the doppelganger | xiuchen

Epilogue

Five months later. . .

"Two large hot chocolates!" Back at work in the café, Minseok placed the order onto the counter before letting out an exhausted sigh.

On the other side, Baekhyun was busy taking in orders, with Chanyeol at the cashier next to him. The café hadn't been doing badly before, but after Kyungsoo and Kai had promoted the place, it rose to be one of the hottest must-visit shops in Korea.

"Hey, guys," Suho, now the actual manager, said as he popped in. "It's going to start soon. Just wanted to let you know."

Minseok nodded. "Okay. Did Yixing
find the remote control, though?"

After the festival, Yixing and Minseok had sat down for another, longer talk. By the end of it, they had decided that Yixing would stay in Korea, especially after he was scouted by the entertainment company which had also signed on Kai and Kyungsoo. Yixing hadn't debuted yet, which was why he stayed at the coffee shop, but he was preparing for it while working part-time.

"What do you mean, did he find it yet?" Suho repeated. "He lost it again?"

Of course, Yixing tended to be slightly forgetful, and he still wasn't completely fluent in Korean, which was why he mainly cleaned the place up and attracted customers with his face.

Before Minseok could come up with a good save, the TV in the corner turned on, just in time.

"I found it!" Yixing said triumphantly as he placed the remote control into his apron pocket. "It was in my back pocket."

Shaking his head playfully, Minseok looked up at the screen. Kyungsoo had been invited to sing the opening act for a famous fashion show, and Kai had been invited to walk the runway. So had Sehun, who had also been scouted at the festival, but by a modelling agency. The three of them were slowly making their rise in the entertainment industry.

As the show was being introduced, Minseok wistfully thought about how much had changed in the past few months.

"Hey, hyung! Are you going to just stand there and gape at the screen? That's for the customers to watch, not us."

Minseok turned around and smiled at Jongdae, who was also grinning and busy at work.

"I'm going to have to do all the work if you don't do anything," Jongdae complained as he sent off three drinks on his own.

Minseok laughed. "Ah, sorry," he said as he also hurried to help Jongdae.

The change wasn't bad, of course. Jongdae's shift had been changed to match Minseok's as the café began to do well and required more workers.

All in all, things were going great. Could things have been better? Well
. . . maybe.

But as Minseok passed by Jongdae, the latter quickly squeezed his hand and gave him a wink. Minseok returned it with a small smile, and before anyone could notice, they both continued on their ways. And with every step he took, the feeling of his wallet, holding a picture of him and Jongdae, pushed against his thigh.

Even still, what he had right now was pretty good, and he wasn't planning on changing anything any time soon.