Heechul slipped into the little café unnoticed. Immediately, he headed towards the now second prettiest boy in the establishment. Raven hair was tousled but managed to look cute rather than messy. The tips of thick black glasses peeked over his ears, and as Heechul slid into the chair opposite the boy, he found those dark eyes focused on the foam of a milky coffee as it swirled in the cup he stirred nonchalantly.

When he received no greeting, Heechul leaned back against the chair with a sigh, bringing his long ponytail over his shoulder for amusement. One message strategically left in a place where only he could find it had summoned him. Usually, he would’ve cast the paper into a bin without a thought but with a sneer. But curiosity had called him out.

“What do you want, Jaejoong?”

The younger boy slowly raised his eyes and dropped his hand to the table. “Glad you could join me.”

A bitter twist taking to his lips, Heechul flicked his hair back into place. “I’m not here to play friends. Either buy me a coffee and cut the crap or I’m leaving.”

Jaejoong stood without a word. He was smiling, a sickly pleasant one that hid something that was still visible. It wasn’t threatening in the slightest to Heechul. In fact, he would’ve been intimidated if Jaejoong was being amiable to him. Civil disdain was comfortable, familiar, fun.

A few minutes later, he returned and slid a plain white mug under Heechul’s nose. He settled back in his chair, staring over the table. He sipped at his drink, whilst the elder waited for it to cool down to a temperature he could handle.

“I am surprised you came. Usually you’re off having coffee with Yunho.”

A curt laugh passed from Heechul’s lips. “Oh?” he brushed his fringe out of his face, smirking at Jaejoong. “So that’s what this is about? Joongie’s jealous?”

Jaejoong snorted. “Of you? What is there to be jealous of?”

Dark eyes narrowed into a glare. Had he had his way, the boy would’ve been dust, swept up by the shop assistant that passed occasionally with his broom and cast outside to the wind. Sliding his chair back as a warning of his leaving, Heechul pressed his palms flat on the table. “Listen here, you—”

“Calm down, Princess,” Jaejoong sighed and dismissively waved his hand. It did nothing to quell the fire in the other’s gut. “Sit down and shut up or I—”

Heechul curled his fingers, nails dragging on the polished wood on the table and scratching it deeply. He grit his teeth, but was conscious not to mar his face with a frown. “Or what?”

“Or,” Jaejoong glance up at his elder, smirking ear to ear. “I let slip about the new recruit you’ve been talking to – or should I say seducing? Handsome little Christian boy, isn’t he?”

The colour drained from Heechul’s face. Though he had never been one of great subtlety, he thought that he had taken the appropriate measure of caution when it came to the much younger trainee. How could Jaejoong know?

Heechul hissed and threw himself back down into the chair and quickly glanced around, wandering if anyone had heard the turn of conversation. He shrugged his brightly coloured jacket from his shoulders, just to assure Jaejoong that he wouldn’t be leaving in a hurry. “Just get to the ing point.”

Jaejoong smirked a sweet victory and took a long mouthful of his coffee.

Heechul was close to throwing the mug to the side just to get the boy to open his mouth and let something out. His foot was already tapping demandingly on the table leg.

“As I said,” Jaejoong drawled and set the half-empty mug back on the table. “It’s not you I’m jealous of.”

“Not me?”

“Yunho’s girlfriend.” Jaejoong said brusquely, closing his eyes to raise the mug back to his lips.

Heechul began to laugh, a hollow sound from his lungs that was so bereft of mirth it shouldn’t have been a laugh at all. “That’s just rich.  Desperate to spread you legs for him?”

The mug calmly met the tabletop again. “Choi,” Jaejoong’s large dark eyes blinked open, immediately focused on Heechul’s. “Siwon.”

Biting the inside of his cheek and releasing a sigh, Heechul waved his hand in a disinterestedly submissive request for him to continue. How long would the other boy make this hang over him? For as long as it suited him, he knew that much.

“I want her gone. Don’t care how. I’ll let you have the fun of think that up.”

“Excuse me?” Heechul stared at the younger, amused and bewildered.

Jaejoong sighed laboriously like he was a teacher who had to explain a simple maths problem for the hundredth time to a particularly slow pupil. “Have her break up with him so—”

“You can pick up the pieces and have Yunho for your own, right.” Heechul muttered under his breath and slid his chair back again. He sighed again and glanced up at the smirking boy. “Just what makes you think that I would betray my best friend like that?”

“Because,” Jaejoong let his tongue click teasingly against the roof of his mouth. He nestled back against the chair, crossing his legs tightly and raised a hand to his eyes to inspect his nails. The gesture was there only to humiliate Heechul.

“Wouldn’t it be a shame if Siwon’s strict parents, and the company executives, heard that you’re grooming that under-age boy to . Or is it that you want him to fu—”

“Alright!” Heechul ushered, glancing around them once again. Luckily people were still to busy wrapped up in their little worlds to give a care as to what two teenagers were squabbling about.

“Leave the boy out of this,” he stood to his feet and pulled his coat back on. Pulling at it roughly, like a cat who had miscalculated a jump and made a mess of it, he would simply ignore the defeat and strut off a little rustled visibly, but he’d never admit it.

“But if Yunho finds out about what you’ve had me do, I will not defend you.”

A fresh smirk played on the shorter-haired boy’s plush lips. “I know you’re much too clever to be caught out by our adorable Bambi.”

“Whatever.”

He only got a pace or two away from the table when Jaejoong called out again. He didn’t turn back, because he could hear enough mockery in the younger’s voice. “And maybe you should teach your little one digression. A toilet cubicle is hardly the right place to… purge oneself of their feelings. As such.”