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5 year old Bae Jinyoung believed whole-heartedly about Santa Claus, flying reindeers and toy-making elves.
22 year old Bae Jinyoung doesn't.
'Hi, welcome to Noel, may I take your order?'
'One regular hot chai latte with oat milk.'
'May I take your name?'
'Bae Jinyoung.'
'Eat in or take away?'
'Eat in.'
'Alright, that will be 5,700 won, pay by c-'
'Card'
'Thank you, please wait for your order to be called.' The guy in front of him with a santa claus hat said with a customer service smile.
Jinyoung sat down at one corners of the cafe, the desk was mate from crates as well as the sofa side of the seats, decorated with a lot of throw pillows. He sat down, put his backpack next to him and take out his laptop and charger, plugged it with the underseat powersocket and set himself up for the long hours in the cafe today.
He just finished logging into the overly decorated wifi login page - by that he means the fact that the whole page was as if Santa Claus wrote the code himself.
'Here's your regular hot chai latte with oat milk, Bae Jinyoung-ssi.'
He looked up to see the same staff putting down a cup of coffee in front of him. The latte art was made so that his name is in the middle surrounded by little reindeers.
'If you post that on social media and tag us, we can give you a complimentary snack.' Jinyoung looked up at the other guy - confused.
'An actual post or-'
'Just an instagram story would do.' He said with another customer service smile.
Jinyoung picked up his phone from the table, take a photo of the cup and posted it on his instagram story, tagging the shop.
'@Noel_Cafe?'
'Yes.' The guy in front of him reached into his apron's pocket, showing an iphone and logged in.
'Okay, it's here, I'll bring out the snacks, would you prefer red velvet palmiers or reindeer double dark chocolate cookies?'
'Uh, I'll go with the palmiers.'
'Okay, we'll be here in a second.'
The staff walked away, and he went back to working.
What Jinyoung doesn't seem to notice was the fact that he was the only one in the entire cafe, and the staff was the only staff present.
He was half way through the sixth internship application when the staff came back with a plate of dark red palmiers.
'Enjoy.'
'Thank you.'
He had a few sips of the latte throughout the hours, typing and typing while checking with the company's information to make sure he are making them tailored.
It was around noon, half way through the cup of latte when he finally had a bite of the red velvet palmiers.
It tasted like nothing he has ever tasted before - heavenly and he couldn't stop after one.
'It's good, isn't it?'
He looked up to see the same staff.
'I'm Park Jihoon, well, a staff at Noel, I do everything from waiting to baking and also cleaning.'
'Uh, hi, I'm Bae Jinyoung.'
'Figured.' And Jinyoung felt like face-palming himself.
'I can bake some more for you if you want?'
'Is that okay? Like with the whole shop thing.'
'Yeah, I own the place, anything is fine.' He said, this time with a warm smile that Jinyoung hasn't seen before. And his heart skipped a beat.
Jinyoung went back to working on his statements while Jihoon went back to bake the palmiers.
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'A long day I bet.' Jihoon said after he came out with the palmiers half an hour later.
'Yeah, I'm just trying to get through some internship applications'
'University student?'
'Yeah, you?'
'Same, aerodynamics engineering.'
'Wow, an engineer working - wait I meant - owning a cafe?' Jihoon laughed in response.
'Well, it's my parent's cafe but yes. What do you study?'
'Mass Communication.'
'Oh wow, I guess good luck with your internships?'
'Thanks, I need a lot of luck.'
Jihoon chuckled in response.
'Well, I can get you to talk to my mum if you want to, she did something similar in her past. And she's just upstair?'
'Oh you don't need to do that.'
'She loves talking to younger generations - I'll go get her.' Jinyoung blinked while the other man sprinted behind the counter and beyond his sight.
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'Oh, and what would you say was your greatest achievement?'
'Advertising this brand, my dear.'
'This brand?'
'Yes, Noel, it's all over the world, haven't you noticed?'
'I'm a little confused here.' Jihoon plopped down on the third chair between his own mother and the younger boy.
'Do you know what Noel means?' Jinyoung shook his head as an answer.
'Try search it on google?'
And Jinyoung did. And he blinked. Confused.
'You meant, you advertise- Santa Claus?' He said in disbelief.
'Yes.'
'You must be kidding me.'
'She isn't.'
'But Santa Claus isn't real.' The mother and son and laughed in response.
