❀

Sun peeked through the glass windows of his little shop, and Yifan sat on the floor. His back was against the wall, his head rested there uncomfortably. There was a small cluster of kittens around him, all nibbling eagerly away at the treats he’d laid out in the playpen.

Cross-legged, he picked them up and put them in his lap one at a time, letting them eat from his hands as he their fur and whispered small conversations to the fluffy little crowd.

This is what he did on Mondays. Unfortunately, it was nothing.

The clock in the shop read 10:24.

He’s either gonna be exactly on time, he whispered to the kittens. Or he won’t even show up.

Mostly, the cats ignored him, continuing their quiet breakfast. He smiled weakly as a thin white Persian meowed at him, giving him just enough response for him to stop waiting so eagerly.

The door swung open and his head snapped up. He waved when he saw Sehun walk in, and raised his eyebrows in confusion when Sehun didn’t see him, but turned around to shout goodbye to someone outside.

“Good luck, okay? Tell me how it goes.” Sehun laughed as the person outside said something Yifan couldn’t hear. “Don’t worry, first day’s always the worst.”

Yifan cleared his throat, but it went unnoticed.

“Bye Tao, watch where you’re walking.” With a final giggle, Sehun finally turned back to meet his boss, who held up a hand from his kitten-army on the carpeted floor. He wore a white lab coat, most of the time. He said it made him look professional, more like a doctor and less like the guy who trimmed the animals’ claws.

“Hey,” Sehun smiled. “Is that Ace?” He pointed to the small Persian in Yifan’s arms.

Yifan nodded. “Yeah. Isn’t he cute?”

“Very.” Wiping his shoes on the doormat, Sehun cracked his neck. “Did his old owner tell you why she left him here?”

“Not really.”

Ace meowed.

“Okay,” Sehun nodded at Yifan, and took a second to give the kittens a polite acknowledgement, too. “I’m gonna go set up the clinic, I think it’s still a mess from Saturday.

“Go ahead. Did you already have breakfast?”

Sehun made an ‘uh-huh’ noise. “I ate with Tao.”

“Oh, alright.” His disappointment could never be seen through his small, light laughs. It kept everyone under the impression that he was just an easy-going older brother figure, and not the lonely wall, the never-noticed character who was always just there if you needed him and insignificant if you didn’t. “I’ll eat the muffins alone, then.”

Just as the vet was about to disappear into his clinic, he popped his head out of the door, his eyebrows up in arches. “Muffins?” He coughed. “I’ll take two.”

Yifan cracked up. “There’s a box over there. Take as many as you’d like.”

“Oh, don’t mind if I do.” Sehun rubbed his hands together, advancing towards the cardboard box on the counter.

He took three blueberry muffins.

Yifan’s phone rang, and Ace jumped out of his lap, obviously startled by the sudden default tone. “Hey Jongdae.”

“Oh my God, the best thing just happened.”

He rubbed his eyes. “What happened?”

“You know Minseok’s new employee?” Jongdae’s voice was so thrilled, it was hard not to be amused.

“His name’s Tao.”

“Yeah, him.” Jongdae let out a whoop of laughter. “He and Minseok are fighting right now. Like there’s some serious wushu happening here.”

“Don’t just watch,” Yifan’s eyes widened. “Do something.”

He could almost hear Jongdae shake his head. “No, no. You don’t get it. If Minseok fights Tao, that’s a major bonus for Operation Pinku.”

Yifan scrunched up his nose. He softly nudged the kittens away from him, giving himself room the stand. He ran a hand through his hair. “Maybe, if you look at it from an angle.”

On the other end, he could hear crashing, some cursing, and Jongdae’s occasional snicker.

“Minseok’s spaz attack gave me an idea for my part of the plan.”

“Operation Cupcake?” He dusted himself off a bit, before cracking a knuckle as he left he playpen and entered the main shop.

“Uh-huh. I decided,” Jongdae chirped. “It’s time to bring in the Deer.”                 

❀

❄

Minseok dodged the fist charging towards his head and pushed his assaulter back by the stomach.

Tao fell back, landing on his with a thump.

“Owww.” The new employee groaned.

His new boss ignored him, plucking a flower out of the bouquet on the shelf behind him and stomping up to the guy on the ground. Tao looked like a cornered animal as Minseok loomed over him.

“Tomorrow.” He hit Tao over the head with a sunflower. “Be.” Hit. “On.” Hit. “Time.” Hit. “And don’t you dare think about ditching again.”

“Ow.”

With a final smack at his hair, the flower’s stem decided to bend, and out of frustration, Minseok snapped and tore it apart.

One would wonder why this man was a florist.

Standing in the doorway, Jongdae slipped his phone into his pocket and beamed, walking into the shop without so much as a gesture of recognition of Tao’s pain.

“Minseok, my man.” He held his arms out as if expecting a hug. “We’re friends, right?”

