Chapter Text
He was really happy when he got this job, for the extra money and all. Evidently, he seems to have only been thinking about the money when he applied, not about how long he has to stay standing, cleaning, dealing with horrible customers, smelling like coffee all the time, burning himself while making coffee, and occasionally getting said coffee thrown on him. But hey, at least he makes money... even if he barely has time for anything else.
“Have a good day!” He says as he hands over a latte to a customer, it’s already been a long day. With classes during the day and his job at the café in the afternoon, it’s safe to say that he’s constantly busy.
He has the closing shift so he only gets to go home at 7pm. He checks his wrist watch, 5:26pm, about one hour and a half left, he can totally do this…
No he can't, he hates this job. His feet hurt.
The familiar door chime rings and he fixes his face and looks up to take another order. Woah, what the fuck?
He’s genuinely convinced some supermodel spawned in front of him, the man’s presence temporarily renders him like actually speechless.
The handsome man on the opposite side of the counter clears his throat.
“Can I order?”
“Oh yes! Sorry, um what can I get for you sir?” Jeongin says snapping out of whatever that was. He’s so good looking, woah.
“Can I have an Iced Americano? No sugar.”
Oh ew... whatever he doesn’t get paid to care about bad coffee taste.
“Of course!” He says with the brightest smile he can muster while writing down the order on a note for Felix. Then, he thinks for a second, and decides a little unprofessionalism doesn't kill anyone, “Can I have a name for the order?”
“Hyunjin.”
He assigns a number to the man. Order 412. For Hyunjin.
~
The tall, handsome man takes a seat in the corner near a window, Jeongin continues to take orders, because he does NOT get paid to stare at good looking men.
“Cappucino and Americano, done.” Felix’s voice rings next to him as he sets down the drinks on the counter. Jeongin smiles and hums in acknowledgment.
He takes one last order before Minho takes over the counter. All he has to do is serve now, not too hard.
He brings the Cappuccino and hands it over to an older woman.
Then he walks over to the long dark haired man’s table. Order 412.
“Americano for Hyunjin.” He says as the man straightens in his seat, he has sketchbook and some supplies in front of him. Tall, handsome and an artist damn, he’s perfect, you know aside from his bad coffee taste.
“Thank you.” Hyunjin says.
Jeongin just nods at him and leaves.
Hyunjin ends up sitting there for a few hours, sketching or something, before leaving.
6:50pm, Wednesday.
The artist came back again today, ordered the same disgusting drink, sat at the same spot. Jeongin had a weird eye contact moment with him when he was bringing drinks over to customers, whatever.
It’s almost closing time, Minho and Felix are cleaning up in the kitchen, leaving the tables, chairs and counters to him. There were almost no customers in the café, almost. The man's long black hair was tied into a loose ponytail this time, highlighting those sharp features, not that Jeongin was staring at his features or anything. Hyunjin was still sat down in his corner, brows drawn together in concentration, it’s almost been an hour and half since he sat down. He hasn’t even moved an inch, sketching away.
It’s not too out of place though, students come to the café to get work done all the time, and if they’ve bought anything you can’t just throw them out. He walks back to the kitchen with some cups and sets them down next to Minho who’s doing the dishes. Before he can go back, his path is blocked by a blonde.
“You know Innie, we don’t usually ask for names when we take orders.” Felix whispers with an eyebrow raised, smirk tugging at his lips. He sighs internally, he knew this was coming.
Minho fake gasps loudly, “You asked for his name?” before Jeongin can even process what Yongbok just said, “Aw does somebody have a crush?” He teases, dragging out the last word.
“Oh shut up, no I don’t, stop being weird.” He can feel his face getting warmer, he doesn’t have a crush, no way, the dude’s just really hot and he just wanted to know the hot man’s name, "It’s none of your business.”
The two just look at him.
"Do you think we're blind? You've been staring at him ever since he walked in." Felix points out. Shit, was he that obvious?
"We can literally see your ears getting red right now." Minho adds.
...
He folds under their knowing gazes because he is a weak man.
“Come on, is it a crime to want to know a hot dude’s name?”
They laugh in his face because of course they do, they thrive on other people’s humiliation. These evil twinks. “Don’t laugh, don’t pretend you guys have never done this before. Especially you hyung, we KNOW you asked that dude for his number.”
“What dude?” Minho plays dumb.
“The one that looks like a mouse, oh, or a hamster! You know, the one you're head over heels for? The one you text like every break? The one you can’t stop talking about? Is this stuff ringing bells?” Felix piles on and they get into their back and forth teasing. Jeongin takes that chance to leave and pretend to do stuff at the counter.
