Chapter 4

The Nest, to Jun’s disdain, looked nothing like a nest. It was a relatively new establishment, still in construction when Jun had been on his last semester break. Jun did notice something resembling a picture of a bird on a nest at the name sign, but overall, the place was your regular coffee shop, complete with the scent of coffee attacking your nose the moment you stepped in. Which, if Jun had still been alright with coffee and all its combinations, would have been most welcomed.

Jun looked around to locate Han Taeyong, hoping the man was already there since Jun arrived at three pm sharp on purpose. He didn’t like waiting, it made him restless. When he did notice Han Taeyong, Jun had to stop on his track to regroup his instantaneously scattered thoughts. Apparently Jun’s feverous and headache-deformed eyesight had not done Han Taeyong justice. The guy looked gorgeous in person. The picture on the student ID had looked more scary than gorgeous, Jun believed it was the bad quality, and the sharp eyes.

Jun was relieved he had at least managed to tame his hair before he left the house and had checked that his eyes didn’t look like he hadn’t slept in centuries. The last nightmare was a particularly nasty one, he had actually woken up screaming. It was a miracle that his parents hadn’t heard him.

Schooling his expression to make sure that he wasn’t putting on one of his – what Soohyun loved to call –  derpy faces, Jun walked toward where Han Taeyong was sitting.

“Hi,” he said cheerfully as he stood by Han Taeyong’s table.

Jun hoped his smile looked charming, and not creepy, as Han Taeyong looked up. He wasn’t usually this self-conscious, even Soohyun once said that Jun wasn’t familiar with the concept of shame and dignity. In other words, Jun was shameless. Not that Soohyun wasn’t, mind you. That was one of the many reasons they were best friends after all. There was just something about Han Taeyong that made Jun more aware of his... inadequacy, for lack of better word to put it.

Han Taeyong gracefully stood up the moment he noticed Jun. He was tall, about as tall as Jun, and that was something because Jun himself was ridiculously tall. Only Han Taeyong didn’t look ridiculous at all. He was tall but not gawky and awkward like Jun was. His limbs were long but he didn’t seem to have any problem keeping them in place, while Jun had this tendency to flail and bump into things because his arms and legs just refused to cooperate with the rest of him.

Jun almost blurted out ‘Wow. You are tall. That’s cool. I sometimes hit my head while taking the bus, you know. Does that happen to you too?’ but he swallowed the words back because the next moment Han Taeyong was smiling and gesturing to Jun to take a seat. He carefully bended his knees and kept them next to each other as he sat down, hands clasped on his lap. He silently felt grateful that Soohyun wasn’t here because if he had been, he would be laughing his *** off at Jun right at this moment before making cat calls immediately afterwards.

“I hope you haven’t been waiting for long,” said Jun when he remembered of being polite.

“I arrived around ten minutes ago,” Han Taeyong said.

His voice sounded deep and manly, and Jun kind of fell a little in love the moment the voice reached his ears.

Jun heard someone cleared his throat and snapped out of his trance. He held back the urge to groan when he realized he had unconsciously been staring at space.

“I’m sorry,” he said hurriedly, taking out something from the pocket of his jacket and presenting it out to Han Taeyong. “Here’s your student ID card.”

“Thank you,” said Han Taeyong, taking the card from Jun’s hand and putting it inside his own pocket. “Would you like something to drink? Oh, the girl at the counter recommended me this blend, saying it’s their specialty. It actually tastes good. Would you want to try one too?"

Jun eyed the concoction that was Han Taeyong’s drink. It did look good. Really good, if Jun could make sure that it was caramel he noticed blended with milk, ice, and coffee. Jun looked up from the drink to Han Taeyong who was looking at him expectantly, head titled and eyebrows raised in askance. Those eyes did look kind of scary.

“Um. Alright,” he found himself saying, only to regret it immediately after, but it was pointless because Han Taeyong had stood up and gone to get Jun his drink.  Oh crap, Jun thought.

A few minutes later Han Taeyong was back with Jun’s drink. Jun accepted the cup with a smile and a thank you. He hesitated a little but Han Taeyong was looking at him encouragingly, wordlessly saying ’Go ahead, try it.’ so Jun braced himself and took a sip. It indeed tasted really good. A part of Jun’s inner self cheered because he really did miss coffee that much.

“It’s really good!” he said, grinning at Han Taeyong. “Thanks.”

“I’m glad you like it,” said Han Taeyong. “That’s my ‘thank you’ for saving my student ID. And for agreeing to meet me personally to give it back. Thank you.”

