"Well, why are you crying this time?" The guy rubbed his forehead wearily, smiled warmly, and walked to the workplace, taking in the extent of the tragedy.

Sometimes the eye twitched nervously from excessive vulnerability, but Junsu guessed that in Jaejoong's past, the devil would have broken his leg trying to sort things - it undoubtedly affected the personality in a bad way. With several theatrical sighs, Junsu took the form with the burnt biscuit from the sobbing friend's hands and patted him on the shoulder.

"Hyung, I heard somewhere that you shouldn't cook in a bad mood. As you can see, your biscuits would agree with that... Let's try it again together, just smile already!"

"And my Person once said that you shouldn't force yourself to smile when you feel bad," Jaejoong replied quietly, wiping away tears with his palm. Yoochun, who came in after Junsu, brushed invisible dust particles from his apron and grinned:

"'My Person'? This is not a person, but a collection of quotes, seriously..."

How long had they been working together, a few months? During that time he heard ridiculous sentences starting with "and my Person said" a hundred times.

And Jaejoong never said anything more about him. Who was he? What did they have in common? Where did he go? Sometimes he wanted to find this person and drag him back by force, if only their new boss-already-friend would finally find a balance and stop crying every day over every little thing that was not worthy of attention.

Anyway, it took just a few days for them to get along.

The first thing Jae brought up for discussion was to stop buying ready-made food that was not even in demand.

"I'm not a bad cook, so..." he said thoughtfully and scribbled something in his notebook.

On the day they met, he'd just been watching the work and the guests, of which there were only three. Three cups of coffee brewed perfectly by Yoochun, one "yesterday's croissant" offered to Jaejoong earlier, and that was all for ten hours of work. Oh yeah, there was also a little tip for Junsu for playing the piano for the last guest before closing time. The guy put his personally earned money into the general fund.

It turned out that Jaejoong's mother had hired him as a musician before she died. "Damn luxury lover," Jae snorted to himself, "she has no customers and she wants live music. Nevertheless, she did her son a favor in the present: when Jaejoong saw how Junsu, who had recently received only a partial salary, gave his tips from his heart without a shadow of a doubt, he realized that even if they couldn't earn anything this month, he would pay them every penny out of his own pocket until his account was completely empty

The guys responded to the suggestion of changing their approach a little. Yoochun made a small list of the most popular breakfasts in the other places he sometimes visited, the two of them  went shopping for the next day while Jae inspected the kitchen himself. The room was large, but only a small area was organized. While the refrigerator and the stove were still usable, the oven proudly said goodbye after two minutes of use.

It had to be replaced.

Besides, they didn't even have the right plates, and the new owner was a firm believer that success starts with the details. It wasn't much less than the check for the oven, because you have to pay for quality. Other than that... everything else could be worked with, at least temporarily.

So they had eggs and toast for breakfast, waffles with whipped cream and berries, for which he'd bought a waffle iron, and scrambled eggs with mushrooms and cheese. Nothing fancy, he could do it himself, but the food would always be fresh and much more appealing. They managed to get the new menu up and running after a week, and when the preparations were complete, they put up a black chalkboard near the entrance with the new offerings. Before lunch, thirteen guests had arrived, ten more than the first full day together.

Yoochun was still making coffee and working as a waiter in the hall, Junsu was sometimes helping him, sometimes chopping and washing things for Jaejoong, sometimes playing the piano - in short, as he said, he was everywhere at once.

The teamwork brought them together imperceptibly. It was impossible not to become friends with Junsu, because he came to work every day with a smile and a radiant aura, for which he received good tips, which he steadily deposited in the cash register. Yoochun studied Jae first. Then they started talking after closing time, when Junsu had gone to visit his friend in the hospital because he hadn't made it in the morning.

They talked, sharing small things at first, then moving on to more personal topics. Yoochun said he used to live with his parents and younger brother, but his father had been moved to another city for duty, and he had decided to stay and try to live on his own.

"It's different with Junsu though..." the guy shook his head and sipped his coffee.

