Jongin couldn't believe it. The first job that he applied for, and he got it!

This was even easier than he had anticipated. He had gotten a position as a cook, and he didn't even have any experience with cooking! It had always been a secret dream of his, to be able to prepare a gourmet meal for his loved ones. He imagined their bright, smiling faces as they enjoyed his amazing cooking, and his future wife, smiling proudly at him as their kids ran around the living room, way too spoiled to behave at dinner. This was the start of something amazing.

“How do I look?” he frowned, waiting for Taemin's opinion on his new uniform.

“You're seriously going to work at McDonald's?!” Taemin said incredulously.

“Yep!” he beamed, proudly. He had never had the pleasure of dining there, but judging by its popularity, it was certain to be delicious. “But I should've asked to see the uniform before I said yes. This fits me horribly. I'm not sure I can go out like this.”.

“Nobody can look good in a McDonald's uniform, it's just designed that way.” Taemin shook his head.

His first day. He was a little bit nervous, but he believed in himself. The staff manager who had hired him, told the most experienced guy in the kitchen to take him under his wing. He felt kind of honored to be learning from the best.

“Hey, I'm Baekhyun, I'm in charge of everyone having loads of fun at work. I'll show you the ropes.” he said energetically, grinning.

“Baekhyun...” the staff manager said, looking at him sternly. “No shenanigans! You already have two strikes, remember!”.

“Yeah, yeah...” Baekhyun rolled his eyes and showed him to the kitchen.

“This is going to be your best job ever, it's super diverse and can be extremely entertaining, if you avoid Mr. Grumpypants over there.” he indicated that he and the staff manager weren't on the best of terms.

“Okay, so I'm going to start you off easy, with a simple task. It might be simple, but it's important! So don't go slacking off on your first day. Like.. I'm all for having fun, you know, but if you don't do your job, it's my neck on the line.” Baekhyun said in a more serious tone, after having given him a tour of the place.

“I won't, I won't! I'll do my absolute best!” Jongin assured him shyly, prepared to give it his all. His first task at his first job, he was nervous but excited.

“Okay, so you'll be sorting the ice cubes.” he put three buckets in front of him and opened the cooler. “So you have to sort them into small, medium and big.” he pointed at each of the buckets in succession.

“It's extremely important for the temperature of the drink to do this properly, some of the customers want an ice cold beverage, while others want it only slightly chilled, and you know that here, the customer is king!” he finished dramatically.

“Ehhh... could you maybe... like demonstrate what qualifies as a small, medium and large?” Jongin timidly asked, not understanding any of this. He never knew making a simple drink could be so complicated.

Baekhyun quickly grabbed a tiny scoop and threw an ice cube in each bucket. “There. You're all set. Now, let us see what you're made of!” he said cheerfully and left him alone in the storage room.

Jongin took a deep breath, trying to ignore the humongous knot that had started growing in his stomach. He could do this. He scooped up an ice cube, comparing it to the ones Baekhyun had sorted as small, medium and large. The small one was easy, since it was really small. But there wasn't really that much of a difference between medium and large, so those that were kind of in the middle of those two sizes were really hard to classify. If it was slightly bigger than medium and slightly smaller than large, what was it then? But he tried his best. He really did. And slowly, the buckets started filling up. It felt good to see the contents of the cooler gradually disappear. He never knew the sense of satisfaction you got from a job well done. He shivered, rubbing his arms to get some heat into them. It was quite cool in here, the temperature of the storage room was kept quite low so that the ingredients wouldn't spoil.

Uh oh! He suddenly noticed a small puddle of water forming at the bottom of the bucket. Oh no!! He hadn't realized that it wasn't cold enough to keep the ice cubes from melting. If they melted, they would change sizes and all his work would be ruined and he would have to start all over again. He ran to get Baekhyun.

“Dude, you were way too slow!! This is a disaster! What will we tell the customers?” Baekhyun said in a grave voice when he saw the buckets of melting ice. Jongin felt horrible, he had ruined everything.

“Baekhyun!!!” the staff manager bellowed, glaring at him from the doorway. Baekhyun jumped.

“I never thought he would be stupid enough to fall for it!!” Baekhyun said, trying to defend himself.

