Jongdae woke up with a hangover to rival all hangovers in history. His throat was parched, his skin felt gross with dried sweat, and his head throbbed in tune with the pounding of the devil's drums.

 

It took him a moment to realize that the pounding in his head wasn't actually little demons having a party in his head, nor was it his heartbeat, but actual pounding coming from the door. He heard Minseok's voice calling out his name and tried to answer, but all that came out of his mouth was a small croak. Desperate to stop the noise—and hopefully his headache—he opened his eyes, only to yelp as the light falling through the open window (why the hell were the blinds open?!) burned his eyeballs. He flailed and ended up falling out of whatever it was that he was lying on (was he on the bed? the couch?) in a flurry of limbs and curses.

 

"Alright already, I'm coming so shut it!" he grumbled as he stood up, nursing his sore arm (which he'd landed on). He stumbled through the living room (why was there a basketball on top of the TV?) and yanked open the door. Minseok had his mouth open and one arm raised to knock, looking fresh and perky. Jongdae glared.

 

"What."

 

Ignoring his friend's death glare—which was very ineffective given that Jongdae looked more like an angry kitten, hair standing on end and a hissy snarl on his mouth—Minseok breezed into the small apartment, wrinkling his nose as he passed by the younger man. "You reek," was his not-so-sweet greeting.

 

Jongdae was tempted to slam the door just to make a point, but was wise enough to know that his head would make him suffer for it. "Good morning to you too, sunshine," he growled out instead.

 

Minseok dropped his bags on the table and turned to face his best friend, hands on his hips. He gave his hungover friend a look-over from head to toe. "You're clearly feeling chipper this morning," he said in a bright tone that made Jongdae want to throw something at him.

 

"Shut it, Min."

 

"If you're not nice, I won't give you any coffee," Minseok sang.

 

Jongdae gave him a suspicious glare. "I don't smell coffee."

 

The older mad dug inside a paper bag and came up with a takeout cup of coffee with tape over the lid. The moment he uncapped it, the heavenly scent of freshly-brewed coffee wafted out. Jongdae bit back a whimper.

 

"You're not mean enough to not give your hungover best friend some coffee," he said.

 

Minseok gave a sly smile. "Try me."

 

He couldn't hold against coffee. "What do you want?"

 

"Come with me to the soccer game this afternoon. I know you don't have anything scheduled."

 

Jongdae scowled. "I was planning on sleeping. That last project had me sleep-deprived for weeks. I almost passed out during last night's company party."

 

The devil masquerading as a human raised his eyebrows and shook the coffee cup.

 

"...fine, now give me that coffee!"

 

He snatched the cup away from his friend, barely cooling it down with a few blows before taking a big gulp. The liquid was barely below scalding and it tasted wonderful. "Where did you get this?" he demanded.

 

"Coffee shop down the street."

 

Jongdae blinked in surprise. "And how do I not know about them?" Because he was positive that he knew everything about his neighborhood, especially the good cafes. Being friends (and previously roommates) with a coffee lover who couldn’t function in the morning without caffeine made it a necessity.

 

"Because they just opened last week and you've barely been home these last two, Jongdae. You've been too busy at the office. I doubt you'd have noticed them."

 

"Oh. Okay." He finished off the coffee, feeling more human than he had minutes before. The wonders of caffeine. "Let's swing by on our way out. I want more of that coffee."

 

"We can also have lunch there, if you want. I heard they have great pasta."

 

"Great. Let me just take a bath, I smell like beer and cigarettes."

 

"In short, you stink."

 

The sound of the basketball hitting Minseok was satisfying.

---

They left the apartment a little under an hour later, with Jongdae being in a better mood after a couple of aspirins and a hot shower.

 

"You know," Minseok started as the left the building, "no one from the office would recognize you if they saw you right now."

 

Jongdae glanced down at his hoodie, favorite tattered denim shorts, and battered white sneakers. "This isn't exactly office attire, is it?"

"No, it's really not. Plus, Tao chose all of your office clothes, so they're all fashionable."

He let out an indignant squawk at the indirect insult. "Hey! My own clothes aren't all that bad!"

His friend gave him a deadpan look. "Jongdae. You once wore a checkered yellow button down with lime green shorts. With blue sneakers."

"That was one time!"

"It was still horrible. I think Tao cried a little when he saw you."

"Some friends you guys are."

"You love us anyway. Here we are." Jongdae wanted to whine (he had excellent taste in fashion, thank you very much!) but Minseok had already pulled him into the coffee shop and it was heavenly. The smell of coffee permeated every nook and cranny of the place, and a glass case showcased various pastries along the counter.

“Welcome to Heavenly! Would you prefer to sit down or order at the counter first?” a guy, dressed in what Jongdae guessed was the café’s uniform, asked. He was taller than both Jongdae and Minseok by several inches (in fact, Jongdae was sure that he had to be about as tall as Kris, and Kris was the tallest guy he knew) with black hair styled up and sharp features that gave him what Junmyeon had once called a “resting face.”

