| XVII. epiphany |

 

 

A week has passed since Sehun and Luhan officially started going out. The group chat name, in their favor, has been changed to "guns and roses", courtesy of nobody but Kim Jongdae himself. A messy drawing of a rose and a water gun was the group chat photo (which was also thanks to Jongdae).

Jongdae and Luhan were currently debating about which place had the best pizza, which had started when Chanyeol, Luhan, Jongdae, and Baekhyun decided to hang out together at the doctor's apartment; they were all unsure of what food to order for dinner.

Chanyeol had offered to cook for them as a compromise, but Baekhyun relied strongly on takeout as he barely had time to cook. Therefore, the sous chef had little to no ingredients to work with (plus, his friends all told him to just 'sit his down' after he mentioned it in the first place). After listening to them argue for a while, Chanyeol was about to jump into the conversation when he heard Baekhyun call his name. 

"Hey, Yeol. Come here for a sec."

"What's up, Baek?" Chanyeol asks, taking his eyes off his phone screen before walking over to Baekhyun. The doctor was sitting on the sectional with a baffled expression on his face. Chanyeol's eyebrows furrow; the doctor doesn't reply to him right away, and his nose was scrunched up in concentration.

A few moments later, Baekhyun hums lightly.

"'Kim Mingyu spotted with young chef from local restaurant.'" Baekhyun recites, and he raises his head to look back at Chanyeol. His eyebrows are slightly raised. "What exactly is this?"

Chanyeol freezes upon the mention of Kim Mingyu.

Baekhyun holds out his phone for him to see the article better. 

He reads the words on the phone screen before letting out a deep sigh.

It's been weeks, and he hasn't responded to Mingyu's offer yet. He wasn't given a deadline for his answer, but, it's always been something that's at the back of his mind. Honestly, he's more than surprised that he hasn't received any more informational emails or messages from Mingyu yet considering Chanyeol didn't even bother to look in the details of the occupation. Though, he was mainly curious on why articles were starting to resurface now and not right after it had happened.

"Oh, I—" With a jolt, he remembers that he had totally forgot to mention it to Baekhyun. Uh-oh. He sighs and walks over to where Baekhyun was sitting before taking the spot next to him. "Remember that 'weird situation' that I was in, about a while ago?"

"That was like... forever ago."

"Well, this is it." Chanyeol says, slowly. "You do know Mingyu, right?"

Baekhyun snorts, smiling a little at the question. 

"Do I know the Kim Mingyu, one of the most-talked about celebrities that resides here in South Korea? He's everywhere, man—he's known for his charm, perfect looks, an all around charming guy. How can I not know him?" Baekhyun says, shaking his head slightly. "Why?"

"Well... he offered me a job." Chanyeol rubs the back of his neck, and Baekhyun's eyes widen. "That's why he came to see me. Hence..." He gestures to the article helplessly. "Apparently he's been ordering in secret from the restaurant for a while. He told me that he really enjoys the food that I make."

"He did?! And?" Baekhyun gasps. He then looks at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to elaborate.

Chanyeol blinks, confused. "What?"

"What did you say?"

"Um," Chanyeol chuckles nervously, "About that..."

"Chanyeol," Baekhyun clicks his tongue and folds his arms. "You didn't say anything, I'm guessing."

"I'm still... er... thinking about it."

He straightens up and scratches the back of his head.

Baekhyun laughs.

"You've been thinking about it for a damn long time, if you've asked me. But seriously, being able to work with one of the best chefs in the entirety of South Korea is something that I know you'd enjoy. You can finally showcase that talent of yours, you know? And I bet that you're going to earn a TON of money working for the Kims..."

Chnayeol listens to Baekhyun ramble, but he cannot help but feel increasingly nervous as the doctor continues to lists the benefits of working for the Kims. Sure, he knew that there were a lot of amazing things that could come with this opportunity. This was also a great chance for him to start saving up towards opening his own restaurant, which was his dream for as long as he could remember. 

