special brew. | BrightWin

3.

W

I could hardly sleep last night, so I stayed up playing video games instead. It's Saturday so I don't have to work anyway, which is a plus.

I got about four hours of sleep before my body alarm decided to wake me up at eight in the morning, and I knew I couldn't fall back asleep. I decided to get out of bed and take a shower, and headed out to find breakfast.

I ended up returning to the café I went to yesterday. But this time, I could see that I wasn't the only customer.

I saw a few groups of people going inside, and Bright was welcoming them in. I walked up to the entrance and waited for Bright to greet the customer before me.

"Good mor- hey, it's you!" Bright exclaimed the moment he saw me.

"Good morning." I replied cheerfully. "Looks like you've got a busy day ahead."

"Yeah," he said with a sigh, albeit a happy one. "But it's nice having a lively atmosphere, don't you think?"

"Of course." I said, laughing.

"Come on in, the counter seats are unoccupied."

I followed him in, where he led me straight to the same seat from yesterday. It's almost like I'm experiencing déjà vu, and everything felt familiar.

"Just take a seat and make yourself comfortable. What would you like to have?" He asked after I had settled in.

"Hm, I haven't decided on that yet. You should attend to your other customers first, I'll use the time to decide what to have."

"Alright. When you've decided feel free to call me over and I'll take your order." He said, then went off to tend to another customer. I stared long and hard at the menu, not knowing what to eat.

After a while of debating with myself, I finally decided what to eat. Bright was busy tending to several customers, so I figured that it would be easier if I just directly placed my order with the cashier instead of making him come to me. I went up to the counter and was greeted by a petite girl who had a ribbon in her hair. There was also a name sewn in the corner of her apron, which read "Film".

"What would you like to have?" She asked politely.

"I'll have a latte, and also the toast and scrambled eggs."

I thought I saw a look of surprise flash across her face, but she keyed in my order anyway without saying a word. My eyes were probably playing tricks on me. I made payment, and she told me to take a seat while my order was being prepared.

"Hey, I saw that you placed your order already. Sorry that I couldn't get to you sooner." Bright said apologetically after I returned to my seat.

I chuckled. "It's nothing, don't worry about it."

"Thank you for coming in again today."

"I'd come here every day if I could." I blurted out. My face immediately felt hot as I realised that sounded a little too enthusiastic. I quickly followed it up with, "I mean, the food here is too delicious to miss out on."

"I'm glad you think so." He laughed. I don't know if he was weirded out by what I said, but if he was he didn't show it. "I welcome you to come any time you'd like. But just remember that we're not open on Sundays."

I nodded my head and we exchanged a few more words before he headed off again to serve food to the customers. While waiting, I took out my phone and started scrolling through random Instagram stories.

As I scrolled through, I saw that one of my closest friends from university, Moon, had posted a picture of a cup of coffee yesterday which looked strangely familiar.

Moon always went around trying out many different cafés and restaurants, and she ran a food review page where she shared her opinions of those places. Her review page has more than ten thousand followers, which meant that she was pretty popular online.

She had messaged me yesterday after I posted that picture of the smiley face latte, asking where that was. I sent her the address of this café, and she told me that she'd come to visit.

Sure enough, I saw a review posted yesterday on her food review page of this café. It seemed that she was thoroughly impressed, and her post had thousands of likes with many comments from her followers saying that they wanted to try it out too.

"Your latte sir." Bright said as he placed the cup before me.

"Thank you." I replied. "Also, feel free to call me Win. Since I already know your name, I think it's only fair you knew mine."

"Sure, Mr Win." He beamed. "Enjoy your coffee. Your food is almost done."

"Sure, thank you again." I smiled. "Also just 'Win' will do."

The corners of his lips curled up in a tiny smile. He nodded before heading off to do his work, while I slowly sipped on my coffee. The taste was just as perfect as yesterday's, but somehow there was something different about it. I just shrugged it off. It must be the lack of sleep messing with my head.

Also, no smiley face - it was just the regular fern leaf design.

As I continued waiting for my food, I decided to read what Moo had written in her review out of curiosity. It seemed that she was just as fond of the place as I was, nothing surprising. It is a lovely place.

But something else she said caught my attention:

Please visit to show your support before it's too late - business hasn't been great for them, and they may close down if things don't get better. Come on down to try them out!

That explains the emptiness the first time I came. But it didn't make any sense - how could such an outstanding place be doing this poorly?

"Your food's here." Bright says as he put the plate and utensils nicely in front of me. I looked at him, feeling a little sad inside after what I read.

"Are you alright?" He asked cautiously. It seems that he had noticed the shift in my mood, and was looking at me with a worried expression.

"Huh? Oh, I'm okay." I forced a smile, which even I wasn't convinced by.

"Okay, if you say so..." He says, but still continuing to stay by my side. "Are you feeling unwell?"

"No, not at all. Don't worry about me."

He bit his lower lip, unsure of whether to stay or go. I started to feel guilty from causing him to worry. "Really, I'm okay!" I laughed. "Your customers are calling for you, you should attend to them. I'm really okay."

He silently nods his head and gives me a tiny smile, then turns around to attend to other people. As I dug into my plate of food, I decided that I had to talk to him after the crowd dies down. I knew it wasn't really any of my business to be caring so much about this, but I couldn't find it in me to just ignore it.

If there was a way I could help, I would do it.