The cold wind howled around Mingyu as he hurried to work. The coffee shop had been busy but he clutched the precious long black in his hand as he finally rounded the corner and into the Pledis building. At least it's Friday. He told himself. Just get through today.

People swarmed everywhere. It was busier at 8:25 than at 8:55 and it suddenly dawned on him that Seungcheol and Jeonghan has been letting him off easy with the 9am start time. And he still had trouble making it. He saw the elevator doors closing and called out "Hold it!" To Mingyu's immense relief he saw the doors beginning to open again and Vernon smiling at him from inside. As he picked up the pace, almost at a jog, he was just about inside the elevator when he tripped over nothing. Mingyu was flat on his face in the middle of a spreading puddle of long black coffee all over the floor.

"!" Vernon ran out of the elevator to help his friend up. Mingyu's entire shirt was soaked in the coffee. He looked down at the mess in dismay. "I'm going to be late!" Mingyu began to panic. "Do you have a spare shirt?" Vernon asked as Mingyu stared at his white polo now stained dark brown and shook his head. Vernon dug into his bag and handed him a shirt. It was about seven sizes too big and had a big graphic print down one sleeve. It was very Vernon. Mingyu had no choice. "Go!" Vernon pushed him into the elevator. "I'll get this cleaned up. Seunkwan will understand. Wonwoo won't." Mingyu smiled sadly at his friend as the doors closed to take him up to level five.

Wonwoo wasn't in the studio. He was sitting at his desk, tapping his pen incessantly, waiting for Mingyu to arrive. When he walked in Wonwoo fixed his cold glare immediately on Mingyu's stained shirt.

"You're late."

"I'm sorry." Mingyu said. "I... the coffee shop was busy, and I tripped and fell..."

"So no coffee?"

Mingyu couldn't meet Wonwoo's eyes. They seemed to hone in on every single shortfall, every inadequacy, every single mistake Mingyu had ever made. Wonwoo could see them all in his eyes. "I'm sorry. It was an accident." He thought for a second that Wonwoo might ask if he was okay but he didn't.

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