Work Text:
today is a terrible day.
doyoung was almost certain that he failed the test that he stayed up the whole last night studying for. his class was at 8:30 but he woke up at 8:00 with his roommate screaming by his ear, and rushed to class without getting his usual morning coffee. now, three hours later he walked down the stairs of the engineering building with a permanent scowl on his face. the weather feels too cold to be a sunny late october afternoon, and he felt a chill run down his spine. “man, is it winter already?”, he muttered as he reached down to zip up his coat.
—
he pushed open the doors of the nearest starbucks and immediately, the scent of coffee surrounded him. doyoung felt his shoulders relax and let out a relieved sigh. the barista was fixing something at the coffee machine as he walked over to the counter.
“excuse me?”, he called out to them.
“yes? how can i help you?”, the barista asked as he turn around.
“i-“, dy started but stopped as he saw his face.
the barista (or yuta as it said on his name tag) starred back at him with a confused expression. he had red hair that make him look like a rock star but features so soft that it made doyoung want to protect him from all the bad things in the world. the light from outside the windows shines on his face and he looks like a angel on earth. doyoung was taken out of his trance as something flashed before his eyes - yuta was just waving his hand in front of his face.
“dude, are you okay? i would say sir, but you can’t be more than a few years older than me.”
“uh, i was born in 1996.”
the barista’s face lit up. “oh, you’re younger than me, i was born in 1995.”
doyoung didn’t know what to do except giving him a small smile.
“oh, i’m sorry, got a little carried away, what can i get for you?”
“uhh- an iced americano please.”
what is he taking about? he doesn’t even like americanos, he prefer sweeter coffees, but apparently his mind doesn’t function in front of cute baristas.
“and your name?”
“doyoung, kim doyoung” why did he tell him his last name? doyoung groans internally.
yuta’s brows furrowed, like he’s trying to remember something. then, his eyes lit up (they’re really pretty, doyoung noted), like he remembered the thing he was looking for in his head. yuta opened his mouth, then closed it again, still with a slight smile on his face.
“did you grow up in guri?” he asked, with an undertone of shyness in his voice.
“yeah?” doyoung answered, tilting his head slightly to the left with a confused expression on his face.
“did you go to guri neo middle school?” yuta asked again.
doyoung nodded, with the same expression. yuta’s face broke out in a grin.
“i’m nakamoto yuta.” he said, pointing at his name tag.
“we went to the same middle school, i was the kid that pushed you off the swings.” yuta said as red rushed to his cheeks and his hand reached to scratch at the back of his neck.
doyoung lifted his head in realisation as his mouth dropped open.
—
he remembers - he remembered the kid that pushed him off the swings in the school playground during recess. doyoung had fallen off and scratched his knees (only for a little bit), but being the fragile kid he was, he had immediately bursted into tears. yuta had laughed as he fell but immediately reached to help him up as doyoung started to cry. doyoung remembers the boy’s toothy grin as he asked doyoung if he was okay. he even held his hand when doyoung was too scared being treated at the nurse’s office. after that, doyoung saw him occasionally on the playground, but yuta had his own group of friends and doyoung always thought he was too cool to hang out with him.
—
doyoung looks up and yuta was still staring at him with that binding smile. doyoung was sure that he looked the same as he did when they were six.
“wow, i didn’t expect to bump into you again”, doyoung said, and then cringes at his lame comment.
“yeah, me neither”, yuta didn’t seem to mind.
the customer behind doyoung coughed loudly and continued to tap his foot against the floor, impatient with the small talk that the two were making. yuta laughed, embarrassed.
“hey, how bout you sit down first, my break is in five minutes, we can catch up then”, yuta suggested.
usually, doyoung would be scared to talk to someone he hasn’t met in a long time, and they weren’t even friends to begin with, but as yuta looks at him with that same warm grin, doyoung has a feeing that he has nothing to be afraid of.
—
5 minutes later, doyoung is sitting across from yuta at a booth in the corner of the store. doyoung learns that yuta goes to the same university, but studying music, he wants to be a producer. doyoung tells him about his courses and the insane amount of work they get. the barrier that doyoung has put up when he first saw yuta was slowly melting away. he laughs at the dumb jokes that yuta tells, and the funny anecdotes he shares about his friends, two of which are sitting three tables away from them. taeyong, a boy with pink hair and features so sharp that doyoung felt like he should be scared of, but as the boy’s face broke out in a grin, doyoung knew that he shouldn’t have judged a book by its cover. their other friend, johnny, was sitting across from taeyong, he is so buff and muscular that doyoung wanted to ask if he spent all his time in the gym. but once again, johnny gave them a sweet gummy smile that doyoung knows everyone would fall for, when he spotted them as he was looking around the store, doyoung knew immediately that all of yuta’s friends are like him, sharp and mysterious on the outside, but warm and sweet on the inside.
johnny was shaking his head and signing at taeyong’s antics as the other boy looked dreamily at the barista at the counter, who was stepping in for yuta as he went on his break. he told doyoung that the said barista was called taeil, a boy with brown hair and a soft figure that made him seem like a teddy bear. doyoung thinks he recognises him from some of his lectures, and made a mental note to see if he could introduce them.
their chat went on over yuta’s break and just before he went back to work, doyoung asked for his phone number (with a furious shade of red on his cheeks) to catch up more some other time. yuta gave it to him happily, but not before saving his contact on doyoung’s phone with a ‘<3’ next to his name (which made doyoung’s ears also turn a inhumane shade of red).
—
and as yuta smiles at him from across the table, ready to return to his shift, doyoung thinks to himself, maybe it’s not that terrible of a day after all.