"What about him?"

"Well... It's a long story. In short, he's a chaebol," he grinned and inhaled the taste of the drink. "His parents own a big company, his older brother is a good example, fulfilling all his parents' wishes - a dream, not a son. Junsu isn't like that. He wants to do what he wants, which is against his family's wishes. As punishment, they took away his allowance and kicked him out of the house six months ago. They were hoping that he would come to his senses and come back under their wing, but not only didn't he come back, he... took a breath or something. That's when we started working here together, renting a tiny room for two. And Junsu, by the way, never thought of coming back, you know, he lights up like a light bulb.

Jaejoong couldn't argue with that.

The two of them, Yoochun and Junsu, though not close at the time, had known each other since childhood and attended the same music school - it turned out that Yoochun could play the keyboard just as well and even wrote his own music, but he preferred to watch Junsu do it - it was mesmerizing.

And yet, the son of rich parents, deprived of all the advantages of a high quality and expensive life... Jae still had the image in his head of him giving away his hard-earned money on the very first day. Even though they were now renting a small apartment instead of a room, their daily life was still very simple and down-to-earth, and the world revolved around a low-paying job that allowed them to rent an apartment, split the expenses in half, and feed themselves.

As things got better, the workload increased, as did the desire to do more and better. Jaejoong would spend hours puzzling over the new menu, adding lunches and dinners, trying to cook something complicated, and when it didn't work, he would cry like a little boy. When it did work, he rejoiced. On every little thing exploded with emotions, too bright, tried to pull himself together, realizing that his nervous system after all that had happened is shaken and needs support. So he burdened himself with more work.

After two months, their efforts bore fruit and their income increased.

For Christmas, they added a few more dishes and decorated the hall. The number of guests tripled, Jaejoong raised the salaries. The work became more fun, so live music was played every day, the hall was usually full in the mornings and evenings, there were few visitors at lunchtime, but that gave them time to prepare for the next round.

February approached unnoticed.

Jaejoong loved and hated it at the same time. He had long since stopped looking forward to his own birthday, and after the personal tragedy he had experienced, he had longed to just skip this month and start in March, when January ended. Nevertheless, his new friends had arranged a small celebration, and it was much more like a cozy home party with his family than when he really had a real family.

He was only four months older than Yoochun and almost a year older than Junsu, whose eighteenth birthday was in December. All three of them were eager to make something big and popular out of an unprofitable cafe, so they worked there from morning till night, each of them taking sometimes a day off, except for Jaejoong, who saved himself from his thoughts with his work and didn't rest at all. Step by step they got things done, which made them put in more heart and effort, director Kim didn't make decisions on his own, he asked and considered their opinions, which was a reward in itself.

Yoochun's initial aloofness smoothed out, faded into acquaintance, grew into friendship, and turned into a kind of mental closeness as they understood each other by sight. Junsu just rolled his eyes when they nodded and looked at each other as if they'd made up their minds. He mumbled something to himself and after a moment he was smiling again. Jaejoong adored him like he was his younger brother, and Yoochun a lot, but in a way that was not meant to offend. They spent almost every day together, laughing. A lot, all the time, so that for a while Jae even forgot himself in the routine, fully immersed in the process of "getting on his feet," as his lawyer put it.

But sometimes it would hit him.

*

Yoochun sighed heavily and looked at the scattered cigarette butts that Jae hadn't bothered to throw into the ashtray next to him. He snatched the coffee cup from Jae's hands, tasted it, and cringed, the black sludge so strong that it rolled viscously over his tongue, leaving a bitter, tarry taste. Not an elegant bitterness. Heart attack in a cup.

"What, feel bad?" he poured the contents into the sink, watching as the last drops lazily pulled away from the rim. "Jae, get over yourself. You're not going to get better by keeping quiet."

"I'm a sort of masochist," he grinned dejectedly, lowering his head.

"Yeah, yeah, we figured that out... So just tell me what's going on?" Yoochun dropped into a chair and yawned. "Is it something from the past that's holding your and not letting you breathe?"