Topic successfully diverted.
He only gets two minutes of peace before the hyenas come back though. Laughing loudly.
“Innie, we’re closing in less than five minutes, tell him to get out.” Felix states pointing discreetly at the aforementioned hot dude.
“Me? You do it.”
"Nope, i have stuff to do." he says, 'stuff'.
"Okay, fine, but he looks so concentrated, I don't know."
“Well he can be concentrated somewhere else, we have places to be, kick him out.” Minho chuckles.
“Yeah, yeah, fine.”
He doesn’t see the look Felix and Minho shared before they went to the staff room to change.
~
“Hey, excuse me?” He waits for a response but doesn’t get one, “Excuse me?” He repeats a bit louder, startling the black haired man out of whatever state he was in.
“Oh, huh?”
“Sorry, but we’re closing in two minutes, you’re gonna have to leave.” He musters his best customer service voice, he’s had bad experiences telling tired college students that they need to leave because they’re closing so he was being extra cautious.
“Oh what time is it?”
Ugh questions, “It’s 6:58.”
The man suddenly gets up and starts collecting his stuff, “Sorry didn’t realize how much time passed.”
“It’s okay, students spend hours here usually.”
“Mhm”
Jeongin decided that’s his cue to leave him be and start getting ready to leave and close the café.
“Bye Innie!” Felix waves to him by the door.
“You’re gonna be fine with closing up right?” Minho asks worry present in his tone.
“Yeah for sure, don’t worry, I like closing.” He smiles.
“Okay, get home safe Iyen-ah.” Minho says, worry leaving his features.
He simply waves and goes to change.
When he comes back to the front after cleaning and changing, Hyunjin was gone.
The next day goes as usual, they went through some core teaching theories at class, and now he’s on his way to his shift. He’s lucky the café is right next to the campus grounds so he doesn't need any transportation to go to work.
He walks through the familiar staff only door and gets ready to change in the dimly lit staff room, he’s just serving today so it should be less stressful, he doesn’t like taking orders too much and making the orders is even worse. His favorite part was just serving. Plain and simple, well most of the time... Everything has gone well so far, today Felix and Lily were on shift with him, Lily was new, she only moved here recently, coming from Australia just like Felix. Honestly, he would be lying if he said he didn’t feel a little left out when they speak in English or talk about Australia or their similar experiences of moving to a new country alone, but it’s okay, he’s not salty about his closest friend at work having another friend here at all. Not at all. No really he has nothing against Lily, he has come to realize in his life that he's just naturally a jealous person, it's not his fault. It's different with Minho hyung because he's older and he's close with Changbin, another coworker and friend. But he and Felix were the duo, and now there's another person could potentially take his place or worse be closer to him. He knows Felix would never exclude him or anything, but he can't help his thoughts and slight jealousy.
Whatever this is stuff to worry about at home.
He drops off 2 lemon cake slices and three bubble teas at a table of girls who were all staring at him and sharing looks with each other. He knows he's attractive but it’s still nice to get reminders every now and then. Next was an americano with no sugar... for Hyunjin. The hot artist was back, back in his seat at the corner of the café facing the counter, he probably had a full view of the café and the view outside from there.
“Americano, no sugar for Hyunjin?” He says as he stops next to his table, “Yeah, thank you.” he smiles at him and Jeongin is still wondering whether this man was a model, if he wasn’t he definitely could be.
He sets the unappetizing drink down on the table, “My pleasure.” and turns to leave.
“Hey wait.”
“Hm? Can I get you anything else?”
“Oh, no, I just have a question. Is your hair naturally brown or is it dyed?” the man asks leaning forward in his seat with interest.
“Hm? Oh my hair, uh it’s uh dyed, I dye it at home.” Wow good job stuttering in front of the cute boy idiot.
The man chuckles, “It looks good on you.” and goes back to his sketch as if nothing happened.
“Um thanks.” he smiles and leaves for real this time, what was that? It was nothing, he was just complimenting his hair obviously. Of course. He’s totally not blushing or anything. That’s gross. Why did he stutter like an idiot? ugh, oh my god, there's nothing to freak out about. Just a compliment. From the most beautiful man he's ever seen. Gosh.
It’s been a few days since Hyunjin first came to the café, he has a sort of routine, he arrives after an hour from when Jeongin starts his shift, and only leaves a few minutes before they close, always at the same spot, always the same bland drink, always working on some type of art, not much of a speaker, he hasn’t really said much since the hair color thing, Jeongin’s not disappointed at all about that, nope. He’s also always here during his shifts, which probably means nothing, even if he really wants it to mean something. He will never say it out loud because he’d get teased to no end by his hyungs but he actually looks forward to seeing the mysterious artist.