However, he couldn't help but feel uneasy. Although he's been cooking for forever, working in that kind of pressuring environment was something that was way out of his comfort zone. He'd basically grown up with the people at El Dorado and considered them as close as family; the thought of him leaving made him feel a bit sick. 

Baekhyun stops talking when he sees the queasy look on Chanyeol's face.

"Chanyeol?" He says, concerned.

"I'm sorry. I just... I know." Chanyeol sighs, passing a hand through his hair. He bites his lip and shrugs. "Actually, I don't know. Ugh. I'm feeling really conflicted about the whole thing. I really don't want to leave the people at the restaurant. They've been there for me through some tough times, and they're my second family. I don't know how I'd be able to cope with not seeing them as often anymore. Not to mention that I'd be competing with them."

The sous chef falters.

"Then again," Baekhyun says softly after a few moments. He stands up and caresses Chanyeol's cheek gently before continuing. "If you work for Mingyu, think of all the possibilites that can come from there. Honestly, I don't think you need to worry about the competition as much. Don't the Kims own a really fancy dinner restaurant? The ambience at El Dorado is more casual, and they have all your recipes, right? They won't lose business."

Chanyeol purses his lips.

"I know you'll miss them, but you could always stop by to see them anytime." Baekhyun says comfortingly. "I sort of felt the same way when I had to move to the city to get to pursue this job opportunity, and I had to leave my mom behind as a result. Yes, it's hard, but I still find time to talk to her everyday. I know that I'm also doing this to earn money in order to support her financially. In the end, it's for the greater good, right?"

"Yeah," Chanyeol's eyebrows furrow. He places his hand on top of Baekhyun's and gives it a gentle squeeze. "Okay. Well, er, if I am going to take up the offer then I think I should let them know... I think I should let you guys know, too."

Baekhyun nods, smiling.

"Whenever you're ready. I mean, personally, I think it's a really great opportunity for you. But the decision is ultimately yours. Whatever the decision, I'll support you with it. You're a damn good chef, Chanyeol, seriously."

Chanyeol smiles, feeling a little better about himself already. Although Baekhyun was right in a lot of aspects, he appreciated that he wasn't pushing him to make a decision on the spot. Something big like this does take a lot of time in deciding, especially since he didn't really know what he would be signing himself up for. Sure enough, he would give Mingyu a response as soon as he was confident with what he truly wanted. 

"You're the best, you know that?"

Baekhyun grins, "Yes, I do."

"Wow, you're so self-centered."

"You love it though." The doctor says in a cute tone, accompanied by finger guns. He pecks Chanyeol on the cheek, which earns a loud laugh from the sous chef afterwards. 

"Can you guys stop being gross and help us decide what to eat please," Jongdae groans, and across from him, Luhan rolls his eyes.

"You're just mad because you're the only one in this room who's still single."

"I am not!" Jongdae exclaims a little too quickly, looking at his friend in disbelief. Chanyeol notices that the barista's complexion does turn a little pallid at the mention of his relationship status, though. "I'm single because I want to be."

Luhan sticks his tongue at Jongdae, who sticks his tongue back out at him in return. When the barista turns around to find something in Baekhyun's fridge, the florist mouths a yeah right to Chanyeol and Baekhyun, who both snicker. 

"What?" Jongdae then says, confused, now holding a banana milk in his hand.

"What?" Chanyeol says innocently. "Did you guys end up finding out what you guys wanted for dinner?"

Jongdae and Luhan both open their mouths at the same time, but Baekhyun quickly intervenes.

"Fried chicken sounds really good right now, doesn't it?"

Jongdae and Luhan look at each other, thinking for a while. Chanyeol can literally see the gears shifting in their heads.

"Actually... it does." Jongdae hums. Luhan nods in agreement.

"And I'll make it for all of us, okay?" Chanyeol says, already walking over to the door. He takes his coat off the coat hanger and shrugs it on. "So that there wouldn't have to be an argument on which chicken place is better, either."

Both Jongdae and Luhan open their mouths to protest, their voices overlapping.

