"You look as if you haven't slept in weeks!" Jinki exclaimed, upon seeing his friend at their usual meet-up on campus.

"Thanks, Jinki," Jonghyun replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "It's great to see you, too."

"Well, sorry. But it's true! How late did you stay up until, last night?"

"Probably around three," Jonghyun sighed.

He wasn't really sure. All he knew was that the last time that he had looked at the small digital clock on the stove, the little red numbers showed that it had been a little past three o'clock in the morning. The next thing he knew, he'd woken up the following morning after a night on the kitchen table, his still unfinished budget glaring up at him.

Jonghyun's night had been uncomfortable, to say the least, and his morning had been even worse. Some how, he'd overcome the urge to fall asleep on his feet and had brewed himself another cup of coffee. He'd subjected himself to a cold shower in an attempt to wake himself up a little more and had checked his school things three times to make sure that he hadn't forgotten anything, in his sleep-deprived state. He wound up having to stand on the bus, as all the seats were taken. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered him, but as he was already tired and quite irritable, (not to mention the heavy books slung over his shoulders), the seemingly trivial issue was just another thing that just wasn't going Jonghyun's way.

"You really should go to bed earlier tonight," Jinki prodded, as the two made their way to class.

"I can't," Jonghyun answered. "I have to work tonight, and I'm sure we'll get more homework today."

Jinki was one of Jonghyun's best friends. They had met when they were both in their first year of university, and both were aspiring doctors. As close as they were, however, Jonghyun had never told Jinki much about his financial situation. Jinki knew that Jonghyun was living by himself, and that he was living in a not-so-great part of town, but nothing really seemed unusual about that. Tons of university students had tight budgets and lived in run-down flats. Jonghyun hadn't said anything, not because he didn't trust Jinki, but he had never really had the chance to mention his situation, and, like most young adults his age, Jonghyun had a little too much pride to share his moments of weakness, even with his good friends. 

"Just don't work too hard, alright?" Jinki said, putting his hand on Jonghyun's shoulder. "Go for a run, watch a movie. University doesn't have to be all studying," he smiled, trying to get his friend to relax.

Jonghyun paused. He couldn't tell Jinki that he was sometimes afraid to even leave his flat, let alone run around his unfriendly neighbourhood. He didn't have a television-the only technological device that he owned was his laptop-and there was no way that he could afford to go to a movie theatre. He appreciated his friend's concern, but Jinki was fortunate enough to be living with his parents, who were also paying for part of his education. For Jonghyun, things just weren't that simple.

"Thanks, Jinki," Jonghyun smiled back, sighing softly to himself, as they entered the classroom.

-----

Jonghyun thought that he might finally get a reprieve from his bad day when class finished, but he was terribly wrong. He had stopped by his flat to drop off his books and change into his work uniform, but there was a police barricade blocking his usual route to the bus station (someone had tried to rob a small shop, again). He had to take a longer route to the terminal and when he had arrived, the bus he usually took had already left.

Cursing under his breath, Jonghyun waited anxiously for the next bus, and by the time he arrived at work, he was over fifteen minutes late, and his boss was waiting for him with an impatient scowl on his face.

"I'm sorry to be late, sir," Jonghyun spluttered, bowing deeply in apology. "It won't happen again."

His nervousness in front of his boss suddenly turned into an effort not to laugh, as he caught sight of his colleagues, Kibum and Taemin, behind the café counter. Taemin had a look of morbid curiosity as he waited for the boss to blow, while Kibum made a few obscene hand gestures and ugly faces behind the boss's back.

"It better not," the older man spoke, glaring at Jonghyun, with irritation very clear in his voice, before going back to his small office at the very back of the café.

"I wonder what crawled up his and died," Kibum whispered, a tone of gossip alive in his tone, as Jonghyun got behind the counter.

Jonghyun burst out laughing, as he tied brown his apron around his waist. His day had been awful, but coming to work and getting to see Kibum and Taemin, who were his other two best friends, always painted a silver lining in his life.

Taemin was a young trainee, still in his teens, who had only started working at the café a month ago. He had learned all the recipes off by heart quickly, but he was always a little afraid of making mistakes and facing the wrath of their stern boss. He was a slightly timid, but kind and gentle young man whom Jonghyun had come to view as a little brother.

Where Taemin was shy and softspoken, however, Kibum made up for it with his outgoing and flamboyant personality. He showed up for work with a new hairstyle nearly every month (once, with rainbow highlights in his hair and now, with half of his hair shaved off and dyed blonde)  and caught up on all the latest gossip with the customers.

