'cause all of your lovers eventually fade, and leave you alone in the bed you made
...
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The bell tinkles slightly as he pushes the door to the cafe open. Immediately, he is hit with both the cool air from the air conditioning, but also the warmth of the room which exuded delicious smells of food, baked goods, and coffee.
Hoseok looks around and is surprised that he'd never entered the place before. No one else was inside, although that somehow made it cozier and comforted him. The colors of the room were aesthetic shades of brown, and he felt like he was being enveloped in a soothing embrace.
Hoseok sets his sketchbook and bag down on a small table by the window before walking around to explore more. There were shelves filled with books, little countertops with stacks of paper, photographs, board games, and much to his surprise, art supplies.
In the far corner of the cafe, there was a piano, guitar, and violin. Hoseok tilts his head as he walks over and presses a couple keys, letting the sound overwhelm him with nostalgia.
Feeling his heart drop, he thinks back to the times he would laugh until he felt like his stomach would explode from cramping up. He could practically see it in front of him: Yoongi playing the piano with passionate grace, Taehyung singing his heart out, and Hoseok playfully dancing along to the music.
It made him ashamed. If only he could pinpoint what it was exactly that turned his world upside down. He wished it was as simple as finding a black line on a white sheet of paper, but it wasn't. It was more like trying to figure out why a phone stopped working when it had been doing absolutely fine.
On the walls were various beautiful paintings of natural scenery created by someone with the initials "J.J." written neatly in the corner.
However, what really intrigued him was the one specific wall dedicated to displaying the artwork of the customers. There weren't many, just a few poorly drawn flowers that he could only guess were made by children, or typical words like "LOVE" and "PEACE" with hearts and rainbows around them.
Hoseok returns to his table to grab his wallet before walking over to the counter. After he settles on what he wants, he rings the little bell, as no one was currently standing there.
"Just a minute!" Someone calls. Suddenly, Hoseok hears swearing, followed by a clatter.
"What the hell, be careful, you almost dropped the entire tray of cookies!"
"Shit... Ah,I burned myself and you're worried about the cookies? Why did you set the tray on the edge, we have a huge ass counter for a reason."
"Just go, there's a customer, did you forget already?!"
"Why would I forget?! What did you think I was doing before this, taking a stroll?"
Hoseok stands in awkward silence while clutching his wallet as he listens to the two employees yell at each other.
He licks his lips and pulls out his phone from his back pocket to scroll through carelessly when finally, someone pushes the metal door, panting slightly.
For a second, Hoseok is hit with the strong smell of fresh cookies from the kitchen.
"I am so sorry for keeping you waiting."
Hoseok shakes his head politely while slipping his phone into the pocket of his jeans. "Oh, that's fine, I was still deciding on what to order anyway."
As he looks up, he is caught off guard. A distinctly attractive man in a black apron was watching him apologetically. His skin was a rich shade of melanin, his eyes were a warm brown and his tousled hair- he couldn't tell exactly what color it was. Something like a mixture of a silvery grey or light brown, depending on how the light hit it.
"Can... can I just have a chicken sandwich and a medium iced coffee?" His voice falters after remembering he was supposed to order.
Stupid, so stupid.
"...Of course! We'll bring everything over after we're done. Hopefully, quicker than usual, we've already taken so much of your time." He asserts after punching a few buttons on the cash register. Hoseok pays and finds himself staring at the male's smile, two deep dimples visible on his cheeks.
"You should run your burn under some cold water and cover it up so that it doesn't get worse." Hoseok points out to distract himself.
He glimpses at him in wonderment. "Oh, you heard us? Sorry." He glances away while chuckling, slightly embarrassed. "Ah, thanks though, I'll make sure to do that, I'm pretty clumsy. Jungkookie! One chicken sandwich!"
"Are you guys the only ones working here?" He ignores the nervous butterflies and works to keep the conversation going.
His dimples surface again as he shakes his head and begins to prepare the iced coffee. "There's actually four of us that operate this place and we're all friends. We tried to make this place as welcoming as possible... It gets pretty boring working so we have a lot of things to prevent that."
He tenderly hands the iced coffee to Hoseok after sticking a straw inside it and drums his fingers against the countertop.
"I'm Namjoon. Kim Namjoon." He states before tilting his head. "Wait here, I'll go get your sandwich."
Hoseok nods, not offering his own name because of the unexpected discomfort building up in his stomach.
No, I can't stay here any longer. He decides. I can't.
Hoseok instantly spins around and jogs back to grab his belongings from the table. When Jungkook comes out with his plate of food, he requests for it to be wrapped up in a bag.