"Chanyeol, you're supposed to be resting, it's the weekend for goodness sakes—"

"Forget it, we can just cook—"

"Don't worry about it. Just please don't cook, I know you have good intentions but you guys both almost burned down the brownies last time you tried to make some." Chanyeol waves them off with a casual smile. "Be back in a bit, I'll just grab some groceries."

He catches Baekhyun's eye and winks; the doctor snorts in response.

After that, he leaves the apartment with a small skip in his step, smiling to himself. He steps into the elevator and digs into his pocket, pulling out his phone and pressing on Mingyu's contact information. He stares at it for a while before taking a deep breath.

As he exits the elevator, he presses call and waits.

 

 

---

 

 

The next day at the station, Jongin is twirling his pen around his fingers, bored, when he sees someone enter his peripheral vision. Startled, the police officer jumps, before realizing that it was just Jackson. The other officer was holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a stack of reports in the other. 

Jongin regains his composure before clearing his throat awkwardly; he's never really had a one-on-one conversation with Jackson before.

"Um... hi, Jackson."

"Hey, Jongin." The other officer smiles and leans forward slightly; he's a little too close for comfort. He nods at Sehun's empty chair and wiggles his eyebrows. "So, I heard."

"You heard..." Jongin repeats, a little more than confused, while Jackson looks at him expectantly. He looks over at Sehun's chair and back at the other officer, his head tilted slightly, not connecting the dots. "...What, exactly?"

Jackson sighs, but he's still smiling.

"I heard that Sehun finally got together with that guy Luhan. I was going to tell him congratulations, but he's not here."

"Ohhhh," Jongin finally realizes, smiling a little at the fact that Jackson finally bothered to get Luhan's name right. "He went to go hand Kris his police report, actually, since Kris was getting on him about it. I can pass on the message, though, if you want me to. Who did you hear that from, by the way?"

"From Jinyoung, actually. Apparently it was the first thing that Sehun told him as soon as he came back to work. He must be pretty thrilled about it."

"Who, Jinyoung or Sehun?"

"Both of them," Jackson shrugs. "But yeah."

"Cool."

It becomes silent for a while, and Jongin wonders why Jackson hasn't returned to his spot in the office yet. It was getting a bit awkward, now, and Jongin suddenly remembered that he did have a report to finish writing (that he was neglecting), after all. Plus, Jackson was just standing there, looking as if he were in deep thought about something. Normally, Jackson was pretty talkative; it was rare to see him so concentrated. 

Jongin's about to make up a lame excuse to get out of the situation before Jackson suddenly makes a noise of realization.

"Oh , sorry, I realized that I forgot what I really came here for. Someone's here for you."

Jongin looks at him, confused. "Someone's here for me?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me that before?"

"I..." Jackson trails off, frowning. "I deadass forgot."

Jongin rolls his eyes, "Thanks, Jackson." 

"He's at the front by the way!" Jackson yells after him, as soon as Jongin quickly leaves his cubicle. He makes his way to the front of the police station, wondering who was here to see him in the first place; he had forgotten to ask Jackson about that.

Eventually, he sees Kyungsoo sitting in the waiting room. He's looking down at his phone with his eyebrows furrowed.

Jongin immediately turns into a pile of mush at the sight of his boyfriend. 

"Kyungsoo!" Jongin waves giddily at the florist, who looks up at him, wide-eyed, at the mention of his name. The florist clicks his tongue at the sight of him.

"I just sent you a text. I was wondering what was taking you so long to get here."

"Sorry... it was one of my coworkers. He came to my cubicle and everything, but he forgot to tell me that you were waiting out here." Jongin grins sheepishly, taking one of Kyungsoo's hands and massaging it. The florist's hands were as soft as always. He brings Kyungsoo's hand to his lips and kisses it gently.

Kyungsoo breaks eye contact, embarrassed.

"What are you doing here, anyways?" Jongin asks, amused by his boyfriend's reaction.

"I made lunch, so I wanted to drop it off before heading back." Kyungsoo says, handing the police officer a small bag with his free hand. Jongin peers inside, where there were three to-go containers with generous portions inside. "I was planning on just making lunch for myself, but Luhan messaged me that he forgot his lunch at home, so I had to pack him some. In the end, I realized I had a ton of leftovers, so I packed some for you, Sehun, Jongdae, Kris, and Chanyeol. Yours is the one with extra cheese."

