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You who were popular amongst your friends,
I couldn’t be able to talk to you, why, I don’t know
I want to have your phone number
I have a cell phone but the memory/space is empty
Boom boom, I think I’ll explode, I’m frustrated.
Bang bang what do I do I’m suffocating
Each night I sleep talk every night I repeat
'Can I go over there? Can I get your number?'
You’re so beautiful like a statue
Like the golden ratio Venus you and she are the same
JR
He’s never alone. He’s always surrounded by people. He always has someone with him.. well, sometwo I guess? They’re always have something to laugh about. It’s nice to see. It’s nice to see him laughing. I want to laugh along with them. Or with him? Want to know what he’s laughing about. Want to be the one who makes him laugh. I suppose it’s too much to ask. Considering I don’t even have the courage to talk to him. I mean, he’s always with his friends. You see, he’s never alone.
Oh wait.. I’ve said that already..
I did, didn’t I?
Oh well..
You who were popular amongst your friends..
Me who just wanted to be able to talk to you..
Is it impossible to have some alone time with you?
Just us together
And then maybe, I would have the courage to ask for…
“Your order?” I greet the man who has been standing in front of me for a while. He does that sometimes. But no matter how long he stands there, deciding what to order, he always ended up with the same thing.
“Yes.. I want Ice Choco, and French Toast with maple syrup.”
Always.. the same thing.
I can’t help but folding a smile.
“Did we really just stand here for damn 5 minutes just for you to order the exact same thing that you always order? Really?” one of his friend, rolls his eyes.
“Yes we did Choi Mingi. I told you to find us a table first but you refused, remember? So shut up!” he snaps.
“Well yeah.. don’t want to miss a thing in case something happened you know~” the friend, Choi Mingi, replies with what seems to be meant for a wink. It’s the other’s turn to roll his eyes now. Their other friend let out a long sigh.
“Are you guys done? Hurry and let the poor guy do his job.. we’ve been standing here too long..” he said while looking around the café, probably looking for an empty table.
“Oh my.. you’re right.. sorry..” the guy turns his attention back at me.
“Anything else?” I ask, politely.
“Nope.. that would be all..” he answers with a smile.
“So, one Ice Chocolate, one Avocado Smoothies, one Ice Americano and French Toast with maple syrup,” I repeat their order. “Under the name of Aron-nim?”
“Yepp..”
“Alright~ Coming right up~”
“Okay~ Thanks Jonghyun-ssi!”
And that is it. That is all the interaction we’ve ever had so far. It’s such a short, routine, and honestly- so generic, kind of interaction. But that’s all I have. That is literally everything that I’ve got but that is also the only chance I get to hear him say my name.
I rubbed my name tag that is pinned on my left chest fondly.
Well, at least he knows my name...
ARON
He’s always alone. It’s so weird. It’s almost like he’s the only employee of this cafe. Which I know is not the case, of course. They have other employee on different days. I just decided to only visit on the days which he’s working on, -which are Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, by the way. Because he’s like the sole reason I keep coming to this place. You bet there are lots of other cafe, closer cafe to our campus, also -probably with better menu, but this is the only place that has.... him. Yes.. him. Kim Jonghyun.
“Hyung, you’re staring..” Dongho calls me out. And I could swear I forced my self to blink right away.
“No I’m not....”
“pppfft.. please~ who are you lying to.” Mingi cuts in before I could say anything else, “Everyone in this cafe probably knows that you’re staring.”
“Not everybody..” I mumble.
“Oh yes.. definitely everybody.” Dongho states.
“Jonghyun doesn’t know,” now that we calling names, I low down my volume to whisper.
“I bet he knows..” Dongho says.
“Oh... yes he knows~” Mingi follows almost immediately. And before I can say anything else..
“Orders for Aron-nim!” I hear Jonghyun’s voice calling out my name.
“Yes!” I answer, immediately standing from my seat and walking to the counter table. And there he is. The cutest man in the planet. I used to think that Mingi is the cutest man in the planet, even after knowing his antics, he was still kinda cute -not that I’m gonna admit it, but I was starting to question my self.
That is until I found Kim Jonghyun. Just look at him, with that fluffy hair and soft smile that brings crinkle to his eyes. The most sparkly eyes I’ve ever seen. And he just standing there, politely asking what my order is, just like how he asked everybody else, and yet.. it’s still the highlight of my day, -well, of my Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, to be exact. How I wish I could make those moment longer... How I wish I could get..
“Your orders..” Jonghyun’s voice greets as soon as I reached the counter table.
