#juyeon will promote it to u all u want tho LMAO

[jeongjaebae]

The regular dilemma

⇢ Juyeon x reader, 4.2k, humour and fluff ⇢ Warnings: dirty jokes, swearing

⇢ Everyone's been telling you about The Social Dilemma, but it's not social media that is the dilemma. It's socializing. Specifically, socializing with your regular customer (and crush???) at the coffee shop you work at.

"Social media is a disease, Y/N," Hyunjae says, trying to grab your phone out of your hands. "Tell me, have you ever seen anything good being posted online? They just feed you brain-rotting posts that will reduce your IQ a little each time."

"Yeah? Well, maybe if I lost some IQ points I'd finally be able to understand the stupid shit that you do." You roll your eyes at him, quickly putting your phone away before he could do any real damage to it. Why had it been a good idea to let him watch that docudrama? He's never given you a moment of peace ever since being brainwashed by it.

"You're just jealous that I'm better at everything—"

"And you know what else is a disease? Lovesickness. I am entirely blaming you and your big fat crush on Mr. Seoul Fashion Week for my current situation."

The mention of his crush's code name finally gets him to shut up, and you count that as a win.

Lovesickness. Indeed, it was a disease that had spread to you the moment the gorgeous man had walked into the cafe.

If it had been one month earlier, you would've said that you hated Monday shifts the most because it would mean another week of having to fake-smile at customers, getting the orders right, and making drinks as fast as you could. It'd mean another week of spending hours at a time on your feet while crying over the assignments you still had to do for class and the midterms you still had to study for, and—whoever said being a visual arts major was easy was definitely wrong.

If that wasn't bad enough, you also had to put up with being teased by your archenemy and asshole co-worker, Hyunjae, as he tries to one-up you in every single aspect of your job. Making drinks? You'd lost to him by a few milliseconds. Heating up food? How could that possibly turn into a competition when the oven really only has one time setting? Yet Hyunjae shakes his head at you every time for being too slow. You don't even want to think about the times he'd called your attempts at latte art ugly, with a 'Tsk tsk Y/N, I thought you said you were a visual arts major?' The point is, why did this become a competition? You were supposed to be a team.

But now, the stresses of being alive no longer seem quite so critical when compared to the stuttering of your heart and the shaking of your hands under the gaze of one important customer.

He's probably a college student too, always arriving with notebooks sprawled across his usual table by the window. What's missing though, is the look of crippling stress shown through the dark circles, downturned lips, and dead gazes of college students. Instead, he somehow manages to maintain such a perfect image as if he walked straight out of a magazine—smooth skin, beautiful features, and hair that falls perfectly into place when not hidden under his baseball cap. He's airbrushed and photoshopped down to the last pixel.

But of course, he wasn't perfect. In fact, the first time you'd ever met him had been through an extremely awkward encounter that you'd very much rather forget about. It'd been a day when you were unwillingly put on cash duty, with Hyunjae working away at the drinks that he claimed he made so much better than you did. And then, that's when the cutest guy you'd ever seen had walked in.

"Hi, how are you today?" you'd greeted with a smile. Everything had been prepared for this moment. Your finger had hovered over the buttons on the machine, ready to type in the order as soon as you heard it. Then you'd just grab the right cup and get the name of the cute customer and—

"Hey, I'm Juyeon. Lee Juyeon," he said, as if his name had been exactly what you asked for. Well, he wasn't exactly wrong because you had indeed wanted to know his name but—had he somehow read your mind? "And you are...?" he'd continued with no intention to correct himself.

"Uh—Y/N." An awkward smile. "I'm Y/N."

He'd smiled back. "It's nice to meet you, Y/N."

And that's how it all started.

Lee Juyeon.

Eyes that seem to smile as they disappear when he smiles. Lips that curl up just the slightest at the corners. He's so attractive that you would totally draw him in latte art if he could. Wouldn't those lattes be so thirst-quenching—

"Well it looks like Mr. Vanilla Latte is here again," a teasing voice floats over from by the sink, pulling you out of your thoughts. "It's the second time today too."

