Furniture

Kim Jonghyun x Lee Taemin ✩ 1777 words
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Jonghyun hides his yawn in his hand and looks around in the store. There's silent but it's no wonder 10 minutes before they close up. His co-worker Kibum sends him a smirk.

"Tired?" he asks and Jonghyun nods.

It's no wonder he's tired. He was up most night to finish an assignment that had to be handed in this morning and he hasn't gotten any sleep after he handed it in because he had to work.

Jonghyun works at the small furniture store in town. It's nothing like the IKEA in the bigger city nearby but Jonghyun likes this one better. It has soul.

Kibum used to mock him whenever he said it but Jonghyun still thinks that this small store has soul compared to the larger one. It's not that this store is small per se, it's just not as big as the other.

Kibum opens the cash register and tells Jonghyun to check that everything is the way it's supposed to be. They walk this round every night before they close up and Jonghyun walks from behind the counter and starts to walk around the store.

Everything is fine until he reaches the bed-area and sees a figure lying on the bed in the farthest corner.

Jonghyun scrunches up his nose. He doesn't recall the bed in the corner to be a very comfortable one but as he gets closer, he can confirm that it is indeed a person sleeping on it.

The person has his jacket draped over his body to compensate for a blanket and Jonghyun lifts an eyebrow when he gets close enough to see the person. It's a boy; Jonghyun assumes he's younger than him. His form is beautiful but his eyes are covered by his black bangs.

Jonghyun stands in front of the sleeping stranger and stares at him for the next 30 minutes when he hears Kibum shouting at him. He slightly nudges the sleeping boy and the other grunts a little and shifts. Jonghyun can hear the sound of Kibum's shoes coming closer so he nudges the sleeping form again.

"It's okay Kibum! I'll be there in a minute," he shouts in the direction Kibum would be coming from. Jonghyun is not sure that Kibum would be very friendly towards a sleeping customer and he doesn't want the other to get into trouble for being tired. Heck, Jonghyun could probably sleep on one of the beds as well if he lied down.

The sound of Kibum's footsteps thankfully turns lower when the other shouts an 'okay, hurry up!' and leaves. Jonghyun sighs relieved and turns to the sleeping boy again.

"Hey, you really have to wake up..."

The boy turns but opens his eyes. Jonghyun feels like drowning when he gets eye contact with the other. He has never met anyone with such deep eyes. "We're closing up, you can't sleep here. Go home."

The boy shrugs but gets off the bed. He takes his jacket and leaves the staring Jonghyun without a word. Jonghyun blinks before he turns around and meets Kibum. Kibum looks slightly annoyed.

"Where did you find that boy?" he asks and points to the front door. Jonghyun assumes the boy left. He smiles but says nothing as he turns on the alarm system. The two boys leave the store.


Jonghyun doesn't go to work the next day or the day after that because he's been busy with his classes and his co-workers have a lot of time.


When he comes two days later it's to find that Eunsook and Minjung have changed their shifts. Minjung greets him with a smile and soon after hurries off to help a couple find the perfect couch for their new living room.

Jonghyun is so busy during his shift that he doesn't recognize the boy until they're closing and he finds him sleeping in the same bed that he slept in two days ago. Minjung raises a questioning eyebrow when she spots the two but she says nothing and goes back to the cash register. Jonghyun nudges the boy awake again and sends him a little smile.

"You should sleep at home. You can't keep coming here to sleep. I'm pretty sure I could get fired if I let you sleep and we have to close now."

The boy sighs a little but nods. He puts on his jacket and is about to leave without a word when Jonghyun reaches out and grabs his wrist. "What's your name?" he asks curiously and the boy sighs.

"It doesn't matter, does it?"

Jonghyun raises an eyebrow but the other yanks his wrist out of Jonghyun's hold and leaves the store. Minjung laughs when Jonghyun joins her behind the counter.

"Do you know him?" she asks and Jonghyun shakes his head.

"No, I just found him sleeping there last time I was working."

Minjung nods but doesn't say any more. Jonghyun has a feeling that she doesn't tell him the whole truth. She definitely knows something she isn't telling him.


Jonghyun has a shift with Kibum the next day but the other shows up with a runny nose and what Jonghyun suspects to be a fever as well. Jonghyun takes a step away and Kibum slumps into the chair behind the counter.

