Junmyeon is nearing the end of his late shift at the coffee shop, and he’s so bored he feels like he can fall asleep right where he is. It’s been awhile since he’s had a shift here on his own, but today everyone else had something going on, so Junmyeon has no one to distract him from the silence of the empty coffee shop.

Junmyeon has long gotten used to the constant noise caused by the eleven boys that follow him around, and he’s lost practice with controlling the tornado in his head. Every shadow is an opening for attack, every creak from the machines are an angry footstep, and Junmyeon is alone, meant to lock up the shop in twenty minutes. Junmyeon knows that any other employee would just lock up earl, but Junmyeon doesn’t bend rules Bent rules and loopholes are only good for the people strong enough to handle the consequences.

Junmyeon thinks of all the times he’d done “less” than what was asked of him. The time his hand was bruised so bad he couldn’t use it and he’d ordered dinner when he was supposed to make it, or the times he was supposed to be home before ten and walked in at nine fifty-five. He feels his heart racing, knees failing, add then he’s on the floor behind the counter, alone in a building with only darkness outside, and Junmyeon sort of wished he could just go ahead and die. He’s tired and he’s scared and he’s bruised all over, and Junmyeon actually really just needs a break, he just really wants this to be over.

Junmyeon is finally pulled out of his head when he registers his phone ringtone over the sound of the blood rushing in his ears. The time, when he finally gathers the energy to grab his phone, is twenty minutes past closing, and Junmyeon shakily pushes the green button under Jongin’s name.

“Hello?”

“Hey, hyung? How do you feel about dogs?

---

“So this is Monggu, he has a lot of energy so I’ll hold onto him while we’re walking. This one is Jjanggu, he’s a little bit of a fatty, but that’s okay because that means there’s more of him to love.”

Junmyeon blinks hard and tries his best to focus when Jongin introduces a sort of fat little puppy, who lays down as soon as Jongin stops moving. His whole body is sore from last night when he was too slow making dinner. His head hurts from the way it rebounded off the floor and his ribs are sore from where his father stomped them in.

Jongin turns to him with a pretty white puppy in his arms, Monggu and Jjanggu’s leashes wrapped around his wrist. “And this is Jjangah. She’s my pretty girl. Do you want to hold her?”

Junmyeon really wants to shake his head. He’s never seen a dog up close before, never really pet one or interacted with it, and all he can really see is pointy teeth and scary looking nails. But this is Jongin’s dog and he can’t really say no without upsetting him, so he nods his head and holds his breath as Jongin settles the dog in his arms and leans back to grin.

Jjangah is soft, though, and her eyes aren’t as beady and unnerving as they look from far away. She leans up and at Junmyeon’s temple like she can sense his headache, and then rests her head on the crook of Junmyeon’s elbow. She closes her eyes, and Jongin laughs as Junmyeon blinks in surprise.

“She must feel like you’re not any threat if she’ll go to sleep that fast. Dogs are really good judges of character, you know.”

Junmyeon did know that, had heard it, but he thinks Jjangah might be broken if she thinks she’s safe because Junmyeon feels like he might drop her. He sits down on the park bench and settles her in his lap, and Monggu yips and jumps up to settle against Junmyeon’s thigh. He feels a heavy weight around his ankles and Jongin laughs in exasperation.

“When we’re at home they run around like little monsters and then I bring them to a dog park and they decide they’re cuddle puppies. What are you doing to my dogs, hyung?”

Junmyeon shakes his head, eyes wide, hands held up because he doesn’t know where to put them. “I don’t know, I don’t know anything about dogs, what do I do?”

“I guess we let them sleep, lazy pups. You can put your hands down; they’ll move if you’re bothering them.” Jongin sits on Junmyeon’s other side and gently digs his fingertips into Jjangah’s fur. The air outside is cold, but Monggu and Jjangah are warm against him and Jjanggu is a firm and comfortable weight on his feet, and Junmyeon finds his eyes drooping, body tilting.

Jongin smiles as Junmyeon’s head drops onto his shoulder.

Later, that night, after the puppies and Junmyeon wake from their naps, they run around the park for hours. Junmyeon gets to teach Jjangah how to shake paws and plays fetch with Monggu until the puppy gets bored and runs off to wrestle with a little brown Pomeranian named Mochi. He’s nearly a minute late when he gets home that night, but it seems luck is on his side because his father isn’t home anyway. He hurries his way through making a dinner to set out for his father, takes his shower, swallows down a few more pain relievers, and falls asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow, thinking of sweet little puffballs and the warmth of another person against his side as he sleeps.

---

In retrospect, sleeping in his freezing room with his hair still wet was probably not the best idea, Junmyeon thinks as he heads to school the next morning. He's glad that he only has a few classes with those dorks that have decided to baby him, because he's sure he has a fever and he'd really love to avoid getting scolded, just for today.

As luck would have it, Junmyeon successfully makes it through his first three classes without drawing enough attention to himself for the teacher to send him to the nurse. It's this next class he's worried about, though, because Trigonometry is that class he shares with Baekhyun and they sit right next to each other, made even worse by the fact that Baekhyun has absolutely no sense of personal space whatsoever, meaning he's sure he'll be found out before the class is over.

Thankfully, Junmyeon gets a text from Kyungsoo right before class starts, saying that Baekhyun won’t be in this class because he has to finish taking a test, and will Junmyeon please inform the teacher.

Junmyeon’s luck runs out at lunch, when he realizes that he was so worried about Jongdae's friends that he forgot about his own. Yixing takes one look at him and gasps loud enough to gain the attention of five neighboring tables. The absence of noise from the corner of the room attracts the attention of the rest of the cafeteria. Junmyeon fears for a moment that Yixing will yell at him in front of the entire school. Instead, Yixing just presses his lips together in a tight line and drags him out of the room. Junmyeon hears extra footsteps and suspects that Tao and Minseok are following as well.

Yixing picks a bench outside the cafeteria and guides Junmyeon to it, his disapproval not making him any less careful. His grip on Junmyeon’s wrist slides down to his hand and he holds onto it while pressing the other to Junmyeon’s forehead. He sighs in that way that only Yixing can, communicating his concern for Junmyeon’s lapse of health and his disappointment that Junmyeon kept it to himself without actually saying anything.

Yixing’s hand is cold, and Junmyeon leans into it. His headache from the night before has only gotten more intense, and he's hot but he's also cold, and he's starving because he's out of his weekend job money and it's noon and the last thing he ate was the bag of chips Luhan had given him the night before and before that it was the sandwich that Jongdae had paid for two nights ago. School lunch costs money, and anything in the kitchen at home is the property of his father and if he's found eating it he doesn't want to think of what would happen.

He feels another set of hands on his shoulders and fingers combing through his hair and places them with Tao and Minseok. But then there's also the heat of a body next to him and arms wrapped around his waist and another hand gripping his and he realizes that Jongdae and the others are here now, too, and Junmyeon thinks that's just great because for once he would love to be babied. He feels someone settle on his other side and then Baekhyun’s humming, lulling him to sleep. He leans into Jongdae and his head finds a shoulder and before he knows it he's asleep in the middle of his school building with eleven very good friends making sure he's okay.