TEENAGE → SVT

HELLO

TRACK 11: HELLO

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At the corner of Main Street, there's a coffee shop that Mingyu likes to go to with his friends. They meet up there and just talk about life since the mall is boring and there are cute girls who enter the shop sometimes. Mingyu and his friends hitting on these girls, however, is another story, and most of those stories are simply failed attempts.

Mingyu was what you could consider a regular- his friends didn't go to the coffee shop as regularly as he did. The baristas recognized him, and they always had his regular, an iced americano, ready for him before he could even speak. It was this kind of cliché that Mingyu lived, but it was a comfortable cliché; he didn't mind.

Seokmin likes to frequent the shop with him. A struggling author, Seokmin is either cooped up in his apartment or he's in the coffee shop with Mingyu. The baristas recognize Seokmin too, but they never have anything ready for him because he always gets something new- Seokmin likes the variety, and it sometimes helps with his writer's block.

Junhui, on the other hand, rarely visits the coffee shop. Unlike Mingyu, he actually loves to roam in the mall and hit on random girls in the mall because that's just what he did best: play around with girls. He was the type to successfully hit on a girl in the coffee shop, but those girls typically were the same to Junhui, so he prefers the selection in the mall.

It's a rarity to have three boys in the same place at the same time since the city itself was so big, but sometimes, coincidences happen, and they all end up in the coffee shop together.

"Hey, Mister Writer. How's the manuscript coming along?" Mingyu asked, an iced americano already in his hand as he sat down next to Seokmin at the table the writer was at.

"Sunggyul got mad at me," Seokmin sighed. "He said I need to fix a lot of the characterization and that the word count was too low."

"Take it easy, dude," Mingyu patted Seokmin on the shoulder. "You already released a novel this year. You should wait two years!"

"This idea is just too good, though," Seokmin stopped working on his story and sat up. "Picture it: Venice, 1921. The air is romantic, the sky is a lovely shade of pink, and the two characters are hopelessly in love-"

"That sounds overly cliché," Mingyu couldn't help but comment.

"You're overly cliché," Seokmin tsked and resumed his work.

Mingyu focused on the coffee in front of him. Maybe he was cliché; but if he was cliché, then what did that make Seokmin who was a writer that writes and rewrites in his local coffee shop and writes the most sappy love stories that teenage girls are enthralled with?

"I ran here as soon as I could," Junhui said dramatically as he walked over to Seokmin and Mingyu.

"What? Why?" Mingyu asked, Seokmin looking up at Junhui with a look of frustration.

"You didn't hear?" Junhui asked.

"No, that's why I'm asking you," Mingyu shook his head.

"There's a new barista, and she's a cute one," Junhui leaned down and whispered into Mingyu's ear. "Vernon saw her yesterday and tried to pick her up, but she refused."

Both Mingyu and Seokmin turned their heads to the right to see that there was indeed a new barista, and that she indeed was cute. She had long, dark hair and bright, wide eyes. She also had a pearly smile, cute, tan skin, and the cutest laugh that the three boys had ever heard. Mingyu looked at Junhui, who was now sitting down at the table across from Mingyu, with wide eyes. Seokmin nearly choked on his spit as he turned back to his manuscript.