Oh , he’s hot, Jongdae’s mind supplied.

“We’d like to order first,” he heard Minseok answer. He found himself mindlessly following the tug on his elbow, eyes fixated on the back of the mysterious man’s head. He only snapped out of it when Minseok waved a hand in front of his face. “Jongdae? Jongdae! What do you want to eat?”

“I— uh— pasta?” He was aware of Minseok staring at him strangely, because he was never hesitant about what he wanted to eat, but he couldn’t bring himself to care because the angel was smiling at him and it was beautiful.

“We have several kinds of pasta to choose from,” the dark haired guy said, and damn was that a lisp? Hot and cute, Jongdae mentally groaned. I’m so ed. “We have chicken Alfredo, seafood Alfredo, carbonara, spaghetti, and lasagna. I’d recommend the carbonara if you want a coffee-based drink.”

Jongdae nodded, mumbling out a random drink (a macchiato, which was his least favorite coffee) to go with his order. He barely waited for Minseok to finish up his before dragging his friend towards a table—the farthest one from the counter that he could get, despite the relatively low number of customers. Incidentally, it was one with a good view of the whole café.

“What?” Minseok hissed the moment they were sitting.

“I think I might be in love,” the younger man answered dramatically. His eyes kept wandering from his companion to the counter, where the hot dude (just look at that !) was chatting with the barista.

His friend stared at him. "What?" Jongdae didn't answer, too busy ogling, so Minseok followed his friend's gaze. "You're ting me, right?"

Jongdae glared at him, but was distracted when the long-legged server moved to welcome two new customers. They were both female, probably from the college nearby, and they were both flirting their heads off, and Jongdae spent a moment raising an eyebrow at them before turning to his companion. "I you not."

"Well, why don't you try and see if he's interested then?"

"You do remember what happened the last time, right?”

“Of course I do. There’s a reason why I never went back to that restaurant.”

"Exactly!" Jongdae exclaimed triumphantly. His voice ended up being too loud, and the two other customers glared at him for interrupting their flirty banter with Mr. Tall, Hot and y. He glared back without an ounce of shame, and the two gave up after a few seconds of defiantly staring back.

He faced his friend again. "Despite what our officemates think, I am not actually a ladies' man."

That got a laugh out of Minseok. "To be fair to them, you're actually good at charming females of all ages. The problem is that you are one hundred percent, irrevocably gay."

"You're one to talk," Jongdae grumbled back. Minseok had a long-time boyfriend, Lu Han, who had originally been sent as the representative of a Chinese partner company. Determined to prove to Minseok that he was serious about pursuing a relationship, Lu Han had asked for a permanent transfer, and had since then been staying in Korea. After a rocky start to their year-long relationship, they had recently decided to start living together, which Jongdae was grateful for. Constantly walking in on the two in various stages of undress had become old after the first few times.

"I'm not denying it," the smaller man replied. "In fact, the whole office knows that I'm with Han. You, on the other hand, they've never seen with a guy, so they still think that you're either straight or swing both ways."

“I’ve been too focused on work these past few weeks.”

“Weeks, hell, try months. The last time you went out with us was during Tao’s birthday, and that was almost four months ago.”

“It hasn’t been that long!” he objected before adding, “Has it?”

“Well no, not really, but that was the last time that you went out and actively tried to snag someone.”

Jongdae raised an eyebrow. “And your point is?”

“If you like him—” he pointed to the dark-haired man “—then go ask him what his number is.”

Before he could reply, the topic of their conversation arrived. He delivered their food with a smile and casual, friendly conversation, wished them a good meal, and was about to leave again when—

“Hey um, Sehun right? That’s what it says in your nametag. Anyway, my friend here thinks you’re cute and he was wondering if he could have your number,” Minseok said. Jongdae turned wide eyes on his so-called friend, who was firmly not looking at him, and Jongdae wanted to sink into the ground by then because this isn’t the office Minseok, not everyone is cool with people being gay, what the hell, what are you doi—

“Sure.”

His thoughts screeched to a halt, stopped by one word. He looked up in time to see the man grab a pen and paper from his apron, scribbling something on it before tearing off a page and handing it to him with a small quirk of his lips and a wink. He took it with a stuttered thanks, eyes glued to the bubble that swayed as the other man walked away. Then he looked down at the piece of paper in his hands.

“You’re welcome,” he heard Minseok said. Jongdae responded by breaking off a piece of his garlic bread and throwing it at his friend.

“Shut up, Min.”

---

The next morning, he dropped by the shop after his customary morning jog, curious to see if it was already open (it was barely past five, and most of the coffee stops in their neighborhood tended to open later on weekends) and was somewhat disappointed to see that they weren’t. He was just about to turn away with thoughts of going back after he’d taken a shower, when the bell above the door tinkled and out came his crush, carrying out the “we’re open” sign.