You hear the smirk in Hyunjae's voice without even turning, and immediately glance at the door again for the ten-thousandth time this hour. And as he mentioned, you can indeed see the gorgeous man heading into the cafe.

"Second time?"

"He was here when I started my shift," Hyunjae says, drying the blenders and putting them on the rack. "Seemed kind of disappointed when you weren't here, though I'm not sure why he'd rather stare at you when I'm much hotter? But anyway, maybe that's why he's coming in again." He simply shrugs when you shoot him a glare. "Got thirsty."

"Isn't your shift supposed to like," you gesture vaguely, "end, or something?"

"Not for another two hours," Hyunjae raises his eyebrows and clicks his tongue knowingly. "So you want to take the cash so you can talk to lover boy, or do you want to make his drink," he shoots you a look of disgust, "with love, and all that?"

"I'll make the drink," you grumble, giving him the middle finger before planting yourself in front of the section of syrups.

It would give you more time to talk to Juyeon than being at the cash register would, if other customers came in. Besides, maybe you wanted to draw something nice for him.

"Hi, what can I get you?" Hyunjae asks, and you can hear the smirk dripping from his voice. The audacity. If he scares Juyeon off, you'd never forgive him.

"Just the usual, please." Juyeon's eyes flicker over to you for the briefest millisecond, and you'd almost forgotten just how soft yet deep his voice was. "For here."

"I wanted to ask you something about latte art."

"Why, are you planning on drawing your number to give to Mr. Vanilla Latte?" Hyunjae has that ugly smug look on his face again and you fight the urge to smack it off.

You obviously hadn't wanted to ask him anything, but he's literally your last resource. Spending all too many hours on Google browsing through pages of latte art just didn't yield anything that seemed special enough for Juyeon. And you'd already spent too many shifts practicing your latte art in a corner when your asshole barista partner wasn't looking—you'd given the bad ones to Hyunjae's crush for free and said they were from him though. That was probably the only revenge you'd get on him in this lifetime.

"Can you actually do that?" You ask, then roll your eyes when you see him nodding. "No, but I was actually thinking of drawing a heart or something."

Hyunjae snorts, bending over the counter in attempt to conceal his laughter, and failing at it for a good full minute. "You—what?"

You don't bother answering him and frown instead, waiting for him to stop. Someday he'll get a giant coffee stain on one of those white shirts of his and who will be the one laughing then?

"Seriously? Hearts?" he deadpans.

"You have a better idea?"

"Well, your number is probably a better idea." Hyunjae pauses. "But I'll teach you how to do both anyway."

A few hours later, Juyeon was undoubtedly walking through the door as usual, and you were ready to do the thing. It was going to be your phone number floating along the top, with a couple of pretty swirls at the bottom.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah, just go give it to him." Hyunjae rolls his eyes. As if it's so easy to do this.

You glare at him. "I don't see you making any moves on Mr. Seoul Fashion Week."

Hyunjae blanches a little at that, and you almost wanted to tell him that you'd been doing his work for him this entire time. He'd done nothing except for feast his eyes on Younghoon each time he'd been here, leaving you to be the one to give Younghoon free items supposedly from your asshole co-worker. At least you could see why Hyunjae liked him: Younghoon was nearly as gorgeous as your own crush, and quite nice too, if those sweet smiles he gave you whenever you gave him one of your messed up drinks meant anything. But most of all, you're simply thankful for his existence because he seems to be the only one who could bring out the non-asshole side of Hyunjae.

"Hey, be grateful," Hyunjae flashes the brightest evil smile that you've seen thus far, and you kind of want to punch him. "I'm letting you win this time by being first to confess to your crush."

"Fuck off," you huff, finally picking up the cup to bring over to Juyeon's table.

Thank goodness Hyunjae isn't there to catch you glancing at your blank phone screen every five seconds when you go home that night. Well, it's not so blank when it's Hyunjae himself who spams you with his useless rambling before you go to block him. So much for saying social media was a disease? But regardless of the notifications or lack thereof, there is no text from Juyeon.

