"jisung!" chaeyeon waved from the front of the line.
"oh!" he looked from the side of the cashier. "hey!!"
jisung was one of chaeyeon's closest older friends. they met through their mothers, at family friend gatherings and christmas parties. jisung was a senior at handong university, and was particularly smart even though he was majoring in a minor medical department. he amazed all the ahjummas at gatherings that he was only 25 and looked much younger.
jisung had mentioned to chaeyeon once that he was working part-time jobs occasionally to pay off his rent; he moved to seoul for university while the rest of the family stayed in busan. he never mentioned tom n toms though, it surprised chaeyeon when she saw his familiar brotherly-like face standing at the cashier with an apron that stamped "TOM N TOMS COFFEE".
"jisung!! didn't expect to see you here!" chaeyeon grinned.
"well," jisung said. "here i am!! what would you like?"
chaeyeon laughed. jisung and her had such a wide age gap but she still felt like jisung was a long lost brother; not only did he not look 25, he still acted like a baby and had surprisingly never dated.
"and don't worry," jisung leaned closer and whispered. "it's on the house."
"oh, thanks!! guess i won't be needing this guy," chaeyeon shrugged and slid her debit card sparkling with kakao characters on it back into her pocket.
"hmm.. could i get a matcha latte? make sure the design is pretty, ya girl's gotta take nice snapchat pictures," chaeyeon winked.
"haha ok. you kids still use snapchat?" jisung asked with his classic "huh??" face. chaeyeon only let out a small sigh. maybe jisung really was 25 and the whole "you're so young!!" was a lie.
"yeah yeah," chaeyeon laughed again.
"anything else?" jisung asked again. she remembered guanlin. oh shoot what did he want?
guanlin never texted her his order because he said he would be coming as soon as he could. was his uber slow or something?
"uhh, wait jisung. actually, my friend is-" she got cut off when someone grabbed her shoulder.
"hey!! did you order without me?" guanlin looked up at the menu.
jisung looked at chaeyeon with this exact face:
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"CHAEYEON!! YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT HIM!! HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DATING HIM!!" jisung blasted.
"uh,, we're not dating,, jisung uh," chaeyeon confirmed. "he's just a childhood friend."
"chaeyeon, honey, you're still a child."
"yeah, whatever, you've slandered me enough today."
guanlin looked back down and saw that jisung and chaeyeon were having a conversation. they know each other?guanlin decided to be sincere and introduce himself; wouldn't wanna seem like a friend tagging along to get a free drink!
"oh!" guanlin slowly read his name tag. "yoon.. jisung? yes! uh, hello, my name is guanlin!! i'm one of chaeyeon's friends. sorry i delayed this whole thing, i'll order now!"
"friends? you sure?" jisung squinted.
"uh.. yeah. anyways, could i get a tall mocha? i mean cup or whatever?" guanlin asked casually. his korean was quite accurate when it came to normal conversations but he sucked at proper grammar and anything formal that could offend anyone if he said it incorrectly.
"ok your total is 0 won!!!" jisung joked. "for real, ok. your number is #17, pick it up over there."
"thank you again jisung!! gosh i better start coming here more during your shifts," chaeyeon laughed and bowed, guanlin following after.
"oh and chaeyeon?" jisung quietly said, causing chaeyeon to turn around back into his direction while guanlin got a table. "that guanlin boy is very attractive and kind. he's a keeper."
chaeyeon mouthed "do you wanna die?" which oddly made jisung grin. he still felt like an older brother yet motherly vibes still poured out.
"sorry i don't make the rules!!" jisung shouted and turned back into his smiley cashier mode.
-
"does your friend jisung or something make the coffee too??" guanlin sipped. "god, it's so good."
"and it's fricking tom n toms! how could it be so good, it's literally just normal coffee??" guanlin was more shocked about the coffee than the fact he had just spilled some on the table.
"i actually don't know. out of all the times i come here, i've never seen him. i guess he works weekends and mondays, all the days i don't go regularly unless i have exams."
"is he like, your cousin or something? he seemed way older than a high school friend."
"yeah, of course. he's a family friend and he treats me like a little sister. it makes sense though, we have a 9 year difference." chaeyeon continued. "whenever i go to busan, he would always welcome me and show me around and basically become my traveling buddy since he lived there. then vice versa when he came to seoul. it wasn't until he announced he got accepted to handong, then we hung a couple times before the quarter began. i was in seventh grade i think? our moms think it's so weird how we clicked so easily despite our age gap."
"handong?? he's so smart, what is he doing in a tom n toms??" guanlin wondered.
"oh, he's just getting some extra money haha."
"ah, ok." guanlin admitted that jisung was pretty good looking. if jisung was the same age as chaeyeon, it would be definite the two would have started dating in high school.
guanlin and chaeyeon talked most of the time while drinking their coffee. surprisingly, it wasn't awkward since they had so much to say about what they did during the time he was in taipei and she was in busan. chaeyeon was glad for that fact, since guanlin was socially awkward at times.
when chaeyeon first befriended guanlin in year 5, it was because of a randomly picked group project. chaeyeon being the friendly student council president she was, immediately spotted out guanlin and helped him. he didn't talk much in discussions so she had never heard him talk.
soon after the online discussions and brainstorms in class, she began talking to him outside of class and discovered he wasn't so bad and they had some similarities.
in year 6, that's when they really became friends and when guanlin stepped out of his comfort zone and started hanging out with popular people.
it was all a rough memory to guanlin, but a clear vision to chaeyeon.
this was ironic although, since guanlin was the one who had never forgotten chaeyeon since grade school. what he didn't know was chaeyeon had been waiting for him too on the other side of the pond.
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final a.n note: i'm dead from writing late at night please vote tyty 💞💞
