Taemin sighed as he flicked through the different channels on TV - all of them were about love, unsurprisingly, since it was Valentine's Day and all. But he had just been broken up with yesterday, so how was he supposed to stomach all this kissing and affection he was seeing on TV but he couldn't have? It made him curse the characters on the drama the channel was set on.

He grumbled to himself; what was so fantastic about Sehun anyway? What did Jongin see in him that Taemin didn't have? Taemin had his own apartment, he had a good job as a dance instructor, he was charismatic (mostly, but he'd never amount up to Minho), he was handsome, he had a good body, and he was funny! So why had he been dumped for some...some...quiet, annoying, arrogant idiot?! Taemin had done nothing but love Jongin endlessly, day and night, no matter what! Even when he dropped his coffee, spilling it all over the counter and floor in the kitchen, Taemin never scolded him. He couldn't understand what had gone wrong.

However, as much as he was mad, he was sad about it too. To be dumped on a random day was one thing, but to be dumped right before Valentine's felt so 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑜𝑛𝑎𝑙. Like Jongin was trying to attack him on purpose. Of course, Taemin knew that wasn't it; they had had a teary exchange when they broke up, but as soon as Taemin saw his ex cuddling up to Sehun, he knew what the deal was. Sure, Jongin was maybe sad, but he was nowhere near as upset as Taemin was about their split.

He cracked open another bottle of beer - the last in his six-pack he had bought not too long ago - and took a long chug. This was his way of coping; moping around, grumbling to himself, kicking furniture lazily as if he were kicking a broken TV he had deemed useless, and drinking a beer or two every few hours. Since this breakup was so fresh, he cried a bit too, but he didn't want to let such a profound sadness take over him. He couldn't let Jongin win like that. Right now, the younger man was probably being wined and dined by Sehun, and here Taemin was, sitting in a pit of his own self-loathing and grumpiness. What a great way to spend Valentine's.

There was a brisk knock at his apartment door, and for a fraction of a second, he wanted to call out to tell the person to go away, but if it was someone who wanted something from him (like Junmyeon who always needed sugar for some reason), then they'd never leave. Instead, Taemin decided to stay quiet and continue sipping his beer as if he hadn't heard a thing.

“Yah, Taemin-ah! Open the door!” It was Kibum that he heard calling out, “we know you're in there, moping and trying to get drunk,”
“I'm not trying to get drunk...” Taemin mumbled to himself and took his time shuffling to his front door, unlocking it and allowing his four friends inside. He had expected only Kibum, maybe even Minho with him, to come. But he didn't think the whole group would be here.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were throwing a party for the housewarming,” He said, a little smile on his lips. Seeing them never failed to cheer him up, even on his saddest days.
“We can't have a party if one part of the group isn't there!” Minho shook his head, and he took an unopened beer from the case to crack it open.
“I'm not in the mood to get hyped up and dance if that's what you came here for. I just want to be alone. I'm going to bed early anyway...or I'll try,” He really just wanted this day to be over. The reminders that he had been dumped by someone he loved so dearly wouldn't just vanish, of course, but at least he'd have a better time coping tomorrow since he wouldn't be surrounded by images and videos and gifts of love.
“Nonsense. If Jinki and Jonghyun could come to the party, then you can too. Sitting around stuffing your face with ice cream won't help a thing! You should be doing something fun to get your mind off of bad stuff instead of wallowing in it and making yourself feel worse,” Kibum shook his head, and both Jonghyun and Jinki's faces went red when they were mentioned. Surely their attendance rating to big events like this wasn't that bad...?
“What if I want to just sit around and eat ice cream and drink beer? What if I want to cry it out? I don't want to go to clubs,” Taemin mumbled in a grumpy tone of voice, immediately plopping down on his same spot he had been on for hours now.
“Then we don't have to go out. We can stay here. We don't need loud music or a big crowd, we can just make do with each other, right?” Jonghyun spoke, and they all nodded; although it was somewhat rare to hear him come up with such ideas in a situation like this, it was always welcomed. Although he was very quiet, he was definitely one of the smarter men within the group.
“Fine,” Taemin sighed out; he liked that his friends were coming to help him out of this sadness that consumed him, but he still wasn't in the mood to jump around and sing and dance. Who would when they had gone through a breakup just a few days ago?

Kibum's first order of business was to bake cupcakes. Yes. Cupcakes.

He knew what it was like to be sad like this, and he wasn't so insensitive to demand that Taemin dance along to music if he wasn't feeling it. However, anything was better right now than just sitting in front of the TV, being attacked by all the Valentine's movies.
Besides, now that Jonghyun and Jinki wanted to open their new café, they'd need to decide on recipes! The best way to do that was to taste-test.

