Having been forced to take an extra shift, Key was now closing up the shop after having worked twice as much s he would at this particular job. It was dark out now which furthermore irritated him. Today really was one of his worst days…

            First, he’d dealt with the typical annoying customers, then he’d gotten a head ache from dealing with that JongHyun guy, been forced to take more shifts, lost his other job and unloaded several boxes full of stickers and other worthless crap by himself. Just a few more minutes and he’d get to lock up this stupid place and go home to rest.

            Key grabbed the cash from the register, bringing it to the safe. Usually he locked up before doing all of his cleaning up of the store (the manager insisted that he did) but his mind was set on getting out as fast as he could.

            The safe door was locked, the new merchandise was on the shelf ready for whoever was working tomorrow, now all Key had to do was write in his hours and he’d be free to go.

            He’d just finished writing his initials in the book when he heard the music the door elicited when opened chime.

            “We’re closed!” he yelled, straightening up.

            No one answered him which somewhat unnerved Key. He wasn’t very muscular and he didn’t have any self defense training… The only thing he was capable of doing was packing a good glare and shooting a couple insults – other than that he’d be completely defenseless against any intruder.

Oh God! What if someone was coming to rob him and they had weapons? Key thought as he walked around the store.

The door was sealed shut, showing no hints that anyone came in. The cash register didn’t look like it’d been tampered with. Everything seemed normal; everything except for the air that was chilling Key all the way down to his feet. He’d done a full check of the store twice, finding not the least bit of disturbance and definitely no people.

            “You’re losing it Key…” he mumbled to himself. He went back to the counter, grabbing his messenger back off the floor and his sweater. If he hadn’t been so oblivious to his surroundings – if he hadn’t been so tired – Key might have noticed the person squatting behind his counter just a little faster. Unfortunately for him, it took the click of the cocking of a gun for him to become aware of his surroundings.

            “I’ll say this once and only once… Give me all your money,” the intruder said in a low and dangerous voice.

            Key looked up just to be met with the barrel of the gun. His knees shook, his palms got clammy and every part of his brain screamed at him to get the hell out of there as fast as he could. His body seemed to be frozen, though.

            This guy was easily a head taller than him, with hair that reached past his chin and big eyes that glared at him over the gun in his large hands.

            “Give me the money,” the guy repeated.

            Key’s mouth hung open. His eyes grew to the size of the others. He was frozen, completely paralyzed. Of all things he should have been dong then (i.e. getting the money so he wasn’t murdered) he stood there with his mouth wide open and eyes bugging out of his head.

            A look of anger crossed the robber’s face. The next thing Key knew he was pushed into the rack of pink post cards behind him. The metal bars dug into his tender flesh, wedging between his bones to make what was soon to be some ugly bruises. The sudden jolt of pain seemed to knock some sense back into Key. Adrenaline came in a massive rush and in a second he had launched himself at the guy in a stupid, stupid, attempt at disarming him.

            Considering this guy was taller, bugger and clearly skilled in the art of armed theft, Key was taken down in an instant.

            He wrestled Key to the ground so fast that his head collided painfully with the wooden boards of the floor. The entire robber’s rage (not the rage that had built due to Key defying his orders, but all the rage that had led him to doing this task) was pounded repeatedly into the slim body he had straddled between his legs. When Key’s eyes began to droop that’s when the robber stopped.

            Rising into an upright position, he looked down at the near unconscious and bloodied Key. His chest rose and fell in deep pants as he glared. He gave a little shake to Key before grabbing his gun.

            “Where’s the money?” he asked again.

            “I-in the safe,” Key gasped out. Had he been any more conscious the fear would be clearer in his voice.

            “Where’s the safe?”

            “Over there.” Key raised a shaky finger to point to the back room.

            The robber was up in a flash, running to the back room. There was rustling and crashing as he tried t break open the safe. Eventually there was a loud crack announcing that it’d been opened. He ran out, shoving a wad of cash into his back pocket as he did and leaving Key to his beaten self on the floor.

