The girl at the window with the flippy blonde hair is eyeing Hyukjae’s property and, well, he really doesn’t like that.

Her boyfriend is painfully oblivious, seemingly way too interested in his orange and nectarine cheesecake (courtesy of Hyukjae himself) to care, but Hyukjae just wants her to have the decency to at least cover up the fact that she’s ogling the waiter’s .

“Donghae, can you take this to table four?”

The ever-so-unaware Donghae picks himself up from where he was bending over the table he was cleaning and clambers over to the till, “Why can’t you?”

“Because I’m too busy glaring at the girl by the window for staring at your . Go.”

“Which one?” Donghae asks, looking around in what he thinks is a subtle fashion (but is actually the least subtle you can get) and worrying his bottom lip between his teeth, “Are my trousers too tight?”

“Your trousers are fine. More than fine, actually. Table four probably thinks we’re slacking, go!”

Donghae picks up the two coffees and doesn’t forget to throw Hyukjae a heatless scowl before he spins on his heel and heads to table four.

She still hasn’t given up, Hyukjae notices, but he realises that he’s not the only one who’s noticed. Her boyfriend looks a little slow though. It might not get messy for another twenty minutes.

Hyukjae nearly jumps out of his skin when Henry appears out of seemingly nowhere, giggling as his eyes go from the girl at the window to Donghae (or namely, Donghae’s .).

“I think your ’s gonna cause a break up.”

Donghae quite spectacularly trips over the very small step up to behind the till and Henry giggles even more.

“You’re meant to be making… things.” Hyukjae wrinkles his nose, “I’m on tills today. Go away.”

“No. I want to be here. Mostly because I want to see that guy break up with that girl.”

The guy in question is eyeing his girlfriend carefully. She doesn’t notice because she’s still eyeing Donghae.

“She is shameless.” Hyukjae grimaces, “Would I get sacked for smacking a customer on accounts of ual harassment?”

“She is not ually harassing you. So yes.”

“She’s practically stripping him with her eyes!”

“Who is stripping who with their eyes?” Donghae pipes in, and Hyukjae groans.

“That doesn’t count as ual harassment. There’s no such thing as ual harassment on accounts of looking.” Henry continues, looking all high and mighty, proud because his girlfriend is a law student. Hyukjae wants to punch him sometimes. “Why are you so protective of Donghae’s anyway?”

Hyukjae chokes on thin air and clings to Donghae for support.

“Oh! Guys, he’s finally doing something!”

Hyukjae tries to quietly recover from his coughing fit to watch the couple by the window. The guy looks confused, rather than angry, but maybe there’s enough anger sprouting from the girl, whose voice is rising by the second.

“God! You always think I’m looking at other guys, don’t you? Do you really have that little faith in me? If that’s the case, then we’re done. Over.”

The girl stalks out of the patisserie, leaving her completely baffled and now ex-boyfriend behind. Hyukjae sighs.

“That was boring.”

“I am going to slap the next customer that just saunters in here and thinks that they can-”

“It’s kind of terrifying that you care more about this than Donghae does.” Jongwoon points out, and Hyukjae leaps about ten feet in the air. What is it with his co-workers and appearing out of nowhere? “Also, you’ll get sacked.”

“I don’t care. And I’m just protecting Donghae.”

“What from? He’s a twenty-seven year old man, Hyukjae.”

Hyukjae growls and glares at another customer who’s seemingly taken a fancy to Donghae’s . This time, he is presumably still at school and has messy hair and puffy lips.

His friend doesn’t seem to like the way he looks at Donghae either.

“You know that the constant need to protect someone is one of the first signs that you’re in love with them?” Sungmin says, and Hyukjae thinks that he will possibly need first aid soon because he might just have a heart attack.

“I’m not in love with Donghae. Why isn’t anyone working today?”

“It’s Wednesday. Slow day. And you totally are.”

“Go play in some traffic, Lee Sungmin.”

Hyukjae likes 2pm. The place is practically empty, in between the lunchtime rush and the afternoon tea goers. There is one group of girls sitting in the corner, and they’re submersed in what seems to be a notebook.

Hyukjae thinks about Donghae at 2pm. No one is there to tell him off for slacking or staring at him. He can think about the friend that he may or may not have been running after for the past three years in peace. Hyukjae thinks Donghae looks more handsome than normal, today. And damn, his looks perkier. No wonder everyone’s staring at it.

“I knew it!” Henry shrieks as he appears (this time, actually from the kitchen and not from thin air), and the girls in the corner look up. Even Donghae does, too.

“Knew what?” Hyukjae says nonchalantly, trying to play it cool.

“You… Donghae, c’mere!”

Donghae rolls his eyes and stalks back to the till.

“Donghae, are you single?” Henry asks straight away, and Donghae starts.

“I… What? Yes…?”

“Great. Hyukjae, are you single?”

