Yixing and Hao Yi walked closely to each other, on their way into work, with Luhan trailing closely behind, his eyes wandering over their surroundings. Both men could tell Hao Yi had been distracted, but Luhan knew not to grab her attention while Yixing was around, and Yixing didn’t know how to approach the subject.

They got to work and put their belongings in their respective lockers and quickly put on their aprons and got to work. Luhan took a seat at a table in the corner, far away from any customers.

Yixing threw himself into his work, but Luhan could tell Hao Yi was not herself today. Multiple berating’s from her boss, stares and unkind words from customers. She mumbled quietly and bowed apologetically when she got orders wrong or dropped dishes on the way to the back, she stayed silent when she was scolded.

The last straw was when she accidentally poured hot coffee all over a male customer, and he stood and yelled.

“Yah, watch what you’re doing, Chinese !” he sneered at her.

Luhan stood quickly, but Yixing had already jumped into action, pulling Hao Yi quickly behind him as she ducked her head, making herself small.

“Sir, it was an accident, please calm down,” Yixing spoke calmly, but it only infuriated the man more.

“Don’t tell me to ing calm down. What, did y’all come here together? It was too hard back home, so you had to come ruin our country, too?”

Yixing’s eyes darkened as he stood tall and took a step towards the man. “Sir, you want to stop right there.”

The owner of the café ran over when he heard yelling and jumped between the two. “Sir, I am so sorry for my employee’s misbehavior, please, I can pay for the dry cleaning of your clothes, and a full refund on the coffees.” He glared at Hao Yi and Yixing and nodded for them to go to the back as he continued to pacify the angry customer.

Yixing put a protective arm around Hao Yi and ushered her to the back, Luhan following quickly behind. When they reached the break room, Yixing quickly closed the door and locked it behind them, and then enveloped the crying Hao Yi in his arms, shushing her and patting her hair as she cried into his chest.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” she sobbed.

Yixing shook his head, “Shh, it’s okay, it’s not your fault. It’s okay.”

The two stood like that for a few minutes before Yixing pulled back and laid his hands on either side of Hao Yi’s face, wiping away her tears with his thumbs, before pulling her head down and laying a gentle kiss on her forehead.

“You going to be okay?” He asked quietly, staring deeply into her eyes. She nodded and smiled slightly.

“Good. Take a few minutes to yourself and I’ll be right outside when you’re ready to get back out there.”

He dropped his hands from her face and gave her hand a quick squeeze before he took his leave, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Hao Yi wiped her face and looked towards Luhan, who stood by the wall, looking on sadly.

“Luhan, I’m scared. I don’t know what to do with myself right now, and I just keep thinking about it. I could randomly just run into someone on the street, and- “

“It’ll be fine,” he shushed her quietly, walking closer until they were face to face. “I’m here, and Yixing’s here. We won’t let anything happen to you.”

She nodded and took a deep breath, giving him a quick smile before she opened the door. She was startled when she came face to face with Yixing, who had a curious look on his face. He glanced behind her shoulder and back to her again.

“Were you talking to someone in there?”

Hao Yi’s eyes widened, and she shook her head quickly. “No, I was alone in there. Who would I be talking to?” She chuckled nervously, and flew past him, tying her apron on her way back to the front.

Yixing looked curiously back into the room one last time before following Hao Yi back out to the floor.

“Did she say Luhan?” He mumbled to himself quietly, utterly confused.