Work Text:
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Minho rolled out of his boyfriend’s hold to turn off his phone’s alarm that began ringing at 7 am. It was early, way too early for Minho’s liking but considering he was opening for work today he needed to be out of the house by half past so he could set up for the 8 am rush.
“Mmm turn it off” Jisung grumbled as he covered his face with the duvet.
“Sorry baby” Minho bit his lip.
The worst thing about finally moving in with his two-year-long boyfriend was that their schedules were very different.
Minho, owner of the cat cafe just down the road from the flat, and Jisung, a music student who only ever seems to have afternoon lectures.
Now, Minho knew Jisung had morning lectures, he had them in his first and second year at university, but he wasn’t going to make his boyfriend get up for them. Especially considering it meant he got to see his puffy morning face each day.
“Go back to sleep” Minho had turned off his alarm and gently removed the duvet from Jisung’s grip and stroked the boy’s head, making sure to give his morning cheek pinch and kiss on the forehead.
“Wanna come with you” Jisung mumbled sleepily as he tried to push himself up.
Minho smiled lightly, “what are you going to do whilst I’m working though?”
“Play with the cats obviously” Jisung tutted and sat up straight as he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, letting Minho’s hand drop from his shoulder to his waist giving it a light squeeze.
“Okay then, but I’m leaving in twenty minutes” Minho pushed himself off the bed and made his way over to his wardrobe to pick out his clothes for the day.
It was the start of autumn and the weather had finally turned cool enough for sweater weather. With this in mind Minho slipped on some chuffed denim jeans and paired it with a lavender coloured sweater. From the corner of his eye he spotted Jisung searching through his own clothes to pick something comfortable for the day.
“I’ll make us some toast to eat on the way there” Minho gave Jisung a small kiss on the cheek before venturing into the kitchen to pop in some toast and feed their cats before putting them in a carrier to go to the shop.
Dori and Soonie were the two cats that Minho and Jisung had originally adopted together right before the older finally opened up the cat cafe he had always wanted. Along with those two, the cafe had seven adventurous cats who lived in a small sheltered area of the cafe when it was closed.
After the bread had gone down in the toaster Minho made sure to pour out food for the cats, they didn’t need much, after all they’d also get fed whilst at the cafe.
As he was beginning to butter the toast his boyfriend came out looking much more awake, hair styled and his signature black ripped jeans and one of his favourite cream jumpers and leather jacket.
“Did we run out of marmalade?” Jisung asked as he began to search the cupboards whilst Minho buttered up his own toast.
“I think so, if there’s none in the cupboard, we can grab some later today Hannie” Minho took a bite of his toast before grabbing the cat carrier out to place Dori and Soonie inside. They luckily didn’t cause too much hassle, after all, it was a daily occurrence that they took the trip to the cafe.
—
After locking their flat door, Minho holding the cat carrier in one hand and easily slipping his other in Jisung’s, the two made the short trip down the road to the cat cafe.
“It’s so quiet” Jisung muttered as they walked down the street, it was a Friday which meant there wasn’t the usual hustle of students, most deciding to skip their Friday morning lectures and parents rushing to work, only the occasional car passing by as more leaves fell onto the ground. Jisung spotted a small pile and happily stomped in them to make them crunch, Minho chuckled at his childish behaviour and shook his head, before immediately jumping into a small pile as well, making sure not to rock the cat carrier.
As they reached ‘The Caffinated Cat’ Jisung took the carrier from his boyfriend and let the older open up, they quickly rushed inside whilst Minho turned off the alarm, and flipped on the back counter lights.
“I’ll start setting up, do you want to release Dori and Soonie, and then let the others out and top up their food and water bowls that are dotted around?” Minho turned to Jisung who was already setting their cats free.
“Sure Hyungie” Jisung petted Dori before collapsing the carrier and storing it in the cupboard along with his and Minho’s coats and bags.
Minho smiled when he checked the new delivery of pastries that Felix had delivered earlier in the morning. He had already seen the text message from Felix telling him what had been ordered and if their were any changes to the ingredients.
Minho quickly got to work turning on the coffee machines, grinders, oven and other essentials before grabbing all the pastries and setting them out, as he did so he glanced over at Jisung who had finished feeding the cats and was now sitting on the ground stroking them, although he had styled his hair, the autumn breeze had left it slightly ruffled and Minho couldn’t help but coo at how adorable the boy looked.
