Jennie drops by into the shop that Friday. She finds Taeyong immediately with her eyes and they have a hushed conversation that Jaehyun can't make out over the sound of the four college girls’ heart breaking in the middle of the shop. He ordered Mark over with a complimentary plate of small waffles, and takes Taeyong's place behind the espresso machine counter while he talks.

He can't stop looking.

Jaehyun doesn't like the way their hands intertwine so well perfectly, or how pretty she looks when she's smiling at Taeyong. It makes him… well, he's not sure. There are dishes to be done.

"I guess she's your type then?" Mark says, and Jaehyun snaps his attention away from Taeyong and Jennie to look at his friend.

Jaehyun brushed his hair away from his forehead, hand coming up to comb through his bangs. "What are you talking about?"

"The way you look at them. You look so jealous." Accusing someone of jealousy is subjective Jaehyun thinks, he does his best not to do things associated with it.

"I'm not jealous," Jaehyun says. "Don't be silly." He rubs his palms together. "Help me take all these dishes to the sink."

"Then why are you staring at her like that?" Mark says. "She is hella pretty."

"She is," Jaehyun says, because that's true. "She's just not my type." That's true too.

"Something is weird," Mark says. "It's really like you're…"

"Everything is fine," Jaehyun snaps, and Mark is bewildered. Jaehyun softens his tone. "You're reading something into nothing."

"If you say so," Mark says, and lets it go. Ten wouldn't have let it go, but Mark is private enough himself that he never pushes on the rare occasions Jaehyun puts his foot down.

Jaehyun feels like more of a liar than usual as he stops himself from looking up at Taeyong's laugh and not-so-selflessly wishing he could have it all to himself.

❖

"Happy Thursday!" Taeyong says when he comes in at three, and Ten growls.

"I bet you’ve never worked on a Thursday before. It’s your lucky day."

"Wait… is something wrong with Thursdays?" Taeyong asks, and Ten sighs as Jaehyun tries to hold back his giggles.

"The ," Ten hisses, and Jaehyun can't stop the peal of laughter that escapes before he schools his face into an innocent smile. "I bet Mark switched with you this week solely to have a break from the king of desolation."

"Mark switched shifts because he has a calculus test tomorrow," Jaehyun says. "He's studying with Jeno."

"Studying," Ten smirks. "Is that what the kids are calling it these days?" He stacks a few laminated menus that had been abandoned on the counter and returns them to the larger pile at the end. "Back when I was an undergrad, we called it 'let's skip class and play video games'."

"The ," Taeyong prompts, as he returns from the back, stripped down to his sweatshirt and too-tight jeans, and Ten grimaces.

"Yeah," Ten says. "The guy we constantly put at table four."

"The table with the leak? He can't be that bad." Jaehyun fiddles with the cash register and decides not to involve himself in the conversation.

Ten gives Taeyong a sweet grin. "Is that so? Why don't you handle him today, then?"

"All right," Taeyong says. "I will." Taeyong grabs a menu and heads towards table four.

The looks up just as Taeyong approaches, and they both freeze.

"Sehun-hyung," Taeyong says hesitantly, as the raises one impeccably arched eyebrow to take in Taeyong’s hands around the menu.

"Is this what you've been buzzing about with your free time lately?" The , Sehun as Taeyong had called him, is clearly amused. "My, my, won't your daddy be pleased to hear about this."

"Stop it," Taeyong says. He's visibly ruffled, and Jaehyun doesn't think he's ever seen Taeyong 's mouth drawn so tight, the corners turning down with displeasure and his muscles taut. "Not here."

"Aren't you going to take my order, Taeyong?" 

Taeyong nods, stiffly. "What can I get you for today, sir?" 

Jaehyun doesn't want to see Taeyong like this. It feels too personal, and Taeyong hasn't welcomed anyone into this part of his life. Ten seems to have no such qualms, enraptured with the mini-drama unfolding at table four.

