Fast forward a month and Dongmin was depressed. No, it was not due to an undersupply of serotonin in his brain, rather a certain brown-haired boy who frequented his place of employment. Dongmin had never wanted to be with someone so badly in his life, but no matter how much he flirted with the other boy, Bin just wouldn’t ask him out. It was equal parts infuriating and sad.

Was Dongmin not being obvious enough? If Sanha and Minhyuk’s giggles every time Moonbin set foot in Astro were any kind of indication, then he was being pretty freakin’ obvious. Hell, he’d even pulled the classic “you get free drinks because you’re my friend”. Now, Bin didn’t even have to pay to use the bathroom, which he felt like had been a pretty ballsy move, and yet Bin still treated him the same way. Sure the way that Bin treated him was different than the way that literally every other person in his life treated him (he’d be concerned if his eighty two year old grandmother suddenly started shamelessly flirting with him) but still, they were both y, free, and single, so why weren’t they already mingling?

Speak of the devil and he shall appear, as the saying goes, or in this case perhaps speak of the “future father of your children” would be more applicable, but hey, what’s Dongmin got to say about it? One minute Dongmin was peacefully cleaning the cappuccino machine and lamenting about his non-existent love life, and the next Bin was bursting through the door, a look of complete panic on his face.

“Quick, hide me!” He yelled as he barreled toward the barista, vaulting over the counter in a smooth motion that left Dongmin stunned and a little jealous as well, if he was being honest. Why couldn’t he be that athletic?

“Uhhh,” Was Dongmin’s incredibly intelligent reply as Bin pressed his back up behind the counter. It was only met with an aggressive shushing motion, followed by a wink. Honestly what was even happening?

Fortunately, Bin seemed more equipped than Dongmin to handle the situation, reaching up onto the counter to grab a napkin before ducking down again. Taking a pen out from seemingly thin air (seriously, he was wearing skinny jeans, where was he hiding that bad boy?), he furiously scribbled a message, just as the bell rung again, signifying the entrance of another customer. Dongmin, the acting barista on duty, however, was far too preoccupied with the boy on the floor to notice, that is until said newcomer cleared his throat.

“Hey Dongmin, have you seen Bin?” Myungjun was usually perky, but even to Dongmin this level of sweetness seemed over the top. He didn’t even need to glance down and see Bin’s frantically scrawled note to know that he should just simply lie. The problem? He at lying.

“Nope. Haven’t seen him, not today, not yesterday, and definitely not within the past fifteen minutes.” Below him, Moonbin facepalmed.

“Really? Because I definitely saw him running in here just a minute ago.”

“What?” Dongmin laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck. “Moonbin? In my coffee shop? That’s crazy?” He couldn’t help the way his eyes drifted towards the ground, he really couldn’t. His gaze was met by Moonbin frantically gesturing to the ceiling. Up? Why would he be pointing up?

Internally, Bin facepalmed again. Dongmin might be book smart, but he could be pretty dense about some things. He could literally see the realization hit in Dongmin’s eyes, along with a slight blush. Needless to say, Bin could barely contain his uwu.

“So Bin’s not on the other side of this counter right now?” Somehow Dongmin managed to look affronted. (It’s for Bin gosh darn it, you can do this body!!!).

"I couldn’t let him back here even if I wanted to. That’d break like seven health codes and my boss would definitely kill me if he found out.” Myungjun gave Dongmin the once over, he didn’t look like a rule breaker, but then again he was definitely lying about the whole Bin thing.

“Interesting…” Both Bin and Dongmin held their breath, waiting for some kind of reaction. “Well I’ll go check the bathroom. Catch ya later, Min!” Once he was around the corner Dongmin turned his attention back to the boy currently seated at his feet.  

"What did you even do?"

“Shhhhh!” Bin popped up like a meerkat, looking towards the bathroom before diving down again. “He’ll be back any minute.”

“Okay? But why are you hiding?”
“Well if you must know, I might have accidentally killed two of his goldfish, but it’s hardly even my fault.” All Dongmin had to do was raise an eyebrow for Bin to blush and continue. “Fine maybe it’s a little bit my fault, but really Myungjun shouldn’t have left the fish food next to the hot pepper flakes. How was I supposed to know that hot pepper flakes would kill them? Besides, why do we even have pepper flakes at a music shop? Furthermore, why do we even have goldfish?” Dongmin giggled, and Bin flushed deeper. And if there’s one thing that he found adorable, it was a blushing Moonbin.

“Remind me to never leave you alone with my plants.” In his mind, fish were basically the houseplants of the animal world. If you couldn’t take care of a fish or plant, it was unlikely that you should be trusted with any other form of life.

“Hey! I can totally handle plants, I have a cat.”

“At school?”
“Okay so maybe he’s not currently living with me, but that doesn’t make him any less existent.”

“Interesting…” He raised an eyebrow once again, a talent that Moonbin was intensely jealous of, he might have the athletic skills but man he wished he had that kind of control of his facial muscles.

Bin made a face, most likely about to voice his apparent indignation, but before he could Dongmin shoved his head back down under t