Work Text:
Hansol dreaded this ailment. Not to mention the weather he loathed that made his sickness worse by tenfold. It was a revelation he could even trudge out of bed at morningtide. The killer headache he endured forced him to bed straightaway.
He missed a couple of his classes, but his professors understood and emailed him back replying that he can just catch up on missed work later on when he feels better.
This affliction interrupted his daily routine of going down to the coffee shop just beside his apartment to order his lunch before he headed to class. It was a quaint, small cafe that just opened up this semester, and he was already well-known by the employees there from his diurnal visits.
The cashier in front, Seungkwan, was a friendly and bubbly fellow who he grew fond of. They had a few classes together, yet they sat on opposite sides of the lecture hall, so the only time Hansol could really talk to him was at his work.
It was half past noon and Hansol was craving something more than the chicken noodle soup in a can that his mother sent him a week prior so he figured that he could go for some soup at the cafe. They had a various selection of options, so he might as well enjoy something with his miserable condition.
-
“He hasn’t been here for the past few days!” Seungkwan groaned as he leaned against the countertop, lifting his elbow when Minghao swooped in the wipe up the spot he leaned against.
“He’s probably been busy or something,” Minghao suggested, shrugging for not thinking of a better suggestion.
“What if he hates me?”
“Seungkwan…”
“It’s a possibility, Minghao!” he pouted to himself and leaned against the cash register and sighed. “Is it because I’m fat?”
Minghao gave him a look and Seungkwan pouted sadly. His friend rolled his eyes and patted his back. “First off, no. Second off, you have to stop overreacting like this every time a customer doesn’t come for a certain amount of days…”
Feeling a bit offended, Seungkwan puffed his cheeks. “I don’t do this all the time!”
Minghao raised an eyebrow with an expression that read you-have-got-to-be-kidding-me all over. “Remember that one time Jeonghan hyung came in after having gone on a three-day trip and you jumped over the counter to hug him and slammed him to the ground?”
Seungkwan whistled and scratched his cheek. “Well…”
“And that one time Chan didn’t come because he overslept and the next day when he came you hugged him to your chest and cried for how long it’s been since you’ve seen him?”
He felt the heat rush into his cheeks and slowly start to turn scarlet.
“And then that other time when Seokmin came in with a cast and you-”
“Okay! Okay!” Seungkwan frowned. “I get it…” he sighed and brushed his bangs out of his face and scrunched his nose at a snickering Minghao. “You’re lucky you’re my friend…”
“I love you too, buddy,” Minghao sighed as he went to the back to grab a mop and start wiping the floor.
-
“What? No! You can’t order something else!” Seungkwan scoffed, tapping the register while furrowing his eyebrows.
Hansol blinked, zipping up his jacket to his neck as he shivered a bit from the draft whenever the door opened from behind him. “Uh… but I’m the customer here…” he spoke with a nasally voice.
“I already wrapped it up for you!” he exclaimed as he held up the neatly wrapped sandwich with packs of ketchup. “I even drew a smiley face with the ketchup, I’ll show you!”
“No, I believe you!” Hansol replied, putting his hands out to prevent Seungkwan from any further action. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed.
“Okay, then here!”
“I said I wanted soup!” Hansol repeated his order, feeling his cheeks grow warmer and redder by the second.
“Well, tough luck! I already personally made you your BLT sandwich!” He angrily, but gently, placed the bag on the counter and slid it closer to Hansol who sniffled and rubbed his nose on the sleeves of his jacket. “I’ll even throw in napkins for that cold of yours!”
“Seungkwan, that’s why I want the soup in the first place! For my cold!”
Seungkwan looked up and gazed at Hansol before shoving in a whole dispenser worth of napkins. “Well… the sandwich can warm you up too!”
“My doctor said to just take soup and liquids-”
“You can blend up the sandwich into a juice! We have a juicer in the back, I can do that right now for you if you want-”
“Seungkwan!”
Before any further action, Minghao arrived at the scene, surprising Seungkwan in the process and making him squeal out of shock. Looking at his friend who was holding the paper bag in his hand trembling and at the customer bundled up in an abundance of sweater while standing in the mild, temperate room. He sighed, why did he always have to deal with this?
“What are you doing with that bag?”
“N-nothing-”
“He’s trying to blend up my sandwich into soup instead of ringing my order of soup instead!”
Minghao looked at Seungkwan with a raised eyebrow and a you-had-one-job expression. “Are you serious?”
Instead of trying to defend himself, which is astonishing in the first place, Seungkwan sighed. “W-well… I made him his usual order…”
“You know you could have given him the sandwich WITH the soup right?” He saw the blank look on his brunette friend’s face and squinted at him. “Did you forget we made combos?”
“Shit,” Seungkwan mumbled under his breath.
Listening in, Hansol nodded. “I wouldn’t mind that. As long as I got the soup…”
After the two apologized with rosy cheeks, smiling and chuckling together, Minghao put the cup of chicken noodle soup into the bag underneath the sandwich that Seungkwan had personally made him. Hansol paid by card and grinned at both of them.
“Thanks for making the sandwich for me, by the way,” Hansol grinned. “I really appreciate it.”
Seungkwan beamed. “It’s no problem. I just wanted to make it special.”
Unknowingly, both of their cheeks began to turn a light pigment of pink again, Minghao snickering in the process. They waved at each other and his co-worker looked at the ripped receipt with Hansol’s digits on it. He slung an arm around Seungkwan and hummed. “So what have we learned today?”
Looking up at his taller friend, Seungkwan smiled. “If you argue enough with a customer, you can get his number.”
“Seungkwan!”