i wil confess what has been on the tip of my tongue tomorrow

“Hi there, do you have any rice milk lattes?”

Now, Ten hadn’t been a barista for long–he had started a whole two weeks ago–but one thing that had been drilled into him was to always satisfy the customer. The owner of the cafe, Taeyong, prided himself on always having happy customers and Ten wasn’t about to ruin that for him.

Except, well, there was a slight problem; here was an admittedly cute customer who wanted a latte made with rice milk, but last Ten checked, they didn’t stock rice milk. It was harder to store and was rarely asked for in comparison to soy or almond milk, so Taeyong never ordered it apparently.

Ten was about to tell the customer that, sorry, they didn’t have any rice milk, would he like anything else off the menu, before he remembered. He had brought a thermos of rice milk with him as part of his lunch; it wasn’t his usual choice of drink but Sicheng swore by the stuff and Ten just wanted to finish the damn bottle so he could go back to his choice (and the superior choice) of almond milk.

Well, Ten probably wouldn’t like it as much as this guy would, so it probably wouldn’t hurt to just give him the rice milk.

“We sure do, what size? And would you like anything else with that?”

“Small, please. And no thank you, just the latte will be fine.”

“Okay then, your total will be $2.70.”

The customer pulled out his wallet, which seemed to be a standard black leather fare until Ten noticed the myriad of glittery heart stickers stuck on the other side of it. Noticing his staring, the man flushed and quickly pulled out his card, pocketing the wallet.

“My friend likes to pull pranks on me,” he quietly explained as he inserted his chip.

Ten hummed. “Well, don’t we all have friends like that?” Ten asked, thinking of his younger coworker Xiaojun who seemed like a very polite person from first glance but was secretly a menace.

The man chuckled, “Yeah I suppose we do.” He pulled out the card upon the machine’s prompting and looked up expectantly at Ten.

Ten snapped back to attention, remembering that he actually had a job to do and couldn’t just stare at a customer. “Okay, and can I just have your name for the cup?” he asked, pulling out a small cup from the stack and grabbing his Sharpie.

“Kun,” the man, Kun, said, and Ten thought it was completely unfair how such an attractive guy could have such an attractive name. And he had somehow perfectly parted hair and straight teeth, it was completely ridiculous. Granted, the guy’s hair was a dark blue color but who was Ten to judge with his completely bleached hair?

“Perfect, if you’ll just wait over there, I’ll call your name when it’s done.” Kun smiled and walked to the back of the cafe. Ten watched for a second as he pulled out his cell phone, before turning and calling for Xiaojun to take over the register.

The espresso was still fresh from just a few minutes ago, so he quickly poured some into the cup before walking into the staff break room. He grabbed his thermos of rice milk from the fridge and quickly ran back to put some of the milk into the steamer. Within a couple of minutes, the milk was ready, and so he poured it on top of the espresso, making sure not to mess up the foam at the top.

Drawing latte art was one of Ten’s specialties, his minor in design always coming in handy, so he drew a complex heart design as best as he could. He went back to the other register to print out the receipt. For a whole second, he debated writing his phone number on there, because honestly, Kun was one of the most handsome customers to come in for a while, but decided against it last minute. It wasn’t like Ten would be seeing Kun again anytime soon, and Kun probably already had someone anyways.

Ten forced a smile on his face and called Kun’s name. His blue hair looked even nicer under the different lighting.

“Here’s your latte! Enjoy!” he said, and this time his smile was completely genuine as he watched Kun snap a picture of the heart design at a nearby table before sipping at his latte.

“Ten-ge, I need help with the register!” Xiaojun shouted. Ten sighed.

There was no time for daydreaming when Xiaojun was around.

---

“Hi there, do you have rice milk lattes?”

Ten blinked, staring silently at Kun, who stood there smiling awkwardly.

“W-what?” he stuttered out before he could stop himself.

“Rice milk lattes…?” Kun asked again, this time a bit unsure.

Oh, that was right. Ten had never told Kun that they didn’t actually have any rice milk. He was about to break the news to Kun when he remembered the excited little smile on Kun’s face the last time he had ordered one.

Ten was fairly sure the convenience store next door carried rice milk. Technically, he could slip out and purchase some in under two minutes if he was quick. Even faster if no one else was there. And for once, the coffee shop wasn’t as full as it normally was, so there weren’t even any other customers. Honestly, the idea was ridiculous but…

“Oh yeah, of course. Sorry, spaced out there for a second. Would you like a small size again?”

Kun smiled appreciatively. “If you don’t mind.”

“Fantastic. Okay then, anything else you want?”

