` (    FightMe  HongJisoo♥    )

Chapter six :
"Let's be honest- PLAN ABORT, I REPEAT, ABORT!"

‘Hyung!’

‘Yoon Junghan, get over here!’

‘Oh my god, why didn’t you tell me you were bringing a date over?!’

‘What’s his name?!’

‘How old is he?!’

‘Did he like my cake-’

Junghan scrunches his face; walking into your work place and having thousands of questions thrown at you are the things Junghan wanted the least today. The poor male couldn’t sleep for even a mere 30 minutes due to his thumping heart, never slowing down ever since Joshua patted his head. 

Man, I have problems.

‘Shut up, guys.’ Junghan waves the boys off, telling them to get working as he rubs his temples, making his way behind the counters.

‘Yoon Junghan! Come on, you can’t hide it forever-’

‘Seungcheol, say one more word,’ Junghan closes his eyes, taking in a deep breathe before shooting the other a glare, ‘And I swear you’re I’m gonna chuck these coffee grinds at you.’

‘But hey, at least he’s not talking about that Jisoo guy-’

‘Wonwoo, I can hear you!’

‘Sunday morning rain is falling-’

‘Jisoo hyung-’

‘Hong Jisoo-’

‘J-’

Crash!

Three boys tumble into the cafe, knowing over pots of plants (‘Thank god they’re plastic pots.’) and other decorations.

‘Guys, what the f- I mean, what’s up?’ Jisoo raises an eyebrow, running over to the three trouble makers. ‘Jun! I didn’t expect you to be one of the people to knock things over in this cafe! Mingyu, why, why are you doing this, do you know how long it took me to set all of those pots up?! Chan, my child get up and go over there. Don’t be influinced by Mingyu-’

‘Hyung!’ Mingyu frowns, brushing the soil off his shirt as he gets up, ‘That’s unfair, Chan was the one who wanted to run-’

‘Okay, okay. Just… Just clean everything up.’ Jisoo sighs, helping Chan up as the poor kid could’ve broken his back if his two hyungs fell on top of him.

Pouting, Mingyu picks up all the pots he’d knocked over along with Jun, though keeping a close eye on Jisoo and Chan. Feeling the stares, Chan lets out a small cough through his mumbles of ‘I’m fine’ and ‘I can still stand, see?’.

‘Jisoo hyung…’

‘What is it, Chan?’ Jisoo has his back turned to the three now, trying to clean up the mess.

‘You…’ Chan hesitates, unsure of what to say as he exchanges looks with the other two.

‘How are you still alive?!’ Mingyu blurts out, his hands going up to his own mouth just as quick as the words had spilled out. ‘Um, I mean… Um…’

Jisoo eyes are wide opened, staring back at the three trouble makers; he really, really needs to rethink his choices in choosing his staffs.

‘He meant to ask if you had a good date or not.’ Jun says with a straight face which makes Jisoo trips over his own foot, the three running over to catch him.

‘Oh my god, was it that good?!’

‘What?!’ Jisoo gasps, staring at Mingyu in disbelief. ‘I don’t even want to know what you meant, but no, it wasn’t even a date. But it was fun-’

‘It was fun?!’

‘Oh my g-’

‘Chan, don’t say oh my god!’

‘Vernon, when did you get here-’

‘That’s not important.’ Vernon smirks, looking at Jisoo with amusement, ‘So how was your date?’

‘It’s not a date!’

Jisoo sighs, shaking his head as he gives up on arguing, knowing there is no use since these kids always win. He leaves the four to discussing about his date, thanking god that Seokmin and Jihoon aren’t here to contribute yet-

‘Jisoo hyung!’

I spoke too soon.

‘Okay, fine, we’ll stop asking about your… Your ‘hangout’.’ Jun mumbles, tear stained face from laughing too much at the sight of a frustrated Jisoo, chanting ‘It’s not a date!’ ‘We just want to know how you survived. I mean, we all know how much Junghan hates you.’

Jisoo cringes at the word; ‘hate’ is such a strong word and to think that Junghan thinks of him like that hurts. Jisoo knows he’s wrong, he knows lying to the other isn’t going to make anything better, he knows the consequences. It’s just… It’s worth the try; maybe, just maybe Junghan will change his opinion, maybe he’ll realize Jisoo isn’t such a bad person and that Jisoo is no different from Joshua.

‘Shut up, it’s not that bad.’ Jisoo sighs.

