Jinki looked at his phone as it vibrated, a message from Key ‘I’m not waiting up, so eat the food in the microwave.’ Jinki chuckled as he saw it and put the phone back in his pocket. He was happy to see that in the last few days that Key had warmed up to Joon because he knew Key was sort of angry with him before, but Key wouldn’t outright say it. He was glad to see his message.

He looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Another hour and he’d be done. Would Joon be already asleep? He hoped that maybe that he would be up when he got home. There wasn’t a lot of time that they got to spend together with exams and work. But now his exams were over, he felt much more relaxed.

The shift was extremely quiet for Jinki today, the bell on the door had only rung once for a teenage girl who had some ramyun and left. Otherwise, it was extremely slow and Jinki just did tedious tasks of checking inventory, stocking the candy at the counter, and sitting in the corner behind the counter.

Jinki was leaning on the counter, comparing sizes of products to his thumb, when the bell finally rang. He got up straightening his vest, and put on a smile to greet the customer.

A man walked in, and trailing behind him, a skinny girl clad in minimal clothes, not appropriate for the weather. And the bell rung once more and a familiar man followed the first two in. The man who stole the alcohol. Jinki stared wide eyed at the people who had just walked in. The guy from earlier, came right up to the counter and before Jinki could move back, he grabbed his face pushing his thumb right in to Jinki’s cheek.

“Oh look, your pretty face healed right up.” Jinki grimaced as his breath stank of alcohol.

The other guy just sauntered around the place, whilst the girl just sat on one of the chairs, before pulling back the guy and asking, “Are you sure this is the guy?”

“Yeah, he’s the one with Joon.”

“Ok good.” He pushed the guy right by the chest away from the counter.

“Hello Jinki…” He smirked reading the nametag as if it was a joke, “I need to know where that bastard Joon is.”

Jinki stayed silent scanning the activities of the other two in the store before looking bravely back at the man in front of him.

The man sighed but calmly said, “You see that guy, he’s a customer.” The man face controlled the venom in what he was saying, “I need to teach Joon how to ing treat customers.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you.” Jinki firmly but politely replied.

“Hmm, tell him Ji Yong asked for him.” The calmly replied, he turned to walk away. Jinki internally sighed, relieved that nothing went to wrong. Ji yong stopped at the first shelf though, smirked before kicking it knocking into the next causing the magazines, food products to be scattered and crushed from both shelfs.

Jinki was shocked, the girl giggled in excitement and the other guy took it as his cue. Going to the fridge section he threw the products to the ground, glass bottles shattering and soaking the floor.

Jinki quickly pressed the emergency button before fearfully deciding to stop them. “Hey!” But Jiyong just continued to smirk, pushing Jinki to the ground amongst the snacks strewn as soon as he left behind the counter.

The other guy finished emptying the fridge taking a couple bottles for himself, before Jiyong called him to leave, and the girl and the guy followed laughing.

Jinki pulled himself up surveying the damage to the store. He saw broken glass everywhere, crushed food, turned over chairs and table. He sighed, at least only one shelf was actually tipped over.

Jinki waited for the police to get there and he gave his statement, leaving out the details about Joon, and they left.

As soon as they left Jinki started to clean up, picking up the shelf, he threw away nearly all the tainted and broken food. Glass was still over the ground and the contents making the ground sticky. The substances sticking to the broom as he tried to collect the glass and rubbish. He tried to pick up some glass and vacuum up the smaller pieces, as he picked up a few large pieces, one pierced his palm. He dropped all the glass as he winced in pain. He quickly grabbed a dishcloth from a shelf and pressed it against his palm. Once the bleeding seemed to stop under pressure, he lifted the cloth and saw the deepness of the cut. He grimaced before walking over to another untoppled shelf and grabbed some bandages.

Jinki’s boss receiving the call finally arrived after he had continued to clean most of the store, the best he could. The boss looked around, like the police had, judging the damage, he sighed in disappointment and frustration. “The police informed me of what happened.”

Jinki nodded and hung his head out of respect; he clasped the broom tightly as he could hear the disappointment in his boss’ voice.

“I know that you did not do this but being involved in with those sort of people... it seems as if you’re a target for these people.”

Jinki opened his mouth to protest, but the owner continued, “With the incident last time and this, Jinki, I don’t think it’s the best you keep working here.”

“But…” Jinki tried again, but he couldn’t think of any excuses.

“I’m sorry, you’ve done your job well for the last two years but I can’t overlook this, I’m going to have to let you go.”

Jinki didn’t protest any further, instead he just quietly went home after helping the owner clean up a little.

Opening his apartment door, Jinki quietly made his way to the kitchen. He sighed, seeing the food in the microwave, not feeling like eating it. He took out and put it in the fridge for another day, hopefully Key wouldn’t see it and be mad.

“You aren’t eating.” Jinki gasped in shock not even having heard Joon enter.

“Umm… I ate something from work.”

“Oh ok.” Joon replied.

Joon didn’t want to admit he had been waiting for Jinki, but he knew that his exams had ended today and he had just wanted to greet Jinki. But for some reason, Jinki seemed forlorn and defeated. Maybe it was the stress that had built up making him so tired.

Before Joon even had a chance to strike up a conversation, Jinki had begun to leave the kitchen. Joon grabbed his wrist as he noticed the bandage stained with some blood, “what happened?”

“Huh?” Jinki absentmindedly questioned before realizing what he was talking about, “oh, I just cut it accidently when I was opening boxes.”

Joon could sense that he was lying somehow but didn’t want to push it.

“I’m just going to take a shower,” Jinki said walking away again, “you don’t have to wait up.”

Something didn’t feel right, Joon could tell. He just went back to the room and sat on his side of the bed and waited for Jinki to come into the room.

Jinki came in ten minutes later his hand newly bandaged, burying himself under the blanket.

“Are you sure your okay?” Joon questioned.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” He mumbled from underneath the blankets.

“I can tell you’re lying.”

“I… I’m not.” He stuttered, his voice breaking, when he realized he was crying.

Joon noticed too, he pulled the blanket down and placed wiped his tears with his thumb.

Jinki didn’t open his eyes as he tried to will himself not to cry.

Joon was surprised nonetheless to see the usual happy bubbly person breaking down. He didn’t have any experience in comforting people, but somehow he couldn’t help but pull Jinki up into a hug. As he patted the back of his head, he mumbled, “You’ll be fine.”

Jinki just melted into the hug, the constricting worries still going around in his head.

A/N:  Hey guys, I'm sorry for not updating in such a long time. But i was busy with Uni and exams. But they are over so I finally had time to sit down and write an update, I tried to make it long. And hopefully I will be faster in updating compared to before because now I'm on holidays. :) Anyways, i hoped you liked this chapter. Also I'm so proud of Shinee at the moment, they won the Daesang!! It was a beautiful moment. :)