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It was a deceptively pleasant weekday morning, and Chay sprinted down the city sidewalk into the nearest busy shop he could find, searching for an avenue of escape, or at least temporary safety.
“Good morning!” He greeted the employee standing behind the front counter, the array of espresso machines, coffee beans and syrups revealing the shop’s purpose.
The man looked up from his work - the extraordinarily pretty man, Chay’s brain was quick to note - and nodded briskly. “Morning.”
“If you don’t mind, I’m just going to hang out here for a bit.” Chay explained. “I have a bit of an unwanted follower situation.”
The other man straightened to alertness, the movement bringing attention to his silver name tag, which read Kim. “Oh?”
“He was nice enough to tell me where to go, just not nice enough to stop following me when I took his directions,” Chay said dryly.
The barista frowned, eyes darting through the floor to ceiling windowpane to look at the sidewalk path Chay had taken into the cafe. “The one in the blue jacket?”
Chay nodded. “I’ll buy something, don’t worry, just give me a moment here.” He took in deep, measured breaths as he leaned against the countertop, willing his heart rate to slow to something approaching normal. “I’m a little - well, it’s been a while since I’ve had something like this happen. You’d think it’d get easier with age.” He shook his head, silently chiding himself.
Kim studied something through the window before making a noncommittal humming noise and turned to his work at the espresso machine, steam hissing out the side as he silently went about his task. Most importantly, Chay’s stalker didn’t seem to be making any moves into the coffee shop. He risked a look at the mirror backsplash lining the far wall and saw the retreating back of the man in question. He slumped against the counter, leaning his chin over his crossed arms and letting his concentration waver in relief.
Chay was just starting to feel like a normal human again when a wide-brimmed coffee cup took up his field of vision. “Decaf honey oat latte,” said Kim. “You look like you could use it.”
“Decaf?” Chay made a face. “What’s even the point?”
The barista made that humming noise again. “To calm you down and not send your heartbeat skyrocketing.”
“Fair point,” he conceded, and looked down at his new drink to see it was topped with latte art in the shape of a milky leaf. “Hey, that’s pretty good!”
The man said nothing, but the corner of his mouth quirked into a small smile.
“How much do I owe you?” Chay fished at the back pocket of his jeans for his wallet.
“It’s on the house.”
“What? No,” Chay protested.
Frowning, Kim shook his head once, sharply. “You shouldn’t have to put up with that,” he said, each word clipped. “It’s the least I can do.”
Still feeling drained from the whole encounter, Chay didn’t put up a fight. “Alright,” he acquiesced. “But at least let me buy a dessert or something - that sugar cookie looks pretty good.”
Kim inspected him, seeming to be looking for something, and Chay felt a new set of nerves alight at the focused attention of an attractive man. One whom he wouldn't mind looking, unlike the uninvited person from earlier. Shrugging, Kim broke his scrutiny and fetched the sugar cookie from the display.
Their fingers brushed as he handed over the cookie in folded wax paper. “Pure and sweet, just like you?” Kim asked. It wasn't accompanied by a smile or a wink, just more of that careful inspection, so it took Chay a moment to realize he was being flirted with.
Once it clicked, Chay blushed crimson. “Er, I don’t know about all that,” he stammered. He was not mentally prepared for blatant come-ons from beautiful dark-haired baristas!
He hastily picked up his coffee cup with both hands and sipped at his latte so he wouldn’t have to think of a reply, and his attention instantly diverted. “Holy shit, that’s actually good!” The sweetness of the honey and mild nuttiness of the oatmilk swirled with the espresso soothingly on his tongue.
“I’ll try not to be offended at your tone of undisguised surprise,” said Kim wryly.
Chay’s face found a way to turn even redder. “I wasn’t sure if honey and coffee would go so well together,” he admitted.
“I take it that their joining is satisfactory?”
Chay nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, I wouldn’t expect it, but they’re good together.”
Kim looked him up and down. “I find that’s true of many non-traditional pairings.”
Before Chay could think of a response to that, another customer walked up to the counter, and he shuffled over to a table with his latte to make room for them, taking small sips of his newfound favorite that settled low and warm in his belly. He closed his eyes in coffee bliss.
