The day his manager handed him a broom to shoo off a few stray cats, he didn't think much of it. After all, the felines were becoming a huge problem as they seemed to find themselves inside the store's garbage bags often - tearing them and leaving Hyunjae to pick up the waste.
What he wasn't expecting that night, after holding up his broom directly in front of his body, was to accidentally hit a boy with one of the cats in his arms. To make matters worse, the broom's stick hit the boy right on his forehead, the noise and movement was enough to scare off the cat the other held and some cats around him.
The silence after the cats flew off into the night was enough to make his heart race abnormally as he threw the broom to the side and nervously studied the other's expression, unsure of how to respond or prepare for a potential beat down considering the boy's size in comparison to him.
It wasn't until he heard the sound of sniffles that brought him to make eye contact with the male sitting in the alleyway of the convenience store to conclude he had indeed made someone cry. He was baffled by his current situation, staring down at those watery eyes. His job interview never mentioned dealing with an alleyway or criers.
"Uh...are you okay?" Hyunjae started, ready to lay a hand on the other's forehead to check for injuries before a hand pushed him away.
The other looked at him with a stare reading off 'Are you insane?'. "You hit me with a broom and scared off those poor cats, and you want to ask me if I'm okay? Do I look okay to you?" He choked out between sniffles, "You're a terrible alleyway owner, those cats haven't eaten properly in weeks. Do you know how long it took me to get them away from your garbage?"
What was he supposed to do in this situation? Hyunjae was only supposed to do what his manager told him, and now, he's found himself getting yelled at by someone worse than that. "Look, I just work here, okay? Those aren't my cats and it's not my job to take care of them"
It didn't take much more than that for the other boy to stand up, wiping his eyes only for him to be around that same height as him, just with a scary build that shoved him to the wall. "Fuck you. Those cats wouldn't have had to eat out of your low paying job's garbage if you and your manager thought to properly manage them. I can't believe you"
Hyunjae closed his eyes, expecting a punch or worse than that, but with those final words, the boy took his leave. Heart still rapidly pumping, he could only grab the broom he threw and was quick to retreat back into the store after his stranger encounter.
By the next morning, with that memory being after to the back of his mind, he went to his class like he would any other way. A yawn came out of his mouth as he took a seat beside his friend Sangyeon. He let his head rest on the other's shoulder as they waited for the lesson to begin.
"Were you working again last night?" Sangyeon mumbled, "You've been so tired lately"
There goes his friend and his spot-on intuition, while Sangyeon mumbled about why Hyunjae shouldn't have taken any night shifts, he could only nod in response as he shut his eyes to get in just a few more minutes of sleep.
"Sangyeon? Is that you?"
"Juyeon! It's been a while, I don't think I've ever seen you in this class before, did you transfer?"
Hyunjae hadn't been too interested in the conversation his friend was having, only picking up words here and there and keeping his eyes closed. It wasn't until he heard his name, probably Sangyeon introduced him, but the second he heard those familiar words of a broom and cats, he shot up to look at who his friend had been conversing with.
He felt his body freeze as he made eye contact with a familiar set of eyes, only this time, looking up he saw a band-aid that rested center to the male's forehead. Now in broad daylight, he got a good look at the man who he had encountered last night, the one currently with a band-aid from a marking he caused.
