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Breeze Café – sounds simple yet unique for a café, but here's where Hongjoong has worked for a few years now while being a part-time music producer, composer and writer. Kim Hongjoong is the kind of kid who doesn't know what he wants to do for a living, for his future. He's been concerned about this since he was in primary school and his mom told him this: Whatever you want to be, be it as long as it makes you happy and gives you a reason to live.
And he found it, which is music. Hongjoong was walking back from his tuition class when he saw a busking group outside of a 7-Eleven. That group attracted him, as it was his first exposure to music in real life, listening and watching it. At the sight of the people clapping their hands and cheering on the buskers, Hongjoong's heart fluttered. This is it; he wants to make music and attract people and change people's lives.
So, he learnt all by himself. From writing and composing to producing – he did it all by himself. No special classes, no tutorials on YouTube, just him playing here and there, seeing and listening to whichever is suitable. And little did he know, he became a genius at making his own music. He's not the famous, top-class producer everyone knew out there, but he was making a living out of his talent. He sold his song and uploaded his music on YouTube, Spotify, and SoundCloud, from which he gained money, and it was enough to cover his living expenses.
Hongjoong's mom asked again whether he'd like to continue studies at a university by taking music, but he refused. He wants to work freely while being a producer and composer as a part-time job, which is why he's now working at a café owned by his best friend's parents.
Song Mingi is a dance instructor for a small studio in Seoul. He's also good at composing and rapping, which he helped or worked with Hongjoong on for his projects sometimes. The reason why Hongjoong was hired as a worker at the café is because Mingi's parents knew Hongjoong, and he knew that the man is someone trustworthy and honest, as he's close with their son.
It was just another normal, boring Monday morning. The streets of Seoul are packed with people walking here and there to go to work and schools. Hongjoong has just finished cleaning up the store before they could open it, and he witnesses four friends walking together while wearing their school uniform. He felt jealous, as he couldn't do what the kids do.
Hongjoong wasn't a loser or loner at school; he was just… a timid person. He knows his classmates and his friends, but he chose to be by himself since he's afraid that he'd not match the others' crazy energy back. He was a shy person who liked his own space. But when he met Mingi, everything changed. Mingi is the type of friend that'll never leave you alone even when you beg him to. He's not a busybody; he's just really friendly and doesn't like seeing other people alone, but that doesn't mean he meddles in people's business – no. So, whenever Mingi would notice that Hongjoong was alone, he'd come up to him and start talking even when the older wasn't listening. But that's what Hongjoong likes about Mingi – friendly, caring, and kind.
He was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn't notice Mingi was standing next to him, looking at him oddly as to why his best friend would stare out while people were busy walking in different directions.
"Hyung," the younger called out, and Hongjoong cursed out in shock. "Fucking hell, Mingi – I told you so many times to not scare me like that."
Mingi laughs while scratching his head cutely, feeling bad but unable to help smiling at the elder's cute reaction. "I'm sorry. What are you looking at anyway? I don't see any hot guys or Wooyoung," the younger said as he mentioned his crush's name, who's also a worker at the café. Hongjoong makes a disgusted face at the mention of Wooyoung's name before shaking his head and continuing to work.
As Mingi was teasing Hongjoong about not having a crush or a lover, the sound of the café's bell chimed – signalling someone had walked into the place – which caught the attention of both Hongjoong and Mingi.
Hongjoong's lips parted open at the sight of the person who just came in. He was tall and slim but had a nice figure and a face that was like it was sculpted by the angels, and the smile, oh…
"I'm sorry, is it not open yet?" The customer asks, and his voice is soft, calming, like how a blanket would soothe you during the winter. Mingi nudges the elder's arm when he notices that Hongjoong isn't replying.
The elder snaps out of his thoughts and smiles sheepishly at the customer. "I—it's open. I'll take your order in just a minute. Please hold on," he said as he rushed to the back to place the damn broom back and disappear before the customer had time to reply. Mingi flashes a wide smile at the customer before going back to wear his apron.
After a few minutes, Hongjoong walks out and stands at the cashier with his cap and nametag on, ready to take orders. But when the handsome customer stood in front of him, he felt his legs turn into jelly at the close proximity of him and the customer. He clears his throat to remind himself to be professional before he flashes a smile at the male in front of him.
"Hi. What can I get for you?" Hongjoong asks as he looks at the male in front of him who's slightly taller than him. Thank God he isn't as tall as Mingi since that'd look funny if they ever dated – wait, what? Hongjoong shakes his head a little at the dumb thoughts floating in his mind right now before he sees the male break out into a pout.
