“Yah! TaeMin~ah! Don’t do this!” JongHyun begged as he was dragged through the busy streets of Seoul. Merchants stared at them from their booths, some trying to stop them to advertise their products to them.

            TaeMin ignored his hyung, persevering through the crowd to the little white store that he’d had his eye on before. He’d been in maybe once, inspired to explore by the bright window display in front and had found some stickers that he’d wanted. Unfortunately he hadn’t any money at the time to pay for them. JongHyun, being the caring person that he was, had gone to buy them only to have quite an interesting run in with the employee there.

            Having heard the story, TaeMin had decided to go confront the worker (much to JongHyun’s displeasure). He didn’t want to go back there… Especially not in the same day.

            The familiar store came into view, with its big pink sign and white exterior. The slim boy shoved the door open roughly, dragging JongHyun in by the wrist. Since the place was small it was easy to stake out the employee.

            JongHyun felt his lip curve up as he studied him. He was still at the counter, magazine spread out in front of him. His dark hair half covered his felines eyes and hew as gnawing at his lower lip in the cutest of ways. How was it that this guy managed to pull off looking good in a pink shirt?

            His moment of examination period of the rude guy was short lived as TaeMin posed him a question.

            “Is that him?” the young boy asked.

            JongHyun nodded.

            With a look of pure determination that didn’t suit his innocent face, TaeMin marched over to the counter. He stood there for a while, waiting for the other to look up which – of course – he didn’t.

            “Excuse me,” TaeMin said, irritations clear in his voice.

            “Ne~?” the employee asked, sounding quite bored.

            TaeMin’s lips pursed, his eyebrows moving in to furrow in a disbelieving manner. Under any other circumstances JongHyun would have been blown away by his aegyo but now when he was clearly angry… Who was he kidding? He was still adorable.

            The boy shifted his weight, glaring at the guy with a gaze that could baffle anyone.

            “It’s rude to ignore your customers!” he bellowed. He knew if he didn’t tell this guy off soon his anger would dissipate and he’d just end up being nice to him… This guy didn’t deserve nice.

            JongHyun watched on in amusement as the employee raised his head to stare at his friend. He wasn’t surprised to see the unimpressed, couldn’t care less look on his face. The sharp stare he cast on TaeMin seemed to shaken him up a bit.

            A second or two passed in which TaeMin struggled to gather his bearings. He took a deep breath and said, “I don’t appreciate how you treated my friend.”

            One of those perfect eyebrows of the employee’s cocked up in confusion. He didn’t seem to be phased by this statement as much as TaeMin wanted him to be. This seemed to unnerve TaeMin and he started to fidget. Just like JongHyun had predicted: he was too nice to yell at anyone.

            “What friend?” the employee asked.

            “Me,” JongHyun answered, stepping up to give TaeMin some support. He wasn’t about to stand there and watch his dongsaeng crash and burn.

            If looks could kill, JongHyun would be on the floor with a still heart right then and there. For the briefest of seconds he even felt physically ill from the intensity in the eyes boring into him. It only lasted a couple seconds but he felt something inside him shake in fear. Swallowing past the lump in his throat, he squared up to the employee in an attempt to regain the upper hand.

            The eye contact lasted for one more blink before the other guy turned to TaeMin.

            “You’re friends with him? Really?” he asked, nodding his head in JongHyun’s direction.

            That was enough to make the short guy forget all about the tiny bit of fear that the other had struck in him earlier. He narrowed his eyes and packed a vicious glare to the diva, hoping to unsettle just a bit.

            Nothing seemed to sway the worker unfortunately. That is until TaeMin said, “Don’t talk about JongHyun hyung like that!”        

            The employee’s eyebrows rose so high that they disappeared into his hair. Clearly he was not used to watch him react as such to the skinny blonde boy across from him. It was bound to get even better to watch since TaeMin seemed to have gotten riled up all over again by the guy’s comment.

            The young boy’s eyes squinted at the name tag pinned to the pink shirt, clearly planning to give this guy a nice long lecture.

            “Kibum is it?” he asked.

