Drip.

 

Drip.

 

Drop.

 

Slowly, Jongin comes to.

 

Plip.

 

Plip.

 

Plop.

 

It takes much of his spent energy to actually pry open crusted eyes.

 

Thud.

 

Thud.

 

Boom.

 

The door slams open and he bolts into an upright position.

 

“Kyungsoo?” He squeaks, not exactly trusting his voice to produce anything more.

 

“What?”

 

A stranger dressed in black attire stares down at him.

 

Somehow, a surge of disappointment runs through Jongin’s already cold veins.

 

“Sorry, nevermind.”

 

The unknown man washes his hands in the sink before going to dry them.

 

Jongin’s head hangs low as he realises Kyungsoo won’t be coming and oh, would you look at the time. He’s been there for another hour. How the world hates him so.

 

Stranger reaches for the door, but then throws a look over his shoulder.

 

“Hey, you alright?”

 

Considering the fact he was leaning against the wall of a restaurant restroom - hair disheveled, suit rumpled, eyes teary, cheeks red, and complexion pale - Jongin thinks it was a stupid question to ask.

 

“Haha, not really.”

 

It looks like Stranger is weighing his options as he bounces awkwardly from foot to foot.

 

“Get back to your date, they’d be disappointed if you were in here long,”Jongin dismisses the other, but immediately regrets it when a feeling of loneliness hits after the door swings shut on its hinges.

 

×××××

 

According to his Rolex watch, which may or may not have been a gift from Kyungsoo on their second anniversary, two hours have passed since Stranger left. Various people have come and gone in and out, going about their own business with what is a public facility. So Jongin isn’t expecting it when he walks back in right before closing time.

 

“Hey?” He tries.

 

Stranger just slides down right beside him.

 

It’s quiet, with the exception of the faucet’s dripping and dropping, plipping and plopping.

 

“Things not go well?” Jongin assumes when the other man runs his fingers through his hair, as if he were stressed.

 

Stranger laughs a bit ruefully while he nods to reply.

 

“You can say that again.”

 

The silence returns, but maybe it’s not all that bad.

 

“You wanna get out of here?” Stranger looks over to Jongin, already standing and extending an arm to pull him up.

 

“Goodness, yes.”

 

When they're done and paid for, because Kyungsoo ditched without remembering to leave a bill, the two resort to a small café down the road.

 

It’s cold out, and their winter jackets don’t seem nearly as heavy as they should when they clutch onto them tightly. February wasn’t as kind to them this year, with Mother Nature threatening snow in the middle of the month. With the temperature as harsh as it is, both boys just keep their mouths shut. After all, the shop is just a few minutes away. Conversation can wait.

 

Except that maybe it shouldn’t.

 

The silence is eating away at Jongin, and he’s remembering why on Earth he’s accompanying some random guy whose name he doesn't even know to some coffee shop in the middle of the night. 

 

Kyungsoo rejected him. It hurt earlier, otherwise he wouldn’t have spent around four hours sitting dejectedly on a public restroom floor. But that was when Jongin still had a lingering hope that his love would come back for him. Sad that it had to be another heartbroken guy who came to his aid. Even worse that the guy had no intentions of helping him when he first entered. Maybe Jongin wasn’t worth it anymore. The one thing that mattered most up and left him in the middle of dinner. Right after he proposed nonetheless.

 

Jongin scoffs in spite of himself. Maybe he ought to stop jumping conclusions as quickly as he does. He shouldn’t believe so easily in what people say. Words are only words. They can hold the truest of emotions, but they can also bear nothing. He wonders if Kyungsoo ever meant his whispered words of ‘I love you’.

 

Luckily, a bell chime interrupts his berating of himself.

 

He glances up to see Stranger holding open a door, urging him in because “I-it’s freezing, hurry u-up!”. Jongin obeys and they shuffle over to the front counter, taking a look at the menu above the registers.

 

Due to the fact that neither one of them has ever been there before, it takes a good five minutes before Jongin even has an idea of what to order.

 

“Okay, not to be rude, especially since you two are the only customers we’ve had in an hour, but you’ve been standing there for an awfully long time,” a voice laughs.

 

Jongin’s eyes trail over to the male barista before him, clad in a faded orange apron. An ounce of familiarity strikes him from within. The boy’s name tag reads ‘Baekhyun’ and suddenly he recalls him from his jumbled memories. And it seems Baekhyun does too.

 

“Hey, aren’t you Kyungsoo’s boyfriend?” Jongin flinches back at the mention of Kyungsoo and their relationship.

 

He doesn’t know what to say as he trips over his words.

 

“U-um, I guess not anymore,” he sighs pitifully and Stranger pats his back in tense but hopeful comfort.

 

Baekhyun, who Jongin remembers from one of Kyungsoo’s classes at University, frowns with confusion all over his delicate face.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Nothing, it’s nothing,”Jongin breathes deeply. This entire conversation, which has been all but a few lines, is suffocating him.

 

“Alright,” Baekhyun gives him a concerned side eye, but perks up to take their order.

 

“I think I’ve given you both more than enough time to contemplate life and think about your drink, so what can I get for you?”

 

Stranger notices Jongin’s forlorn staring at the tiled ground and speaks up first.

 

“I’ll just take a medium hot chocolate with whipped cream.”

 

He secretly thanks God that this place doesn't do those weird size names like Starbucks does.

 

“Alrighty, and you?”

