It was a day like any other; except Teresa had dropped her usual seat at the table closest to the door of the popular coffee shop for one of the decorated corner booths, her architecture books sprawled across half of the table and her favourite Mocha Late safely set on a place where she could reach it without accidentally making it fall on the display of books, papers and notebooks. Yet, her eyes weren't set on her unfinished coursework; they were on the clock at a further wall. 2:01pm. Any minute now.

For the past month the same routine had outlined her days: she'd wake up, go to her first two classes at NYIT (or "WICKED U" as mockingly called by the many students due to the infinite amounts of coursework the professors assigned them), and spent her one free period in the nearby Starbucks at around 2:00 pm. Usually at around that time the young Asian boy would arrive, sitting on a table near a plug so he could use his computer without worrying if his battery would die, and shortly after, at around 2:15, the other tired-looking familiar guy would arrive and sit down two tables from her on a corner of the coffee shop, exactly where Teresa was sitting at that very moment. That was basically it from Mondays to Fridays; and after a week of the same thing, all three of them started noticing one another. A greeting nod here, a wave there, a smile sometimes, and after three weeks even a worded hello or a "WICKED is eating at your brain too?" when one of them seemed nearly tortured with the homework they were working on. But never once had they sat together, and after having gone through the same routine for a month, Teresa was determined to properly talk to at least one of the two boys.

The bell of the coffee shop rang in melodic tones, and Teresa's equally nervous and excited crystal hues fell on the opening door. Sure enough, the Asian boy was coming in with a very tired look and his Apple computer tightly held against his chest. As always, he didn't look around, he simply moved as if in automatic motions toward the line of awaiting clients to get his heavily caffeinated beverage; so Teresa waited. The pen in her hand clicked a couple of times as an excited breath left her lips in a shakey sigh and the dainty digits of her free hand reached over for her hilariously wrongly labeled cup of coffee. "Tahreesah" The girl had written; it'd been so funny Teresa had actually not been able to help laughing right in front of the girl. Something she regretted doing the moment it had happened, for the girl's features had coloured into a shade of red that made her look like she'd stopped breathing. But, really, who spelt Teresa wrong? If anything she'd expected it to say Theresa, since that was actually a more popular version of her name, but Tahreesah? That's just extreme.

Only a few moments had gone by with her waiting nerves when the young Asian boy moved away from the counter with his new cup of coffee and his balanced laptop on the other; his eyes searching for a free table where, as Teresa had many times observed, a plug could be found. "There's a plug right here!" Teresa called over, making the boy's eyes shift toward her. At first Teresa thought the young man would just nod in her direction like the few times he had done so in the past month and then walk away to do whatever it is he always did in that laptop of his, but only a few seconds of hesitation later he started walking toward the corner booth Teresa was sat in. "Hey." She said, her lips breaking into a smile that made a couple of little dimples adorn her cheeks while the young boy set down his things on the free space on the table with a smile of his own. "I thought we should finally introduce each other. I'm Teresa." She said, dropping her pen on top of her architecture notebook and extending said hand toward the Asian boy, who was sitting down by the time her hand was offered.

"Minho." He said, taking her hand and shaking it in a greeting for a couple of seconds before dropping it. "Nice to officially meet you."

"Officially." Teresa echoed and nodded, picking her pen back up from her notebook before lowering her eyes to follow Minho's actions as he ducked under the table to plug in his computer on the electric spot she'd promised was there. "You go to NYIT, right?" She asked, watching him as he sat straight once again and remembering the three times he'd teased her on the difficulty of her homework.

"You mean WICKED U?" Minho joked, making Teresa let out a short acknowledging laugh whilst she nodded once. "Unfortunately, yes." He continued smiling, pushing his laptop aside so he'd have space to set down the notebook he was retrieving from his backpack.

"Unfortunately." Teresa echoed once again before allowing a short laugh to leave her lips. "Definitely agreed."

The bell of the coffee shop sang again, but this time it wasn't even a minute later when the other familiar boy approached both Minho and Teresa in the corner booth; Teresa had chosen that very booth for the sole purpose of getting all three of them together, and clearly it had worked. "Um." The boy said, and Minho looked up at him with the same smile he'd offered Teresa. The boy's lips were lifted in a smile, a tired one at that - clearly tired was the recurring theme in the mood of students from NYIT -, but a friendly one nonetheless. "You guys are in my spot." He quickly teased, pointing at both Teresa and Minho a couple of times.

"Mmhmmm." Teresa said mentally high-fiving herself for literally choosing the perfect spot that would get the three regulars to sit together, the dimply smile refusing to disappear from her lips. "So why don't you just join us and sit?" She said, sliding over to the middle of the booth, picking up her Mocha Late with one hand before pushing her belongings to rest in front of her once she found herself comfortable.

"Fine." The new guy said with a pretence forced roll of his eyes as he set his backpack down and sat on the spot Teresa had been sitting at seconds before. "But only 'cause you guys stole my booth."

"Finders keepers, dude." Said Minho in a tone as equally friendly and carefree as the one the new guy had used, shrugging a shoulder and setting his notebook open on a blank page.

"You're hilarious." The new guy said, shaking his head and refusing to allow his tired smile to disappear.

Teresa, victorious, sat straighter and looked at the new guy before speaking. "I'm Teresa, this is Minho." She announced, motioning with her hand to the Asian smiling boy beside her. Minho and the new guy nodded at each other.

"I'm Thomas." He confided, extending his hand toward Minho first, who shook it, and then Teresa, who did the same, while he continued speaking. "Number one hater of WICKED U at your service."

Minho snorted, his hand falling in a quiet slap against his notebook. "I'm going to have to fight you on that, man. I think if anyone should have the title of hater of that damn school it should be me."

"No way." Thomas said, his head shaking once, one of his hands lifting with his index pointing upwards. "Trust me, the only reason I'm even still there is because I'm a year from finishing the career and I think having gone through three years of this hell to give up on the last year would be like running a marathon just to give up on the last mile: a.k.a. a waste of time."

"Agreed" Teresa and Minho said at the same time. "But I think it's safe to say we all hate the school equally." Teresa continued, shrugging a shoulder before reaching for her cup of coffee again, enjoying the pause as Thomas and Minho looked at her. "This is my fourth cup of the day and I still have two classes to go." Both guys winced in unison; once again, Teresa smiled victoriously.

That was the first day the three of them sat together; but after that day not one of them ever sat alone in that Starbucks again.

To Be Continued