Jongin stares at Kyungsoo, his mouth agape.

"...What?"

"Nothing, it's just," Jongin smiles. "I really appreciate it. Thank you."

Kyungsoo's cheeks flush a pretty pink.

At that moment, Jongin hears quick footsteps approaching from behind him, and he turns to face Sehun and Kris, who were currently walking over to them. Kris was holding Sehun's written report in his hands, a disappointed look on his face, and the younger officer sticks his tongue out at Jongin as soon as he sees him. 

"Jongin, there you are, where the hell is your repo—oh, hey, Kyungsoo." Kris says, cutting himself off and doing a double take, baffled at the sight of the black haired florist. His expression changes to one of confusion. "What brings you here?"

"Just delivering lunch." Kyungsoo replies. He stands up and dusts himself off.

"Hi Kyungsoo," Sehun waves to him in greeting. Kyungsoo responds by putting his hand up in a short wave. Afterwards, Sehun looks around, as if expecting to see someone else.

"Luhan's back at the shop." Kyungsoo says, sounding a bit annoyed. "He wanted to come too, but I made him stay since he's pretty behind on orders."

The officer tries to hide his disappointment, but fails. "Oh."

"Well, you should probably go back to work now, I've been keeping you distracted long enough." Kyungsoo turns to address Jongin. His voice is a much more softer tone when he talks to him, and Jongin represses the urge to continue to smile goofily at his boyfriend. "I'll see you later, okay?"

With that, the florist leaves, and Kris guffaws loudly.

"Damn, he is really someone different when he talks to you." Kris snickers. "I never thought he could be so..."

Jongin stares.

"So...?"

"Soft," The police chief replies curtly, for lack of a better word. "He is so goddamn soft when it comes to you."

"He made you guys lunch too, you know." Jongin says, feeling slightly embarrassed (but also slightly proud) at that. He hands the tote bag to Kris, who looks inside it with his eyes widened.

"No ing way."

Sehun also snaps out of his daydream at that time, peering into the bag and pulling a container out. He shakes the container excitedly, looking as if he could cry. " YES. GOD, I ing love Kyungsoo and his kimchi spaghetti."

"Never break up with him, please." Kris adds, taking a container of his own.

Jongin's mouth falls open, "I am not planning to in the slightest!"

"Good," The police chief says. He then frowns and holds up Sehun's report. "More importantly, where's yours by the way?"

. Even though Kris was his friend, he did put his foot down when it was necessary. Not that it was a bad thing, of course. It's very good of him to still be expectant of all his officers, regardless of how friendly they were towards each other. Though Sehun and Jongin fooled around with Kris a lot, he knew that he was incredibly deserving of the job that he had.

"Um, sorry, Kris. I'll have it to you in a bit. Jackson told me that Kyungsoo was here, so I—"

"—got distracted," Kris finishes his sentence, sighing. Jongin shifts on his feet nervously. The police chief passes a hand through his hair, and that's when Jongin realizes that Kris actually looks pretty exhausted. There were small eyebags starting to form under his eyes. "Yeah, okay. Just get to me as soon as you can, please. There's a lot that needs to be done today."

He nods, and Kris walks off towards his office. 

Jongin exhales, and Sehun snickers. 

"Damn, that was the first time that you actually get told off by Kris in a while." Sehun says gleefully, swinging an arm around Jongin's shoulders. The elder of the two sighs, feeling slightly put down at that statement. 

"I know. How long has it been?"

"Probably months ago, or something like that. He was more irritated that time, though." 

"Ugh," Jongin says, as it was exactly how he was feeling. It really had been a while since Kris last got annoyed with him, but the last time was a situation that was more serious than forgetting to write up a written report. The thought made him feel a bit sad. The two of them make their way back to their respective cubicles in silence and sit down.

