Work Text:
Usually, Minhyun loved his job.
The smell of the ground coffee in the air, the warmth of the milk steaming, watching their customers’ faces relax as the caffeine hit their veins. It was a tough job, but it was rewarding in its own way. Minhyun had been a Barista for as long as he’d been working, and he couldn’t see himself going into any other industry. Usually, he had enough focus and dedication to his job and providing his customers with top tier service.
Today was not one of those days.
He’d been on the open shift, in the cafe since 5:30am. He’d set up the cafe, gotten everything prepared for the other openers to come in, started his day as normal. The day had even started with a kiss to Dongho’s forehead, tucking the blankets around one of his boyfriends before he’d left the apartment, the same routine as every of his open shifts.
Because this is how it always went. He’d say goodbye to Dongho and go to work. By 8am, he’d usually had a message from the other, making sure he’d gotten to work on time and nothing had happened that he should be concerned about. By 8am, he’d have a text or a voice message from Jonghyun, wishing a sleepy good morning and a request for coffee when Minhyun got home. By 9:30am, he usually had a text from Aaron, wishing him a good morning and explaining what time he was going to be back, or anything interesting that had happened to him that morning. Mingi’s text usually came last, around 12 noon when Minhyun’s shift was over halfway done, when he was in the homeward stretch, giving him updates on the school day, accompanied with a funny story or two of something his very young students had said to him.
It was routine. Once his shift would finish at around 2pm, he’d grab any requests for cakes, pastries or coffee, run any errands for any of the respective three apartments, and head back to either his own place or Jonghyun’s. There, he’d either watch some shows, work on a hobby, hang out with Jonghyun, anything he wanted until the others started trickling home one by one, until the sun had set and they were all laid out on one of their respective couches together. Minhyun enjoyed their routine. He enjoyed the stability of it, and there wasn’t any part he didn’t look forward to.
He’d had a text from Dongho at 7:58am, a simple and sweet: “Good morning my love, everything okay this morning?”
The text from Aaron had arrived at 9:47am, a more panicked: “Good morning Minnie, I overslept and I’m running late so I’m not sure when I’ll be getting home tonight!”
Mingi has gotten to him only a few minutes ago, the text pinging through at 12:04pm: “I swear the parents fill these children full of sugar before dropping them off to us on purpose! Mijoo-ah may as well be climbing the walls, she’s so excitable! Chinhae-ah is being an absolute terror in wet play too, we may as well be trying to keep a fish out of water with how much this kid just wants to be soaked all day! Good job I brought a change of clothes, he’s a splasher.”
But he hadn’t heard anything from Jonghyun. It was probably fine. Maybe the other had slept in, maybe he’d misplaced his phone and was struggling to find it. Maybe he’d even straight up forgotten to message Minhyun, or had forgotten to press send on the message. It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened. But there was something curling in Minhyun’s gut. Something uncomfortable, spiking anxiety into his veins. He missed the other’s rambling of his painting ideas, or of random, meaningless thoughts throughout his day that made little sense to Minhyun, but made him feel honoured that Jonghyun wanted to share the random thoughts he had, knowing Minhyun would talk to him about them once he’d finished work. He even missed the demands to bring coffee home with him.
A single missed text shouldn’t have been enough to fill Minhyun with so much dread. But it was.
Minhyun finished pouring the last latte on his list, carefully placing the coffee down on a tray and smiling over at the customer as they took it away. The cafe wasn’t necessarily busy. Customers were dotted around at various tables, some with laptops filled with spreadsheets, students with study guides in front of them and mussed hair from the stress, some chatting to their friends and happily sipping the warm drink from their mugs. It definitely wasn’t the busiest he’d seen it, but it hadn’t really been a quiet morning either. Minhyun knew the lunch break rush would come soon, but for now, they’d hit a lull. There was no-one waiting in the till area to be served, there were no tickets that had come to him to prepare drinks for…
So Minhyun took his opportunity, gave a small wave to the young girl who was stationed at the till, wiping down a few mugs, and darted into the back area to pull out his phone.