Jongin felt like he had been punched in the stomach. Hard. It had all been a joke. A joke at his dispense. How could he be so stupid. He had been so eager to prove himself, that he hadn't stopped to think through what he was doing. And why should he have? Never in a million years had he expected to be made a fool of by his coworkers. He felt betrayed and alone.

“It was just a little hazing, no harm dome.” Baekhyun grinned.

No harm done? The entire restaurant was probably laughing at him by now. How was he going to face them? No. He couldn't. This was too harsh. He refused to work with bastards and bullies. He stood up and ran out the door, and then he just kept on running. The further he ran, the more relieved he felt, the wind claiming the tears on his cheeks. He was never going back. Even if he couldn't get another job and had to live on the streets, he was not going back. More than anything, he was mad at himself. He was embarrassed that he had actually fallen for such a stupid joke. He was never ever going to tell a living soul what had happened, this was a secret that would go with him to the grave.

“How was work?” Taemin asked the moment he walked through the door.

“Ehhh....” he didn't want to tell him anything, but he didn't want to lie to him, either. He let himself fall onto the bed, since Taemin was sitting in the only chair in the room.

“Why is there only one chair?” he asked, both to change the subject and to quench his curiosity.

“Ah, Sehun broke his... and he never studies anyways, so we didn't see a reason to buy a new one.” Taemin shrugged.

“Have you.. I mean... you and Sehun... have you ever... you know...” Jongin's cheeks started heating up, he usually didn't ask these kinds of questions.

“Almost did once... I mean... he's not exactly boring to look at, if you know what I mean... things got pretty heated... but I don't wanna where I sleep... so I didn't go through with it.” Taemin scrunched his nose up. Jongin got the feeling that he regretted it a little, but at the same time was proud of himself for not doing something so stupid. Taemin could be surprisingly determined when he wanted to, he just didn't want to very often.

“Can you start right away?” the manager of the self-barbecue place asked.

“Uh.. yea...yes!” he exclaimed awkwardly. His 10.000 won were almost gone, and after wandering all day from workplace to workplace without much luck, he was getting desperate. He was probably owed a day's salary from McDonald's but there was no amount of money that could make him go back there, he would rather starve.

“Great. Hop on back and change into the uniform. You're on coal duty, you just have to bring a bucket of coal to the table of every new customer after they've ordered, and then change the ones that are dying out.”.

It was seriously hard work. Pearls of sweat trickled down his forehead as he ran from table to table, doing his best not to burn the customers as he tried to fit the bucket of coal down the center of the table. He had a couple of burns to show for it, but he thought of them as tribal tattoos, he was being initiated into the coal-boy-gang.

At one table he had to change the coal bucket for the first time, but he hadn't really thought it through, how he was going to do it. He started taking the old coal bucket out, with the new bucket of coal in his other hand. Those things were heavy. His biceps screamed in pain, as he tried to balance the buckets in each hand. It looked like he was going to succeed, when he lost the balance of the new one, a scorching hot coal popping out and flying down the floor, not stopping until it hit a handbag that lay on the floor three tables over. Oh no! Jongin wanted to run over there, but he was holding two buckets of fiery coal, so he couldn't really move. He just watched the bag catch fire, and boy, was it a fire. It went up in flames, the fire consuming the unsuspecting bag in under two seconds. The people at the table screamed, jumping up and running to the door. It created a stampede as all of the customers flocked to the exit.

The owner rushed over with a fire extinguisher, spraying white foam over half the restaurant, while Jongin just stood there, his arms almost breaking under the weight of the two buckets.

“Just go.” the owner handed him an envelope and pointed out the door. Jongin hung his head.

“But...” he checked the envelope and it contained a full night's wages.

“No buts, you look like you need it more than me. But this... this is not where you belong. That much is obvious. Go.” the owner sighed, looking around at the mess Jongin had created. Poor guy.

He spent the rest of the night walking around in a proper mong state, not knowing what to do. Maybe working didn't suit him as well as he had thought. Did people really do this every day?