"So there's no iced chocolate with whipped cream and double chocolate syrup?" the male asks, and Hongjoong says he can make it, which confuses the male. "Oh, but you shook your head just now, so I thought there's no such drink here," the male giggles, which flutters Hongjoong's heart so that he could literally feel butterflies in his stomach.
"Oh, no, no. I was just fighting with my demonic thoughts. Trying not to get distracted," Hongjoong said as his cheeks heated up in embarrassment before telling the male the total of the beverage. The male laughs softly and nods his head as he understands, giving some cash to Hongjoong.
Hongjoong returns the balance, and the male smiles genuinely at him. "Thank you, Hongjoong-ssi," he said before walking away to take a seat near the window while holding his wallet in his hand. Mingi walks out from the back to pat the short male's back since he could see the elder's tensed back. "Mingi-yah, h—he… the customer…" Mingi looks at the older with his eyebrows raised since it's the first time he's seeing the older stutter.
"What? What's with the customer? Did he make fun of you? Should I kick him out?" Mingi asks seriously while holding the elder's arm gently, and Hongjoong shakes his head before looking at his best friend's face. "He called out my name. He said my name, Hongjoong-ssi," the older said as he smiled widely. "What?" Mingi's eyebrows furrowed upon the elder's words before looking at the customer and back at Hongjoong. He pinched the bridge of his nose and heaved out a deep sigh since he thought something serious had happened to the older, but it turns out… he's just hopelessly crushing on the male. Mingi wanted to tell Hongjoong that the customer said his name because of his name tag, but he just decided not to.
Mingi doesn't want to say much, so he pats the elder's back and proceeds to make the beverage. He sprinkles some crushed Oreo on top of the whipped cream together with the double chocolate syrup that the customer has requested. He told the older to send this since Hongjoong wanted to see his face so much, and that made the older blush a little. Mingi crosses his arms over his chest and leans his back against the sink counter to look at the older, smiling sheepishly.
Hongjoong makes his way towards the male's table and places the glass of iced chocolate carefully on the table. "Enjoy your drink," he said and bowed politely at the male.
"Seonghwa," the male said, and Hongjoong raised an eyebrow in confusion. "I'm Seonghwa. It's a pleasure to meet you, Hongjoong-ssi."
Hongjoong swore his heart almost exploded when Seonghwa said his name again, but this time, the male was looking at him closer than before, and damn, that beautiful smile again. "It's n—nice to meet you too, Seonghwa-ssi," the short male responded before turning around quickly to walk back to the cashier, and he accidentally kicked a chair that shocked himself as well as others in the café. He covers his face with the tray in embarrassment before sitting on the floor behind the counter.
Seonghwa, who was about to ask more about Hongjoong, was flustered when the male ran away all of a sudden. The sight of Hongjoong accidentally kicking the chair makes him smile widely before he giggles and covers his face with his hands. Seonghwa has been coming to this café for quite a while now, and this is the first time he saw Hongjoong. Maybe because he was too busy to notice the male since he was always with his assignments and classes whenever he came here. But today, he decided that he wants to rest at the café without thinking of his classes or assignments. And he doesn't regret one bit coming today, as he gets to witness the cutest worker ever at this place.
Now Seonghwa wonders; he's kind of clumsy and keeps stuttering in front of him just now. How is he able to work here? He's not judging nor downgrading Hongjoong – no. He just wonders since he seems like the most timid person ever, but he works at a café where he needs to interact with different kinds of customers. He saw another guy behind the cashier – tall, all smiley. He knows that's Mingi since his friends have told him that he's the owner's son.
Looking at how friendly and close Mingi and Hongjoong are, he guesses that they're friends, which explains how Hongjoong gets the job. He takes a sip of the drink, and gosh, it tastes delicious; not too sweet, not too strong, everything's perfect.
Mingi, who was looking at Hongjoong sitting on the floor, zoning out, could only laugh at how funny the older looks right now. "Why were you so clumsy just now?" the younger asks, and the older could only shake his head, feeling embarrassed at what happened a while ago. He stood up to clean the cashier while stealing glances at Seonghwa. He's just sitting there, but gosh, he looks so perfect with his AirPods in, the sunlight hitting his face, which makes his skin glow, while he's drinking the iced chocolate. While he was too busy staring at Seonghwa, his eyes met Seonghwa's – shit, he got caught staring again. Seonghwa giggles and motions for Hongjoong to come to the table with his hand.
Hongjoong turns around to look at Mingi for permission, and the younger just nods his head while smiling, encouraging the older to go talk to the customer. The older walks out from the cashier area to go to Seonghwa's table.
