The smell of roasted coffee beans clung to my sleeves.
It always did.
The last customer had left twenty minutes ago, but I was still behind the counter — wiping already clean surfaces, pretending there was more to do.
Café Areum had gone quiet now.
No more chimes, no more voices, just me and the soft hum of the city outside.
The moment I'd been waiting for all day.
I reached for the small remote tucked near the cash register and pointed it at the dusty television mounted above the espresso machine. It flickered to life, and the world shifted.
From dull… to dream.
There he was.
Hyunwoo.
On stage. In motion.
Golden lights bathed him like he belonged to another world. Fans screamed his name, waving their lightsticks like waves under a night sky. And in the center of it all — he smiled.
My chest tightened.
He didn't know me.
He never would.
But that smile… it felt like a secret passed through the screen. One he didn't mean to give me — but I took anyway.
I pulled the chair behind me and sat, folding my arms on the countertop like a girl praying in silence.
I didn't always feel this way.
Not until that one night… when the world had been too quiet and too loud all at once.
When loneliness sat beside me like a shadow.
When I found his voice by accident — or maybe fate — playing through someone's phone on a bus ride home.
And something inside me cracked open.
That night, I looked him up. Watched video after video. I wasn't even sure what I was looking for.
But I found comfort in his laughter.
Warmth in his voice.
And maybe… maybe a reason to hold on a little longer.
No one knew. Not even the girls I served coffee to every day who wore his face on their tote bags. I wasn't like them — screaming or chasing him across airports.
I loved him quietly.
In the spaces between espresso shots and empty tables.
In every unspoken wish that stayed locked in my chest.
Tonight, like every other night, I whispered the same thing under my breath as he finished his performance and bowed to a roaring crowd.
"I just want to meet you… once."
I didn't expect the universe to answer.
I didn't believe in miracles or fanfiction moments.
I just needed to say it.
Because there's something about loving someone from afar that feels safe —
until your heart starts hoping.
I didn't know what was waiting for me.
I didn't know how everything was about to change.
I didn't know that somewhere, out there,
he was going to walk into my story.
But maybe…
he already had.