A/N: This GORGEOUS character poster for Agent Dyo was made by the lovely xxlostinthedragonxx - Holy Wow T_T Thank you, thank you!

When Jongin leaves work later at sunrise, it’s with a bounce in his step. He rides the subway with a goofy grin on his face, as he replays some of Dyo’s words in his mind. Partners. He’s going to get to talk to him almost daily. It’s the most disruptive thing that’s happened to his routine life in over a year, and it’s fabulous. What kind of luck?

He gets to the cat cafe at precisely 6:30am, and beams at the familiar sight of Luhan working the coffee machine while the other three regular patrons are all in their usual seats. This is one part of his predictable life he wouldn’t want to change; it brings him too much comfort.

“Good morning, Luhan!” he calls out cheerily as he walks in. He drops his stuff at his table by the window and gives a little bow in greeting to the old lady on the sofa. The high schoolers are busy studying and sleeping as per usual: the girl gives a little hand wave while mumbling numbers under her breath, and the boy actually has a novel opened up for once, but it lays across his face like he’ll absorb the material via osmosis during his morning nap. Mimi mews from the far corner and trots out to see him as Jongin heads over to the counter where Luhan is mid-pour of his latte.

“Hi, Jongin,” the owner greets him warmly. “You seem to be in an especially good mood this morning. Sweet dreams last night?”

“Yeah, you could say that,” he says, dropping his eyes and smiling down at the coffee cup Luhan shoves toward him. His glasses slide down his nose and shoves them back up into place while he replays some of Dyo’s compliments in his head.

“Ooo, is that a blush I detect? Care to share?” Luhan asks with an eyebrow waggle. He drops his voice to whisper, “or is it not appropriate for public discussion?”

Jongin laughs and swats his friend on the shoulder. “ert. It’s… it’s not really like that.”

“Not really like that? So it’s a little like it then.”

Jongin splutters: why is everyone backing him into a corner with his words these days? He decides to try changing the subject. “I- it’s nothing. How was your day yesterday?”

“Same as always,” he replies, waving away the inquiry. “Back to this ‘nothing’ that has you so happy. Whatever it is, I approve.” Luhan’s voice lilts up at the end, and he gives him a sickeningly sweet thumbs up, dancing his little thumbs around.

Jongin bats his hands away. “Ew, don’t do aegyo, hyung. You’re like, 30.”

“Excuse you, I’ve been told I don’t look a day over 20.”

“It’s true,” interjects the old lady, not even looking up from her newspaper. “Let him be cute.”

“Aw, thanks, halmeoni.” Luhan sends her a flying heart.

“Gross,” Jongin crinkles his nose.

“Oh talk about a double standard. I have to listen to you give Mimi aegyo almost every day.”

“That’s different. She actually likes it,” Jongin claims, picking up the soft tabby that’s been winding between his legs. “And you deserve it, because you’re the most precious little furball, aren’t you?” he coos at her. “Such a pretty kitty, my Mimi girl.” Jongin makes little kissy faces at her while Luhan pretends to gag.

Mimi headbutts his cheek and purrs into his ear, grooming his sideshaved hair with her scratchy tongue. Jongin cradles her into the bend of his left arm, letting her front paws drape over his shoulder like one might carry a toddler. He grabs his latte with his free hand and turns to head to his table.

“You want help setting up your drawings?” Luhan offers. “I don’t think she’s gonna be too happy if you put her down right now.” Mimi has already laid her chin down on his shoulder, fully relaxed onto Jongin’s broad chest.

“Nah, I might just visit with her today.” He puts his coffee down on his table and settles into his chair. The sun is just clearing the hill outside, and the warm rays on Jongin’s skin make him smile. “This is the best spot to bask, isn’t it, princess?” he murmurs to the tabby, letting his eyes close and enjoying the warmth of his pet and the sunshine.

“I swear you have more feelings for that cat than you do for me,” Luhan pouts.

“Maybe if you ditched the aegyo you’d make for better company than her.”

He hears chair legs scrape across the floor and cracks an eye open to witness Luhan plopping down at his table. The blond has a mischievous smirk on. “Okay then. Only serious talk today.”

Oh no. He’s opened the door to meaningful discussion and Luhan is sauntering right through it, probably straight into his private life and-

“So tell me about work.”

Jongin sighs. “I’m on the phone the whole time. It’s really not that exciting.” Most of the time.

“How’s your family?”

“My parents are fine. I saw them last night for dinner.”

“Gone on any dates lately?”

“Aren’t you supposed to be working right now? What if your customers need something?” Jongin takes a deep swig of his coffee, trying not to cough because it’s still hot enough to burn as it slides down his throat. If he finishes it fast enough though, he can make Luhan fix him another one and end this interrogation.

“Ah, there are great perks to being your own boss. No one to yell at you if you decide to slack off for a little. But I’d argue that I’m giving my customers exactly what they need right now.” He gives Jongin a firm, but caring look.

Jongin looks away first, turning to kiss the now sleeping kitty passed out on his shoulder. “No, I haven’t had a date in a while.”

