** A/N Brief mention of suicide in this ch. but its v brief. See end of chapter for more author notes **

Jongdae stopped by almost daily, if not at the house than he would stop by the café where Jongsu would accompany Baekhyun during his evening shift with some coloring books and a portable gaming device.

One particular night about a week later, Minseok and Luhan were visiting Minseok’s dad in the nursing home, the poor old man still thought they were just really close friends. But that left Baekhyun and the other part-timer, D.O, to run the shop.

D.O hated Baekhyun. Everyone knew that. Baekhyun was ambivalent towards D.O but enjoyed pushing the other man’s buttons. They were the same age and almost the same height, but D.O was far too serious for Baekhyun’s antics. Generally, Minseok avoided scheduling them together, however, tonight was unavoidable so there they were.

It was getting later and the only person still in the shop was Yixing, who was sipping on his fourth cup of tea and doing something on his computer. Jongsu had fallen asleep on the sofa in Minseok’s office in the back and Baekhyun was manning the counter while D.O swept the floor.

Jongdae came in the door and Baekhyun began preparing the coffee Jongdae always drank without a word.

“Hello, sir welcome. Please order at the-“

“Shut up” Baekhyun cut off D.O’s customary greeting.

“There is a customer!” D.O Looked like he was about to faint. Baekhyun looked around

“ you’re right” He exclaimed, his eyes landing on Jongdae.

“Minseok said not to swear in front of the customers!”

“ I am so sorry sir,” Baekhyun handed Jongdae his drink, “I’m usually much better, I don’t know what the happened. I’ve never sworn before in my whole damn life I promise”

D.O looked like his eyes were going to come out of their sockets.

“Hey! Do you want to die?!” He raised the broom as if he was going to maul Baekhyun from across the room with it. Baekhyun shrugged. D.O quickly turned to Jongdae with a smile,

“I am so sorry sir I have no idea what got into him I promise I’ll be reporting this terrible customer service to our boss,” He said with a head nod. Jongdae took a long sip of his coffee.

“Good please do tell your boss I was very unsatisfied with the level of customer service here,” He said seriously.

D.O. Nodded apologetically, “Of course sir please don’t pay for your drink consider it an apology for the rudeness shown to you”

“I understand thank you. That is the least you could do. Is there any way you can get him fired?” Jongdae nodded at Baekhyun, who was choking back laughter.

“Trust me I’ve been trying for years,” D.O said, “But I will be sure that your complaint gets filed directly with our manager. Also please help yourself to a baked good and if you want we have customer service cards you could fill out telling exactly how disappointed you are with your barista” D.O pulled one of the customer service cards out of his pocket and handed it to Jongdae.

“Of course I will be filling this out thank you so much for your kindness, what was your name again?”

“D.O. And the rude one is Baekhyun”

“Of course I will be filing a complaint about Baekhyun.” Jongdae looked at Baekhyun, “Do you have a pen?”

“Of course. And be sure you spell my name right it’s B-A-E-K-“

“Whoa slow down start over B…” The two of them huddled over the card. “Baekhyun was very rude to me, by this point he should know that I don’t take sugar in my coffee yet he still put it in,” Jongdae wrote out.

“ really? Did I? man it’s been a long day. Do you want me to remake it?” Baekhyun took a drink of Jongdae’s coffee, “wow you’re absolutely right.”

“Wait do you…know each other?” D.O asked suspiciously.

“Apparently not if he doesn’t know how to make my coffee,” Jongdae said bitterly. Baekhyun apologized and went to remake it, but Jongdae cut him off, smiling. “Dude chill its fine it’s still good don’t remake it. Where is Jongsu?”

“Are you the boy’s dad?” D.O asked.

“Uncle” Jongdae said, his voice was tight but only Baekhyun could tell.

“He’s sleeping in Minseok’s office,” Baekhyun said quickly, “You can go up and talk to him if you want. I’m just about to get off as soon as Yixing leaves and we can get food if you want?”

