The familiar chime of the bell on the front door of the store rang as Minho entered. It was 5AM on a Sunday morning and he was reporting for duty. 

The semester had ended on the previous week and as promised, Minho decided to stay on campus so he could help his favorite hyungs. He didn’t much mind not going home. His family lived in Seoul anyway, so if he pleased, he could drive home anytime.

”Good morning, Jinki hyung. Good morning, Jonghyun hyung!” He waved upon entrance at the pair. Jonghyun was sat in a wheelchair by the front counter near Jinki, who was setting up for the day. Over the couple of weeks since the hospital visit, Jonghyun had lost ability to support himself on his legs. Minho was shocked, and a little caught off guard at the image of his small hyung in the chair, but he tried not to show it. Somehow, it made this whole situation feel much more real.

Today was the first day of training for him. He didn’t mind the time he had to come in since he was used to being awake that early for soccer practice. In fact, Minho was kind of looking forward to the job. It was the perfect thing to get his mind off of Taemin. Minho had initially been feeling some guilt for breaking up with the younger, but after Taemin never showed to Jonghyun’s hospital visit, it really cemented in Minho’s mind that Taemin had really changed, and he likely wasn’t going to be turning back.

"You're early!" Jonghyun waved from his seat.

"Early bird." Minho smiled.

“Morning, Minho!” Jinki waved, his trademark grin gracing his lips as Minho approached him behind the counter. “How are you?”

”Excited! Looking forward to providing countless hours of free labor.” Minho joked.

Jinki glanced between he and the front door distractedly, laughing half-heartedly at the joke. “Hey, you get a free cup of coffee daily. Of course, you have to pay for the cream and sugar." He teased, not that Minho could tell. "Come on, I’ll show you around the back.” 

Jinki patted Minho’s shoulder and led him to the kitchen through the doors behind the counter.

Not two minutes later, the bell hung from the front door chimed again, only heard by Jonghyun as he was the only one in the front of the store.

"Taeminnie! Good morning..!" Jonghyun exclaimed in surprise at the entrance. "You're... early." He grinned stiffly.

"Let me know if I can go back to sleep." Taemin yawned before giving a tired smile as he walked up to Jonghyun.

"Don't worry, today will be over sooner than you know."

"How are you feeling, Hyung? You're... in a chair now...?" Taemin leaned against the counter, his brows furrowing.

Jonghyun rushed to reassure Taemin before he even had a chance to show concern. "Oh, I'm alright, Taeminnie. I'll be okay, don't worry! I'm ready have my surgery, at this point all we really need now is to pay for it."

"And that's where I come in."

"And you'll be great." Jonghyun took Taemin's hand in his.

"I won't let you down, Hyung. " Taemin gave Jonghyun's hand a small squeeze. "Where's Jinki hyung?" He looked around.

As if on cue, Jinki returned to the store's lobby with a wide smile on his face, likely a result of a recent joke from the person following behind him.

Minho.

"... Taemin?" Minho asked, seeming bewildered to see him.

Taemin's heart dropped, his hands clenching into tight fists. He'd forgotten they were holding Jonghyun's.

"Ow!" Jonghyun yelped quietly, pulling his hands back and rubbing the pain away.

Taemin didn't respond to Minho's reference to him, much too anxious to interact directly with him. Instead, he turned to his seated hyung next to him for some explanation.

"Hyung." Taemin spoke softly and mirrored Jonghyun's smile, only the older's was more of a nervous smile, and the younger's was more... passive aggressive. "What the hell is going on here?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know as well." Minho crossed his arms, staring at Jinki.

"Well..." Jinki and Jonghyun looked to each before Jinki bravely spoke up. "It's your job training of course!" He rubbed the nape of his neck as he grinned nervously, his eyes disappearing into small slits.

"Hyung."

"We needed all the help we could get." Jonghyun interjected. "And all the help we could get was you two."

