It’s been much too long since he’s had a nice cup of warm coffee.

That was what N tried to convince himself with.

The man sat by himself in his living room, staring down a steaming mug of black on the table in front of him. It was a quiet and calm evening, perfect for a night stroll in the park or shopping in the city.

If only he felt like doing those things or at least, had someone to do those things with him.

Almost a week had passed by since he closed down 24 Hours, and almost a week since he last had contact with any of them.

No messages or calls from Hyuk, Hongbin, Ken, or Ravi. Although he did lock the door when it was usually left unlocked for Leo to walk in randomly, he didn't even receive a single knock from the singer. It felt like he had never known them or even existed.

N assumed they were all angry and hurt. It was only natural that they completely shunned him. He did let them off without any notice, without any compensation, without any goodbye.

Hell, he wouldn’t even be surprised if they already found new jobs. He himself already applied to a dance program at a nearby college; with a ninety-five percent chance of getting in.

But it sure was lonely without them.

N shook his head, and picked up the hot cup with careful hands. He had to move on, like he promised himself. He shouldn’t think about the things that already happened, and look towards the future as bleak as it seemed right now. If he didn’t, throwing away his most prized possessions would have been all in vain.

It all started with this cup of coffee.

The tanned man told himself that if he wanted to turn over a new leaf, he had to start by removing anything that would remind him of the past. This included his dietary habits.

He threw away all of his alcohol, all of his beer cans and all of his wine bottles. He put himself on prohibition, because if he had the slightest taste of any cocktail right now, he’d probably be reminded of Hongbin’s drinks and burst into tears. So his taking to coffee was his way of moving on. Throwing away all his alcoholic drinks was a way of throwing away the past.

He spat out the bitter liquid as soon as it touched his tongue.

N quickly put the cup down and stood to look for his shoes. “… I can throw away the past later,” he muttered in distaste and left the apartment. He assumed that a quick walk and a load of fresh air were needed to clear his mind. But somehow his feet took him to that unassuming place again.

He didn’t know what to expect when he saw the building. He could barely look at it when they put up the ‘for sale’ sign on the window. There was a small hope that the sign was still there, and that the building was still for sale. After all, he closed it down only seven days ago; no one could possibly buy it in such a short amount of time.

The man attempted to contain a sob when he didn’t see it.

In fact, he saw everything but the sign. An entirely new business had taken residence in the building now, and there were already customers filing in and out of the place. Some of the exterior furniture had been changed and the lights that spelled out ’24 Hours’ in neon pink was replaced with the new business’s name.

N stood there for a moment, confirming that this was a reality that really should be a nightmare. The longer he stood there, the weaker his legs became until he eventually collapsed onto the sidewalk. The tears streaming down his face couldn’t even begin to express what he felt right now; he wanted to die.

He didn’t think it would hurt this much, but it did. His home was gone.

He felt so pathetic; being unable to give up his past and wailing on the middle of the sidewalk while people walked right past him made him feel so low.

“Mommy, is that man okay?”

“Yes dear, he’s just one of those weird men I warned you about.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“Is he an extreme fan of Ildangbaek or something?”

N immediately lifted his head. “… Wh-What did you say?”

“Ildangbaek? It’s the new bar that just opened up over there.” The pedestrians quickly walked away, muttering and questioning his sanity.

He looked upon the building again, carefully reading what name was placed on its front. Indeed, the intricate black characters spelled out ‘Ildangbaek; bar and music’.

Thinking the impossible, N slowly stood when strength returned to his legs. He hobbled over to the building, and noticing that the blinds were closed, decided to walk in.

He braced himself and opened the door.

“Welcome, valued customer!” A certain blonde greeted him and bowed. “We have been expecting you!”

N’s eyes doubled their size. “K-Ken? What are you doing—?”

“Please, have a seat!” The other man guided him to his favorite place; table one, which hadn’t moved from its very spot. Not much had changed in the little space save for the wall paint and carpet which had changed to more modern colors.

That still didn’t stop N from being flabbergasted as hell. “Wait—can you tell me what’s going on here?!”

Ken pulled out a popper from nowhere and popped it, making confetti fly everywhere. “We’re holding the grand opening of Ildangbaek! We actually opened seven days ago, but since our VIP guest didn’t come until now, we postponed the ceremony.”

“Wh-what do you mean?! I sold the building! You can’t possibly work here—“

“We bought it as soon as you put it up for sale,” Ken grinned cheekily. “Gosh, don’t you ever check your bank account? We chipped in as much as we could, but Hongbin and Leo-hyung paid the most. Those two flipped a coin and Leo-hyung won, so he got to name the place!”

“YOU GUYS BOUGHT IT?!”

“Yup! Then the new boss rehired me, and asked Leo-hyung to guest as singer.” He pointed to the redhead over by the stage, casually doing a mic test.

“What new boss?” N could barely process any of the information just given to him. “I—Is Hongbin the new boss?

“Nope! It’s—“

“Hyuuuung!” The kitchen door swung open to reveal a prepubescent high school graduate. “You said you’d help me with these boxes!”

"Oops! Sorry kid!" Ken rushed over and took half of what Hyuk was carrying. "It's kind of hard working as chef and waiter at the same time!"

