petrichor ¦ hwang hyunjin

page 17

"Hanna? What are you looking at?" Minho's voice snapped me out of my deep thought, turning my full attention to him who had just arrived the store.

I stopped to look at him and couldn't help but giggled when I noticed how disheveled Minho's hair was. It was sticking out in every direction, his white t-shirt tucked into his faded blue jeans inelegantly.

"Hm? Nothing." I shrugged, pretending to be oblivious to his question.

The rest of the day went on with more customers arriving than those who were leaving the coffee shop. Each time a group of girls entered the shop, the more I had to clutch my skirt out of jealousy everytime they leaned in closer to Hyunjin.

I shouldn't feel this way. He wasn't my significant other, and neither was I.

"Hanna, I'll be going first. I was asked to go home early today." Minho removed the brown apron and folded it neatly, placing it on the corner of the counter.

I nodded, stacking my apron on top of Minho's, "Send my greetings to aunt, it's been awhile since I've seen her."

Minho gave me a smile as he made his way towards the door, "Come over sometimes, I'm sick of my mom saying that she miss talking to you every day."

The bell on top of the door jingled, followed by the sound of the door closing. It was quiet. After all, everyone had left.

Everyone but Hyunjin and me.

"Did Minho left?" Hyunjin stuck his head from the store room, his eyes monitoring every corners of the shop to check for Minho's presence.

I hummed as a 'yes' to his question, taking both aprons off from the counter. "Mhm, he left just awhile ago."

Changbin had left the moment the last customer stepped out of the coffee shop while prattling about the insane amount of customers today. I had always been bemused at how Hyunjin could handle a worker like him. If I was the owner in this place, I wouldn't have stayed quiet and smiled while witnessing my worker complaining about his job. No matter how cute he was.

I placed the folded aprons inside the cupboard, hands reaching out to close the door of the cupboard when a hand came from behind and closed it before I had the chance to.

"Looks like we are the only people in here now."

I didn't took notice of how close Hyunjin was until he started talking. Hyunjin's face was right beside mine, his voice became unusually raspy as hot breath tickled my skin every time a word escaped his mouth.

I shuffled uncomfortably, and as if Hyunjin knew what I was thinking, he stepped back and finally allowed me to breathe some air. Hyunjin leaned his back on the counter, folding his arms and tilted his head slightly.

"Hey, Yuna." It was back. The unusually low yet attractive voice of his once again rung in my ears.

"Y-Yes?"

"If you'd like, do you want to learn how to make a cup of latte?" Hyunjin smiled.

Oh god, there was no way I could reject such a beautiful smile yet pleasing voice.

The two of us ended up staying back at the shop alone for the next two hours. He constantly rested his hand on top of mine when I attempted to try out the latte art, he constantly gave me an endearing smile followed by a 'you're doing well', and my heart constantly beat faster for every little gestures that made me melt.

"I'll send you home," Hyunjin emphasized for the third time, and that was when I decided to surrender and just let him send me back to my apartment for the night.

It was already late anyway, and now that I thought of it, the street towards my apartment could get quite menacing at night time. The only thing that lighten up the streets were the street lights, and I couldn't fully depend on those lights as they had been continuously blinking since two months ago. It made me ponder if the people didn't take notice of this matter or they were simply ignorant.

We walked side by side under the flickering lights, Hyunjin's face looking ever so beautiful everytime the light shone on him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Hyunjin finally spoke, after I had been staring at him for the past 5 minutes, continuously.

"Nothing," I looked away, face becoming erubescent promptly. "You just look so unreal."

Hyunjin emitted a soft laugh, his hand reaching out to rub his nape. "Thank you. But you too, you look unreal too, you know."

"You don't have to lie to make me feel better."

"I'm not lying, and I never will. At least towards you." His voice softened, yet the words he said sounded almost believable. So believable that I almost wanted to give my everything to him.

The walk towards my apartment continued without any words further spoken. Hyunjin was quiet, but the fact that he continuously pulled me closer to him every time the cars passed by only confirmed my feelings for him.

"I'll go in now," I took a step back, hands gripping tighter around the strap of my bag as Hyunjin remained quiet even though I had said my goodbye.

"Hey, do you mind if I ask you something?" Hyunjin finally spoke after the short silence.

"No, of course I don't. What is it?" I questioned as if it was nothing, but in fact my hands were trembling, I could felt my nerves tingling as if they were tickled by small feathers.

"Do you perhaps... have a special someone?" He spilled out each and every words carefully, fiddling with his hands as his eyes refused to meet mine.

I gulped the lump in my throat, shaking my head even though he obviously wasn't looking at me. "No, no I don't."

Hyunjin's eyebrows raised upon my answer, he lifted his head as his eyes directly looked into mine. His eyes shone brightly under the night sky, it was as if his eyes were speaking to me. Saying some words that I couldn't possibly understand.

"What about Minho? The both of you look pretty close, so I thought..."

"We're just close friends," I said, a little bit too loud considering he was just a few metres away from where I was standing, "J-just like what Minho said the first time you guys met."

"But why did you ask?"

Hyunjin took a step closer, his piercing gaze never left mine. Not even once.

"Do you really not know what's going on or are you pretending not to know? I like you, Han Yuna. I really, really like you."