RPOV

    It was Saturday mid afternoon and he was surprisingly not at Joie. Donghae had kicked him out after the breakfast/lunch crowd had finished. He was currently at Kyuhyun’s apartment sitting on his couch, while Kyuhyun had gone to fix lunch.

Flashback (earlier that day).

     “Ryeowook!!! What the hell are you doing! You almost sent out the salad with out any smoked salmon! It’s not called a smoked salmon salad for nothing, you realize.” Donghae yelled, dragging Ryeowook out of the kitchen, so they could talk privately.

     “Oh God! Did I really do that? It didn’t get sent out did it?” he asked paling.

     “No, thankfully one of the waiters noticed that something was off and brought it back before they delivered it, but seriously what’s up? The whole three years we’ve been friends and coworkers, I haven’t seen you make one mistake, so something pretty big must be troubling you if you’re making a mistake like this.”

     Damn…that was the thing about working and being friends with someone for so long, they knew you inside and out and clearly Hae wasn’t going to let him go until he spilled the beans.

    “Tomorrow night, I’m supposed to meet Kyuhyun’s parents and I guess my mind has been a bit preoccupied with that,” he said quietly.

    “Ah, I see, so a bad case of nerves then? Have you talked to Kyuhyun about it?”

    “Well, I talked to him about the meeting last Sunday when we had dinner with Hyuk and Min and he calmed my nerves about it, but for some reason I’m super stressed now...”

    “It’s probably because you’re meeting them tomorrow, so the nerves are starting to set in now. Believe me, I was a nervous wreck when I met Hyuk’s parents for the first time.”

    Ryeowook smiled, “I remember that, we had just started working at Joie together when you met them, I still have the photo of those poor cream puffs…”

   “Hey! I had a lot on my mind! I didn’t realize I had overfilled them until you came and pointed it out!”

   “Overfilled is an understatement…there was cream EVERYWHERE,” Ryeowook said giggling.

    Donghae sighed, then something made him snap, “Wait! So you’re telling me you haven’t spoken to Kyuhyun for a week?!” he asked incredulously.

    “No, we saw each other Tuesday and we’ve been in constant contact over the phone this past week, it’s just that I haven’t talked to him about the parent meeting since last Sunday…I don’t really want to trouble him with this. He’s been so busy this week and he already assured me last Sunday that the meeting would go fine. I’m probably just stressing over nothing,” he sighed.

   “Ryeowook, you know that it’s not healthy to keep this stuff to yourself right?” Donghae said sternly.

   “I know, but I already had two mental breakdowns in front of him Hae! And that was in one day! I can’t have another in front of him so soon, I think I’d pretty much die of embarrassment…”

   “Fine, let’s go back in before the rest of the staff falls apart without us, but you really should talk to him about this Wookie.”

  Ryeowook smiled in relief, “Okay mom.”

Donghae smirked, "no, that's all Hyuk."

Ryeowook sighed, sadly, he friend was absolutely right. 

   Unfortunately for Ryeowook, the rest of the breakfast/lunch shift didn’t go much better for him. He tried so hard to focus on his work, but for some reason the stress he felt was too much and his mind kept drifting to his upcoming meeting with Kyu’s parents. And while he tried to rationalize with himself that he shouldn’t get so worked up about the whole thing, he couldn’t help it. While he really did want to meet them, a part of him still felt like he wouldn’t get their seal of approval. Kyuhyun was such an incredible person and he knew that a large part of that came from being brought up by his parents, so it frightened him to no end that the people who had such an influence on Kyuhyun could possibly dislike him.

   And it didn’t help that the yesterday’s phone call with his father didn’t go as well as he would have liked. When he told his mom that he was meeting Kyuhyun’s parents she was thrilled for him, however his father had been upset at the news. He still felt that Ryeowook should find a nice girl to settle down with and that this whole dating men thing was just a “phase”. Needless to say, their relationship had taken one step back or ten…point being, they weren’t making much progress.

  While replaying the phone call with his dad, he wasn’t even conscious that he was making mistakes in the kitchen. Thankfully someone was watching out for him.

DPOV

   He wasn’t sure if he should be amused or concerned for his friend. Surprisingly none of Ryeowook’s mistakes had anything to do with seasoning, which was a testament to just how good he was. Even at his most stressed, his food still tasted great. The issue was, Ryeowook was creating dishes that were nowhere to be seen on Joie’s menu.

    He watched as Ryeowook forgot to grill one of the breakfast sandwiches; he somehow managed to make eggs Benedict instead of their eggs Florentine, and to top it all off he added bacon to a vegetarian appetizer.

And though the mistakes were pretty harmless (except for the vegetarian mistake), his friend was clearly pretty shaken over the looming meeting. Thankfully Donghae shadowed his friend, correcting the mistakes, before they even left the kitchen.

  He pulled out his phone to check the time. It was 1:30, there was only a half an hour before Joie closed and got ready for the dinner crowd. He decided to text his cute Monkey. He needed someone’s number.