‘C’mon hyung, we all know he would’ve ripped your head open the first moment he sees you.’ The boys cringe at Chan’s descriptive description, ‘Did you not tell him your name? I’m so confused like how are you still here with not even one bruise-’

‘You’re making Junghan sounds like an abusive monster.’ Jisoo furrows his eyesbrows, ‘But okay, so… Okay…

Jisoo looks at the six in front of him, not knowing whether or not it’s a good idea to tell them. After a moment of indecisiveness, Jisoo takes in a deep breathe.

‘I told him my name’s Joshua.’ Before the kids could start yelling at him and telling him he’s stupid, Jisoo adds, ‘Technically, I wasn’t lyin-’

‘Hyung! How could you?!’

‘Okay, Chan, sit down. There’s no need to be mad-’

‘You’re scaming my hyung!’

‘What, no, what the hell Chan?!’

‘You-’

‘Okay, time out. Chan come over here.’ Vernon stands up, pulling a fuming Chan into the kitchen as he mouths ‘your welcome’ to a thankful Jisoo.

…

‘Guys, I know it was a stupid thing to do.’ Jisoo feels so, so small under their stares. ‘But I panicked, okay? What would you do if you were sitting in front of your potential murderer?! Just, talk to me guys, you’re scaring me being this quiet.’

…

‘Guys…’

Jisoo lifts his head up up to meet eyes with Jun; the chinese male immediately softens when he sees the fear in Jisoo eyes. Jun and Jisoo are close enough to understand each other through looks, and the last thing Jun wanted to do now is to scare Jisoo off. Jisoo has a tendency to curls up on his own, isolating himself from everyone when he feels like he’s being judged; knowing what the other would do if the silence in the room conitnued (except for the distant ‘Why would he do that?!’ and ‘Calm down, Chan!’ from the kitchen), Jun smiles gently at the other.

‘Jisoo,’ Jun starts, ‘I think we all know you didn’t do it intentionally; I’m pretty sure we’d all do the same thing if we were you.’

‘I’d probably say my name is Mammoth.’ Mingyu mumbles, earning a slap from Seokmin.

‘Anyways…’ Jun continues, ‘Just… Tell him as soon as possible? Or when you’re both ready.’

‘Yeah! Go for it, hyung. It seems like you guys had a great time, he can’t just hate you after everything!’ Seokmin says encouragingly, smile brighter than the sun.

‘Yeah, we don’t want to come to your funeral just yet-’

‘Shut up or we’re going to your funeral first, Mingyu.’

‘Pssssst, Soonyoung!’

Snapping his head up at the sound, Soonyoung looks around, eyesbrows furrowed as his brains works at full speed, trying to come up with a logical explanation as to how his name was called when no one is around.

‘, is this place haunted-’

Smack!

‘You’re being dumb again.’ Wonwoo laughs, walking away after he’d smacked his friend over the head with the cafe’s menu.

‘God dammit…’ Soonyoung pouts, rubbing the back of his head.

‘Soonyouuuuungggg!’ 

‘ it’s real-’

‘Soonyoung, don’t run away! It’s just me!’ Behind Soonyoung stands a confused Seungcheol; the older had just tapped Soonyoung’s shoulder when the kid threw his whole tray backwards (‘Thank god it was empty.’), about to run as fast as he could out of work. ‘Plus, work isn’t over yet, kiddo.’

‘Hyung! You scared me!’ Soonyoung places a hand on his chest, breathing heavily as if he’d just ran a marathon. ‘So what’s up?’

Picking up Soonyoung’s tray and handing it over to the kid, Seungcheol walks with Soonyoung as the kid delivers the drinks and cakes to their customers.

‘You know how Junghan hasn’t told us anything about his date?’ Soonyoung nods as a respond, focused as to not drop his tray again. ‘Let’s find out ourselves.’

Soonyoung stops in his track, Seungcheol almost bumping into the other’s back.

‘What? How are we going to do that?!’ Soonyoung responds, more confused than ever.

‘We all know that kid’s from Jisoo’s Cafe; yo, he might even be Jisoo.’

Soonyoung jaws drop, staring at the older like a child watching their favourite movie.

‘Oh my god, don’t tell me you’re gonna go over there-’

‘Not just me.’ Seungcheol smirks; oh doesn’t Soonyoung just hate it when the older smirks. ‘We’re going to go over there, and find the pink haired boy- I mean, the boy who had gotten our Junghan into such love sick state.’