He hears Sehun pop open his to-go container. Jongin rolls his eyes and grabs his pen; if there was one thing he will never understand about his best friend, it would be his eating habits—it was currently 10:30, and he knew that the other officer just had breakfast an hour ago. Jongin's about to uncap his pen when he says:

"Oh yeah, Jackson said congratulations."

Sehun turns to look at him, confused. "For what?"

"For getting your together," Jongin turns around and raises his eyebrows while Sehun wrinkles his nose.

"He found out?"

"Yeah, Jinyoung told him."

Sehun nods slowly at that, satisfied. There was a small smile gracing his features. Jongin turns back to his desk to finally finish the  damn report until he hears Sehun scooting closer to him. When Jongin looks up, the blonde officer is looking at him so intensely; it was making Jongin feel incredibly uncomfortable. Seriously, what was with his friends today?

"...Um."

"Distractions aren't good for you," Sehun simply says.

Jongin blinks, confused.

"I mean, it's good to be distracted once in a while, but you can't let it get to your work or it's going to ultimately affect your performance."

"Wha—"

"Now go write."

Sehun turns away afterwards, turning his computer on silently. Jongin stares at him, not exactly sure on what prompted Sehun to say something like that. As he turns back to his desk to continue writing the report, he realizes that Sehun was right, even though it did come out of the blue. Yes; Kyungsoo was a good distraction for him, but too much wouldn't be a good thing. It was what made Kris irritated, after all, and Kris was his boss before he was his friend. And Jongin absolutely did not want to get fired, not after he spent so much time and effort working towards this job.

He sighs, wondering if Kyungsoo thought the same thing. 

 

 

---

 

 

Minseok sighs for the umpteenth time that morning.

He was feeling especially tired than usual today, even though he barely clocked in an hour ago. Business was also pretty slow, so far, so he couldn't even rely on his work to pull him out of this weird exhaustion that he was experiencing. Although he normally found comfort in the café's ambience, which usually kept him awake, he was starting to feel himself starting to nod off behind the cash register.

"Minseok, are you doing okay?" Seokjin asks, concerned, waking Minseok up. "You look pretty out of it."

"Oh... it's okay. Thanks. I'm fine, though."

"I'll make you some coffee." The blonde frowns at him, clearly unconvinced. He starts making him a cup, and then asks, "What time did you go to sleep last night?"

"Oh, I—"

He suddenly remembers why he was feeling so tired. He had been texting Jongdae.

"," Minseok drops.

"What?"

God, what time did they stop? Minseok quickly digs into his pocket and pulls out his phone, opening the messaging app immediately. He presses on his and Jongdae's conversation (which was the most recent one) and his heart nearly drops when he notices the time stamp of the last text that he sent—4:10 AM.

Holy ; that's why... After that day where he started to consider Jongdae as a friend, they've actually started talking a lot more. In fact, they've been texting a lot recently. Their text conversations normally didn't last for more than an hour, but last night, Minseok vaguely remembers them talking about shows to watch. Jongdae had texted him first at midnight, so it eventually led them to their conversation to last for a pretty long time (Jongdae was a big fan of TV shows, apparently). 

Minseok groans, dragging a hand down his face. 

He felt a wave of new appreciation (as well as respect) directed towards Luhan and Kyungsoo, who he knew were dealing with the other barista for longer than he had been.

"Minseok?"

"I was up until 4 AM texting Jongdae," Minseok manages to get out, bracing himself for Seokjin's reaction.

A beat of silence.

"You were WHAT?" Seokjin exclaims. He gets closer to Minseok, peering over the shorter's shoulder and down at his phone screen. The blonde makes a startled noise and stares at the barista afterwards. "I would've never guessed that you guys would've got this close, especially since it was only a couple of months ago where he was literally the bane of your existence..."

Minseok bites his lip, embarrassed. 

"...He's not so bad now, though."

It was true, as much as Minseok didn't really wanted to admit it out loud. As they continued to talk more often, Minseok found his previous irritation towards the other barista decreasing as the days went by. Now that they were friends, he was starting to feel more and more relaxed around him. In fact, it felt slightly different when he saw him now. There was something different, but he didn't really know what it was.