'Does that matter?' The lady asked him.
'Well, I'll say it doesn't but the story of Santa Claus did create a lot of capital for the high streets - right?' Jinyoung nodded following the other guy slowly.
'If you want more, just text me.' Jihoon said, handing out a name card.
'Today you should go home and rest.'
'I can't believe you use the spot to make a cafe for that boy.'
'Well he wanted a cafe to work cozily, mum.'
'You are such a spoiler'
'He is cute, I want to give him the world.'
'Don't - I - Dad will be very mad at you.'
'I didn't mean it literally!'
'Hi, welcome to Noel, may I take your order?'
'Er, one regular hot chai latte with-'
'With oat milk?'
'Yes.'
'Eat in or take away?'
'Eat in.'
'Alright, that's 5,700 won, pay by card?'
'Yes'
This time Jinyoung sat at the counter, observing the aerodynamics engineer making a cup of latte.
His delacy through making the latte art.
His galaxious eyes looking through details.
His billion dollar smile when he accomplished the art.
'One regular hot chai latte with oat milk.' He said with another billion dollar smile. Jinyoung accepted the cup with a quiet thank you.
'You didn't bring your laptop today.' He said, resting his chin on his hand from behind the counter.
'Well, I just want to chat to you today, actually.' Jihoon blinked before cocking his head to one side.
'Really?'
'Yeah.'
'Wanna go for a walk then? I'll put your latte in one of our reusable cups?'
'Sure' Jinyoung was taken aback but agreed nonetheless. The other guy took his cup and pour it into a tumbler while speaking.
'My parents own the place, remember? I'm pretty sure they'll be fine if I take a day off to take you on a date - it's a date right?' Jinyoung blinked. Jihoon handed him the tumbler with a smile.
'I mean - yeah - well - yeah it's a date now.' Jihoon smirked before turning around and took off his apron. He looked into one of the mirror and set his hair, and somehow, it just fixes itself.
'How did you do that?'
'You want to know?'
'Yeah.'
'I'll show you the world of magic then.' He said with a smirk before taking Jinyoung's hand.
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Back at his flat, Jinyoung wanted to tear his entire brain apart.
Jihoon showed him magic - a little too literally.
He thought Jihoon was just going to show him - like, tricks to do his hair fastly without a mess - not-
Well, it's hard to explain, but it took him quite awhile to understand.
He really underestimated Jihoon's mum - and well - dad as well.
And probably Jihoon himself.
North Pole.
Elvish Factory.
Flying reindeers.
It's too much for one day.
Oh yeah - and the fact that he went on a date with Santa's son.
'Will you become fat like Santa Claus when you grow older?' Jinyoung asked, looking at his now-two-year boyfriend
'My father wasn't even fat, what are you on about?'
'Most Santas are though, and from what you are eating...' Jinyoung looked up and down at Jihoon
'We are the Korean Santas - we will remain healthy - well, I'll try.' He said, fixing the grammatical errors in his research paper.
'So let me get it again - each country has their own Santas?'
'Yeah, but my mum was the one who made it big.'
'How old is she? She looks 30.'
'Hmm, like 120 this year I think.' Jinyoung's eyes widened in shock
'How old are you.'
'Hold on - I am only 25, we just - like, don't age once we become Santa, and well my dad became one when he was like 36 and my mum was like 34.'
'So, if we are still together, I will also stay young?'
'Yeah.'
'And you can choose to have children whenever?'
'Well - yes. Not for us but yeah - we don't even know if we will become Santas'
'Oh?'
'Yeah, I'm an only child but, well, biologically we - yeah we can't have children.'
'Will that effect us or?'
'No, no, no, of course, we can just adopt. But also I have maternal cousins who are interested.'
'Oh, so it went through your mum?'
'Any children really, it doesn't matter. Does not have to even be biological, we can literally go to the street and pick a random child - while that is not recommended - we can.'
'Oh wow.'
'Now, shall we go over to your parent's for christmas dinner? They must be waiting.' Jihoon said, peeking over at his laptop's clock.
'Yeah sure, my parents are in love with you.' Jihoon chuckled in response.
'Of course, but mine is in love with you as well.'
5 year old Bae Jinyoung believed whole-heartedly about Santa Claus, flying reindeers and toy-making elves.
24 year old Bae Jinyoung do believe in those still.