Still no message from Jonghyun.
Instead, Minhyun scrolled through his past messages, opening up a group chat that hadn’t been used in a long time. Not since Jonghyun had joined their relationship and they’d made a new chat to include him.
‘Hey,’ Minhyun typed as quickly and quietly as he could, aware of the fact he shouldn’t be hiding in the back room on his phone. ‘Has anyone heard from Jonghyunnie this morning? He’s normally texted me by now but I haven’t heard from him.’
The responses from the others came pretty quickly. It made Minhyun feel a small sense of pride that the others, despite all working too, were keeping an eye on their phones as well. Maybe they were all waiting for their fifth to awaken.
‘He hasn’t replied to me yet either. Maybe he misplaced his phone though, I’m sure he’s fine.’ Dongho, of course, trying to be calm about the situation. At least, his words were calmer than Minhyun felt about it.
‘Not heard from him, his apartment was quiet when I left this morning.’ Aaron, factual and not beating around the bush with his words. He supposed the other was probably in a meeting, and couldn’t afford for fluff his words out more.
‘Nothing from him! Maybe he’s feeling grumpy and just wants to be alone today??? :((((((’ Mingi, probably immediately upsetting himself with the thought that Jonghyun didn’t want to talk to them. Minhyun doubted that though, despite the issues they’d had in the past with Jonghyun ignoring them. It hadn’t happened since they’d improved their communication, and even when he was having a bit of a difficult day, Jonghyun still let them know that he wouldn’t be talkative that day.
But none of them had heard from him at all.
Minhyun tried to push the worry aside. He tried to just move forward with the last two hours of his shift. Then he could just go home and check on Jonghyun himself, and settle his mind. He just had to get through work first. So he went back to the shop floor, and quickly jumped back on the machines. He hadn’t missed much, only one or two tickets that his co-worker had already begun while he’d been out back. But he jumped on it anyway, taking over and allowing her to get back to her own tasks. Maybe throwing himself into work would distract him from how worried he was.
But what if he went home to a horrific scene?
Maybe they’d left something on Jonghyun’s floor the night before, they had spent most of the evening with him before the artist had fallen asleep, eating takeout and listening to music. They tried to be clean around Jonghyun, but they weren’t always successful. What if takeout boxes had been left on the floor, and in Jonghyun’s half asleep stupor, he’d fallen over one and hit his head? What if he was lying on the floor, unconscious with a concussion, and no-one was able to check up on him and get him help? What if someone had broken in to the apartment in the night and hurt him, and he wasn’t able to call any of them for help? What if he’d gone for a walk in the night to clear his head and been taken, and that’s why he hadn’t contacted any of them and his apartment had been so quiet?
A scalding pain snapped Minhyun out of his spiral, looking down to see the mug he was holding now half empty, only a mix of sweetened coffee and steamed milk sitting in the bottom. The rest of the mug, apparently, was all over his hand and down his apron, staining the fabric with the milky tan liquid. With a little hiss of pain, Minhyun quickly, but carefully, put the mug that was meant to contain a caramel macchiato down and hurried over to the small sink, running the cold water and placing his trembling hand below it in an attempt to soothe his scalded fingers. They were already pinker than normal, shaking from the pain, but more than anything Minhyun just felt a little like an idiot. It had been quite a while since he’d spilled a coffee, even when lost in his own mind. His muscle memory was usually stronger than that.
“Minhyun-ah?” The said blonde jumped at the sound of his manager’s voice, quickly turning his head to look at the man. Euisoo had always been kind to him, even when he’d been young and inexperienced. Now he was one of the most senior baristas, and Euisoo seemed to hold a lot of pride in him. Now, though, his expression wasn’t holding pride, and Minhyun couldn’t quite decode what the expression was. Disappointment? Maybe some concern? He definitely wasn’t impressed. “What’s going on? Are you alright?”
