[12 Years Ago]

Two tiny little silhouettes are seen through the thin walls of the makeshift blanket fort.

A bright flashlight is on the floor, and they have an assortment of snacks with them.

To them, they're in an elaborate castle, and the flashlight is a raging fire.

After minutes of eating the fattening foods, one of them begins to speak.

"Dae, have you ever thought about the future?"

Daehyun shakes his head, still devouring the treats.

"The adults are all dying and doing bad things, like kissing."

Daehyun silently agrees, making a small face.

"If I had it my way, I would stay a kid forever with you. Let's never grow up, okay?"

"Okay, Jae. Do you want to eat the marshmallows?"

All thoughts about the future were instantly thrown out the window, the focus was now entirely on the surgary snack.

[Present]

Daehyun groaned and rubbed his temples, hungover again.

He puts on his clothes and leaves whoever is sleeping next to him, not giving them a second thought.

It's just another fling, nothing serious. Why should he care about them?

He stumbles back home, stopping by a cafe to get some coffee.

Rubbing his eyes, he opens the door to his apartment.

Daehyun gets into the shower and cleans his body, getting rid of substances that he can't identify, and it's a probably a good thing that he can't.

Putting on his work clothes, he walks to the nearby diner.

Zelo, his young coworker, glares at him.

"Daehyun, you're ing late. Again. If this happens again, you're going to get fired."

Daehyun was about to fire back a snappy retort, but the bell rings.

He puts on a big, fake smile, and welcomes the family that walked in the door.

"Please walk this way, would you like to hear about today's special?"

He's been working for about 9 hours now, so he's tired, dirty, and as grumpy.

Of course, an walks through the door.

"Daehyun, I haven't seen you in years!"

"What do you ing want, Himchan?"

Himchan tsks. 

"Is that any way to talk to a paying customer?"

Daehyun puts on the fake smile again, and goes through the regular speech.

"Would you like to hear about today's specials?"

"No, I know what I want. What I would like to hear, is how you ended up being a complete failure. Care to explain?"

The requests escalate from there, and soon, Daehyun snaps.

He slams Himchan against the side of his booth, and that's when the manager, Jongup, walks in.

Jongup looks aghast.

"Daehyun! What the  are you doing?"

He pulls Daehyun away from the customer.

Himchan smirks quickly at Daehyun, not letting Jongup see it.

Then, he lets his eyes water, threatening to overflow with tears.

Jongup apologizes over and over.

Dragging Daehyun to the back room, he starts shouting at him.

"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY LAWSUITS HE COULD HAVE SLAMMED US WITH?"

The usually docile manager sighs.

"Daehyun, I really hate to do this, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to let you go."

Daehyun starts begging immediately.

"Jongup, I need this job. Please don't do this, please, you don't know how badly I need this job!"

Daehyun's voice rises near the end.

Jongup shakes his head sadly.

"I'm really sorry. Here's your last paycheck, and you can have whatever is in the tip jar."

Daehyun snorts, knowing that no one bothers to tip.

He takes the meager amount of money and leaves, his head already pounding from the stress.

Needing to get away from it all, he goes to a very familiar bar.

"Daehyun, back again?"

The bouncer, Yongguk, nods at him.

He's on first name basis with almost everyone at the bar.

"Zinger, can you give me the usual?"

The bartender looked at him sympathetically.

"Hard day at work?"

He doesn't answer, still trying to figure out how he's going to avoid getting kicked out of his apartment.

Zinger slides his drink down the table and he catches it easily.

He downs it all down in one gulp.

Several drinks later, Zinger cuts him off.

"Look, Daehyun. I'm kind of fond of you, and you're a regular. I don't want you to die of alcohol poisoning, so take it a little easy, alright?"

Rolling his eyes, he makes his way to the dance floor.

Immediately, girls start to crowd around him.

After a couple minutes of meaningless grinding, he leaves the dance floor and starts walking to his car.

Ignoring the calls of the jilted girls behind him, he takes out his keys and tries to unlock his car, but it's not there anymore.

Cursing, he tries to call people, but no one will pick up.

He looks through his contacts and calls someone he hasn't talked to in a long time.

"... Hello?"

"Hey, Youngjae. Can you do me a favor?"