.

A boy with tangled hair, who seemed to have rushed over to this place, was directing his eyes on to this side, holding his hand against the doorway and breathing heavily. His red hair ends slowly shook sideways and subsided as he heaved his shoulders. Ban Yeo Ryung then completed her sentence.

“… he kidnapped her… Eun Hyung??”

“Yeo Ryung…”

Uttering her name like a sigh, the boy called Eun Hyung strode toward them.

‘Oh, geez,’ the guy’s mind began to race. Earlier, her sneezing was so cute that he turned speechless then, at the next moment, some random guys dashed into her with napkins that he couldn’t address his well-prepared remark to her. Now, an extraordinary-looking red-haired boy appeared in front of them!

‘I must speak now!’ with that thought in mind, the guy urgently opened his mouth.

“E… e… xcuse me! I’d like to order!”

“Yes, what can I get for you?”

Blinking her eyes, Ban Yeo Ryung lowered her head toward the guy to listen to his order. He then pouted his lips with his hot cheeks on fire.

‘Um… I… I’d like to have a hot… cup of coffee like your… h… eart…”

As soon as he dropped the last word, the air around the counter turned colder.

Lifting his head, the guy could see Ban Yeo Ryung giving a frosty look for a part-timer working in the service industry and the red-haired boy, who got closer to them, showing a sign of perplexity on his face. As the boy kept his head down earlier, his hair blocked the guy from looking at his face, but now that they were in a close distance, the guy could tell how handsome the boy was.

His white skin, going so well with his red hair, looked so flawless like porcelain even from a near view; his nose ridge and jawline were as immaculate as laser-trimmed. The boy then directed his green-gray eyes on this side that the guy flinched.

He might feel angry to encounter the guy throwing such remark to the girl who looked like the boy’s close friend; however, unexpectedly, the guy couldn’t find any sign of fury in the boy’s eyes at all.

That was when the guy turned his head in wonder. Ban Yeo Ryung’s sweet angel-like voice pulled himself together.

“Sir?”

“Oh, yeah!”

The guy turned around in a hurry. When their eyes met, Ban Yeo Ryung was, unexpectedly, showing a bright smile like a goddess.

‘Oh lord, is she touched??’

The moment when a ray of hope came into the guy’s heart, Ban Yeo Ryung continued in a frigid voice.

“Let me get you an Iced Americano.”

“… Um, yeah.”

Only then did the guy understand the meaning inside the red-haired boy’s eyes, which was a feeling of sympathy.

Ban Yeo Ryung, indeed, knocked the guy down without anyone’s help. When he left the counter in an unsteady gait, she had a swiveling smile, looking up at Kwon Eun Hyung who came closer to her.

“Do you also want an Iced Americano?” she asked with a grin.

Kwon Eun Hyung turned his mouth up slightly to resemble the hint of a relaxed smile. He then replied, “As cold as your heart?”

“Nah, my heart is warm to you guys.”

Ban Yeo Ryung and Kwon Eun Hyung giggled at each other. Handing him a menu, she then suggested something to drink and asked with her eyes round open.

“But why are you here already? Aren’t you also be preparing for the event?”

“Well, I’m just living off their family,” said Kwon Eun Hyung nonchalantly.

He then suddenly rolled up his sleeves as if he felt hot, which made Ban Yeo Ryung become at a loss of words. She remained silent for a second, cast a glance at somewhere else, agreed hesitantly as Kwon Eun Hyung looked at her dubiously, then dropped her gaze at the floor with an awkward look on her face.

Kwon Eun Hyung seemed to assume it was his fault in lacking explanation. Tilting his head, he continued his words at a slow pace.

“The stars of the party are Yoo Chun Young, Gun hyeong, and Shin hyeong those three. No one expects me to attend that event.”

“Huh?”

He raised his arm under the rolled-up sleeves to sweep his hair back.

“I’m just going to that party or else Chun Young’s parents will feel upset if they find me staying alone in the house; besides, I can’t leave Chun Young alone too…”

‘Though he isn’t a kid left near the shore.’

Speaking further to that point, Kwon Eun Hyung stared at Ban Yeo Ryung, who stayed silent until then, with a grin. He then slowly lowered his head to make eye contact with her.

“Yeo Ryung?”

As he called her in a sweet voice, Ban Yeo Ryung lifted her hear and flung a question.