Exhausted, he wandered into a convenience store. He stood in front of the cooler for a long time, eyeing bottles of soju and cans of beer. He didn't like alcohol. It tasted bitter and made you loose control. He liked the feeling of being in control of his life, but right now his life was in complete chaos. At times like these, people in the dramas bought a bottle of soju and a cup of ramen and just drank their sorrows away. He was considering doing the same. He chose a bottle of soju and his favorite type of ramen, but when he got to the register, a badly taped up piece of paper got his attention.

'Help wanted.'

Huh. They needed help, and he needed to be the helper. He talked to the guy at the register, who made a call, and just like that, he had the morning shift the next day. It looked like a chill job. He had always wanted to be the type who read, and now he would have the time to cozy up behind the register and read all the books he kept eyeing, but never reading.

That night he fell asleep with hope in his heart. It didn't hurt that Taemin was alone in his bed, sound asleep. He wouldn't have minded a cuddle, but the beds were really narrow, so there was hardly room for one person, let alone two.

“Hey, aren't you late?” Taemin shook his shoulder.

“Mmmm five more minutes.” Jongin mumbled and wound the covers up so he could hug them properly, enjoying sleep's bliss.

“Didn't you say you had to be up really early?” Taemin poked him again.

Wait. ..

It took a lot of will power but he managed to sit up in the bed, rubbing his sleep swollen eyes, trying to get his thoughts in order.

“What time is it?” he murmured, his voice still asleep.

“Almost eight.” Taemin threw his gym clothes into a bag.

“EIGHT?!?!?!” he jumped up, fumbling around for the alarm clock.

“Oh, that one's Sehun's. It doesn't work.” Taemin chuckled. “I'm going to meet Minho at the gym. Good luck today.” he sent him a 'fighting' fist and disappeared out the door.

He was late!! He was so late!

His shift was supposed to start at seven. It was already eight. He was so screwed.

He ran out, trying to put on his clothes at the same time, accidentally putting his head through one of the arms of his sweater. It turned dark. He couldn't see anything. He fought the sweater, trying to break free, but the sweater was like an octopus, the moment he broke free of one tentacle, he got caught in another one. Finally, he found the right opening, relieved to see daylight again, barely avoiding a collision with the front door of the building.

“Dude, you're so late.” the part time worker that was supposed to show him the ropes complained.

“I know. I know. I'm so sorry. My alarm didn't go off.” Jongin looked at him apologetically.

“Mkay, I'll make ya a deal. I won't tell the boss, and you hold down the fort for half an hour while I go take care of something.”.

“Uh.. I don't.. uhm... I ...” Jongin panicked. On the one hand, he really didn't want the boss to find out, but on the other, he had no idea what he was doing.

“Don't worry, there probably won't be any customers, but in case there are, you just zap whatever they're buying with this, and then just take their money and shove it into the cash register. It's like one button.” he explained, pushing a button and the cash drawer shot out of the register.

“O-Okay...” Jongin wasn't convinced, but there wasn't much else he could do but agree.

Jongin gnawed his lower lip, swallowing a knot that was stuck in his throat. He counted the minutes, hoping with everything he had that nobody would come in. Twenty five minutes. It would all be over in twenty five minutes. He could hold on until then.

Twenty minutes.

He started getting bored, wishing he had taken a book with him.

Fifteen minutes.

This was easy peasy. Maybe he had finally found his calling. He yawned, missing the warmth of Sehun's bed.

Fourteen minutes.

Was time slowing down? How could it be that only one minute had passed since he last checked.

A soft clinging sound announced the arrival of a customer. Oh no!

He positioned himself right behind the counter, trying not to panic as he waited while his first customer decided on what to buy. Take your time, he silently pleaded. Take fourteen minutes. Or more!

A cup of instant spaghetti appeared before his eyes, getting in the way of the staring competition he was waging with the counter. He had to use all his will power to look up and greet his first customer.

He gasped. It wasn't just any old customer. It was none other than that little, creepy guy he was supposed to marry. Kyungsoo.

“Eh ...uh... uhm... heh...” he just about died from the awkwardness. He had no idea what to say. He had refused to marry him without ever having said a word to him. What did one say in that situation?

“Did my mom tell you to come?” he pouted, playing defense even though he was so shy he could barely form words. But then he realized there was no way his mom could have told him about his new workplace, since she had no idea herself.

