Monday morning

♦

The rain was falling, banging heavily and loudly against the windows and concrete. A terrible morning to start with, and an even worse Monday morning, the beginning of the week. New York streets were covered in water and black umbrellas. Pedestrians’ shoes and trousers were dirty and wet from the streets’ mud, and everyone was in rather gloomy moods.

I got a pocket, got a pocketful of sunshine.
I got a love, and I know that it's all mine.
Oh, oh whoa

 Kris groaned, covering his head with a heavy blanket, hoping it would be enough to keep his alarm clock from giving out noises.

Do what you want, but you're never gonna break me.
Sticks and stones are never gonna shake me.
No, oh whoa

The man groaned again, turning around and turning his phone off.

Kris hated mornings. More than that, he hated Monday morning. And even more than Monday mornings he hated hangover Monday mornings.

Today just wasn’t his day.

After quickly getting ready, putting a tone of hair gel onto his head, a cloud of perfume on his body and three spoons of coffee into his cup, Kris was ready to leave for work.

“Today is not my day,” he mumbled to himself, getting squished in a subway, praying to all the gods and spirits to give him strength not to kill anyone in the wagon.

“Today is definitely not my day,” he mumbled again, upon missing his stop, because there were too many people to push through.

“Oh, today is so not my day,” he groaned as he was standing by the door to his hair salon, and realized he forgot the keys. “Perfect!” he spat, banging his head against the glass.

“You alright there?” someone asked and giggled.

Kris sighed, rolling his eyes. He turned around and looked down at a young boy standing in front of him, sipping on a green straw sticking out from a white cup with Starbuck’s logo on it, red scarf wrapped around his neck, and black jacket ped.

Kris raised an eyebrow, but quickly shook his head.

“Jongdae,” he spoke softly, “do you happen to have a key?” he asked, putting all the faith in his employee.

The younger smirked, “maybe I do, maybe I don’t. Why?”

Kris’ eye twitched, “why do you think I would ask?”

Jongdae took one more sip of his drink, and shrugged, “you often ask stupid questions, hyung, so how would I know?”

Kris tightened his fists, “I swear to god, I will chop you to pieces if you don’t stop being an annoying piece of .”

“That is defo not a way to get what you want,” Jongdae mumbled, fishing something out of his pocket, “simple ‘please’ would be enough.”

“Shut up or you won’t get a break today,” Kris warned, pushing in front of the boy to get inside.

He was freezing.

“Emm, you’re welcome!” Jongdae shouted from the entrance, rolling his eyes.

“Get down to work, Jongdae.”

“What?!” the boy whined, “what the , Kris?! What work?! It’s ing 7:30!”

“Yeah, and someone needs to clean up the place before the clients come, don’t you think?”

Jongdae’s jaw dropped, “you made me come here so early just to turn me into a maid?! I so ing hate you,” he mumbled, taking off his jacket.

“Less talking, more wiping. Quickly!”

Jongdae groaned, but went to grab a broom and started wiping the place.

♦

Minseok woke up to a sound of rain hitting the window. He slowly opened his eyes, stretched, and smiled to himself feeling the body on the other side of the bed shift. He grinned, when upon looking to the side his eyes landed on a body buried under a pile of white sheets. He took a deep breath in and looking outside the window got out of bed.

Standing in the kitchen, grinding the coffee beans, Minseok observed the calm streets of Brooklyn. The rain was heavy, so there were not many people on the pavements, and there were only a few running cars crossing the street from time to time. Water was streaming down the glass, and the boy started humming to himself.

Minseok was definitely a morning person, and it was in the morning that he felt best. Calm, peaceful, not disturbed by anything. He took a deep breath in, and smiled, looking at the Manhattan’s panorama rising above the buildings in front of him.

After finishing the coffee, he came back to the bedroom and as quietly as possible started getting ready for work. When he was fishing through the closet, a white t-shirt in red stripes fell out, and the man frowned. It was not his, and he did not recall his boyfriend ever owning a t-shirt like that. The younger hardly ever wore t-shirts. Throwing the item back into the closet, he shrugged and quickly dressed.