‘This isn’t right, hyung-’

‘Shush, Soonyoung. We’re too far in to back out now.’

Literally.

The two stands by the entrance of Jisoo’s cafe, staring inside as if the door is locked. Soonyoung has his face almost squishing onto the glass; the only thing stopping him is the fact that Junghan’s date might recognize him and snitch on him to Junghan. Literally, Kwon Soonyoung has no shame; he would’ve done it if it wasn’t for that, no care as to strangers will see his squished face between the glass.

Seungcheol sighs, taking his words back mentally as he’s now regretting it too, million of thoughts running in his head because he’s about to meet his pink haired child for the fir- second time now.

What if he doesn’t like me?!

, plan abort, plan abort-

‘Let’s do this!’ Soonyoung looks at the older with a big smile, fists raised to yell a small ‘fighting’ before pushing the door.

Pushing the door.

Push.

Push!

Push?-

‘Soonyoung, it says pull…’

‘Right…’

Facepalming himself, Soonyoung is about to pull the god damn door open when he stumbles back, someone pushing the door foreward.

Oh .

A cheerful face appears behind the door, smile stretching from ear to ear as the male invites the two in; from the uniform, Soonyoung can say that the other is a staff here, and it’s definitely not because he wanted to know - he just saw it by accident - the male’s nametag says Seokmin.

‘Welcome to Jisoo’s cafe!’ Seokmin greets, smile never disappearing and how am I not blind yet because Soonyoung swears that smile is brighter than the sun. ‘We don’t usually greet customers since we’re kinda busy… But you seemed… Lost? So I thought I might as well help out.

Wow.

‘Soonyoung?’ Soonyoung snaps back to reality at the sound of Seungcheol’s voice, looking back and forth at Seokmin and Seungcheol. ‘Um, sorry, he’s a little… Weird at this time. But thank you.’

‘It’s no problem! Come take a seat and I’ll get right back with you two.’

Seungcheol drags a frozen Soonyoung to an empty table, the other completely out of it because did he just smile at me?!

‘Soonyoung, are you okay? It’s only 8, man. Don’t you sleep at like, 2-’ Seungcheol stops abruptly when his eyes had caught on to something. ‘!’

Shocked at the sudden increase in volume, Soonyoung blinks at his hyung, still confused as to what is happening.

‘H-He’s here! That’s him!’

‘What, Junghan’s hyung’s date?’

‘No!’ Seungcheol groans in frustration, ‘It’s him! The kid with pink hair!’

‘Wait what?!’

Not even having enough time to look find the kid, Seungcheol is already gone, leaving Soonyoung sitting at his table alone.

‘Well this is fun…’ Soonyoung mumbles under his breathe as he fiddles with his phone, sliding the screen back and forth.

‘Hi!’

The sudden sound got Soonyoung throwing his phone up into the air, almost sliding off his chair. When he’d gotten in control with his body, sitting up straight onto the chair, Soonyoung looks up, only to mentally slap himself because , it’s the kid from before.

‘Are you okay?’ All Soonyoung wanted to do now is to dig a hole and lay there until the male is gone. ‘Here’s the menu,’

Soonyoung waits for the other to continue, cheeks flushing when he realizes the other trying to muffle his laugh.

‘And here’s your phone.’ The familiar smile flashes across the boy’s face again and Soonyoung feels like he can die with no regrets right now.

Brushing hands when he reaches out for his phone, Soonyoung tries smiling back but he knows he’s pretty sure he just flashed a crooked smile at the god of happiness.

‘Wait!’ Soonyoung curses outloud when he realizes the whole room had probably heard him. ‘I mean, um…’

Soonyoung starts panicking when the other guy had turned around, walking back to him with big, curious eyes.

‘W-What’s good here? It’s my first time here so…’

Way to go Kwon Soonyoung, stuttering is sooooo manly.

‘Ah, I see!’ The other bounces back, crouching down next to Soonyoung to get a better look at the menu. He is so close to Soonyoung, Soonyoung swears he can hear his breathing; Soonyoung hopes the other didn’t notice the way his breath hitched. ‘This is good! Ooooh, this is too- Oh no, this is better- No thi-‘

Soonyoung couldn’t help it as he bursts out into laughter, quickly holding onto his mouth as he tries to calm himself down. He knows he’d embarassed himself enough today but he couldn’t hold it in; the look on the other’s face amused Soonyoung, the way the other’s eyebrows scrunches and the way his face brightens when he thinks of how good the different food tasted.

