Drama | Yeonbin ✔️

4 | The barista

"Yeonjun, please don't be too alarmed by thi—"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BE CALM ABOUT THIS!?!? with all due respect sir, BUT YOU'RE LITERALLY SETTING ME UP A BLIND DATE WITH A COMPLETE STRANGER!"

"Don't worry it isn't a woma-"

"Bang PD-nim, just because I said 'I'm not attracted to women' DOES NOT DIRECTLY REFER TO ME BEING ATTRACTED TO MEN EITHER."

"Okay, let's take it easy okay?" said Bang PD-nim, waving his hands in an attempt to calm the younger.

Yeonjun inhaled a heap of air, trying to process what was happening. But he couldn't, everything seemed blurry as he felt his mind spin in circles over and over again. Everything Bang Si Hyuk told him went through one ear and came out through the other.

"Yeonjun, please do not worry! The dating contract will only last for 5 months. So, please, bear with it. With all the publicity, it would be great for the company and of course your career itself!" Bang Si Hyuk said, thinking that delivering the "better" news of this matter would somehow make Yeonjun feel more at ease.

"Just look at this: #yeonjun is trending on Twitter worldwide! Plus what are we supposed to tell the paper? 'Oh sorry, turns out Mr Choi just blabbered his thoughts without realising what he was saying? OF COURSE NOT! Yeonjun look at me. This will really boost your career, so don't let an opportunity slide like this, okay?"

Yeonjun stared into his gentle eyes, he knew all the extra attention from the media would definitely boost the agency's publicity. Suck it, accept it, and go through it. Besides, 5 months will go by in a flash, Yeonjun reasoned with himself.

With a sigh, Yeonjun muttered, "I'll do it."

☆。*。☆。

It was 4:36 pm to be exact as Soobin walked out of Seoul's Institute Of Theatrical Arts building and headed towards a nearby cafe since he had a part-time job as a barista there. Being a mere university student who lives alone, it seemed as if this was one of the few jobs that didn't require any skills or experience of some sort.

The bells at the entrance tinkled softly as Soobin opened the doors to the cafe.

"Soobin!" Hueningkai called out.

"Hello," the older greeted as he made his way towards the register.

"I'll need some help since the orders are stacking up."

"Okay," Soobin replied before disappearing behind the "staff only" room at the back of the cafe as he got ready to work.

☆。*。☆。

"Secretary Kim—" Yeonjun called out. There was a few moments of silence as the realisation soon hit him. Right, she's out searching for "my blind date," Yeonjun thought to himself grimly

Just the word "blind date" made him feel disgusted and slightly weirded out. The whole thought and concept of people dating someone they barely knew seemed kind of sketchy. Just sitting there and sulking about how he was going to be another prey of this capitalist trend made Yeonjun feel drained out as he felt the urge to grab another drink of coffee. Grabbing his coat, he headed out of his room towards the cafe.

☆。*。☆。

"Hello, can I get a cup of iced americano?" He asked the cashier. Usually Yeonjun would just walk in and the staff working there would already know what he was about to order, though the person handling the cash register today was definitely a new face.

"Got it, Soobin! One tall glass of iced americano for table number 43!" The cashier shouted, "have a seat at the table with the label 43," he continued, gesturing to the table at the very back of the cafe

"Thank you, uhm—" Yeonjun mumbled as he read the name tag the cashier was wearing.

"Hueningkai" he said with a smile.

☆。*。☆。

Once he was done brewing the drink, Soobin placed it onto a tray as he got ready to serve it to the customer seated at table N0.43. Lost in his own world of thoughts, he wasn't conscious of where he was walking and tripped on an outstretched foot from another customer.

Everything seemed to be happening in slow-motion, Soobin lost grip of the tray, causing the iced americano to fly out of the tray, the lid popped open and the drink splattered everywhere in mid-air. After what seemed like 7 seconds, the drink landed on the shirt of the customer seated at table no.43.

Shocked, Yeonjun looked at his once purely white shirt, now with a huge splatter of dark brown coffee right in the middle of the shirt. He gaped at the barista with a mix of shock and annoyance.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Yeonjun spluttered hotly as he grabbed a stack of tissues from his table, rubbing it coarsely against his shirt in an attempt to get rid of the horrendous stain.

Soobin quickly got back up to his feet and bowed down, "I'm truly sorry sir—I wasn't looking where I was going and I—"

"Excuse me but clearly you have no idea this shirt costs- it's a limited edition blueberry work shirt, only 10 available worldwide!" Yeonjun said with a snobbish accent

Soobin stared at the man's shirt. No matter how he looked at it, it still looked like a normal white shirt available in literally any local clothing store to exsit for, at most 10,000, won.

"I demand a compensation fee. Let me talk to your manager, I'm writing a complaint for hiring such careless staff members," Yeonjun complained, he looked at the employee's name tag which wrote: Choi Soobin.

Soobin bowed one last time and hurried back to the cashier, fumbling feverishly with the cash notes before hurrying back to that one-heck-of-a-customer. Yeonjun rolled his eyes in annoyance as he collected the money from Soobin's trembling hands before storming out of the cafe.

Once the male was out of sight, Soobin let out an exhausted sigh before heading back to the desk to help out Hueningkai, who immediately grabbed him by the shoulders and led him to the staff room at the back.

"Are you out of your mind?!" Spluttered Hueningkai incredulously.

"What?" Replied Soobin.

"Do you have any idea just who you spilt his drink on?" He pressed on, still in disbelief by how calm his friend was behaving.

"No, and do I look like I care—"

"For goodness sake, Soobin. Do you not keep up with the news or latest dramas nowadays? That's Choi Yeonjun, a famous actor! How could you be so calm about this?"

"World-renown actor or not, he sure is a handful. Got quite the attitude too. And don't give me that look- he said he's writing a letter to our manager so either way I'm getting fired," Soobin muttered bitterly. He has never heard of the name "Choi Yeonjun" in his life, and neither did he care. Choosing to ignore Hueningkai's anxious rambling and lectures, Soobin headed back to the front desk to help out with the orders.