"Good morning!"

A cheerful young woman walked through the front door and up to the cafe counter of Bean Better. Her wide eyes and glossy smile looked too bright to belong to someone actually dependent on caffeine at 7am to function—much to Kyungsoo's chagrin.

Spare me this torture.

Kyungsoo continued eyeing a cleaning checklist behind the counter and regretting his life choice of staying up too late to watch Frozen the eve before.

Sehun was rearranging the different tea box flavors on the shelf in a color-coordinated pattern. He couldn't decide where the mauve Dandelion tea box belonged on his spectrum.

Kai was the man of the moment.

He leaned over the register with a glinting smile. "Good morning! What can I get for you today?"

"Do you all do any of those...flavored cream drinks? Like a frappe? I swear, I can't take my coffee unless it's a swamp of sugar and cream."

She gave a wealthy-enough-for-Lulu Lemon kind of laugh, with her dainty hands in playful paws.

"I can do whatever you like."

Kai winked.

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. Again with the winking.

The woman covered her mouth with her hand in mock-shyness.

"Do you want vanilla? Or caramel?"

She took a few moments longer to decide than she needed to, enjoying Kai's sex-in-the-back smokey eyes watching her.

"Vanilla."

Kai swerved and started about his work.

Kyungsoo paused from flipping through his clipboard to watch what miracle of mankind's capacity for failure was about to unfold before his eyes.

The end result of Kai's barista work was a messy swirl of whipped cream and blended sweetness. He handed the drink to the woman with a sugary smirk.

"Oh, thanks! Uh, how much is it?"

"It's on the--"

WHAP.

Kyungsoo had walked up beside him, and smacked Kai in the back of the head with his clipboard.

Kai gave an apologetic grin. The woman looked horrified.

"It's 7.50."

She went about making her payment, her uncertain eyes on Kyungsoo's lifeless ones.

"Well. Thanks again! Have a lovely day!" She was on her way in a jiffy.

After the door jangled shut, Kai grumbled, "She's never gonna come back now. You scared her off."

"No. She's never coming back because you didn't put any coffee in her damn drink." Kyungsoo whacked Kai a second time over the back of the head.

Kai lifted a finger like he was about to argue, then stopped. Shit, he's right.

Kyungsoo then walked around the counter and shoved the cleaning clipboard into Sehun's hands, almost toppling the man's artistically crafted tea box display. Sehun looked mortified.

"Sehun, finish up the last half of this cleaning checklist."

Sehun's horror only grew. "It's all bathroom stuff. Hyung, don't make me do it. Please."

"Clean the bathrooms or kiss your minimum wage goodbye, Sehun."

"BUT IT IS LIKE A SWAMPLAND OF CESS IN THERE. You know what kinda place this is, right? A coffee shop. And you know what coffee makes people do?! IT MAKES THEM SHI--"

The front door opened again. This time, a group of three teenagers mozied in, looking around with wide eyes.

Kyungsoo mouthed at Sehun, "DO IT."

Sehun went from close to tears, to bitter resignation. "Fine." He sauntered off to do the cleaning deed.

Kyungsoo then shoved Kai away from the register as the three teenagers approached. "How can I help you?"

"Uhhh, we don't know what we want," the only boy of the three of them said apologetically. The teenage girls looked over each of his shoulders shyly. They both had dreamy looks on their faces.

Kyungsoo sighed. "Kai, go check the muffin mix stock in the storage room."

"I thought you were gonna walk me through mixology stuff?"

"Just do it."

Kai stalked off through the door to the back of the store.

Kyungsoo proceeded to fold his arms. "You can't have his number. He's too old for you. But you can buy a damn drink and sit around and give him your doe eyes until the cows come home. And leave a big ass tip, since it's your parents paying for this shit anyway. The choice is yours, kids."

The two girls giggled at each other, while the boy between them gave one of the girls' shoulders a shove and said, "You guys are so obvious." Then the boy turned back towards the register. "My sisters think you guys look like idol singers."

"Kai and Sehun get that a lot," Kyungsoo said dully, as if he were being told for the millionth time the chemical makeup of water was H2O.

"You're Leela's favorite." The boy gave the girl to his right a playful shove with his elbow. She covered her face with her hands in embarrassment--then peeked through her fingers playfully at Kyungsoo.

"I'm also too old for you," Kyungsoo answered, deadpan.

What he wanted to say was, I am too old for this shit. In a rare moment, he held his tongue.

The girls giggled. They didn't really seem to care.

The back door opened and Kai came through. "We have enough muffin mix to last through a zombie apocalypse."

Kyungsoo waved Kai over. "I'm gonna make three different drinks. Watch me."

He poured a single cup of black coffee. Then he plucked up the perfect rose hip teabag from their colorful collection and let it steep in a cup of hot water. The final drink was a macchiato, foamy and frothy. He gave this last drink a flourish of caramel sauce on top in the shape of a cat face.

He handed the macchiato to the girl on his right. The young man he gave the rose hip tea. And the girl, Leela, he handed the cup of black coffee.

They all looked at him with stunned faces.

Leela asked, "How'd you know?"

Kai said in a grumpy voice, "The man has a gift."

Their brother proceeded to pay for the coffee, grinning wide as he did so. Then the three of them found a booth by the window where they began to chatter warmly with each other. The sisters stole obvious glances towards the counters every so often, always followed by hushed giggles.

Kai observed nonchalantly, "It would make sense that the girl who has a crush on you also likes black coffee. Black, like your soul."

"Black is timeless elegance."

"Then what is rose hip and caramel sauce?"

Kyungsoo shrugged. "Catering to the mediocrity of the masses."

All of a sudden, the bathroom door swung wide open and Sehun took a large gasp as if he'd been under water holding his breath.

He shouted in triumph with a mop in one hand: "IT IS FINISHED!"

Kyungsoo said nonchalantly, "Good. Now do the men's room."

Sehun drooped in defeat. Then he looked up at the ceiling. "Why, God?! WHY!?" Sehun proceeded to collapse onto the floor of the lobby then and there.

Kai tilted his head sideways in confusion. "Don't we just have the one unisex restroom?"

For a fleeting moment, there flickered a devilish ghost of a grin on Kyungsoo's lips. "Yes."