Amor de mi Alma || 2Jae

Chapter 3

"Good morning, how may I help you?"

"Just a plain black coffee, make it quick, I don't have all day to wait," the man says gruffly, pressing his phone back to his ear. Youngjae ignores the urge to roll his eyes and instead types the order into the register.

"Anything else, sir?"

"No." 

The man pays three dollars and moves quickly to the order-pick-up line before Youngjae can say anything else, and Youngjae prints off the order and hands it to Callisto, who immediately moves to make the coffee.

"Good morning, how may I help you?"

"A creamed coffee and a caramel macchiato would be fine." Youngjae nods and types in the order, and then looks up at the woman.

"Anything else, Miss?"

"Yes, two plain donuts, please," the woman smiles. "And two chocolate chip cookies."

"All right. Your total will be fifteen-twenty five please," 

"Here you go." The woman slides forward a twenty-dollar bill and smiles again. "Keep the change, you deserve it."

Youngjae thanks her and quickly puts the money in the register, making a quick note on his notepad about the change before looking up again.

"Good morn -" Youngjae makes eye-contact with the boy closest to him and immediately regrets it.

"You again!" Jackson says excitedly. "I didn't know you work here!"

"Well, I do," Youngjae chuckles awkwardly. "Anything you want, Jackson and Mark?"

"Just some coffee with cream for both of us." 

As Youngjae types in Mark's order, Jackson continues talking. "How's your break been so far?"

"Working, practicing, and homework," Youngjae answers simply. "Anything else other than the coffee?"

"No." Jackson leans onto the counter after checking to see if anyone else was in line, but it seemed to be pretty empty. "Sounds like you're living the greatest life."

"Yeah," Youngjae says, laughing. Then he looks at the two older boys again. "Hey, just a quick question, is everything all right with that Jaebum-guy? Jinyoung told me he has social anxiety but I haven't seen him around the school at all in the last week before Christmas break."

"He tends to skip a lot," says Mark. "It's because he's too scared to face anyone, thinks that they'll all judge him immediately."

"And his mom lets him?" Yooungjae asks.

"Yeah, she's very protective of him for some reason. Don't know why." Mark gnaws on his bottom lip. "So, is our order gonna come any time soon?"

"Yes, sorry - Callisto!"

After an hour more of taking orders, Youngjae is set free from his work. He gets a text from Jinyoung, saying that he should come to the bowling alley near the small yet homey cafe he works in. Youngjae agrees after hearing the Yugyeom and Kunpimook would come too, as well as Jackson and Mark and maybe even Jaebum if he felt like it. 

Youngjae doesn't know why but he wanted to meet Jaebum again. The short, minute-long conversation they had at the night of the concert just didn't seem to satisfy him in getting to know the older boy, and even though he knows that Jaebum might not even want to hold a conversation with a stranger he's only met once, Youngjae is willing to try.