If anyone asked, Oh Sehun would say that he really was considering quitting his job at Just Sweet. (And Luhan would probably say that Oh Sehun was a liar.)

He would not say that he might actually miss the antics of all the coworkers who'd become his friends over the few months he'd worked there.

Sehun would not miss Baekhyun and Chanyeol's strangely constant presence in the bubble tea shop. (Did those two not have anywhere better to be? If not for the pay and for Luhan, Sehun was pretty sure he would never want to spend any more time in Just Sweet than absolutely necessary.) He would not miss watching Suho and Lay sneak shy glances at each other while they held hands under the table directly in front of the register and in full view of Sehun. He would not miss Minseok's cheerful visits. (Okay, maybe Sehun might miss that. But he would certainly not be sad without Minseok and Jongdae's relationship drama consuming his life.)

Most of all, Sehun would not miss covering shifts for basically everyone because on most days Kyungsoo was too busy dating Jongin to show to up to work, Jongdae was too incompetent to actually do anything, and Tao was still too hurt by the misunderstanding with Yifan to be particularly useful either. Recently, too, since Yifan had rearranged everyone's work schedule to cover Suho's sudden and unexpected absence, Sehun hadn't really had a chance to share a shift with his boyfriend and he was really starting to miss Luhan. (They saw each other while the other was working, sure, but undistracted and focused time together had been a little hard to find in the past few weeks.)

Of course, when Sehun appeared in the door of the student manager's office with his resignation letter in hand, none of those made the list of explicit reasons for why Sehun was quitting. Simply put, Sehun didn't have time for Just Sweet anymore, and that's exactly what he told Yifan.

"It's been really busy lately, you know?" Sehun asked this like Yifan could relate to the shared Just Sweet employee struggle, even though he had personal doubts about Yifan's capabilities. (Not that he told the student manager that, obviously. Yifan had been more MIA than ever recently, but Sehun could still clearly recall a time when Yifan--but particularly his caterpillar eyebrows--had been incredibly terrifying.)

To Sehun's utter surprise, Yifan let out a long sigh and dropped his head into his overly large hands. "Yeah," Yifan agreed, voice heavy, "I know."

"Uh," Sehun didn't really know what to say. He kind of wanted to ask if the student manager was doing alright, but then Sehun remembered that Yifan still hadn't apologized or worked things out with Luhan's cousin, even though it had literally been months since their falling out. Instead he just said, "So do you accept my immediate resignation?"

Yifan surprised Sehun again by asking, "Can this be a two week notice?" The older boy rubbed at his eyes in clear exhaustion, but also some other negative emotion that Sehun couldn't quite identify, and he looked so completely pitiful that Sehun couldn't help agreeing.

"Fine," he acquiesced almost immediately to Yifan's request. (Jongin would say that dating Luhan had made Sehun a sap. For once, Sehun would probably agree.) "But after that, I'm out."

"Sure, sure," Yifan agreed easily, returing his head to his hands and sighing loudly again. The movement was a clear dismissal, but Sehun's shift didn't start for a while yet, so he stood up but didn't leave, hovering wkwardly in front of Yifan's desk as he debated what to say.

Finally, Sehun settled on the "Are you alright?" he'd considered asking earlier, and the look of pleasant surprise on the student manager's face made Sehun regret being so coldhearted about quitting.

"The owners are closing our branch," Yifan admitted quietly. "I've been trying for weeks to get them to change their mind about it, but they're pretty adamant. And then I called all the other Just Sweet's in the area but none of them are interested in hiring or letting any of the employees here transfer in." He took a deep breath, steadying himself, and Sehun could have said something but the student manager didn't seemed like he was totally finished sharing, so Sehun sat back down and stayed silent.

"And Jongdae was literally just hired, you know? And then there's Luhan, who's been here the longest, by the way, and is so dedicated to the shop that it just feels awful to know that I'm going to have to be the one to tell him that in a little over two weeks he's going to be out of a part-time job. And then there's Tao." At that, Yifan groaned and seemed unable to continue.