“Come on, we're going to bake cupcakes, everyone!” Kibum said with a grin, “Jinki and Jonghyun decided they're opening their own café, so they'll need the practice, and this is a good way to get your mind off things Taemin-ah,”
He felt the need to explain himself when everyone gave him odd looks. This wasn't what they were expecting from party animal Kibum at all.
“We could even attempt to bake a cake...if Taemin has the right ingredients,” He said as he began going through the cupboards.
“If you'd rather be alone right now, I could try getting Kibum away,” Minho said as he put an arms around Taemin's shoulders in a brotherly manner, and the younger man shook his head as he watched his kitchen being raided by the excited Kibum and Jonghyun. Jinki, as always, stood on the sidelines until he was called.
“No...” Taemin said, “I think this might be good for me,”

The baking was a disaster, to put into a nutshell.

Not only was Taemin awfully clumsy and nearly dropped both trays, but Kibum had discovered that putting cheese on top of the cupcakes didn't taste as good as he thought they would.
“Gourmet cupcakes! It's the in-thing these days,” He persuaded everyone to let him do it, but then they refused to eat it when they saw his odd expression after he took a bite. Obviously, he wasn't cut out for baking or discovering new recipes.

Minho tried to help wherever he could, so he cleaned up after everyone. Or tried, at least. Wherever he cleaned up, Kibum found as a good spot to put something else down, so nothing got cleaned up in the long run.

Jonghyun and Jinki were the ones who saved the day by baking some peppermint crisp tart, something they were both equally skilled at, but even better at together. They let everyone watch over their shoulders as their hands moved swiftly in sync, not missing a single tempo or beat as they worked together. They seemed to know the recipe off by heart.

“Maybe you guys don't need my help,” Kibum mused as he tasted the delicious peppermint crisp - it had a sweetness to it from the peppermint which was soothed by the bitterness of the dark chocolate mixed in. Overall, a fantastic dessert. He'd definitely order a few plates of these at the café when it eventually opened.

Taemin suddenly laughed, and everyone at the table looked at him in surprise.

“It's just so nice for all of us to be together like this again. There's nothing more soothing than having all of my hyungs around,” He said with a smile, and they all smiled in return; during the baking, they were all silently wondering if this was a bad idea, but seeing that they had accomplished what they set out to do made them feel good about themselves. Not only that, they were happy to see their friend cheering up just a little.

“I say we make heart cupcakes now. Without cheese!” Minho said after they had finished their little pieces of the tart, “we can try writing each other's names on it and guess who it came from!”
Kibum liked this idea, knowing he'd get to show off his handwriting, but using a pen or pencil was very different to a piping bag.

“Are you sure this thing isn't broken?” He asked as he looked at the squiggly letters that were meant to be Taemin's name.
“Of course not! Let me do it. Now watch closely, and you can learn something,” Minho grabbed the bag of pink icing, much to Kibum's disapproval (so much, in fact, he gave a swat to the back of his boyfriend's head), and began piping on Jinki's name.
In the end, Minho's came out even worse than Kibum's. This was enough to send Kibum into a fit of raucous laughter, and since Minho was so competitive, he kept piping on names until he did a better name than Kibum.
“Move, it's my turn!” Taemin suddenly intruded, scowling at both men when seeing half of the cupcakes had the same messy handwriting, and he took the piping bag to try his hand at the new game.

It was Jonghyun who won the game at the end. His was the neatest, and none of them had to lean closer or squint to read out the letters. Jinki came second since his was a little less precise, but the rest came in last place. There was no point in trying to determine a third, fourth and fifth since they were all relatively the same!
Still, this was supposed to cheer Taemin up, and although he found it hilarious he had come last with Kibum and Minho, they still patted his shoulders and head like he had been the one who won.

It was late by then - 11 PM - and they all decided to sleep over by Taemin's place. He brought out two sleeping bags and agreed to sleep on the couch so one of the couples could take his double bed.
“What? We couldn't possibly do that!” Jonghyun said as he shook his head, appalled by the idea alone.
“Great. Then we can. Good night!” Kibum vanished into Taemin's room; the younger one 𝑑𝑖𝑑 offer, after all! Not to mention he seemed persistent. He wanted everyone to be as comfortable as possible here in his small apartment.