“Hm, I don’t think so thank you.”

“Your total is going to be $2.70 then.” As Kun began taking out his card, Ten had an idea. “Oh, just letting you know that the espresso machine has been a little finicky this morning, so sorry if there are any delays. It shouldn’t be too big of a problem though.”

Kun nodded as he tucked away his card. “That’s fine, thanks for letting me know.”

“Of course. Okay then, and your name is Kun right?” Of course, Ten still remembered his name–how could he forget–but it would be weird if he remembered Kun’s name even if he did come in just yesterday.

“Yes,” Kun said, and he flashed Ten another small smile–which melted Ten’s heart–before walking to the back of the store.

Ten speed-walked to the back room. He spotted Xiaojun lounging on a chair, and hurried towards him.

“Xiaojun, I’ll be back in two minutes, you’re in charge,” he said, and before Xiaojun could say anything he was already leaving through the back door.

Ten rushed to the store and quickly spotted the fridges in the back. Spotting the small container of rice milk at the bottom, he grabbed it and hastily made his way to the register.

He waited impatiently while the cashier checked out his items, and the moment the cashier handed the bottle and his debit card back, Ten was racing back into the coffee shop, rice milk in hand.

Ten passed by a bewildered Xiaojun as he poured a small amount of milk into the steamer. As he went to turn on the espresso machine, Xiaojun followed.

“Ten-ge, excuse my language, but what the fuck are you doing? Did you leave just to buy milk?” Xiaojun asked incredulously.

“So what if I did?” Ten asked back, staring at the espresso machine, the decor on the wall, the stack of coffee beans, anything but Xiaojun.

“We have milk here, why would you need more if–,” Xiaojun paused as he noticed the label on the milk. “Why on Earth did you leave for rice milk? Just tell the guy we don’t have it. Unless…” Xiaojun turned back to stare at Ten, “you have a crush on him.”

Ten swallowed heavily. “Suddenly, I don’t understand Mandarin,” he said, pouring some espresso into an empty cup.

He pushed Xiaojun aside, who scoffed indignantly and carefully poured the steamed milk into the cup. This time, he focused a bit more on the latte art, adding little swirls in addition to the heart.

This time, he didn’t even consider adding his number to the receipt and just handed over the drink with a bright smile.

Kun, just like yesterday, accepted it with a smile and snapped a picture of the art before drinking it.

Ten headed into the back once again, where Xiaojun seemed to have been lying in wait.

“Ten-ge, why didn’t you give your number?! It’s pretty clear you have a crush on him. Seriously, you went out and bought him rice milk with the money I know you don’t have.”

Ten didn’t say anything. It was true, all of Ten’s spending money nowadays went towards his rent and his cats, anything leftover was always splurged on new art supplies. But buying rice milk didn’t mean anything, no matter what Xiaojun.

“Why are you making such a big deal out of it? It was just a one-time thing, if he comes again I’ll tell him we don’t have any rice milk,”: Ten said, with a sense of finality in his voice.

---

Except when Kun came again the next day, and the day after, and every day for the next two weeks, Ten didn’t say anything.

At first, it was because he had half the bottle of rice milk and it would be a waste not to use it.

But then suddenly, it seemed as though every other day he was leaving the store to purchase rice milk. Xiaojun kept laughing at him every time he left, and honestly, Ten wasn’t sure why he put up with the kid.

Maybe it was because Kun started talking more to Ten about himself; telling him about his own younger friend Yangyang, who sounded like he’d get along swimmingly with Xiaojun. He learned that Kun composed music and that he was actually in college at the moment finishing a degree in music composition. In turn, Ten shared a little about his major in dancing and talked about his cats Louis and Leon.

He found that Kun was incredibly easy to talk to, even if Ten forgot every other word around him because he would get lost in admiring Kun’s handsomeness, as cheesy as it sounded. Thankfully, he always laughed it off as him knowing too many languages and needing to process what he was saying.

However, as much as he liked to talk to Kun for those brief moments, his wallet didn’t appreciate it nearly as much. He had needed to purchase a new watercolor sketchbook for his art classes, and his very precious amount of spending money left was going towards rice milk he wasn’t even supposed to be buying. Honestly, Ten was surprised Taeyong hadn’t said anything about, though the man was so busy with his 3 other businesses, Ten was pretty sure he hadn’t even noticed anything.

It was honestly fine, until one day, Xiaojun stopped him from leaving. It had been an incredibly slow day, which probably should’ve worried Ten more than it did, but honestly, he just enjoyed the extra time to talk to Kun. Apparently, Kun was working on a new song, though he was tight-lipped on the details. Ten shared a little about the choreography he and Sicheng were working on before Kun left to wait for his drink.

