cold coffee / ijb

+ seventeen

chapter seventeen
***

"aera! you're awake," miss im grinned when aera entered the kitchen groggily.

the café was closed today and she'd finally gotten to sleep in an hour or two.

"good morning," aera replied, rubbing her eyes.

"you left your phone in the kitchen last night, it's been buzzing all morning," miss im told her, sipping her coffee and gesturing to the phone laying facedown on the counter.

aera shuffled over, picking it up and pressing the home button. she was surprised to see that she actually had a few messages and they weren't just reminders that she'd set.

incoming text from song dahye
» let's go out tomorrow! you, jaebum, jinyoung & i

incoming text from song dahye
» cmon aera

incoming text from song dahye
» aeraaaaaaa

incoming text from song dahye
» aera please~

incoming text from song dahye
» that's it

incoming text from song dahye
» be ready by 5

incoming text from song dahye
» tell jaebutt

aera ran her hands through her knotted hair and sighed.

"sounds like fun!" aera jumped, startled by miss im's voice suddenly right beside her. "in fact, i have a dress you can wear," miss im assured.

there were so many things baek aera could say to miss im but she bit her tongue. aera was eternally thankful to miss im and the guilt would destroy her if she disrespected the kind hearted woman in the slightest. she wanted to make miss im as happy and grateful as she had made her, and to do that, she would have to endure the torture of a double date.

miss im guided aera to her bedroom closet by her wrist, beginning to rifle through dresses that she couldn't even imagine miss im willingly wearing.

"these are from my partying days," miss im paused. "let's keep that between you and i."

aera nodded, a disgruntled groan leaving her lips when a pile of dresses landed in a heap in her arms.

miss im shooed her to the bathroom.

"go on," she urged. "try them on."

after trying on countless eccentric dresses, aera reached the bottom of the pile, where she found the solid colors. she slipped into the first three dresses in the simpler pile with no luck. finally, coming across a dress that showed off the features aera didn't even know she had. she chewed on her lip nervously and looked herself over one more time.

"that's better," she commented.