“What?”

The confused young lad named Park Heungsoo asked.

“You’re modelling for the café’s photo shoot tomorrow” The man called Jung Yunho calmly stated as he moved towards the desk, opening the box Heungsoo delivered.

“…along with Namsoon” He took out one of the small cupcakes and bite it.

“With- wait, why wasn’t I informed of this?” The young man was baffled.

“Well, now you know” The man-in-suit said nonchalantly as he was distracted by the sweets.

“I refuse.” The boy retorted, he turned away to leave the room.

But the door to his escape had already opened, but it was not giving out any sorts of ‘welcoming’ aura for him. Heungsoo in his breath. He stared hard at a person who stood by the door. He met up eye-to-eye with a very, very displeased looking Jaejoong.

"Oh hi BooJae" Yunho, who was in the middle of devouring his third cupcake of the day greeted, cheerfully waved at Jaejoong.

Heungsoo was best-to-say, breathing the air of death.

“Now, did I heard those two words right, Park Heungsoo?”

The homme fatale took a step forward, and the boy took a big step backward.

“And were you trying to leave when I ordered you to wait?”

The boy saw the look of pity from Yunho across the room, mouthed silently to him, ‘Good luck, kid’.

Hell.

*

*

*

True enough, he was knocked down million times over. For hours he was completely brainwashed by his boss’s manipulative words. Until somehow, he was brought into a so-called ‘willing agreement’, of doing the photo shoot in turn of getting free desserts. And Heungsoo doesn’t even like sweets all that much. But that’s Jaejoong for you. Not anyone can drill the guilt in you on something that wasn’t even considered as fault.                               

He sighed, tired.

And then Jaejoong was out again when one of the workers asked for his presence once again about an urgent client. Jaejoong folded the paper of agreement Heungsoo almost forgot he signed it before delivered a chaste good-bye kiss on Yunho’s cheek and went out of the door in a matter of seconds. If Heungsoo was to define Jaejoong, he’d definitely say a tornado. It all happened in a blink, droving out any obstacles and before you realized it, it was gone.

He watched the closed door, rendered speechless for the umpteenth time.

“My, my, you look white! Might be better to sit down, kiddo” The man guided him to the couch nearby.

“Sorry about Jaejoong, he’s always like that when it comes to the café… or getting what he wants particularly” The man said as he sat beside Heungsoo.

“Yeah, no kidding…” The boy uttered quietly.

The older male gave a serious look and patted his shoulder, “Buck up, kid. You’ve seen nothing yet”

“I’d rather not.” The boy replied, just as serious.

The man burst into laughter, the older one seemed to be very amused, by what Heungsoo had no absolute clue.

Yunho stood up and went towards the coffeemaker. And with that, comes the awkward silence that Heungsoo never fond of. He wondered if he was permitted to leave by now.

 “…What’s the reason for your strong refusal in the first place?”

“…”

Yunho looked his way directly now, but Heungsoo never met his gaze. He had no intention on voicing out his answer. Why should he, to someone he just met?

“Another refusal?” Yunho chuckled, “Well, that’s fine. It’s none of my business anyway”

Heungsoo exhaled in relief. When did I even held in my breath?

“You may leave if you want” The man told him as he poured the coffee into a cup.

Gladly.

Heungsoo stood up and proceed to walk towards his door of salvation once again. Already the tip of his fingers reached to touch the knob, before he heard a familiar ‘mewing’ sound. Heungsoo turned around.

There it was, the silver-blue fur coat cat stride across Jaejoong’s spacious live-in office. The cat immediately went towards Yunho’s direction like a magnet.

“Already up from your nap, Little Lord?” Yunho picked up the cat gently, settling snugly into his arm.

“That cat…” Heungsoo uttered slowly, confused.

“You know Jiji?” Yunho questioned.

“Yea- No. I mean, nothing. Sorry” He turned to leave.

“So it was true then”

Heungsoo paused, “What is?”

The man seemed to ignore him though, he instead, turned his attention to Jiji. He lifted the cat high enough for his nose to touch its own pink one.

“Now Jiji, my wild guess is that Namsoon and Heungsoo had some conflict, is that right?”

“Meow!” The male feline sounded in agreement.

“But it’s not really a fight-kind-of-conflict now was it?”

“Meow~” 

Heungsoo found himself in a bizarre situation once again. It was even stranger watching a grown-up man wearing a perfectly tailored business suit making (cute?) childish faces whilst talking conversationally with a CAT. No, he was never going to find any normal human being that associated with this café.

“Okay, stop. You win, I’ll talk”

Yunho flashed his stunningly smug looks as he placed Jiji down on the ground.

“…”

“Well?” Yunho waited with his cup of coffee at hand.

“Namsoon and I- Last night, we shared the bed”

“Wow, that fast?”

“What- NO! We were only sleeping on the same bed!”

