Sins Are for Angels || 2Jae fanfiction

Eight - Cold Coffee

Day 19 – Monday

Their practice ends and Youngjae leaves with his friends, smiling and laughing as they get stared down by the girls waiting outside to catch him and Jaebum alone. Jaebum comes out a minute or two later with Mark and Jinyoung in a deep discussion about why menthol cigarettes suck, and yet they all secretly enjoy the apple flavour but only when there are no other options. Jaebum makes eye contact with a fake blonde. She is notorious for her mean attitude and her obsession with Jaebum and yet he cannot remember her name for the life of him. All he knows is that she's the alpha of his little fan club. He winks at her and her friend nudges her shoulder as they all try to contain themselves with excitement. He silently laughs as he walks away with his friends. Distracting them is as easy as that.

He parts with his friends outside to head towards the address that Youngjae has texted him. It takes him about eight minutes to walk there. He finds Youngjae standing in front of a coffee shop, waiting for him.

"A coffee shop?" Jaebum asks.

"No... In here," Youngjae smiles, pointing to the door next to the coffees shop with a little sign above it.

"Lee's Academy of Music. Find joy in music?" Jaebum reads the name and slogan aloud from the sign. His eyebrows furrow. "Why here?" He looks over at Youngjae with a puzzled look.

"I work here."

"You work?" Youngjae lets them in and they walk up the staircase.

"They've let me take these two months off while I do the play but yes," Youngjae explains as he opens another door and holds it politely for Jaebum. "I teach kids to play the piano a couple of times a week."

"Wow, I had no idea. That's... Nice," Jaebum tries to compliment. It sounds more bitter than he intended it to. He follows Youngjae down a hall after greeting the receptionist, who doesn't check Youngjae's id because he is a familiar face. Jaebum receives a kind smile from her as Youngjae explains the reason for his presence. They go up more stairs and reach the second floor, where Youngjae gets his keys out and lets them into a room with the number 7 on the door and underneath it, a sticker with Youngjae's name on it.

"I guess you could call this my office," he announces happily as he switches on the light. The room is not very big but big enough to house a piano, a few shelves of smaller instruments and a few cupboards. The back wall is all window and another wall has a few string instruments hanging from it together with posters and pictures hung with sticky tack.

"Neat," Jaebum compliments as he walks around the room, fascinated by it all.

"I hung these up myself." He points to the pictures. "All the instruments are provided by the institute." Jaebum notices the hint of absolute content Youngjae gives off when he talks about this place and Jaebum thinks about asking.

"Like it here?"

"Kids and music. My two favourite things combined. It couldn't get any better than this," he smiles and sits down on the piano bench. Hepats on the empty space left next to him. There isn't a lot of it and it makes Jaebum hesitant. Jaebum sets his bag down and sits where Youngjae wants him to – very close and now it feels dangerous.

"I thought your biggest passion was overly sweetened coffee. I'm quite shocked," Jaebum says with a joking smirk. They both remember the practice where they spent their five-minute break getting coffee from the canteen. Youngjae poured three spoonfuls of sugar in his (quite small, might he add) cup.

"Now that you mention it. I'll just go make us some coffee in the staffroom. I'll be right back. Feel free to play if you want." Youngjae sprints out of the room to make them coffee. Jaebum is left to face a reunion with the keys, waiting to be touched by his nervous fingers. He brushes a hand over them and takes a deep breath.