“Sound’s great,” Jongdae said. He went to the office and got Jongsu and fifteen minutes later the three of them were walking towards one of the street vendors.

“I’ve never seen him before he seems like a delight,” Jongdae noted as soon as they were out of the shop.

“God usually the only person he works with is Minseok but both Minseok and Luhan are busy tonight so that left the two of us. He really needs to hire more people or something.” Baekhyun said, “But yeah D.O hates me”

“How could anyone hate you Teach?” the boy said innocently while stomping through the slushy snow. Baekhyun shook his head.

“I don’t know honestly. It’s been baffling me for decades.”

As they walked Baekhyun kept taking guarded glanced at Jongdae. Through the week, the color had returned this face and he started to look better. He was working more which was tiring him out but it also appeared to keep him distracted. He was almost smiling more, Baekhyun noted, and his laughs were sounding almost genuine.

Even though it was cold outside the ramen they had was warm and the three of them sat together at one of the small tables in the store.

 “Uncle when can I live with you?” Jongsu asked after a while. He had finished his small portion and was leaning on Jongdae. Jongdae put a hand on his head.

“Soon okay? Very soon” He didn’t meet Baekhyun’s eyes.

After eating, they all walked back to Baekhyun’s house. It was rare for Jongdae to join them but no one said anything or complained. Jongsu walked between them, one hand holding Baekhyun’s hand and the other Jongdae’s.  When they got to the door Jongdae grabbed Baekhyun’s arm to hold him back. “Can we talk?”

Baekhyun nodded and told Jongsu to go take a shower while Jongdae and Baekhyun went to Baekhyun’s room.

“What’s up?” Baekhyun asked although he pretty much already knew the answer.

“I think I’m ready to take him back.” Jongdae said after a deep breath, “I’ve got my old job back and have enough stored away plus the funds from his dad’s will are enough to keep him going for a bit and by then I’ll hopefully be a real teacher or something so we aren’t going to be in an economic crisis anytime soon.” The speech sounded rehearsed.

“Okay,” Baekhyun said simply. Jongdae narrowed his eyes, “Hey I just needed to make sure he wasn’t gonna end up on the street but if you’re good you’re good. Just keep bringing him here Monday-Wednesday-Fridays from four thirty to six.”

“Of course. I. Thank you Baekhyun I know I asked a lot of you when we didn’t really know each other…I…” Jongdae was almost blushing. Baekhyun narrowed his eyes,

“Dude stop…stop thanking me okay it was no big deal. I did it more for Jongsu than anything.”

“Well you helped me a lot I don’t know what I would have done without you.” Jongdae smiled.

“And that’s not gonna stop now okay like…anything you or Jongsu need just let me know I can help with a lot of things. Like…” Baekhyun stepped closer but he didn’t know why. “Don’t hesitate to call me really” He and Jongdae were standing very close to each other. Jongdae nodded.

“Don’t worry I’ll…I’ll call you,” he said quietly. Baekhyun wasn’t sure about the surge of affection he felt but he pushed it away and turned to get Jongsu’s suitcase.

“Well let’s pack up his stuff,” He said, starting to put away the boy’s clothes that had, magically enough, landed all over Baekhyun’s floor. “Check under the pillow too there is something there he won’t let me look at.”

Jongdae lifted the pillows and found the picture frame, still upside down. He picked it up and set it face down In Jongsu’s suitcase. “Oh the cat is-oh ” Baekhyun stopped, “I think he left the cat at the café”

“Can we get it in the morning?” Jongdae asked.

“No no he hasn’t been able to sleep without it. He like. Doesn’t go anywhere without it. I doubt he will sleep tonight if he doesn’t have it”

“What do we do?”

“I guess we have to go get it?” 

“Okay? Can he stay here, we will run down and get the cat, and then I’ll take him home?”

“Yeah sounds good.” Baekhyun grabbed his jacket and told Jongin and Taemin who were watching a movie on the couch where they were going.

