02 - meant to (revised)
Love's Shadow chapter two
meant to
Jaejoong is nervous to go to his elective class. This section was intended for the business course, however he didn't have any choice since the culinary section was already full. He entered the classroom and was thankful that he could see a few people from his department. He decided to sit at the back and quietly proceeded upstairs. He noticed the other students happily chatting away with their friends and was quite jealous of them. Jaejoong wished Junsu was here. He could have been in Junsu’s section by now if it weren’t for him getting sick during the enrollment process.
To: Junsu 🐬
From: Jaejoong
Junsu-yah~, how is it there? ;n;
He texted Junsu to distract him from the horrible feeling of loneliness.
From: Junsu 🐬
To: Jaejoong
The whole gang's here. But it's not the same without you ಥ_ಥ
All Jaejoong can do is sigh.
"Why the long face, beautiful?" Jaejoong was startled at the sudden invasion. He looked at the intruder beside him with confusion. He slowly turned around to see if the man right beside him was talking to someone else. Then they suddenly laughed, making other students look their way. He hated the sudden attention and lowered his head further.
"I'm sorry about that, your confusion was amusing. But seriously, you are beautiful," the man giggled. His giggle was nothing he expected for someone with a deep voice.
Jaejoong shuddered at the word beautiful. Yes, with his big doe eyes, small figure, his jet black hair that complemented his pale skin, he was bound to be called that. It was rather a common thing, which he still hasn't gotten used to, probably never will. He despised it actually. With comments like that, he is bound to get bullied again like in highschool. Chills went down his spine as those memories flooded his mind.
"Yoochun, stop that. You're scaring him" another man spoke and smacked this man’s head. Now he knows whose name was Yoochun.
"What the hell man?!" Yoochun yelled.
"I apologize on behalf of this nutjob." the new guy said as he ignored his friend. He sat down the other side of Jaejoong
"Hey! I'm not!"
The guy didn’t acknowledge his friend further and turned his full attention to him. Jaejoong can't help but stare back at him as well with awe. The guy flashes him a wide smile. His smile was different from the others that had scary motives to them. This equally beautiful man was smiling genuinely at him, which made him blush up to his ears.
His vision had suddenly become hazy. The guy had said something to him but he couldn't make out what it was.
" . . me . . . name . . . . .ho"
Jaejoong suddenly woke up. He was sweating, his breathing a bit labored, and his heart was racing fast.
What the?
He sat up to calm his beating heart. It had been ages since he had a dream like that, and so vividly at that too.
It's been ages since he dreamt about him.
Jaejoong rubbed his chest as he took a couple of deep breaths to completely calm himself. As a further distraction, he took his phone from the bedside table to check the time. It was still 5:45 am. He still had plenty of time to catch more sleep but with that dream, he was scared to fall back asleep.
So he decided to get up, careful not to wake Changmin up. When he successfully got off the bed, he adjusted the blanket on his child and left the bedroom. He kept the door ajar, just in case Changmin did wake up.
He tiredly dragged himself to the bathroom to wash his face. He saw a glimpse of himself in the mirror and furrowed his brows disgustingly. His eyes were heavy still and puffy from all the crying he did last night.
He smiled at him.
No! he screamed in his head and splashed his face with cold water.
The smell of fried eggs invaded Changmin's nose. He slowly opened his eyes and rolled to his sides. He stayed there for a moment, trying to fight the urge to sleep again. But he can't sleep again now because he was hungry already. So he finally got up and dragged his teddy bear with him.
Jaejoong was just putting some final touches on the soup when he noticed Changmin in the hallway. He beamed at the sight. His sleepy baby dragging his teddy bear as he rubbed the sleepiness off his eyes. He wiped his hands with a towel before approaching Changmin.
"Good morning, my precious" he kisses him in his arms.
"Good morning, umma" he sleepingly said and hugged his mom back.
"Let's wash up first before we eat . . "
Changmin was more lively now after washing his face. He was sharing his dream about the giant cookie robot he was operating as Jaejoong settled him at the dining table.
His baby did a little happy dance as Jaejoong served him his breakfast. I swear this child is a food monster.
At 8am both mother and son went downstairs and opened up the shop for the day. The weather was still gloomy but he was glad that it wasn't raining anymore.
As per usual, business was still slow. They had a few customers here and there. People from outside would sometimes take a peek by the window but will leave immediately, probably to find another good looking cafe to stay in.
He can’t help but sigh for the nth time of the day.
