for the past couple of days finn had been bumping into jake a lot more frequently. but it wasn't mere coincidence as jake thought. finn had grown an unbearable liking for jake, so whenever finn baked something, he'd make sure he saved some for jake.
was it considered courting? probably. did jake notice this? not at all. does finn cared? absolutely not.
finn just followed his heart. and that's not something bad, right?
WRONG!
one afternoon, while jake was working he was surprised by finn, seeing as the foreigner had never been to that place, and jake had encouraged him to go there, finn had finally obliged. so, when it was jake's break they sat together and talked on the second floor of the cafe.
heeseung wasn't sure when it was jake's break, but he arrived at the cafe at 6 either way, just to find sunoo there, alone in the counter.
"heeseung hyung! what can i offer you this evening?"
"hi sunoo, is jake here today? i was stopping by to say hi to him before my lunch break is over" sunoo smiled gently and clenched his hands together. oh, how easy it was for him to see right through heeseung.
"yeah, he's actually just started his break. they're on the second floor talking"
"they?"
"yeah, jake hyung and his foreign friend"
"ohhh right" heeseung made a pause, as if letting the information sink in, "i'll have a latte to go, please sunoo-ssi"
"coming right up hyung!" sunoo said before heeseung walked away to a nearby table.
he had two options. he could go up there and say hi, and be introduced to jake's 'friend', or he could just leave and not bother anyone. the latter seemed less likely to make him anxious. but the first option meant he would go to jake first. and that's what he felt he wanted to do, instead of just waiting for the next time they'd meet coincidentally at school.
heeseung, for once, wanted to be brave.
it was, however, much harder than he thought.
there he was, latte on his left hand, standing at the end of the staircase, waiting for a rush of confidence to start walking up the stairs. which would never come if he was honest with himself, so he just started up. right when his eyes could look at jake though he needed no rush of confidence anymore.
he stood in front of jake in a matter of seconds. "jake! here you are. i came by to say hi but i couldn't find you downstairs" jake was overjoyed seeing heeseung. ba-dump?
"heeseung hyung! what a nice surprise! you should've told me you were coming, i would've saved you half my brownie" finn was mesmerized by the way jake spoke korean so fluently. heeseung noticed.
"i wanted to surprise you, and it worked" heeseung just then glanced at finn "hello!" heeseung bowed slightly, hoping he'd make the foreigner panic, expecting he wouldn't know what to do or what to say. so he was surprised when he heard him respond in korean
"hello! i am finn smith, nice to meet you!" finn bowed back, a proud, expectant look on his face.
"that was great finn!" jake congratulated finn on his newly acquired korean phrase. they had been practicing that for a couple days prior. "this is lee heeseung, an older student form the uni i go to, he's a close friend of mine too. i've told you about him" heeseung was in awe listening to jake speaking english. he sounded so sophisticated. and hot. c'mon heeseung, get your shit together.
"what was that?" heeseung asked, he hadn't fully understood all of what jake had said.
"i just told him about you, like i have before" jake paused a bit, but just as he was about to say something else heeseung took a leap of faith and spoke.
"i was wondering... would you maybe want to come to my cousin's place sometime?"
jake looked at him and in a matter of seconds his eyes shone, lighting up his whole face.
"i would love to! i don't work on saturdays, do you go there on saturdays?"
"if my cousin needs me i work, if not i stay close in case he suddenly needs me. does this saturday work for you?" heeseung felt his heart hammer against his ribcage. loudly, hoping no one could hear it.
"yeah, it works!" jake was ecstatic.
"great. i'll text you the time later alright?" heeseung felt the urge to ruffle jake's hair, but he refrained from doing so.
finn, who had been so obviously forgotten, cleared his throat and took a sip of his beverage. him and heeseung locked eyes, and they felt as if they were looking at the enemy. dramatic, yeah.
"then i'll see you around jakey~ take care! you too smith finn" heeseung bowed slightly and walked away, very proud of himself.
as heeseung walked away, jake followed him with his eyes, until he could no longer see him. that's when he looked back at finn, who was already looking at him.
"you like him don't you?" jake smiled and nodded. of course he liked heeseung, other than their first interaction, he had been nothing but nice to him. there was no reason he shouldn't like him! but when jake said this, finn only laughed a bit and then dropped the topic. jake hadn't understood what finn had meant, and that gave him a feeling of triumph of some sort, like he still had a chance with jake.
"do ya think you could teach me more korean? i start school on february and there's only a couple months left, i don't wanna go there not understanding what they're saying. pretty please?" finn clasped his hands together, as if begging.
"with a cherry on top? hahah yeah sure, does sunday mornings sound good?" finn nodded and that was that. he'd see more of jake from now on, he was happy to say the least.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
the weather was now cold. jake wore nice warm hoodies every time he went out now. he had his hands inside the front pocket of his hoodie, as to keep them warm. it was even colder since it was morning, but not cold enough to wear gloves.
as he walked to school, he noticed there was a small park a couple blocks to his right. it had two swings together and a big tree that covered the swings from the sun all day. he made a mental note of visiting it once he had time to spare. he could take one of his unfinished books, it'd be nice.
while having lunch, he got a text from his mom where she stated she'd visit him that day. he had work, an hour after his last class, but as if his mom had planned it, last class was canceled, and to top it off, it was a two hour class, so now he had three hours before he had to be at work. great.
jake loved his mom, of course. he just remembered that she wasn't too keene about him working right when he started college. she thought it wasn't necessary, or in her words, 'a waste of time'.
and jake only had saturdays free, which wouldn't make his mom happy at all. he could almost hear her asking him non stop if he had enough time to do his homework or studying, if he was sleeping his eight hours and eating at least three complete meals every day. which jake did, of course. he sometimes only had instant ramen for dinner, but that was only when he felt too tired to cook something more elaborate.
his mom's visit was, indeed, just how he had predicted it. luckily she couldn't stay longer than two hours, and she had cooked him something nice too, but she did make some remarks about him looking skinnier and blaming his work.
but he felt happy working there. thanks to working at the cafe he met sunoo. he also had talked to heeseung thanks to his work. that's how jake saw it at least, because heeseung approached him on the subway ride back to his apartment. it was thanks to work he had found the kitten and had gotten scratched, making heeseung take care of his wound.
so, to jake, none of it was a waste of time. it was all worth it. he just hoped his mom wouldn't tell him to quit, because he really, really didn't want to.
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╰(*'︶'*)╯
ayo, want a bit of angst?
cause i do 🤭
see ya next time~
enjoyyy~
-cnvrs