Chapter Text
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“This coffee is too sweet!”
You asked for extra sugar…
“This coffee is too hot!”
Let it cool…
“Where's my bread!”
You didn’t order any…
Yeonwoo sighs, putting on his apron. It was his dad’s, and has the establishment’s name on it in small white cursive letters, “Crème & Croissant” right above his nametag:
“Yeonwoo: MANAGER”
Yeonwoo walks over to the front of the store, turns on the led sign to glow OPEN, and trudges back to his spot behind the counter. His employees don't start working until 8:30, they are all college kids and have a certain way with words, specifically words that involve ‘pleaseee Yeonwoo let us sleep in a bit!’, so for the next hour he was working alone. It was currently 7:30, and the bell above the door chimes like clockwork, as it has been every day for a few weeks now. He feels himself smiling as he looks up to face his first customer of the day.
She's tall, straight dark long hair that frames her face, she wears her usual suit altered to fit her female body snugly. She has an imposing presence, and Yeonwoo can't help but straighten up as she makes her way to the counter. He noticed her coming in a lot recently, always ordering five drinks, for colleagues he assumes, she seems the business type. He greets her and he got ready to write down her order. “Welcome! Early morning?”
She gave a light smile that made his heart skip a beat, nodded, and started on her order,
“I would like five drinks please.”
“Of course! Can I get your name for the order?”
She chucked, “There's nobody else here yet.”
“I-I guess you’re right, can I get your order?” A hint of red on his cheeks from embarrassment.
He admits, she's very handsome, and he always catches himself thinking of her during his shifts. She is his most… competent customer. Everyone else in this town, he thinks, is always either half drunk while ordering (thanks to that disgusting bar next door), lost in his eyes- confusing him for a woman (thanks to that strip club across the street), or little kids from the elementary nearby (thanks to both), and it was always nice to have someone normal ordering some drinks. He just wished she would at least give him her name.
“-nd oat on that last one please, oat. ... Hello?”
“Hi..”
She tilts her head slightly, and he realizes that he hadn’t written down the last drink of her order, too busy lost in his thoughts, too busy staring at her face. Embarrassed, he turns a bright shade of red and apologizes, “R-right, no oat! C-Coming right up!” he turns sharply on his heel and starts on the drinks. He felts the woman linger at the counter before heading to a table, taking a quiet phone call, her serene voice filling the humble coffee shop better than any music radio ever would, in Yeonwoo’s opinion.
He makes quick work of it, still bristling over his moment earlier. He labels the drinks, rings her up and hands all five drinks in two disposable cup carriers. She thanks him quietly, as she was still on a call, her expensive and stylish purse dangling in the crook on her arm as she propped the phone between her ear and shoulder, grabbing the cup carriers in both hands. He watches her walk out, pushing the door open with her back and keeping it open for a young girl to walk in who almost tripped over her own feet, distracted with the same sight as Yeonwoo. A butterfly fluttered in his stomach, how could she be so incredibly… mesmerizing.
ੈ✩‧₊˚ཐི༏ཋྀ ˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚
Yeonwoo wipes his wet hands on his apron, a coffee got spilled by one of his newer employees all over him and he was in the back cleaning himself. ‘Thank God it was cold’, he thought, ‘At least she didn't give it to the customer this cold. Bad review for sure.’ He grimaced as he felt his skin getting stickier by the second, and moved to the sink when something fell out of his apron pocket, his notepad in which he writes orders.
He picks it up, looks over it, and finds himself flipping to the first order of the day, that mysterious but dashing woman’s order. He reads it again, large mocha no whip, Americano, double espresso, and a medium latte. He blushes and wonders which one was hers. five orders!!!!!, he reads, a large reminder he scribbled at the top of his page every time she came in....… Where is the fifth one? He counts the list over and over, trying to convince himself it wasn’t true. Did he charge her for five, and give her four!? Yeonwoo feels himself get lightheaded, a bead of sweat charged down his face and his eyes teared up, she was definitely going to leave a horrible review.
As he freaks out internally, he pictures her handsome face that on occasion graces his mere existence with a slight smile, distorting into one of hatred as she comes in tomorrow morning to complain. He mentally prepares, a tear in his eye, to never watch her come in again. He already misses the shape of her toned arms showing through her clean cut suit as she held up the two cup carriers- hold up. Yeonwoo paused. He did give her five drinks, what is going on? He realizes, going over the order once more, that she had ordered five drinks, and he only wrote down four.
What the heck was the last one he had given her!?
ੈ✩‧₊˚ཐི༏ཋྀ ˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚
Yeonwoo wipes down the tables, a task usually done by his employees but they were very good with words, specifically ones that had to do with ‘Yeonwoo we have sooo much homework, please let us leave our shift early!’ He mentally scolds himself, vowing to not let it happen again and to be more firm next time, but he knows deep down that he would never be able to. He can't deny them, he rememberes how he was at their age, even though he was their age less than 4 years ago, he still feels like a responsible father figur- He hears the bell chime over the door and mentally sighed, they are closed, the sign is off, why do people not listen in this town?
“I'm sorry but we’re closed!” He fakes a cheery voice, not bothering to turn around to face whoever it is. He hopes they would just turn on their heels and walk out, he's too tired.
“Don’t you have other employees? I always see you here alone.”
Yeonwoo freezes, is that… the woman?
He slowly turns around to face her, gulping hard. She stands there, menacingly, but Yeonwoo can't deny- she looks… amazing. Her long luscious hair is now tied in an effortless ponytail, perfect pieces framing her slender face, her suit coat was neatly folded on her arm, the dress shirt under looked wrinkle-free. She looked too perfect to have just finished a day of work. Yeonwoo looks down, oh how much he was going to miss her.
“This morning,” She walks towards him, “You got my drink wrong.”
He gulps, she continues, “I said a dairy-free, oat milk mocha for one drink, and you did not use oat milk, you put regular milk. You know how serious this is?”
She closes the distance, fear striking his core as he stumbles back slightly, catching himself on the table, his words catch in his throat. He gulps, his heart threatening to beat a hole through his chest, and he can't tell if its from her proximity, or the fact that he could definitely lose his entire business over this mishap. She speaks, and its barely audible to him from the pulse in his ears.
“You could’ve killed someone.” She whispered, her voice low.
‘Killed someone?’ He thought. He choked out a shaky “How?”, a question that made her eye twitch slightly. Yeonwoo notices how her fists are clenched, and how her posture is tense and defensive. Yeonwoo feels all the blood drain from his face, is she.. mad?
More importantly, is she gonna hit him!?
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A/N: changed this chapter up a bit cuz how I originally wrote it makes me uncomfortable now, and also the grammatical structure was....... incredibly interesting. I think I fixed it now, but if there's still any mistakes lmk!!! 4/4/26