“ricky..”

The boy sighed as he laid his head on the pillow. It was already midnight, four days had passed from the day he stopped talking to changhyun. His schedules were full, trainings and competition colored his day whereas sleep would be the second most important thing he’d do. So with all the things needed to be done Changjo didn’t have the chance to look at his new friend.

But even when changhyun wasn’t in his sight, ricky lingered rather strong inside his mind. He wasn’t sleepy, no how could he when he had spent hours during the day for his ‘quick’ nap. So with nothing to do, the boy took his phone and scrolled down his sns.

Realizing that he didn’t have ricky’s phone number or any other medium to contact the boy with.

“damn…”

Tossing the smartphone away, the tall lad walked out his room and went down to the kitchen. Rustling through the fridge when his super sensitive senses were alerted by a familiar scent. Someone was climbing inside their four storey apartment.

“back from hunting? Noona.”

A cunning lady flipped her hair and smirked the moment their eyes met. Changjo scanned the lady thoroughly as he drank his milk, disgusted by the stench she brought home. Frowning, the younger boy sat down and watched his sister wipes the dirt away.

“uh. Yah, shouldn’t you be in your room right now? If mom sees you awake like this..”

“she’ll definitely know that you’re an owl, not a half-blood. Haha”

Changjo giggled at his sister’s joke, it was lame but it made sense. She was right, he never sleeps during the night anyway. But jonghyun had no plans of going back into his room and be drowned by his thoughts again so he’d rather stay with her.

“so how’s school? Ughh can’t believe she made you do all those human things ya’know”

“its fine, im just tired. And sleepy.”

“hmm… it must be all those trainings huh. Honestly mom should really give you a break, you look awful”

The lady caressed jonghyun’s fluffy hair, concerns was bright on her face as she stared at her little brother, who seemed incredibly troubled. But changjo gave her a sense of security the moment he smiled, indeed that smile was the exact same one she had seen when he was little.

“stop jong... join me…”

“join us. Mother’s plan of making you human is useless”

“we all know it and her making you do all those martial arts.. I bet she’s starting to feel sorry for you”

“because im weak?”

“ it’s not that but if you agree, I can make you stronger. Noona can give you strength, ara?”

Jonghyun looked straight into her eyes and bit his lips, he wanted to say that he’s fine. That he could endure these tiring plans their mother had schemed but he knows that she understood him better than anyone. Still that offer was invalid, in fact it was impossible. No matter what she does, the flesh inside his body is clearly human so how could she change him, how could she change fate.

“go inside, choi shi young-ssi. Mom is gonna freak out if she knew you climbed your way in okay, so stop worrying about me. Worry about yourself please”

“and… I smell grandma, she’s coming down”

“! night dork~”

Even after all these years, she believed his senses no matter what. That made it even lovelier for jonghyun because he lied, their grandmother wasn’t even home.

“lets go changhyun-ah”

Chunji gasped as his arm trembled on the glass coffin. He couldn’t believe it but he was dreaming again and it happened too often. Especially when he was near byunghun, the fact that he was just beside ljoe but could never actually reach him made chunji frustrated. Desperate rather, so his body that never needed sleep apparently had shut itself down so that he could be with the man he loved again.

Even if it was only in his memories.

“bye byung… I’ll come by later tonight”

“finally, our cold city barista is back! Jonghyunnaah~~”

Niel ran like a child to jonghyun and hugged him tight. Ricky who was wiping the tables couldn’t help but to give in to his heart and glared at those two. He never hated niel or anything but the way the tall, thick lipped lad clings on changjo made his temper shorter than what it is supposed to be. 

Clearing his throat changhyun ignored the two and took the tray of drinks with a frown still plastered on his face. Jiyoon who always adored her new employee stuck out her hand and pinched ricky’s cheeks jokingly.

“yargh! Yargh! Are you jealous or what?”

Ricky slightly blushes as he snapped free from her pinch and went out to give the drinks at the customers outside. Changjo who was rather observant silently went nearer to his manager and acted like he had work to do there when really all he was doing was just waiting for her to speak out. The chatty noona knew exactly what jonghyun had intended so with a smile on her face she spoke…

“he wasn’t all that mad, a lil annoyed?”

“but since when did you two get so close, I mean I NEVER see you guys together”

Changjo smiled when he realized how true her words were, they never spent much time together. But he kept his composure as he moved away to the coffee bar, finally doing his actual job. Hours passed but ricky didn’t even go near the bar and it made jonghyun feel rather uneasy. His eyes would steal peeks at the baby faced boy and sometimes even made him spill some of the drinks, it was suffocating for changjo somehow.

“is he ignoring me…”

Jonghyun muttered silently as he kept venting his anger on the drinks, stirring it rather vigorously. When a familiar scent became too significant to his nose, ricky was probably in front of him…

“one ice Americano and caramel latte and…”

“no, im not ignoring you”

Flustered all of what the taller lad could do was nod, as the embarrassment was slamming against his mind he handed the prepared drinks to ricky. Trying his best avoiding ricky’s eyes, looking left and right, up, down but in the end failing because of changhyun’s ‘persistence’. But really all of what the shorter boy did was waiting for the latte.

When their eyes met, ricky smirked while picking up the drink as jonghyun turned away, smiling gladly. They were fine he figured, a smile which grew to a point where they were close to a grin. 

So with that conclusion, changjo had found courage. A courage to call changhyun a name that would make them even closer. 

“ricky-yah, here’s the order for table 11”