Coffee Shop (EXO Xiuhan/Lumin)

Soo... I wrote this on my phone during Spring Break. It's done already, but as it's kind of long I'll post it in parts. I hope you like it!

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An early winter-morning, 24-year old Kim Minseok was running down the street, to not be late for his work. As he constantly tried to shield his eyes from the cold winter-rain, he almost stumbled an impressive amount of times. He was just stable enough to manage not to fall, but he was pretty close a lot of times.

This happened quite often, actually. It wasn't the fact that he didn't have the willpower to get up every morning, and then for once, get to work on time. It was more of the fact that even though he had four alarms set to wake him up every day, he still managed to sleep through them. Kim Minseok was a very heavy sleeper.

Not that it was his fault of course. If it had been up to him, he would wake up on time each morning. But his head just wouldn't function, and this always resulted in him being late.

As Minseok barged in the door to the small, cozy coffee shop where he worked, his co-worker, Zhang Yixing, lifted an eyebrow at him. He half-smiled and apologized, which caused Yixing to sigh, but smile back.

"That's the second time this week, Minseok. What if the boss-lady finds out?” he warned jokingly. Luckily for Minseok, his boss didn't arrive until twelve o'clock, and Yixing was never late with more than a millisecond. So whenever Minseok failed to reach work on time, he was covered by his very nice friend. And Yixing didn't tell on him either, even though it would earn him respect with the boss. Actually, if he did, Minseok would feel very offended. They were not only co-workers, but also friends, and most importantly - comrades. Their boss was terrifying, and they always had to stand together when she scolded them. Which she usually did. Every day. Even though they drew the most customers. But if there was a spot on the front desk, or if one of the cakes they sold were a little bit out of place in the display case, they'd hear it.

Minseok sighed as he took off his black winter coat and hung it in the staffroom, revealing a cream-white knitted sweater and a pair of dark jeans underneath.

"I'm soooorry, Lay," he called back to his co-worker that manned the counter for now. Minseok smiled for himself. His friend may be named Yixing, but everyone called him Lay. It was even written on his nametag.

Minseok could hear Lay let out a small laugh from the store, and he knew he was forgiven. Lay just was that way. He always cared. He was that kind of person that one could find helping an abandoned kitten in the evening-rain.

As Minseok got ready in the staffroom, Lay took care of a couple of customers that came in. Most of them were here often, so Minseok and Lay knew their faces and what they usually ordered. But every now and then they would see a new face. And when Minseok came out after putting on hos nametag and a couple of comfortable Nike-shoes, Lay was manning a customer Minseok didn't recognize. He looked strangely tired, even though he probably wasn't even on Minseok's age. He was probably closer to Lay, who was one year younger than Minseok. But his eyes showed such tiredness... It was weird. But Minseok decided that this was not his problem, as that was a customer, and he was an employee. They would probably never meet again.

When Minseok walked over to Lay, the customer was paying, and shortly afterwards sat down at a nearby table.

Lay looked at Minseok with a strange look. "That person over there ordered a plain, black coffee," he whispered. Minseok looked shocked at him. No one ever ordered that one. It wasn't that the coffee didn't taste good. In fact, it was great. The thing was, all the other coffee-choices were even greater, so when people came here they ordered something extraordinary that one couldn't get other places. Like Minseok's Double Chocolate Mocha with cream. Or Lay's Triple Caramel Cafe Latte. But never plain, black coffee.