a cup of coffee • kim doyoung

twenty six

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Kim Dongyoung

I looked at both of them, surprised at their sudden entrance.

"I'm here to study with my friend! Can you serve us both drinks?" He demanded in a high voice. I turned to Jaehyun and Ten, who wore the same reaction as me.

"Yah, who are you to-" Before I could finish my sentence, he had already walked off, dragging Seyeon behind him. I watched as they settled down in the corner seat. What's with them?

I let Jaehyun handle their beverages while I attended to the customers at the counter. Thanks to Johnny, lots of them come for promotional rice cake menu that has been going on for a week now. That's three years in the food business for you.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and realised Jaehyun was standing there with a tray with two cups of ice americano on it.

"He requested for your service." He handed me the tray and left. I didn't even need to question him to know which table to serve it to. I reluctantly head towards the corner table, where both of them were busy discussing.

"I'm not your butler, you know," I said flatly. Mark flashed a cheeky grin.

"Sorry! But I need your help with something." He pulled me to sit beside him, and honestly, I felt a little uncomfortable. Seyeon sat across from us, unbothered. I heaved a deep sigh.

"Yah, you've asked for too much help already, isn't this an individual assignment?" I gestured to his tablet, which was full of rough sketches. He glimpsed at his drawings and laughed sheepishly.

"It's just a few questions, I'm full out of ideas," he whined and tugged on my hand, nearly pulling it off. "You helped Seyeon, so why can't you help me?"

He stopped tugging on my arm and squinted his eyes at me deathly. I was rather frightened by his sudden change of attitude. I glanced at Seyeon, who seem to be frozen on the spot.

"What do you mean?" I asked, trying to laugh it off jokingly, but Mark didn't go along. Instead, he leaned closer and whispered into my ear, "I know everything that's going on-"

"Okay, this is not going anywhere," Seyeon suddenly spoke and both of us turned to her in surprise. She closed her eyes and sighed, before kindly saying to me, "Sorry about that, sometimes I just wanna staple his mouth shut."

She shot Mark a death glare and he cowered into his seat. Just a few seconds later, he jumped out of his seat, holding his phone in the air.

"Ah, I have a call, excuse me for a while." He crossed over my legs and ran out to the break room, holding his phone to his ear as he answered loudly.

"Aish, I ask him for something and he does another," She mumbled to herself, burying her hands into her hair. Looks like she forgot my existence.

"You're gonna pull out all your hair like that," I calmly responded and she finally looked up. She didn't even bother straightening out her messy hair.

"Sorry, he's gone a little bonkers from all the assignments," she apologised through gritted teeth as she twirled a finger beside her temple. We both laughed quietly as silence swallowed us. I took this chance to ask the question I was most curious about.

"By the way, why didn't you come for the past few days?" I hesitated a little in case it came out wrong, but I guess it did anyway. Seyeon kept quiet for a while, before answering slowly, "Ah, I needed a quiet place to think, so I went to the library for a while."

Her voice grew softer as she spoke, looking a little guilty. I let out a soft snigger and she stared at me. I cleared my throat and said, "So I'm guessing Mark dragged you here?"

She sighed deeply, "Yeah, he was bugging me about how everyone here misses me, so I had no choice." She pouted, gazing out the window as if rethinking her life's choices. She couldn't be cuter than this.

"Well, he's not wrong, the cafe feels oddly empty without you," I replied mindlessly, leaning back into the seat. I felt her eyes land on me, but I fixated mine on the fire hydrant outside. I'm not going to face her after that cheesy line I said, but for once it felt good to speak my heart. And maybe it was wishful thinking, but I swore I saw a smile spread across her face from the corner of my eye. I couldn't help but smile too.

"Actually," she spoke again, "I wanted to thank you for bringing me home that night. I heard I was quite a hassle."

"It's nothing, but you were quite heavy though," I joked, in hopes of lightening the mood. In exchange, I got a light kick to my shin from underneath the table. Damn, I never expected this to hurt that much.

"As I promised, here's a sneak peek of my assignment." Seyeon played around with a few keys on her laptop, before turning it so the screen was facing both of us.

"A Cup of Coffee."

The animation played, and I found myself instantly immersed in the story. It started out just like she said, with the two main characters meeting each other in a cafe.

"At first, you were just a stranger to me."

The male lead served her iced coffee every day, and the female lead never failed to show up. Slowly, they got to know each other, with the male lead constantly making an effort to talk to her.

"But before I knew it, I caught feelings for you."

The story continued, depicting the same actions in different ways. The female lead would always bare a smile on her face as they talked, and the male lead watched over her from the counter.

"Right then, something extraordinary happened."

On a rainy day, the male lead served her hot coffee instead of her usual iced coffee, and the female lead was shocked. As she removed the cup from the saucer, a small note became visible. On it, it wrote:

"I like you.

Will you have a cup of coffee

with me?"

The screen faded out with the female grinning.

"Wah, this is so good!" I exclaimed, amazed by the amount of detail that was in the animation. Their hair, their expressions, the rain, it was as if it was done by a professional. I played back a few of the scenes, watching it again to capture even the smallest moments. "Are you sure this is not the final product?"

An unexpected sight unfolded before me as a frown grew on my face.

"Seyeon ah?"

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