“Yes, thank you.”
“Enjoy~” and then, he left to do his job again. And there another chance went away.
“Kim Jonghyun, the ghost him self..” Mingi starts after I got back to my seat.
“I can’t believe he can make Aaron-hyung this boring and we know nothing about him?! What kind of universe is this?!” Dongho says after sipping on his Americano.
“I’m not boring!”
“Exactly! You’re not! Any other man, you’re just gonna straight up flirt with them and come back here with their number saved in your phone. You can’t even make a small talk with this guy!”
Ouch..
“I knoooowwww~ what is wrong with meee....” I admit my defeat. This never happened before. Clearly Kim Jonghyun does wonders.
“Please just go up there, ask if he’s available for date and get his number.” Mingi says.
“Dude, I don’t even know he’s into me!! Heck I don’t even know if he’s into man! I don’t know anything about him except his name and his shifts for god sake... this is pathetic!”
“You’re pathetic..” Dongho doesn’t hold back.
“Ouch.. thank you!”
“You’re welcome~” he replies with a smirk. So annoying.
“Do you want me to ask him for you?” Mingi offers, “Wow... I can’t believe this day would actually come, the day when I can actually be your wing man!” he continues, clearly looking more excited about playing cupid than actually helping me.
“NO!”
“Please just say yes. It would be easier for all of us..”
“Okay. Yes.”
“Oh wow. That was easy..”
“Shut up!”
“Okay I’ll ask you one more time, are you..”
“Oh please just go already!”
“Alright!”
And there goes Mingi, confidently walk up to Jonghyun, looking excited is a bit an understatement.
“I feel like I should really ask...” Dongho quietly says, “You really sure letting Mingi hooks you up?”
I scrunched my nose, “That’s weird coming from you, he literally hooked you up with Minhyun.”
“euh.. yeah, he did. And the first thing he said that time was..”
“Hey.. I’m Mingi,” we can hear Mingi starts up the conversation with Jonghyun, ”So... This is gonna be weird..” he proceeds, “..I don’t mean anything bad. But are you perhaps gay?”
“That is.. the exact same line actually.” Dongho says, looking rather surprised to hear the familiar line.
“Oh god... this started to feel like a dejavu..” I run my hand through my hair. I don’t feel good about this.
Dongho lets out an awkward chuckles, “Hey, it works for me and Minhyun, maybe it’ll work for you too~”
“euuh.. yes,” and that is Jonghyun’s voice that we’re currently hearing, and that sounds like a wedding bells for me.
“Holy shit! It’s actually working?!”
JR
Never thought anyone would straight up asking my sexuality preferences in the public. But everything could happen these days I guess. One day you’re admiring a stranger from afar. Another day you caught him secretly staring at you. And the next day you got his friend asking whether you’re gay or not. Well...
“euuh.. yes?” I mean, I don’t have any reason to lie about it.
“great!” this man, who intruduced him self as Mingi said, rather excitedly if I should say, “So you see.. I have a friend here who just couldn’t stop staring at you..” he glances back to where he came from.
I could feel my face growing warmer, “...I... noticed...”
He chuckles, “Of course you are~”
“Anyway, he’s wondering if you’re up for a date but he’s too scared to ask.. I mean..” he lowers his volume down and put up his left hand to cover his mouth as if he’s about to tell me a secret, “...I mean, asking this to a stranger could be pretty scary, you know.. he’s a bit of a shy guy..”
And it’s my turn to chuckles, “I know that’s not true, I believe he got quite a reputation around the campus~”
“..wait what?” Mingi looks genuinely surprised.
I smile, “I don’t know much people in our campus, but I think everyone knows you three.”
“..our campus??” he repeated my words.
“Oh yes.. I recognized you all. We’re going to the same college..”
“..oh?”
“yes..”
“..that is..”
“unexpected?”
“..very much actually. Who would’ve thought.. could you.. give me a second?? Sorry..” and he goes back to his table. And I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or what. But..
..it’s progress, I suppose.
ARON
“Red alert red alert.” I can see all the excitement has disappeared from Mingi’s eyes as he mouths the words while he walks back to our table. Well I guess it didn’t go well..
There goes my date.
“He freaking went to the same college as us?!” he reports as soon as he sits back.
“What?!” now that is a news, “No he’s not. You know everybody in our campus. You don’t know him.”
“Well I thought I did.. But apparently I missed one!” Mingi looks pretty shook up.
“Wow.. dude is actually a ghost!!” Dongho adds, unhelpfully.