“Xiaojun, what are you doing? Let me go please,” he asked, resisting the urge to just push Xiaojun’s hand off his arm.

“No, Ten-ge, I can’t keep watching this. Now, I talked to Xuxi and Hendery–”

“Who the fuck are Xuxi and Hendery? I don’t have time for your stories right now Xiaojun,” Ten grumbled.

“They’re friends, they work the later shift. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. The three of us decided that you needed to talk to Kun, and if you don’t decide to do it yourself, then I’m going to force you to.”

Xiaojun looked so serious, Ten almost laughed. But he didn’t and instead tried once again to push Xiaojun away, but the younger wouldn’t budge. “Come on Xiaojun, this is ridiculous. I’ll tell him eventually…” he trails off because honestly Ten hadn’t planned to ever tell Kun but what his plan then? Just to buy rice milk every other day until either Kun stopped coming or Ten quit the job? Xiaojun was right, for once; it was sounding fairly ridiculous.

“No, not eventually, Ten-ge. You’re going to go and tell him now,” Xiaojun said, no amount of uncertainty in his voice. He began pulling Ten to the front, and honestly, Ten could’ve tried harder to stop him.

Xiaojun marched them both until they were almost by the register. “Now, you’re going to tell him the truth, or so help me, I will… destroy your Copic markers.” Xiaojun probably had no idea where Ten kept those markers, but Ten wasn’t taking any chances so he walked up to the counter.

“Hey, um, Kun,” he called out, and Kun looked up in slight confusion but came up to the counter.

“Is there something wrong?” Kun asked.

“No,” Ten started, “no, nothing’s wrong. I just.. I need to tell you something,” Ten said, hoping his voice didn’t quaver too much.

“Sure, what’s up?” Kun asked, confusion coloring his voice.

“Um, so I don’t how to say this, so I guess I’m going to just say it.” Ten took a deep breath, before continuing. “We don’t have any rice milk.”

“Oh? Do you want me to switch my drink order then?”

“Let me rephrase that. We’ve never had any rice milk,” Ten confessed, heat rising in his cheeks. He could see the dots connecting in Kun’s mind.

“But, you’ve always given me a rice milk latte? How could you do that if you didn’t have rice milk?”

“Because I bought it,” Ten whispered, bowing his head.

“I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear that,” Kun said apologetically.

“I bought the rice milk. From the store next door,” Ten repeated, raising his head ever-so-slightly, trying to gauge Kun’s reaction.

Kun’s expression was hard to read, but it seemed to transition between several choices before finally settling on being amused. “Why would you do that? You could’ve just told me you didn’t have any.”

“Ithoughtyouwerecute,” Ten blurted out, before immediately covering his mouth with his hands.

“Could you say that again,” Kun said, humor in his voice.

“I thought you were cute,” Ten said quietly. He looked into Kun’s face, but there didn’t seem to be any anger. In fact, Kun seemed to be… laughing.

“So you’ve been buying me rice milk with your own money every day for the past two weeks because you thought I was cute? I must say, this is probably the most interesting way I’ve ever been asked out,” Kun said chuckling lightly.

Ten blushed furiously. “You just looked so happy with the rice milk, I couldn’t say no,” he mumbled. Wait. Asked out? Did that mean…

“Well, I appreciate that you did that for me. How about I make it up to you? Would you like to go out with me tonight?” Kun asked.

Ten’s brain froze before it finally caught up to what Kun was saying. “You want to go out? With me?” he said before he could stop himself.

“Well, I don’t think anyone else here bought me milk for two weeks just so they didn’t have to tell me they didn’t stock a certain of milk, so yes, you. How about I pick you up at 7 tonight?”

“Yes. Yes! Absolutely. That would be… amazing actually,” Ten said, happily. He couldn’t believe it; the most handsome customer he’d ever seen was asking him out.

“Great. So can I have your number so we can work out the details?” Kun asked, holding out his phone.

Ten picked it up with trembling hands, carefully putting his number into Kun’s phone. He carefully checked each digit twice, before saving the contact under Ten.

“Great, I’ll see you later then, Ten,” Kun said, waving at him as he exited the coffee shop.

“Bye, Kun,” Ten replied, waving back.

He stood at the counter for a moment before Xiaojun came walking over to him.

“See ge, it wasn’t that hard. And look at it this way, now you won’t die alone with just your cats,” Xiaojun said cheekily.

“What the hell, Xiaojun? I am not that old, you brat. Come back here before I tell Taeyong to give your overtime!”