They spent a moment blinking at each other before Sehun smiled, transforming his face from closed-off to adorable. He waved, and Jongdae couldn’t help it, he stepped closer at he smiled back.

“Morning. You open up early,” he observed.

“We bake fresh every other day, so we open extra early sometimes.”

“You guys bake your own bread?”

The smile grew into a grin. “Yes, including the garlic bread that you threw at your friend yesterday.”

Jongdae stumbled as they went inside, immediately grateful that he wasn’t prone to blushing. “Yeah, uh, look, sorry about that. My friend’s really embarrassing.”

He was rewarded with a laugh, and damn. How could a grown man look so cute? “Don’t worry about it. I’m still waiting for a text or a call, by the way.”

As he tried to formulate a response (him, of all people,  speechless; Minseok would have a field day if he heard about this) two men came out from the back of the shop. One was a giant with bright red hair and large ears, while the other was a smaller brunet—although the brunet part was kind of hard to see as his hair was covered with what appeared to be flour. The taller one was busy laughing as his companion futilely tried to shake off the white powder, before giving it up as a lost cause. Instead he glared at his friend, socking him in the gut lightly.

“What happened to you guys?” Sehun asked with obvious amusement as he went behind the counter.

“Baekhyun tried reaching for the bag of flour on the shelf. He had to jump up to reach it and it ended up spilling on his head,” the taller one explained, still letting out the occasional snicker.

“You always put it up so high!” the smaller one, Baekhyun, whined.

“It’s not my fault you’re so short!”

“I’m not short! You’re just abnormally tall!”

Jongdae watched in silent fascination as the two continued to argue back and forth, not seeming to care that a complete stranger was watching them. In fact, with the way they were gravitating towards each other, he doubted that they’d noticed him at all.

“We have a pool going on how long those two take to announce that they’ve finally gotten together,” Sehun said in an undertone as he moved to stand beside Jongdae. He had to bend down a bit to be able to whisper directly into the smaller man’s ear.

“Honestly, I was thinking they were together already,” Jongdae admitted.

Sehun grinned at that. “No, but with the amount of flirting they’re doing right now, I don’t blame you.” They both turned to watch when Baekhyun, obviously irritated, stomped back to the kitchen. The other man hurried after him, and the sound of their continued bickering faded as they disappeared from view, leaving silence behind.

Jongdae stood awkwardly for a few moments, not sure what to do. Finally, he turned to Sehun. “I… guess I’ll get going now.”

“Oh! Right, sure. Here, take this with you.” Sehun grabbed a to-go cup from the counter, handing it to Jongdae. “It’s just plain mocha coffee for now, since you didn’t seem to like the macchiato yesterday and I don’t know what you like yet.”

That startled a laugh out of him. “’Yet’ huh? You’re pretty confident, aren’t you?”

“I believe in going after what I want.”

“You don’t even know my name yet.”

Sehun stuck out his hand. “I’m Oh Sehun, 23, born and raised here in Korea. I’m a senior year majoring in dance at the nearby college, and I work part time here and at the dance studio to help with college fees. I’ll get off my shift today at five.”

Amused and insanely charmed, Jongdae took the hand and introduced himself as well. “I’m Kim Jongdae, turning twenty-five in a few days, which means I’m your hyung. I was also born and raised here in Korea. I work at an advertising firm a few blocks away from here, and you’re the first person I’ve ever met who could out-flirt me. I’ll pick you up after your shift for a movie and maybe dinner.”

“Deal.”

---

The next Monday, Jongdae came into the office with a spring in his step, bearing two take-out cups of coffee along with two muffins. He headed for Minseok’s office where he knew the older man would already be working.

He didn’t even bother with knocking before barging in. “Good morning,” he greeted cheerfully.

Minseok looked up from the stack of papers in front of him, wire-rimmed glasses slipping down his nose as he peered at his friend over them. “What did you do this time?”

Kitty cat lips pulled into a pout. “Why am I automatically in trouble?”

“You’re never this cheerful on a Monday morning unless you’ve pranked someone. Now spill so I can do damage control.”

Jongdae sniffed. “For your information, I’m just in a really good mood today. Good enough to have brought you free coffee and a muffin,” he said as he set the items down on Minseok’s desk along with some tissues. “Eat them while they’re hot!” he ordered as walked out, biting into his own treat.

Still baffled by his friend’s unusually good mood (Jongdae was a cheerful person, really, but he hated mornings, especially Monday mornings), Minseok took a bite out of the muffin before noticing something written on one of the tissues Jongdae had left.

Thanks for making him get my number. We had a great weekend.
Hope you enjoy the coffee and the muffins.
Jongdae told me you like the coffee-flavored ones, and the chocolate chip ones are our specialty.
-Sehun

Minseok read the note twice, stunned that Jongdae had actually managed to work something out without his nagging. Then he looked between it and at the single espresso muffin on his desk, before heading out of his office to chase down his best friend.

“Jongdae, you bastard, give me my other muffin!”

---

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