#they only have the good sense to bkush when one of the elderly women pats both of their shoulders and asks if they couldn't have held out

[carmenlire]

tkem au where sinjae owns a coffeeshop and one day yeong becomes a regular. sinjae sees a cute guy with dangerous secrets and yeong sees a handsome barista who's a little surly but with an undeniable charm.

one day a tabloid reporter comes up to sinjae, just after yeong's left with his usual and asks what the captain's go-to order is. sinjae reacts in typical sinjae manner and it's only then that he decides that if the captain of the royal guard, the king's right hand man, wants to bring such nuisance to his life-- well then, he won't mind becoming a nuisance in yeong's.

cue sinjae finally stepping up what was brief perfunctory greetings into actual flirting. and oh, if sinjae was devastating when he was curt and focused on the job at hand, it's nothing to the way he smiles with a quip on his tongue, leaning in just enough as he hands yeong his coffee.

still. the day yeong decides to flirt back? sinjae actually has to check to make sure his heart's still beating. tae-eul laughs so hard there's a stitch in her side.

and so that's how sinjae's regulars are treated to the captain and their favorite barista falling into a courtship. it goes without saying that everyone in the neighborhood loves sinjae and finds the way the two of them dance around each other unbearably cute and exasperating. they are fiercely protective of sinjae, of course, and so no one leaks a word to those vile tabloids that like to hang around the handsome captain.

what should happen next? maybe sinjae's apartment is above the shop and yeong wanders down in his (sinjae's) sweatpants one morning, not realizing it was so late and everyone is treated to seeing the notoriously buttoned up captain in nothing but a ragged pair of sweatpants with SNU emblazoned down the leg.

or one evening as sinjae's alone and counting inventory, he hears the door jingle and doesn't even bother to look up as he calls out a bored "we're closed." he glances up just as his guest closes the door and starts walking towards him, looking utterly out of place in his quaint and quietly cheerful coffeeshop.

lee gon and kang sinjae take each other's measure over iced coffees and sinjae wanders upstairs several hours later with the rueful and somewhat disgruntled realization that he had just made friends with the most ridiculous man in the country and that taking yeong on meant allowing it to continue.

the thought makes him smile, too fond, but it's nothing to the look that steals over his face when he enters his bedroom to see his boyfriend passed out in his bed, having snuck in some time during the afternoon-- and sinjae doesn't want to know how yeong managed to break in what the hell he really needs to give yeong the copy of the key he had made several weeks ago-- after a brutal week long investigation on some confidential matter or another.

sinjae kisses yeong's forehead, tugs the blanket up higher, and heads to the bathroom to shower, all along thinking that had he known all those months ago that a single caramel macchiatto would set off such a chain of events in his life then, well-- he at least would've charged the captain extra.