            The other didn’t say anything, not wanting to dig a deeper hole for himself.

            Undeterred by the lack of response, TaeMin pushed forward, determined to tell the employee exactly what was on his mind.

            “Well, Kibum!” he started. “I’m going to file a complaint to your manager explaining to them that you are a lousy employee! What gives you the right to treat customers like they’re beneath you? JongHyun hyung is a great guy and anyone should feel lucky to even speak to him!”

            “Look-” Kibum tried to cut in but TaeMin wasn’t finished just yet.

            “No! I demand you apologize to JongHyun hyung for being so rude to him before!”

            The two stared at each other for some time. TaeMin kept his brown eyes on Key, not faltering for a second which was quite rare for him. Kibum was standing there with his mouth hanging slightly open.

            JongHyun felt his mouth curve upwards into a smile as he witnessed the moment of weakness. At the same time he couldn’t help but feel bad for the worker either. He looked pretty tired judging by the bags under his eyes and he looked kind of pale…

            His fingers twitched as guilt over too his conscience, Hadn’t he said that he was going to try to be the bigger and better person when he’d stood in this very position earlier on that morning?

            “TaeMin,” JongHyun said quietly, reaching out for his friend. “Let’s just go; Kibum-ssi probably has better things to do than listen to complaints.”

            Two pairs of disbelieving eyes twisted to look at JongHyun. TaeMin’s brown orbs held anger in them, as if he couldn’t believe that his hyung was actually suggesting they should surrender to this jerk and leave before receiving their apology. Kibum’s eyes held something different than his friend’s. They looked confused – wary even – as they connected with JongHyun’s calm stare.

            “No hyung! You deserve an apology!” TaeMin exclaimed. No sooner had the outburst happened had Kibum’s gaze turned stone cold once more.

            He turned his head the other way and said, “I’m sorry, now leave.”

            The three stood together while the pregnant pause continued TaeMin’s expression seemed to be going from angry to confused. His eyes flickered from JongHyun to Kibum in an attempt to figure our what was going on. Why was JongHyun being so forgiving? It was so unlike him… He’d come to him so furious and now he was calm and completely submissive. It didn’t make sense.

            The distant sound of a phone ringing was what broke up the trio. Kibum moved his gaze back to the customers. His face held absolutely no emotion as his eyes focused somewhere on the wall behind them.

            “I have work to do; I think you can see yourselves out.,” Kibum droned, walking the few steps to the phone.

            TaeMin made to leave but stopped when he saw. JongHyun hadn’t budged a step. His puppy eyes were set on the back of the worker who was chatting away on the phone. He leaned to one side, causing his hip to jut out slightly in a diva like way. He could see Kibum tugging at his hair as he conversed with whoever was on the other line with him.

            “Hyung,” TaeMin said, tugging at the elder’s arm.

            Kibum looked over his shoulder when he heard TaeMin speak only to shoot them a menacing glare before focusing back on his phone call.

            JongHyun stared for a couple more seconds before following after TaeMin. He had just opened the door when a series of loud swear words were unleashed. His head twisted to look over his shoulder to see Kibum blaring none too friendly words into the receiver.

            “You have to come in today Jessica! I’ve already worked two shifts today; I can’t take a third! You were supposed to help with the new delivery! No! I’m not taking your shift! I have a life! I don’t care if you have a hair appointment! Jessica?! Jessica?! !” Kibum slammed the phone down on the base and leaned against the wall. He took in a few deep breaths to try and recollect himself. Once he deemed himself calm enough he picked the phone back up.

            For some reason, JongHyun couldn’t look away. He could hear TaeMin whining out on the sidewalk but his whole focus was on Kibum who was speaking in an exhausted, hopeless voice into the phone.

            “I know I’ve already missed two shifts but something came up at my other job… N-no, I understand, but -” he stopped talking. His face bent down into this pitiful look of despair that made JongHyun want to go up and hug him. However… That was probably not the best thing to do since he seemed to be holding a rather large grudge against the short man.

            With a final look at the exhausted, chatting employee, JongHyun gave into TaeMin’s whining and left the store, going home with many things on his mind.