He still had at least ten minutes left to set up so quickly set up the till for the day and check to make sure the coffee was tasting nice.
“Hannie, you wanna turn on the lights and flip the sign?” Minho called as he currently turned on the music and let his favourite cosy morning playlist sweep around the shop.
Seeing the lights flick on Minho grinned before letting out a sleepy yawn, after all, it was only eight in the morning and the boy still hadn’t had any caffeine. Knowing Jisung was equally tired Minho poured them both an iced americano and took it to the seat where Jisung had set up his laptop to do some work.
“You got much to do baby?” Minho asked as he set down the boy’s drink and rested a hand on the younger’s shoulder as he watched the boy boot up his music software.
“Not too much, I just need to finish tweaking this and send it off to my boss and then I have a small class presentation that I need to finish for Monday” Jisung rubbed his eyes as he plugged in his noise cancelling headphones.
Not only was Jisung a student, but he had managed to grab an internship at an entertainment company and was currently tasked with making a song for a soloist, of course being an intern means he didn’t do all the work, but his boss had allowed him to go through a song that was half finished and add his own flair to it and see if it works out.
“I’ll leave you in peace then, if you get hungry or thirsty again just come up to the counter and i’ll get it for you okay?” Minho smiled and leant down to give Jisung two quick kisses and a third slightly longer kiss, making the younger blush a light pink.
Jisung gave a shy smile and shooed the older away, luckily perfect timing as his first customer had just walked in.
“Hey Chan Hyung! You’re usual?” Minho smiled as Chan quickly agreed to and pulled out his yellow and pink loyalty card happily waving it with full stamps.
“I’ll have it large today, and to go, got a meeting with the ceo about some financial changes and business partners” Chan explained as he let Minho ring it in the till and he quickly scanned his card to pay for the remaining cost for the croissant.
“Is that a good or a bad meeting then?” Minho asked as he started the shots for the Cappuccino.
“Well, supposedly good, but considering it’s been extended, i’m guessing there is a lot more to discuss than originally planned, which either means there's a problem or they want to press on with trading with the other companies” Chan sighed as he took the croissant and placed it in his bag ready for his commute.
“They don’t tell you in advance to prepare?” Minho frowned as he dusted the cappuccino off with some chocolate.
Chan scoffed and rolled his eyes, “The day they give us a proper outline for a meeting is the day I’ll become CEO”
Minho gave a small smile, “Well when that happens i’ll make sure I don’t stamp your loyalty more than once, you can earn them”
Chan laughed out loud and wore a grin on his face as he gave his thanks and headed off into the autumn wind.
—---
The rest of the morning was rather slow and so most of the time Minho was playing with Doongie, who liked to sleep and lay right by the cash register.
Jisung was deep into his work and barely glanced up at anyone who walked in, his hand occasionally leaving his laptop to take a sip of the americano or to stroke a cat which had jumped onto his table trying to get his attention.
Minho dotted around the cafe sipping on his Americano as he gave a small good morning to Jeongin one of the other workers, Minho always liked giving the boy a slight lie in and so when the clock struck 10 the younger boy was in a good mood to start work.
“Hey Hyung” Jeongin smiled and signed in before making his own coffee to get him through the day.
“Hey Jeongin, good week?” Minho asked as he was making a customer’s latte, making sure to add his own cat latte art on the top.
“Yeah, very tiring, so I’m excited for the weekend!” Jeongin grinned as he poured out his own coffee and snatched up a leftover croissant that was supposed to be used to make food.
Minho gave him a pointed look and raised his eyebrow, Jeongin let out a cheeky grinned and continued to eat it whilst setting up to make up some more food for them to sell.
Minho rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut, he knew Jeongin probably didn’t eat anything before he got to work and so let it slide.
—-
“Min, can I get a hot chocolate or something?” Jisung bounced up to the counter and was immediately attacked by Doongie wanted some pets.
“Anything for you baby, any food?” Minho smiled and stroked Doongie who was now in Jisung’s chest curled up letting Jisung hold him.
“Hmm, one of those Ham and cheese croissants look nice!”
Minho nodded and pretended to type it into the till before quickly making his way to the display cabinet and grabbing out the savoury croissant and popping it in the oven.
“Can I get some extra marshmallows?” Jisung leant against the counter after Doongie jumped out of his hold and went to entertain some of the guests.
