If there was one thing in the world Jongdae hated more than anything else, it was a bad cup of coffee. 

Coffee to Jongdae was like oxygen, he couldn't live without it. If he didn't get it at least once a day, he felt suffocated. 

Part of the reason Jongdae set up Milky Way in the first place was because he was tired of walking into different cafes and trying awful coffee when he knew he could make them perfectly. Kyungsoo and Minseok were not as passionate as he was, but they recognised his talent and decided to learn from him and help him with the cafe. Then came along Jongin, who knew nothing about coffee but was a fast learner and was pretty good at baking as well. Teaching Jongin was a bit harder than teaching Minseok and Kyungsoo, but within a few days Jongin had already gotten the hang of it. After those 3 students, Jongdae reckoned he was a pretty good teacher when it came to imparting his skills and knowledge. 

But then came Junmyeon.

It had barely been a week since he had started, but Jongdae had never felt more frustrated in his life. He used to drink coffee because he loved it, now he was downing cups to keep his sanity. 

On the first day, while learning how to operate the coffee machine, Junmyeon had somehow managed to not only spoil the machine, but break 2 cups and burn Jongin's hand as well.

On the second day, Jongdae had tried showing Junmyeon how to make a cup of coffee without the machine, and he ended up spitting out Junmyeon's attempt all over Minseok.

On the third day, Junmyeon had tried to operate the coffee machine again (he had walked into the cafe rambling about how he stayed up all night reading coffee for dummies). This time he didn't break anything, but instead produced a cup of coffee that ended up just being coffee powder floating on water (Minseok affectionately called it Bean Water)

On the fourth day, Jongdae decided to let Junmyeon try to handle the desserts instead and asked him to make a cupcake. Jongin cried. 

It was the fifth day, and Jongdae was currently downing his fourth cup of coffee of the day as he leaned over his desk, tallying up expenses. 

"Jongdae-yah!"

The exasperated young man looked up to find Kyungsoo walk through his office door with a smile on his face, his face sightly thinner than when he had last seen him.

"Oh, hey man, what's up? What brings you here?"

Jongdae tried to sound normal and chirpy, but his blood-shot eyes and frazzled hair was not really helping his case. Kyungsoo frowned and looked outside the office into the cafe. 

Milky Way was packed, with the whole place bustling and a long queue at the counter. It was nothing out of the ordinary for Milky Way to have a lot of customers on a day like this, which made Kyungsoo wonder even more why Jongdae looked like he was currently nursing 150 chimpanzees. 

"I heard you hired a new guy, so I came to check out how it's going. And I think I already have my answer..."

As Kyungsoo trailed off, noticing Jongdae pinching the bridge of his noise, a clatter of glass rang behind him. Turning around, Kyungsoo spotted a handsome young man slightly taller than him with a serving apron on, balancing 2 trays of drinks with a piece of paper in his mouth. 

"Is that...the new guy?"

Jongdae sighed as Kyungsoo watched the man attempt to balance the 2 trays on his arm and take out the paper from his mouth to ask a couple of seated customers if they had ordered 2 lattes. Kyungsoo cringed from second-hand embarrassment as the customers looked at the new guy in bewilderment, before looking back down at their table which very clearly already had 2 drinks. The young man smiled sheepishly and waddled away awkwardly with his 2 dangerously balanced trays. 

"Yup, that's the new guy."

Kyungsoo turned back to Jongdae with crinkled eyebrows, making the latter laugh sheepishly with a shrug of his shoulders. 

"Jongdae..."

"He's only been here a few days, he'll take time, he's learning."

"Jongdae."

Kyungsoo's voice was firm and low, but even amongst all the buzz of the cafe, his tone of disappointment was loud and clear. Jongdae gulped and rubbed the back of his neck, looking everywhere but at Kyungsoo's piercing gaze.

"Kim Jongdae, please don't tell me you hired a guy just because you were attracted to him."

"Oh, uh, Jongin! We need a fresh batch of danish pastries, go make them, I'll take over the machine." Jongdae shouted and whizzed past Kyungsoo towards Jongin. Confusion filled Jongin's expression as he glanced at the dessert display which already had a whole batch of danish pastries. 

"He's doing it again." Kyungsoo sighed and shook his head, watching Jongdae trying to convince a very befuddled Jongin that they indeed needed more danish pastries. 

"Hey," 

Junmyeon looked up from placing 3 plates of pastries on his tray to find a young man with intense eyes but a soft smile before him, tying a serving apron around his waist. 

"Uh, hello?"

Kyungsoo grabbed the tray Junmyeon was holding with a smirk.

"I'm Kyungsoo, the guy who's saving you today."

With that, Kyungsoo took the tray and confidently strode to Table 5, serving the 2 young girls with a gentle smile and leaving a speechless Junmyeon behind. 

Junmyeon headed over to the counter where Minseok was cashing in an old man's order.