Minhyun nodded, pulling his hand from the water to get back to work, only to immediately wince and put the burnt fingers back under as pain spiked into the digits again. A red hot, tingling pain that only scalding liquid could achieve. “Yes, Euisoo-nim, I’m alright. Sorry, it won’t happen again.”
“You’re distracted.” A fact, not a question. Minhyun almost winced at that too. Being told off by Euisoo felt like being scolded by a parent sometimes. “Is everything alright at home?”
“I…” Minhyun moved his gaze back to the water, focusing on that instead of the anxiety of Jonghyun not replying, of messing up at work. “I don’t know. Jonghyun hasn’t replied to any of us today and we don’t know if he’s okay. I’m going to check on him once I get home though, it’ll be fine.”
“Minhyun-ah,” Euisoo sighed, lifting up a hand and rubbing at his brow, as if Minhyun’s incompetence was causing him physical pain. “Tell you want, go home now and see what’s going on. I’ll call Taehyun and see if he can get in any earlier. I’ll cover you on the machines until then. But you owe me.”
Minhyun’s head whipped up to look at his manager, frowning a little. “Euisoo-nim, are you sure? I mean, I can work, it’s only another few hours and I’m sure he’s okay and I’m just overreacting. Really, I’m alright.”
“Don’t make me tell you again, Minhyun-ah.” The words were harsh, but his tone wasn’t. In fact, he actually sounded a little amused. “Go home, get those burns taken care of, and check up on your friend. We’ll be fine. I’ll expect you to be first call for an extra shift if I need you though.”
Minhyun quickly bowed his head. “Of course, Euisoo-nim. Thank you.”
After that, it was barely 10 minutes before his apron was hung up, his fingers were wrapped in damp, cold paper towels, and he was on his way back to his apartment building. The anxiety hadn’t quite quelled within him, various horrific scenarios running rampant around his head. He knew he was overreacting. Jonghyun would be fine, he’d probably just forgotten. But forgetting to text all 4 of them was rare. He’d usually at least get one of them a good morning text.
The drive itself was a blur. He knew he hadn’t broken any road laws at least, muscle memory had taken over for that. But he didn’t exactly remember much of the journey itself as he pulled into his parking space and was heading up the stairs. He should probably go to his own apartment first, Minhyun considered. Get changed, get some cooling gel on his hand, settle himself before going and checking on their newest boyfriend. But his feet took him straight to Jonghyun’s door, and who was he to deny instinct?
Chewing nervously on his bottom lip, Minhyun tapped his knuckles of his good hand against the wood of Jonghyun’s door, and waited. No movement came from inside the apartment, and the blonde felt that dread curl in his stomach again. Knocking again, trying to be louder this time, Minhyun tried to talk through the wood instead. “Jonghyunie? Its Minhyun, we’re worried. Can you open up? Are you there?” When he was met with no response, Minhyun tried the door handle. Of course, it was locked. He would have been more worried if it wasn’t, especially since Jonghyun was usually pretty on point with his own safety.
Minhyun hesitated then, though. He had a key to Jonghyun’s apartment. They all did, and Jonghyun had keys for theirs. It just tended to be easier. But normally, it would be used for planned interactions, for when they were meeting up in various places to prevent someone having to get up and down to open the door constantly. Jonghyun wasn’t expecting him, and he didn’t want to just…intrude on the other’s privacy. But he was worried, and surely the other would understand the need to check on him.
So he rooted his keys from his pocket, found Jonghyun’s, and opened up the apartment.
Inside was dark. The blackout curtains Jonghyun often used to prevent the light from irritating him were closed, and only silence greeted him past the squeak the door made when being pushed open. “Jonghyun?” Stepping into the apartment, Minhyun was a little reassured to see that, although there were indeed takeout boxes left on the floor, the prone, unconscious body of his boyfriend wasn’t lying next to them. Small bonuses, but it didn’t appear that he’d concussed himself, and that was why they were all being ignored. It just opened up more questions as to what was going on though…
Minhyun swallowed down the lump that was forming in his throat. He wasn’t about to cry just because he was worried. Not until he figured out what exactly was going on.