“Gimme a kiss first” Minho turned to look at him from pouring the milk into the jug. He pouted and leaned forward over the counter.
“Min “ Jisung whined and his face heated up slightly.
Minho shrugged and moved back, “guess no extra marshmallows then”
Jisung scrambled around to the back counter and wrapped himself around Minho’s waist as he watched the older heat up his hot chocolate.
“Please Hyungie” Jisung crumpled his chin and pouted lightly even though Minho couldn’t see him.
“So you’ll attach yourself to me in front of everyone but you won’t kiss me?” Minho chuckled as he turned off the machine’s wand and grabbed a mug to pour in the hot chocolate.
Jisung didn’t say anything but kissed the back of Minho’s neck that was peering out from under his lavender sweater, Jisung felt the older tense up just slightly before relaxing as he shifted out of Jisung’s hold to grab the cream and some marshmallows. Jisung watched as the barista squirted a large amount of cream on top of the hot chocolate along with a generous amount of marshmallows and a dusting of chocolate.
“Thank you!” Jisung sang as Minho turned to hand the mug to his boyfriend.
“Don’t say I don’t spoil you” Minho rolled his eyes playfully and nudged Jisung lightly hip to hip to get him to move back to his seat before Rolo one of their brown and white cats claimed Jisung’s seat as his own as the said kitten was curling up on the seat.
“Can you bring over my croissant?” Jisung gave a small plead as he set down his mug being careful not to tip the cream and marshmallows. He picked up Rolo and let the small kitten rest on his lap as he grabbed the spoon and started to scoop up the cream that had started to melt.
Not wasting anymore time, Jisung quickly got back to his work, luckily he only had the lst bit of his class presentation to finish which really wouldn’t take much time at all considering most of it was done in the past week and it was just tidying up his references and the slide show that he had prepared.
—---
“What’s this?” Jisung asked as he pointed to some of the coffee machine’s equipment.
“That’s a portafilter” Minho glanced at the item Jisung was holding.
His boyfriend had finished up all his work and packed away his stuff which meant he didn’t have to keep an eye on his stuff, they had just finished their lunch rush and so Jeongin was clearing up tables and washing up whilst Minho was re-filling the coffee grinder and cleaning up the general back area.
“What is this for?” Jisung was peering at the numbers on the coffee machine, a look of confusion etched on his face.
“It’s for the extraction time of the coffee, to make sure it's not bitter” Minho explained as he started to wipe down the empty trays which had pastries on them this morning.
“Hmm, and what's this for?” Jisung pointed at yet another item on the back counter.
Minho let out a small sigh, “Baby, I get your interested, but I’m pretty sure you know what tongs are”
Jisung flushed red, “I’m just a bit bored” he muttered as he looked at the ground and fiddled with his hands, he really didn’t expect to finish his work so quickly, and now that he had sent it to his boss he was just nervously waiting for his opinion on the song.
“Want me to distract you?” Minho stood up from where he was knelt down below the counter.
Jisung bit his lip and looked at the few customers that were still in the cafe, two kids with their parents playing with a couple of cats. Dori and Soonie resting in the autumn sun that was beaming through the windows. A college student sat reading a book with their own hot chocolate relaxed on one of the beanbags in a corner, and a couple quietly chatted as they were drinking tea and playing with one of the cats using a few of the toys.
“But you’re working..” Jisung leaned against the back counter as Minho approached him.
“Look, Jeongin is working today and I have Hyunjin coming in an hour to shut up the shop today, which means we can leave if you really want to, but I do need to talk to Hyunjin and get him to do some orders for me. So whilst we are waiting I can help distract you, okay?” Minho let Jisung play with one of his hands as he listened to the older.
“Let me teach you some latte art, how about that?, it’s fun!” Minho squeezed Jisung’s hand as he watched Jeongin go up to the counter to serve a customer who was patiently waiting and stroking Doongie who had returned to his favoured position.
Jisung nodded and let out a small smile.
Minho pulled Jisung over to glance at what the customer had ordered on the till.
“Innie can you serve for a bit? I’m going to teach Ji some latte art so he isn’t bored” Minho asked the younger boy who happily complied and began making up a drink, adding in a latte art pumpkin to top it off.