 

Jongin still doesn’t know, and it doesn't seem like he will with more time so Stranger takes a wild guess and orders for him a caramel macchiato.

 

“Thanks,” he utters and hangs his head low.

 

“I would normally ask for your names, but since you’re literally the only ones here besides me and Jongdae over there,” he nods to the other guy behind the counter, “I’ll just deliver it myself. You look like you have a lot to talk about, go ahead and sit down.”

 

Baekhyun smiles at them both with an almost sympathetic feeling. Or maybe it’s kind of a maternal love. Jongin doesn’t know, he’s in a haze of mixed emotions and plain sadness.

 

Stranger leads him to a booth in the back corner for privacy, even if they are the only ones there.

 

×××××

 

Up front, Baekhyun asks Jongdae to take care of the orders.

 

“Hey, Jongdae?”

 

“Yeah, what’s up?” He replies while tapping away at his phone.

 

“Can you make these drinks for me real quick and deliver them? I just remembered I have something to tend to.”

 

Jongdae looks at him lazily.

 

“Baekhyun, why can’t you do it yourself?” He whines, pouting with his lower lip jutted out. The act gains no empathy from Baekhyun as he calls the other a baby and “other choice words”.

 

“Because this is your job, and I’m technically your boss at the moment. And unless you want to be fired, you’re going to do this for me while I run to the back to make an important call.”

 

Jongdae groans but gets up to do the drinks anyways.

 

“Fine! But only because I need the money!”

 

Baekhyun chuckles at the sight and retrieves his phone from the phone box that no one out of six employees use except for himself - occasionally. Everyone renders the plastic container useless.

 

“Good boy! I’ll make sure to put in a good word to Joonmyeon for you. Make sure you’ll be getting it tonight!” He hears a cheer from Jongdae as he enters the lounge room.

 

Baekhyun winks, but erases the mental images of Jongdae and his boyfriend banging from his mind. Oh, how he disgusts himself sometimes.

 

It takes him a while to find the name he’d been scrolling for. It’s been a good while since they’ve been in contact with each other, personal lives and issues getting in the way.

 

The phone rings a few time before the other picks up.

 

“Hello? Baekhyun?”

 

“Kyungsoo, it’s been some time, hasn't it?”

 

“Actually yeah, what’s up?”

 

“I’m at the café right now, Jongdae and I are working the night shift. Maybe fifteen minutes ago, Jongin and some boy walk in looking so depressed that it’s dampened my mood a bit. Then I hear that you’ve broken up with him? Um, what happened?”

 

He hears Kyungsoo gulp.

 

“Do you remember Chanyeol? From the last party we went to?”

 

It’s quiet, then Baekhyun, ever so loud, screams into the phone in disbelief.

 

“Don’t tell me you slept with him! Kyungsoo, how could you cheat on a sweet boy like Jongin? He’s such a genuine, kind-hearted person who loved you so -”

 

“Baekhyun, shut up! I didn’t cheat on him. Goodness, no. I would never have done that to Jongin.”

 

And for the first time, Baekhyun notices how scratchy and tired Kyungsoo sounds. He’s been crying.

 

“I-I’m sorry… What happened?”

 

“I don’t know. I met Chanyeol again at the grocery store and we started talking. We eventually started meeting more often, with Jongin’s knowledge of course. But then, things started to change. I realised I’m in love with Chanyeol. I couldn’t keep leading Jongin on like that. I needed to break it off.”

 

Baekhyun hears a shaky intake of breath at the pause.

 

“Today we went to dinner. He… He proposed to me at the same time I suggested breaking up. I had no clue how to take that. His face, he was so shocked and sad and hurt and oh my, I had no clue what to do! He went to the bathroom and I just left!”

 

The story brings tears to Baekhyun’s own eyes.

 

“I just hoped he’d be saved.”

 

Baekhyun walks out of the closet for a moment to make sure Jongdae is actually doing his job.

 

“You said he came in with someone else? Are they okay?”

 

He checks up on the two in the corner. Yeah, they still looked pretty sad, but there were small smiles on their faces.

 

“Yeah, they’ll be okay.”

 

And Kyungsoo can only cry in thanks.

 

×××××

 

“Who needs love anyways?” Stranger rolls his eyes, reminiscing about his own unfortunate happenings.

 

“No, don’t say that,” Jongin says as he stirs the macchiato the Jongdae so enthusiastically brought over.

 

“Bad things may happen, but love has a reason for it. Perhaps, you weren’t meant to be with them. Or, they weren’t happy with the relationship. Love is pain, but love is also joy. Affection that we so readily need to survive. Think about it, at one point, you two were happy. Love lasted for that time being. Just because it’s over now, doesn’t mean it never existed.”

 

Jongin says all this to Stranger, but in the end it’s more to reassure himself.

 

It’s silent between them once again.

 

“You know, you’re pretty wise.”

 

“That’s the first time I’ve heard that.”

 

And they both laugh with sincerity.

 

When they've calmed down, Stranger opens his mouth.

 

“I never did get your name.”

 

They smile at each other.

 

“It’s Jongin. And yours?”

 

“Sehun. Oh Sehun.”

 

“Sehun,” Jongin says, trying it out on his tongue.

 

“I hope we’ll be good friends.”

 

Jongin agrees.

 

And maybe, he’ll be okay without Kyungsoo.

---

a/n: sequel bc a couple of sweet people requested it ♡ happy real valentines day