"I feel like ," he says and Jonghyun smiles a little. He feels his co-worker. It's been cold outside and Kibum always wears the most ridiculous clothes. It's no wonder he's sick.

"Go home, I can handle it today."

Kibum looks up from where his forehead has been planted on the counter and bites his lip.

"You sure?" he asks and Jonghyun nods.

They're not supposed to be less than two at work but Kibum can't be working like this and Jonghyun would prefer to work alone than to get sick again. He also hopes that maybe the boy comes back in and sleeps and that Jonghyun perhaps can get his name. Or well - anything.

He couldn't forget the stranger after he had left yesterday and it's been driving him insane. He doesn't know why he's so invested in a stranger but he is. He sighs a little but Kibum nods a little.

"Thanks Jonghyun, you're the best."

Jonghyun just sends him a smile and wishes him a speedy recovery. Jonghyun isn't busy today despite it being Friday but he doesn't see the boy entering the store.

It's first when he closes up and cleans up that he sees him. He approaches the sleeping stranger and decides that today is the day that he's going to know something about this man. He has to know who this is. And he's here alone so he can close up without kicking the other out if that's what he wants.

Jonghyun sits down on the bedside and nudges the boy a little. He wakes up and is about to get off the bed and put on his jacket when Jonghyun stops him.

"No, you don't have to leave. Who are you and why are you sleeping here anyway?" Jonghyun asks curiously and the other boy sits down on the other bedside and turns to look at Jonghyun.

"Why do you care?" he asks and Jonghyun shrugs.

"I've been finding you sleeping here for my past three shifts. There has got to be a reason as to why you're sleeping here even though you must know it can get you in trouble."

The boy shrugs as well.

"I don't really go home," he says and Jonghyun wonders why. He doesn't ask, though, he doesn't want to pry on the boy's personal life. Instead he asks him what his name is and the other tells him that he's called Taemin.

When Jonghyun asks whether or not he's still in high school he seems personally offended and proudly tells Jonghyun that he's a freshman in college. Jonghyun laughs and apologizes for his assumptions. Taemin is easy to talk to and they have more in common than Jonghyun had initially thought they would have when he woke up the boy that evening.

They forget the time until Jonghyun yawns and glances at his wrist watch. It's already past midnight and he really should get home but he doesn't want to kick Taemin out of the store either. The two of them end up falling asleep on the bed.


Minjung opens the store together with Eunsook the next morning and the two girls find the two boys sleeping on the bed in the farthest corner and snickers.

"Pay up," says Minjung and Eunsook sighs.

"Why do I make bets with you?" she asks rhetorically and Minjung just laughs. Her laugh has Jonghyun waking up and he looks confused for a few seconds before he remembers last night and whispers a slight ''.

Then he get eye contact with Minjung and Eunsook who are both standing in front of them. He nudges the sleeping boy beside him but Taemin doesn't wake up.

"You guys should talk at your apartment Jonghyun, not here," Eunsook says and Jonghyun blushes a little. Minjung sends him a suggestive eyebrow-wiggle and he widens his eyes.

"Nothing happened!" he says loudly and it's loud enough to have the other boy wake up as well. Minjung just laughs when she leaves the two boys and Eunsook sighs and murmurs something about never winning bets and that she should stop hanging out with Minjung. Taemin looks groggily at Jonghyun before he too remembers the night before.

"Thanks for not kicking me out last night Jonghyun. It was fun."

Jonghyun clears his throat but he feels the same. He's glad he didn't kick out the other out of the store the other night.


Jonghyun and Taemin speak whenever Taemin comes into the store. The younger boy even begins hanging out at the cash register so he can talk to Jonghyun instead of sleeping in the back of the store. Jonghyun asks Taemin out on a coffee date three weeks after their initial meeting and Taemin accepts.

One date turns to more and Eunsook fist pumps the air when Taemin comes into the store and calls Jonghyun 'baby'.

"You're together, right? Please tell me that you're dating!"

She wears the widest smile Jonghyun has ever seen when they confirm and she mumbles 'Minjung owes me' which has both Jonghyun and Taemin laughing.

Taemin doesn't sleep in the store anymore. Now he follows Jonghyun home whenever Jonghyun ends his shift.

author's notes

A weird drabble to be honest. Just strange. 
Thanks for reading.