“Right Jiji, let’s teach you some art” Minho released his soft hold on his boyfriend’s hand and grabbed a clean milk jug, and a bottle of milk and moved over to the coffee machine that wasn’t being used.
“First, you wanna make the shots for the coffee” Minho twisted out a portafilter and brought it over to the grinder where he clicked a button to grind out two shots of coffee.
Jisung watched as Minho then compressed the coffee down in the port thing, he forgot the name already and watched as he clipped it back into the machine and pressed a button for the coffee to extract into a cup.
“Whilst that is happening, we foam up the milk” Minho explained as he poured in some milk into the silver jug.
Jisung watched as Minho flipped on the weird wand thingy that heated up the milk, the milk spun and spun in a circle and when Minho removed it, it looked like glossy white paint.
“How does that work?” Jisung raised an eyebrow at how that stick thing could make the milk look so smooth.
“Well, when the milk is spinning it’s heated up and the air is added, when you do a cappuccino there’s more air in it to make it foamy, and flat white there’s even less” Minho taught as he poured the milk into the cup, moving his wrist slightly to make a wave of milk foam that turned into a circle, he stopped slightly before adding on ears.
“Cute” Jisung commented as Minho took a photo of it to post on their social media.
“Not as cute as you” Minho looked at Jisung and winked, making his boyfriend flustered.
Jisung let out an even cuter whine and hid in Minho’s shoulder, “Stop it”
Minho chuckled and ruffled Jisung’s hair to get him to move out of his hold. Jisung pouted, a small red blush still adorning his cheeks. Even after two years, Minho could make the younger flustered with just a few sentences and words.
“I can’t call you cute now?” Minho acted hurt as he pretended to clutch his heart.
“You can, but not when you know I’ll get flustered easily, I doubt Innie needs to see that” Jisung noted as Jeongin was standing just beside them by the other coffee machine making a drink.
“Yeah hyung, you’re always so lovey-dovey to Jisung, I understand why you never bring him to work, you never get anything done cause you flirt with him the entire day” Jeongin laughed as he finished up making a cortado for a customer.
Minho gasped lightly, “How dare you say that, next week I’m making you come in at 8 until close” Minho stuck out his tongue playfully.
Jeongin rolled his eyes, “Well, I’m taking my break unless you want to. I’m starving”
Minho shooed the younger away, “Take 40, cause I’m leaving early so there’s less of us to clean up”
Jeongin grinned and quickly began to make up a drink and some food.
“Wanna try?” Minho turned to Jisung as he emptied out the remaining milk in his jug and took a sip of the coffee he had just made.
Jisung smiled and nodded, “Sure! But I’ll need help”
Minho smiled and filled up the milk in the jug.
“Ok so grab the portafilter, and empty it first” Minho pointed towards the one they had just used, Jisung grabbed it and twisted it hard to pull it out before following Minho’s directions to hit it against the edge of something so it would drop in the bin.
“Okay, then place it on here and click the D button for double” Minho pointed to the screen and Jisung did just that as he watched the new coffee grains fill the filter up.
“Then press it,” Minho said as he watched Jeongin tap in what he was eating in the staff section of the till.
Jisung did as he was told and moved back to the coffee machine and tried to slot it back into place.
“Huh?”
Minho let out a small smile and moved besides Jisung and took his hand and moved it slightly to the left so he could clip it on.
“All about the angle” Minho pointed out.
“That’s what you said the other night” Jisung muttered quietly as he smirked watching Minho’s eyes widen. Minho was quick to playfully slap Jisung on the shoulder, his ears getting red.
Minho grabbed a cup ignoring Jisung’s pointed look and smirk.
“Okay, now let’s foam up some milk”
Minho pulled Jisung over to the milk wand, “Okay, take the milk jug and place it so the wand is slightly into the milk”
Jisung put the jug as Minho told him, “Like this?”
“Maybe slightly more, otherwise air will go into the milk too quickly and it will ruin it” Minho moved so his hand was on Jisung’s to guide him.
“I’ll move your hand so you get a feel for it, when the jug gets too hot don’t just drop it, just flip off the switch up here” Minho tapped the switch for the milk jug.
Jisung nodded and let Minho turn on the wand, Minho immediately guided the jug, and Jisung’s hand, into a position which made the milk spin around smoothly in a circle.
“Oooo” Jisung hummed out as he watched the milk spin before quickly going ‘ow ow ow hot”
Minho quickly reacted and turned off the wand and set the jug down.