Taeyong comes back and blurts out the order. "You’re right," Taeyong tells Ten, after a moment, "an at table four." Taeyong’s shoulders slowly ease. "One that's a… well related to family, of sorts."

Taeyong, why don't you do the dishes for me," Jaehyun says, and Taeyong nods. "I'll take over table four."

"Thank you, Jae," Taeyong says, and even though Jaehyun takes over, Taeyong keeps sending nervous glances in the direction of the until he leaves, stopping by the counter to pay and waving a personal, smirking goodbye to Taeyong. Taeyong visibly deflates when he's gone.

"Not so close to him huh?" Jaehyun whispers later, as they dry dishes side by side in the late afternoon lull, while Ten flirts shamelessly with a fifty-year-old woman who stops by at least three times a week for coffee.

Taeyong replies, "He works for my father, which is not something that I want to do. Literature major and all." Taeyong tosses his dyed hair. "I'm not cut out for a cookie-cutter job. I'm too pretty and too fun to staple myself into a gray suit day after day. Sehun-hyung doesn't really… agree with my choices." He lets out a deep sigh, “He’s my second cousin as well…”

"I see," Jaehyun says, and he doesn't ask any more questions. Taeyong seems grateful for that.

"I'm reading Kim Manjung again," Taeyong says, after five minutes of easy silence, Joonmyun catching two dropped glasses before they hit the floor. Taeyong doesn't like the quiet, but Jaehyun doesn't mind his noise. "'Lady Sa's Trip to the South.'"

"Tell me about it," Jaehyun says, and Taeyong does, his soothing voice gaining enthusiasm as he spins the tale out to Jaehyun's welcoming ears.

❖

They close the shop early for Chuseok. Jaehyun volunteers to take everyone out to dinner. He's surprised when Taeyong agrees, considering a previously mentioned dinner with his father.

"He cancelled," Taeyong explains as they walk, and something in the set of his shoulders doesn't invite further questions.

They end up at a western style restaurant, ordering giant hamburgers and laughing at Ten, who cuts his into pieces so he can eat it with a fork. Taeyong takes petite bites out of his and he notices the sauce at the tip of Jaehyun’s lips. He leaned forward to wipe it off.

"Did your girlfriend like her present?" Mark asks, and Taeyong nods.

"She did, she did. It's all because Jaehyunie practically held my hand through the selection." A warm smile that has butterflies coming out of their cocoons in the wrong season to fly around in his stomach. "I'm glad he came to help."

Ten grins. "If only he'd stop rejecting the girls I pick out for him, and actually go steady with one of them." Ten eats buffalo wings. "He'd be such a good and perfect boyfriend." 

Mark gulps into his milk shake. "I agree 100%," he says. "He should have a noona, like Taeyong. 'Noona, let me do everything for you. Noona~'."

"And I know just the right girl, too!" Ten slam his hands flat on the table.

"Ten, we agreed—"

"But, Jaehyun, you'll love her!"

"What if I don't want to date anyone?" Jaehyun asks. It's almost rhetorical, at this point. Fending off Mark and Ten is not a battle worth fighting, because it's two against one.

"I think Jaehyunie should do whatever he feels," Taeyong says. "Date if he wants, not date if doesn’t." Taeyong is wiping his face with a paper towel after eating the remains of his hamburger bun, but he looks up to smile at Jaehyun, whose chest feels heavy with the warmth, now.

"Thank you, Taeyong. It's funny how you've only known me an ample amount of the time that these guys have, but it is you alone who can see I'm an adult capable of dating or not dating on my own."

"It's because he doesn't know you that well yet," Ten says. "He hasn't seen your depressing hermit-like tendencies or your even more dull, sad, sadcollection of winter sweaters—"

"There's nothing wrong with my sartorial choices I like neutrals," Jaehyun says stiffly, and Mark chokes on his sandwich. "And even if they were, Mark would be the last person to talk."