He does admit that he was being stubborn in refusing to be friends with him at first. Sure, he was still annoyed by him sometimes, but it wasn't the same annoyance that he felt towards him before. It was that kind of fond annoyance that you held towards a friend, or something like that.

He blinks, slightly alarmed that the thought even crossed his mind.

If anything, Minseok did find himself looking forward to the younger's texts sometimes. Well, nobody, not even him, could deny that Jongdae could be a pretty interesting person to talk to once you get to know him (Junmyeon was right). Surprisingly, their conversations weren't boring. Minseok was obviously just texting him because he didn't really have anything else to do outside of his job, and he was the only one who he was closest to out of the others in the group.

They were friends, right? Friends usually texted each other that late.

...Right?

"Jongdae's never been a bad person, but whoa," Seokjin stares at him both in half-shock and half-amusement as he hands Minseok a hot cup of coffee, bringing him out of his thoughts. "I never thought I'd live to see you say those words in my entire life."

Minseok takes it with a grateful smile, blowing on the coffee gently to cool it down.

"Seokjin, you're a great friend, you know that?"

Seokjin looks at him, touched.

Moments later, the doors of the café open, and both baristas look up to see Jongdae enter. Speak of the devil. Minseok freezes, the coffee cup hovering near his lips, as Jongdae looks up and grins widely at him as soon as they make eye contact. He was carrying a paper bag in one of his hands. Unlike Minseok, who was feeling exhausted, Jongdae appears as if he had a good night's sleep. 

Minseok looks away, suddenly feeling slightly awkward. Besides him, Seokjin waves.

"Hey, Jongdae! You look lively."

"Thanks, you too." Jongdae says gleefully, shooting finger guns at Seokjin, who does it back.

"Morning," he then addresses Minseok, who jumps, nearly spilling the hot coffee on his apron.

"Er... morning."

Jongdae doesn't reply, but he gives him a small smile back before clocking in. He enters the STAFF ONLY door and disappears.

Minseok sighs. Jeez, why were his hands shaking all of a sudden? Frowning, Minseok shifts his grip on his cup slightly before taking a sip out of it. He was gradually starting to feel more and more nervous, for some reason. In his attempt to try and calm himself down, he ends up accidentally spilling some of his drink on the counter.

Irritated, Minseok shuts his eyes for a moment. 

Get it together, Minseok. What's wrong with you?

"Someone's jittery today," Jongdae's teasing voice then says, and Minseok turns around abruptly to face the other barista. Maybe he was imagining things, but Jongdae looked different, today, for some reason. "It must be the coffee."

"He needed it," Seokjin interjects, crossing his arms. "He was falling asleep behind the cash register."

"Whoa, seriously?" Jongdae laughs. "Here, I'll grab something to clean that up."

Minseok was too busy trying to tell himself to calm down. As a result, he was not listening to this conversation and was already in the middle of reaching for the rag. Thus, you could imagine his surprise when he felt Jongdae's fingers suddenly brush against his.

"AGH!" Minseok flinches at the brief contact, letting go of the rag immediately.

Surprised, Jongdae stares at him in confusion.

"Dude, what is up with you?"

"N-Nothing." Minseok replies, maybe a little too quickly, and he picks up the rag afterwards. He cleans the countertop somewhat aggressively, leaving Jongdae to gape at him. 

Unbeknownst to the both of them, Seokjin blinks slowly at their exchange, a thought slowly registering in his mind. As soon as that crazy thought completely processed, he places a hand over his mouth to hide his growing smile.

"Um... guys, I'm going to get more stirrers in the back."

He leaves quickly.

"Did you get a haircut?" Minseok suddenly asks.

"Huh?" Jongdae responds, touching his hair and looking around self-consciously. "No. Why?"

That wasn't it... Minseok internally kicks himself. His hair seemed longer, if anything.

"Minseok," Jongdae waves a hand in front of Minseok's face. He sounded genuinely concerned, now. Minseok stares at him. "Yo, Earth to Minseok. Are you sure you're okay?" 

"Yes," Minseok sighs in defeat, officially giving up. He blames this on his lack of sleep; he must be hallucinating or something. "You just look different today, for some reason."

