On January fourth, Coco Bean opened back up, something the customers who had so dearly missed their favorite coffee shop were very glad about. Ryeowook went in extra early to make sure that everything was sparkling clean and in its proper place. By the time the doors opened at nine o’clock, he was standing behind the counter, smiling and ready for the first customer of the day.

By three thirty, he was ready for a vacation again.

It wasn’t that his work was in any way extremely trying or that he didn’t enjoy his job – because it wasn’t and he did – but sometimes it was just so dang boring.

Sungmin bounced through the front door and, as he seemed to love doing, vaulted himself over the counter to join Ryeowook. “Hello there, my little Wookiebear! Guess what!”

“What?” The younger man continued to stare at the ceiling, by now almost immune to Sungmin’s limitless energy.

“One of the other teachers at the Academy is leaving next week, so I’ll be taking over his class! This means that I’ll be leaving a little earlier than usual because it’s a night class.”

Ryeowook grinned; he knew that martial arts would always be one of Sungmin’s deepest loves and he was excited that his hyung would get to teach more classes. He was a little less excited about being left alone in the shop again, but usually someone else would show up at night to help out, so it wouldn’t be too bad. “That’s awesome, hyung!”

The door opened then, the little bell above it dinging happily as one of Coco Bean’s regulars entered the shop.

“Hi, hyung!” Ryeowook chirped, smiling brightly as Sungmin got to work making the usual café latte.

Jongwoon glanced over at the barista, almost forcing a smile. His mind floated back to the phone call he’d received six days previously and his heart tightened. “Hey.”

Ryeowook leaned over the counter slightly, looking at his hyung in slight confusion. “Is something wrong, hyung? You seem to be a little down today.”

“I’m fine.” Yesung’s short and quick response made Ryeowook quickly pull back across the counter, looking concerned. He’d never heard Jongwoon snap like that before.

Sungmin quickly handed Yesung his cup, taking the bills from him as he did so. Without another word, the vocal coach turned and left the shop.

The younger barista looked up at his hyung. “Sungmin hyung, did I do something wrong?” he asked quietly.

“Huh? What? No! No, you didn’t do anything wrong. He probably was just having a bad day. Don’t worry about it, Wookie.” Sungmin ruffled his dongsaeng’s hair fondly then vanished off toward the back to tell Leeteuk about his new job.

Ryeowook was left alone in the front once again. “What did I do?” he repeated, softly, helplessly, to the empty room.

~~~

As much as he tried to convince himself that he hadn’t done anything to put Yesung in a bad mood, he couldn’t quite manage to do it and, by the time he got off work, he was far more stressed over the subject than he should have been. He had been sitting in his apartment, mindlessly staring at the television, for nearly thirty minutes before he couldn’t take it anymore and grabbed his phone, dialing the familiar number.

“Hello?”

“Hyung, did I do something to make you upset? Did I say something? If I did, I swear I’m really sorry.”

In his own living room, Yesung sat for a moment with a puzzled look on his face before it dawned on him; he’d snapped at Ryeowook earlier that afternoon and then left without a word. He nearly laughed; that was really nothing to be so concerned about, but apparently the little barista couldn’t get it off his mind. He was always so concerned about everyone but himself – and that was one of the things that he loved about Ryeowook. “No, you didn’t do anything, Ryeobear. I just…I’ve been having a rough time with work lately.” He paused, thinking back to that phone call several days ago for the millionth time and sighing. “A really rough time.”

“Would going out to get dessert or watching a movie or something help you feel better?” Ryeowook asked hesitantly, biting his lip.

“Not tonight, little bear,” Jongwoon said with a small smile. “As much as I would love to, I have to work on some really important things for SM.” More like lots of groveling and begging that they’ll change this.

“Oh. Okay.”

“Have you been working on writing those pieces of music?” Yesung asked, changing the subject.

Ryeowook glanced guiltily at his neglected notebook. “Not really,” he confessed, blushing slightly. “I’m not sure about what to do.”

Yesung laughed. “Whatever you want. That’s the beauty of it! You can write whatever you want with absolutely no consequences whatsoever.”

“I…I’ve never really thought about it like that, I guess…”

“Don’t forget to let me know when you’ve finished editing those pieces and written another song for me, okay? I can’t wait to see what you come up with!”

Ryeowook giggled. “Yes, hyung!”

“I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay!”

Ryeowook hung up the phone, feeling much better than he had the majority of the day, and hopped to his feet, grabbing his notebook and coat before dashing out of the door, intending to go to his own personal music-writing spot.

Yesung hung up the phone and stared at it, a sad smile on his face. “Hurry, Ryeobear. I don’t know how long I’ll be here.”

~~~

It was the forty-third day since Ryeowook had first met Yesung, the fifth day since Coco Bean had opened for the new year. Today, when the door opened and his favorite vocal coach entered, the barista nearly burst with joy and his words just began to spill out of his mouth unchecked.