“Make sure he is dressed and ready to go when we get back,” Baekhyun said, Jongin made a vague hand gesture to acknowledge he heard but didn’t say anything else.

Jongdae and Baekhyun weren’t in a huge rush but also it was cold and getting late so the busses were running less frequently. By the time they were halfway there it was snowing again and there was thunder and lightning. They ended up having to walk a mile and a half in the snow to get to the shop and were both drenched and shivering by the time they got inside.

When they got inside Baekhyun the lights and went to Minseok’s office to get the cat which was, sure enough, on the couch.

“Dude let’s wait out the storm a little” Baekhyun said peering outside, “I’ll make coffee” He went behind the counter and came back moments later with coffee for both of them. They settled into two of the fluffy chairs in the corner and sat wordlessly for what felt like hours but was probably only minutes.

“Baekhyun it doesn’t look like it’s letting up should we call someone?”

“Yeah I’ll text Luhan and have him pick us up on his way back from the hospital.” Baekhyun pulled out his phone and as soon as his screen lit up the power went out.

It was almost pitch black. The street lights outside had also gone out it looked like the whole block was dark. Baekhyun pushed the flashlight on his phone. “Are you okay?” He asked but there was no reason why Jongdae wouldn’t be okay.

“Yeah I’m fine. Don’t waste your battery with the flashlight just…text Luhan.” Jongdae’s voice rang out.

Baekhyun didn’t want to admit it but he was scared of the dark, not when he was trying to sleep, but this type of suffocating darkness wasn’t generally his thing. He quickly texted Luhan and then used his phone light to lock the door.

Jongin didn’t answer his phone, typical, but Taemin did, also typical.

“What’s up?”

“Hey, Taemin um. The whole block lost power so Jongdae and I are stuck at the café until Luhan can pick us up so just…so you know I guess. Tell Jongsu we’ll be back soon and he has nothing to worry about”

“You got it. Don’t waste your phone battery there’s no telling how long you’ll be there” Taemin said seriously. Taemin was usually serious.

“Okay, thanks, Taemin. We’ll see you later”

Baekhyun hung up and set his phone on the table. Jongdae did the same. “Are you okay?” Baekhyun asked after awhile

“Dude I already told you-“

“No I mean like. Are you okay?”

“Oh.”

There was a pause.

“Yeah?” Jongdae said after a moment, “My mom is still in a coma. They say she probably won’t wake up. It’s still. It’s still hard.” Jongdae said softly. Baekhyun wanted to reach out to him but that would be weird right? “How is Jongsu doing?”

“He cries himself to sleep a lot when he thinks I’m not paying attention. He can’t go anywhere without the cat. He looks at the picture that was under his pillow a lot I’m assuming it’s his dad but he won’t let me see it. I think he’ll be fine. He is strong” Baekhyun said, “What happened to his mom?”

“Died in childbirth,” Jongdae said as if it was old news. I guess it was to him. “She was cute, I doubt she would have made a good mom though she was, mentally unstable. They all told her there was no way she would survive childbirth. I guess Jongsu was her final suicide attempt. Or rather, Jongsu was her first successful suicide attempt”

“That ” Was all Baekhyun could supply. Jongdae chuckled.

“Yeah, it did. Your turn.”

“What?”

“You know a lot about my family and their ed up past. I want to hear about yours”

“You are just assuming I have a ed up past?”

“What was that park you took me and Jongsu to?”

“Diving right in. Subtle.” Jongdae didn’t say anything, waiting for Baekhyun to talk, “It was just a park by my old house. We drove past my mom’s house actually. I used to go there a lot in high school with my…friend.”

“Friend?”

“Yeah. But things didn’t end great between us” Baekhyun felt silly talking about a break up when Jongdae had actually lost family members, but Jongdae was asking and Baekhyun was a huge fan of oversharing about himself.

“Did you like? Break up?”

