Baekhyun broke out into a huge smile upon seeing Jongdae, making the latter clench his jaw in annoyance. 

"Jongdae! It's been so long. I-" 

"What do you want?" 

Jongdae irritatedly cut off Baekhyun, clearly displaying that he wasn't going to play along with Baekhyun's friendly charades. 

Baekhyun pursed his lips and nodded understandingly, looking down at his shoes for a second before looking back at Jongdae, except now with sadness in his eyes. 

"You'll never forgive me, will you?"

"There's a lot of customers waiting-"

"It's been 3 years Jo-"

"If you're not going to tell me what you want, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the queue."

Jongdae never talked to a customer in such a manner before, and while his voice was low enough for the other people in the queue to not hear, it was still loud enough for Junmyeon to detect the anger in it as he stood behind him. Jongin had just finished up in the kitchen and came out to find the confrontation happening.

"Oh! Baekhyun Hyung, what're you-"

"Hi Jongin. Don't worry, I was just leaving."

Baekhyun forced out a smile at the puzzled Jongin before looking back at Jongdae. Junmyeon couldn't see the stoic expression on Jongdae's face, but he did glance down to find Jongdae's fists clenched, the veins in his arms protruding. In front of him, Baekhyun let out a sigh as he looked behind Jongdae at Junmyeon. There was a certain knowing look in his eyes which put Junmyeon off a bit, but his glance was too quick to call anything.

"Bye Jongdae."

With that, Baekhyun turned and left, making some of the patrons in the queue break out into hushed questions of why he left empty-handed after so much time. 

Junmyeon saw Jongdae's shoulders visibly loosen up as the latter let out a breath. Turning around, Jongdae put on a constricted smile and pat Junmyeon on the shoulder.

"Just forget about that. Carry on."

Junmyeon nodded immediately and obediently, though his mind still a frenzy of questions, and stepped back up to the register as Jongdae retreated to his office. 

The next few orders were simple enough for Junmyeon to handle, which meant his mind could still afford to whirl around what had just taken place. Clearly something had happened between Jongdae and this guy Baekhyun. Something bad enough for Jongdae to still hold a grudge after years. 

Junmyeon didn't even know why he was so bothered by it when it didn't involve him at all. Perhaps it was just the gossip-trash side of him that was so curious about finding out what had happened. 

But more so, it was perhaps because of the side of Jongdae that Junmyeon saw for the first time.

And didn't really want to see again.

"Jongdae!! My man, my little coffee maestro, the Jong to the Dae! Jong-Americano-loving-Dae!"

"WHAT CHANYEOL? WHAT?"

Chanyeol pouted as Jongdae snapped at him, but his stupid smile immediately returned 2 seconds later as Jongdae continued to set up the cash register.

"It's not even opening time Chanyeol, the others haven't even arrived yet. What the do you want so early?"

The large man smiled sheepishly and looked down, making Jongdae follow his line of sight to the little object in Chanyeol's hands that was so small compared to his gigantic body (and camouflaged into this dark shirt) that Jongdae didn't even notice it when he came in.

"Oh no..."

"Please! Kyungsoo has to work and I have to take on an extra shift and none of my family or other friends are free as well. Please, you're the only person I have left."

"What about your neighbours?"

Channel gasped, holding the ball of fur in his hands even closer to him.

"Those devils? Never! I'm a Christian, Jongdae."

"For the last time, just because they like country music, does NOT mean they're SATAN WORSHIPPERS."

"THEY LISTEN TO THE ING RASCAL FLATTS. IF THAT'S NOT DEMONIC, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS."

Jongdae sighed and scratched his eyebrow, wondering why Kyungsoo couldn't pick anyone else to fall in love with.

"Please? I promise, he's really good. He won't be any trouble. Pretty please Jongdae?"

Jongdae glanced down at the ball of jet-black fur in Chanyeol's freakishly-large hands. It was ing adorable.

.

"Alright. I'll keep him in the office. But I swear to god, if he does anyth-"

"He won't! I've trained him well, don't worry. Oh thank you so much, you're god-sent!"

Channel practically skipped to Jongdae's office as Jongdae followed behind with slumped shoulders. Sometimes he wondered if God chose him specifically to just constantly be tested. He was going to have some serious words with him up there if that was the case. 

Chanyeol placed the tiny creature in his carrier atop of Jongdae's desk, but not before kissing it about 124 times. 

"Ok Tobennie, Daddy has to go now. You know I love you right? I love you so much, my little angel."

Jongdae would have rolled his eyes at Chanyeol's sickening affection, but even he had to admit it was rather sweet to see how much Chanyeol doted on Toben. It was times like this was when Jongdae was reminded why and how Kyungsoo fell in love with the big buffoon. 

Chanyeol thanked Jongdae once more before finally leaving, allowing the cafe-owner to get back to preparing for opening. A few minutes later, the others arrived as well.

It had been a couple of days since the Bae*h*un incident, which Jongdae forced himself to just consider as something that never happened. Junmyeon was getting better at the cash register job, he seemed to have a knack for numbers. Jongdae was so relieved that they had finally found something that he could do, though it wasn't going to be enough for him to just handle the cash register as having such little staff meant everyone still had to know how to serve and make drinks. 