Yunho stared somewhat curiously, but nodded for him to resume back. Heungsoo heaved a sigh.

“We’ve known each other way back from the past, but our relationship had been a broken one”

The man sipped his drink in silence.

“We walked down on different roads for three years long, only to find our paths crossed once again”

“It was like fate never had enough of us, seeing us reliving back on painful memories”

“There were a lot of damage for us to fix... one was left with the scar while the other of guilt"

"It was as if we had found the missing pieces, but they were scattered apart"

Heungsoo felt Jiji brushed against his leg.

“…On that night, he asked me about where both of us stand now”

“A simple question to some, but an impossible one for me”

“For you?” Yunho asked, careful not to stir any hesitation from Heungsoo.

“He kept blaming himself and looked so miserable, when he cried, I just can’t-”

“I wanted to comfort him, so much, I lost control of my feelings and kissed him”

“I’m guessing that had made you and him more awkward?” Yunho presumed.

“Beyond awkward” Heungsoo chuckled half-heartedly as he kneeled down to the affectionate ‘Little Lord’. Jiji started to climb up into his embrace, he stood upright again with the cat securely in his arms.

“Sooner or later, you are going to face him anyway”

“Yeah…”

Yunho put down his emptied cup of coffee.

“You seemed to have put the past behind. But you haven’t really realize it, or maybe you did but you were too blind to acknowledge it”

“…What?”

“You talked about both of your pains and not only yours, means that you knew Namsoon had his own share of burden to carry. You stated your wish to ‘comfort’ him as if you had accepted the past, but with your feelings mixed up in between… You got confused”

Heungsoo kept his words shut. He was caught by surprise. The man that stood in front of him gave a sharp stare, he had read the insides of his mind. It almost gave him the creeps of how accurate what the man had said about him.

“You sounded like you’ve had gone through that experience”

Yunho only smiled gently. “Not particularly alike, but similar”

Heungsoo paused, he bent down for the cat to walk on grounds.

“I need to get back on my work, Jung-sshi”

“Oh, right. Wait a sec, here take these” Yunho took the box of many left-over cupcakes and gave it to him.

Heungsoo blinked, “Are you sure? You seemed to like it”

“It’s fine, I can ask JJ to make more”

“…Thanks, Jung-sshi”

“Call me, Yunho. And give some of those to Namsoon, as well” Yunho winked.

Heungsoo suddenly felt anxious to his stomach and immediately turned around, opened the door half-way open.

“What did you do when you were in that situation?”

“I coped with it, feigning ignorance was never the option”

The man picked up Jiji and the feline curled itself around his shoulders. Yunho caressed the cat lightly.

“Facing through it is better”

Yunho glanced at the boy, noticed the perplex expression he wore. The older man smiled,

“In time you’ll know what to do” he patted Heungsoo’s shoulder.

Heungsoo still had the wheels in his mind turned as the man coerced the man to get back to his work.

Just before Heungsoo closed the door, he finally brought the pieces together. The boy faced the older male, “Thank you, Yunho-hyung”

The man seemed surprised. But his expression softened, “Sure thing, kid”

The door closed shut.

The man dressed in a business suit steadily walked back to sit on the couch. Jiji had already moved from Yunho’s shoulder onto the couch. His hand motioned to trace the visible scar near his neck.

“Although everything has its consequences”

He sighed heavily, dropping the hand down his lap. Jiji nudged Yunho’s hand affectionately and mewed.

Yunho smiled, the cat’s ears gently.

“But it’s worth the price”

He gazed at the simple silver-gold band on his ring-finger.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Heungsoo then remembered that Jaejoong had kissed Yunho on his cheek, but it was extremely close to his lips. He wondered what kind of relationship they had. It looked intimate so does that… 

“Yah, Park Heungsoo! Where the hell have you been?” Jihoon asked.

Heungsoo gave a blank stare.

“Get back to work, they even had to have Yikyung be your replacement!”

“What does that have to do anything with you?” Heungsoo asked.

“He kept talking to the girls and I had to see- never mind that. Just go do your work, bastard” Jihoon stomped back to his workstation.

‘What’s with him?’ the black-haired boy watched, questioningly.

He was back on working, this time he worked on the main section. Heungsoo was able to keep his focus now that he had some of his feelings being sorted out.

Heungsoo was waiting for the drinks to serve from the counter, when he saw Namsoon. He looked fine, on the outside anyway. He seemed to have not noticed his presence as he was too absorbed in doing his job. He heard the younger boy talked to Jungho about some customer’s order. Heungsoo observed how casual the tone he used on Jungho compared to him. There wasn’t any sign of faltering guilt or being cautious. He felt his heart ached at the sight of them talking. He felt like punching something. Weird.

Namsoon was waiting for the coffee to be made. Heungsoo took the opportunity to make himself known.  He coughed. Loudly.

(Okay, he knows that that was not really the best non-awkward strategy on getting someone’s attention but it’s bound to work. So what the hell.)