Today, like every other day, Hyunjin walks in around 4:00pm.
“Hello, the usual?” Jeongin asks.
“Yes.” he smiles.
~
It’s almost closing time, once again, Hyunjin is the only one left, and he seems to be even more concentrated than usual. He wonders if he isn't sore from sitting there for almost three hours at this point.
“You guys go ahead, I can close up and finish washing the dishes before I go.” he stops Lily before she starts the dishes.
“Really? Thanks Jeongin, that’s so nice.” she smiles kindly.
“Don’t be fooled Lily, he just wants some alone time with his little crush.” Felix teases.
“Oh actually fuck off I was trying to be nice, you know what, wash the dishes yourselves and don't go home early.” He wasn’t actually mad, just teasing.
“Nooo Innie we’re kidding, please.”
“Yeah we’ll never speak about your crush again, not one word.” Lily adds. Lily looks innocent but she’s the mastermind behind these ragebaiters. He won't forget this, next time he sees Lily with her friend she likes he's gonna get his revenge.
Jeongin laughs looking at their mischievous grins, "Whatever, just go."
"Aw , you're the best!" Lily squeals.
“See you on friday Innie.” the two blondes say in unison as they leave towards the staff room.
"Get home safe." he smiles, one thing about this job he really is grateful for is the fact that it helped him meet most of his friends.
~
When he finally finishes washing and arranging the cups, he was questioning all the decisions that led him here, he actually doesn’t know why he offered to do ts. Glancing at the clock, 7:04pm, okay not too bad honestly.
Exiting the kitchen, he sees that Hyunjin’s still sat in the corner.
“Sir, we closed five minutes ago.” Seriously what’s up with this dude, its been hours.
“It’s already seven? Sorry man, I didn’t notice how much time passed.” He gets up and stretches with a groan, definitely sore after sitting for almost four hours. He has such a soft voice.
“Yeah I can tell.” he teases.
The other man’s lips curl a bit at that, and then he tilts his head, “I have a question."
"You sure do have a lot of those..." that makes Hyunjin chuckle. "What's up?"
"Do you guys ask every customer for their names?”
Oh. Shit.
“Um yeah?” he lies because what the hell is he even supposed to do here.
“Funny, didn’t hear anyone else’s names being called.” he’s smirking. UGH.
“Well, you’re always very concentrated on your work.” Why is he genuinely digging this hole deeper? Someone needs to slap him.
“Paying attention to me?”
“No, just noticed.”
“Yeah, I'm sure that’s it.” he knowingly smiles at him, leaning on the table.
“Well if that’s all, have a good evening.” he musters his most convincing smile.
“You too, Jeongin? is that it?” he says squinting at the name card on his chest.
“Yes, thank you.” he immediately turns and disappears into the staff room. As fast as he can.
He should just kill himself right here, the embarrassment is too much. He definitely caught on, fuck, but he didn't seem weirded out? Was he flirting? Probably not, he probably thinks he’s some weirdo. Oh god. How will he even face him if he comes back, shit his friends CANNOT find out about this. Shit. What if he thinks Jeongin's super unprofessional and makes a complaint or something? Nah he doesn't seem like the type right... he doesn't know. He didn't seem uncomfortable, but he doesn't know he was too panicked to pay attention to that. Okay, he just needs to go home. That's it. Take a cold shower and sleep the embarrassment off. Yes.
After changing with his mind racing, imagining the ground swallowing him up, he grabs his stuff and walks out, no one’s here this time, good. While he’s walking towards the exit he notices an empty cup that previously held Hyunjin’s stupid sugar-free americano he assumes because he cleaned everything else. He should put the cup away, but as he moves closer in the dim light, he notices a paper underneath it. He probably left it here accidentally right? He should keep it somewhere safe and return it to him next time, he moves behind the counter to put it in a file or something, but curiosity gets the better of him, he had to have left it behind on purpose, the placement is screaming this is for you open me, open me. Did he want him to find it? Was it meant for him?
Jeongin’s a weak man, everyone knows this already. So after a few seconds of contemplation he unfolds it, and immediately almost drops it out of shock.
It was a sketch of him, a really good one of him leaning against a countertop, smiling. It looked so much like him, he had the details down perfectly, his fox-like eyes, his dimples, his short hair, even his damn apron. Wow, did he spend all that time drawing him? Like him? Hyunjin's an amazing artist.
However, before he could fall into another rabbit hole of thoughts, something written at the bottom of the paper catches his eye.
Three simple words.
Good night Jeongin.