“Babe,” Minseok whispered into his sleeping boyfriend’s ear a few moments later, smiling lightly and placing a kiss on his forehead, “babe, I’m going to work.”

“Mmmh,” the younger hummed, slowly turning around and nodding his head, “have a nice day, Min,” he mumbled, throwing his arms around Minseok. The older laughed, falling down.

“Let me go, babe, I gotta go.”

“Kris makes you go there way too early,” came a whine, “it’s only a hair salon,” he whined more.

Minseok giggled, “one, it’s already nine, love. Second, you know Kris, he likes to have it his way. Something you two have in common,” he chuckled

“Ahhh, already nine?” the younger asked, surprised, slowly opening his eyes, “it’s been a long night,” he giggled against the elder’s lips.

“Mmmmh,” Minseok replied, placing a soft kiss on the other’s lips, “indeed. But!” he exclaimed, pulling away, “I still gotta go.”

“Noooooooo! I object!”

“Stop whining, I’ve got enough of it at work!” Minseok laughed, thinking of his younger coworker.

“Right,” the boy on bed grimaced, “Jongdae.”

“Ohhhh,” Minseok wiggled his eyebrows, “is someone jealous?”

“I simply don’t like the fact he’s always checking you out,” he murmured.

“Junnnnieeeee,” now it was Minseok’s turn to whine, “baby, stop being so childish!”

“Your is mine and only mine, understood?” the younger said, pulling Minseok in once again.

“I should be the one saying it, but I appreciate your possessiveness,” he chuckled, “no worries. Jongdae’s is fine, but it’s yours I’m claiming.”

“You’d better,” the boy said, biting on the elder’s bottom lip, “and I don’t want you to ever say he’s is fine ever again. It’s not. It’s flat.”

Minseok laughed, “alright, alright. We can live a lie as well.”

“Minseok!” Junmyeon yelled, throwing a pillow at his boyfriend.

“I gotta go, or I’ll be late! Have a nice day, love, and say hi to Yixing!”

“And you stay away from that child, or I’ll have his balls!”

Minseok only chuckled and closed the front door to the apartment.

The weather was terrible, and the only thing Minseok dreamt about when a cold wind hit him was going back to his warm bed. However, he took in a deep breath and running down the stairs he jumped over a pool of water on a pavement and quickly ran to the closest subway.

The ride to Manhattan was quite quick, and nice. Rain aside, the morning was not as bad as it could have been. Upon exiting the subway next to the Empire State Building, Minseok took a turn to the Korean district and wrinkling his nose at how cold it was, instead of going straight to work he first entered Café Bene to pick up a coffee. With a warm drink in his hand, and bitter taste in his mouth, the man smiled to himself and quickly crossing the street he ran into the shop.

“Hyung!!”

Jongdae’s long and miserable whine was the first thing that greeted him.

“Hello to you, too,” he chuckled, taking his jacket off.

“But I have just cleaned the floor,” the younger mumbled, looking at the pool of water that created around Minseok.

The older looked down, and gasped, pouting slightly, “I am really sorry. I’ll clean it.”

“Don’t worry,” Kris’s voice chimed in, and when Minseok looked up he saw the boss sitting comfortably behind the desk, “let the kid work.”

“I am not your ing slave,” Jongdae mumbled under his breath, tightening his grip on the mop.

Minseok laughed slightly and ruffled Jongdae’s hair, “don’t bother. He’s still pissed about what you’ve done on Friday,” he whispered.

“But that was TWO WEEKS AGO!” the boy yelled.

“BUT MY HAIR IS STILL SLIGHTLY GREEN!” Kris yelled back, and Minseok couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

Kris’s green hair was a sight he does not want to forget. Ever.

“Can you please shut the up?” came an angry voice, and when they looked past Kris, they saw a small figure with huge eyes standing in the door to the support area.

