‘One Last Order’: The Cutest Coffee Shop Trope We’ve Been Dreaming Of

BL Recaps Short Film

2023-06-14
17:24

What will you do if you keep on receiving anonymous romantic short poems every time you visit a cafe?

Well, for a young man named Jongin, it tickles his curious heart. But he doesn’t stop there. In fact, he decides to take an investigative journey to find out who his secret admirer is. Think it’s cute? That’s pretty much what ‘One Last Order’ is about.

‘One Last Order’ is a Korean short film released in 2019. It’s an endearing story of a blooming young adult romance, but also a showcase of how queer confession can be romantic and adorably ingenious at the same time.

Read on to know how this queer cafe love story unfolds.

The bells chime, and a customer enters the cafe. It’s Jongin, and one of the staff alerts one of the baristas named Kyungsoo to take his order. Jongin orders an Americano before settling himself on a nearby table to work. As he starts to busy himself, his cup of coffee arrives, and he initially appears to expect something else other than his order. He even sighs in disappointment when he can’t find what he’s looking for.

Jongin hastily sips on his cup, oblivious to how hot his coffee is, and he spills some onto himself. He grabs the napkin but gets distracted when he finds a sticky note beneath them. It’s what he’s looking for a small note, a short anonymous poem. Turns out, he has been frequenting this cafe, and every time he orders a coffee, he receives a note of a short poem, the writer admiring him from afar. He can deduce that it’s one of the baristas of the cafe, but which barista is still a mystery. Until that day.

Jongin has kept all the poems in his notebook — he’s received three so far — and using those poems, he tries to get more clues about this secret admirer. He concludes that this person must 1) enjoy reading and writing, 2) introverted and kind, 3) likes love songs, especially ballads, and 4) likes the beach. With these characteristics in mind, he begins an investigative journey in the cafe while he’s still there.

At first, Jongin just observes and listens. He takes note when Kyungsoo, the male barista, changes the cafe’s music to a ballad love song. He also makes a comparison between him and the other female barista who appears to be “kinder” and “more introverted.” When another female staff arrives, Jongin gets a lot more confused — he now has three people to choose from. In an attempt to fish for more information, especially about those who like the beach, he walks up to one of the female staff, and feigns a “survey.” Unfortunately, he ends up in just an awkwardly embarrassing situation when she foils his fake survey and asks him if he’s hitting on her (she says she isn’t romantically interested in any of that).

Although awkward, Jongin manages to get back on track. With the other staff now out of the equation, he focuses on the remaining two — the new female staff and Kyungsoo. At the counter, the two talk about the beach. The female staff says she wants to go to the beach, and Kyungsoo agrees, although he says that he likes it more in the winter, especially with the seagulls around because it gives him a sense of “freedom.” It’s a little too poetic (and cheesy).

He hears another conversation, this time, between the two female staff. The younger teases the other for spending her break reading books, but the older jokes how it’s a shame the younger can’t enjoy the wonders of books.

With everything he’s observed so far, Jongin obviously cannot come up with a categorical conclusion as not a single person in the cafe seems to fit all the clues he’s listed down. A little frustrated and disappointed, he gives the last poem a last glance before putting it down and giving up on his investigation.

Jongin stands up and returns his tray, but apparently, he’s also left the sticky notes on the tray. Thinking they’re no longer of use to him, he decides to leave them in the cafe. The younger female staff calls out and returns the notes, and even tells him to not give up on this person because this person has not given up on him yet. This quickly piques Jongin’s interest and asks who it is. He asks if it’s the girl, but she denies it. Now that he’s crossed out the two female staff, he concludes that it must be Kyungsoo.

Jongin takes one of the sticky notes from the girl and writes down, “Can we meet tomorrow?” He asks if she can hand it to Kyungsoo, which she happily agrees to.

The next day arrives, but Kyungsoo does not see any sign of Jongin arriving at the cafe. He waits for the whole day until it’s almost closing time. The two female staff take an early out, and so he starts cleaning up to close the cafe. Just as he busies himself beneath the counter, the door opens and the chimes ring. He tells the customer that they’re already closed. But when Kyungsoo stands up, Jongin greets him at the counter and asks if he can make one last order, smiling.

They spend the whole night in the cafe talking. Turns out, the two female staff set them up on a date in their own cafe — and it’s a successful mission. The movie ends with the two guys shyly reaching out for each other’s hand.

‘One Last Order’ is reminiscent of the young adult cafe romance that sends an adorable parade of butterflies in our stomachs. (Not to mention the implied bisexual representation!) It’s not a perfect story, perhaps leaning on the predictable and cliche side, but it’s cute and sweet nonetheless.

Watch ‘One Last Order’ on GagaOOLala.

P.S. If you’re a K-Pop fan, you’ll definitely know where the names are from! And you’ll hear a rather all too familiar music play in the film, too. Wink wink. Enjoy!