Your specialty kiss

Huening Kai was so thrilled about the rare possibility of getting this part-time job. It would seem that it is such luck and prestige — to get a job as a barista at the Googleplex. However, the bliss and triumph of the first smoothly withstand working day quickly faded away, but it was definitely worth getting acquainted with the extensive front of work. The director of the LIVINE coffee shop appointed Kai as a partner to a very nice Omega, Kim Taehyung. Their shifts were scheduled for the same evening hours, so they worked together most of the week in the beautiful glass-enclosed atrium. Taehyung mostly worked with the cooks in the kitchen and learned all the joys and hardships of the confectionery business, while Kai spent most of his working time at the counter, taking orders and making coffee. And everything went quite well, day by day, Kai quietly and peacefully drifted along with the flow of his quite ordinary life, until two stormy streams broke into this calm current. The first current that knocked Taehyung off his feet, and therefore made Kai worry about him, was Min Yoongi — one of the leading programmers, judging by the pass that he wore on his chest. After his first visit at the atrium coffee shop, Taehyung would shoo Kai away from the counter as it was scheduled anywhere (in fact: it wasn’t), hissing at him and telling him that he would take the Alpha’s order all by himself. Anyway, Kai had the foresight to think that he shouldn’t have gotten involved in their freaky relationship, so he wisely stayed away from the two of them. Taehyung turned out to be a bit of an entertainer. Probably, he was the only person in the whole wide world, who could have come up with idea of mixing the immiscible ingredients and whip unwhipping liquids. When Taehyung mixed salt into Yoongi’s coffee, or overdid it with added sugar, or poured all the syrups into the paper cup at once instead of one ordered syrup… when Omega, instead of the usual piece of brownie or cake, slipped to Yoongi another of his “masterpieces of abstractionism” — something mixed with sour cream, unleavened sponge cake, or biscuit with finely crushed eggshells that crunched viciously on Yoongi’s teeth, Kai could only watch this performance from the sidelines with concern and wonder why Yoongi, having such a high status in the Googleplex, didn’t contribute to Taehyung’s dismissal from his position? The second current, impetuous and carefree, was an attractive Omega named Choi Beomgyu, who came here every day for lunch and dinner at the same time. Kai himself was quite modest and introverted guy, and it turned out Beomgyu was his complete opposite. When they first met, Beomgyu ordered food for lunch, and then, while there was no queue behind him, engaged Kai in a dialogue with himself with such fervor that the Alpha didn’t immediately notice that in a couple of minutes he said more words to this Omega than to the bulk of the visitors that day. Amazing… Since the hours of their lunch breaks didn’t coincide, every late evening, Beomgyu would linger in the atrium after dinner to chat with Kai about everything and nothing at once; Beomgyu was clearly bored: there were no coevals for him in the department where the ever busy programmers worked, and his mentor was just the same person — Min Yoongi — who infuriated Taehyung as soon as he crossed the threshold of the LIVINE entrance. After some time of their socializing, which had become a regular daily ritual, just before the cafe closed, Kai would make a raf coffee with mint syrup for Beomgyu, and they would sit down at the table, closest to the counter, for a few minutes to discuss what interesting had happened to them throughout the day. Maybe at the end of his working days, Kai became terribly stupid and oblivious, but he didn’t understand: was Beomgyu by nature such a good-natured, open and… clingy person, or was the Omega just openly flirting with him? Could it even be considered flirtatious when Beomgyu lovely smiled looking into Kai’s eyes, or when the Omega straightened his hair and tucked dark curls behind his ear, when he licked his lips from the coffee and, like a child, clung to Kai’s left little finger with the little finger of his hand? However, even the ghostly semblance of friendship with him was quite acceptable to Kai. Even if the Alpha was thinking about something more in relation to Beomgyu, he wanted to know only one thing: is it true that kissing Beomgyu will be felt as sweet and magical, just like his natural scent? Beomgyu didn’t hide his pleasant raspberry scent, which made Kai feel like he could smell the hint of this faint but always lingering in the air berry fragrance appealing to his memory all around him all the time. Or maybe it was because of Beomgyu’s maniacal need to take his hand in his every time they started secretly gossiping, and leave some of his glamorous and perfect scent on Kai’s skin… Beomgyu really was the man for whose sake Kai wanted to overcome all difficulties and hardships. His shining eyes and ringing bright laughter for a long time didn’t want to get out of his head, as soon as the two of them had to say goodbye until tomorrow comes.

_____________________________

Kai was startled when the door to the back room slammed open behind him, and a furious Yoongi rushed out. Beomgyu opened his lips in surprise and watched Yoongi’s going away through the hall before the Alpha exited the coffee shop. “What the hell is he doing here?” Beomgyu comically raised his eyebrows, but then just waved that such an absurd thought away, thinking that he didn’t want to know anything about what happened in front of him. “Hey, isn’t Yoongi your—” “Yeah, he was my supervisor when I was at the university, but it doesn’t matter—” Beomgyu gasped and leaned closer to the Alpha, before conspiratorially to whisper, looking him in the eye. “Do you think what if he and your coworker could?..” Kai squinted, taking the hint from the intonation in the Omega’s voice, and simply raised an eyebrow skeptically, “What makes you think that?” “What? Ugh, just take a proper look on them! The attraction is electric. And Yoongi started to come here for lunch. It’s unheard of! I’ve been working as his junior assistant for six months now, and even I know that Yoongi doesn’t go to breakfast: he sleeps off at this time, and is consistently late for lunch. But now he comes here as scheduled. And he doesn’t just come to dinner, but to Taehyung’s, please note that.” “Oh, my— Tell me honestly, have you watched too many romantic melodramas lately?” “I bet they’re hiding in the back rooms for a quickie hook up,” the Omega blurted out obscenely. “Oh my fucking God! Turn this shit off!” cursed Kai and grabbed his head, not wanting to listen to stupid Beomgyu’s conspiracy theories. “Fine. I’ll prove to you that Omegas are shrewder, unlike Alphas. Y’all so shallow and can’t see beyond the surface. Give me an empty sign?” Beomgyu pointed toward the display cases. “The one by the cakes.” Kai got up from the table and handed the Omega a plastic sign. If the menu changed every day, then the names of the desserts were almost always the same and it could change once a month. And then Kai and Taehyung would put pieces of paper with the names of the new cakes printed in a beautiful font on the plates. Beomgyu hooked his fingernails on the edge and took out a piece of paper, he turned it over with the clean side up, took a pen from the breast pocket of his shirt (for the first time it was useful!) and then he wrote only three underlined words on it.