“Yeah.”

“What happened?” Jongdae had no qualms just. Diving in. He was almost as tactless as Baekhyun. “Listen we are stuck here for some time and you know most of my ty past. If you want to talk about something else we can but like-“

“No, it’s cool. Uh. We were best friends for like, our whole lives. You know the neighbor thing where we would climb over our fences to play and . And like during high school we made some bad decisions but ended up madly in ‘love’ but like not actually in love we just like thought we were in love but we were like, seventeen and thought that smoking in the park at 10 pm made us cool so what did we know. “Baekhyun took a breath, “After we graduated I moved in with Minseok and Luhan and um my friend decided he wanted to be serious. He moved in with us and it was great for a few years.”

“What happened?”

“He decided he wanted more, meaning, a wife and kids. He couldn’t get that from me obviously, so one day I came home from the coffee shop and his stuff was gone and there was a note on the bed that said ‘sorry Baek but we had to grow up sometime right?’” Baekhyun let out the harsh laugh he let out when he was nervous. He hadn’t told anyone about the note or about how much it hurt him.

“Whoa. That’s like…really ty.”

“I know. Anyway, I was a wreck for a while but eventually I grew up like he told me to.” Baekhyun smiled but it didn’t make a difference. Jongdae couldn’t see him.

“What was his name?”

“Chanyeol. He lives in Seoul now I think. Probably married to some beard that will never make him happy. I don’t care” That was a lie.

“It’s freezing in here,” Jongdae said after a moment.

“It might be warmer in Minseok’s office, I know he has blankets and in there anyway” Baekhyun was glad for the subject change. They moved to the office, sitting on opposite ends of the couch. Baekhyun managed to find a blanket which was big enough to go between them. It was darker in Minseok’s office because there was only one small window, but it was warmer.

“Do you remember when we met how I had been kicked out?” Jongdae said after a moment. His voice was weirdly calming. Baekhyun usually would have been terrified of the dark but for some reason he wasn’t with Jongdae there.

“Yeah you never told me what happened. Girlfriend kick you out?”

“No ha. Um. My mom did. I had been living with her and my brother and Jongsu for a while but my mom um. Decided I was no longer fit to be around her grandson.”

“What the does that mean?”

“It’s actually a funny story now. Um she stumbled across an old picture of me and Yixing at a party, we were playing spin the bottle or something I don’t know we were all pretty drunk but Yixing and I kissed and someone took a picture.”

“Yikes.” Baekhyun could guess where this was going.

“She asked if he was my boyfriend I said no Yixing was straight but so what if he was. She asked if I was straight I told her the truth and here we are”

“So you’re…not straight?” Baekhyun didn’t want to get excited but the fact that Jongdae could be interested in him made him happier than he wanted to let on. He was glad it was dark.

“No, not at all really.” Jongdae said, “You’re not either? Is anyone who lives in your house straight?”

“No. Not really” They fell back into silence. “Christ what’s taking them so long?”

“It is snowing pretty hard,” Jongdae said.

Baekhyun shivered and tried to wrap the blanket around him more but it wasn’t big enough for that when they were sitting so far apart. Jongdae scooted closer until he was basically in Baekhyun’s lap and wrapped the blanket around both of them. “Body heat” He explained. He laid his head on Baekhyun’s chest and after a second Baekhyun wrapped his arms around Jongdae.

“Baekhyun do you think…” Jongdae trailed off. Baekhyun was acutely aware of Jongdae. His chest leaning into Baekhyun’s side, his head on Baekhyun’s chest. Jongdae’s legs sort of tangled with Baekhyun’s (but just for warmth) One of Jongdae’s hands holding the blanket the other was playing with the hood strap on Baekhyun’s sweatshirt.

Jongdae was warm and cuddly in a way Baekhyun hadn’t expected and he wasn’t sure what to do with his own body other than milk this as much as he could. “What?”

