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CAUGHT WITH THE PANTS DOWN

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"Tell me, Hyunjin. What happened to him?" She was about to approach him even more when he suddenly felt the urge to stand up, taking the empty glass to the counter - he had entered that conversation knowing he wouldn't be able to get out that easily, however, now that he was between that rock and that hard place, seeing no exit seemed way more terrifying than before.

"I-I don't know, Jeongmin. I don't know those details."

"It looks to me that you know many of these details." Jeongmin stood up in a split and, grabbing Hyunjin by the forearm, she faced him recklessly. "How do you even know all this, huh?"

Hyunjin was about to defensively open his mouth when the breakroom door was suddenly opened by that one person none of them wanted to see at that moment: Seungho, their manager.

"What on earth are you both doing in here?" She didn't need to look at his face to know he just couldn't be more pissed off. "There's a two-meter queue right there and you're peacefully chatting?" His eyes dropped to the table for a second and his mouth opened to slightly let out an unfunny chuckle. "And you guys are not even drinking coffee! For God's sake!"

Keeping the door open, the man laid his back against it, his head signalling them to get out, immediately. On another day, Hyunjin would have contested it, defended them perhaps. He would certainly have raised his tone and eyebrows and finger just to prove to their boss they were discussing the lemon biscuits' recipe. His brain would have sped up just to find a believable excuse, however, at that time, he simply glanced at Jeongmin before walking out of the room in complete silence. 

F.cking coward.

Her head muttered as her eyes glared at his moving shapes.

"What are you waiting for?" Seungho asked, and Jeongmin flinched - she was so focused on all the rage she felt, that she didn't notice the manager staring at her for an entire minute.

"N-Nothing." She was about to walk past the man when he suddenly stopped her with a hand, causing her to look at her with tons of confusion. 

"I'm waiting for the doctor's letter, Jeongmin."

Then, she nodded with a forced smile, hurrying out of the break room and standing behind the counter along with Hyunjin.

Her mind wasn't ready to work - it was an entire rollercoaster with more than thirty ups and downs - yet, surprisingly, her body didn't fail her that time. On autopilot, she managed to serve every single one of those seven people impatiently waiting in the queue.

It felt weirder than she had expected: making coffee on a side of the counter while Hyunjin took biscuits and doughnuts out of the cake display in complete silence wasn't efficient at all. It was uncomfortable, awkward and a way too complicated cocktail of emotions she could barely distinguish, not to mention it was already the second time she forgot to boil the water and the first she prepared a coffee instead of a tea.

Jeongmin knew Seungho would put her between a rock and a hard place the next time a client raised their eyebrows at her repeated distractions, and that was why she stepped forward and looked right into Hyunjin's eyes once their shift was completed.

"You didn't answer me." Jeongminsaid, her right hand holding the cloth she used to clean the tables - it was already 11 pm and, although she hated coming home late, she wasn't willing to leave that place without being satisfied with Hyunjin's so-called help.

"What?"

"How do you know all those details about Felix and his group?"

Hyunjin gulped and, looking away, tried to walk past her.

"You're not going anywhere!" Taking one step to the side, Jeongmin blocked his way and let a chuckle leave her lips, not because it was funny, but because it was frustrating. "Look, I know you told Changbin about me on purpose. You brought him here because you knew the sh.t that had happened between us." He was about to speak, but she was quicker to raise an index finger to stop him from even trying. "Don't try to deny this, okay? You gave me Felix's address so I'd meet him and he'd threaten me, and you told Seungho I was sick because you knew I wouldn't be coming at all. I've just connected all the dots, Hyunjin, and the least you can do now is to give me a proper explanation."

"Look, I-" He took a deep breath, leaning against the counter with a hand. "I shouldn't even have told you about the things I did."

"Why not?" Hyunjin simply looked around the café, and Jeongmin's temper wasn't technically getting any softer. "Are you really friends with Changbin as you said you were? Because f.ck it! You were my friend too-!"

"I work for Felix, Jeongmin."

Those words cost him so much to leave his throat, that he had to close his eyes for a minute, and Jeongmin felt like her legs had suddenly disconnected from the rest of the system. 

Hyunjin?

Hyunjin.

Taking a step back, she looked at him from top to bottom and from bottom to top, and something just didn't match up in her head.

Hyunjin?

Suddenly, Jeongmin brought her hands to her head and, turning around, left the counter. The café was now filled with silence, but not just that silence where no noises or words are heard: that kind of silence where something big stands between two smaller things, that silence where the mind screams the words the walls shouldn't hear, that silence where nothing can be shared and the fear of speaking prevails.

Again, Jeongmin, you've just found what you've been running from.

"I'm a member of the gang."

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