[One Shot] Better Than Revenge
Better Than Revenge
Author: Lyn_Seven
Pairing: Zhou Mi/Kyuhyun
Rating: PG to be safe
Genre: Romance/ drama
Summary: Adult Zhou mi owns a small café where nicely suited businessmen and pretty office ladies come in to buy their morning coffee.
Word count: 2023
They met again in a coffee shop. Zhou mi’s coffe shop.
It was not Kyuhyun’s usual one just beside his office, that one closed down. So Kyuhyun eyes the small coffee shop down for a moment before stepping in.
He has his head bowed, fumbling in his pocket for loose change to buy his coffee. He looks up to meet with a pair of eyes that seem familiar.
He runs through his memory a bit before it finally clicks.
Oh. His brain thinks, it’s that guy.
Wait. His brain sort of does a double take, he’s that guy?
He opens his mouth to say something, an awkward Hello or just to grunt when the person recognizes him and starts gushing in excitement.
Nothing happens.
Instead the man facing him gives him a half smile and a polite “What can I get you sir?”
Kyuhyun gapes for a bit before he felt impatient shuffling from the line behind him.
“Uh…Americano thanks.”
The man smiles and takes his change, asks for his name and points him to the side where he waits for his drink.
His drink comes with Kyuhyun written on it instead of Kui xian.
He ponders a moment before taking a sip.
It was bitter.
He comes back the next morning.
Hey Zhou mi, don’t you remember me? He wanted to ask, you were crazy for me.
It came out instead as “Americano please.”
Zhou mi hands him his drink with a no more than professional smile before turning to the next customer.
He comes back again for lunch.
You were really annoying He wanted to say; you just wouldn’t leave me alone.
Instead he ordered a sandwich and nods as the waitress places his food down instead of Zhou mi.
He picks out the cucumbers while he watched Zhou mi working at the counter.
Zhou mi doesn’t even look at him once.
He finally loses it one day.
It was a rainy morning, the coffee shop was quiet.
He steps in and rushes to the front of the counter, hair wet and panting.
“Have I gained too much weight or did I just get uglier? Do you really not recognize me?”
Zhou mi just looks at him and blinks, Kyuhyun’s cheeks flush and he kind of feels like smashing his head against a wall now.
“I recognize you, Cho Kyuhyun.” Zhou mi says simply.
Kyuhyun’s eyes widen in surprise “Then why didn’t you act like it?”
Zhou mi kind of shrugs “Should I have? I thought you always wanted me to act like I didn’t know you.”
Kyuhyun’s shoulders slump and he tries to argue, but Zhou mi has already turned his attention away to a customer coming in.
-
Sungmin raises his eyebrow at Kyyuhyun as he takes a sip of his hot chocolate “You like counter guy.”
Kyuhyun turns back to look at him, startled. “What?”
“You keep looking at him.” Sungmin smirks, amused “He is pretty hot, I approve.”
Kyuhyun is surprised Sungmin doesn’t see it, surprised that he himself had recognized the man so easily.
“He’s Zhou mi!” Kyuhyun hissed quietly.
Sungmin chokes on his drink a little too comically “He’s Zhou mi? Zhou mi from high school that would never leave you alone?”
Sungmin squints his eyes at Zhou mi for a while, then whistles “Wow, I would never imagine him to turn out this pretty.”
“Neither…” Kyuhyun mutters into his cup as he flicks another glance at the tall man.
-
Zhou mi recognized Kyuhyun the moment he stepped in his coffee shop for the first time.
He dies a little bit inside from the memories the man brings to him.
A small part of him wishes that Kyuhyun would be surprised, gape at him for his big change in appearance, while the more dominant part of him just wishes he will buy his coffee, leave without recognizing him and never come back again.
He doesn’t know what to think when Kyuhyun comes back the second day, twice.
He hopes it’s because he likes the coffee.
-
If High school Kyuhyun had to belong to a stereotype, he would be the popular kid.
Perfect grades, good reputation, always had his arm around a pretty girl, a crowd of friends and people constantly begging for his attention.
Zhou mi was the weird one no one really noticed- the slightly overweight one with acne breakout all over his face, crooked teeth and glasses too big that no one sat next to during lunch.
Kyuhyun doesn’t remember when or how he had interacted with Zhou mi, Zhou mi remembers every detail and spent the first two of his high school years living in the memory.
It was almost like a bad, cliché teen drama, he had dropped all his textbooks in the middle of a crowded hallway and Kyuhyun had been the only one to help him, a perfect smile as he handed his books back to top it all off.
So Zhou mi became the weird fan that followed Kyuhyun everywhere, lining up for him at the cafeteria and picks out the cucumbers in all his food for him, always ‘coincidentally’ going to the library at the same time as him, taking the same route home as him even though it meant he had to walk a few more kilometers to get back home.
Kyuhyun would give him a half smile or a ‘hello’ and he would be perfectly satisfied.
It happens not on any particular afternoon.
Kyuhyun was in a bad mood, about nothing in particular.
But he was young, and he was in a bad mood.
“Can you just stop!” Kyuhyun raises his voice a little too loudly for people not to hear “It’s getting really annoying! I don’t mind guys, but at least be good looking! Stop throwing yourself at me!”
He ignores it when Zhou mi runs away heart broken.
Zhou mi was never heard of in that school ever again, but it was normal.
It was high school- people get humiliated, people cry, people disappear.
No one expects less.
