Coffee Sweetheart

The Sweet Brew of Love - 1

A tale of sweet love unfolds...the smell of coffee filing the cold air in the busy city of Seoul, a city dazzling with opportunity and style. Dreams floating around every person...dreams so sweet one would feel lost in them...

A young twenty-two year old woman finds herself living in a big dream one day...the stars ever so close...within the grasp of her hand...

A world we dream to touch if only for one brief second...

It has been a fairly average day so far at Dream Castle Cafe. I'm one of the only female servers working at this establishment and one of the oldest too. We typically hire high schoolers for part-time but with the start of the new school year, all the kids are too busy studying for school. That leaves me to work the counter and as a server; And yes, it does get pretty hectic. We are one of the better known cafes in Seoul, often frequented by the crowd of young people in their twenties. Dream Castle Cafe is an upstyle trendy cafe with music acts performing on a stage in front of guests, playing catchy pop music to mellow romantic ballads. Our menu is centered around the theme of love and fantasies, stuff that people only dream about.

From time to time we have celebrities pour into our cafe and have become regular customers.

I'm the main barista at Dream Castle Cafe, and I am famously known as "Bella Rosa" for the brews that I make. I'm not native to South Korea as one would expect for a person who looks Korean and speaks fluently in a Seoul accent. I used to live for some fifteen or so years in Alsace, France for most of my life. At the moment, I live in South Korea because I dream of becoming a full fledged barista and want to expand beyond the territories of France to really know the cultural flavors of the world. I also suppose I'm here for the meantime because my doting Uncle has been begging me to help him get more customers into the cafe; which I think has been very effective for the most part. 

Today, I've been working the counters since morning and at this time, it is around three in the afternoon, a little past morning rush hour. I'm strangely really energetic, anticipating something exciting to happen. Quite honestly though, nothing remotely interesting has happened for a while.

The doors let out a tiny ring, the bell clinking side to the side with my new customer. A couple of fangirls of EXO streamed into the cafe, bags strewn over their shoulder with pictures of their favorite Exo members. Sitting onto the barstools in front of the counter, they ordered me excitedly to make one of my popular coffee brews. The brew they all excitedly rave about is my Love Spell coffee brew, which was in part named as such because of the small hint of vanilla extract and raspberry that I mixed with Colombian coffee beans.

I usually create my own coffee recipes, which resulted in a whole menu of unknown coffee drinks and other beverages exclusive to Dream Castle Cafe. This is the secret to the cafe's success in attracting the local clientele as well as bigger names in the K-Pop Industry.

After serving them their Love spell coffees at the counters, I turned my back to wash a small row of mugs in the sink. Chatting happily behind me, I tuned into their conversation.

"That EXO performance was wonderful. I can't believe we stood three rows from the front. Kai looked so hot."

"I don't know. I really couldn't take my eyes off of Baekhyun." She sighed.

"But you know who makes my heart flutter?" One girl squeled in adoration.

"Who?" The two girls asked her.

"Xiumin. He is so strong and he is so cute but he can be so mesmerizing at the same time."

All three of them replied in agreement, nodding their heads.

"When I come into this place, I almost feel like I'm living in a dream where me and Xiumin are so in love." I heard the coffee mug lift off from the counter. 

"And with this Love Spell, it's crazy but I feel more in love."

Hearing them talk about love behind me, I almost melted at their words. I, too, long for a sweet love to happen to me someday. Sadly, the stuff the girls and I dream of...are only just that...dreams. Beautiful dreams.

"I heard EXO is back in town."

"Really?!"

"I also heard they are somewhere in Seoul going for a bite to eat."

"Let's go look for them!"

The girls dropped their cups onto the counter, along with twelve thousand won.

Thirty minutes later, another customer came in.

At the moment, I'm writing down more potentially good recipes for some beverages, along will a few desserts to add to the menu. I didn't notice the customer slip onto the barstool in front of me, looking at me expectantly.

"Yes?" I dropped my pencil and notepad to the side to give them my full attention. However, I didn't expect to see Xiumin from EXO in front of me.

"Annyeonghaseyo." Xiumin spoke, smiling brightly at me.

"Annyeonghaseyo." I bowed to him deeply.

"I heard you make some of the greatest coffee brews in Seoul. What's your secret?" He asked point-blank.

I had no words to respond to that question, as my recipes are my best well kept secrets.

"Love." I answered him simply. It isn't a physical ingredient, but I admit, the idea of love definitely helps me to create wonderful brews.

"Love? I don't think I know it." He restated to me, almost dumbfounded.

A look of worry plastered onto his face. 

"You see...I've never been in love...We're not allowed to be in love." Xiumin whispered.

He continued, sighing in defeat. I gave him a knowing look. It really is too bad that celebrities can't be in love as they please, although they have an adoring group of fans that love them fanatically.

To help him cheer up, I decided to tell him that love isn't something I experienced either.

"I've never been in love neither, if that makes you feel better, Oppa." I gave him a kind look.

"Then how can you brew with love?" He asked bewildered.

I put my elbows onto the counter and leaned in, spilling my dreams and passions of brewing to him. I told him of the customers that come in to Dream Castle Cafe: those who are in love, those wanting love, and those that love what they do. We began to chat about other things in our life and I soon found out that he also loves brewing as much as me, he confessed. 

"Can I get your phone number?" He asked in the middle of our conversation.

"Sure." I wrote down the number on a notepad sheet and then tore it off to give to him.

He then quickly punched the number into his phone and also did something else on it in full concentration. 

"There. All done." His ringtone went off, the sound of EXO's newest song, Overdose, playing over and over.

"Mianhae. I'm supposed to be on my way to meet the other guys of EXO. I'll come back sometime later this week to have another chat with you. And don't be shy, you can definitely call or text me anytime.

Although, I probably can't get to your calls because of radio appearances and other things. Maybe we can brew together sometime."

He left out the door, waving back to me and disappeared into the streets of Seoul carefully hiding himself under a red oversized hoodie and large black designer sunglasses.

My phone began to ring simultaneously as he left through the door. Digging my hand into the pockets of my apron, I found my phone buzzing.

I unlocked my phone and found that I got a new message.

"Could it be?" I mumbled to myself.

There I saw, Xiumin's message. "Teach me more about love next time we meet, okay? Love Xiumin"

I can't wait to see him next time. Maybe this is the exciting moment I've been expecting to happen all day.