"Fair enough," Ten says. "But that doesn't mean you aren't tragically anti-social—"

"I'm here right now aren’t I!"

"With your co-workers!"

"With my friends," Jaehyun corrects in ‘a-matter-of-fact’ toe, and Taeyong's hand comes to rest on Jaehyun's knee for a moment beneath the table, squeezing. Jaehyun's neck suddenly felt hot.

"Jaehyunie is able to choose for himself," Taeyong firmly noted. "It's not up to you guys what he does with his time. He's really nice, and good-looking," and Jaehyun blushes, "so I'm sure if he wanted a date, he could get one."

Jaehyun fusses with his bangs and keeps his eyes fixed on the wall painting until Ten coughs, breaking the moment. When he glances up, Ten looks… reprimanded, which Jaehyun isn't used to. "You're right," he says, and Mark looks at him, betrayed.

"But—"

"Let it go, Mark," Ten says. "Or I'm going to start talking about your boyfriend Jeno—"

"Roommate," Mark says insistently. "No one accuses you and Jaehyun-hyung of dating just because you guys spend a ton of time together—"

"Because I actually have a partner instead of fruitlessly parading half-clothed around my place of employment," Ten retorts.

"Thanks," Jaehyun says, quiet beneath the sound of Mark and Ten's bickering, to Taeyong, whose hand has retreated from Jaehyun's knee to his own lap, his other hand stabbing at his fries with a fork. He chews silently with his mouth closed. He looks very attractive. "For sticking up for me. Taeil used to just laugh and let them set me up on dates."

"You didn't seem very delighted to meet this girl." Taeyong leans forward to sip at his soda through his straw, before leaning back and looking at Jaehyun pensively. Jaehyun doesn't think he's ever seen such a serious expression on his face. "Plus, I know what it's like to not be able to make your own decisions." His lips pull downward.

Jaehyun wants to ask, but something tells him Taeyong wouldn't answer.

Jaehyun silently lifts up his plate and dumps the rest of his fries onto Taeyong’s. "Guess hiring you was a great decision, after all."

That prompts the return of Taeyong’s signature smile, and Jaehyun doesn't bother to suppress the wobble of his heart in his chest.

Jaehyun tries to pay the bill on the way out, but the hostess is surprised. "It's already been taken care of," she says, and Taeyong is grinning at him when he turns to look at his friends.

"Didn't I say it was on me?"

Taeyong shrugs. "Should have been faster, then," he says, and he pulls down on his baseball cap and winks. At least, Jaehyun thinks he's winking, because sometimes Taeyong’s right eye squints when he smiles.

"Thank you," Jaehyun says. "Again."

"Anytime," Taeyong says, echoing Jaehyun’s words from the other day, and he ushers Jaehyun towards the door with a hand to the small of his back.

❖

"I made a new friend," Jaehyun tells his mother as she his cheek. "His name is Taeyong."

"Is he a nice boy?" she asks, like Jaehyun is in primary school, still, and not nineteen years old. Jaehyun’s grandfather, who lurks behind him, laughs tiredly as Jaehyun nods.

"Very," Jaehyun says.

"Meet a nice girl, Jaehyun," she says, and the lump in Jaehyun’s throat makes it hard to breathe. "I want to know you'll be happy before…"

"Before what?" Jaehyun says with false optimism, and he redirects the conversation to the Chuseok decorations up at Seoul district.

As he's leaving the hospital, his grandfather grabs his hand. "Come home for dinner next week," he says. "It's been a while since you did. Bring Ten."

"I'll see if he's free," Jaehyun says, and he hopes he is, otherwise it will be Jaehyun and his grandfather and his grandmother's empty chair.

❖

The first snow of the year finds Yuta and Sicheng hunched together over Yuta’s new iphone7, watching a movie. They can't understand each other, but they've struck up an odd friendship composed mainly of laughter, animated gestures and Korean dramas or movies with Chinese subtitles.