“This isn't what I ordered.” Chay looked up a few minutes later to see the customer who had come up behind him offering his disposable cup back to Kim, who stared at it with a straight face and arms crossed over his chest, looking bored.
“Yes, it is.”
“I ordered hot chocolate,” responded the man. “This clearly has espresso.”
“Whatever you ordered is what is in that drink,” responded Kim, tone much colder than what he had used with Chay minutes ago.
“But it’s not,” the customer argued, not unkindly. “I ordered hot chocolate and this is not hot chocolate. Maybe orders got mixed up. It’s ok, I just want what I ordered.”
Kim said nothing, but stared down the hot chocolate buyer with such dead-eyed intensity that even Chay felt intimidated on the other side of the room.
Silence.
“Or maybe I ordered espresso and forgot,” the man finally offered, voice shaking ever so slightly.
“Maybe you did.”
The customer, and his beverage, scurried out of the cafe.
Chay approached the counter with his empty coffee mug cautiously, setting it down on the linoleum with a clink. He steeled his spine, determined to follow-up on the earlier flirting.
“So, Kim, about what you said earlier - “
“Use the side exit,” Kim interrupted sharply. “I don’t want to see you at the front.” He turned his attention back to his station and ignored Chay completely, neatly ending their conversation.
“Oh - ok?” The rapid 180 from their previous encounter left him mentally reeling and he took a step back, confused and a little hurt. He slipped out the side door and headed on to his destination without fanfare.
It was only when riding the bus home that Chay realized he’d never paid for his cookie.
____
Porchay Kittisiwad.
Arm hadn’t dug up much on the man other than an uncle with minor gambling debts and an older brother with a history of underground fights that were now behind him.
19. University student. Porchay, for his part, was squeaky clean: no speeding tickets, no public drunkeness, not even any academic reprimands. For all intents and purposes Porchay seemed to be a model student. A model citizen, even.
Kim spared a moment to wonder if he should feel guilty. Porchay had no way of knowing that he’d sealed his own fate the moment he’d stumbled into the cafe, eyes wide and bright - with apprehension, which was no longer allowed, and Kim would see to it that the source of that fear was harshly dealt with - and looking so enticing it had taken Kim only seconds to know he would commit any number of acts of violence to keep him safe and smiling.
He hadn’t ended their interaction on a positive note, he’d realized after the fact, but he’d been too distracted by the reappearance of Porchay’s stalker through the shop window to remember to turn off mafia-leader Kimhant and allow just-a-normal-guy Kim back to wheedle and charm. He would have to do some convincing to persuade Porchay to give him another chance.
That was, if he ever returned. Alarm slammed through him like an anvil at the thought of not seeing Porchay again.
Well, he’d just have to make sure that Porchay had a reason to come back to the coffee shop.
______
“It’s the weirdest thing,” Chay explained to Kim earnestly, and Kim took the opportunity to look for the subtle differences between morning Porchay and evening Porchay, and found that each were equally without flaw. “Both of my usual coffee places were closed this morning! Lucky I knew about this place from yesterday, huh?”
“Lucky,” echoed Kim, sliding over a filled coffee cup with one hand and a sugar cookie in the other.
“Thanks! Wow, you really are talented at this latte art stuff,” Chay said, peering down at this morning’s liquid artwork with interest. “Just look at those hearts. But I didn’t order a cookie.”
“We're running a promotion,” Kim lied smoothly. “It’s complimentary. You liked it yesterday, didn’t you?”
“Really?”
Kim nodded.
“Thanks, then.” Porchay beamed, cheeks already full of cookie, and Kim felt the cracked parts of his heart soften ever so slightly at the sight. That settled it. He had originally been planning on wrapping up his work at the cafe the following day - he had already gotten the information he needed on the neighboring flower shop and it being a front for a rival gang to the Theerapanyakuns - but he would be taking additional time to be thorough.
“So, Porchay, you work around here?” He phrased it casually, like he didn’t already know the man’s place of employment, direct supervisor and daily work schedule.
