Because of You

Last night, our house had turned into a warzone from the moment that Hyunki told our parents that he'd dropped out of university. There was so much screaming going on that I left my dinner half untouched just so I could get out of the house. I'd ended up riding the bus around the city a few times, not returning until it was well after midnight. Unfortunately, they were still fighting by then, so I quietly snuck up to my room and blasted my music on my laptop. I thought it would be fine the next morning, but as soon as I got down to the kitchen, my father had cornered me.

"Hyunjae, I do not want you thinking you can follow in your brother's footsteps. You have four months of university left, just buckle down and finish well," he warned in a serious tone.

I rolled my eyes as I cut a grapefruit in half. "Dad, I know. I'm studying well and I wouldn't even dream of dropping out. You have nothing to worry about, I promise."

"Good. I don't want my second child to be as stupid as my first." My father pulled me into a hug, and while I knew he only wanted the best for me, I really hated to be nagged.

At that moment, my brother came stumbling in, sleep still evident in his eyes and his hair matted to one side of his head. "You better find a job quickly, you fool," our father said, slapping Hyunki on the back of the head. "I'm not going to house a dropout for free."

"I'm going out to look later," the twenty four year old whined. Sometimes I couldn't believe that Hyunki was actually older than me with the way he acted.

Our father nodded once before he went back to his seat and picked up the newspaper, dismissing the both of us.

"I'm going to work," I announced after a moment, munching on half of my grapefruit while I put the other half in a plastic bag to take with me. "Don't follow me," I hissed to my brother as I slipped past him. He just flashed me a goofy grin and leaned over to kiss my cheek, making me scowl in return.

---

By the time I arrived at the cafe, I was still seething. "Stupid Hyunki and his stupid dropout self," I muttered as I pushed through the staff entrance. I threw down my bag a little harsher than necessary and slipped my apron over my head, still grumbling under my breath. When Dongwoo walked in, I was angrily fighting with the ties on my apron.

"Good morning, Hyunjae!" he greeted, bouncing over. "Ooh, do you need help with that?"

Before I could tell him no, the older boy had taken the strings from my hands and was tying them together behind my back. When he was done, he stepped away and held up his hands. "Tada! Good as new."

"Thanks," I replied gruffly, shuffling past him to the time clock to punch in. Unfortunately, he trailed after me, launching into a ramble of words that I only just barely managed to decipher.

"So I was looking at the schedule and I noticed we have our break at the same time—"

"Dongwoo," I cut in wearily. "Can we maybe talk about this later? I'm—"

"I don't know why Hoya keeps getting the schedules wrong, but oh well," he continued. Either he was ignoring me or he hadn't heard me. The latter was more likely, since Dongwoo was one of the most polite people I knew.

"I'm really stressed out, Dongwoo," I tried again, even grabbing onto his arm to gain his attention. But that didn't seem to work either, since he still kept on talking.

"Anyway, if you want to, would you want to go to the water ice stand around the corner with me? I heard that it's going to be hot later and—"

"Dongwoo!" I finally yelled, feeling my patience snap. Not that it was very impressive usually, but it was extra thin after being nagged this morning. "I don't have time for this, I'm too stressed and I just want to get to work."

I ignored the hurt look that spread across his face and stomped out to the front of the cafe. Normally I would feel bad for yelling at him, but I was too upset to be bothered with anyone else's feelings at the moment. I needed to talk to my best friend, but a quick glance around the empty cafe told me that she was probably hiding somewhere with Sungyeol wrapped around her. I never really had an opinion of the tall boy, but at that moment, I kind of hated him for taking up all of my best friend's time. I sighed and picked up a rag, beginning to wipe down the counters in preparation to open the cafe.

"Hey, how did dinner go?" a quiet, raspy voice said suddenly. I turned around and saw Myungsoo leaning against the counter, his face looking the slightest bit concerned. It was weird not to see the carefully blank expression he always seemed to wear.

"Obviously horrible," I sighed once I'd gotten over my initial shock. "You know how my dad is when he's upset."

The older boy nodded, patting the top of my head comfortingly. "Oh yeah, I definitely remember. I never thought I'd get out of that house alive!" With a soft laugh and a shake of his head, Myungsoo disappeared into the back, leaving me alone once again.

The bells over the front door chimed and I looked up to see my brother walking in, a smug grin on his face as he sidled up to the counter. "What are you doing here?" I hissed, leaning across the counter.

"I'm here to bug you, of course," Hyunki teased. I was not in the mood for this, so I waved my hand at him and went back to cleaning the counter.

"Go home, I don't want to see you right now," I said bitterly.

My older brother just shook his head, his brown locks bouncing slightly with the movement. "Nope. I've come to see my boyfriend and I refuse to leave until I've done so."

"You know he's almost always in the office, I don't know why you come in the front if you're just going to see him," I grumbled.

Hyunki leaned over and pinched my cheek harshly, grinning the whole time. "Oh, Hyunjae. It's like you completely forgot who I was when I went to Busan! You know I live to bug the crap out of you, little sis."

"Whatever," I said, waving him off. "I'm going to go see what Woohyun is doing since he's not a giant tool."

My brother raised his eyebrows at my choice of words, but he headed back to the office anyway, whistling a random tune as he went.

"Woohyun!" I sighed dramatically as I walked into the kitchen. "I hate everyone and everything."

The older boy grinned, looking up from the bowl he was currently mixing and laughing at my dejected expression. "Let me guess, the parents nagged all morning?"