“Exactly! What the fuck? I was telling him how you’re a shy guy and was scared to ask him out..” Mingi continue with the report.
I roll my eyes, “Oh right.. of course I am that guy..”
“But then he said that he knows that you got quite a reputation..” he finishes.
“Rep-.. excuse me? What kind of reputation do I have?!” I feel the need defend my self.
“Are you.. seriously asking?” Dongho asks with a frown.
“Alright.. you got a point. But, for real? That kinda makes me sounds like a bad guy here..”
“I mean.. it’s not bad. It’s just the contrary of what I said to him, which kinda makes you look like a liar. Okay so.. yeah. It’s pretty bad.”
“Oh so I’m the liar?” I make a face.
“Alright I’m the liar,” Mingi corrects him self, -as he should.
“And here I thought that first line would actually work again...” Dongho says to him self.
“Hey it WAS working until that I came up with the shy guy cover okay?” Mingi defends him self.
“Uuuuuggh... this is so embarassing,” I lay my face on the table, purposely facing away the counter. I could literally feel Jonghyun’s disappointment in me.
“He’s staring at us isn’t he??” I asked.
“He’s not actually, he got a costumer.” I can see Dongho takes a glance.
“Great.. now he’s going to a date with that costumer and I’m just gonna be here with my Ice Choco and cold.. french toast..”
“Oh come on you sap! It’s not that bad!” Mingi cuts.
“You literally said it’s pretty bad not even minutes ago..” Dongho counters.
“Well it doesn’t mean you lose all the chance. I mean, at least now we know that he is available for that and we know that he knows that you are not actually a shy guy, so there’s no need to hold back your self!” Mingi taps my shoulder, as if it would give me any kind of encouragement, “Come on Aaron! Live up to your reputation!!”
I shot him my scariest glare I could pull out at the moment.
“Okay, maybe not to that reputation. But we can still fix this!”
“I hate you so much right now...”
JR
Okay. It was definitely NOT a progress. They just left after all that and I actually feel pretty bad about it. This feels more like a step back. I shouldn’t mention about going to same college as them should I? I shouldn’t say anything about anyone’s reputation!! What was I thinking??!! I should’ve just went along when his friend said that he’s a shy guy! Maybe he is actually a shy guy and I just..
Ugh.. Kim Jonghyun you stupid!
Now they’ll probably never come back to this place again!
I did purposely chose to work in this cafe that’s is quite far from the campus, so I wouldn’t have to deal with serving the people that I actually know. I was quite shocked the first time those three came here. I figured they wouldn’t recognize me and it’s not like I actually knew them, so I just let them be. Never thought they would come again after that. But they did. Never thought they would actually come here regularly. But they did. Definitely never thought that I would actually get attracted to one of them. But I most definitely did. And here I am, getting disappointed over losing a chance to actually get his..
“Hey..” that familiar voice rings in my ear.
Oh.. this is pretty bad. How am I gonna recover from this..
“euh... hello?”
Okay hold up.. that sounds too real.
“Jonghyun-ssi... are you okay??”
I couldn’t believe my eyes, but he’s here.
He’s back.
....why is he back?
ARON
“I feel like we shouldn’t just leave..” Dongho says right after we got into the car.
“I feel so too.. Hyung, this is gonna make things worse..” Mingi supports.
“I know.. but, I don’t think I have the face to say anything to him right now..” I exhale long and deep.
“Okay, Hyung. Listen. This is my fault. I’m sorry. I would make it up to you later however I can. But if we leave now, it’s just gonna leave a bad impression on him and a worse reputation for you. If you leave you wouldn’t have the face to say anything to him.. EVER.” Mingi says, which actually sounds kinda make sense.
“He’s right Hyung..” Dongho adds, “..about that it’s his fault,” Mingi smacks him on the arm for that, “and also about the other thing. It’s too long I forgot what he said. But he is right.”
“You really think I should go back?”
“Yeah.. I think you should.”
“We’ll wait for you here..”
And that was why I’m standing here again, in front of the counter, facing THE Jonghyun that seems to be busy with his own thought.
“Hey..” I calls.
He doesn’t respond.
“euh... hello?” I try again.
Oh.. this is pretty bad.
He slowly looks up and the look that he has when he lays his eyes on my.
He definitely hates me now.
“Jonghyun-ssi... are you okay??”
Oh dear lord, please say something.
“....yes?” finally, “..oh sorry. Yes I’m okay. I mean, yes.. Hello. Can I take your order?”
Oh god.. help.
“No, that’s okay... I think I have enough order for the day don’t you think?”