“Then don’t you think it’s time you get back out there? It’s been more than a year right? I know it was hard, and she really messed you up bad--”

Jongin snorts and shakes his head. Despite how many times he’s denied it, Luhan just won’t give up on his theory that the first day he showed up in the cat cafe, he was depressed because he’d been dumped. “You have no idea how off you are,” he tells him, finishing the last of his latte.

“... he really messed you up?” Luhan leans in and asks quietly, with an encouraging tilt of his head to indicate he passes no judgment.

“Still not what happened last year. But…” Jongin gives a barely perceptible nod to acknowledge the pronoun amendment, and looks out the window. More workers are slowly starting to spill onto the main street a block over. He watches them, wondering if Dyo might be out there among them, on his way home, quietly blending into the crowds. Or more likely smooth talking the ahjumma at the fruit stand into giving him a discount on his produce. Jongin smiles to himself.

“There’s that look again.” Luhan’s eyes light up, and he snaps his fingers. “You’ve got a crush.”

Jongin purses his lips. “Maybe.”

“Does he know?”

He gives a small shrug, disturbing Mimi who gives a sleepy mew but settles right back into dreamland with a few reassuring shushes and pets. “Probably. But don’t get too excited. It’s not… it’s just a flirtation. It’s not going anywhere.”

“Yet.” Luhan points at him, looking immensely pleased.

Jongin gives him a half-smile. No point in shattering his friend’s dreams for him with his sober realities; he lets Luhan hope.

---

He slumbers peacefully, wakes on time, and finishes his run on the treadmill earlier than usual, so he works in extra reps with the barbells. It’s satisfying, getting stronger, but Jongin doesn’t want bicep curls to end up being his hobby. Maybe he should stop by the library and grab a book, any book, before work today.

That plan falls by the wayside when his mom calls with another remodel request for him, this time for one of her friends in her knitting circle. Jongin agrees to a meeting for next week and sets out his drafting materials while still on the phone to complete his aunt’s project.

“You know dear, I bet you could start your own company. I pull in enough contacts for you that you could likely make a living off of it, if you’d just charge them a fair price instead of doing things at a discount for them all the time.”

“First of all, they probably ask for me because of that discount, mom. And your friends will eventually run out of renovation projects. I can’t redo Mrs. Cho’s condo every year.”

“I have a lot of friends, Jongin-ah.”

“And I have a full-time job, mom. With retirement benefits.” And a pretty nice life insurance policy, since spies are apparently partial to that perk.

“Okay, okay. You just never like talking about it, and I thought you wanted to do more architecture. Get away from the phones and all that.”

“My job has... gotten better of late.” It’s true, even while at Prudence, he’d continued to flirt with the idea of one day breaking off and doing the pure career he had trained for. But now, with the increased camaraderie among the navigators and a certain deep-voiced partner… “Work is actually pretty fun. Ah, speaking of which, I gotta go.”

“Go? You haven’t left work yet? But it’s almost 7pm.”

Right. “Um, yeah, I was just finishing up. I’m leaving soon.”

“I don’t like you working these late hours, Jongin-ah. That’s not good for your health or sleep cycle.”

If she only knew. “I’ll be alright, mom. Talk to you later.”

---

When Kai comes off the elevator and sees all three of his co-workers in the break room already, he freezes and double checks his watch. And then checks his phone just to make sure his watch isn’t running slow. Nope, all sources confirm, it’s 9:45pm.

“You’re all here early,” he remarks, surprise clear in his tone.

“What, you think you’re the only one who shows up before they’re required to?” Baekhyun snarks back at him.

“Well, to be fair, he is,” says Chen, seated in a chair with his jacket off and a slightly too-tight dress shirt on. Kai’s about to question what the hell is going when he notices Wendy’s gaze lingering on Chen’s defined chest as she puts her food into the fridge. “I’m collecting my massage from Baek, as per yesterday’s win,” Chen explains.

The tight dress shirt and reason to show it off was actually… kinda smooth for once. Kai inclines his head in respect before muttering to him, “Make sure you don’t pop any buttons there, Superman.”

Chen flicks Kai’s ear, eliciting a loud yelp. Baekhyun gets to work on his shoulders, kneading them vigorously with his lithe hands.

“Isn’t it beautiful, Kai?” Wendy beams at him, keeping the door open for Kai to put his food inside. Chen pouts in their direction as Wendy grabs Kai’s arm with exaggerated glee. “A sock-free fridge.”

Kai chuckles at her shade while Baek sticks his tongue out at them. “So why were you early today?”

“Chen and I had a meeting with some supervisors.”

“How come everyone’s having meetings with the higher-ups lately but me?” he asks, frowning. Is he in some kind of trouble?

Chen lets out a few happy moans as Baekhyun works on a particularly bad knot near the base of his neck. “Naw, there’s just a big mission coming up. Can’t really talk about it, of course, but they started briefing me the other day and realized we need more than one navigator on it, so I suggested Wendy be brought in.”

“Of course you did,” Kai says, loud enough to be heard over his washing of the coffee pot. Chen shoots him a don’t screw this up for me look.

W