spying on two people we set up on a date, not trying to rob a bank!"

"Which is why I didn't buy the balaclava, obviously. Although it is, unfortunately, a missed opportunity to be in matching clothes with you. And we're observing, not spying. Am I really the type of person to spy on someone else? It hurts me that you think of me that way."

"You're insufferable, my god-"

"You called?"

I could feel Minho narrowing his eyes at me, even though I couldn't see anything through the massive pair of sunglasses I put on him.

He took off the scarf, unwrapping it from around his neck and throwing it towards me. "Nope, not doing this. I'm suffocating in these layers. And how are we supposed to eat if we're covering every inch of our face in fabric?"

I threw the scarf back at him, smiling in satisfaction as it hit him square in the face. He made a little 'oomph' sound as I snapped back, "Who said we're gonna eat?"

Minho gave me a look that I could read like a magazine, each letter printed out in black and white, the thousands of years it took to develop complex, meaningful language uniting at this moment to send me a message within his gaze: are you stupid? He made a show of looking around the place, waving a hand to direct my attention to our surroundings. "Uh, the fact that we're making them meet up in a cafe ring any bells?"

Oh. Yeah.

Minho saw the realisation dawning in my eyes (I hadn't put on my own pair of sunglasses yet), and shook his head in mock exasperation. "There we go. A rare moment where your thoughts manage to connect into a logical sequence."

He removed his hood, plucking off the cat-eared hat and placing it on the table. "Besides, we're already getting a few strange looks from being so wrapped up in an indoor area. It's autumn, not somewhere in the middle of an Arctic blizzard." Taking the sunglasses off again, he handed them back to me before grabbing a menu. "Oh wow, they have a massive selection here. And all of them look delicious."

Reluctantly, I also removed my own hat and scarf, unhooking the face mask and throwing it on to the table. Reaching for a menu, the clouds that had notions of gathering around my thoughts were instantly dissipated by whichever goddess created this cafe. One look at the choice on the menu had my mouth watering already. Even better, the prices were actually affordable.

As soon as I laid my eyes on the image of the cheesecake, both my heart and my stomach were stolen, taken completely and entirely by the wonderful picture depicted before me.

My hand shot up in the air, and soon enough a waitress came over, smiling at my excited expression. "I assume you two are ready to order?"

I nodded, barely able to remain seated as I pointed to the cheesecake. "Could I have a cheesecake, please? And... um... the pancakes look really good too. Yeah, so one cheesecake, and one serving of pancakes please."