“Ok, that’s hot enough, now tap the jug on the side of the counter to get rid of the bubbles that are there, so it’s nice and smooth” Minho pointed into the jug where a few of the bubbles are.
Jisung nodded again and hit the jug gently on the side of the counter.
Minho let out a small giggle, “Harder than that Hannie”
“Please, stop with the innuendos” Jisung whined as he hit the jug harder than his boyfriend had said.
“I didn’t say anything bad, I’m just telling you instructions” Minho pointed out whilst holding back a grin.
Jisung rolled his eyes and bit back a retort. And let his lavender sweater boyfriend continue teaching him.
“Okay, so the pouring part is sometimes the easiest part, I’ll teach you how to do a pumpkin.” Minho explained and stood besides Jisung and brought the coffee towards them.
“Ok hold the cup in one hand” Minho motioned for Jisung to pick it up with his left., “Then we’ll pour the milk together, i’ll guide you” Minho let Jisung slot his hand into the jug holder and Minho wrapped his hand around Jisung’s.
Minho’s free hand went onto Jisung’s which was holding the cup, “Tilt this cup, and we can then start pouring”
Jisung let his boyfriend control his movements as he poured in the milk and then brought the jug down near the surface and started to wiggle the jug making the milk pour out on top of the coffee creme making a pattern.
“Woah… that’s how they do it?” Jisung looked bewildered at how simple it all seemed.
Minho hummed out a yes and grabbed a knife to make the details of a pumpkin on the current design.
“I'm naming him Patrick the Pumpkin” Jisung nodded and smiled as he saw how Minho added in the creepy wonky smile and triangle eyes.
“Hey, Minho hyung!” Hyunjin called as he came to the back counter clearly just arriving for his shift.
“Ah hey Hyunjin, I’m leaving early so I need to chat to you real quick.” Minho quickly said before he forgot to tell the boy what he needed ordering.
“Sure!” Hyunjin smiled and nodded as a customer walked in and he went to serve them.
“Baby, do you wanna round up Soonie and Dori? Then we can make our way home.” Minho asked as he brushed out some of Jisung’s hair which had fallen in front of his eyes where he had been looking down.
“Sure thing Hyungie” Jisung gave a shy smile at Hyunjin watching the interaction out the corner of his eye as the customer he was serving paid for a pastry.
“Grab my coat as well please” Minho smiled and kissed Jisung lightly, leaving him flustered once more.
“Right Hyunjin let me show you real quick, Jeongin is on his break…” Minho explained as the two walked into the back room.
Jisung quickly went round to the front before he got mistaken for a worker and went to the cupboard to grab the cat carrier for Dori and Soonie.
There were only a couple of customers sitting and so spotting the two cats was a lot easier.
Soonie was playing with another cat in the corner called ‘Poppy’ and Dori was sleeping beside the college student who was still comfortably reading, their hot chocolate now empty.
Luckily as Jisung went to pick up Dori, the cat only woke up slightly before seeing his owner and going back to sleep in his arms. Soonie however decided to cause trouble and run around the shop as Jisung tried to round him up.
Jisung was halfway under the table when he heard Minho’s cheery laugh as he spotted Jisung in an awkward position.
“Baby, I said to collect the cats, not become one”
Jisung pouted and crawled back from under the table, “I’m trying to round up our brat of a cat, Soonie.” Jisung huffed.
Minho laughed at Jisung’s now dishevelled hair and pouty lips.
“Just grab your bag and our coats, i’ll grab Soonie” Minho helped Jisung stand from where he was sat on the ground.
Jisung muttered to himself how annoying Soonie was as he shoved on his leather jacket and put his bag on his back. He grabbed Minho’s coat and rolled his eyes as he spotted Minho easily pick up the orange tabby and cuddle with him as he carried him over to the carrier and jisung.
“Clearly Soonie has a favourite” Jisung tutted as Minho plopped Soonie into the carrier.
“Don't worry Hannie, you’re my favourite Kitten” Minho whispered into his boyfriend’s ear as he went to grab his coat from the younger.
Minho chuckled as Jisung’s eyes widened slightly and he quickly rushed outside the shop to escape Minho saw the blush that was growing quickly on the boy’s face.
Maybe he should go to work with his boyfriend more often…
——- part two in the next work! ————