“..yes. Yes you did.. You had your Ice Choco and French Toast already..”
“yes.. yes I did..”
Man.. this is awkward
“soooo....? What can I do for you, then?” he asks.
Okay, this honestly feels so suffocating, I could pass out right now, so let’s get this done before I make things harder for both of us.
“Oh man, this is so awkward,” I say what I had in mind out loud, “So I’m just gonna get this over with. About earlier, you know, when my friend came up to you..”
“Mingi-ssi..” he recalls the name.
“Yes. Him. My friend..” I repeats. And he laughs.
He.. actually laughs. Wow..
That is the first time I actually see him laughs..
All that I get usually is just that polite smile. The cute polite smile.
“Yes..” he says with a smile, “What he does now?”
“Well..” okay, maybe this will lead somewhere, “Actually, he told me to come back here and get things straight with you..”
“Straight huh?” he’s clearly holding back another laugh. And I couldn’t hide my own.
“..right. About that.. I’m so sorry that he just came up at you like that..”
“oh? You’re sorry?” I notice the slight disappointment in his face. That is not good.
“No.. wait. It’s not like that!”
“It’s not?”
“It’s not. I mean.. It is! But It’s not!! I’m..” let me take a breath, “Look, I am so sorry for what happened earlier. It was.. that’s just messy and I’m sorry for that. That wasn’t how I was expecting it to turn out.. And it was all on me.. I should just, -I should be the one who come to you, -I should.. I’m sorry.. I don’t know what I’m saying. This is so unlike me..”
What is wrong with meeeee....? Seriously get a grip Kwak Aaron.
Let’s just get this over with.
“Do you wanna go out with me someday?”
There! I said it!
“I mean, I understand if you don’t want to. I am a stranger to you after all. Despite you perhaps knowing my reputation.. Oh right about that.. I’m not sure what you’ve heard but I hope it’s not all bad. I mean, if it is, I totally get that. But I can show you that I’m not a bad person.. That’s.. okay wait, that sounds better in my head. Sorry, please don’t look at me like that, I swear I’m not a weird person.. I... why are you laughing?”
He’s laughing. He’s actually laughing so hard right now I’m not even sure if this is a good thing.
“I’m sorry.. It’s just..” he tries to say between his laughter, “haa... okay.. I’m sorry..” his laugh finally resides down, “That was.. you gotta admit that was pretty funny..”
“I’m sorry.. I tend to babble when I’m nervous.. but.. my point is..”
“That’s okay,” he cuts.
“What was that?” I ask.
“I said, that’s okay. I get your point. I think..” he says, with a smile. A different smile. This is not just a polite smile.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah?”
“So.. we’re good?”
“Good~”
“Alright~”
“Soo.. about that date..” he starts again.
“Yes! We should exchange numbers..” I go straight to the point this time.
“Finally~” he says under his breath. But I heard it pretty clear.
“Finally?” I repeats.
“No.. I mean.. forget it..” he answers while pulling up his phone up, obviously busying himself with the phone, purposely avoiding my curious eyes.
This is interesting..
“Anyway, here..” he slide his phone over so I can put my number in it.
“I’m gonna call my self so I can have your number too, okay?” I say while pressing the call option on screen.
“Yeah~”
“Okay, it’s in.” I feel my phone vibrates in my pocket, “Here you go~ my number..”
“Okay... I’m saving it.” He says. And I hope this is not my imagination, but he looks pretty satisfied with it. He looks pretty. And he looks satisfied. Until he looks like he has something in mind.
“What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Umm.. How do you want me to save your contact name?” he asks back.
“It’s.. how ever you like... I mean, you do know my name, right? You always write it on my order..”
“Yeah of course~”
“Oh right. Well, just my name would be okay. I mean... if you wanna add other stuff that’s okay too I guess~ Like.. cute.. or handsome.. or..”
“Whooooaa.. okay hold there sir..” he laughs, “now that is the Aron that I know by reputation..”
I laugh along, “Oh well.. that’s not such a bad reputation then~”
“Well then.. I’ll just save it as Aron then..” he says while start typing.
“It’s with 2 As by the way~” I point out.
“Oh right.. of course, sorry.. I always forgot about that,” he makes a funny face as if he just forgets something important. That makes me smile a bit.
“Oh you actually knew?”
“Yeah.. sorry. It’s on your card, I just always forgot to write two As on your order..” he throws me an apologizing smile.
He does have a variety of nice smiles.