And maybe you'd just been deluding yourself after all, only seeing what you wanted to see. Maybe the bright smile on Juyeon's face was one that he plasters on for the entire world, the light blush on his cheeks was just from the lighting, and the gentle brush of fingers over yours had simply been an accident.

Because why would there be any reason for Juyeon to like you anyway? Why would someone who looks like him possibly be interested in someone like you? And besides, the two of you barely knew anything about each other.

So you push the hope in your chest down and bury it under more pressing issues like the assignment you hadn't even started on. You throw yourself in the pile of work that needs to be done, and don't even check your phone for the rest of the night.

Most of all, you really don't want to go back to work. Ever again.

"So? Did he text you?" Hyunjae corners you the next day when you see him at the coffee shop, bombarding you with questions. Unfortunately. "What did he say? Did you block me just so that you could talk to him? That's so rude, Y/N. You've loved me for way longer. How could you?"

"No, he didn't text me." Your heart sinks with the reminder, cheeks ablaze from the humiliation. "He probably thinks I'm a creep now. I think I'll just... stop trying. If he ever comes back at all."

To your surprise, Hyunjae actually shuts up. The lack of an evil smile on his face indicates that he must have at least some kind of common sense, and for a second, he looks like he feels bad about your situation.

"You know, maybe I'll just quit and find a new job. That way I'll just forget about him, and I also won't have to deal with your ugly face ever again—"

"Shut up, loser. You're in luck," Hyunjae nods towards the door, "because it looks like lover boy is back."

And just as he said, Juyeon is walking through the door like he'd done every day so far.

"Go talk to him when you give him his drink. Maybe he doesn't even have a phone. Or a texting plan. Maybe he's smart enough to know the dangers of social media—"

You groan. "Who, in this age, doesn't have a phone?"

Hyunjae side-eyes you, staying silent.

"Wow, Hyunjae, don't tell me you dropped it in the toilet again." And when he still doesn't give a response, you stare at him. "I blocked you for one night and this is what happens?"

"That's not why my phone isn't working though," he mutters, oddly quiet. "It was from washing it afterwards."

"Wait. You did what?"

"Hey!" Hyunjae frowns at you, "I couldn't just leave it dirty, okay?"

You shake your head at him in disbelief. "I suddenly feel bad for Younghoon for having someone so stupid liking him."

"Shut up and get your ass over there, ugly."

A few minutes later, you bring the latte to Juyeon. There's a normal heart design as the art today since you figured it would be a bit too strange if you suddenly stopped doing the latte art after yesterday. At least that's what you tell yourself—that this is just a normal drink from a barista to a customer, that it isn't because you want to impress him or anything like that.

"Here's your drink." You set it down and try to avoid staring at him for too long. "Enjoy!"

That brilliant smile with the eye crinkles and even teeth this time is what you get from Juyeon in return. "Thanks, Y/N."

"Anytime," you say, trying to mirror his smile instead of thinking of things to say. About that situation. Maybe it'd be best to just forget it even happened and simply brace yourself for Hyunjae's teasing instead. But just before you could turn around and leave, Juyeon clears his throat.

"Hey, um, do you prefer talking to people in person instead of texting?" he suddenly asks, an unreadable expression on his face. "I get it, if that's the case. You know, last week I just watched this movie called The Social Dilemma, and it really opened my eyes to the dangers of social media. I've been trying to lower my screen time ever since."

What?

Are you fucking kidding me? Not you too, is your first reaction. You almost thought you were hearing things because this entire event seemed like a prank that the world was trying to pull on you. It takes a good thirty seconds of your jaw hanging open and brain reeling before any sound could come out of your mouth.

"Oh. Right," you say slowly, "The Social Dilemma. Yup, I've definitely heard of that one." Yeah, a little too frequently for your liking. "And um. I don't mind either way... of communicating?" In fact it would be great—no, excellent— if you could text me back, yes thank you.

"Oh." His face dims into a puzzled frown. "But you told me to stop texting you?"

