At work the next day, Mingyu decides to switch it up and wear a navy blue button up and black slacks, a big change from his usual neutral tones. He even goes so far as to add the most-orange tie he owns which is something just shy of peach. Generally, everyone kept their outfits quite light since it matched well with the calm color scheme of the clinic. Dressing up in darker shades was rare and usually left to days when their pastels were in the laundry. It seems like he wasn’t the only one with the idea. In fact, everyone seems to have come to work sporting darker colors, Joshua wearing a loose black button-up with the first few buttons undone to show off a thin, red leather choker. It’s probably not work appropriate, but Mingyu’s more surprised that he owns an accessory even this moderately . Then he spots the red devil horns atop his head.

          For a god-fearing, church-going man in his late-twenties, dressing up as a demon to work at a family clinic is probably some breach in moral conduct.

          When he turns, he sees that Wonwoo’s final tie for the spooky season is replaced with a black dog collar. His hair is styled and spiked up messily to blend in with a pair of clip-on ears and Mingyu’s pretty sure that he’s wearing smoky eyeliner. He can’t really tell because the shorter man swerves past him and towards the breakroom, clearly spending more time getting ready today instead of making his morning cup of joe—the importance of caffeine to the working professional really ought to be monitored. In his professional opinion, Wonwoo looks really attractive in fitted black clothes with an oversized, grey knit cardigan. It’s a professional opinion. Absolutely professional. Is he a werewolf, a dog, a furry? Who knows, but he should come to work with his hair up more often.

          Mingyu’s starting to regret not dressing up in the slightest other than wearing dark colors because even deviant Jeonghan dresses up, “This seems… uncharacteristic.”

          “Are you telling me that this costume isn’t completely telling of my character?” The audacity of a man who comes to work dressed in all pressed white with some organza cloth streaming out from under his plush, cream sweater; an angel by claim as if the golden halo on top of his head wasn’t telling enough.

          “Yeah, okay, Satan.”

          Joshua passes him a glance before flinging a paper shuriken at Jeonghan’s face. Mingyu’s almost glad that Joshua has horrible aim and hits Jeonghan’s chest instead because he knows the senior PT would make a big deal out of being hit on his moneymaker, “With my grace, I’ll forgive you.” Sassy. It seems like these two want to play into their characters today, “Where’s your costume, Mingyu?”

          “I didn’t know we were dressing up.” Admittedly, all their costumes look like last-minute, closet-casual excuses for ‘costumes’ so he doesn’t feel too bad about missing out on the memo.

          “It’s Halloween, Mingyu.” Joshua states matter-of-factly.

          “And?” He just wants to get into the breakroom and prepare, maybe steal a few more pieces of candy from behind the counter. Joshua had hidden all the chocolate from their patients, stating some wives’ tale about chocolate being bad for healing joints.

          “Give me a minute.” The manager leaves his position at the front desk and crosses over to the imaging side of the clinic. Of course, they ought to have some emergency costume box if they oversaw Halloween-bombing the whole building. Mingyu waits patiently, watching with pleading eyes as Wonwoo reenters the breakroom without him, giving him a cheeky wink before he dips out of sight.

          Joshua returns three minutes later with a can of silver hairspray and a headband, “Tie off and bend over.”

          “Straightforward.” Mingyu earns a slap to the arm before he complies and leans forward, lowering his head. He undoes his tie and slips it off, tossing it blindly onto Joshua’s desk. Suddenly he’s surrounded by a cloud of sticky spray. He appreciates that Joshua has at least enough heart to make sure his darker clothes don’t get stained, but not enough heart to make sure he doesn’t choke.

          After he coughs for a solid minute and straightens his posture, Joshua reaches up and makes quick work of undoing the top three buttons of his shirt, fiddling with the starched collar to make him look disheveled. He unceremoniously crowns him with the headband and takes a Sharpie to his face, giving him a thumbs up before attending to a call that comes in. This better wash off. He notices that there’s a second headband with what he believes to be a rainbow unicorn horn and white ears. He’s glad he dodged the bullet on that one; it must be left for Seokmin. Mingyu doesn’t know what’s on his own headband until he sees his reflection in the breakroom mirror, wrinkling his nose at the crooked whiskers. He needs to fix his hair; he needs to fix everything.

          “Not too bad, kitty cat.” Wonwoo is sitting by the coffee machine, waiting for the day’s first brew.

          “Dogs can’t have caffeine.” Mingyu snaps back as he grooms himself, pulling his bangs up and brushing them to the side. Silver already looked weird on him with his warm skin tone, not to mention it was the tacky, spotty, spray paint kind. This looks really half-assed.