            If the pain hadn’t been so great, Key would have called the police right away but he was confined to a worthless pile of broken nothing on the floor. He so desperately wanted to get off the floor. He needed to go and clean up before the manager found him. He couldn’t afford to lose two jobs in one day… And he was getting blood all over the floor.

            With a final stubborn will, Key managed to crawl onto all fours to just a bit pass the counter. The rack he’d knocked over when he’d been shoved lay before him, an obstacle in his path. He tugged and pulled at the metal structure trying hard to right it up into what it had been before.

            Energy drained quickly from his body, however. It started off with his fingers, the tips getting numb and tingly; then his eye sight began to blue, black and pink dots tunneling his vision. He began to feel light headed and nauseous, bile actually managing to come out of his mouth since he’d had nothing to eat that entire day that would be able to come out.

            Key knew he was going to pass out. He could feel it in the shaking of his arms, the way his body was slowly succumbing to the wounds it has sustained. All thanks to that stupid, bug eyed jerk who thought it’d be fun to rob this innocent store.

            More bile raised up Key’s throat which he didn’t even try to keep down. A couple gags later his body shut down. His arms collapsed beneath his weight and Key once again found himself on the floor – completely helpless.

            Who knew what time it was when Key finally came to. It must have been morning because the sun was shining down onto the light wooden floors of the shop. It cast a heavenly glow onto the white and pink walls. Sparkles reflected the light and bore into Key’s eyes, making him groan.

            It took a lot of will power just for him to roll onto his side. He pushed himself up onto his hands and knees, hearing his bones scream in protest at all the little movements he was making. He had to clean up before the next worker came. God… What time was it? Six o’clock… He still had three hours before the next worker came.

            Key grabbed on to the edge of the counter, haling himself to his feet. Blood rushed to his head temporarily blinding him and causing him to sway.

            Everything hurt.

            Quit being such a baby, Key scolded himself. You need to clean up… Where was the mop?

            Twisting to the back room door, Key managed to catch a glimpse of where he’d previously been waiting. A whole new wave of nausea came over him at seeing all the blood. A large pool of crimson just sitting there.

            Forgetting about all the pain, Key ran to the back, located a bucket and began gagging up everything that wasn’t there. Who knew how long he was there but it was a while still before he managed to get back on track. He found the mop, ignoring the  broken safe lying in the middle of the room, and struggled back out to the front.

            As Key cleaned the only thing he had on his mind was making the place perfect. His boss couldn’t find out that they’d been robbed on his watch or else he’d for sure get fired. As much as he hated working, he couldn’t afford to get fired.

            He scrubbed half heartedly at the floor boards, ignoring the screaming pain in every one of his joints. His ribs ached, his head ached, his eyes burned. He took a moment to lean against the mop since a moment of dizziness overcame him and ran the list of all body parts that ached through his head.

            “Aish…” he mumbled while taking a few deep breaths. He was so into his breathing that the door chimes completely slipped passed him. He’d probably be really jumpy hearing those notes once he was fully conscious.

            “Hello? I know the sign says closed, but I had to clear up something – oh my God! What the hell happened?!”

            If there was one person Key didn’t need or want to see right then it was this guy. The difficult customer he’d had yesterday was back again, probably to come make his life even worse for him.

            “We’re closed,” Key croaked, still leaning against his mop.

            “Is that all you can say? Really? Here you are looking like a human punching bag and that’s really all you can say?” JongHyun bustled over, peeling Key off his mop and replacing the support it’d been giving him with his body. Weak shoves were aimed into his chest and shoulder as soon as he pried the body off. He would have laughed at the pathetic attempts was it not for the state the struggling boy was in.

            “Stop squirming,” JongHyun growled. As gently as he could he brought Key around the counter, away from the blood, and sat him against the other side. He held Key there until he was sure he wasn’t going to try and get up again.

            Passing a glance over him he noticed the extreme swelling of his left eye, the blue and purple bruises lining his arms. The same pink shirt he’d been wearing was stained with now dried blood and dirt. It was definitely a change from the strong, fiery persona he’d held so well yesterday. The guilt just grew in JongHyun from there… For some reason he thought this to be his fault.