"Wait, what?" You quickly pull out your phone to see that the notification section still remains blank. Unfortunately just like your love life. "I never even received any texts from you."

Juyeon pulls out his phone as well. "Hmm, is this your number?"

It looks right for the most part. Except where there should be a six, there's an eight instead.

"Ah, that's why." You take his phone when he passes it to you and make the correction. "It was wrong."

"You mean I've been texting the wrong person this entire time?" Juyeon pulls up the text conversation with the wrong number, showing a couple of text bubbles filled with some compliments for your drinks, and—was that a good morning text? Was that a cute sticker? But the string of texts ends with a 'stop texting me' from the ungrateful recipient.

"That's so mean. They could've at least said it was the wrong number." You purposely do not acknowledge the contents of the texts as you feel the blush creeping up your cheeks.

"It's okay." Juyeon shrugs, the frown on his face turning into a soft smile once again. "I'll be sure to text the right one this time."

Getting your number, sending kind messages, and then having to face you after supposedly being told off by you? If you'd thought not getting a text from him was embarrassing, perhaps his situation was even worse. You're thankful that he's persistent or confident enough to come back because if you were him, you would've buried yourself in a hole and would've never crawled out of it.

Maybe the embarrassing part was actually your terrible latte art. Oh, and whatever Hyunjae would have to say about this now.

"Here's your drink!"

It's his usual vanilla latte, with the same heart latte art that you had been drawing for the past while now. For consistency, you tell yourself, and definitely not to impress a certain someone. You just hope that your asshole co-worker never looks at other people's drinks and notices the lack of fancy designs on them.

"Thanks, Y/N," is accompanied with a smile so bright that you're nearly blinded for a brief second.

Thank goodness Hyunjae wasn't working the shift with you this time—he'd said something about needing to get his phone fixed. Deserved, you'd told him. It was karma for everything he's put you through.

When there's a lull and no customers show up for a while, you find your eyes constantly drifting back to Lee Juyeon. His gorgeous side profile, the way the sunlight bounces off his hair so perfectly, the way he seems to glow—it was like a scene in a drama, where the love interest is introduced with romantic music and that dazzling sunlight on their face.

And that's also when you notice Juyeon glancing strangely at the latte. He lifts it, holds it against the natural light streaming through the window, looks at it from one side, then from the top, then the other side. When he finally puts the cup down, his eyes wander over to where you're standing behind the counter.

Was there something wrong with the latte? Maybe there was a bug in it? That would be quite terrible.

You decide to approach the table after about five minutes of hesitating. "Hey, Juyeon. Is everything alright?"

"Yeah, everything's fine." His eyes immediately light up when he looks up from the cup to see you sitting across from him. But when he glances back at the latte, the confused expression morphs into pressed lips filled with hesitance. Paired with a furious blush dusting his cheeks. "Well, actually... I wanted to ask you. About your latte art."

Now it's your turn to hesitate because could he be asking about why you keep drawing hearts in his drinks? Had you been reading the whole situation wrong? Maybe those texts had meant nothing after all, and he was just trying to be nice about the latte art number thing. You'd secretly thought it was more progress than Hyunjae had made since Younghoon had thrown out the napkin with Hyunjae's number entirely, but now, Juyeon's words fill you with uncertainty.

"Um, sure, I guess," you say, trying to plaster on a smile despite the way your palms were sweating under the weight of his gaze. "What did you want to ask?"

Juyeon gives you a wry smile before moving the cup across the table until it's right in front of you. He turns it so that your latte art would be facing you, and—

You notice it.

The heart that Hyunjae had painstakingly taught you how to draw. The one that he may or may not have intentionally sabotaged, though you'd have to ask him about it later. Basically, the heart on Juyeon's drink that he'd been staring at for the past five minutes doesn't look like a heart at all.

The drawing is quite deformed. It has increased in length and decreased in width, possibly from the movements of the drink when you'd brought the cup over, and now the bottom corner is not so much a corner anymore when it's much rounder. In short, it looks like a dick.