"Sit down, Hongjoong. Don't be scared; I don't bite unless you want me to," Seonghwa said while smiling teasingly, and Hongjoong coughed as he choked on his own saliva. The sight of Hongjoong being like this amused Seonghwa since no man ever acted like this towards him. It's always men who are confident and flirty that try to get his attention, and he doesn't like it – it's boring. They always try to put up a facade just to impress him but end up disappointing him. So when he met Hongjoong today, the man was shy, cute, and clumsy, which is new to him, and he wanted to get to know him better. Is it love at first sight? Maybe.
Hongjoong pulls out a chair across from Seonghwa and sits down while clasping his hands together on the table. His gaze was moving here and there, as he didn't know where to look since he knew that Seonghwa was looking at him. The customer couldn't help but giggle upon the sight of nervous Hongjoong.
"Hey, calm down. I just wanna get to know you," Seonghwa says as he flashes a genuine smile at the male. Hongjoong bites his lower lip and nods his head. "What do you wanna know about me?"
Seonghwa hums while rubbing his chin with his fingers, thinking of the appropriate question to ask him. "Are you dating someone?" Hongjoong's eyes widened at the question. Don't get Hongjoong wrong, he doesn't mind being asked that, but it's just out of the blue, so... he was flustered, and his brain is buffering upon that question.
He shakes his head in response to the handsome male's question and takes his cap off to fix his hair by running his fingers through it. Seonghwa was distracted by Hongjoong's action, as he found that super attractive.
Mingi, who was watching from the cashier, could only just smile at the awkward tension surrounding both of them. He gasps in shock when someone pats his shoulder but only to find out that it was Wooyoung, his crush. The tall male instantly blushes when Wooyoung grins cheekily at him. "What are we watching?"
The tall male points to the table where Hongjoong and Seonghwa were, which makes Wooyoung squint his eyes a little to get a better look. "Is that Hongjoong hyung?" Mingi nods at the male's question before spilling the tea to his crush.
"I could see that both of them got the crush at first sight just like you," Wooyoung said, and Mingi hums in response before looking at the short male with wide eyes. Did he just say like me? Mingi thought to himself while looking at Wooyoung, trying to process his words. "I know you like me, Mingi. You're very obvious with it, especially when you described what your crush likes."
Mingi scratches his head as he blushes madly in embarrassment. Wooyoung giggles at his cuteness before pecking Mingi's cheek softly. "I like you too. And yes, I'd love to go out on dates with you," Wooyoung said before Mingi could even ask or say anything, which amuses the tall male. The two of them continue to watch the two guys at the table.
Hongjoong leans back against the chair and looks at Seonghwa, who's also looking at him. "How about you? It's impossible for a guy like you to not have a girlfriend."
"Boyfriend," Seonghwa corrected Hongjoong, and the male nodded before apologising. The tall male explains how no one has caught his attention, as the guys he met were just trying to get in his pants; some were fakes, and some were jerks.
Hongjoong feels bad for what happened to Seonghwa before, which makes him a little mad. How can guys treat someone so sweet and cute like that? He just doesn't understand guys sometimes. "I'm so sorry you went through that. Those guys are jerks. They don't deserve your attention, time and kindness."
The tall male smiles genuinely at Hongjoong's kind words. "It's okay, life is like that. At least I met you. I've come to this café for quite some time, but I only noticed you today. Maybe because I was usually busy with my classes and all that, I didn't pay any attention to my surroundings."
Hongjoong's eyebrows raised when Seonghwa said he often comes here since he never saw him. Or maybe he did, but he can't remember. "And I don't really look around the café, so... maybe that's why I haven't noticed you as well," he said while laughing, which made the other male laugh as well.
"Well… this is too blunt, but can I have your number? You're cute, and I wanna get to know you more. Is that okay, Hongjoongie?" Seonghwa said while smiling as he looks straight at Hongjoong, handing out his phone.
"Yeah, that's okay. I… kinda wanna get to know you too. I'm sorry for being clumsy just now. I don't know how to act around someone so attractive," Hongjoong said while typing in his number on Seonghwa's phone. His words made the other male blush in embarrassment at the sudden compliment.
The short male hands back the phone, and Seonghwa smiles happily, looking at his phone before looking back up at Hongjoong. "I'll definitely text you," Seonghwa said, and Hongjoong nodded. "Call me too, please," the short male said, and the other male agreed instantly.
Wooyoung and Mingi, who were watching from the cashier, high-five each other, as they knew that both of them had exchanged numbers. Hongjoong turns around while smiling widely to see Wooyoung and Mingi making out. He immediately looks back at Seonghwa and shakes his head.
Seonghwa holds out his hand on the table, onto which Hongjoong slips his hand gently. Both of them hold each other's hand while talking, Hongjoong explaining what he's doing, how he managed to become a producer, etc.
And Hongjoong hopes that no customer will walk in to the sight of Wooyoung and Mingi making out at the cashier.