“Hyung! Hyung, I finished my third song last night! It’s upbeat, just like you wanted it to be! I composed it and wrote lyrics and everything! I’m really proud of it and I want you to see it! I didn’t think I’d be able to write it but I did! Do you think that you could come in a little early tomorrow and I could show you before Kyu’s vocal lesson?”

“Absolutely, Ryeobear! I’m so proud of you and I can’t wait to see your songs!”

Ryeowook blushed in embarrassment but was obviously extraordinarily pleased nonetheless. Sungmin, who was at the other end of the counter experimenting and trying to create his own flavor of tea to sell in the shop, paused for a minute to watch the pair’s interactions. He noted Ryeowook’s happy smiles and how the worried air that had been following Jongwoon around for days seemed to vanish, or at least lessen in intensity, when he was around the barista. Maybe, he thought, maybe little Ryeo will confess tomorrow. Maybe it’s in one of those songs.

Sungmin nearly burst out into giggles at the thought. That would be so romantic and so like Ryeowook! Those two really just needed to hurry up and admit that they loved each other already!    

~~~

It was that off-time in the afternoon once again. Sungmin was chatting happily with Ryeowook, who was leaning against the back counter and playing with the three pieces of music in his hands, when Yesung entered the store. Ryeowook waved to him as Sungmin, giggling, disappeared from sight.

“Hiya, hyung!” Ryeowook chirped, hurrying out from behind the counter and meeting Jongwoon in the middle of the floor. He pointed to a table off to the side. “Can we sit over there?”

“Sure, sounds good!”

The barista quickly put down his music before dashing back toward the counter. “Sungmin hyung made us tea – it’s a new flavor that he’s been developing and he kind of wanted us to be guinea pigs,” he explained as he carefully carried over two cups of steaming hot tea. “He calls it Pumpkin Tea. It smells really delicious, but I don’t know how it tastes.” Jongwoon took his cup from Ryeowook as the younger man sat down; he took a sip and grinned.

“Tell him that it’s wonderful.”

Ryeowook giggled before shyly pushing three compositions across the table at his hyung; The Truth Is, It Has To Be You, and one new composition, One Day. “Here are the songs I wrote, hyung. Um…I don’t know if the new one is any good or not, but I tried.”

Yesung glanced over the two he’d already seen parts of first, smiling and nodding. They were every bit as brilliant as he’d thought they’d be and he was glad that he’d convinced his friend to work on them a little more. Then he pulled out the last song, scanning the lyrics, and his face broke into a huge grin.

“I love this, Ryeobear,” he said, his delight obvious in his voice. “Would you be willing to sing a little bit of it for me? The range is closer to yours than it is to mine.”

Ryeowook glanced around the shop; no one else was there. Sungmin and Leeteuk were both in the back and there were no customers in the front. He agreed, hesitantly and only because it was Jongwoon who was asking him.

He took the sheet music in both of his hands, holding it tightly and trying to pick a part to sing. Finally, he began to sing, quietly and with a vague hint of fear in his voice, but he was still singing.

“One day, I’ll make you a believer. One day…I got this; all I need is one day. Don’t try to tell me I can’t. Right now, I’m writing the future. Watch out; I won’t stop. I’m a mover. One day, you’re gonna know who I am. I will fly high and free. It’s my fate; wait and see.”

Yesung’s heart nearly burst. “Ryeowook, your voice is so good. That song is great, but your voice is really amazing. I really think you should think about being a singer because you would be so great at it.”

Ryeowook just blushed.

Jongwoon took the sheet music gently from Ryeowook’s hand, lining the three pieces up on the table and looking at all of them. “These are really great, Ryeo. I think we could actually get one of these published, maybe all of them. What do you think? Will you let me take them to a good publisher I know?”

At the mention of getting his work published, Ryeowook panicked. Writing songs for himself and showing them to Jongwoon was one thing, but publishing them so that the entire world could see them was something else entirely. Those boys would see his name there on that paper. They would come back. His hand unconsciously fluttered to his chest where the painful reminder of his past was etched into his skin. Yesung noticed this and reached across the table, gently pealing the younger man’s hand off his chest and holding it.

“Ryeowook, they can’t hurt you. I won’t let them hurt you. I’ll always protect you; remember that.”

The barista stared at his hyung, his unspoken terror obvious in his eyes. Yesung sighed softly, rubbing his thumb back and forth across the back of Ryeowook’s hand in an attempt to calm him down. “Do you trust me, Ryeowook?”

The younger man nodded immediately; of course he did.

“Then you have to believe that I’ll protect you. I won’t let them touch a single hair on your adorable little head.” He smiled softly, reassuringly. “Will you let me take them to a publisher?”

The moments ticked by in silence as Ryeowook weighed his options. He could continue to be a barista and stay afraid and nervous for the rest of his life. He had a good life, he reflected, with lots of friends and enough money to get by. There was no sense in messing up a perfectly good system. But, on the other hand, he wanted desperately to be something more. Ever since he was little, he’d dreamed of being a composer and here was the chance, right there in front of his eyes, to make his dreams come true; all he had to do was reach out and grab the chance before it disappeared. Those boys didn’t know where he worked (though they could probably find out) or where he lived (they could find that out too) so there shouldn’t have been anything keeping him from taking that leap.