“Oh, come on, Soo, no one’s here yet, anyway,” Jongdae rolled his eyes, and a moment later was hit with a shoe in the head, “ouch!” he yelled, massaging the back of his skull, “hyung, save me,” he cried, hiding himself behind Minseok, “they only bully me!”

Minseok laughed wholeheartedly and spread his arms and legs to the side, shielding the younger boy from the older two.

“Leave him alone, you two!” he ordered, “he learnt his lesson! And that violent act was very unnecessary, Kyungsoo!”

“He just wouldn’t shut up! I had to do something!” the boy mumbled, rolling his eyes.

“And since when doing anything to Jongdae makes me go quiet?” Minseok asked, rising an eyebrow.

Kyungsoo and Kris looked at each other, and then nodded.

“Point taken.”

“So I thought,” the oldest chuckled, “now, let’s get down to work, shall we?”

Kyungsoo turned around and disappeared behind the door, and Kris came back to reading a newspaper behind his desk. Jongdae stood next to Minseok and with a wide smile on his face tugged on his arm, “thank you, hyung. You’re the only one I can count on in here!”

“Stop being such a drama queen, Dae,” he laughed, and Jongdae’s heart skipped a bit at the sound, and his mouth watered as small wrinkles appeared around Minseok’s eyes.

The older slightly pushed Jongdae away, and still laughing he went to join Kyungsoo in the back to get ready for work.

The younger stood in one place, looking at the disappearing back of his hyung, and bit his lower lip.

“Wipe the floor, Jongdae,” came Kris’ raspy voice, and the boy only rolled his eyes, going back to cleaning the floor.

♦

“Hyung,” Kyungsoo started, looking at Minseok who was drying his wet hair.

“Hmmm?”

“How are things between you and Jun?”

Minseok raised an eyebrow, “why would you ask?”

The younger shrugged, “just asking,” he mumbled.

“Everything’s alright,” the older laughed.

Kyungsoo bit his lower lip but never said anything.

“Okay, what the hell is going on?” Minseok asked, straightening his back.

“Nothing.”

“Kyungsoo.”

The younger sighed, “I just… worry? You haven’t been … you recently…”

“We’ve been both quite busy recently, that’s it,” Minseok smiled, “you’re a good friend, Soo, but you don’t have to worry for us. We’re fine. We’ll be back on the right track any time.”

Kyungsoo smiled and nodded his head.

“Hyung,” he mumbled, “can I ask you one more thing?” he asked uncertainly.

“Anything,” Minseok beamed and his eyes shone.

“You are quite close with Jongdae –“

“Huh?” Minseok frowned, “am I?”

“You seem like this,” Kyungsoo said, taking a deep breath in, “has he… has he talked to you about anything?”

Minseok looked at the younger, confused, “and what is that supposed to mean?”

“I… Lately, I’ve noticed marks on Jongdae’s arms,” he whispered, “as if bruises. And he always wears long sleeves, and he got that habit of constantly pulling at it and all, and I just –“

Minseok put hands on Kyungsoo’s shoulders and tried to calm the younger down.

“Has he? Talked to you?”

Minseok shook his head, “no. We are not really that close or anything.”

“I’m sorry, I thought –“

“Hey, it’s fine. It’s okay. I’ll keep an eye on him as well. If anything happens, we’ll just confront him about this, okay?”

Kyungsoo smiled and nodded, “you’re right, hyung. Thank you. I may be only overreacting.”

“Maybe. But it’s better to be safe than sorry. I’ll watch Jongdae and we’ll see,” he smiled and Kyungsoo nodded.

The bell rang and Kris voice rang through the salon, calling for Minseok to come outside as his first client has arrived.

Time to start the day.

First chapter is here! Not at it's best, but that may be it for what I am able to produce right now. I am still rethinking the approach I should take towards this story. I know it's not too long and I apologize for it, but I spent the last few days writing it and it just was so hard to get anything down on the paper! First chapters are always the worst, that's why I hope you will forgive me.

P.S go check out my other xiuchen stories ~~ because there's too little xiuchen in this world!