“Oh don’t worry about it..” I wave my hand, “But it’s nice to know that you knew~ Not many people does..”
“Really?” he looks up at me with a curious face.
“Yeah..”
“I’ll make sure to always remember it then, Aaron.. with 2 As~” he smiles again. Now that is.. one nice smile.
“Yes~ 2 As..” I repeat, satisfied with my self.
JR
“And that was how it went down..” I finished up my story.
“Woow.. that was..” Minhyun leans back from his original position, “I wanna see it happened with my own eyes..”
“Oh.. it’s not much different with how it went down with you and me back then. Though it was less awkward for us and honestly I don’t babble that much..” Baekho sips his Americano while pulling Minhyun closer to his side.
“Aaw~ it sounds less interesting if you put it that way..” Minhyun chuckles.
“It is not interesting. I don’t understand why you even want to hear it.” Aaron-hyung lets out a long exhale. I feel like he really hates that story. But it’s not like I’m telling it around. It’s just this one time and it was because Minhyun asked!
“Why not? You don’t like how we ended up together?” I put up my best sad puppy face.
“Oh come on baby~” it always works, “You can’t possibly call that romantic.. I was sooo not cool..”
“Well it doesn’t always have to be romantic Hyung. It can just be cute or funny, which in our case, it was both!”
“Really?” he raises one of his eyebrows. I kinda hate it when he does that. He’s like annoyingly looks more handsome than he already is, how even a person does that.
“Yeah! You were cute!” I insist.
“Oh but you gotta give it to Jonghyun though,” Dongho interupts, “Your reputation gets better after you date him.”
“Oh please it wasn’t that bad! I just met a lot of people on my spare time, and I got a lot of time~” Aaron-hyung states, “After Jonghyun, I just don’t have much time anymore because I spend it all on him~” he proceeds with a wink. I roll my eyes. Here we go again.
“Oh you two disgusting! Stop it!” Mingi gags.
“You two? I didn’t do anything!” I refutes.
“Please.. you probably the only one who can stand it. If anything, after Jonghyun, Aaron-hyung gets even cheesier.” He banters
“He does have that effect on me~” Aaron-hyung adds.
“No I don’t!”
“Oh you do babe, you just don’t notice it. It’s a good thing. Come here~” he pulls me closer to his side.
“Oh look at you four. All the PDAs you do in front of me.... Please at least spare me some thanks! I made this..” Mingi made a vague pointing gesture in the air, “..Happens.”
“Oh come on Mingi. All you did was throw a punch line. ONE line!” Dongho refuses to agree.
“But it works~ It always works!!” Mingi insists.
“Well.. I gotta give it to him..” Minhyun resides, “without that punch line you wouldn’t even start a conversation with me..” he elbows Baekho lightly.
“And Hyung wouldn’t even dare to come up to me..” I follow.
“Oh come on you two!” Dongho makes a face.
“I mean.. ‘I don’t mean anything bad. But are you perhaps gay?’ Like.. who does that?!” Aaron-hyung behind me adding to the complains.
“ME! I did! And you are very much welcome!” Mingi folds his arms with a proud smile.
“I think, you really should thank Mingi..” I say to Aaron-hyung.
“Oh wow.. really? You just gonna give him all the credits, huh?” he looks down at me while tickling my sides.
“I mean he did make the first talk, hyung..” I manage to say in between giggles.
“Alright okay then~ He can have all the credits, as long as I can have all of you~”
“Okay that’s it, I’m leaving~!” Mingi stands up from his seat, “Are you two coming or are you actually kinda enjoying this??” he looks at Dongho and Minhyun with a disbelief face.
“Well, as much as I am happy for you two, but yeah, no. I’m don’t wanna listen to more of his cheesy flirty stuff..” Dongho raises up both hands exagerately, “Come on Minhyun, let’s leave this two in their honeymoon phase..”
“Aww.. you said that as if we’ve passed our phase already~” Minhyun giggles.
“Oh god, you’re not even better! I’m out of here!!” Mingi nonchalantly waves his hand to no particular direction and walks out of the room.
“Bye you all~” Aaron-hyung bids them all rather cheerily. I can only shake my head.
“You did that on purpose didn’t you, hyung?” I ask when it’s just the two of us left.
“What? I didn’t know what nonsense you were talking about!”
“Oh really~?”
“Oh really.. yeah of course I did that on purpose. Can you blame me? I just want some alone time with you~”
“Well yeah.. can’t blame you there~”
So you won’t be lonely
Like Gemini we’ll shine with each other
I want it to be like that
Just us alone
Together