Kopi Factory ;Huiwon

cup forty-two.

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     Shinwon operated the coffee machine as he made himself a cup of coffee. It was still 5:30 in the morning, the employees still soundly asleep downstairs as he got up little too early much to his liking.

Hands behind him, as the counter supports his back. Shinwon cant help but think that it was finally been a month since he stayed here.

Finally a month since hui left the cafe.

With no sign of where he is and what he was doing right now, shinwon was left to wait here.

For months, years or even a decade.

It was pure torture but it was even torturous when he himself knew that the key to contact hui was in his 'very' own hands.

The nine coffee cups, stacked at his room made him feel like hui was always there and would always be there with him.

Hyunggu already explained what it means, why the cups color changed everytime he buys a coffee. How every coffee cup really did coordinate with the number in this cafe.

Just like what his grandmother been telling him.

The significance the numbers and colors and his decision to throw or leave it. It was the paper cups, the colors shows hui's phone number.

Staring at the ugly looking dangling number, hands reaching to touch number nine. He felt the bittersweet smile as he remembers that he insulted this very numbers.

It was nostalgic to think that everything in this cafe was now connected to him.

Even those people that left before hui.

Hands tapping on the counter, Shinwon remembers what hyunggu had told him.

About Hyojong that left Kopi Factory to pursue his love for a foreign girl and went to join her to the states. Even if there's no assurance that everything would went well, he still went.

Then there's Yanan - a rumored royal prince that took Kopi Factory as a hiding place only to leave the place and Changgu.

Changgu, the requited love of a royal boy.

Changgu, the very person who names his pallete, and the one who cried a lot along shinwon when he realized hui left.

The tears on the boy's eyes telling shinwon that hui was more than just a friend here.

He was family.