"ing psychic."

"Spit it out."

Jaejoong in a full lungful of air, but couldn't find the words, just exhaled noisily. Really, where to start? The fact that he seemed to be pining for a man whose image he had made up for himself, whom he didn't even remember? Name? Physical appearance? Oh, he remembered the lips and the mole above them. He remembered the voice as clearly as if he'd just heard it. Would it help him find the right person and at least lift this weight from his soul? Probably not. Absolutely not.

"Before I came here," he waved his head in the direction of the café, "my mother shot herself in the head without even bothering to get a moment's privacy."

Yoochun nodded and pressed his lips together.

"She was far from maternal, but she was still my mother and I loved her... even if she chose the latter between her children and men. Right after that, something else happened... something worse. It hit me even harder, so much so that I totally lost my mind, I mean... I don't know exactly what happened, but after all that, it was like I dropped out of the world for a few months."

"What do you mean?" Yoochun frowned.

"I don't know, really. It was like I was in a kind of stupor the whole time, and I only remember bits and pieces. Someone talking to me, feeding me, bathing me, dressing me - it was all the same person."

"So that's the mysterious 'my Person'," his friend smiled understandingly. There was no longer any need to tease about it.

"Indeed," Jae replied with a sad smile. "One day, when my forgetfulness began to clear, he took me to the sea. He talked for a long time that day, saying he would always be there for me."

"But..."

"But the next day, he left for work and never came back."

Jaejoong fell silent and mentally went back in time. He vividly remembered those first, overly sharp emotions when reality had spontaneously hit him.

"It took me two more days to come to my senses. I kept waiting for the door to open and for him to come in, but as the days passed, nothing changed. I don't even know if he's alive. Probably not."

No matter how hard he'd like to believe differently. He went back to the rooftop apartment a few more times, looking for anyone remotely familiar - alas.

"The first time I left the house was five days later. It was scary, to be honest," Jae took another cigarette from his pack and lit it, making Yoochun sigh: if Junsu had seen that, it would have been bad for the two of them. "I hadn't realized how loud a city could be... Then I was finally convinced that he wasn't coming back, and suddenly I realized that I had my mother's unprofitable café and... goals that needed urgent action".

"You didn't even mention..." Yoochun started but stopped awkwardly, remembering how Jae had been so emotional at first, so nervous. It hadn't even occurred to him that there might be an explanation for his reaction. It was just a hypersensitive person, he thought. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Don't know," Jaejoong shrugged. "And we weren't that close before, so..."

Nodding, Yoochun put his arm around his friend and said softly:

"I'm sorry I didn't take that Person of yours seriously. I wonder who he was?"

Jae shrugged again and turned darker than ever.

"Hey, we're getting to the point, aren't we? Spit it out, Director Kim. Two heads are better than just your miserable one.

"There's nothing to say, it's silly... I'm attached to someone I don't know. I don't know anything, you know? His documents were missing, the neighbors had no idea who lived next door to them. I remember his mole above his lip. I remember he called me 'Toadstool'," a faint smile touched his lips, "I guess I must have looked so pale... I remember him taking me for a walk. I remember the horror - I'm still reeling from it - when I realized he wasn't coming."

"To sum up, you're stuck, you can't get out, and you're still floundering in this swamp with no hope of even knowing the identity of your Person. Who he is, where he is, and if he's even alive."

"Sort of."

"It's a bit of a mess, really."

The situation was truly hopeless. The only real advice he could give was to let go of his thoughts, to think less about the things he couldn't change, but... It doesn't work that way, does it? You can't just flip a switch from high anxiety and sadness to peace.

"Okay, it's a thankless job to mope," Yoochun finally said. "On Friday, my friends and a fair-haired co-worker decided that I couldn't celebrate my nineteenth birthday in a quiet work environment, so we're going to have something loud and drunken at our house. You don't have a choice anyway, because you can't leave me in the company of hostile people determined to get the poor birthday boy drunk. Right, Jae?

Sniffing, Jaejoong finally smiled.

"Right."