Cat Boy

04 | the royal we

"Good morning, and welcome to Café Callisto," Joshua says with a smile. "What can I get you today?"

"Uh, actually—" Daehyun shifts her weight from one leg to another, hoisting the heavy books that have once again begun to slide out from under her arm. She's just here to ask for Hansol, but it's impossible to say no to that winning smile. And, okay, maybe it has something to do with her rumbling stomach. She glances at the folded menus stacked in a box next to the machine. "Maybe one of your special frappes, since I missed those last time."

"On it." Joshua leans away from the counter and hooks his thumbs into the apron's sides, then jerks his chin towards something behind her. "You might want to look around before taking a seat."

She blinks, but before she can ask him what he means, he's already disappeared behind the door. Oh, wait, I forgot to ask for Vernon, she thinks, then shrugs. He can't be far anyway.

Heeding the pink-haired barista's advice, Daehyun glances around the café before taking a seat. The tables aren't all full, but it's a pretty good turnout for the middle of summer. She hadn't realized how popular the café was. Come to think about it, she hasn't seen anyone other than Joshua and Vernon serve in here, but they're easy on the eyes—and sweet, too, from her experience with them, excepting the coffee spill incident. Oh, well. Two are fine for a small-time café like this.

The atmosphere is pleasant, suited to her intention of getting some work done. The walls are a calming shade of daffodil yellow, she notices, from the bits of it that peek out from behind the tall wooden bookcases. Huh. What kind of titles could they contain? She recalls Vernon's explanation of the functioning of her skateboard, and wonders if they're all reference books. Or maybe he's just a good student and she's reading too much into it.

Two old men play chess in one quiet corner. A woman sits curled up with a newspaper-covered book in one of the armchairs forming a crescent around a dark fireplace. Empty barstools line the oakwood counter. She would sit on one of those, but it doesn't seem like either of the boys would be free to attend to her right now, and she doesn't want to be a bother.

Daehyun spots a very familiar back of someone's head, and smiles a little, before making her way over to the table. "Did you get a good apology?"

Wonpil looks surprised at first, but his expression quickly turns to recognition, and then affection. "Thankfully, I don't seem to be banned from the café yet," he says, getting up as she sits down on the chair opposite him. "The frappes are really nice, but they taste better when they're free."

"So I've heard." Daehyun sets her books on the tabletop with a thump, and winces at the sound. "Sorry about that. There's three more weeks of summer break left, and I haven't even gotten started on my homework."

Wonpil sits down with a toothless smile, scrunching up his nose at the pile. "Did you mean to do all of it in one go?"

"That was the idea, but I realize now that it's a useless hope," she says. "There's no way I'm getting any work done, especially with you here."

Wonpil blushes, and she doesn't realize how her words must have come off until he does. Daehyun stares at the notebook topping her pile, pretending not to have noticed and praying for a break from the awkwardness. He clears his throat. "How's your shirt?"

"It wasn't my shirt, actually," she says with a small smile and a shrug, "but it's fine. Vinegar does wonders for white-cloth stains."

"I'll keep that in mind."

"Yup."

Once again, they lapse into silence. Daehyun slowly picks up the notebook and opens it at a random page to keep it casual, but it doesn't help. Her eyes skip over the words and dance around sentences, and it's on her third time reading the same paragraph when she finally accepts that she's getting nowhere.