“Huh? Ah.. no. I.. uh.. live in the neighborhood.” Kyungsoo said without meeting his eyes. He was more handsome than he remembered. Apparently it was Kyungsoo's turn to wage a staring competition with the counter. With only one finger, he fiddled with a piece of old tape that was stuck to the edge of the table.

“So you ehm... heard about our parents' plan?” Jongin ventured, he was curious what his reaction had been when they tried to force them together.

Kyungsoo just nodded.

“Ridiculous, right? You said no, right?” he asked with an outrageous tone, like he already knew the answer, for who would be crazy enough to go along with this nonsense.

Kyungsoo just stood there for a moment, frozen, and then extremely subtly he shook his head.

“Oh...” Jongin was genuinely surprised. “So.. do you believe in the prophecy?”.

Kyungsoo shrugged.

Still in shock, he didn't really know what to do, other than his job. It took three tries, but he managed to scan the instant spaghetti, but for the life of him, he could not open the register. It just made all kinds of weird noises, demanding a million won for merchandise he hadn't even scanned, but no matter what button he pressed, it refused to open. He was getting severely pissed, when Kyungsoo placed a 50.000 won bill on the counter.

“Just keep the change.” he grabbed the cup of spaghetti and scurried on out of there.

Jongin took a step back, collapsing on a tiny stool that was in the corner. So Kyungsoo hadn't opposed to marrying him. What did that mean? Was he gay? Did he have a secret crush on him? Or did he actually believe in the prophecy? What if the prophecy was true, and he alone would be responsible for the downfall of the two families. It was a scary thought. Thankfully, a customer walked in, saving him from himself and his thoughts.

Something caught Jongin's eye on the bulletin board.

'A dog walker needed'

Wow, that was the perfect job for him. He hadn't been fired yet from the convenience store, but the silent war between him and the register was getting bloody. With actual blood spilled, since one time it pinched him so hard when he was trying to close the money drawer, that it drew blood. There was no doubt about it, that register hated him. It just laughed in his face when he was trying to open it. Then when he fetched help, it opened at once, purring like an obedient kitten, nobody but Jongin seeing the monster that hid below. Sometimes he just gave the customers the merchandise, instead of having to deal with that super diva register. But then everything he gave out was taken out of his paycheck, so what was left was often not even enough for that evening's supper.

“Oh! Oh! Look at you cute angels!!” Jongin giggled as he got attacked by a mob of puppies. They were the cutest thing he had ever seen. He felt genuinely happy for the first time since he had left home.

When he saw the flier he thought it was dog walking for people that didn't have time to walk their dogs, but it was actually for a dog shelter. There were so many lost, homeless dogs that wanted attention. He took six of them out for a walk, or it was more like them walking him. His heart ached something fierce when he had to leave them behind at the shelter. He wanted to take all of them home with him. But he didn't even have a home to call his own, he had nothing to offer them. He was a lost, homeless puppy, just like them. He felt bad taking money for walking them, but it wasn't like he had a choice. He had to survive too, somehow.

He crashed into Sehun's bed, head first. He was so tired he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow. Having two jobs and being a full time student was killing him, and worse yet, it was affecting his dancing. He was getting so stressed that even in sleep he was restless. And lonely. Painfully lonely.

Jongin woke up with a start. At first he thought it had only been a nightmare that woke him up, only to come to the shocking realization that he was living the nightmare. He was not alone in the bed. There was someone back hugging the bejesus out of him. As if that wasn't creepy enough, he was pretty sure he wasn't wearing any clothes. So basically, there was a huge, guy hugging him from behind, tightly. And the guy himself wasn't the only thing that was huge.

He was pretty sure Sehun was back.

He knew he should be thankful that Sehun hadn't just kicked him out of his bed, leaving him with nowhere to go. But he was extremely uncomfortable. There was no way he was going to get any sleep tonight, or any other night spent like this. And it made him wonder. Was it really worth it? He was fighting with everything he got just to stay afloat, and he was having a really tough time, and for what? If he was going to sleep with someone's gigantic pet snake poking his back, he might as well do it the easy way and get a nice house and a comfortable life out of it.

The next morning he sent his mother a message. An hour later he watched the document he had just signed get stamped. It was official. He was married.

He was married to a guy.