"What about him?" Sehun prompted. He was still trying to process everything Yifan had just laid on him, but the compulsion to at least try and help with the whole Tao debacle was too strong to ignore. (Damn it! Dating Luhan really had made Sehun sappy.)

"I messed up," Yifan admitted. "Badly."

Sehun couldn't disagree, but Yifan was still his boss for two more weeks so the younger boy chose his next words with uncharacteristic care. "It's only bad if it's not fixable. And I think this is."

Yifan looked hopeful and Sehun was reminded of the same expression on Tao's face a few days earlier when Krystal, the girl who was actually dating Yifan's step-sister and definitely not Yifan, had revealed the truth of her relationship with Just Sweet's student manager. It was that memory that prompted Sehun to cautiously offer "Lu and I could help, maybe? Fix things, I mean."

The student manager accepted immediately--like Sehun had known he would--but it took a little more work to convince Luhan that helping Yifan apologize really was the right thing to do. (Especially since Luhan had at some point decided that Yifan wasn't even worth being mad at. Now he just went in to work, either for Sehun's shift or his own, and pretended the student manager didn't exist.)

"Think of Tao," Sehun tried first. The tactic didn't work and Sehun ended up with a dirty rag thrown in his face for all his troubles when Luhan had huffed at him from over the counter "I am thinking of Taozi!"

Next, Sehun went to Just Sweet's resident love experts, who suggested Sehun and Yifan come up with a plan before trying to enlist Luhan's assistance.

"Your bubble tea guy is much more likely to want to help if he thinks it'll work," Baekhyun told Sehun knowledgebly.

"That," Chanyeol agreed with his boyfriend's advice, "and Luhan has to see that Yifan is actually sincere about his intentions toward Tao. Like Tao's not going to get hurt by your manager's idiocy again, you know?"

Sehun did know, which is why he not only made Yifan come up with an elaborate even with which to apologize, but also cornered Krystal to get her and her girlfriend's help. ("Tao might need further convincing that you and Yifan aren't really a thing," he guilt-tripped, watching with secret satisfaction as Krystal's face twisted in disgust at the thought of dating her girlfriend's step-brother.) Soon--and probably because Chanyeol and Baekhyun's ability to keep secrets was basically nonexistent--Jongdae and Minseok were involved too, and once Minseok got wind of the plan that meant his flatmate and his flatmate's boyfriend also wanted to participate. By the end of the week, the Just Sweet regulars who didn't know about Yifan's plans to make up with Tao were Luhan and the recipient himself. (Even Jongin and Kyungsoo knew, mostly because Sehun had complained to his best friend about Luhan's unwilllingness to help out and Jongin had told Kyungsoo. If Kyungsoo ever came into work like he was supposed to, the owl-eyed boy would probably have found out all on his own, but Sehun thought it had probably been weeks since he'd last seen Jongin's boyfriend in the context of Just Sweet.)

Working with everyone for Tao's benefit and Luhan's convincing reminded Sehun why he avoided group projects in school, and he was never more thankful for a day than the one when Yifan was set to finally pull everything off. Baekhyun and Chanyeol were seated at their usual table, as were Lay and Suho. Sehun was behind the counter, making drinks while Yifan hid in his office and Tao worked the register, and he nearly sighed in relief when Jongdae burst through the door with a large bouquet in hand.

"Can I hide this under the counter?" The troublemaking employee asked an oblivious Tao. "I want to ask Minnie to be my boyfriend properly, but it's supposed to be a surprise and I don't know when he'll suddenly show up." (The flowers were Yifan's idea, but hiding them and making the whole thing seem like a ploy to get Jongdae and Minseok together had been Sehun's brain child entirely.)