“Jonghyunnie? You here?”
When his call was still met with no response, Minhyun made his way deeper into the apartment, glancing around as he did to see if he could see the other at all before he got to Jonghyun’s bedroom door. He hesitated for only a moment before pushing it open.
There, on Jonghyun’s bed in a mess of blankets and pillows, lay his missing boyfriend. Minhyun let out a huff of air through his nose, half from relief, and half from adoration at the sight. The other looked adorable, face pressed into the pillow he was hugging so his cheek was scrunched up towards his eye, soft snores coming from cracked lips. In the low light, the blond couldn’t really tell 100%, but Jonghyun appeared to be a little paler than normal, sweat soaked hair pointing in every direction above from flushed cheeks.
Not dead, not concussed… but sick.
Minhyun could deal with sick.
He made his way over quietly, carefully, but he wasn’t sure if it really mattered. After all, the other had slept through all of the texts, he’d slept through several of Minhyun’s calls into the apartment. He doubted his footsteps was going to disturb the other, but he didn’t really want to risk it either. Jonghyun obviously needed his sleep if he was still like this, this late into the day.
Keeping his moments as quiet and as light as possible, the blonde slowly sat himself down on the edge of the bed, reaching out his unburnt hand to brush against the other’s forehead. The heat radiating from him made him frown a little, but it didn’t seem too bad at least. Not ideal, but not overly dangerous either. He was sure Jonghyun must be feeling rotten though, a fever was nothing to joke around about, even when it was a lower grade than what the blind boy was dealing with. From where Jonghyun’s phone was still plugged into the wall and from the state of the living area, Minhyun could guess he hadn’t even gotten up yet, let alone taken any medication. So, as much as he’d love to let him sleep, Minhyun knew he couldn’t. Moving his hand gently down to cup the side of Jonghyun’s neck, hoping the coolness of his own skin against his flushed, overheated one was soothing, Minhyun moved to his shoulder and gave it a gentle shake.
“Jonghyunnie? It’s Minhyun, could you wake up for me? We need to get you some medicine and some water. Come on, wake up.” It took a little while, slightly longer than comfortable for Minhyun, and it took him a bit more of a forceful shake than he wanted to do, but eventually, Jonghyun opened up those eyes and sleepily glanced in his direction with a frown.
“Wha’…?”
Minhyun tried his hardest to not laugh at the slurred half word, it wasn’t Jonghyun’s fault after all that he felt so bad, and it wasn’t his fault that his words weren’t forming properly. “It’s Minhyun,” He reiterated with a smile, although he knew the other definitely wouldn’t be able to see it in the darkness of the room. “I came to check on you because you hadn’t messaged anyone. How’re you feeling?”
Jonghyun simply gave a low groan, lifting his head for only a second to move it over and rest it back down again on Minhyun’s lap, panting just a little as if that movement had exhausted him. “’Ts early.”
With a soft chuckle and a shake of the head, Minhyun instead threaded his cool fingers through Jonghyun’s, quite frankly gross hair, gently rubbing at his scalp. “It’s not early, Hyunnie,” Minhyun said fondly. “In fact, it’s afternoon already. Let’s get you some water, okay?”
Minhyun felt more than saw the shake to Jonghyun’s head. “You smell like coffee.”
He knew he tended to have the scent of coffee beans clinging to his clothes, it was just part of where he worked, but he thought it was probably more likely to do with the macchiato he’d spilled over himself rather than the atmosphere. He gave a chuckle regardless. “I know, but you can’t have coffee right now. It’ll dehydrate you, and you already have a fever. Come on, let’s get up.” When Jonghyun groaned again, the blonde decided that he’d have to be mean to be kind, and instead moved Jonghyun’s head off of his lap before he stood, pulling on the other’s shoulders carefully but firmly until he was sat up too. He didn’t have his eyes open, but that probably didn’t matter much right now. “Wanna move to the living room?”
