amaranthine.

six

-          yerin was back at the café. however, this time she wasn't relishing the atmosphere; her eyes flicked up from her book when the door's bell dinged to announce a customer, and even sometimes when it didn't. she hadn't admitted it to herself yet, but she was there to see jeongguk.

she sighed and reached for another sip of her latte. the whole thing was ridiculous. a childhood crush—could she even call it a crush? nothing had ever happened between them, but yerin had woken up from more than a couple of dreams with a red face and a thumping heart. imagining kissing those lips made her chest throb painfully, so she tiptoed around her feelings for him, careful not to get too close and accidentally confront them.

but here, in the café, with the pleasant hum of conversation and the snow beginning to dust the sidewalk, all she could think of was jeon jeongguk.

she knew he would recognize her if he really looked. but he's an artist, yerin thought. and artists have a bad habit of looking past what's right in front of them.

then the bell dinged, and the door opened. in a fluster of snowflakes stood jeongguk, nose red from the cold, hair poking out from underneath a bobbled hat.

yerin had to drag her eyes from his rosy cheeks and back to her book. she read a sentence, than another, but her mind didn't catch a single word. she heard his boots hit the wood floor as he knocked off the snow and approached the counter.

"one macchiato, please."

with the sound of his voice came a wave of nostalgia. yerin had missed it more than she thought.

in the moments that he waited for his drink, yerin considered the possibility of getting up, re-introducing herself. he would know her immediately, she would watch his face light up as they shared memories and caught up on each others' lives...

and then she heard him walking towards her table. everything felt slower suddenly, like moving underwater. dreamlike.

jeongguk was smiling down at her.

"hi."