KPOV

   He was in the middle of sorting through some documents for an upcoming case when he heard his phone buzz. He quickly unlocked his phone, confused to see it from an unknown number. But as soon as he read the text he became panicked.

From Unknown #:

Hey Kyuhyun, Donghae here! Got your number from Hyuk! Thought Id let you know that you should probably come and pick up your boyfriend...he’s having a pretty rough day. I’m not letting him drive home in his current condition.

PS- We finish the Brunch shift in a 30min- so you may want to leave now.

Kyuhyun immediately texted back:

To Donghae:

What on earth happened?! Is he alright? Did he injure himself? And wait? How can you send him home? Isn’t he your boss?

DPOV

   This was good, Kyuhyun was clearly worried and rightly so, after all Ryeowook was a perfectionist, and Donghae never thought he’d live to see the day where his friend would make so many mistakes. And he certainly wasn’t about to watch him implode during the dinner rush.

KPOV

  He was already getting his car keys and calling his secretary to cancel all of his meetings and appointments for the day when the phone buzzed again. He fumbled to get it out of his pocket.

From Donghae:

Calm down. He’s not dying. In fact-there isn’t a scratch on him. The issue is an emotional one. He’s stressing out and it’s affecting his cooking + believe me when I say that’s a big deal. But that’s as much on this topic as I’m going to say, this is something you need to talk to him about.

PS: Best friend 1st boss 2nd, so get your moving and come pick him up.

Back at Joie.

DPOV

He had just finished making a couple of sandwiches and salads and put them in to go packages.

A buzz in his pocket alerted him of a text message:

From Kyuhyun:

I’m on my way; thanks for contacting me. I owe you one.

He smiled, this was excellent, he knew once Kyuhyun got here, Ryeowook would probably be much more willing to leave.

RPOV

     Everyone was cleaning up the kitchen, the last couple had gone and Joie was now closed, so they could prep for dinner.

    He was so out of it that he didn't notice that he was just staring at a pile of beautifully cleaned mushrooms. Donghae gave him a pat on his back and ushered him out of the kitchen into the dining area and sat him down.

   Donghae had told him to wait there for a moment. He did as he was told and sat there thinking about what he should bring with him when he met Kyu’s parents.

DPOV

   He gathered around all of the assistant chefs.

   “Okay guys, I’m sure you’ve all noticed that chef Ryeowook is having an off day.”

  He saw all the heads nod in unison.

   “Is he alright?” one of them asked.

   “Yeah, is he sick?” another piped in.

   “This is the first time I’ve seen him so spaced out,” an additional voice said.

  Donghae sighed, “Okay, that’s enough. Chef Ryeowook isn’t feeling well today and he’s going to leave early, which means we won’t have him during the dinner rush. That means I need all of you to really be on it today, okay?”

   Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.

   “B..but Chef Donghae…we’ve never cooked without Chef Ryeowook before…,”a voice said.

   “Yeah…we’re totally screwed without him!” another said.

  Donghae cut them off, “We are not screwed; you guys are some of the best new chefs out there. Ryeowook and I conducted all of your interviews personally, so when we say you’re talented, we mean it. Ryeowook only hires chefs who he thinks have great potential in this profession and can handle this responsibility, so don’t doubt yourselves so much okay?”

   He saw that a few of them were biting back their tears, and a couple of them were sniffling.

  “I know I can come off a little harsh sometimes, but everything I tell you guys, I say it because I know you can handle it. Some of you guys have been working here longer than others, but I think all of you can see how much cooking means to Ryeowook. In the three years he’s worked at Joie he’s never once been absent from work. So let’s all step up to the plate and make sure he gets a proper rest today okay?”

  They all cheered and nodded enthusiastically. He smiled. It was good to see that this team had new motivation in them. He quickly divided up the prep work between them and excused himself to go speak with Ryeowook.

   When he went back into the dining area, he set a croissant down in front of him. 

  “Im assuming you haven’t eaten today?” he said, narrowing his eyes at him as if daring his friend to tell him otherwise.

  Ryeowook looked away guiltily, “correct as usual…”

  “Then eat,” he commanded.

RPOV

   “I swear you’re worse than Hyuk sometimes", but nevertheless he picked up the croissant gratefully and took a bite.

   Donghae laughed and then looked him straight in the eye, a serious expression forming.

  “Wookie, you should go home today.”

  Ryeowook’s eyes widened and set the half eaten croissant down onto the plate.

  “W..Why?” he whispered.

  “I..is this about the salmon mistake…”

DPOV

   It was quite clear that Ryeowook didn’t even realize the mistakes that had happened in the last couple of hours. Which was seriously disturbing, considering this was Ryeowook they were talking about.

   “Ryeowook, how much sleep have you been getting lately?” he asked calmly.

  “I don’t know how that’s relevant to any of this Hae! You can’t just make me leave my kitchen!”

  “Ryeowook! Answer the question!” his voice rising.

  Ryeowook fidgeted with the hem of his apron, “I don’t know? Last night I probably got 6 hours…”

   Donghae snorted, “You’ve always at lying, if you’re telling me six, it was probably more like four, am I right?”