Jaehyun was seating in a stool and watches them bemusedly. Taeyong comes up behind him and rests his chin on Jaehyun’s head. "I've never heard Yuta say so few words."

"Sometimes friendship isn't always the things you say. It's in the things you don't say. It’s the feelings that last."

"You sound like a children's afternoon special." Taeyong’s hands squeeze Jaehyun’s shoulders. "I wish you’re like that often, you know, saying a lot more."

"What do you mean?" He shifts free of Taeyong's grip and hovers down to check the cocoa container. They’re low on cocoa powder.

"You're so full of secrets," Taeyong says. "The things I learn about you is by accident. For instance, you're a history student on leave, and that you're good at choosing gifts for other people's girlfriends."

"Isn't that how it's supposed to work? I think you have more secrets than I do."

"You know the important things," Taeyong says. "The rest of my life is just things I'm not even that interested in."

"What is it that you want to know then?"

Taeyong pauses and says, "What if you tell me everything?"

Jaehyun reaches for the top cabinet and pulls out a sealed pack of cocoa powder, refilling the glass container with precise pouring. Taeyong is watching instead of helping, since the last time Taeyong tried to help he ended up making a chocolate wonderland mess. "You wouldn't want to know."

Taeyong is about to say something else, but then Mark interrupts and clings to his shoulders. "Hyung, help me with the supply boxes."

"Yeah, yeah," Taeyong says, and when he's gone, Jaehyun sighs in relief.

❖

Jaehyun never used to keep secrets. He learned how to do it during high school, between stolen kisses with Mingyu and trying to avoid telling his teachers or friends about his grandmother. Jaehyun’s parents was always busy back in America, they never really cared about him, always working and doing business. That’s when his grandparents stepped in when he was still in grade school. He transferred to Korea and they loved him like their own. Of course they’re parents are okay with that, they can focus more on business. He decide to cut his connection to his parents. He doesn’t want any of their money. He only needs his grandparents. If they’re happy, he’s happy.

After that, it became second nature for Jaehyun to keep his worries to himself.

As he sets the potatoes to bake on the oven, Ten walks in and sits at their kitchen table. There's an impressive display of disarrayed books. "Exam?"

"Always," Ten says, and Jaehyun nods. "I'll do the cooking next week, since you've been taking care of me a lot for a couple of days now."

"I don't mind," Jaehyun says.

"You never do," Ten says. "But that doesn't mean I'll take advantage of you."

Jaehyun silently continues to prepare and stir his homemade gravy.

A few minutes pass comfortably, and Jaehyun breaks the quiet. "Ten do you think I’m secretive?"

"Yes," Ten says quickly. "I don't even know why, but you always have been."

Jaehyun opens the oven and looks at Ten, who is looking at him quizzically. "Taeyong told me I was secretive."

"He's one to talk," Ten retorts. "Look, I don't know what has made you think you have to take care of everything on your own. Maybe it's your gran, or maybe you've always been like this, long before we even met."

Jaehyun leans back against the counter.

"But…" Ten scratches at his nape. "I guess you're entitled to your closet skeletons, even if I wish you'd let me in."

"I'm sorry," Jaehyun says. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's…"

Ten scoots his chair back. It scratches along the wooden floors. Jaehyun should put pads on the feet of the chair.

Ten comes to stand next to Jaehyun. "I'll continue with this. Why don't you go take a shower. You haven't stopped moving since you got here."

"Your exams—" Jaehyun says, and Ten placed his fingers on Jaehyun’s lips to shush him.

"Can wait 30 minutes. Let me worry about this. You don't have to hold everyone's worries on your own shoulders. We have shoulders too." Ten bumps him with a hip. "Now go."

In the shower, Jaehyun lets the day run off him and down the drain, and tries to imagine telling anyone the things he thinks about every day. It is impossible, so he balls his secrets up and hides them in between his ribs, behind his heart.

The water is warm, but he never felt this cold.