Hyuk frowned. "Do you think it's any easier to be both a bartender and a boss?”

The previous boss nearly had a heart attack. N shot up and stomped right over to them in absolute fury.  “YOU’RE THE NEW BOSS?!”

Despite his glaring, Hyuk smiled. “Yeah, I don’t really know how that happened.”

“Well, Hongbin and Ravi don’t work here anymore and you can’t expect me to be boss,” the chef laughed. “Since we are the only two people that actually work here.”

“He’s perfect for the job,” Leo spoke into his mic. “With all his training.”

“Oh yeah! Hongbin trained him a bit in the art of bartending, and I trained him in food! Plus he was supposed to go to some dumb business program in college, so he’s got all those math courses and stuff behind him.” Ken tousled the kid’s hair so much it started to fly around in static. “He’s practically the perfect boss!”

Embarrassed, Hyuk jokingly smacked the older across the arm. “Can you stop boasting about me now?”

“YOU CAN’T BE THE NEW BOSS!” N suddenly shouted, startling them.

“Why not?”

“… B-Because!” He started to break down again. “… I-I let go of 24 Hours so that you guys could move on! I didn’t want you to be tied down by m-me… Ravi and Hongbin wanted to g-go to Paris, but because I was scared of them leaving they couldn’t… I-I wanted you to go to college! I don’t want you to be wasting your life here like me! I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did… But I was scared of you leaving. I didn’t have a choice but to close it down!”

“Hyung,” the youngest patted his shoulder comfortingly. “I’m not wasting my life here. I’ve discovered that this, this is what I want to do. I want to run a business where people can come in comfortably to have good food and listen to good music. I want to run a place where you get to know everyone and anyone while making their drinks. I want to be surrounded by the best people in the world, because they give me strength. You taught me that, hyung. You taught me that there are some things in the world that you can’t do by yourself. I want to be surrounded by people like that; you guys.”

N still tried to fight. “But—“

“Even if you guys go far away, even if you leave. If I’m here, it’ll be like you never left. This is our home, and I’ll take care of it. I’ll keep the place running until I die, or until forever. Trust me on this, boss.”

He really didn’t know what to say. He began to tear up, because although he was still angry at Hyuk for throwing away a potentially rewarding life full of doctorates and money, the kid looked so happy.

"Besides, why waste precious money on tuitions when I can start making some dough right now? There is no downside to this," Hyuk gave Ken a side-glance. "Except maybe I have to work alone with him until we hire more help."

"I heard that!"

The two began to bicker loudly, and as they did so Leo came by and gently wiped a tear stain off his face. “Sorry for ignoring you. They wanted it to be a surprise.”

“Well… I’m surprised,” he managed to utter. “I’m a little jealous though.”

The singer tilted his head a bit. “What do you mean.”

“Hyukkie’s found his true calling,” N finally laughed. “His true place in life. I haven’t found mine yet, so I’m a little…”

“You have one,” Leo planted a soft peck on his forehead. “You just have to work towards it.”

Not knowing what he meant, N asked. Leo simply turned and pointed to the empty stage, lights shining on a spot that just begged for a passionate performer.

“It’s all yours.”

A grin appeared on the elder’s face. “Taek, I’ve decided. You can go to music school.”

Leo looked back at him in shock. “What. Are you sure.”

N nodded, determination rising in his body. “You can go. I’ll go to college. It doesn’t matter if we don’t see each other for days, months, or even years. I know you really want to, so I’ll let you go.”

“But Hakyeon… Why?”

“Because… I want to become a great performer Taek, and I want you to become an even greater one than you are now. I want us to take to even greater, bigger stages, with more people than ever. But more than anything, I want to share the stage with you.”

There was this really dreamy look in N’s eyes that had Leo completely caught; he felt like he was falling in love all over again.

“The next time we should see each other is on the stage. The big stage, where we can perform together. And this is only going to work if the both of us go to school. You got that?”

Leo nodded his head so fast his bangs flopped and hit him in the eye. But he didn’t care; he gave N a great big kiss anyway.

“By the way, you’re not allowed to cheat on me while you’re overseas.”

“Of course.”

He should’ve known. He should’ve known that there are some things in the world that you just can’t do by yourself. Whether it be stopping a rival business from demolishing your home, preventing another fire, getting married, going on a family vacation, or putting closure on an important chapter in your life.

All N needed was an extra pair of hands, or five extra pairs of hands. All he needed to move on was a push, a small push guided by none other than the best people in the world. He couldn’t throw the past away with them in it; he had to take them with him. He couldn’t move on by himself, everyone would.

Hongbin and Ravi were getting married.

Hyuk and Ken now run their own business.

Leo was going to become a wonderful singer.

And N... He’s still not sure what his future looks like, but at least he knows that he won’t be alone anymore.

Because despite that they were all going to be so far from each other, they were still doing this together.

They were moving on together.

/sobs manly tears/ 
yay, a lot of prompts appeared in my inbox! now i'm overwhelmed but thank you guys! <3
you guys realize Hyuk hasn't even been working at 24 Hrs for a year and he already owns the place
hyuk is actually satan