Minseok fixed his shirt, walking back behind the counter, where he rolled up his sleeves and played with the bouquet that sat there. “Yeah.”

Nobody really cared as Tao tried to heave himself back to his feet, whining in pain and brushing his hands over his jeans.

“So you trust me to do what’s best for you, right?” Jongdae took slow steps towards the florist, not quite sure he was entirely safe with the ill-tempered brute.

“Not at all.”

“Minseok, my man. Trust me. Have some faith.”

“What are you getting at?” Minseok asked.

Jongdae smiled wide, like the Cheshire cat. “I know you have a break in two hours, so when you do, go home and change your shirt and wear some cologne.” He whirled around and headed for the exit, holding his arms out like a human airplane.

“Two hours, fine. Just go away before I suddenly feel like throwing a vase at you.”

Jongdae cheered. He pumped a fist in the air, which made his ped, over-sized hoodie wing out. He looked like a college videogame geek. “Thanks, Minseok. You’ll love me for this, I swear.”

And with that, he ran out of the flower shop, and Minseok watched him curiously as he jumped up the steps to his preschool next door.

❄

♝

It was around noon when Jongin showed up at the sweetshop. He’d woken up that morning in an empty apartment; Luhan had gone to work, leaving a simple note to come eat breakfast at the store, to which he’d sleepily obliged.

With a bland hello to his friend, he ordered two of those giant cookies, and parked himself at the table closest to the window. As he munched on one of them, he played out the ideal scenario in his head, confident that it would actually happen.  He didn’t have to wait long – maybe only ten minutes – before he saw the short, wide-eyed student through the window.

Jumping up, Jongin ran out of the shop, practically flying out the door, and landing almost nose-to-nose with Kyungsoo – who looked scared to death.

Replay.

He leapt off the entrance steps, just as the doe-eyed male was about to climb them, and with a small yelp, Kyungsoo took a step back, leaving just enough space for Jongin to land in front of him. His tall frame leaned down to meet Kyungsoo face to face.

“I got you your cookie,” Jongin grinned. “Let’s go.”

Kyungsoo took another step back. “What?”

Jongin held up the brown paper bag with the sweetshop logo. He was breathing heavily from his little stunt.  “You usually order a giant M&M cookie right?”

The smaller one nodded. “With coffee.”

There was a moment of silence. Jongin furrowed his eyebrows. “Then take this,” he handed Kyungsoo a cookie. “Don’t move.”

He gave a single nod before climbing back up the stairs and running up to the counter. Kyungsoo watched him talk to Luhan, who pointed to a ready-made coffee cup beside the cash register. Not moving a muscle, as instructed, he stared at Jongin as he walked back outside and smiled.

“Here.” He handed Kyungsoo the coffee.

Kyungsoo nodded. “Thanks.”

With a shrug of his shoulders and a lazy grin on his face, Jongin ran a hand through his hair. “Which way is your cram school?”

The student stiffly pointed in the direction behind him, the way he’d come.

“Okay, then let’s go.” Jongin was about to start walking, but stopped when he saw that the short brunet wasn’t following him.

Kyungsoo blinked. He looked up at the anticipating man, who was much taller than him. He blocked out the sun that was, earlier, burning Kyungsoo’s forehead. In the small distance between them, and the way he’d laughed earlier, Kyungsoo guessed that he’d seen this man before.

He pursed his lips and the puffed them out a bit before asking, “Who are you?”

The younger of the two tipped his head back in another round of laughter. “You forgot me already?”

Kyungsoo nodded.

“I’m Kim Jongin. I’m here visiting a friend,” he pointed inside, where Luhan was stacking takeout boxes. “We met yesterday, remember? I gave you my cupcake.”

Another nod. “You gave me your cupcake.”

“Yeah, I did.” Jongin gestured towards the sidewalk ahead of them. “Can I walk you to your class?”

The student seemed to give it a thought. “I guess you can.”

Jongin beamed. “Then, let us go.” He subtly reached over and took Kyungsoo’s uneaten cookie, which was balanced on the textbook in his hand. The coffee was in his other one.  “I’ll hold this so your hands aren’t too full.”

“But I wanna eat that.” Kyungsoo’s forehead creased in frustration.

“I’ll feed you whenever you want a bite. Just focus on not spilling your coffee.”

A normal gentleman would offer to carry his damsel’s books. Jongin was just a bit smarter than that. He let Kyungsoo carry his own books and his own coffee, while holding on to the jumbo cookie. It was a small opportunity to feed the doe-eyed boy and he wasn’t about to miss it.

They started on the slow walk towards the cram school, and Jongin was the first to start the conversation, as expected.

“So how long have you lived here?”

Kyungsoo shrugged. “Five years, maybe.”

“That’s a long time,” Jongin acknowledged, impressed. The town was pretty small – but he’d only seen this small complex of it, which was farther and a bit secluded from the rest of the town. “Where do you live?”

“Are you a ert, Mister Kim Jongin?”

“I am not.”

“Then I liv