I nodded. "Technically it was just my dad, but I know my mom will be waiting to guilt trip me as soon as I get home. Ugh, why couldn't Hyunki just lie to them for a few more months? He could have just stayed with Sunggyu or something, it's like they're practically married already anyway!" I felt my voice getting whiny, so I cut myself off and just pouted. "Hyun, this sucks."

"Hyun? Yeah, you really must be having a bad day because you never call me that." Woohyun snorted, putting the bowl down and moving to the fridge. "I had a feeling this would happen, so I made this last night before I closed up. You know, just in case." He pushed a small box across the counter towards me, which I stared at curiously.

"What is it?" I questioned, but the brunette just shook his head and motioned for me to open it. When I realized what was inside, I ran over and threw my arms around his neck, pulling his taller frame down for a hug. "Woohyun, you really are the best," I declared, kissing his cheek before going back over to the box.

"I know," he replied smugly, crossing his arms.

"If this wasn't cheesecake, I'd throw some of it at you right now," I said pointedly. "Do you have a fork?"

He looked around dramatically before producing a plastic fork out of his apron like it was a magic trick and handing it to me. "Enjoy that, I worked extra hard on it so you'd be less grumpy today."

I nodded, shoving a giant forkful of the cheesecake into my mouth and groaning. Woohyun may be kind of annoying and weird sometimes, but he was an excellent chef.

"Hyunjae, there you are!" Junghwa called, running into the kitchen. "I've been looking for you everywhere since I found Dongwoo in the staff room."

Woohyun looked over at me and frowned. "You didn't snap at him, I hope?" he asked sternly.

I covered my cheesecake with both hands in case they decided to try and take it away, letting out a groan. "Maybe? I didn't mean to, he just caught me at a bad time and I couldn't deal with his rambling." Junghwa and Woohyun exchanged a quick glance with each other, leaving me confused. "Oh, don't tell me I have to apologize?!"

Junghwa slapped my arm and glared at me. "Look, I know you're angry at Hyunki and your parents, but that's no reason to be mean to Dongwoo. I mean, he's just worried about you and wanted to hang out with you today to cheer you up, am I right?"

I sighed. "Well, he did invite me to go to the water ice stand on our break..." I trailed off. Now that I was thinking about it, I really had been kind of mean to him.

Woohyun smirked at me. "See? I can tell you already feel like a wench," he commented, successfully dodging the forkful of cheesecake I flung his way.

"I'm going to go find him and apologize," I sighed, closing the lid on my cheesecake. "Woohyun, hide this so Junghwa doesn't eat what's left," I added, ignoring her indignant look.

"I would not eat your cheesecake!" she called after me.

"Oh please, you love it as much as I do," I shot back as I exited the kitchen.

I decided to try the staff room first, since Junghwa had mentioned just seeing Dongwoo in there. Unfortunately, when I walked in, Myungsoo was there also. He would get to witness me admitting I was an asshole. Talk about awkward.

"Dongwoo?" I called, making the brunette look up at me with a slight frown. "I just wanted to apologize for earlier, I was incredibly rude-"

"No, no, no," the older boy cut me off, standing up and walking over. "It was my fault, I shouldn't have bugged you as soon as you came in. We all knew that you'd probably be upset, but it slipped my mind and I was being inconsiderate. Please forgive me?"

I stared at him in shock, barely even registering the closing of the door as Myungsoo slipped out of the room. "What...why are you sorry? It was my fault, not yours," I repeated, frowning deeply. "Anyway, if you can forgive me, I'd really like to go to the water ice stand with you. I definitely need it after last night."

Dongwoo's face brightened considerably. "Really?" he asked excitedly, clapping his hands together. I nodded.

"I'm feeling a bit better already now that I've come to work, so hopefully I don't do anything stupid again. I really hope you're not upset with me?" I asked again, biting my lip. Dongwoo shook his head and laid his arm across my shoulder, pulling me in for a hug.

"I told you, it's fine. You're just stressed about your family. I can understand that." He paused for a moment to think, then flashed me one of his silly grins and ruffled my hair. "But to make it up to me, you could pay for my water ice?"

I snorted, ducking away from him and fixing my hair. "I knew it wouldn't be that easy!" I said, letting out a sigh.

"Come on, let's go open up the shop," he said, gently pulling on my elbow. I decided to just let him, since he was taller and probably stronger than me, as much as I hated to admit it.

"Sunggyu," I said in surprise when I saw him standing in the hall with Sungjong, Sungyeol and Hyunki. It was so rare for the redhead to leave his office that I was afraid that something had gone wrong and he was about to unleash hell upon all of us. "Is everything alright?"

"Sure is, little sis," my brother said with a grin, ruffling my hair and messing it up once again. I was really starting to get annoyed with this habit everyone seemed to have, but I wasn't about to pick a fight with him in front of my boss. "I'm gonna be working here as a dishwasher from now on!"

I stumbled backwards into Dongwoo, who luckily caught me before I fell. "Please tell me you're joking," I pleaded. But as I glanced at the two bus boys, I realized he wasn't. My brother was going to be working in the same place as me.

"Um, Junghwa?" Dongwoo called out cautiously. "I think you might want to come out here..."

My best friend appeared in the hall just in time to see Dongwoo struggling to hold me back while my brother stood a few feet away, grinning like he was incredibly pleased with himself.

"Junghwa, Dongwoo, can you take her outside and cool her off?" Sunggyu asked, glancing at them. My best friend hurried over and grabbed my flailing arms, locking them to my sides as Dongwoo dragged me slowly down the hall.

"Kang Hyunki, you are dead when we get home!" I yelled, just before the door swung shut after us.