The other barista blinks. "I do? I didn't do anything different."

"...Nevermind."

Jongdae stares at him for a while, his expression unreadable. Eventually, he looks away, humming as he takes the rag and puts it away. "Sorry for texting you so late last night—or, er, this morning, I guess. It must be really affecting you right now."

"It's okay, I can still function pretty well."

"You sure about that?" Jongdae snorts. He grabs a new bag of cup holders and refills the stack that they had at the counter. He smiles afterwards, looking a bit guilty. "My sleep schedule isn't exactly normal, so I tend to text people at the worst times. Seriously, you can just tell me if you don't want to text anymore."

"Wait," Minseok's eyes widen, "That's not it."

"So you do want to keep texting me, then?"

He's smirking now.

"Stop twisting my words, idiot." Minseok grumbles, but he could feel his face starting to heat up in embarrassment. Jongdae appears to be satisfied at this response, though, as he is met with no retort for once.

Seokjin comes back at that time, looking incredibly cautious for some reason.

Afterwards, they continue talking to each other normally. Minseok's able to hold himself together and actually manage to hold an ongoing conversation with Jongdae and Seokjin as they continue taking orders and preparing various drinks in between. 

During their lunch break, Jongdae retreats back into the STAFF ONLY door while Minseok wonders what he was going to eat today. When Jongdae comes back out, he takes out a to-go container from the paper bag and wordlesly hands it to Minseok, who looks at it in confusion.

"What's this?"

"It's from Kyungsoo. He told me to give one to you." Jongdae says. "He made a ton of kimchi spaghetti last night, so he was kind enough to pack us leftovers. I'll be right back, I'm going to hand this other one to Gramps."

Speechless, Minseok takes the to-go box. He later texts Kyungsoo a thank you message.

Hours later, after their respective shifts, it's eventually time for them to clock out.

Seokjin leaves first in somewhat of a hurry, clad in a white scarf and pink trench coat. He waves merrily at the two of them before saying, "See you guys tomorrow!"

As the next batch of workers come inside the café to clock in, Minseok watches Jongdae silently as the latter puts on his jacket. 

"Heading to the flower shop?" He asks, and Jongdae nods. 

"Yuuup. Kyungsoo's kind of in a bad mood right now because we're a bit behind on shipping orders to people." Jongdae shrugs and takes the paper bag that he had with him earlier, which held the empty (and washed) to-go containers. "That can't really be helped, though. We recently heard from Chanyeol that he's been offered a new job, so we're all not sure on how that's going to affect the deliveries. I suggested to take over for a bit, but Kyungsoo's kind of worried about me driving."

"Worried?"

"Yeah, he's afraid I'm going to get lost or something."

Minseok can't blame Kyungsoo. He found out recently that Jongdae does have issues with directions, sometimes.

"I'm sure he appreciates it, but I guess that's his own way of showing that he cares about you." Minseok replies nonchalantly, as he holds the door open for the both of them. Jongdae mutters a quiet thanks and nods slowly at that, smiling to himself a little bit. They leave the café together after bidding a final goodbye to Taehyung, who was waving at them from the counter.

"He can be a bit of a mom at times."

Minseok smirks as they continue to walk down the street together.

"Seokjin certainly fits that role, though."

"No kidding," The other barista laughs gently, and Minseok can't help but think of how nice it sounds. It was relaxing, similar to a blast of warm air as soon as you enter a building during the winter.

Wait, pause.

"Well, this is where we part." Jongdae then says after they reach a certain crosswalk. There's a funny sort of smile on his face as he turns around to face him, and the look in his eyes seem softer than usual. "Goodbye, Minseok. Talk to you later."

"Yeah," Minseok purses his lips.

Jongdae grins at that and leaves, his hands stuffed inside his jacket pockets.

Minseok turns around and walks in the other direction, feeling slightly troubled at the weird thoughts that he was having recently. As he makes his way back to his apartment, he frowns to himself once more. Although Jongdae did seem to be different today, Minseok didn't think that he did anything to his physical appearance. 