"And this type of job would be way too much for just one person to handle." Jinki added, supportively.

Taemin sighed. "A warning would have been nice."

"Neither of you would have done it if we warned you. Please, guys. It's only a few weeks."

"It's... okay with me." Minho succumbed hesitantly. "Whatever gets the job done, right?"

"Yay! Taemin? Please? Please? Please?"

Taemin heaved a sigh. "Quit begging, Hyung. Fine, I'll do it. You know I can't say no to you."

"Yay! Thank you. Both of you." He looked up at them sincerely. "Ready to start?"

It didn't take long to brief Minho and Taemin on how everything worked. The cafe was truly a simple place. There was just a lot to do. And a lot that required  teamwork. And for these two in this moment, it wasn't easy. There were a lot of mistakes: burns, drops, spills. Lots of spills.

In one specific case, Minho was practicing how to make the coffee. He'd gotten a good handle on it for being such a newbie. He'd roasted the beans successfully, ground them, and brewed them with ease. Funny enough, once all the hard work was done, the part Minho flubbed on turned out to be pouring the actual drink. The cup tipped over and spilled scalding hot coffee all over the counter where Taemin was wiping.

"Ah!" Taemin hurriedly snatched his hand to his chest before the streaming coffee could run over it.

"Oh my God!" Minho grabbed a towel to quickly spread over the mess. He turned back, seeing Taemin clutching his hand with wide eyes.

", Taem. Are you alright?" Minho reached for the younger's hand but Taemin yanked it away.

"I'm fine." He glared as he went to run his hand under some cold water from the sink.

"Hey, don't be stubborn. Let me see."

"I don't need your hero act, okay? Don't pretend you care about me. It doesn't help anyone." Taemin growled. He shut off the water, finally looking down at the blister forming on his hand. "Why don't you just focus on the mess?"

"I..." He sighed. He did care, despite how much he didn't want to. Minho nodded. "Right. Sorry." He turned his attention to the counter, quickly finding a rag to wipe it down. 

Taemin sighed and dried his hands. He didnt know how he was going to get through this.

The first few days were kind of just... like that. Tense. Minho and Taemin would find themselves being awkward, messing up orders and blaming each other.

The two had come to a silent agreement that Minho would be the one doing more of Jinki's job i.e. baking, and taking payments at the counter, which left Taemin to cover Jonghyun's position of making drinks and bussing tables. It wasn't exactly discussed, but they just organically fell into those roles. It was kind of like each of them were taking after their favorite hyung.

It actually didn't take them very long to become comfortable in their new positions. It must have been only a few days before they stopped spilling drinks and burning bread. 

The winter season was obviously the store's busiest time and similarly, the worst time to have new hires, but Taemin and Minho adjusted well. On one especially busy day, the boys struggled to keep everything afloat.

During their 5 o'clock rush hour, a gaggle of teens entered the shop and ordered about 7 drinks which, at this point, was no sweat for Taemin. He swiftly and precisely made each beverage while Minho took care of the cost with the kids. Once complete, Taemin delivered the drinks to the round booth where the kids were sitting.

"Okay, so we have two white hot chocolates, two caramel lattes, a matcha latte, and two cappuccinos, one iced, one hot." Taemin recited proudly as he placed each coffee on the table. "Enjoy, guys." He gave a curteous smile before hurrying back to the counter to prepare the next order.

As Taemin was in the middle of making a some lattes for his other table, he (and everyone else in the shop) heard a loud "EW!" Looking up, he could source the sound as coming from the table of teens.

Though his brow piqued up in confusion, he didn't bother moving from his task as he heard footsteps approaching the counter.

"Um, excuse me?"

Taemin looked up to see three of the seven patrons, two girls and a guy, standing before him.

"This is disgusting! There's hair in our drinks!"

If this was a sitcom, Taemin would have done a double take. His brows furrowed deeply in confusion. "Hair?"

"Yes? Hair?" They mocked his tone. "It's g