the doppelganger | xiuchen

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"I heard karaoke is pretty big in Korea," Yixing said. "Is that true? Have you ever been?"

"Kind of, yeah," Minseok said. "And I've gone a few times with my friends."

"Great!" Kris said. "Let's go. I think I'm the best singer out of us all."

"Well, you also think you're a great artist," Tao deadpanned. "No, I think Chen is the best."

Chen merely smiled.

xxx

Back at work on Monday, Minseok was busy making orders. There weren't too many customers, though, which allowed him to be slightly sidetracked by his own thoughts.

After finding their way out of wherever they had been -- Minseok still didn't know -- he and Jongdae had ended on ambiguous terms. They did have each other's numbers, but that didn't mean much, or did it? As Minseok contemplated this, he realized the drink was about to overflow.

"Shoot!" He quickly stopped the machine and set the drinks ready to go. "One iced Americano and one iced berry lat-- Oh, you two came!" Minseok, back in his barista uniform at work on Monday, smiled at the duo in front of him.

"Yeah," Kai said, smiling. "I usually hate coffee, but -- oof!" He suddenly doubled over as Kyungsoo maintained a poker face next to him.

"That's our order, thanks," Kyungsoo said, accepting the drinks.

"No problem," Minseok said. "Hope you enjoy!"

Minseok had run into the pair on Saturday, when he realized that Google Maps was quite useless. After going the wrong way three times due to the wonderful app, he eventually had Jongdae ask a busking duo for help, which turned out to be these two. After successfully finding their way out, Jongdae had directed them to the coffee shop if they ever had the time.

Kai took a sip of his latte and nodded. "Mm, it's better than I thought." He looked around. "I don't see your friend, though. Is this not his shift?"

Minseok shook his head. "No, he actually doesn't work here anymore."

Kai looked over at Kyungsoo. "That's too bad. We wanted to talk to him. He looked like he would be a good singer."

"He is. You should hear his high notes." The words left Minseok's mouth before he realized what he had just said. "Um, I mean, never mind. I don't know. I never heard Jongdae sing. I was . . . thinking about somebody else."

Kai nodded slowly. "Okay." He then handed Minseok a card. "The two of us are going to be performing there this Sunday," he said. "Kyungsoo will be singing, I'll be dancing. You can come, if you want."

"Oh!" Minseok quickly took the card. "Sure, I --"

"Hyung, what are you doing? We're backed up on orders!" Baekhyun yelled.

Minseok pushed the card into his pocket. "Ah, sorry, I have to go. You know something's really wrong if Baekhyun is serious. I'll definitely be there, though."

"Sorry for bothering you when you're working," Kyungsoo said. "We'll go now."

"Please come!" Kai yelled as Kyungsoo dragged him away. "And please advertise, maybe?"

The bells chimed as the door swung shut behind them.

"If you were going to be like this, we would've begged Jongdae to stay," Baekhyun joked to Minseok as he quickly began taking orders.

"You should just be grateful you're good at the cash register, because nobody wants to see you attempt to make coffee again," Minseok retorted as he watched the cups slowly fill up.

"That was one time," Baekhyun complained. "Besides, don't you remember your first day, when you pressed the wrong button and you thought you broke the machine?" He paused. "Actually, now that I think about it, Jo--"

Minseok looked up as he put the lids over the coffee cups and grabbed four straws. "Chanyeol's here. Shut up and go get his order." Baekhyun had a habit of talking too much. 

Baekhyun stalked off as he made a face -- though his mood quickly lightened while talking to Chanyeol -- as Minseok hurried to catch up. Not that it was hard. One thing he had missed in China was making coffee; he just loved the way the coffee poured into the cup and how it smelled.

In fact, he easily lost track of time hearing the order, making the order, serving the order, and then repeating it all, losing all other thoughts. For those few hours, it was just him and coffee.

Until the end of his shift, when he heard Baekhyun yell, "Jongdae!"