Jonghyun figured that he fit somewhere in between the two- not shy like Taemin, but not as boisterous as Kibum, either. It was more that he knew when to keep quiet and did most of the talking when his conversational partner seemed to be more introverted.

Finally in an environment where he could momentarily take his mind off of his troubles, Jonghyun focused on filling the first customer's order of a large caramel cappuccino with a slice of coffee cake.

----- 

There was only about an hour and a half until closing time, and as much as Jonghyun enjoyed his work at the café, he was admittedly glad that he could go home, soon. Jinki's advice to sleep at a more reasonable hour was replaying temptingly in Jonghyun's mind, and even though he knew that planning out his budget was important, he was seriously considering to just procrastinate and just finish it another day.

Despite the ever-approaching closing time, there was still a line-up of customers snaking up to Jonghyun's cash register. Trying to keep the fatigue out of his voice, Jonghyun called out the next order (a green tea latte) for Taemin to start preparing, while Kibum finished up the previous order. 

Trying not to give an impression that he hated his job, Jonghyun pasted a large smile on his face as he turned to take the next customer's order.

His smile faltered.

Standing in front of him, distance only by the service counter, was the most attractive man that Jonghyun had ever seen in his life.

The handsome customer had to be no older than Jonghyun himself, but was significantly taller. (Well, it wasn't hard to be taller than Jonghyun-even Taemin had several inches over his hyung.) He had large, brown eyes that were filled with kindness and an almost boyish face that added to the warm aura that he projected. His black jacket that he wore over top a white t-shirt revealed to all that he worked out-to say the least.

 Jonghyun was speechless.

It took him a few seconds to regain his senses, and he had to ask his customer to repeat his order.

The young man didn't seem to mind, and good-naturedly repeated his order of a large black coffee. Jonghyun blushed, feeling like an idiot, as he accepted the cash that the man gave him, and returned his change. His blush deepened when their fingers brushed, as he handed him the coffee that Kibum had just prepared, and he was sure that he had a deeper blush on his face than a red rose when the man dropped a few dollars in the fairly empty tip jar, leaving with a wonderful smile at Jonghyun. Jonghyun stood behind the cash register, waving stupidly, until the next customer cleared rather loudly, trying to get his attention so that she could place her order.

The rest of the evening passed by as if Jonghyun was only semi-present. He gave Kibum and Taemin the orders, but was really only working automatically, as he continued to think of the black haired stranger with the spectacular, heart-melting smile.

"He would be a fine catch, wouldn't he," Kibum smirked, sidling up to Jonghyun as the three of them closed the café for the night.

Jonghyun felt his face heat up again. He knew exactly what, or rather who Kibum was talking about, but dumbly chose to deny any knowledge of the matter anyway.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he interjected, stubbornly, his flowering blush saying otherwise.

Kibum just smirked again.

"I think that you to would make a great couple," he put in, helpfully.

Jonghyun blushed even more, while Taemin had started laughing at his hyung's transparent denial. Both he and Kibum had seen the way that Jonghyun had seemed to jam up in front of Minho.

"Oh, come on, Kibum," Jonghyun said, exasperated, as he folded his apron neatly. "I don't even know his name!" He knew that there was no use in trying to hide from the two.

"Yet," Kibum corrected. "You don't know his name yet. But when he comes back, you should try to talk to him. And try saying something somewhat intelligent this time," he teased, doing an unfortunately very accurate impression of Jonghyun looking like a blowfish out of water when he was serving Minho.

This sent Taemin into a complete fit of laughter, made worse by Jonghyun turning a definitive shade of crimson.

"How do you know if he'll even come back?!" Jonghyun exclaimed, as they walked out of the café.

"Oh, he'll be back," Kibum said, as if he personally knew the "mystery man". "He seemed to have taken quite a liking to you; and I'm pretty sure it wasn't just because he thought you looked ridiculous," he smirked.

"He might not even be from town!" Jonghyun called down the street, to Kibum and Taemin's retreating backs.

"Goodnight, Jonghyun!" Kibum called, having heard Jonghyun's argument and choosing to ignore it completely.

"See you on Monday, hyung!" Taemin smiled cheerfully, following Kibum, as the two rode the same bus.

Jonghyun sighed, embarrassed.

Still, when he lay in bed that night, he couldn't help but imagine a pair of strong arms, wrapped securely around his waist and a warm, toned body pressing against his back as his "mystery man" soothed the slight panic that he felt as gunshots sounded through the night, again.

Note:

Yay! New chapter! ^_^

So Minho has now been introduced and Jjongie already likes him ^^ sorry if my description of him was somewhat vague ^_^'

I'm really excited about this fic, and thank you very much to all who have subscribed, read and commented so far :)

x Angela