“It’s alright. You gave me a really nice cardigan! I really like it, by the way. I hope you are not going to take it back,” Jun blurted out because apparently he never really got a hold of his brain to mouth filter.

In front of him Han Taeyong failed to hold back his amused chuckle.

“You are a lot more interesting when you’re not having a fever,” he said.

For some reason Jun felt pleased with himself. He grinned at Han Taeyong before taking another long sip from his drink.

Jun found himself feeling less self-conscious after that. They had the normal introductory talk, exchanging information about their majors and other school related stuffs since that was one thing they had in common for being two university students. Jun figured that Han Taeyong was around the same age as him and was an English Teaching major. He had taken the liberty to just call him Taeyong not halfway into their talk.

“Wow. You’re going to be a teacher? That’s cool!” he said.

“Thanks.” Taeyong somehow looked a little uneasy only for a moment before he turned back to Jun. “What about you? What are you studying?”

“I’m a chemical engineering major.”

Taeyong pursed his lips. “That’s cool too.”

Jun raised a hand to scratch his not itchy temple.

“Well, I don’t really know what I’m doing, to tell the truth. I can only guess more than half of the time,” he admitted.

“Why? Don’t you like Chemistry or at least know a lot about it to take it as your concentration?”

“I don’t know.” Jun shrugged. “I took that major because Chemistry was my best subject in my last year of high school. Though it had more to do with the fact that I kind of had a crush on my Chemistry teacher than my liking the subject, to be honest. You naturally try harder when you want to impress someone, you know,” he explained sheepishly.

Taeyong smirked at him and Jun suddenly felt a little hot. His stomach was churning, but Jun doubted it had anything to do with Taeyong’s (very attractive) smirk.

“I bet she was really pretty.”

“Um. It was a he, actually. And yeah, he was pretty. I mean, good looking.”

Jun wanted to slap himself at the sight of Taeyong’s taken aback expression. Now he wasn’t really sure if that filter existed at all. What was the reason he always blurted out unnecessary things and made a fool of himself in front of Taeyong if not for that?

Jun face-palmed.

“Ugh. That was too much information. I’m sorry I don’t know what’s happening with my brain. Or my mouth. Either one. They keep spouting out weird things,” he said to his hands. “You probably think I’m a complete freak right now and I don’t blame you, really. I don’t know. Maybe because you’re really gorgeous and I didn’t notice it before – ohmygod, make me stop!”

There was a sound of laughter. A full out laughter. And Jun detached his face from his palms because Taeyong was laughing and the sound was so melodious Jun found himself mesmerized. Taeyong looked less attractive while laughing, his head thrown back and his mouth open showing twin rows of white teeth as well as his gums, but Jun didn’t care at the slightest because he doubted he looked even half as attractive as Taeyong while he was laughing himself, especially with his tendency to do a full body twitch.

“You’re really funny, Jun,” Taeyong said when he finally managed to control his laughter.

Jun was really sure he was blushing right now. His stomach was still churning but Jun decided he could ignore it for a little bit.

“So tell me,” said Taeyong, still in a highly amused tone. “What happened to your crush? Did you manage to confess in the end?”

Jun smiled and shook his head. “He was dating the vocal teacher. She has a really beautiful voice. Mine couldn’t compare, really,” he said.

“Sorry,” Taeyong said, sounding sincerely apologetic.

“Nah,” said Jun dismissively. “It was just a tiny crush. I got over it soon enough.”

The nausea was almost unbearable now, but Jun really didn’t want to ruin this moment. Besides, he didn’t know if he would get to meet Taeyong again after this.

“Are you okay? You look a little pale.”

Jun shook his head. “Fine. Just the air conditioner.” And the coffee, he didn’t add.

“Oh. Should we leave now?” Taeyong checked the time  then looked at Jun apologetically. “Actually, I do have to go now. I’m meeting my friend in fifteen minutes.”

“It’s alright. You can leave now,” said Jun.

Taeyong hesitated for a moment before standing up. “What about you? Are you going somewhere?”

“Nah, I’m going home. My house is not far,” said Jun easily, then he stood up as well. “Thank you for the drink.”

“It’s alright,” said Taeyong. “I really have to go now. I’ll write you an email later, okay?”

“Okay.” Jun extended a hand which Taeyong took with a smile. “It’s nice meeting you again, Taeyong.”

“You too, Jun.” Taeyong pulled back his hand only to ruffle Jun’s hair. “Be careful on your way. I’ll see you later.”

Jun stood in front of the coffee shop feeling a little regretful and watched Taeyong’s retreating figure until it disappeared at the intersection. Then he stepped back into the shop and ran to the restroom to throw up.

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