“Whatever you’re doing, I’m not joining-”

“Of course you are, I’m just being stupid. Hyukjae, do you admit that you were staring at Donghae’s ?”

“… What are you on about Henry-?”

“Okay, that’s a yes. Donghae, do you admit that when Hyukjae used to wear those really tight jeans to work that you spent all day staring at his crotch?”

“Henry-!”

“Hm. Hyukjae, do you admit to harbouring very non heteroual feelings towards Donghae?”

“Henry Lau, I am going to kill you and they will never find the body-”

“Donghae, do you admit to harbouring very non heteroual feelings towards Hyukjae?”

“Yeah, Hyukjae’s right, CSI won’t know what hit them-”

“Okay, I announce you boyfriend and boyfriend. My shift’s over, I’m going home.”

They look helplessly after him as he swings open the door.

And burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“Wait. Let me get this straight.”

Zhou Mi only works on Thursdays. But somehow, he still knows everyone’s business.

“Or, well, as straight as it gets. This is pretty damn gay.”

Hyukjae grimaces at him.

“Henry told you two to be boyfriends and you… ignored him.”

Hyukjae whines.

“God, you are as stupid as I first thought.”

“Do I want to know what you’re talking about?” Ryeowook asks from where he’s sandwiching macarons together and Hyukjae groans.

“He’s being insufferable. So no.”

“Ryeowook, tell Hyukjae he’s made for Donghae.”

Ryeowook raises an eyebrow, “Are we talking about this again?”

“Yes!” Zhou Mi cries.

“Hyukjae, you’re made for Donghae.” Ryeowook says, bored, “You clearly want in his pants. You’re really stupid. Do you want me to continue?”

“I don’t like Donghae, okay!” Hyukjae almost shrieks.

“You don’t like me?”

Hyukjae falls off his stool. He thinks he needs a new job, away from these mysteriously appearing colleagues.

“I do- ow! I do… like you.” Hyukjae mumbles, pulling himself up from the floor, “I just don’t… like like you.”

“Really, Hyukjae. Are you ten?” Ryeowook sighs.

Donghae looks confused, “Oh. Well. Yeah.”

“I’m going to get a new job. Where my co-workers aren’t dumbs and the matchmaking is easier.” Zhou Mi grumbles.

“Donghae?”

Donghae looks up from his cupcake mix, “Hm?”

“Do you… Like anyone?” Hyukjae almost whispers, but Donghae hears him.

“Yeah.”

Hyukjae’s heart plummets.

“Who?”

“Oh, just a guy.” Donghae smiles, “He’s a bit… stupid. But he’s cute. Really cute.”

Hyukjae tries to swallow his disappointment. He should be happy, because there’s guy who makes Donghae happy, right? “Are you gonna ask him out?”

Donghae looks contemplative for a moment, “I… don’t know if he likes me… like that. I don’t want to ruin a friendship, if he doesn’t like me.”

“If he’s a good enough friend, he won’t mind.” Hyukjae shrugs, and he misses the pensive look Donghae throws him, “He doesn’t deserve to be your friend if he doesn’t understand.”

Donghae stops filling cupcake cases and turns to look, really look, at Hyukjae, who also stops what he’s doing.

“What?”

“Hyukjae, will you be my boyfriend?”

Hyukjae nearly drops the bowl he’s holding, “W-What?”

Donghae rolls his eyes, the corner of his lips twitching, “Will you be my boyfriend?”

“W-What about… That guy…” Hyukjae says, his eyes on his bowl.

Donghae can’t help himself and he laughs, “And people think that I’m the stupid one?”

Hyukjae fiddles with the rim of the bowl.

“I’m waiting for an answer.”

Hyukjae turns to put his bowl on the counter, and suddenly, Donghae is worried. What if he’s been reading it all wrong, and Hyukjae actually doesn’t like him? Oh, that’d be just his luck. He ducks his head, like Hyukjae had been doing earlier, and ignores the footsteps coming towards him.

Two warm hands cup Donghae’s face, and when he looks up, a flustered, shy Hyukjae is smiling at him.

He leans forward, and presses his lips to Donghae’s.

“ing finally!” a voice cries, and they break apart, jumping away from each other.

Heechul is standing at the door with a -eating grin on his face.

“Just because you’re my boyfriend now doesn’t mean that you still have to glare at everyone who so much as looks at me.”

“Don’t be silly, of course it does.” Hyukjae grumbles, eyeing the same blonde girl from a week ago and her tall brunette friend with distaste.

“Ew.” Henry says, loud enough over the coffee machine.

Jongwoon opens the door from the kitchen with a new batch of croissants, but he doesn’t move past the doorframe.

“Sungmin told me to tell you that Zhou Mi texted Ryeowook telling him to tell you that you’re both really, very stupid.”

Henry nods in agreement.

Hyukjae and Donghae are far too busy sharing sweet little kisses to hear.