After everyone had settled in, Taemin changed the channel to a horror movie. He was glad to see the cheesy romance stuff had calmed down a little bit.
Jinki seemed to have already fallen asleep, so Taemin wasn't worried too much that he was comfortable; if he wasn't, then he wouldn't already be sleeping!

“How are you doing? Really?” Jonghyun murmured, just a little louder than the soft volume of the TV. Taemin looked at his friend for a second or two, then let out a long sigh he had been holding in. He truly did have fun tonight and it had accomplished its mission of clearing his mind, but now that everything was quiet and dark again, Taemin felt that same lump of sadness he had before.
“I...don't know. It was good while everything was busy here, but now...” Taemin shrugged, “I don't feel that good,”
“Well, you know, everything happens for a reason. Maybe this was a blessing in disguise somehow. If he could dump you so quickly and without much thought now, then what if you had gotten married? You would've wasted so much time with him when he didn't even love you like he should've,” Jonghyun said, and Taemin rubbed his thumb over the buttons of the remote in his hand.
“I know, but...I just wonder if it wasn't something I did to push him away,” It was a bitter thought, but what else was Taemin supposed to wonder? Wasn't he the problem?
“Maybe if I tried harder, or did something more for him, then he wouldn't have liked Sehun enough to leave me,” Taemin felt tears in his eyes. Ugh! He was really about to cry in front of one of his friends over some other 𝑏𝑜𝑦! How embarrassing!
“I don't think it would've mattered in the end. Whether you did a thousand things for him or only a hundred, if he really wanted to, he was going to leave anyway,” Jonghyun said softly, reaching out to rub his friend's knee in an encouraging manner, “you did everything you could. No need to beat yourself up over spilled milk,”
Taemin knew Jonghyun was right. Regardless of how much or how hard Taemin had tried, it wouldn't have made a difference in the end.
“You're right. Thanks, hyung,” He smiled. Although this small pep-talk had helped a little bit, it didn't help relieve his bitterness and sadness.

Everyone was sleeping soundly until around 3 AM, when Taemin's phone vibrated on the table. He woke up from the couch with a quiet yawn, picking up the device which threatened to wake everyone else up.
The name on the screen surprised him so much he sat up, and he got up to move into the kitchen so he could talk without waking anyone.

“Jongin?” He asked, swallowing against the dryness in his throat. Instead of helping, it made his throat burn.
“H-hyung!” Jongin sniffed from the other side, and Taemin instinctively wanted to comfort him.
“He's so mean to me! He tricked me, Taemin! He made me think we'd work out together and instead he's flirting with everyone in this club!” Jongin sounded very upset, but Taemin was reminded of their current status, and he felt his chest go ice cold. As he turned to the living room, he saw Jonghyun was also awake, and he was giving his friend a look that seemed to say 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑓𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑡. It made sense. Jongin didn't get what he wanted from Sehun, and now he was trying to take advantage of Taemin and his sadness again to get back together. However, the damage had been done already.
“Won't you come get me?” Jongin whimpered, and Taemin gave Jonghyun another glance before he swallowed again to find his resolve.
“You're not my responsibility anymore, Jongin,” It was hard to get the words out - he really did want to go fetch Jongin and hug him as tight as possible, but he knew that would only hurt him later on when Jongin ran off with someone else instead.
“W-what? You can't mean that!” Jongin cried out, “I made a mistake!”
“Yeah, you did, but I won't fall for it again. The moment Sehun starts showing you endless attention again, you'll be all over him like before. I won't let you do that to me again,” Taemin breathed out. The words were coming easier now, and it surprised him.
“Taemin-” Jongin tried to persuade him, “I love you, and I know you love me. Are you really just going to ignore me and pretend I never existed?”
“If I have to,” Taemin grimaced at the thought, but what else could he answer? He refused to give into Jongin's charms. As soon as that happened, the elder man would be in that web of hope and despair all over again, and Taemin couldn't have that. He needed to heal.
“But you said...” Jongin couldn't think of anything else to say now.
“Bye, Jongin,” Taemin sighed, ended the call quickly, and then leaned against the kitchen counter. The conversation hadn't even lasted a minute, but it had taken so much energy and hope from Taemin.

“You did well. I'm proud. Just keep it up,” Jonghyun was standing by the kitchen archway now, leaning against the frame, and he smiled at his friend before coming over to hug him.
“I know this is hard, but we're with you all the  way. I promise,” He said, and Taemin felt his eyes burn with tears again as he slowly hugged back.

𝑌𝑒𝑎ℎ, he thought with a sad but relieved smile, 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑔𝑒𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ 𝑎𝑛𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝐼 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑔𝑢𝑦𝑠.