Still, at least it was a start.

Plus, Junmyeon was still practicing hard and pushing himself. He was making progress little by little, which pleased Jongdae sufficiently. 

It meant Jongdae could focus more on helping Junmyeon to hone his skills, rather than thinking of how badly he just wanted to kiss the man every time he was around him. 

"Aaaaaaaaaah!"

Jongdae jumped as he heard the most excited squeal to ever erupt from Jongin's mouth.

Jongin came running out of Jongdae's office, holding Toben close to his chest as he looked at everyone with a face of pure joy.

"He's so cute! Tobennie-ah..." Jongin whined as if he was going to cry, looking down and the tiny head of the tiny canine. 

Junmyeon gasped and ran to Jongin's side, Toben's cheek softly as well and cooing as the little puppy his finger.

Junmyeon and Jongin cooing over a puppy.

Lord give him the strength to not spontaneously combust from how ing adorable this sight was. 

"Alright alright, I know, he's really cute. We're helping Chanyeol take care of Toben today. But we still have a cafe to run so let's put Toben back now, alright?"

Minseok was smiling amusedly at the 2 puppy-lovers as he set up the chairs for the tables, and Jongdae was glad for the first time in his life that Minseok was more of a cat person, as that meant one less lovestruck fool to deal with. 

Jongin pouted but nodded nonetheless, heading back to the office slowly as he continued softly scratching the neck of Toben.

"Ahhh, what to do Tobennie? We have to work now, I'm so sorry..."

Junmyeon had the softest smile on his face as he watched the puppy look around innocently as Jongin carried him back to the office, meaning Jongdae had the softest smile on his face as he watched Junmyeon. 

. 

Jongdae forced himself to peel his eyes away from the ball of sunshine that was Kim Junmyeon and focused his mind back on setting up the coffee machines. 

Did he have to be so cute? For 's sake...

"TOBEN! BAD DOG!"

Jongdae groaned in frustration as the mischievous puppy continued peeing all over the accounts of the cafe's supplies. Quickly picking it up and setting it down on the floor, Jongdae let out another exasperated whine as he gathered his soaked papers. 

"Jongin-ah! Get in here!"

Jongdae was too stressed at the moment to even realise that the little ball of terror had escaped from his office and bounced into the cafe, about to stray off towards a customer's table had it not been for Junmyeon's quick eyes who caught him and quickly picked him up from the side of the cash register. 

Unfortunately, he happened to be in the middle of taking someone's order.

"Oh. My. God. What a precious little puppy!" The young school-girl cooed as Junmyeon held Toben to his chest with one hand and keyed in her order with the other. 

"Uh, yeah, Milky Way's favourite pet, haha. Alright, so that's one blueberry muffin and-"

From behind, Junmyeon could make out the faint, irate voice of Jongdae asking Jongin why he didn't "close the ing carrier", and Junmyeon could only pray the customers in front of him didn't hear it like he did. 

Toben was getting restless in his hands, making Junmyeon laugh awkwardly.

"One moment please."

Junmyeon quickly turned and put Toben down, pushing him to run into the office, and turned back to the customer to finally complete the order, even though she was still distracted by the fluffy ball behind him. 

"What's his name?"

"Toben. Alright, total will be 7000 won please."

As the girl paid, she suddenly cooed again and looked down behind Junmyeon, making the latter turn around to find that unmistakable ball of fluff running out of the office, with a bent-over Jongin running behind him.

"Toben! Get back here!"

Junmyeon let out a nervous laugh again, taking the cash from the girl's hand which made her turn back to him. 

"Please wait at the side for your order."

"Jongin, you caused this mess, so you take care of Toben."

Jongdae's words rang in Jongin's mind as he bent down discreetly to look under the tables of the cafe. There weren't many people, thankfully, and the ones who were there were too engrossed in their own conversations to notice a little puppy on the loose. Toben was really quiet as well, which could've been a good thing had it not been for the fact that it didn't really help when Jongin was trying to look for him now. 

, what if he got outside?

Jongin scratched the back of his head in frustration as he glanced outside the cafe, immediately noticing the street with numerous vehicles speeding by.

.

Just as he was about to dash out of the cafe, there was a tap on his shoulder which made him turn around. 

"Excuse me, I believe this is what you're looking for?"

In front of Jongin stood a tall man, with the broadest shoulders he had ever seen and thin, round glasses perched on his nose. He was clad in a simple black top with jeans, and in his hands was, much to Jongin's relief, a little black poodle. 

"Oh god, Toben!"

Jongin held Toben close to him as the stranger passed him over, his heart swelling in relief as Toben looked up at him with his giant, glistening eyes. 

"Thank god you're not road-mush, thank you so much...uh.."

The stranger smiled and stuck out a hand, making Jongin's heart do an odd little leap as he spoke.

"Sehun."

A/N: Hi guys, I'm so sorry for the hiatus, I was just busy with summer things and stuff (life got in the way) but I'm back and I promise to update much more frequently and regularly! Thanks to those who are still sticking around, your support means a lot to me :)