Porchay nodded, pink tongue flicking at an errant cookie crumb in the corner of his mouth. He failed once, twice - it took three licks before he captured it. Kim stared at the process without much subtlety. He knew he was staring, but the sight was painfully seductive even under the bright morning sun shining in through the large display window, made more so by the fact Porchay was obviously not trying to be, and Kim refused to blink for fear he’d miss a single moment.
“Part time at a music shop a few blocks from here, but I’m a college student for my day job,” Chay answered, crumbs finally removed and somehow oblivious to Kim’s ogling.
“A scholar, are you?”
Porchay snorted. It was adorable. “Yeah, sure, we can call it that.” He frowned. “Wait, how did you know my name?”
“You told me earlier.” Kim lied for a second time. He hoped he wouldn’t have to make too much of a habit of it. Chay deserved both the truth and soft, beautiful things. It was a shame those two rarely went together.
“Did I? Call me Chay, though.”
“Chay,” He repeated the syllable slowly, carefully plucking and tidying this piece of information to store it away in his mental box reserved for the precious and important. “I’m happy to see you again,” he said, this time with nothing but an uncharacteristic amount of honesty.
Chay’s beaming grin softened to something sweeter: an automatic upturn of lips that spoke to Kim of tender moments and lazy mornings. He required there to be more of those in his future.
“I wasn’t sure you would be with how last time - well, I’m glad to hear that,” answered Chay.
Kim was glad to hear it too.
_______
“I’ve been keeping an eye out for that creeper from the other week, but I haven't seen any sign of him, thank god.” Chay explained to the top of Kim’s head, which was all that he could see as Kim worked his magic behind the espresso machine.
Kim visibly paused, the sounds of coffee making briefly ceasing. “Oh?”
“I expected to see him around, to be honest. I’m pretty sure he works somewhere in the area.”
Kim cleared his throat, and although Chay couldn’t see his face, he thought he sounded… guarded? “I wouldn’t worry about running into him anytime soon.” The sounds of a barista at work resumed, and soon Chay was presented with his latest beverage. He leaned over the latte and breathed in the familiar, comforting smell. Coffee personally made for him by a pretty barista: what more could a man want in his morning?
“You think so?” Chay reached for the mug and tugged it toward him next to the sugar cookie already waiting on a small plate in front of him. “Now if I can just make Thad get a clue I'll be 0/2 on unwanted attention,” he joked. Kim waved away his attempt at paying for the cookie, as had become their norm over the past few weeks. The promotion to recruit and keep new customers was still ongoing, Kim had assured him. It seemed too good to be true, but Chay was a broke university student and not about to turn down free cookies.
He took a sip of his latte, unsurprised to find it just as delightful as yesterday’s. “Hmm, this is delicious. Hazelnut?”
“Praline.” Kim gave him one of his small smiles. “Extra sweet. So, who’s Thad?”
“My ex. Don't worry, it's not as dramatic as I probably just made it sound.” He gave a half-hearted chuckle and stared down at his drink as he ran a hand through his hair, self-conscious. “He’s just… insistent.”
“Is he now?”
Chay looked up to find Kim looking at him with a perplexingly intense expression that Chay couldn’t quite place. “You don’t want to hear about my relationship drama,” he gave another awkward chuckle and playfully pushed at Kim’s forearm with the hand not holding onto the coffee mug.
Kim’s gaze snapped from Chay to the space on his arm that Chay had just touched. Oh, that was crossing a boundary, wasn’t it? He shouldn’t have -
“Thad won’t bother you again,” Kim informed him with a grave certainty that was out of place in the sunlit coffeeshop full of happy couples, hurried commuters and studious university attendees drinking and meandering behind him.
What an odd thing for a stranger to say. And Kim was a stranger, all that Chay enjoyed looking at his very pretty face, and hearing the flirtatious things that came out of his very pretty mouth.
“Ok,” he agreed, deciding that trying to address the oddness of the statement might ruin the bond the two of them had built.
Kim frowned, brows furrowing, and looked him dead in the eye with even more of that severity. “But don’t touch me,” he snapped, tone harsh and unforgiving.
“Oh,” Chay felt the hot churn of shame rise up from his stomach and stain his cheeks. “Of course. I’m so sorry. I should never have in the first place that was - that was inappropriate of me.” Don’t hit on service workers! That was Being A Decent Person 101! What was wrong with him?
