Taemin was late for work. It was a strange occurrence, he was a great employee, the only other time he'd been late was when he'd rescued that kitten. Jongin's coworkers seemed to be just as confused as he was, all glancing towards the door whenever someone walked by. The minutes ticked by, and it was getting closer to opening time. Jongin absentmindedly played with one of the coffee machines, turning it off and then on again, before Jongdae walked over to him, asking, 

"Do you think... do you think we should call him?" 

"We don't have his number, do we?" Jongin replied, turning away from the coffee machine. 

"I don't think so. I guess we just wait then, right?" 

"I guess so." Jongin walked away from him then, trying to find something else to busy himself with. 

Just then, the door opened, and Taemin rushed in, black hair messy and disheveled, trembling as he crossed the floor, not looking up at any of his coworkers. 

Nobody said anything as he disappeared into the staff room, they didn't know what to do. After about a minute of standing around, casting confused glances at each other, Jongin and another employee, Zitao, went to see what his deal was. 

They entered the staff room, Zitao gingerly pushing the door open to reveal Taemin, who was facing away from them, his head in his hands, shoulders shaking, apron half on. 

"Uh, Taemin? Is everything alright?" He asked, voice soft. Jongin stayed quiet, feeling that it was best to let Zitao do the talking. 

Startling at the sound of his voice, Taemin turned around, wide eyed. Tears streamed across his cheeks, and his face was puffy from crying. Realizing who was looking at him, he furiously wiped away his tears, only to have them replaced by the new ones continuing to fall from his bloodshot eyes. 

Unable to keep silent at the sight, Jongin found himself asking,

"What happened? Are you okay?" 

"I- I, uh, y-yeah," The boy stuttered, trying to compose himself. 

"Are you sure?" Zitao's tone reflected Jongin's doubt. 

"R-really. It's nothing, j-just give me a minute." 

Zitao turned around, motioning for Jongin to follow him. Casting a glance back at Taemin, Jongin complied, following Zitao out of the staff room to where the other two workers waited, wearing puzzled expressions. 

"Guys, c'mere." Zitao called. Once everyone was fairly close, he began to speak. 

"I don't know what happened, but our Taemin is upset."

Jongin rolled his eyes at the phrase 'our Taemin'. He got that everyone loved the guy, but come on, they all barely knew him. Nobody who worked in that coffee shop really had the right to call him 'our Taemin'. 

"I don't know how, but we have to cheer him up, don't we? I don't know about any of you, but I don't want to see him moping around all day." 

Jongin had to admit though, that Zitao had a point. Even he didn't want to see Taemin sad, and he didn't even like him all that much. Or so he kept telling himself, anyway. 

"Alright, so then let's just go do it!" Jongdae headed for the staff room door. "We've still got a few more minutes 'til we have to open." 

Everyone followed him into the staff room, Jongin internally smacking himself. What were they possibly going to do? 

Taemin was sitting down now, and although he couldn't see his face, Jongin knew he was still crying from the way he was hunched over, hands swiping at his cheeks to no avail. 

"Taemin," Someone said, and Jongin saw the source of the voice, Baekhyun, push closer to him, expression gentle. "What's wrong? We just want to help you, this isn't like you at all." 

The crying boy just shook his head, and Jongin felt a pang of worry. Why was he so insistent on keeping everything in? Even if they were just his coworkers, he could trust them. He wanted Taemin to trust them. Or at least, to trust him. 

Ignoring the voice in the back of his head telling him he shouldn't do this, that he shouldn't want Taemin to open up to him, Jongin stepped forward, passing Baekhyun to sit on the chair next to Taemin. 

"Hey, I know you don't want to talk about whatever it is that's bothering you, but you can trust us, Taemin. We really do just want to see you smiling again. Please talk to us."

At his words, Taemin looked up at Jongin, eyes filled with an emotion Jongin couldn't place. 

"I-I guess." 

Jongin ignored the glance he saw Jongdae and Zitao share after Taemin agreed to him. Unconciously holding his breath, he waited for Taemin to continue.

 "This morning, my, uh, my boyfriend..." He cast a nervous glance around the room, but when he found that nobody was taken aback by it, he went on. "He d-dumped me." 

Right after this statement, Taemin proceeded to dissolve back into tears, pressing his hands to his face in an attempt to hide his sobs. 

Geez, and the day before Valentine's too. No wonder he's taking it so hard, Jongin thought. 

"Aw, man, I'm sorry," Zitao attempted to comfort him. "But he was just a guy, Taemin, you'll get over it in a few days, don't worry about it. It's not like you were planning to spend the rest of your lives together, right?" 

That only made Taemin cry harder, and Jongin shot Zitao a venomous look. 

"A-actually we- we were. Or I thought s-so anyway. He didn't have the money to get a ring yet, b-but he told me he was going to. H-he promised he would." 

Internally, Jongin sighed.

Great job, Zitao. You've only made it worse. He thought, unsurprised at the man's inability to actually be helpful. 

"I was with him for almost f-five years, everything was going fine, I just don't understand." his voice broke in the middle of speaking, and he curled into himself. 

Baekhyun came over now, rubbing Taemin's back gently. 

"That's right, just let it all out," Baekhyun soothed, looking somewhere behind Jongin before nodding slightly. 

"Taemin, we have to open now, but how about you just work in the back for today, since I doubt you want to see customers right now..." Jongdae spoke for the first time since entering the staff room. Taemin just nodded weakly, his mess of hair shifting with the movement. 

Despite the horrible timing for that sort of thing, Jongin felt the strange urge to reach over and smooth it out. Restraining himself, he shifted in his seat as everyone else left the room to open up. 

"Will you be okay for now?" His voice was gentle, soft. He didn't even know he was capable of using such a tone towards anyone except for... Kyungsoo. Oh. Guilt crept into the corners of his mind, but it was too late now, and he could only try to push it away, knowing full well it'd come back in full force later that day. 

"I hope so. I just... I really loved him, you know? I-I still do..." Taemin sat up a bit, rubbing his eyes before facing Jongin. 

"Yeah, I know," Jongin's mind trailed to Kyungsoo. But Taemin's situation was different from his; Taemin was much luckier. "It goes away eventually. Watch, in a year or so, you'll be okay with it. And who knows, maybe in even less time than that. This is probably for the better, now you can meet who you're really supposed to be with." 

"It doesn't feel like it's for the better," Taemin sighed, having finally stopped crying. 

"It never does. But you'll see. You can be happy again, you don't need him." 

"I hope so."

"If you're feeling better now, I guess I'll go, they probably need me out there..." Jongin got up to leave, guilt over his disloyalty already beginning to take over his thoughts. He was almost out the door when Taemin spoke again. 

"Jongin, wait,"

He stopped, waiting silently, not trusting his voice. 

"Thank you." 

Jongin gave a curt nod, walking back into the coffee shop. 

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N

So, uh, yeah, this happened. I hope you liked it, it is, once again, completely unedited and I'm tired and yeah the same thing as I said for the other three chapters pretty much except that I wrote this slightly earlier in the night so there's that...

I'm still working on getting onto that writing schedule, I swear I'm gonna do it at some point! This week was super busy though, and then it was my birthday and then I got sick and just a whole bunch of stuff got in the way :(

Anyway, thanks so much for all the feedback I've gotten, I love reading your comments! It makes me so happy to see this fic getting love! :D

Thanks for reading! <3

-H