"Um, sorry to bother you but, who's that?"

Minseok followed Junmyeon's pointed finger to find Kyungsoo clearing up the drinks of a group of students. 

"Ah, that's Kyungsoo, he worked here before you came along. Oh thank god he's here to help today."

Junmyeon nodded in understanding and watched as his predecessor worked at the speed of lightning, clearing tables and delivering orders. Next to him at the counter, Minseok was efficiently taking orders and ensuring the queue moved quickly. On his other side at the machines, Jongdae was watching the screen of drink orders and preparing the various concoctions effortlessly, a look of pure focus on his face. Behind him, Jongin was in the kitchen expertly preparing pastries for the oven.

All of a sudden, a pang of sadness hit Junmyeon in the chest as he realised just how useless he was amongst everyone's efficiency and skill in the cafe. Standing there, empty-handed with nothing to do and nothing to contribute, Junmyeon looked down as he felt tears prick his eyes. 

He hated this feeling.

He hated himself. 

With clenched fists, Junmyeon swallowed thickly as he tried to get control over his emotions. 

Keep it together.

"Hey,"

A sudden smack on his shoulder shook him out of his emotional state as he found Jongdae staring at him in concern.

"You alright? Why're you just standing around?"

As Junmyeon wracked his brain to come up with an answer other than "I'm so ing useless, you should've never hired me", the front door's chimes rang, and the two turned to find a large group of office workers enter the cafe.

"ing hell, I hate public holidays." Jongdae muttered under his breath.

"Ok, listen, Minseok, I need you to help with delivering the orders. Jongin, come out, you need to help me with making the drinks." Jongdae announced like a general giving orders, and Jongin and Minseok immediately followed. 

"Junmyeon,"

Jongdae turned to Junmyeon and Junmyeon saw it clear in his eyes.

Worry.

Jongdae was going to give Junmyeon something to do, but he was worried he would mess it up. 

Seeing that look made Junmyeon's chest constrict, not with sadness, but with determination. 

He had decided he never wanted Jongdae to look at him like that again. He was tired of seeing it for the past 5 days. 

Jongdae had given him a chance when no one else would, and Junmyeon was going to make sure it was not in vain. 

"I need you to handle the cash registers and orders. We have an advanced software in place so it shouldn't be a pro-"

"Got it."

Junmyeon immediately positioned himself at the till, leaving Jongdae slightly taken aback at his sudden change in emotion. 

"Are you sure you know-"

"Don't worry, I watched Minseok a lot so I can handle this."

Junmyeon had turned back to reassure Jongdae, and just before he turned back around to the till machine, he caught a small smile on Jongdae's lips as the latter walked back to the machines, which boosted his confidence tenfold. 

"Hi there, welcome to Milky Way, what would you like today?"

Junmyeon offered a large smile to the young customer, who was currently scanning the menu with hawk eyes. He was clad in a smart business suit, jet-black hair stylishly gelled and smelling of peppermint cologne. Junmyeon could tell he was younger than him, yet he looked like some sort of CEO who ran 5 companies. 

"Hi, oh you're new aren't you? I haven't seen you around here before." 

Crap, a regular customer, which meant expectations to live up to.

"Oh yes, I joined recently. It seems you've been here before, are you familiar with our menu then? We have a recently added special which is-"

"Yeah yeah, I saw the special. But I'm more interested in you. You're very handsome."

As the customer folded his arms and looked Junmyeon up and down, the latter felt a blush creep up his neck and awkwardly cleared his throat. 

"T-Thank you. I'm sorry but there's a long queue of customers behind you, so it would really be appreciated if you could-"

"Give my order? Yes of course, sorry to hold up the queue. Yes, I would like one small iced, sugar-free, vanilla latte with soy milk, two large half-caff soy latte At 115 degrees, one medium iced skinny hazelnut macchiato with sugar-free syrup, extra shot, light ice, no whip and finally, uhh... 2 slices of your caramel cheesecake."

Junmyeon was lost at half-caff, and just looked bug-eyed at the young customer, who had his hands shoved in his pockets with a cheeky smirk on his face. 

"I'm...uh....I'm sorry but would you mind repeating that again, please?"

The customer crinkled his brows, an offended expression appearing on his face which made Junmyeon gulp nervously.

"Repeat? You mean you couldn't get it the first time around? I even said it slowly. Wow, this place really is dropping in standards."

Red alarms were going off everywhere around Junmyeon as he immediately and rather violently shook his head.

"No no! Don't worry, I got it...uh it was, one small iced, sugar-free vanilla latte with...uh..."

"God I don't have time for this. Wow, clearly Jongdae only hired you for your face."

Junmyeon was on the verge of having a panic attack.

Wait...

He knew Jongdae?

A panicked and confused Junmyeon was suddenly pulled back by his shoulder before he found the man in question standing in front of him, facing the young customer who was now smirking even wider. 

"What do you want, Baekhyun?"