“A specialty kiss”

“Get ready to lose, Huening,” Beomgyu handed him a sign with “his special kiss” on it and pointed out which Yoongi’s favorite cake was worth putting it on before the Alpha came here tomorrow. “Don’t even think about me losing to you, Choi,” Kai chuckled back, but then he seemed to wake up. “Wait. Did we just make a bet?” “Yep. Why not?” Beomgyu shrugged. “We have to somehow dispel the boredom of the gray everyday life, don’t you think?”

_____________________________

Kai successfully changed the names of the cakes just before Yoongi arrived. And when the Alpha loomed on the horizon, Taehyung habitually waved Kai away and allowed him to leave for his lunch break. Kai went out and sat at the same table with Beomgyu, who had adjusted his schedule and came here about fifteen minutes before the main event. “So… The moment of truth, huh?” Beomgyu blindly squinted and peered, since he couldn’t hear a thing from here; behind and in front of the counter, a fascinating performance unfolded. “What makes you so sure this will work?” Kai grinned skeptically and also looked in the direction of the counter. “Because on people like them, this stupid pickup line will work perfectly.” They saw Yoongi order coffee and point to a cake with a “weird name”, and, damn it, Taehyung stared blankly at the Alpha’s face for a moment before shook his head, unceremoniously grabbed Yoongi by the lapels of his jacket and pulled the Alpha closer, to make him lean over the counter, and kiss him on the lips. Beomgyu instantly choked on his orange juice and did his best to cough as quietly as possible, so as not to spoil the beauty of the moment. “Holy fuck,” Kai said simply, and patted the Omega on the back. “‘K, you won. Your favorite coffee’s on me.” Speechless, Yoongi picked up his paper cup filled with coffee and took a cautious sip as he walked away from the counter. He coughed, too, and ran the back of his hand over his lips, then turned furiously to Taehyung, threatening to crush the cup with his fingers or throw the coffee right in his face. The Omega smiled and blew Yoongi a kiss. Beomgyu and Kai looked at each other and, barely holding back their laughter, without words, agreed that this shit with other people’s relationships, they won’t interfere ever again.

_____________________________

On the evening of the same day, Beomgyu came to Kai for his winnings and didn’t fail to jokingly order Kai’s “special kiss”; although Kai had long since he removed the sign-nameplate with the fake name from the display case of cakes. Beomgyu’s serious, isn’t he? At least, the Omega had grinned openly in his face when he’d announced the order. If Beomgyu was clearly aware of what he was doing, in that case… Kai calmly made him a mint raf coffee and came out from behind the counter to hand it over in person. They were lucky that no one was here by eight o’clock tonight, even Taehyung, knowing that there would be no more orders, went on a break. The Alpha held up the paper cup, preventing Beomgyu from taking it, which caused the Omega to click his tongue in displeasure, but Kai saw him smiling. “Hey! Come on, don’t play me.” “I’m not playing.” For the first time in his eighteen years, Kai felt so confident and determined that he didn’t back down, he listened to himself, to the signs of interest from Beomgyu, the manifestation of which, perhaps, the Omega himself wasn’t yet aware of. Even if the Omega often touched and fixed his hair and licked his lips in Kai’s presence, Kai was no better. The Alpha couldn’t control himself and his awakening instincts — Kai was courting Beomgyu all this time. Beomgyu was so obvious… And yet he blamed Kai that he, as an Alpha, couldn’t see beyond his own nose. How did he say it? Shallow? Kai slowly put the paper cup down on the counter, and Beomgyu frowned slightly as he watched him, clearly not understanding what kind of reaction or action the Alpha expected from him. And why did Kai tease him so childishly? Kai smiled and hugged Beomgyu’s waist with both hands, before boldly lean over and kiss him on the lips. Beomgyu quietly gasped and raised both hands to Kai’s forearms, not allowing the Alpha to step back, and frantically responded to the kiss. For a moment, the reckless reciprocity on the Omega’s side so startled Kai that he could no longer tell: if it was he, who was kissing Beomgyu, or if Beomgyu was kissing him. The kiss with him was indeed sweet; Beomgyu gently put his lips around Kai’s lower lip and sucked it lightly before pulling away with a soft laugh. Beomgyu wiped his saliva on the Alpha’s lower lip with thumb, while Kai licked his lips. The Omega took a step back and picked up the paper cup with his honestly won coffee. “Know what? Your special kiss still tastes better than anything,” Beomgyu concluded as he sipped a delicious mint raf. “I haven’t seen anything,” Taehyung walked past them and hit the Alpha on his hip with a towel. “At the cash register in two minutes. We close in fifteen.” “I don’t think I have enough time to fully enjoy kissing you,” Kai chuckled playfully, and they kissed again. “So your shift ends at nine?” “Yep.” “Great, don’t leave without me, okay?” Beomgyu asked with a pleading look. Kai hummed in agreement and gave Beomgyu the sweetest kiss with a light coffee taste.