Kyuhyun is guilty for two weeks before he gets drunk at a party, makes out with a new girl and wakes up too hung over to think straight for a week.
By the time the week ends, he has other things to worry about other than feeling guilty.
Adult Kyuhyun is single and an office worker who takes the train to work everyday and works overtime in attempt to please his boss. His High school glory is too far in the past for him to even feel sorry for himself.
Adult Zhou mi owns a small café where nicely suited businessmen and pretty office ladies come in to buy their morning coffee. He never has to use his own money in attempt to fill the tip jar and rarely finds people not coming back after their first visit.
-
“So Zhou mi.” Sungmin is leaning against the counter, waggling his eyebrows, Kyuhyun was not with him today, surprisingly.
“Hello Sungmin-ssi, what can I get you?” Zhou mi deadpans, hedoesn’t even try to sound nice, Sungmin’s never tried during high school, so why should he?
He ignores the part of his brain that is scolding him for being immature.
Sungmin doesn’t seem to mind at his lack of enthusiasm as he shrugged “Surprise me”
He eyes Zhou mi down a little too suggestively as he makes him his drink. “So what happened to you huh?”
“Puberty, braces and contacts.” Zhou mi said stiffly as he hands him his drink.
Sungmin drinks it and nearly spits it out.
“On the house.” Zhou mi says a little too cheerfully.
-
Kyuhyun comes everyday, smiles at Zhou mi with an unwavering stare as he orders his Amricano.
Zhou mi averts his eyes away from the dark, piercing gaze that he was once so crazy about and wills his heart not to speed up.
He fails with less effort everyday.
It was the day that Kyuhyun brushes his hand against his a little too purposely and Zhou mi breaks.
He runs out after him, grabs him by the elbow and turns him around.
“Why do you come Kyuhyun? Why do you do this? Because You feel guilty? Because I’m good looking now? Because you still enjoy the feeling of playing with someone’s feelings?”
Kyuhyun stares at him, Zhou mi is trembling- with anger, with fear, with humiliation.
“I like the coffee.” Kyuhyun says simply, Zhou mi punches him in the face and runs.
Kyuhyun spills his coffee.
-
Hangeng eyes him with pity as Zhou mi picks at his food.
“I think he likes you.” Hangeng says, not too convincingly.
Zhou mi looks up and sees Kyuhyun entering the restaurant.
Kyuhyun entering the restaurant with a girl.
Kyuhyun pulls the chair out for the girl and she smiles sweetly.
Zhou mi pushes himself from his seat abruptly and excuses himself to a confused Hangeng. He catches Kyuhyun looking at him as he exits the restaurant.
Zhou mi waits outside for a good five minutes before leaving.
He hates himself for even hoping.
-
Kyuhyun doesn’t show up at the coffee shop the next morning.
Instead, a man named Siwon that had been coming regularly approaches him at the counter with a shy, dimpled smile and asks him if he could have the honour of buying him dinner that night.
Zhou mi refuses politely.
Siwon shows up anyway just before Zhou mi was closing up and buys a cup of coffee. He sips it silently while he watches Zhou mi wipe down the tables.
Siwon watches him lock up, “Siwon-ssi, you don’t have to wait for me…” Zhou mi almost wants to invite Siwon for a drink right now, but a certain pair of dark eyes flashes through his mind and he doesn’t.
Siwon smiles “I want to, I like watching you work.”
Zhou mi blushes, he has no reason not to.
Siwon boldly pulls him into a hug and whispers in his ear that he will come again tomorrow.
Zhou mi smiles after him as the handsome man jogs away, turning back to wave at him once before disappearing into a corner.
“Who was that?”
Zhou mi jumps as Kyuhyun emerges from the shadows, a scowl on his face.
“What are you doing here?” Zhou mi turns around to walk away, miffed.
Kyuhyun hugs him from behind and pulls him back.
“I had to make sure.” His voice softens, his chin digging into Zhou mi’s shoulder. “I had to make sure myself that I wasn’t coming back everyday just because I feel guilty, or because of your looks, or the coffee.”
Zhou mi struggles a little too weakly but Kyuhyun keeps his arms tightly wrapped around his waist.
“The girl you saw me with. She was pretty, smart and had a good sense of humour…”
Zhou mi breaks from his embrace angrily “If you came here just to tell me about how your date went, then sorry. I’m not interested.
Kyuhyun turns him around and looks into his eyes.
“I tried liking her, I tried to enjoy my time with her….but I couldn’t. I hated myself for not running after you. You were all I could think about that whole night, and the whole day today. I’m sure now.” He reaches for Zhou mi’s hands, “I really like you, Zhou mi.”
Zhou mi whimpers “Give me a reason why I should believe you?”
Kyuhyun kisses him, arms wrapping around Zhou mi’s slim waist as he presses him into his kiss.
Zhou mi falls weak and Kyuhyun pulls back from the kiss to hug him.
“That man was Siwon, he’s an accountant that works nearby.” Zhou mi murmurs into Kyuhyun’s shoulder, Kyuhyun hums in response, waiting for him to continue,
“He’s probably much nicer than you.”
“I know.”
“A lot of people like me now.”
“I know.”
“You’re a jerk, I hate you.”
“I know.”
Kyuhyun pulls Zhou mi closer to him, he smells the coffee on Zhou mi and it’s kind of addicting.
“I must be such an idiot to fall for you again…” Zhou mi sighs.
“I know.”
Kyuhyun tips his head back to kiss him again.