He was planning on closing this place down a few months back when he slowly wasn’t geting enough and new customers in. Not only was the business absolutely slow, but the rent was also ridiculously expensive now. His rent due had already been delayed by two months, and he couldn't give the landlord any more excuses.
He wanted to apply for a job, however no one is going to babysit Changmin if ever.
Another sigh escaped him.
If only I were in Seoul right now.
He internally scolded himself a hard No!
Going back to Seoul is not really the best choice. Although it will definitely solve much of his problem right now if he ever went back. But as much as he misses Seoul, staying there will just tear him apart all over again.
On top of that, he doesn’t really want to face any of his family members.
You see, him being gay wasn’t part of what his family had hope for. With 8 older sisters, his parents, especially his father, was ecstatic to hear that they will be having a baby boy. As Jaejoong was growing up, they noticed that he was quite different from his peers. And his father disliked it. Jaejoong was not acting how typically a boy should be. But even though his father disliked it, he just put it in the back of his mind that time because maybe he just wasn’t used to taking care of a boy since he has 8 lovely daughters. And the influence of them must have rubbed off of his son.
But all his speculation came true when he saw Jaejoong wrapped around in another man’s arms and kissed him on his cheeks.
The sound of the bells brought back Jaejoong out of his solemn reverie.
"Hyung" Changmin exclaimed and ran to tackle Chanyeol's legs.
"Hi there kiddo" he patted the kid's head "Good morning Jaejoong-ssi" he greeted the older.
"Chanyeol-ah, good morning. I never expected you to come and visit so soon" he prayed early on for them to come back but did not expect the soonest.
"Well, Baekhyun insisted that we visit sooner. Plus, we are now obsessed with your cakes" Chanyeol happily exclaimed.
"Speaking of Baekhyun, where is he?"
Baekhyun came in not long after with two other guys in tow.
"I'm sorry, Sehun was being clumsy back there,” Baekhyun said to Chanyeol. He immediately greeted the cafe owner as soon as he saw him, “Oh, good morning Jaejoong-ssi"
"Good morning, Baekhyun," Jae greeted back gleefully.
They invited both of their two other friends. Baekhyun and Chanyeol won’t stop bragging about the cake they had after they got back on time to the dorm. Their other two friends then decided to visit it too. Taste it for themselves as well.
Baekhyun introduced Sehun and Jongin to Jaejoong. After the pleasant greetings, they helped themselves with another variety of Jaejoong's cake. And the reaction of Sehun and Jongin to Jae's creation had both Chanyeol and Baekhyun proud. “We told ya!” he said proudly to his two other friends.
They all fell into a comfy and friendly conversation. Jaejoong learned that they were freshmen arts and design students at Jeju National University. Aside from bragging how lovely their experience was here and wanted to share it to the others, the group also wanted somewhere relaxing after their hectic schedule so it was fitting to come back here.
Changmin had fun entertaining the group as well. Some of their regular customers had stopped coming in and it made Changmin feel a bit lonely to be honest. Jae hates seeing Changmin stick by the window hoping that people who pass by the shop will come in. He’d entertain Changmin in any way whenever he had a freetime, may it be reading to him, playing with his stuffed toys, or they’d just eat. He'll do anything for him.
Seeing that everyone was doing fine, he lets them do their own thing while he tends behind the counter. Jaejoong looks at Changmin from time to time, making sure that he was alright and wasn't disturbing them much.
The group was also silently taking care of Changmin. They are happily listening to Changmin rambling just about anything. And right now he was sharing about the poporo show he saw on tv this morning.
Sehun's phone suddenly rang which disrupted Changmin's story. He apologizes and excused himself to a corner to answer his phone. While they turned their attention to Sehun brieftly, Changmin strayed his attention to the man outside their shop.
He sees the man opening the hood of his car and then swatted the smoke away from his face.
Changmin left his chair and ran towards the door but he didn't go that far because Jongin had immediately swept him in his arms.
"Wooah there tiger, you shouldn't go outside without your mother or us knowing"
Changmin pouted, "I'm sorry ahjussi, but that mister's car is broken. Smoke!" he urgently said but then pointed at the man outside who was now on his phone.
Chanyeol and Sehun went outside to see what the problem was, while the rest stayed inside with Changmin.
After a while it seemed that they had partially resolved the problem with the car. Both teenage boys headed inside the cafe with the owner of the car in tow.