  When Ryeowook didn’t say anything, he knew he had hit the nail on the head. The worst part about all of this was that he knew how Ryeowook operated. His friend’s sleep cycle had probably been like this for the past few days. And then there was the whole question of whether he had been eating properly, which from the looks of it was all over the place. This week had clearly done a number on him and Donghae was not about to let him continue at this pace.

   He took a deep breath, he was going to have to go about this delicately, or else Ryeowook was really going to snap.

   “I’m begging you to go home and rest today, we’ll be fine, I already have the team split up into prep work and they’re already assembling everything for tonight. You have nothing to worry about.”

   “Hae! I made one mistake, how can you just kick me out! This is my kitchen” the smaller was starting to get mad now. 

   “Ryeowook…it wasn’t just one mistake,” he said with a sigh.

RPOV

   Once again, his eyes widened and his voice trembled, “I made more than one?”

  “You did.”

  He slumped with a sense of dejectment, “what did I do?”

  “Look, does it really matter? It’s clear that you’re exhausted and you haven’t been eating properly these past couple days! Honestly the best thing you can do for yourself, the staff and me is to go home and get some rest. Right now we’re all worried about you. In fact, I’m probably the one who’s worried the most!” Hae stressed.

  A rich voice entered his ears, “I wouldn’t say that, I’m pretty worried myself.”

  His head immediately shot up, Kyuhyun was standing in the doorway, worry etched on his handsome face.

  “Kyu! What are you doing here?” he asked in confusion.

  Kyuhyun walked over to him and kissed his cheek, “I’m here to take you home, I’ve been informed that you’ve been having a rough day love.”

   Ryeowook looked at Kyuhyun and then looked at his friend and sighed, “Alright, I surrender, it looks like I’m outnumbered here.” He paused and then realized that his car was here, “Wait? What about my car?”

   “Give me your keys, Monkey dropped me off today, so Ill just drive your car back to your loft and then call him to pick me up from there tonight.”

   “But that’s so much trouble Hae,” he said with concern.

   “Don’t worry, you know how much I love your car, so it’s honestly pretty fun for me. Plus, your place isn’t that far from mine, so it won’t be that much more work for Hyuk.”

   Ryeowook rolled his eyes and Kyuhyun laughed, nevertheless he handed him the keys, “don’t crash my car okay?”

   Donghae gave him a reassuring pat on the back,” It’s in safe hands.”

KPOV

While Ryeowook left to get his backpack from his car, he took the opportunity to talk with Donghae.

  “Is it true…”

  Donghae turned to him in confusion, “Is what true?”

  “That he hasn’t been eating properly?” he asked quietly.

  “Yes. And to top it all off, he hasn’t been getting much sleep either. Have you seen him at all this week?”

  “We had dinner together on Tuesday and he looked healthy enough, but he never brought up the fact that he wasn’t sleeping well.”

  Donghae sighed, “well at least I know he ate decently on Tuesday…”

  “He did, but that was early in the week…I just assumed he was getting enough rest and eating properly this whole week…”, he said guiltily.

  “Kyuhyun I wasn’t going to say anything on the topic, but I think it’s important that I say this. He’s super stressed about meeting your parents and I can tell there’s something else up with him, but he didn’t bring it up, so it’s up to you to figure out what’s bothering him.”

  “Also, here,” Donghae said handing him a bag.

  Kyuhyun looked inside, “What is it?”

  “Sandwiches and salads, make sure Ryeowook eats it okay?”

  “Thanks Hae, you really look out for him don’t you?” he said.

  Donghae smiled, “We’ve known each other for a long time, he’s been with me through thick and thin, so of course Ill always have his back.”

   Kyuhyun was relieved, but a bit jealous too, but he wasn’t about to make a fuss. He was glad that Ryeowook had someone who cared so much about him, plus it wasn’t like Donghae had romantic feelings for him, or he would definitely be intimidated right now.

  Ryeowook entered Joie, this time with his backpack in tow.

   “Ready to go?” he asked.

   Ryeowook nodded. Donghae walked over to Ryeowook and ruffled his hair, “get some rest okay? And call me if something happens, you know Ill be there in a heartbeat.”

  Ryeowook smiled, “thanks Hae.”

  And with that Donghae got back to the kitchen and continued the prep work with the assistant chefs.

  Kyuhyun took Ryeowook’s hand and led him out to his car. Once they were both strapped in, he took a closer look, and sure enough, Ryeowook looked paler and had some light circles beginning to form underneath his eyes.

  “How about we go to my apartment, so we can talk?” he asked.

Ryeowook nodded weakly and fiddled with the hem of his shirt, the tell tale sign that he was either nervous or shy.

 “We don’t have to love, if you want I can bring you straight to your apartment, I just wanted to talk since it’s been three days since I last saw you. But I don’t want to push you.”

  Ryeowook reached out for Kyuhyun’s hand, “No, I want to talk with you too” he said giving it a reassuring squeeze.

  Kyuhyun threaded their fingers together; after all he only needed one hand to drive.