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Junmyeon jumps to his feet when the museum’s ear-splitting and brassy alarm detonated in the middle of the night. It’s an extremely unpleasant sound, more so when he’s been hearing it almost every single week since he started his job as a night guard there.
Jongin pokes his head into the doorway and yells over the deafening siren, “Someone broke in!”
“Again?!”
“Yes! Again!”
He grabs the baton sitting on his desk and clumsily tries to put his shoes on, a process full of stumbling and bumping into tables, which ends with him deciding to leave the strings untied before running out after Jongin.
This isn’t the first time someone broke in, and although the previous happenings have never ended in anything more than grumpy guards and dreaded report papers, they can’t always be too sure.
“I’m going to catch the fucker tonight, I swear!” he hears an echoing yell from the side.
Junmyeon takes a sharp turn to the right where he sees Jongin standing in the middle of the place, cursing and pointing his fingers in the air. He doesn’t need any illumination to tell that Jongin has his eyes set on the prey.
“Let’s split up,” he suggests. “We might be able to find him quicker that way.”
Jongin nods. “Make sure not to let that asshole get away tonight!”
He looks around the first floor. It’s almost pitch-black and the small windows don’t help with the lighting, so he turns on his flashlight and scans the place under a warm yellow light.
There’s nobody lurking around the space; it’s only filled with a long history of Kimchi written on the wall. He decides to leave, but not before checking the toilets.
During the day, it would be absolutely unacceptable for a fine and dignified man like him to step into the women’s toilet, but it’s 2 am and there’s a possible thief in the house; rules are meant to broken for this exact reason.
Nervously, he puts his hand on the cold metal handle and pushes the door open, the creaking of the latch making his hair stand, and he warily moves in on the scene.
It’s empty, however.
Sighing, he backs away and leaves. Next, the men’s toilet.
His footsteps are loud in the quiet chamber as he pushed open each toilet’s stall door. They’re all empty, until the last one.
Junmyeon hears a rough scribbling of what he assumes is a pencil on paper and incoherent mumblings of a low voice. His palms become sticky and his grip on the flashlight loosens a little.
Yes, he’s a guard. No, he’s never caught a criminal before. So yes, this is more than nerve-wracking.
But for the sake of protecting the Kimchi Museum he had devoted himself to, he closes his eyes and kicks the door open, not forgetting to yell while barging in either.
“OOHHH, I GOT YOU GOOD THIS TIME, HUH?!”
The person trashes underneath him, struggling in mumbled curses and light punches. Once Junmyeon feels that he has finally cornered the culprit, he opens his eyes slowly.
He sees mischievous eyes and a slight smirk. Then raised eyebrows, then he hears the scoff.
“Well, hello.”
Junmyeon backs away quicker than he ever has in his entire life. He feels the coarse wood against his back and freezes.
“W-Who are you?!”
“Are you really asking?”
His flashlight – where is it?!
Fumbling around for a moment, Junmyeon wonders why the guy isn’t running. He’s just been caught red-handed, so why isn’t he running? Why is he standing there, leaning his weight onto one leg, and crossing his arms over his chest?
The pale moonlight streaming in bounces off his cheekbone when he moves, and that’s when Junmyeon recognizes him.
“Jongdae?!”
Hearing that, Jongdae moves in on him immediately. “Don’t be loud!”
“What are you doing here?!”
“What does it look like I’m doing?!”
“Committing a crime!”
“I refuse to be framed a criminal by you, Junmyeon!”
Jongdae’s so close to him now that he can feel his breath fan against his cheek. His heartbeat breaks into a marathon as he realizes the proximity between them.
He pushes Jongdae away, aiming to put at least a few feet of space between – although that’s quite difficult, considering they are stuck in a small-scale cubicle.
“It’s not right!” says Junmyeon. “You’re breaking in to a museum!”
Innocently, Jongdae shakes his head. “I didn’t break in. I walked in through the front door.”
“What?”
“You were asleep,” he giggles. “And I’m not stealing anything!”
Junmyeon takes deep breaths. Tries to calm down. He needs to get his thoughts together to deal with this.
“Then what are you doing here?” he demands. “I need a good reason to let you leave, babe – No, Jongdae.”
Jongdae chuckles before he bends down to pick up the yellow piece of crumpled paper abandoned on the floor. He straightens it out and shoves it in Junmyeon’s face.
“I’m here to research kimchi, obviously.”
“You can just look that up online.”
“I don’t want to. Besides, I get to see you here.”
“I love seeing you too, but not here!”
A parade of hurried footsteps breaks their moment and a distant yell of, “Did you find him?!” echoes inside the men’s toilet.
Jongin’s nearing their position and Junmyeon would sure as hell lose his job if anyone finds out he’s in love with this… kimchi researcher.
“Help me get out of here.” Jongdae points to the little shutter window right outside the stall.
Junmyeon has no option but to abide. He’d rather lie at work than sleep on the couch.
“I’ll see you at home!” Jongdae says, waving cheekily. “It’s not my fault you’re picky about your kimchi!”
“Just leave! I love you!”
“I love you too!”
Then he’s gone.
Junmyeon shakes his head and mentally notes in his head to stop by at church on his way home and ask God to remind him why he married Jongdae in the first place.