Jaejoong heard the ruckus from his kitchen and hurriedly went out. First thing he did was to look for Changmin. A sigh of relief came out from him as he saw him in Jongin's arms while the others were talking to a man in a business suit.
"What is going on?" he inquired worriedly.
"Ah, Jaejoong-ssi. Everything is fine. This is Mr. Lee Jin-Ki, his car overheated and just needed it to cool down for an hour" Baekhyun explained.
"Is that so . . ." he looked at the guy who was clearly distressed over his phone.
"I am really sorry sir, the car just stopped . . a-and I s-saw some s-smoke at the h-hood. . a-and . . " he stammered over the phone.
Having to explain this ridiculous situation to a man who is notorious in the business industry was absurd.
He was sure that the man from the other line thinks this is all a joke judging by the silence from him. Jin-ki felt like being choked, so he nervously adjusted his shirt collar.
He was still fairly new in this job as the big boss’s Jeju branch administrative assistant.
Unfortunately on this important day, he overslept a bit and missed his alarm. And while hurriedly preparing for the day, he almost burnt his shirt while ironing and didn’t have any breakfast because he was already running late.
Definitely not a good start.
As he was on his way driving to the airport to pick up the big boss, he mentally checks his checklist for the rest of their visit here in Jeju. He was about to mentally check down on the things he had already done, when the company car suddenly broke down.
“This is not in the list!” he cried.
Nothing in his list stated about what he will do when he gets fired right on the spot today as well.
Jin-ki was feeling a little bit faint as he heard nothing from the other line. He checks his phones to see if the boss had hung-up but his call was still on-going.
He is definitely getting fired today, Jin-ki cried internally. He is ruining the big boss’s first ever visit of the new Jeju JS Holdings branch.
Being the one to accompany the current CEO of the JS Holding and to be its administrative secretary for the Jeju branch was a great honor. To work for a large conglomerate in South Korea takes hard work and a large chunk of luck.
Unfortunately, his luck for the rest of his life must have been put into his application because it's been bad luck ever since he woke up this morning.
He hears a sigh on the other line. Oh no. OH NO!
"No, it's okay. It can't be helped,” the CEO from the other line said. Oh? "Just let me know if you are on your way. We still have a few hours before the actual meeting time, so it should be fine."
Oh . . . Jin-ki wasn’t expecting an understanding reply from the notorious man.
"Y-yes sir, I really do apologize for the inconvenience, Sir." he said sincerely.
"It's really fine. I'll see you soon" then the line went off.
He feels his legs giving out from the relief he felt after the call. Jin-kin steady himself and sat down carefully on the nearest chair to him.
Although the CEO assured him that everything was fine, Jin-ki was still restless.
Jaejoong and the others felt bad for him. It was clear that the man was in a dilemma. But Jae knew one thing he could do to calm the distressed man. He went to the kitchen to get some cool refreshments and some treats to accompany it while he waited for his car to cool down.
"Here, have some refreshments and a tart." Jin-ki was startled by the sudden approach. He eyes Jaejoong as he lays down his first food of the day. "I'm sure that everything will be okay" Jae assures him, and somehow Jin-ki felt relaxed from the other man’s words.
"T-thank you, Sir"
"No problem at all, Please help yourself" Jaejoong beamed at him and went back to his station. Jin-ki looked at the retreating man before giving his attention to the drink and tart. He took the fork, grabbed a bite of the strawberry tart and instantly he felt better.
An hour had passed, and the car engine had fully cooled off. The gang had filled the car radiator with cool water and turned it on to see if everything was smooth.
"Thank you so much for your help everybody," he bowed deeply to them.
"It's fine, Mr. Lee. Glad we could help" Sehun said.
"And here," Jaejoong handed Jin-ki a box of pastries.
"Mr. Kim, y-you shouldn't have"
Jaejoong took Jin-ki's hands so he could hold the box. "Treat your boss with this. I'm sure he'll like it"
Jin-ki held the box tightly and bowed once more "Thank you so much"
Then the group watched the car drive off.
He took his attention off the book he was reading when a call came in. He checks the phone to see who it was, It was Jin-ki.
"Yes?" he said nonchalantly
"Hello, Mr. Jung. I'm sorry for the delay but I am on the way now" Jin-ki said on the other line.
"Thank you Jin-ki. I'll see you soon" Yunho replied brieftly and hung up. He stood from his seats at the airport lounge and exited himself to meet up with Jin-ki.
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author's note
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Slowly revising everything ;u;
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