“Can’t see you.”
“I know, buddy, all your curtains are closed so there’s no light in here. Let’s get you into the living room then you can start feeling better, okay?”
When Jonghyun didn’t argue, Minhyun carefully helped the other stand, taking on quite a bit more of his weight than he’d initially expected to as the sick boy clung to him, unsteady on his feet. Slowly, as an uncoordinated dance, Minhyun got the other into the living room and down onto the couch. What should have been a 5 second walk had taken nearly two minutes, but he didn’t really find himself minding much.
After all, he was trying his best even through a fevered delirium, Minhyun couldn’t be mad at him for it.
Once Jonghyun was carefully situated on the couch, with a strict order to not lie down yet, the blonde busied himself with getting a glass of water and rooting through the medicine cabinet, finding a pack of fever reducing tablets with ease and popping the correct dosage out of the blister pack before heading back over. “Open up wide.” When Jonghyun did as he was told, Minhyun quickly put the pills in his mouth and held the glass of water to his lips, tilting it slowly as the other drank down the medicine. His nose scrunched a little, and whether that was from annoyance at not being able to do this himself, or from the fact he was having to take medicine in the first place, he didn’t really know. But it was adorable regardless.
Once that was done and the glass of water was safe on the coffee table, Minhyun opened up the curtains and allowed light into the room again, grinning at the sleepy wince and repeated blinking from Jonghyun as he tried to adjust to his new, albeit limited vision.
“Minnie?”
“Yup, just me. Is that okay?”
Jonghyun seemed to think for a minute, before giving a little nod. “When did you get here…?”
“Not too long ago.” Minhyun bit back worry at the others obvious confusion. It wasn’t uncommon for him to be a bit foggy, and he was hopeful it wouldn’t last too long as he joined Jonghyun back on the couch, sitting next to him and allowing his head to fall back onto his lap. His fingers still tingled a little from the coffee burn, but he found himself not caring as Jonghyun’s arms wrapped themselves around his waist and a face nuzzled into his stomach.
“You smell good.”
“I do?”
“Like coffee.”
Another small chuckle, and Minhyun laced his fingers into the steel hair again. It had grown out a little, and was due both a trim and his roots rebleached and dyed, but it gave him a little salt and pepper vibe that Minhyun definitely wasn’t opposed too. It was possible that Mingi would pin him down at some point and force him to get his roots done, but that was a later Jonghyun problem. The youngest of their little group could be a bit forward, but even he wasn’t forward enough to force their sick boyfriend through that process.
“You’re cute, you know that?”
“Hm?”
“You. You’re adorable. Even when sweaty and gross and sick, you still manage to be really sweet.”
Jonghyun didn’t say anything to that, instead pushing his face further into the dirty fabric of Minhyun’s shirt. His ears suddenly seemed a little pinker, and Minhyun wasn’t convinced it was all from the fever. It did make his heart flip a little at the action though. Jonghyun wasn’t always the most physically affectionate, but it appeared that sick Jonghyun was if the grip around his waist was anything to go by. Minhyun wasn’t going to be getting away any time soon. So, with a defeated sigh, he pulled the blanket strung across the back of the couch down and tucked it around Jonghyun and his own legs. It wasn’t tight enough to where it hopefully wasn’t going to make his fever worse, but would at least provide some comfort while he was feeling so gross.
“Do you want to do anything? Any movie or show you want to watch? Any music?”
Jonghyun just grunted in response, shaking his head against his stomach.
“No?”
“No. Cuddles.”
Minhyun bit back another chuckle. “Alright, cuddles. Got it.”
He shot a quick text in the group chat, letting the other three know he’d recovered their newest member and a quick summary of his condition. Before he’d even put his phone down, Jonghyun was sound asleep on his lap again.
And, well, who was he to deny a nap?