“No,” said Kim, scowl still in place and sounding increasingly frustrated. “It’s just not - “ he glanced out the window to the side of him, squinting at something in the distance, “ - a good idea right now. Get out of my face.”
“I understand,” replied Chay, not understanding at all. “It won’t happen again.” He tugged the mug off the counter and retreated to a hightop table bordering the back of the cafe, as far from the front display as possible, vowing to not make Kim uncomfortable with his presence by frequenting a different coffee shop from then on.
______
Kim was becoming increasingly desperate, and an increasingly desperate Kim usually resulted in an increasingly jumpy bodyguard staff. Kim had enough sense of mind to feel bad for snapping at Big for the 5th time that day, but not enough guilt to stop doing it.
Chay had left and not come back and this was entirely unacceptable.
It had been three days since their last encounter, and while Chay's tail had reported back normal university student behavior (What, was he going to leave Chay unattended? After he’d been spotted in close proximity to Kim by other mafia members? Certainly not.) Chay was still acting abnormally because he wasn’t coming around to the cafe.
Kim would not tolerate this kind of abandonment a moment longer. They had chemistry, damn it. And a rapport. Why was Chay avoiding him?
Utilizing the skills of an overworked Arm took a certain amount of cajoling, and then bribing, to get him what he wanted, but it was worth the owed favors if the result was Chay back in front of him.
He was so focused on his task that he nearly forgot to put the wheels in motion to deal with the matter of Chay’s rat of an ex, but only just.
He leaned back against the wall, arms crossed and watching Arm carefully, as he waited for the seeds of his labor to come to fruition.
______
Congratulations! said the text that pinged Chay awake at 1am. He squinted into the phone’s bright light, blinding in the otherwise dark bedroom. He could have sworn he set it to silent. How did it even ping? As our valued customer, you’ve been selected for a free coffee drink and baked good!
He groaned and threw the phone onto the other side of his bed, covering his face with his bedsheet. Would he never be able to recover from his moment of poor judgment? He played the scene over and over in his mind’s eye like a healing scab that he couldn’t help but poke at every time it got close to mending. He thought he’d read the signs, and understood their interactions as flirting, but he’d gone and harassed someone at their place of employment instead!
No, he would not be returning to the cafe.
______________________________
Days later and in the throws of caffeine withdrawal, Chay froze as he turned down a street lined with familiar shops and retail fronts. “Where are we going?” he squeaked out. He could just make out the backlit sign over the door of the cafe if he squinted, and he would not be getting closer to it.
“Oh, it’s this new place I heard some of our classmates talking about,” said his date, Kevin, tugging on his hand to pull him further towards the place he had been stalwartly avoiding. He found his feet shuffling forward despite himself. Kevin was adorable, blonde, and full of sunny smiles as he herded him towards the one shop he had been trying to steer clear of.
“They had to take on all the traffic when all the other shops around here closed, apparently. Everyone is going there,” Kevin clarified.
They were close enough that Chay could make out the outlines of the workers there now and - no! There was Kim.
“Uh, why don’t we go someplace else,” Chay offered, halting their steps on the sidewalk and causing the group of teenagers behind them to glare as they stepped around the momentary blockage. “I heard that new place that opened last week is good.”
His date frowned. “That’s a 45 minute walk from here. Everywhere else is closed. Let’s check this place out. It’s right there.” He gestured unnecessarily to the storefront.
“Umm,” Chay tried again, but before he could think of an acceptable excuse for why they absolutely should not go into this particular cafe, Kim spotted him.
Would his embarrassment never cease? He tried, unsuccessfully, to hide behind his date. He just knew he shouldn’t go out with guys 6 inches shorter than him. He could not be the tall one in the relationship.
Kim was about the same height as him, his brain helpfully supplied. There was no escape, even in the safety of his own mind.
And then Kim… waved him over?
Like a moth drawn to a flame, but feeling distinctly more like a prisoner heading to their executioner, it wasn’t until Chay heard the sound of a bell clanging against the front door that he even realized he'd opened it.