Tao, busy taking the order of an entwined Krystal and Amber--Yifan's elusive step-sister who was partially responsible for all of this in the first place--nodded distractedly, though once they paid and moved away Tao made sure to coo appropriately that Minseok would love the gesture. He even managed a "Sunflowers are my favorite too!" before an off-duty Luhan appeared at the counter to order his usual. Sehun's boyfriend was accompanied by Minseok, who pretended not to know what Tao was talking about and ordered a drink as well. As planned, Yifan emerged from his back office the moment Luhan pulled out his wallet to pay, and the sad look Tao shot the student manager was pretty hard to miss.

"It's on me," Yifan surprised Tao by saying. "And I've got an announcement to make." (Everyone else already knew about the store closing, and were surprisingly okay with it. Kyungsoo confessed that he was planning to quit anyway; Jongdae didn't think he was cut out for the bubble tea life; Luhan was interested in a different part-time job as a tutor that would have severely cut into his availability; and Sehun, who had already submitted his notice, certainly wasn't going to put up a fuss.) "This is Just Sweet's last day of business, everyone."

Baekhyun and Chanyeol, ever the drama enthusiasts, gasped appropriately, as did Tao. Yifan turned to Luhan's cousin, his gaze softening as he took a step toward Tao cautiously.

"I'm sorry for not telling you earlier," Yifan apologized. "But you weren't exactly speaking to me." Luhan harrumphed and mumbled something nasty under his breath, but Sehun hushed his boyfriend with a pointed look. Tao's brow was furrowed and he was pouting in confusion as Yifan continued. "And I know that was mostly my fault, so I'm sorry for that too. I'm sorry for allowing you to think that I was dating Krystal. I'm sorry for not saying sorry earlier. I'm sorry for thinking that if I could just fix the situation with the store first, that this issue between you and me would automatically fix itself."

Tao rolled his eyes at that last apology, but accepted them all with a shy smile and unshed tears shinining in his eyes. "I'm sorry too," he offered softly, though Luhan muttered again that he didn't think Tao had any reason to apologize. "I made assumptions in correctly and got angry at you for something that wasn't your fault. I could have gone to you to find out the truth, but I didn't, and so I'm sorry."

As they spoke, the two boys inched closer to each other almost subconsciously. By the time Tao finished his own apologetic monologue, he and Yifan were standing toe to toe and their faces were so close that Sehun was sure they could kiss easily if they really wanted to. Which they did, much to Luhan's indignant annoyance and everyone else's joy.

"I really like you," Yifan confessed after he pulled away. He had a bright smile on his face when Jongdae handed him the sunflowers, which Yifan then gave to Tao.

"I'm glad," Tao confessed in return,, accepting the flowers with a blush and a huge grin of his own. "Cause I like you too."

"Yeah!" Chanyeol cheered in the background.

"We know!" Baekhyun added excitedly while Sehun just rolled his eyes. (Okay, yeah, fine. Maybe he'd miss this.)

Yifan was quick to ask Tao out on a date after that. ("For anything other than bubble tea, okay? Coffee maybe? I drink mine black.") Of course, Tao was just as quick to agree to a date because he frankly didn't care what they did as long as they did it together. Luhan aww'd at that and Sehun finished his last shift at Just Sweet with the knowledge that he'd successful convinced his boyfriend that Yifan was sincere, and everything was going to be just fine between Luhan's cousin and the no-longer-that-scary student manager.

Everything was going to be just fine between him and Luhan too. Just Sweet had featured heavily in their story as they met, confessed, and got together, but Sehun knew they didn't need the bubble tea shop. They were going to be together regardless.

(And from the looks of things, all of the other Just Sweet couples were going to be just fine too.)

And that's a wrap! (For real this time.)

Thank you for sticking with me through this journey. Just Sweet was one of the first EXO fics I ever wrote and I would never have been able to finish it without all of you wonderful readers' constant support. Please continue to love Just Sweet by commenting, upvoting, and subscribing (if you haven't already!) and please continue to love me by checking out some of my other fics. I look forward to continue writing things you want to read, and to hearing from you when I do.

Love! <3