Lucky for Soonyoung, the other is also laughing, voice loud and cheerful as he holds onto his stomach, eyes shaped into crescents perfectly.

‘Okay, okay…’ The other says, wiping a tear from his cheek, ‘I’m calm now, yes… Well, I’d say the Tokyo Cheesecake here is the best! There’s also the strawberry cheesecake and blue-’

‘I’ll take the Tokyo Cheesecake.’ Soonyoung smiles at the other, eyes shut tight in the process and too bad because he could’ve seen the way the other’s cheeks had turned red.

’S-Sure.’ The other smiles back, ‘One cheesecake coming up!’

Soonyoung laughs when he sees the other skipping back to the counter, thinking to himself that maybe, just maybe, following Seungcheol here isn’t such a bad idea afterall.

Today is seriously the busiest day for Jisoo’s Cafe, and the person who’s having the most trouble coping with this is Seokmin. Even with Chan and even Mingyu helping, the poor kid still has to go back and forth within minutes to carry trays full of food, balancing them on his hands without tripping over his own foot.

Having enough of going back and forth to get a tray once at a time, Seokmin balances two trays packed with cups and plates, thinking it’s going to save time.

Oh well was I wrong.

Seokmin is now stuck between tables, trying hard not to spill juice and cakes onto his customers’ heads as he’s sure Jisoo would fire him right there and then. Holding his breathe as he slides through two table, he lets out a sigh, two tables left to cross to get this finish with. Seokmin breathes in lightly, feeling as if the weight on his left hand was lifted off-

Wait.

What the-

Looking to his left, the tray is no longer on top of his shaky hands but instead, it’s in the hands of the blonde kid Seokmin had just took an order from.

‘I work as a waiter too and I have nothing else better to do besides reading articles on ‘How to know if someone’s flirting-‘ The blonde coughs and Seokmin tries not to laugh. ‘So yeah, let me help.’

Seokmin heart skips a beat when he realizes that the other had just winked at him before going to the numbered tables, delivering the orders in a flash.

Oh crap, what is this feeling?!

As Soonyoung is having the time of his life, Seungcheol on the other hand is left pulling all his hair out after every attempt at talking to his so called child.

Apperantly the kid name is Jihoon.

And he also works as a cashier.

As desperate matter calls for desperate measures, Seungcheol had lost count of how many things he’d order just to talk to the other kid. He knows Jihoon must be suspicious too, as the fifth time Seungcheol shows up at his counter, Jihoon had raised his eyesbrows, about to ask if Seungcheol can really eat everything and that he can just order everything with the waiters.

‘I’m buying it for my friends.’ Seungcheol had answered before the other had a chance to finish his question. ‘And they’re a little busy?’

‘Okay then…’ Jihoon had nodded, noting down Seungcheol’s order and recieving his money as Seungcheol stares at his wallet tearfully.

Now Seungcheol’s seated in a dark corner, mourning over his empty wallet. Now that he’s out of money, he doesn’t even have an excuse to talk to the kid.

This fckin’ .

With his head on the table, Seungcheol lets out a loud groan, unaware that a certain someone is watching.

Knock knock!

Surprised from the sudden sound, Seungcheol shoots up to see Jihoon, head titled and looking at Seungcheol with a blank look.

‘Hi? The kids are really busy, even with a ‘new’ waiter.’ Jihoon mumbles and only now does Seungcheol notice the cup in Jihoon’s hand. ‘So I guess I’m your waiter for tonight?’

Seungcheol gulps, heart racing at the sudden contact when his hand brushes against the other as he takes the cup.

’S-Sure.’

As soon as he stutters, Seungcheol was ready to slap himself when he is surprised with the small giggle coming from the boy across from him. Glancing up, Seungcheol can see the other with crescent-shaped eyes, his hand trying to hide his opened mouth laugh.

Seungcheol half wants to hit himself for being so embarassing, but most of him feels proud for making the other laugh.

‘W-Well, I’ll guess I’ll see you in a minute.’

Seungcheol notices the blush on the other’s face when the stutter came out, matching with his hair colour when he leaves, trying hard to hide it and Seungcheol swears he’d never seen anything cuter.

Jihoon… Jihoon. I shall not forget this name.