Gods, Kim was pretty. Like, unfairly, put on this earth to mock everyone else for the nerve of existing pretty. He could happily watch Kim do nothing but make lattes all day. He wished he was allowed to.
He chided himself not to be creepy. Kim was not his to look at.
“I’m glad you agreed on this place after all,” said a voice behind him.
Oh, right. His date. He tried not to feel too disappointed. Kim wasn’t his, and Kevin was, at least for the afternoon, so he needed to get his shit together and focus.
“Me too.” He made sure to make eye contact and smile, like a good date would, because Kevin deserved a good date. It wasn’t his fault he had brought Chay to the most distracting cafe in the city, full to the brim with memories of his private misdeeds. Kevin skated his hand along the small of Chay’s back to usher him to the register, all smiles and attentiveness.
“I would like - ,” Chay started, trying to sound as polite and I-am-not-going-grope-you-over-the-counter as possible.
Kim ignored him, and stared down Kevin with all the subtlety of a charging rhino. “Who is this?” he demanded.
Kevin blinked. “I'm Kevin.”
Kim turned his gaze to Chay, waiting.
“Kevin is my date,” Chay explained, hoping the information would put Kim at ease and lessen the impact of him being there.
Kevin's shoulders straightened and he smiled, looking pleased. “First date. Wish me luck.” He threw Kim a wink and then smiled up at Chay. It was a sweet, charming smile. Chay wished he found it as attractive as a certain someone's broody frown.
Kim did not look amused, but his face relaxed into something a generous person might call neutral. “A date,” he said evenly. “How cute.” His tone suggested that he did not, in fact, find it cute.
Chay wasn't sure why he was still so hostile. Surely it was clear he wasn't here to harass him anymore? Best to move along and get out of his hair.
“So, my order - “
“How well do you know Chay?” interrupted Kim, again, tone now bordering on combative.
Kevin, to his credit, took the questioning in stride. “Well, I know him from class. I’m hoping to get to know him better outside of it.” Another smile Chay’s way.
“I bet you haven’t even done your research,” Kim accused.
“Research? Look buddy, I don’t know what your problem is, but we’re just trying to order some drinks, ok?”
That seemed to shut Kim up enough for him to, slowly and with great aplomb, turn back to the register. “Fine,” he bit out, and tapped aggressively at the screen. He spit out the total owed.
“Um,” started Chay, “But we didn’t say what we wanted.”
“I know your order.” Kim said it flippantly, like it was the most obvious thing and why was Chay being silly and acting otherwise? He looked up from the screen to give Kevin a once-over. “He obviously just gets a black coffee. No imagination. No creativity. Nothing but stark conformity.”
Chay turned to Kevin, determined to complete this interaction with civility if it killed him. “What did you want?”
“A black coffee,” admitted Kevin, blushing slightly.
“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Chay assured, while some small part of him couldn’t help but wonder if maybe Kim had a point.
Kevin paid for them both, a moment where Chay held his breath, half expecting Kim to throw the money back in their faces, but the transaction finished without further argument. Two mugs appeared in front of them shortly thereafter. There was not, Chay couldn’t help but notice, an accompanying free sugar cookie.
Chay grabbed both drinks, but not before Kim clarified which one belonged to Kevin. Twice.
10 minutes later, Chay was beginning to wonder what it was he had seen in Kevin. There was nothing wrong with him, he was just… boring. And predictable. And very, very blonde.
Trying not to feel too relieved when Kevin excused himself to the bathroom, Chay studied what was left of his latte until a shadow interrupted his coffee musings.
Chay looked up to find Kim making himself at home in the seat across from him.
Chay sighed, weary and tired of the whole thing. “Are you here to chew me out for showing up again? I really am sorry, I didn’t know he would choose this place.“
“No,” corrected Kim. “I am here to find out why you are going out with him when you could be going out with me?”
Chay’s jaw dropped open, brain whirring, desperately trying to make sense of this question and its direct contradiction to the past week’s events. “Excuse me?”
Kim looked at him like Chay was the one spouting ridiculous sentences. “What does that - that living embodiment of beige have that I don’t?” he gestured to himself, hand waving from carefully-coiffed hair to pointy-toed boots. He looked, like he usually did, like he’d just walked out of a magazine.
