When it gets complicated

Dodging the troll (xiuchen)

~Minseok~

The day starts as it always does, a soft melody plays in the background as the wonderful and smoky smell of coffee fills the small cafe. I smile to myself taking a deep lingering breath, the comfort of the familiarity that it brings, centers me, readying me for the day ahead.

I take a small look around the room, light is just starting to peek out from the horizon, teasing the still mostly asleep city with its dusty rays. The sunrise floods the cafe making it look almost magical and to me it always sort of does. This cafe was always my dream, and the fact that I can wake up every day and do the thing I always aspired to makes me feel proud and happy with my life. I'm content with my life. I'm more than happy with how it's panned out and I have no regrets on how I've lived so far... well maybe one.

Jongdae has barely left my mind since he walked out of the cafe the other night, and I guess in succession back into my life. The way things ended, or how they never really started was something I've always pushed out of my mind, choosing not to think about how one of the things I wanted wasn't obtained. Achieving my goals has always been one of my personal habits and proudest attributes, but knowing that I left something unfinished, unacknowledged... it ate at me, until I finally pushed it from my head, accepted the heartbreak as what it was instead as seeing it as a personal failure, and focused on my larger and much more important dreams, but now... now, a certain fox-like, and sexy voiced man is forcing me to think about things I never wanted to think about again.

Suddenly the cafe doesn't look as magical or glittery as it did seconds ago. No, now it looks menacing and brooding. A soft sigh escapes my lips as I pick up a glass off the counter and start wiping it with a pink rag (Tao insisted we get them because they give the cafe a pop of character, and sometimes it's easier to give into that little monster than it is to argue), hoping the mindless act will clear my head of the frustration it's brought itself.

"Someone looks serious." I jump at the voice and the glass drops from my hands, lands on the floor with a dramatic crashing sound. "Oh shit, I'm so sorry. Are you ok?" Jongdae rushes forward, looking me from head to toe, with a deeply concerned look on his face.

I blink at him a few times and try to clutch at any sort of sanity I can find in this second. "W-what are you doing here?"

Jongdae lifts an eyebrow and a short chuckle falls from his thin lips. "Earth to Minseok, you are surrounded by broken glass. Worry about unimportant things after we figure out if you're uninjured."

I take a deep breath and shake my head, looking down, realizing the truth in the man's words. "Oh shit."

Jongdae snorts and shuffles forward. "Did any of it catch you?"

I bend down and start to pick up the larger chunks. "No, I'm fine. It happens all the time, one of my employees is Chanyeol, remember?"

Jongdae crouches in front of me and swats my hands away, picking up the glass himself. "Right, but still, sorry about scaring you."

I feel my cheeks flush slightly at the close proximity we're in and glance away, clearing my mind of the sudden fuzziness the smell of Jongdae is forcing into my head. The smell of him on his jacket is nothing compared to the live thing and it's nearly intoxicating. The want to crawl into his arms and burrow into him, just to take a deep breath. It's almost overwhelming.

"I'll get a broom." I say standing up quickly and rushing to the back of the cafe into the office, which is supposed to be my personal office, but I never use it because I prefer to be out front running things, rather than stuffed in here on my computer. Paperwork can wait till we're closed, my cafe is the main focus of my life and being in the center of it is my life force.