            “What happened here? Did you get robbed?” JongHyun asked, taking off his plaid shirt so he could clean off the crap caking his wounds.

            Key’s head lolled to the side, exhaustion creeping into him. He was screaming in his head for JongHyun to go away. No one should be seeing him in the state that he’s in. His pride was getting deeply wounded with each swipe of the red shirt.

            “Don’t tell anyone,” Key ended up groaning.

            JongHyun rolled his eyes and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He wasn’t surprised at Key’s reaction to him dialing.

            “What are you doing?” he demanded.

            “Calling the police; you need to report this,” JongHyun answered simply.

            With the speed of someone who wasn’t battered and bruised, Key’s fingers latched onto the phone and tossed it aside.

            “N-no,” he said.

            JongHyun stared at Key, his face tinted with worry. Their eyes locked for several seconds, speaking silent words to each other. He wasn’t about to let Key tell him what to do in this state – he was clearly in no state to be making any decisions. That in mind, he stood up and walked to his phone, redialing the number he’d been previously trying to call.

            Key’s weak protests could be heard as the phone rang and rang. JongHyun paid no mind to him and waited impatiently for the operator to answer. A sigh of relief breathed out of him when the third ring got cut off and he was met with a woman’s voice.

            “Hello? I’d like to report a robbery. Yes. I’m not sure when it happened… I got here and I found the worker badly beat up and a few things knocked over. Yes… Yes, he can barely walk. Okay, thank-you.” JongHyun ended the call, shoving the phone back into his jean pocket. When he turned back to Key he saw that his eyes were narrowed angrily in his direction.

            “You’re an ,” Key insulted, hauling himself back to his feet with help from the counter.

            “I’m just tying to help – don’t get up.” With a gentle touch that the shorter male didn’t even know he possessed he brought him back to the floor.

            Key pushed off his hands and tried to look angry even though somewhere deep in him he felt a sort of gratitude to the guy for being so helpful to him even though he’d just been treating him like crap from the moment they’d met.

            “I’m probably going to get fired now,” Key whined. He unconsciously ran a hand over his face only to pull it back with a hiss when he felt the salty sweat from his palms come in contact with a big gaping cut under his eye.

            “You’re not going to get fired… Not unless you’re the one that robbed the store and beat yourself up,” JongHyun assured.

            A pregnant pause ensued his words. The only thing that could be heard was Key signing occasionally as they waited for the police to arrive. There were no sirens or flashy lights to announce the arrival of the patrol car. It pulled up silently to the shop with two officers stepping out and walking into the store.

            JongHyun made it his responsibility to greet them since he’d long ago decided that Key was only suitable for sitting and glaring at the pigeons loitering on the side walk outside the glass door.

            With a bow JongHyun said, “Hello, thank-you for coming.”

            The taller officer nodded, saying something about it being his job. While that officer talked to JongHyun about how he’d discovered the scene the other bent down to Key’s position, questioning him about a few things before calling an ambulance to come pick him up and transport him to the hospital.

            JongHyun wanted to tell something to Key before he got taken off to be treated for his wounds.

            “Yah, Kibum, right?” he asked, sitting beside Key once more.

            “Don’t call me Kibum,” the other whispered with his head hanging. “My name’s Key.”

            JongHyun nodded, really just trying to figure out how to phrase what he wanted to say.

            “Well, Key… I’m sorry… That’s really just what I wanted to tell you today. I was a jerk to you yesterday,” he finally said.

            It was Key’s turn to nod, keeping silent which disturbed JongHyun. He knew Key wasn’t one to accept apologies (well he didn’t know since he didn’t know Key, but he didn’t seem like the type to forgive and forget). He’d witnessed all too well yesterday that the guy had a big diva like personality but hadn’t he sounded sincere right then? He really did feel guilty.

            “I’m Kim Kibum, but you can just call me Key,” the guy said finally, holding out one of his shaky, battered hands.

            A giant smile split JongHyun’s face and he gently shook the others hand.

            “Kim JongHyun.”

            Key nodded and dropped his hand just in time for the paramedics to step through the door to lead him off.