“Kevin’s not that bad,” he protested on reflex. “And, uh,” stammered Chay. “You told me to never touch you again. And to get out of your face.” They were statements, but his voice rose at the end like they were questions, suddenly unsure if he had fabricated this entire scenario.
“Oh,” said Kim, eyes lighting up like a sudden realization had dawned. “That makes sense.”
“What does?”
“That had nothing to do with you,” Kim explained. “That had to do with… others. Other people that are no longer a concern. You should touch me as much as you want.”
“Umm,” said Chay again, because what did you say to an announcement like that?
Kevin appeared behind Kim’s - well, what had minutes ago been Kevin’s - seat.
“I’m so sorry Chay, but I’m suddenly not feeling well. It's strange how it came on out of nowhere, but I really need to leave.”
Before Chay could get himself together enough to answer, Kim did so for him, sounding smug and satisfied. “You’re no longer needed here,” he declared, not looking away from Chay, waving away Kevin's presence like he was an ill-behaved child.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Chay forced himself to break eye contact with Kim to face Kevin, and immediately mourned the loss. “Are you okay to get home on your own?”
“I’ll call him a ride myself,” Kim again interjected.
“I’m good.” Kevin looked back and forth between the two of them, concern clear. “Are you good to get home?”
Chay smiled, and for the first time in a week, it felt genuine. “Yeah, I think I am.”
If Kevin left at that point, Chay didn’t know, because his whole attention was back on the man in front of him.
“So I didn’t sexually harass you at your place of work?” He needed to be absolutely, abundantly clear on this point.
Kim snorted. “If you had, you wouldn’t still have your hands to do it again.”
Chay promptly decided to ignore that possibly concerning statement and instead focus on the ‘touch me as much as you want.’ He quite liked that part.
“So if I did do it again,” Chay reached out to skate his pointer finger up the seam of Kim’s sleeve surrounding his forearm. “It would be welcomed?”
Kim’s voice lowered, becoming more intimate. “Very.”
Well, then. No time like the present. Before he could talk himself out of it, Chay leaned forward out of his chair and brushed their lips together in the lightest of kisses. He moved to sit back, but Kim’s hand shot up and grasped onto his hair, keeping him there a moment longer for a second, then third closed-mouth kiss.
Chay finally leaned back, grin wide and open. Kim wore a matching, if more subdued, smile.
“Do I get free lattes, now that I’m seeing the barista?” Chay joked.
Kim choked back the smallest of laughs. “You’ve already had enough free cookies to feed your entire graduating year. Don’t be greedy.”
“What - there’s no free baked goods for new customers’ promo?”
“Lasting every day for three weeks?” Kim raised an eyebrow. “No, there’s not.”
Chay crossed his arms over his chest and felt his face flush, resigning himself to the fact he seemed to do that a lot around Kim. “I didn’t think about it.”
Kim shrugged. “It kept you coming back, so I didn’t mind.”
That warmed Chay’s insides down to his toes, and he decided it was time for them to have some privacy, pronto.
“Let’s get out of here.” He tugged on Kim’s hand as he stood, the fact he had permission to do so loosening something inside him he hadn’t realized he’d been holding tight.
Chay pulled Kim through a path to the door, until, “Wait, don’t you have work?”
Kim laughed, a proper, deep belly laugh, and Chay reveled at the novel sound, determined to make Kim do it again, and soon. “I don't have any more use for this place.”
At that, their roles switched to Kim pulling Chay along, and what felt like faster than Chay could blink they had arrived at a shiny black sports car that no one on a barista’s salary could possibly afford. Chay peeked into the window. “Kim,” he asked. “Why is there a duffel of rope and duct tape in the back seat?”
Kim froze. “That was, er.” For the first time since Chay had met him, Kim seemed at a loss for words. “Incase you said you didn’t want to - “ he cut himself off. “I mean, for repairs. Repairs, yeah. Definitely.”
He pulled Chay in close, running his free hand along Chay’s side. “It doesn’t matter now, anyway. I don’t need them. You’re here.” He kissed Chay properly, with warm arms and exploring tongue, and Chay soon forgot about anything that wasn't Kim at all.