“What are you gonna have?”

Her voice sounded a bit sulky.

‘Why? Yeo Ryung doesn’t show such a face thoughtlessly,’ he thought. Flickering his eyes in surprise, Kwon Eun Hyung answered frankly.

“Um… it’s hot, so can I have an Iced American as you suggested?”

Replying ‘yes’ shortly, she turned around, which looked quite unusual. That was when he hesitantly stretched out his hand to say something but decided to just slowly turn back.

Suddenly, a fierce attack smashed his back. ‘Ouch,’ flinching his shoulders, Kwon Eun Hyung turned around to look back with his eyes round open. Ban Yeo Ryung, going back to the counter just now, was standing in front of him before he even knew.

The moment he tried to ask, ‘What’s up?’ to her, Kwon Eun Hyung swallowed his breath as he found her eyes reddened with tears. Pouting her lips for a moment, Ban Yeo Ryung detached her lips at last.

“You.”

Setting aside her tearful face or hesitant attitude, Yeo Ryung’s voice sounded strict and stern. Kwon Eun Hyung opened his eyes wide then subdued his feelings and slowly nodded his head.

Raising her hand to hit Kwon Eun Hyung’s arm, Ban Yeo Ryung kept on her words.

“You are bad.”

“Why?”

This time, he couldn’t help but asking the reason. What came after made him swallow his words.

“Don’t you ever talk like that.”

Uttering the remark, Ban Yeo Ryung quickly lifted her head. Her eyes were full of tears now, but she directed her shiny and heated jet-black eyes on his side. Confronting that gaze, Kwon Eun Hyung felt like being penetrated from head to toe.

In the meanwhile, her voice went on.

“No one expects you to attend that event? Who? Who would do that?”

“Yeo Ryung, that’s…”

“Are we just nobodies? Huh? Are we just nobodies?”

Kwon Eun Hyung suddenly held his breath. As soon as he let the breath out, something like a warm lump welled up from the depths within his heart but stuck right under his throat.

It felt hot from his neck to his face. As if the air around him turned thin, Kwon Eun Hyung felt hard to breathe. Breathing at a slow pace, he cast down his gaze at Ban Yeo Ryung in her wet eyes. She blinked her lashes then lifted her hand again to hit his arm.

A voice soon continued.

“That’s bad.”

“Yeah.”

With that reply, Kwon Eun Hyung restated his words, swallowing his breath.

“I was bad.”

“You were.”

“I’m sorry.”

Only then did she divert her eyes back onto this direction. Kwon Eun Hyung stared at her bright black eyes, getting dried out and flooded with dazzling light, in awe. She then flaunted a smile.

“Let’s have fun.”

Kwon Eun Hyung can’t help but smile brightly again. When he nodded, Ban Yeo Ryung chirped in a cheerful tone as if she forgot how gloomy she had felt just until now. Suddenly, she opened her eyes wide and yelled, ‘Oh!’ that Kwon Eun Hyung felt a little disconcerted.

“Did you forget something? Should I help you?”

Ban Yeo Ryung shook her head no and continued in an urgent tone.

“No, it’s not that!”

“Okay.”

“What if Donnie comes here and talks like the guy just now?! ‘I’d like to have a hot cup of coffee like your heart,’ something like that?”

“…”

Hmm, Eun Hyung put a flummoxed grin on his face.

‘Is she joking around?’ having that thought, he observed the look on her face, but he couldn’t find even the slightest veil of playfulness covering her.

‘Then she’s telling the truth…’

Kwon Eun Hyung tried not to laugh.

Ban Yeo Ryung, this perfect girl, who didn’t leave anything out of the public eye, had two major flaws. One, she had no wits about love, and the other, when it came to her childhood friend, she couldn’t go through the general system of thought.

That was when he tried to say, ‘Calm down, Yeo Ryung,’ slowly shaking his head. Clenching her fist out of the blue, Ban Yeo Ryung turned back to head toward the counter gallantly. Kwon Eun Hyung blinked and stared at her in confusion.

It was, of course, one of her duties to go back to the counter as a part-timer, but the way she walked looked quite unusual. The voice then came after made Kwon Eun Hyung smile quietly and touch his forehead.

“Let’s practice making the hottest coffee in the world.”

“Pfft.”

Kwon Eun Hyung, at last, giggled out loud, thinking, ‘Who can stop her?’