And Jongwoon said he would always be there, that he would protect him.

“O-okay,” Ryeowook mumbled finally, staring at the table and blushing lightly. “Y-you can take them.”

A huge grin broke out across Yesung’s face, his eyes lighting up. “I’ll let you know as soon as I hear anything from the company about publishing them, okay?”

Ryeowook nodded, still scared about taking this step, but unbelievably excited at the same time.

“Oh, I have one more question. Something Kyu wanted me to ask you.”

“Yeah?”

“Well, Kyu wants to send in an audition tape for SM since he won’t be able to make the official audition dates. He has to send in a solo song and something with a group of people so the executives can hear how his voice meshes with others. He’s already got his solo song picked, but he’s rather stuck on singing My Love, My Kiss, My Heart as his group number. I already agreed to help him out and sing my parts. I told him I could get one of my other students to sing the remaining part, but he says that he won’t sing it unless you sing it because your voice sounded best. I’ve already recorded my part, so you’d just have to go in and record your parts – you and Kyuhyun could even go in together. Your name wouldn’t be associated with the recording at all, unless you wanted it to be. The talent scouts would just hear your voice, but they wouldn’t know who it was. And the tapes are kept completely confidential, so no one else would hear it. Kyuhyun really wants to take this step, so he wanted me to ask you if you’d agree to sing with him.”

Ryeowook’s head started to throb a little; this was all an awful lot of information to take in at once. “Um…” He mulled it over, trying to decide, though, honestly, this decision was much less difficult than he’d thought it would be. It was just his voice. His name wouldn’t be attached to it. No one would know who was singing. That’s all he needed. “Yeah, I’ll help out Kyu, as long as I don’t have to give them my name.”

“Awesome! Kyu is going to be ecstatic when I tell him! He’s been thinking about this for a—”

“Hyung?” Ryeowook interrupted the beginning of Yesung’s ramblings. “Why do you already have your parts recorded?”

Jongwoon suddenly fell silent, his mood quickly growing gloomier. Several minutes ticked by before he eventually just blurted out what was floating around his mind.

“I’m leaving soon.” There. He said it. There was nothing before it to soften the blow and his hours of careful planning as to how to tell his friend were completely wasted. He’d been trying to figure out for the past twelve days the best way in which to tell the man that he loved that he wouldn’t be around for a while. He’d planned everything; a nice dinner, the announcement that he was leaving, the confession of his feelings, and, finally, asking if Ryeowook would wait for him. But now, all of his plans had been dashed to shreds and his thoughts of confessing his feelings all but disappeared. He didn’t look at Ryeowook; he couldn’t.

“W-what?” Ryeowook nearly dropped the tea cup in his hand. Leaving? “You’re leaving? When? Where? No—why? Why are you going away?”

Yesung avoided Ryeowook’s gaze, staring at the table as he continued. “You know that I do a lot of work with SM. Well, some of the executives have been in negotiations with a Taiwanese company for a while and they finalized them at the end of December. They want me to fly to Taiwan and work with a new group that is going to debut soon. If they’re successful, then I’ll have to stay for another few months to work with that group and several trainees. At best, I’ll be gone for two and a half months. At worst, I could be gone six or eight months.”

Ryeowook felt his heart sink to the bottom of his rib cage, devastated. One of his best friends in the entire world was leaving him. The one man that had been able to help him with his fears, the one man that had convinced him to attempt to get some of his work published, the one man that he loved more than any other was leaving and wouldn’t be around for such a long time. What was he going to do?

“W-when are you leaving?” he asked quietly, unable to mask his depression.

“January sixteenth.”

“That’s in less than a week!”

“I know. I’m sorry. I just…I didn’t know how to tell you. I’m really sorry, Ryeobear. But we can still call! And text! Please, just…don’t be too upset with me. If I could turn down the offer, I would, but I’m being forced to go. I’ve been trying to convince them to shorten the period of time that I’ll be gone or to cancel the trip altogether, but they won’t.”

Ryeowook didn’t know what to say. He just sat there for a second, staring into his tea cup, before he jumped to his feet and ran toward Leeteuk’s office with tears in his eyes.

Jongwoon closed his eyes for a moment before ramming his fist into the table. Well. That certainly hadn’t ended well.

Silently, he picked up Ryeowook’s sheet music and walked out of the door, trying not to look nearly as upset as he felt and failing miserably. 

Hello, darling precious cupcakes! 

I've missed youuuu! ;A; But I'm back with a new chapter for you guys~! :D I just finished it~

This would have been up sooner, but my flash drive crashed and I lost a lot of the work I'd done on this and Chapter Fifteen, so please forgive me!

I hope you enjoyed reading it~~~

Love,

afallingstar