This feeling certainly didn't seem unfamiliar to him, though. He's certainly felt this confused about something before, but he couldn't quite place a finger on it.

Later that night, Minseok's in the middle of watching one of the shows that Jongdae recommended. He's pretty engrossed into the show, but he becomes distracted the moment he hears his phone vibrate. 

He fumbles for his phone on the couch, heart pounding, and stares at the text on his screen. 

—sent 9:23 PM
Jongdae: saw something that reminded me of you LOL
[picture message]

Minseok finds the remote and pauses the episode. He makes a move to press on his message, but he stops himself before he does. Would it be too much to respond in less than a minute? Since when did he care about how fast to respond? How fast did he usually respond to Jongdae? His eyebrows furrow in confusion. Ugh, whatever.

He opens the message two minutes later and is met with a picture of Grumpy Cat.

Minseok scoffs out loud, rolling his eyes.

—sent 9:25 PM
Minseok: wow, thanks a lot

He gets a text back almost immediately.

—sent 9:25 PM
Jongdae: loooool

—sent 9:26 PM
Jongdae: you doing okay though? you've been acting kinda weird lately

If there's one thing he couldn't find himself getting used to, it was Jongdae's serious side. It was a complete 180 of his personality, and it was sort of intimidating to experience in person. He never would have struck Jongdae as the caring type, but he learned from Luhan that Jongdae was that kind of person.

Nevertheless, Minseok's breath hitches at the text. He can't help but imagine Jongdae's concerned expression in his head—it's the one where his eyebrows are furrowed and his lips form in a small pout. Minseok shakes his head vigorously, trying to get the image out of his head. He fails miserably and finds his smile growing against his will.

Minseok feels his heart pounding loudly in his chest and a strange, but familiar, warmth spreading throughout his body. This feeling... it was...

Oh, .

The last time he felt like this was years ago, when he had that ridiculous crush on someone in his university.

Oh. .

Minseok makes a strangled noise and covers his mouth. He then slaps his cheeks to wake himself up.

It was no mistaking it. The process had been incredibly slow, without him even realizing it; he knew that he already started to feel something back even when he still stubbornly considered Jongdae as an acquaintance.

There was the time where Jongdae had that mild concussion, which was something that worried Minseok a lot, even though he made it seem like he didn't care. He flashes back to the 50th Anniversary for Moonlight, where Jongdae came to the party wearing glasses and dressed in clothes that fit him well; Minseok's heart had skipped a beat when he saw him. Then there was that other time, at Luhan's house, where they sat together on his couch and drank cheap beer. Minseok had felt unexplainable relief when he found out that there was nothing going on between Jongdae and Sunyoung, but now he finally knew why. There were many other times after that, but those moments were the ones that really stuck with him.

It's either that he really didn't know what he was feeling or that he was too stubborn to admit it at the time. Probably the latter.

With this epiphany, Minseok can't help but laugh out loud.

To think that he would end up starting to fall for that idiot, out of all people, after months of not really liking him... the idiot with the stupid laugh, the stupider smile, and the stupidest personality. It was no wonder why he thought Jongdae appeared different today. He was starting to see him in a new light.

He smiles to himself before finally replying to Jongdae's text.

—sent 9:35PM
Minseok: i'm okay now, thanks. just watching the show you recommended

Two minutes later, his phone vibrates again.

—sent 9:37 PM
Jongdae: cool. sorry to interrupt, keep watching :-)

Minseok sighs, smiling a little at that.

More importantly, what the hell was he going to do now?

 

 

---

 

 

A/N: finally got around to updating this story! sorry for the wait y'all, i got busy with uni :-( i'm technically on my spring break right now but it's almost ending and i already have something due on tuesday next week... and a bunch of other stuff already bruh LOL feels bad. i hope everyone is doing okay though! finally got xiuchen into this chapter, ik there's a taoris drought but they'll be in next chap promise! and who knows what chanyeol ended up deciding hehe. thought epiphany would be a good title for this chapter bc of many things the characters realize. also, i love jin

take care!

-seokminz x