          The door opens, “Hey, mortal Mingyu, could you stay an extra two hours to take care of a couple patients that rescheduled? Mrs. Harrison wants to bring both her kids in before they leave for the weekend.”

          “It’s Tuesday.” Joshua just shrugs. Well, Mingyu doesn’t have to meet up with Minghao anyway, he might as well get used to working longer hours at the clinic since that’s the plan for the foreseeable future, “Sure, why not.”

          “Great.” He shuts the door behind him.

          “Ah, right, the Halloween party.” Wonwoo grins when Mingyu looks caught. It takes him a moment to remember that Wonwoo’s Soonyoung is the cause for said party. He hadn’t noticed Wonwoo’s blue and gold contacts earlier, but now that they’re within a few feet of each other and Wonwoo’s not desperate for a hot drink this chilly morning, he can see that his nails are painted black as well, “That’s why you’re not so pressed to see Hao today, right?”

          “I’m not usually pressed to see Minghao.” That earns a scoff, “Are you and Soon matchy-matchy this year?”

          Wonwoo’s lips press into a shy smile and he nods before laughing, “So, he told you.”

          “Will Soon be mad if he doesn’t dress up?” Mingyu laughs, deciding to take a cup himself.

          Wonwoo glances down at his phone, “He’ll be salty, but probably not mad.” Pocketing it when Mingyu sets the pot down to pour himself a mug (a new mug that has a little black bat on it), “But he knows Soon loves Halloween, I’m sure he won’t disappoint. He’s dressed up other years- half-assed costumes with minimal effort like us, but he still dressed up.”

          “Hey, this isn’t too bad. You even said so.”

          “Yeah, it’s better than Minghao’s stupid Sims costume that he wears every year.” Oh, so that’s why he already had a plumbob in his closet.

          Lunch is well-deserved.

          Mingyu’s not sure why he’s so hungry today, but he just is. He and Wonwoo (and Jeonghan) got plenty of compliments at work today which was flattering and all, but Mingyu’s still self-conscious about his hair not looking right. It’s not his fault. He’s used to waking up and looking good; straying from routine and stepping out of what was comfortable made him a little uneasy.

          They opt to go to a place they’ve already been and order something different on the menu, but they just order soup. A lot of soup. And bread. A lot of bread. It’s cold.

          It’s so cold that Mingyu even found an opportunity to light that candle that Minghao brought him last week. He, personally, doesn’t like candles which is why his apartment isn’t filled with any. He can appreciate the aesthetic of them and how calming they are, but they don’t offer much outside of ‘there’s a tiny fire on my desk’. Mingyu lit it while his hands grew numb from writing up checks for bills; too lazy to bring the heater to his desk from the bathroom. He had crossed his fingers over the small flame any time they got too stiff. It smelled familiar, kind of like an ex-boyfriend. If he had to categorize it, it was more of a uni or masculine scent. Mostly sweet, a little fruity, a little salty. It almost smelled like cologne.

          It caused him to contemplate and stew. He went into his office looking to finish some adult-y money things, but left filled with complex feelings. The thing that can’t sit right with him is how much the candle’s scent reminded him of someone from the past. He can’t put a finger on it, so maybe it isn’t just one, but he’s certainly inhaled something close to that scent from his sheets before. Maybe it’s just a generic scent. It doesn’t smell bad, it’s quite pleasant, but despite the day’s festivities, Mingyu’s not feeling great right now. He wants to keep talking and he wants to take his mind off of the past.

          Wonwoo’s spent most of the day on his phone since it dings every few minutes with a new message and Mingyu’s just slightly crestfallen that he doesn’t have much of his attention today. Their conversation isn’t bad, but it’s not like they’re talking about anything super interesting since he keeps glancing down to answer texts.

          “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” He sighs, “Soon just keeps pinging me. He’s super excited because all the staff members came to work with costumes on, even Jihoon who never dresses up showed up at the studio to surprise him.” He laughs to himself, “Look, Jun’s running around with this elephant onesie on.” He flips his phone over to show Mingyu a short clip of said pretty-boy sliding across an entire studio floor on his knees with his neon-yellow pajama costume. He can hear the audio top out when Soonyoung starts shouting something about setting up rolled-up yoga mats to bowl with—using Jun as the bowling ball. He doesn’t see many familiar faces in the video aside from the three other instructors that helped break up the fight a week ago, “I don’t think they’ll get much dancing done today.”

          “Looks fun.”