And to think that a moment ago, you'd thought his question would be about why you were drawing hearts in his drinks. Now it seems like his question would be why you were drawing dicks! In his drinks!

You were so going to kill Hyunjae.

"I-I don't know if this is," Juyeon says slowly and painfully, "intentional? Or like some kind of hint or message?"

"No!" you blurt. "Absolutely not. That would be very out of line. Shit, I'm so sorry about this. Is this what they've all been looking like?"

He bites his lip. Gives you a couple of tiny nods.

"Ugh. This is so embarrassing." Your hands automatically make their way to hide your face as you slide halfway down your seat. Maybe this was all just a dream. Maybe you were still in that hole you dug yourself when he never texted you the last time you tried your hand at latte art. "You should've... told me earlier."

From between your fingers you see an equally pained expression on Juyeon's face. "Well, I—" he hesitates. "I didn't know if it meant something. Or not." The words seem to come out one by one, dragged out and filled with a suffocating silence in between. "And if it did," he mutters, completely avoiding your gaze now, "I was going to say that we should um," he fiddles with the sleeve of his shirt, "maybe take this slowly."

"Um. Yeah. I agree."

"And if it didn't," Juyeon runs a hand through his hair. "Well. I don't mean to criticize your latte art."

"It was supposed to be a heart," you mutter. "Like, I'm so sorry that you had to even see that. Let alone... drink it."

"Nah, don't worry about it. See it every day anyway." Then he balks when you abruptly meet his eyes. "Uh—never mind. I didn't mean to say that."

"Um. Yeah."

Then, silence. Juyeon's gaze bounces between looking out the window and looking at you, while yours alternates between his face and the unappetizing drink on the table.

He clears his throat. "Uh. So you meant to put a heart?"

Was he about to question why you drew hearts in his drinks now? Suddenly, you're no longer sure whether this was better or worse than the previous topic.

But even though this is the most awkward conversation you've ever had, there's still something that tells you not all is lost. That this small mishap doesn't cause the kindness in his eyes to waver in the brief moments he meets your gaze, that it doesn't erase the patience he wears on his face even when his cheeks are covered by the reds of embarrassment. And perhaps the fact that he still texts you despite trying to never lose brain cells from social media again means something more than all the dicks you'd accidentally drawn in his lattes.

So maybe you do take a leap out of the hole you mentally dug yourself.

"Um, yeah," you nod. "And you think we should take it slow?"

A shy smile creeps onto Juyeon's face. "Well, yeah. We should at least go on a date first before we get to... um." He rubs his neck where the blush has begun to spread. "The part that you... unintentionally drew."

"But you do think that we should," you muse. Then add for clarification when his eyes widen, "Go on a date, I mean."

"Only if you want to."

"Of course I do—wait, do you?"

"Haven't I made it obvious enough?" Juyeon ducks, avoiding your eyes while the sheepish grin grows on his lips. "Y/N, I wouldn't have come here twice in a day just to stare at your co-worker."

At the mention of the asshole barista, you sneak a glance over to the counter where Hyunjae is now standing, having finally arrived at work. He gives a cheerful wave at the two of you. And maybe a taunting smirk.

You shrug. "Well, he's constantly bragging about how hot he is."

"Maybe, but just between you and me, isn't he like," Juyeon gestures, "kind of annoying?"

"Right? You don't know how much I've been wanting you to say that."

A teasing smile lights up his face. "You mean you weren't wanting for me to say that we should go on a date?"

"Hey!"

When you leave for your date with Juyeon, all you see is Hyunjae's smug face. But the joke's on him because you don't tell him that Mr. Seoul Fashion Week thinks Hyunjae's been giving him the heart lattes, the ones that turn out looking like dicks. Nor do you tell him that there's a giant coffee stain on the front of his white shirt.

On the date with Juyeon, you finally realize that maybe social media really is making you lose brain cells when Hyunjae starts spamming all of your accounts, freaking out about the dick lattes. And with Juyeon's soft smile and the way his eyes light up, you end up turning your phone off for the night, not needing anything more than what you already had right in front of you.