cupid's bow ; park sunghoon

chapter 5

Whenever Mirae was able to, she tried sitting next to Sunghoon in their lectures. She tried a lot more to talk to him and she surely felt like they were getting along fine. At least she considered them as friends already, something more than mere acquaintances. Hopefully, Sunghoon thought so as well.

It was Thursday, after classes Mirae decided to head home, when she suddenly felt her phone vibrate in her pocket. Checking the message, it was Jake asking her if she wanted to meet up at the cafe where Sunghoon worked. She pondered for a while before replying 'sure'. She could do the assignments in the cafe anyway, and plus, she got to see Sunghoon again, even if he would have to work.

Mirae met Jake in front of the coffee shop and greeted him warmly. "What's up?" She held out her hand, waiting for him to high five her and he did just that. "Quick, head inside to greet your barista boy instead," Jake said with a smirk, to which he only received a light punch in the shoulder. The two of them went inside and Jake said that he'd get a table for them.

"Hey, you're making me pay for your drink twice?" Mirae said while crossing her arms.

"Not my problem, I never asked for a drink the first time." Jake simply shrugged. Seeing Mirae scoff, he let out a laugh and handed her some cash. "I'm just kidding," he said, turned around and walked over to a table near the windows.

"Oh! Hey Mirae!" She was warmly greeted by a smiling Sunghoon. She couldn't help but smile back, her facial muscles seemed to move on its own whenever she saw him.

"I'd like two Vanilla Lattes, please."

"Gotcha." After handing her back the change he swiftly looked behind her towards the window. "Are you here with Jake?" His voice was full of curiosity.

Mirae nodded. "Yeah. Probably just gonna study."

"I see." There was a weird feeling inside of Sunghoon, but he couldn't make out what it was. He tried to shrug it off as fatigue, since he had uni all day and even had to work the closing shift for today.

He directed his gaze back to Mirae and gave her a warm smile. "Again, I'll bring the drinks to you as soon as they're ready, so just sit down."
"Thank you!" Mirae beamed back at him and turned around, hiding her flushed cheeks.

As she walked up to the table where Jake sat, she was greeted by a mischievous grin.
"It looks like you ran a whole marathon, your face is so red," Jake laughed at her.
"Shut up!" Mirae whisper-yelled, trying not to be too loud in case Sunghoon hears anything.
All she could hear were mumbles of 'Sorry' while Jake was laughing, which made it even worse.
Pouting, she pulled out her textbook and proceeded to silently work on her assignments instead.
"Oh come on, I'm just joking." Jake whined but still trying to suppress his laughter seeing Mirae pouting. He grabbed her sleeve and pulled on it, also giving her a pout.
She took a quick glance at Jake as he kept pulling her arm and burst into laughter when she saw his cute expression. A big smile formed on his face as well.

"Your drinks are ready."

The two of them were pulled back into sense when they heard Sunghoon arriving with their drinks. "I didn't know you'd ever drink something other than an Americano," Sunghoon said while putting the drink down next to Jake.
"I didn't know either," Jake laughed in response. "But it's good after trying."
"It's because I made it, duh." Sunghoon gave them a small laugh. "Enjoy," he said and went back to work.

Jake and Mirae ended up doing less of their uni assignments and more talking about random stuff. He told her some things about Sunghoon, how he is usually an introvert but among friends, he can become quite loud and questionable, but in a good way. It made Mirae even more curious about him. Would he show these kinds of sides to her as well if they'd get closer? Sure, he opened up to her again, but not on that level yet.