(n.) the scent that lingers, the trail left in water,

the impression made in space after something or someone has been and gone

“Where were you yesterday?” Baekhyun stops in his tracks, apron fixed halfway on to his body, and praying silently that the person speaking will not ask the inevitable.

“Or should I say, who were you with last night?”

He recognizes the voice, of course he would.

“Sehun,” He turns around to face the other, his co-worker and closest friend, catching a glimpse of the almost deadly stare directing towards him causing him to quickly avert his eyes away, “I don’t want to talk about it.” After saying that, he knows the other will comply; he always does. Baekhyun knows that the other never questions him beyond the point from where he draws the line... Sehun has always been that type of person, with him at least.

Nothing more than a sentence expressing compliance is what he expects.

But after a few moments of bleak silence, neither warm nor encouraging, Baekhyun starts, rather ironically, questioning the situation before him.

Why isn’t he replying?

Is there more to come?

Is there nothing left?

It’s out of the ordinary to the smaller, to say the least, but Baekhyun decides he won’t let the questions linger so long in this situation. He figures he shouldn’t let anything linger so long in any situation today, it’ll just waste this rare amount of energy he has from last night’s unusual amount of sleep.

And with that, Baekhyun realizes his apron isn’t fixed to him, so he goes ahead and fixes it. He then picks his head up so that he could walk out of the storage room and go behind the counter to retrieve his cleaning supplies.

Expecting Sehun to be following him, he speaks up to ask the other a question, “Did I miss anything before I came in?”

He waits for the reply.

It never comes.

And so he turns around. So much for saving my energy.

Baekhyun sees that the other is busy tending to each of the water reservoirs of the multiple coffee brewing machines behind him.

One might find this to be quite a simple, daily endeavor of a barista... but Baekhyun thinks otherwise, considering the fact that Sehun would usually say something as reply then get back to work. Actually, Baekhyun finds this to be a bit too confusing. The smaller wants to know why this deafening silence is the only thing that speaks to him.

“Sehun…” Baekhyun inches closer to the raven haired man, “you didn’t answer my ques-”

Before he could complete his sentence, Sehun forcefully puts down the jug on the counter, quickly turns around, and takes a deep breath. What comes next throws the smaller completely off.

“I just find it odd that you’d come to work late when you schedule every single movement you make,” the taller smiles, “is all…”

“Oh…” Something in Baekhyun tightens, “yeah but are you-”

“You should probably get to cleaning the tables, you know how dirty those customers leave those tables,” Sehun then returns to tending to the machines, “and you wouldn’t want Kyungsoo to fire you.”

Baekhyun’s not sure if he said the following out loud, but he’s right.

He’s right that his own boss demoting him down to having no position wouldn’t be of any benefit to him as of right now, probably never.

He’s right that, instead of drowning in his own thoughts and tensions, the most sensible option as of right now is to scrub down some tables as per his job instructions.

Yes, Baekhyun knows that he’s right about all of that but that isn’t what is bothering him.

Sehun’s right about how he schedules his moves and, following previous realizations, it dawns upon him. The thought of last night is frustrating him so damn much and what Sehun said just him back into the state of questioning himself.

Oh and how he longs to confide in his best friend for the support and reassurance is what he needs right now. But damn, it’s embarrassing to think about it all. How he would even choose to jump into some stranger’s car after going somewhere without telling his best friend, as if he never listens to constant lectures against doing so. How he let himself walk into and stay in someone’s house, as if it’s some kind of daily routine of his. How he’s stupid enough to sleep in someone’s else bed, as if he doesn’t know any better.

It haunts him.

Gosh, it frustrates him so much. It frustrates him even more that he can’t tell his own best friend, if it’s even possible to exceed this current level of frustration.

A wave of guilt washes over him.

Considering his assumption that it’ll stay and will only go away with time, he forces himself to snap back to reality. He needs to at least try to focus on his job. And so he continues on to tend to the, now vacant, tables that with empty coffee mugs and plates holding nothing but a few crumbs.

He just keeps scrubbing.

And scrubbing.

And scrubbing...

Sunlight turns into daylight as the quiet, almost vacant cafe turns into a rather thunderous, busy cafe. Customers pile in, continuously walking in and out to get their most necessary cup of coffee. Some staying in if time is in their favor. Either or, Baekhyun certainly doesn’t mind customers anymore, no matter how ear-splitting some of their voices could be. In fact, in the first few days of being a cleaner in the cafe, Baekhyun never could find it in himself to not mind those customers. Each day he would find a certain customer to either rant about to Sehun or snap on, to which Kyungsoo would respond with a warning and a low scowl. But to no avail…

Until the day that Baekhyun had taken it a bit too far and Kyungsoo had been too close to firing the smaller. Fortunately, Sehun had gotten there just in time to convince their boss that it won’t ever happen again, that he’d deal with the other.

Baekhyun’s still a bit wary about the clarity of the reason behind that whole act of rescuing him. Not that he isn’t aware of the strength of their friendship or how he would do the same in a heartbeat for him, just as the other would. It’s just... complicated. Clarity or no clarity, he just sticks to what he remembers from that day...

“Just listen to music and try not to get fired or demoted,” Sehun unplugs the headphones from his phone and hands it over to him with a stoic expression, “again.”  

And so, now, as he’s working on cleaning up somebody else’s clutter and disarray, he’s slowly falling into the soothing trance of the music running through his ears.

He isn’t paying mind to the reckless customers.

Sehun, on the other