A plastered-on fake smile appeared on Joshua's face as he declined Jeonghan's request for a coffee.
"I'm sorry we don't serve rude customers" The younger spoke as he stood still behind his cafeteria counter.
The older's routine often included taking advantage of Joshua's colleagues' friendship to get free brunches. Joshua just wouldn't let Jeonghan go the easy way all the time, the two seemed to be in a fight 24/7. Plus he couldn't stand the older being at the cafe all the time.
"Oh come on" Jeonghan rolled his eyes and leaned forward as the younger had already walked away running his hands through his silky brown hair in extreme frustration, as he just couldn't bear that behavior anymore.
"Here you go" Mingyu handed the iced americano next to a chocolate muffin. He softly smiled at Jeonghan who seemed adamant to finally have breakfast. Mingyu soon left to help out with another customer's order.
The fact that Jeonghan and Joshua didn't like each other stemmed from their background differences.
Jeonghan's family was rich and therefore Jeonghan inherited a huge amount of wealth from his parents. Joshua on the other hand didn't have such an easy life. His parents abandoned him right after high school finished, so he had to work day and night to earn money and couldn't have the fun life the older had.
To Joshua's eyes, Jeonghan was an arrogant brat who looked down on everyone, sometimes in high school he would even mock Joshua for wearing the same outfit for two days straight or for eating the same lunch every day.
Jeonghan did in fact change. He humbled. But this didn't matter to Joshua. Jeonghan was still the asshole he used to be.
Their lack of confrontation cost them the possibility to ever get to know each other on another level.
As Jeonghan sat down in annoyance, he let out exasperated sighs, which Seungcheol noticed right away as soon as he entered the cafeteria.
"Good morning Jeonghan, what's up" Seungcheol surprised the younger from behind, the latter smiled in awe as soon as he saw the older.
"Oh Cheolie hi" he fixed his gaze on Seungcheol, "how's work going?" Jeonghan inquired.
"Not really the best at this time, we have tons of paperwork to deal with" he sighed, "what would you know about it though... you don't work and all you think about is either going on a ride or star-gazing or talking to your orange flowers" Seungcheol softly giggled.
Everyone knew Jeonghan loved astronomy. He also had peach-colored daylilies he would take care of every day.
"Yeah yeah I know, don't need to bring that up every time you see me" Jeonghan mumbled as he felt uneasy every time his jobless situation was brought up.
Jeonghan didn't have any work experience and the fact almost all of his friends had jobs didn't make him feel at ease.
Seungcheol was a successful CEO of a popular company that dealt with pet adoption and care. During this time, he had to deal with a special request Joshua had: make his cafeteria a pet cafe.
Consequently, work demanded a lot of attention for him. Dokyeom who was the deputy CEO, was of great help to Seungcheol, alongside their intern, Dino. Of course, they weren't professional doctors or vets so they needed a more specialized figure to manage their duties, and that was Wonwoo, who recently became a vet and loved his job.
Seungkwan and Vernon were majoring in a master's degree so they were still studying hard to get the job they wanted.
Hoshi was a popular social influencer, he managed to model for a few companies and his next goal was to do the job for a more popular brand.
Woozi has always been into music. Since middle school, his dream has driven him to pursue his current job, and that is being a music producer with his own studio. Which Hoshi occasionally used for editing his YouTube and TikTok videos.
Minghao fulfilled his dream of being a meditation instructor, in particular a Qigong instructor, which is an ancient Chinese healing practice that combines meditation, controlled breathing, and gentle exercise. Meanwhile, Jun became a PE teacher since he's always enjoyed sports and physical activities in general.
So seeing everyone being so successful, made Jeonghan feel useless and seeing Joshua, who was never successful in his life and even had a very poor family, made him feel immensely inferior.
"Cheer up!" Mingyu exclaimed eyeing at Jeonghan, as he had brought a toast and orange juice to Seungcheol, "here you go hyung", Mingyu followed to sit on the chair at the same table.
"I was wondering..." Jeonghan spoke looking at Mingyu with squinting eyes, "Can't you kick out the cafeteria owner and hand me this job?" Jeonghan boldly begged as he referred to Joshua.
Seungcheol rolled his eyes crossing his arms.
Mingyu just side-eyed Seungcheol observing the older's reaction, since everyone still considered him almost a father figure.
"What?? can't you look at me? I'm a hyung too you know" Jeonghan once again mumbled as he pronounced the last words to Mingyu.
"Jeonghan hyung you know I can't do that" Mingyu said bothered at the request the older made, which was no surprise to him since Jeonghan buzzed him all the time with the same words.
"I've offered you a secretary position at my company Jeonghan and you've always rejected it so stop with all this nonsense" Seungcheol stated wide-eyed.
"I don't want that job. I want Joshua's job" Jeonghan crossed his legs as he pronounced those words and pulled out his favorite astronomy book.
Mingyu and Seungcheol just sat silent after a few minutes.
"Jeonghan what's the matter with you? Have you ever considered asking Minghao for a meditation session?" Seungcheol asked. Mingyu grinned as he found the situation hilarious.
"Very funny" Jeonghan paused opening the astronomy book at the bookmark, "and I have, I've actually been in his practice room some time ago, my parents made Lee Know and Changbin schedule that" Jeonghan once again, mumbled the last part of the sentence.
Mingyu now hurried to the cafe counter to help out customers.
"My goodness, can't you do that on your own? Do you really need bodyguards even for this stuff?" Seungcheol asked.
"Hey quiet" Jeonghan added as he looked around themselves to check if anyone was listening.
"Everyone knows you're rich as hell Jeonghan... and that you're a little spoiled"
"Hey come on don't need to remind me" Jeonghan paused, "and I'm not spoiled as you think I am..." he rolled his eyes at the last remark, "Now please let me read this chapter in peace" Jeonghan basically begged Seungcheol.
Joshua just stood there behind the cafe counter, observing their interaction.
He was cleaning up the previously used mugs and occasionally rolled his eyes as soon as Jeonghan opened his mouth to speak.
"Pff what a brat", he murmured and clenched his teeth in annoyance.
