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Yoo Joonghyuk is 17 years old. It’s the first time that he works, but Lee Hyunsung’s parents need help, and they were too nice to him and Mia for him to ignore them. He comes to the coffee shop, puts on an apron and learns how to make good coffee.
That’s how he met him.
“Who’s that?”
“Him?” smiles Lee Hyunsung’s mother. “Kim Dokja. He’s a good kid.”
He comes on Yoo Joonghyuk's first day. And then, one week later, he comes again. It’s a Saturday.
“Does he come here every Saturday?”
“He does.” says Lee Hyunsung’s father. “He asks for a double espresso, and he sits here until 7PM. A double espresso, can you believe? He’s just a high schooler.”
Yoo Joonghyuk watches him. Every time he comes, Kim Dokja comes to the counter, makes his order, and then proceeds to sit in a corner until closing. He reads a book or he’s on his phone: he doesn’t talk to anyone, he doesn’t get up to go to the toilets, he doesn’t even move. He just stays here and reads. Sometimes, Yoo Joonghyuk’s not even sure that he’s breathing, so he watches him closely until he can see his chest move.
After some weeks, Yoo Joonghyuk decides that he doesn’t really like him.
After all, it’s a loss for Lee Hyunsung’s parents. This guy can’t just hog one sport for the whole day with just a single coffee. It’s not really fair. So Yoo Joonghyuk starts to be almost unpleasant, not smiling when Kim Dokja orders and answers to him by ‘hmm’ or ‘ok’. He doesn’t know why he’s being so childish, other people do that too sometimes but it’s just… Dokja. It’s irritating when it’s him that is doing it.
Yoo Joonghyuk is 18 years old, and he doesn’t really hate Kim Dokja.
He watches him often, every time he comes to help the Lee’s. He sees him graduate from high school, he sees him not even realizing that Yoo Joonghyuk is talking to him badly, almost as if it were a normal occurrence (he stopped after a few weeks), he sees him come alone every time, he sees him.
He sees Kim Dokja, skinny, tired, and somehow pretty.
He tries to ignore that, but it’s hard.
Yoo Joonghyuk is 20 years old, and Kim Dokja has a job.
He seems even more tired, and Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t think it was possible. He watches him approach the counter every time, sometimes smiling lightly, and ask for the same disgustingly bitter coffee.
They exchange looks, their hands brush. One day, Kim Dokja blushes and something in Yoo Joonghyuk's chest bursts.
Yoo Joonghyuk is 21 years old, and Kim Dokja suddenly starts crying one Saturday during December.
He reads on his phone, like often: this time he wears a white coat over a black shirt, and it suits him well. He looks handsome (tired, of course, but handsome). Yoo Joonghyuk watches him while taking an order. He turns to make it, cashes the customers, gives them one latte and one cappuccino, and when he looks again, Kim Dokja is crying.
Yoo Joonghyuk freezes.
This never happened before.
Sometimes, Kim Dokja talks to Lee Hyunsung because apparently, they became friends at some point, and this is how Yoo Joonghyuk learnt that Kim Dokja failed some exam from college, that his mother was in prison, that some people bullied him in school. He lived through all that without a tear, and all of a sudden he’s crying in front of his phone, in the corner of a coffee shop.
He hesitates.
For a second, or two.
Then he grabs a chocolate muffin from the baked sweets corner and walks to his table. When he sits in front of him, Kim Dokja opens his mouth, stunned.
“Huh?” he asks with wide eyes.
“Take this.”
“Oh, I – Thank you?”
“Eat.”
Kim Dokja looks at him for a moment before taking the muffin to his lips to start eating it slowly. The tears stop.
“I’ve never seen you cry. What happened?”
“Oh, you saw that. Sorry, it’s not a great ad for the shop.”
His lips quiver and he says:
“It was happy tears, of course. Because the coffee is so good.”
“Stop that, you’ve been taking the most disgusting thing on the menu for years. Nobody believes in your taste.”
Kim Dokja smiles, this time. He articulates ‘thank you’ in silence and Yoo Joonghyuk nods.
“So, what happened?”
He sees Dokja look at his phone.
“You’re going to find it stupid.”
“Try me.”
They share a look. It lasts for a few seconds before Dokja shrugs and starts:
“I’ve been reading a novel.”
“A novel?”
Yoo Joonghyuk wants to say “you’ve been crying for a novel?” but he doesn’t. Kim Dokja’s afraid that he’s going to be judge, and he doesn’t want to prove him right.
“I started reading it in middle school. I was… really lonely, and for a while it was everything I had.”
His expression is heart-breaking.
“It was… important. To me. And now it’s over. I just read the epilogue.”
A novel that lasted for years? Yoo Joonghyuk can’t help but wonder about its length. He wonders about Kim Dokja in middle school, he wonders about his life, about what he already knows and what he doesn’t.
“I feel… a little empty.”
He doesn’t understand, because he never read a book like that or played one game that was as important as this novel seems to be for Kim Dokja. He doesn’t understand the feeling, but he understands that for Kim Dokja it’s a serious matter.
“It seems hard.”
“Well, it feels weird. I… kinda don’t know what to do now that I’m not waiting for the next chapter anymore. What to do… with my life.”
Yoo Joonghyuk stares.
He thinks about this guy that he saw for the first time years ago. He thinks about how he just wants Kim Dokja to smile, eat cakes and good food, and continue to come every Saturday to sit quietly and read.
He says:
“What about a coffee with me first?”
And somewhere in Kim Dokja’s eyes, something starts to shine.