Warnings for this part: none

When you walked to work on the next morning you noticed that Minhyuk was still nowhere to be seen. On your way, you walked past a few dogs that only wagged their tails at you instead of barking. 

Seems like Hoseok failed at dragging him out of his dark little cave.

“Good morning,” you greeted your coworkers when you arrived at the store. 

“What happened to your lip?” Eunkyung asked when you came back from the staff room after changing your clothes. 

“Some drunk guy attacked me yesterday,” you told her and she gave you a worried look. “I have a few bruises on my side but I didn’t sustain any serious injuries. I was lucky to… have a friend around who helped me get rid of him.”

She smiled a little. “That’s good.”

You were given some items to stack on the shelves so you kind of isolated yourself from the others and started with stacking some chips bags on their designated shelves. It was nice and quiet in the store since it was still quite early and there weren’t many customers. Everyone was doing their own tasks and your mood was good despite all the stuff going on in your private life.

You heard footsteps nearing you and turned to look at who it was. 

Him again…

“Noona what happened to your lip?” the part-timer asked and started stacking some items on the shelf from the full basket he was holding. 

“Don’t worry about it,” you said with a slight forced smile.

You both went quiet and just focused on doing your tasks. Then, when he was ready he walked over to you and started helping you with your pile of items. 

“I didn’t-“

“I know you don’t want my help but I want to help you,” he flashed a charming smile to you.

You looked at him for a bit. “Oh, you’re wearing your name tag,” you said.

“Yeah, I finally found it,” he chuckled. “It was lost for a month. Guess where I found it,” he grinned.

You shrugged your shoulders since you had no idea.

“From one of my lunch boxes. I have no idea how it had ended up there,” he laughed and you gave him a small smile.

So his name is Hajoon…

“_____?” you heard Eunkyung’s voice call your name. “A customer is asking to see you,” she appeared in the end of the hallway and you looked at her before glancing at Hajoon.

“I’ll finish up here,” he smiled and you walked to Eunkyung who led you to the cashier where a customer was standing.

“Hyunwoo?” you were surprised to see the blue-eyed guy standing there with a plastic bag in his hand. “What are you doing here?”

“Let’s talk for a bit,” he said before walking to the door, exiting the store. 

You followed him outside. “What is it?” you asked when you two had stopped in front of the store and were facing each other.

“I just came back from visiting Yuna,” he said. “I saw some suspicious-looking people walking near your place. They were blue bloods so I’m guessing they are somehow linked to the higher-ups.”

Oh, no…

“Be careful on your way home. Your place is starting to become less and less safe every day.”

You nodded and he walked away after giving you a look.

It was almost 5 pm but you were still at the convenience store. There were so many customers that you had to stay for a bit after you shift had ended.

“I’ll get going now,” you informed your coworkers whose shifts had just started. 

“Thanks for helping us out,” they thanked you and you just gave them a smile before exiting the store.

You stopped after getting outside. Your eyes were glued on the person standing there who seemed to be staring at air. Minhyuk’s expression disturbed you. It didn’t look cold, it looked dead. He was expressionless but you could see that he was tired. 

Hesitantly, you walked over to him and stopped next to him. “You came today,” you mumbled and looked at his side profile. 

He turned his head and his expression didn’t change when he met eyes with you. His eyes were still the same beautiful shade of blue they had always been but the usual coldness was missing from them. That made your stomach twist a little.

Seems like he really went through some hard times during the past week…

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” he said, his voice sounding quieter and a little warmer than usual. He kept looking at you as if he was too tired to turn his head away.

“Are you okay?” you asked.

“Do you even have to ask? Do I look like I’m okay?” he asked with a little stronger tone, an amused smirk on his lips.

You shook your head. 

“Yeah,” he finally looked away. “That’s what I thought,” he said with a quieter voice once again, looking at his feet. 

You kept looking at him. His skin was paler than usual and his facial features were slightly more pointed than before which made you wonder if he had been eating at all.

He seems a little slimmer…

“Are you hungry?” you asked him after mustering up your courage.

I know he wants me to fear him and all that bull but I can’t help it. It’ll bug me later if I don’t do this now.

“A little,” he admitted which surprised you since you had been expecting an angry “you’re supposed to fear me, human”.

You quickly shook off the surprised feeling and you two met eyes when he lifted his head. “Want to go eat something small? Like grab a coffee or something?”

He just stared at you as if he was thinking about something.

“And even if you don’t want to eat, I was going to stop by a café anyway, so-“

“I’ll have coffee with you,” he said and pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on. He started walk