black coffee | soonhoon

Six

"Hey guys! Check this out!"

Jihoon was sitting on the lark bench, staring dreamily through his phone, but looks up when he hears the voice.

Vernon stands at the top of the skate ramp, balanced over the edge on his worn down skateboard. His brown hair glints with golden in the sunlight and he has a huge grin on his face.

Jihoon watches as he drops, slowly, bending his unprotected knees to land further down the ramp. He rolls from a few metres, the leaps up and scales along a rail before dropping back to the ground, where he rather graciously falls of his skateboard at lands in a heap at Jihoon's feet.

"You okay?" He asks, reaching a hand out and pulling Vernon to his feet. Four other boys crowd around them: Chan, Mingyu, Jun and Seokmin, and then Jeonghan follows, lagging slightly behind.

They all shower Vernon with compliments as he brushes himself off, his laughter flows through the air like music. His cheeks flush with a warm tint, "It wasn't that good, I fell!" He protests.

"Yeah but imagine if Jihoon tried to do that! He wouldn't even be able to stand on the board," Mingyu snorted, recoiling back when said person hit him hard in the stomach. He was about to mock Jihoon's height- see! He can't even reach my head! - but thought better of it. Messing with an angry Jihoon never ended well.

"How long till you go back, Ver?" Chan enquires, his eyes going wide with a tinge of sadness.

Vernon sighs, "Six days."

The group falls silent for a second. Vernon had only come to Seoul on a family trip. 2 weeks had already passed since he arrived and in that short time he's met the best friends he'll ever have. And now they had six days left.

"Well, we should do something fun." Mingyu steps in, looking determined. Jun nods along and so does Chan, now standing beside Jeonghan. The elder absentmindedly puts his arm over Chan's shoulder as he continues to mind his own business; even though the whole group want him to join in.

"What like? There's not exactly much to do around here that's fun."

Mingyu thinks for a minute, furrowing his eyebrows.

Eventually, he stands straight again, "Well, why don't we just go to that café by the boardwalk? They do the best sausage rolls and also? My friend works there so with any luck, we'll get a decent discount."

The group agree on the idea - promising Vernon and chan to go to the beach the next day - and leave the skatepark. Vernon speeds ahead, Jeonghan finally getting confident around the newcomer as he sprints after him. Jihoon smiles. He's known Jeonghan for a while, they grew up together and the elder was always the timid one.

The bell chimes obnoxiously loud for Soonyoung's ears. He groans, forcing his head off the counter where it rested before and staring at the customers. He vaguely recognised the tallest through his sleep filled eyes and waved at his friend.

"Hey Mingyu." He says groggily. Mingyu can't help but laugh at Soonyoung's tired face and introduces him to the others.

"Soonyoung, these are my friends: Jeonghan, Chan, Jun, Seokmin, Vernon and the tiny one's Jihoon."

"Hey!"

Soonyoung studies the group one by one, placing the names to faces and forming impressions of them in his head. When he looked at the shortest, he realised he didn't need to come up with a first impression. He already had one.

Lee Jihoon.

Seriously, the guy's everywhere.

Likewise, Jihoon was groaning internally. For gods sake, there's like three cafés on this roads, why did it have to be this one?

Both boys refuse to acknowledge each other: Jihoon suddenly becomes very interested in his feet and Soonyoung smiles at the rest of the group.

"What can I get for you?" He grins, trying to eliminate the sharp taste in his mouth that threatens to deep into his voice.

Mingyu counts off the orders on his fingers, going through almost the entire menu before finishing off with Jihoon's singular order.

"And he'll have a black coffee." He didn't even bother asking.

The group rushed and sat down in the back corner, squished on old leather sofas surrounding a toasty, crackling fire.

Soonyoung glances at the long, long list of items and immediately yelled to the back, calling out to Kihyun to help him.

The elder came out a few seconds later, his apron covered in flour and a bit of cream smudged on his nose like a little snowflake. Soonyoung coos internally before shoving the order into his coworkers face.

Kihyun takes one look at it and groans, throwing the piece of paper back on the counter and storming back into the room he came from.

Soonyoung starts to get the drinks ready. 2 hot chocolates, 1 latte, 2 milkshakes (1 chocolate and 1 salted caramel), 1 vanilla macchiato and of course, the black coffee.

Whilst Soonyoung is making the milkshakes, Kihyun comes barrelling back in with multiple food items piled in his arms. He grabs the list and goes through it, putting aside a couple of paninis and multiple sausage rolls ready to be heated before lugging the rest back to the pantry.

The two carry the trays over to the group, struggling under the mass of food. Cheering, the boys take them delightedly, their stomachs rumbling after the long day.

Soonyoung returns to the counter, watching slyly as Jihoon picks up his coffee. Said boy glances at him and they lock their gazes together. Just as Jihoon takes a prolonged sip from his mug, Soonyoung winks.

He gets the exact reaction he's hoping for.

Jihoon splutters and the coffee flies everywhere, but the unexpected wink wasn't the only cause of it. As his friends laugh and yell, he keeps his eyes trained on Soonyoung's growing smirk.

He grimaces and forces another tiny sip of his drink down his dry throat. He then retches violently and slamms his coffee back down on the table. He would get up and confront the boy, but a. He's with his friends and doesn't want them to get suspicious, and b. he is currently trapped between Jeonghan and Seokmin, both extremely undisturbed by the recent spectacle.

Instead, he aims his eyes at Soonyoung, holding them steady, flames shooting from his eyes.

Soonyoung smirks devilishly before smiling, teasing the younger. He holds up a small bottle, so clearly labelled that Jihoon could've read it from a mile away.

Salt

He seethes, and is about to stand up when Soonyoung suddenly disappears like when he drops a guitar pick and it vanished into thin air - presumably he's gone to the back room - and Jihoon loses his chance.

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