Where Have You Bean? | Yong Hoon x Reader

4 | Just A Friend

.☆。• *₊°。 ✮°。

Seoul, South Korea

6:30 PM, Monday

A few days passed and your boyfriend still did not contact you since the last meeting. Time was ticking and you were growing worried. While in the day, you could not help but let your mind wander to him, the evenings kept you a little more sane.

When the sun would begin to set, you would make your way to your favourite cafe; you could no longer imagine what it would be like not to go. It was a nice place for one to read, take notes, and indulge in the aroma of coffee. An amusing thought made you smile to yourself: it was sort of like receiving therapy for $5 a cup.

When you would come in, if K was available, he would be the first to greet you the most warmly with a bow and a smile. And if he was busy and couldn't serve you, he would still make small conversations with you whenever he passed by you with a tray full of empty glasses or as he waited idly for more guests to walk in.

"I see you here a lot at night, but not in the morning," you observed. "Do just you work the night shifts?" He was here every evening, but on the one or two days you came in in the morning, he was nowhere to be found.

YH: "Yeah, only the night shifts. I don't think I'm suitable for work in the morning."

"Not a morning person?"

YH: "Is that why I like coffee so much?"

You both shared a laugh before he went to greet another guest.

While you were certainly, definitely, fully engaged with your studies, you became distracted with observing K on occasion. His ability to see the littlest details and assist people was unrivalled. They're small, tiny little things that no passerby would normally notice, but you saw them because the truth was, K was fascinating once you noticed him. The way he would wipe all the cups down a second time if he saw a stain on even a single cup or how he bids welcome to anyone with the sincerest smiles and "how was your day?"s were examples of his simple gestures of extending kindness.

He told you nights ago that his philosophy was: if you offer your hand in aid, somewhere down the line, someone will do the same. "And even if they don't, it's not a bad thing to be nice to people," he shrugged. Such altruism was rare and you were glad that there were still gentlemen like him blessing the community one person at a time.

After observing him a bit more from your cozy little spot, you found that K didn't strike you as the manliest of men – far from it actually, particularly because of his young face and thin figure. He didn't look sturdy, but not quite a pushover either, despite his soft aura. Still, he was a tad clumsy sometimes.

On one occasion, as he made his way back to the front counter, he ran into the leg of an empty chair, causing a loud squeak to resonate throughout the room as it scratched against the cold floor and made everyone look up at him. He hastily placed it back, all the while bowing in every direction there were customers with an apologetic smile. "Excuse me," he muttered a few times. When he glanced over at you to see if you had witnessed the occurrence and found you trying to stifle a laugh to save him the embarrassment, he looked like щ(ಥДಥщ) and mouthed "WHYYYY" before he scuffled away to hide behind the machines at the front counter.

Though K was not super-coordinated generally, his long, delicate fingers were skilled in all tasks that needed hand-work, from the way he would place ceramic cups carefully onto the glass tables so it made the least noise, to the way he drew beautiful artwork over latte foam. They worked quickly and efficiently, never letting himself lose a single drop as he poured boiling liquid from one container to another. Such skills could only have been obtained from years of experience.