Namsoon met his gaze. And Heungsoo almost had his heart jumped out of its place.

“Hey” Heungsoo said, struggled inertly to stay composed.

The brown haired boy blinked, but then he smiled. An awkward smile it was, but it still did wonders to Heungsoo.

“Hey”

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When they went back, the two of them found themselves sitting beside each other. But they remain unspoken. They could almost sense the ultimate curiosity coming from the trio that was sitting at the back seat of the bus. Then again, they didn’t really care and they won’t dare to ask them… yet.

They do their own thing as they reached home. Baths taken, comfortable clothes was worn but they were hungry. Namsoon went to make some tea for two, while Heungsoo brought out the cupcakes Yunho gave him earlier. He knew Namsoon would like it so he didn't eat it much and let the younger boy finished it. It's been a while since they did this kind of silence conversation. Or maybe it's just between them, because the trio barged in and stole some of the cupcakes since they, too was starved. But Namsoon had a temper when it came to sweets. So it was quite loud in the house anyway. By the time the food-fight ended, it was already past midnight. So they settled in the shared bed for the night, with their backs facing each other, of course.

The peace of the night remained, unperturbed. Until Heungsoo asked Namsoon,

“Did you know we need to do a photo shoot together tomorrow?”

The younger boy sighed. “Yes”

“Jaejoong lectured me for hours and made me sign a willing agreement” Heungsoo told the other.

“He threatened me that if I had any problem with it, I’d find myself wearing kitty ears tomorrow”

Heungsoo turned his head to face the other, Namsoon did the same. They found themselves laughing their heads off.

“It suits you, Saekki-ya” Heungsoo teased.

“Shut up, ” Namsoon smacked Heungsoo’s shoulder.

Both of them chuckled. Now, they found themselves facing the ceiling. Namsoon’s shoulder touched his and the sound of the faint laughter still rang in his ears. Suddenly he felt everything was fine. Just like this, with Namsoon, he felt right.

“Missed you” Heungsoo confessed.

“Drama-queen” Namsoon snorted.

Oh you’re so going to get it. And the older boy proceed his attack, tickled the other mercilessly.

“Haha- Okay, okay I was only joking! S-Sorry~” the boy struggled to protect his ticklish places.

“You know better than to say that to me” Heungsoo tickled the boy for one last time before stopping.

Namsoon was smiling, and he was still like that as he gazed onto Heungsoo’s eyes.

“I missed you too”

“I know” Heungsoo said.

They ended up facing each other that night. Somehow, Namsoon found himself snuggled up into the warmth of Heungsoo, his head leaned on his chest as he listened the other breathed in and out evenly. While Heungsoo’s arm was securely wrapped around the other’s waist, whether or not that was intentional, he had no plans letting the younger male go.

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Every time they were at the café, it was busy. But today, it was simply havoc.

Both, Heungsoo and Namsoon were pushed into the preparing room. They had their hairstyle altered, and standard simple make-ups being put on for the photo shoot. After that, they were thrown to the costume section. And there they had their first meeting… yet with another bizarre friend of Jaejoong’s.

“My name’s G-Dragon, GD for short” the man with pink-blue colored hair greeted in form of salutation.

“He’s a fashion designer. I always ask for his service during this occasions” Jaejoong explained to the two models-soon-to-be.

“Okay boys, let’s get it on!”

They were stripped on and off, clothes after clothes. Until finally the fashionista found himself satisfied of his choices. The problem was that the fashionista had difficulties in choosing the type of clothes… or so he said. GD explained that their height and feature have too much possible concept. Things takes turn from one thing to another, and the complication got even worse when Jaejoong comes into the picture.

They picked from 26 sets of clothes reduced to 18 sets. And after that they talked about keeping some of the sets for ‘future use’. They finally agreed on three miraculously simple sets of clothing. They were relieved of the chosen clothes. Because the others looked like everything-gothic concept, if not that, it would be a mix of really bright-colored clothes.

Things are looking up onwards with the photo shoot setup except that Heungsoo and Namsoon was really nervous and had no idea what to do in a photoshoot. To add the horror, GD and Jaejoong are already discussing what to do about the unused clothes. The two boys watched the other two closely, and each passing second, the feeling that they were going to be dragged back into this even after the school trip grew stronger.

In the middle of planning an early escape, there was someone who had wrapped an arm around their shoulder. Almost choking the two inexperienced models, “You guys are the models right? Come on, the shoot is ready for you” The male voice told them cheerfully while dragging them to the set.

“By the way, the name’s Se7en. Fancy meeting ya!”

Okay an update (finally?) Once again thank you for subscribing, writing out lovely comments, and for the story precious votes! The being of this story and its author loves you like craaaaay-zeh <3 And yes, this story is slow because I like to write details to some parts realllllly long, hope you don't mind it... (bows) . Ta-ta for now, my beautiful petunias~