Gunil walks through the doors of the cafe with an awkward smile on his face, his eyes scanning the room with a slight squint before settling on your frame. You smiled and waved gently, beckoning him over to sit at the table you were at. As soon as he was near enough, his eyes fell to the coffee and cake that sat on the table in front of him, and he looked at you questioningly.
"Oh, I texted Lilith to find out your usual order," you say, causing his jaw to fall slack and his eyes to widen.
"No you didn't," he spoke, breathless.
"No, I didn't. I did text Jiseok though," you chuckle and usher him to take a seat, he hadn't thought to do so in his surprise.
"I was going to say, I don't even think she would know my order. I was always the one buying our coffees," he laughed. You paused for a moment before shaking your head in resignation. Sounds like Lilith.
"So..." you begin.
"So..." he adds, unhelpfully.
"I think we went over the basics already," you start, hoping to steer the conversation.
"Yeah, uh, how did you two meet?" Gunil asks awkwardly.
"How nearly every college student meets someone, she was in one of my classes and we would study together a lot, for an option module it was a really difficult class," You gave a rather bittersweet chuckle, Gunil smiled in understanding. "We got close pretty quickly and it just went from there." Gunil nodded.
"We met in the cafe I work at," he began. "I don't make much off the gigs so I work part-time at a cafe on campus, she would come in and she was pretty so one day I asked her out."
"Jiseok doesn't seem to be a huge fan of her's," you remark causing him to smile bitterly.
"Yeah, none of my friends liked her. She never took an interest in them of the band and she would make these snarky remarks about them that I ended up trying to keep them apart most times," he tells. "They were trying to protect me because I guess they could see what I couldn't. I tend to fall fast and they know that," he looks down at his cake, poking at it as he speaks. "They thought she was taking advantage of me, for money," he admits with a frown.
"What, are you secretly rich or something?" you let out a quiet laugh, trying to lighten the mood slightly. He lets out a breathy laugh at that.
"No, but maybe she thought so. She would always call me saying she had no money for dinner so of course I would send her some. I'm not gonna let my girlfriend starve," he explains and you shake your head in disbelief as you'd never heard about her struggle with money. "We would eat together a lot so I didn't mind that but sometimes she would ask me to pay for her groceries, like the whole fridge full," he was the one shaking his head now, maybe in disbelief that he let it go on for so long. "She would also get these sickeningly sweet iced lattes with every extra you could imagine. It would end up being double the price of mine," he laughs lightly, it's tense but you can see the ridiculousness of the situation finally sinking in.
"I know exactly the one, it was like five pumps of caramel, extra shot, half whatever milk! There was this one time I got an iced latte too, just a regular one, but they somehow looked the same. I took a sip out of hers by accident and nearly threw up it was like putting a sugar cube in your mouth," You pulled your face into an exaggerated grimace, reliving the memory, causing Gunil to let out a loud laugh.
"I can only imagine the look on your face," he laughs.
"And she was pissed I took a sip of her drink!"
"I think that woman needs therapy or something, like that really expensive stuff that rewires your brain," he shakes his head and you chuckle along.
"But it's crazy because she never told me she was having money issues," you speak after a beat of silence. "Actually, she told me that her brother paid for her apartment and sent her some allowance since her parents aren't in the picture. But she would always have expensive bags and shoes and stuff," you shrug. Gunil looks bewildered at your statement. "You didn't notice her bougie lifestyle?"
"No, I don't know how much things cost!" he defends and you roll your eyes at him jokingly. "I guess she's not the angel she wants everyone to think she is," he nodded thoughtfully.
"Well, yeah," you hesitate on whether you should continue your train of thought or not, but, Gunil notices, looking at you expectantly. "Well, did you ever hear about her old best friend?" you ask hesitantly.
"No? I don't think so, why?" he replies, interest piqued by your reluctance.
"Well, I don't know all the details but we were drunk one night and we got around to talking about some of the bad things we've done and she told me she once spread a rumour about her best friend sleeping with faculty, a TA or something. But the girl went crazy, apparently she was super religious and her family found out and she spiralled and nearly dropped out," You explain, voice lowered in case there were any eavesdroppers nearby. Gunil's jaw was safely planted on the floor as he listened.
"Was it true?" he asked in an equally low voice.
"No idea," you shake your head. "But, it doesn't really matter, does it? I mean, I get being concerned that maybe she's being taken advantage of but a rumour is only ever going to hurt your friend," you sigh.
"I just.. I can't believe it. Well, I kinda can after talking everything through but wow," Gunil puffs.
"Yeah it kinda makes doing her homework and paying for her coffees seem like a small thing. I tried to ask more about it after but she wouldn't say a word," you tell.
"You did her homework too?" he laughs ironically.
"Occasionally, yeah," you laugh. "It just makes me wish that people like her could get what's coming to them."
"Some karma," Gunil nods.
"Exactly! Why does she just get to go around taking people for granted, they end up getting hurt but she can just find another friend or another boyfriend," you proclaim.
"Some good, cold revenge, it would be nice," he agrees and you nod along as you lift your coffee cup to your lips, dismissing the thought. Because that would be crazy. Right?
-> in which Stray Kids attempt to protect their image after an unexpected encounter with you, but, oh, Changbin is kinda hot? AND emotionally intelligent?? Oh no.
a/n: I've been sitting on this one for like two weeks for no reason whoops
-> in which Stray Kids attempt to protect their image after an unexpected encounter with you, but, oh, Changbin is kinda hot? AND emotionally intelligent?? Oh no.
-> in which Stray Kids attempt to protect their image after an unexpected encounter with you, but, oh, Changbin is kinda hot? AND emotionally intelligent?? Oh no.
-> in which Stray Kids attempt to protect their image after an unexpected encounter with you, but, oh, Changbin is kinda hot? AND emotionally intelligent?? Oh no.
a/n: I'm not me if I don't include a Changbin gym pic 🤷♀️
-> in which Stray Kids attempt to protect their image after an unexpected encounter with you, but, oh, Changbin is kinda hot? AND emotionally intelligent?? Oh no.
a/n: I'm trying to be somewhat consistent from now I miss interacting with you all 🥲