“Nothing,” Jongdae said after a while. The air was heavy with the words they weren’t saying. Baekhyun had never wanted to kiss someone more than he did right there on that couch in Minseok’s office during a blizzard.

Before Baekhyun had time to overthink the situation more his phone started to ring. “Hello?”

“Yo, we are outside. There is no ing way I’m getting out of this car so come out now. Minseok said also to make sure you cleaned up whatever mess you guys were bound to make in the dark.” Luhan said.

“How are we supposed to clean in the dark?” Baekhyun asked as he and Jongdae sat up and untangled themselves.

“Not my problem.”

“I mean technically it is because you’re opening tomorrow so like whatever mess we leave is your problem” Baekhyun locked Minseok’s office and considered cleaning up the coffee cups they had left on the table but thought better of it, bitterly leaving them for Luhan.

“If there is so much as one thing I have to clean up in the morning I swear to god Byun Baekhyun there will be no tomorrow-“

“Okay we are coming out now I’m hanging up”

He could hear Luhan swearing from the car. Minseok looked like he was asleep in the passenger seat. Jongdae and Baekhyun slid into the backseat trying not to track in too much snow.

“Baekhyun you are by far the biggest I have ever met in my whole life,” Luhan said as he pulled onto the road.

“I love you too Hyung,” Baekhyun said overly sappy. Luhan pretended to vomit. “Is Minseok okay?”

“Oh yeah, he’s fine he’s just exhausted,” Luhan said, “I’m gonna call in D.O in the morning to open with me so Minseok can sleep in. I think he is getting sick or something he slept through the entire time I was yelling at you”

When they pulled into the driveway Luhan gently woke Minseok enough for him to walk into the house, and then (guided by Luhan) He fell directly into bed and was asleep again. Jongin, Taemin, and Jongsu had fallen asleep on the couch.

“I guess everyone is spending the night tonight” Luhan muttered, kicking Jongin to wake him up, “Hey go to bed guys” Jongin and Taemin mumbled a lot but managed to get up and make it to Jongin’s room policed by the flock of dogs.

“Goodnight boys!” Luhan called out cheerfully. Jongin grunted and Taemin didn’t do anything but they closed the door and that was that. Jongsu was awake and sitting up on the couch. Luhan muttered something about being a mother but Baekhyun couldn’t quite make it out.

“All three of us aren’t going to fit in my bed,” Baekhyun said with a yawn.

“If you get enough blankets I’m sure the living room floor will be warm enough,” Luhan said before closing the door to Minseok’s room. Baekhyun and Jongdae exchanged glances and went to find every large blanket they could. They ended up building a nest on the floor that the three of them settled into.

Jongdae wasted no time in commandeering Baekhyun as a body pillow, snuggling his head into the crook of Baekhyun’s neck and wrapping an arm around his waist. Baekhyun didn’t protest by a long shot, wrapping his arm around Jongdae and pulling him closer.

Jongsu curled up against Jongdae’s back and the three of them slept in a puppy pile all night. Actually, at some point they were joined by two of Jongin’s dogs.

In the morning everyone left, it was Sunday so Jongsu would be over the next day for his lesson but it wouldn’t be the same.

After Jongsu, Jongdae and Taemin left the house felt empty. Because Luhan was running the coffee shop it was just Jongin, Baekhyun, and Minseok in the house. Baekhyun busied himself by going through old stuff Yixing had given him and setting up a couple lesson plans for the week. Minseok slept through the day and emerged only in the evening when Luhan got home and woke him up to force him to eat.

“I’m worried,” Luhan said, feeling Minseok’s forehead.

“I’m fine” Minseok smiled and kissed Luhan’s hand. “Don’t worry I’ll be great tomorrow.” Luhan looked doubtful but he kissed Minseok’s forehead and the two of them went to bed early. 

** A/N: After this I'm going to be updating a little less frequently probably but bear with me ig lol. Anyway, thank u for all your comments/suggestions!! **