Intuition & Commitment [1]

[allnostalgia]

His blank, tired eyes were set on staring into nothing. Leaning on the glass panels of a gourmet restaurant while waiting for his shift to end, he heaves a dreaded sigh as his worries slowly creep in after being kept aside during work's busy hours.

"Yunho hyung," his co-worker and friend called, "You up for drinks tonight?" Donghae cheerily asked. But when Yunho turned to him, there was something about his face that makes the happy boy think he might've asked the wrong question.

"Next time, maybe." He simply answered while patting his shoulder, leaving behind Donghae as he slowly walked into the locker room.



He comes home to a seemingly empty house. His sister was probably sleeping on her homework.

His thoughts drove along depressing events. His parents worked abroad to give them better lives but it never really worked out that way. He hadn't told them he'd worked part time to supplement the lack of funds for his school fees. Yunho thinks he'd heard enough drama that attempted to pull the strings together but never actually made ends meet. Add up a sister who'd grown up spoiled and rebellious.

In short, he likes to think he hasn't figured what he's living for. Well, who would enslave himself to that kind of life, given the circumstances?


"Hey, I need you to sign this," She comes out just a couple of hours before midnight, approaching Yunho without any trace of emotion on her usually pale but beautiful face. "What's this about?" He asks lazily while she walked passed him into another room.

"School trip, read it." She says as she grabs a glass to pour water, her voice muffled by the walls dividing the dinning hall and the kitchen.

"You can't go. Its too expensive." He announces a few moments later.

She walks in and sits across from him, placing the glass on a coaster, "Yeah, I figured as much. But I didn't really want to go in the first place. We've been there with Mom and Pops when we were little, right?" She smiles at the fading memory and he does, too.

Unknowingly, they both wished things could just go back to how they used to be. Things were better then, they didn't have much but at least they still felt like a family. The past was simple.



The following weeks had been stable enough to give them a pseudo-permanent routine. The smooth sailing felt a little unfamiliar and he began to feel a little uneasy at the thought of a sudden downturn of events. Maybe it was paranoia, but it could possibly be just thinking several steps ahead.

"Good evening, sirs. My name is Yunho and I'll be your waiter for tonight. I'll get your orders when you're ready." He says softly as he hands out menus. They say their thanks before Yunho bows and turns to leave.

It was another business meeting. One of the few things he didn't like about his job was the lack of eye-candy, he admits. One way or another he could meet a lady or another man that suit his type and might just get him back on the boat but its all these middle-aged people, pimping their sons and daughters to other sons and daughters of other business people.

He's young, he fends for himself, he might not be rich but he can sustain not only himself but his sister's extra curricular needs, too. He was almost ideal, except, he could only think highly of himself, not exactly exude the character. There was still that insecurity from being just a waiter to these people, after all, status was something that mattered in that part of society.

Days go by, same-same. People come and go, sons and daughters get engaged, loyalty gets promotion as a reward and he might just get a salary raise, too.



Things were about to change when a new employee, they assume, sets foot in the back room one fine Tuesday evening. He looked aloof but he broke his own ice when stares bore into his skin, with failed subtlety of questioning how the manager didn't even inform them of a new member of the crew.

"Kim Jaejoong," he extends a hand for anyone to take as he smiles gently, "I'm on OJT for eight hundred hours from now on. Please take care of me."

"Park Yoochun," one of them returns his polite gesture and begins introducing the rest one at a time. "We're sorry about the fuss earlier, we could've gotten a notice so we'd have rotating assignments. Will you be okay with reception just for tonight?"

This Jaejoong nods with neither qualms nor eagerness. He looks easy to work with.

"Yunho, you're first up on assisting customers to their seats, explain everything he needs to do." Yoochun orders, "Now, go."


"So, what am I supposed to call you?" Jaejoong freely asks. "Yunho's fine," he replies, "You're the same age as I am, if I guessed right. You're on OJT, last year of college? I'm on that, too."

They talk as they fixed the records of reservations made for that night, "So, how many hours do you have left until you're done?"

"Well actually, I meant I'm on the same year in college. I didn't have to do OJT since I'm already working."

"O-oh. Okay." the new boy nods in understanding, "How long have you been working here?"

"Couple of months. ‘S boring, but I need it, so… Yeah." Jaejoong straightens his uniform after finishing the preparations, "Anyway, here are the reservations and where they are supposed to be seated, each area has a certain waiter assigned so don't hesitate to call their attention when the customers arrive. Ah, yes, I'll be here when you do that. At least for the first two hours or so… I don't know what Yoochun did to the rotations, yet."

Jaejoong smiles in relief, he doesn't really show any emotions well but he was nervous. Never has he worked his whole life and here he is now, working a night shift job. "Thank you, Yunho!"

They talk until people came swarming in, about little things in his and his life, trying to make the new boy feel welcome so they'd work comfortably. It was quite easy, Jaejoong was calm and composed at all times.

Their shift ends at nine o'clock sharp. Yunho heads home immediately, the others might've planned for a night out like usual, and Jaejoong walks to the next block and sits in the back seat as his driver brings him to the coldest home he thinks there is in all of Korea.



"You could choose to do this with a partner or solo, doesn't matter so long as you have an output by next Wednesday. Okay, start doing your drafts!" Yunho stares at the white board with all the pretend-client's demands for an event motif design and thinks how he cold possibly buy all the materials he needed just for this plate alone.

"Yunho," he hums in response, "I know what you're thinking. I'll pair up with you to cut the expenses in half."

"Are you sure? I know you hate working in teams."

"Come on, this is one plate. And- and I have the same problem. So… Win-win, right?" Changmin knows Yunho would guess how he exactly lost a huge part of his allowance to need back up.

"What exactly did you spend on to not have money for this, Changmin?"

The other guy replies with a sheepish grin. Yunho wonders if this boy was actually sensitive enough or not, but anyway, he's a decent artist so what the heck.

"So, I was thinking you come up with a color scheme before I begin designing?"


Yunho heads home as soon as their final design was approved. Sleep. He needed to sleep at least for a couple of hours before heading to work again.


- - -


Jaejoong sat behind his desk and tried to focus on the professor's lesson. But it was turning more challenging than he thought. He was this close to sleeping and waking up when it was time to go to work again. He liked it more; it was a better reality that made him human as everyone else.


His driver pulls over from across the street and gives him his schedule for tomorrow before driving off. "Goodnight, hyung, I promise I'll get home safe."

"Jaejoong-ah, I'll still be watching you. If you wanted to learn how to commute, you could've asked me. Your parents, I can explain it to them."

"But hyung, if I ever get lost, you'll know how to find me with just one call." Jaejoong teases. It was funny how he gets along with their employees, wondering how his parents can’t seem to see them doing the right things.

His driver lightly laughs before bidding goodbye, "Work hard today, hm?" Jaejoong nods before crossing the soon-to-be very familiar street to punch in his time.


"You're a fast learner! How I wish every intern was like you!" Yoochun exclaims as he watched Jaejoong enter and leave the kitchen gracefully after observing the others for a while.

"I need a clean record to show my parents," he replies, "Or else, I'll never get away."

"Model student?"

"Not exactly, but there's things my parents control in my life. It sucks but then they feed me anyway, they send me to university. Who am I to protest?"

"Kids like you are very rare these days." the store manager butts in, "Don't let Yoochun and Donghae lead you to the dark path of drinking every chance they get."

"Hey!" Yoochun instinctively defends himself, "But yeah, I guess he's right. But nothing's wrong with putting a little spice in routine."

"I've caused enough trouble of my own kind back in high school," Jaejoong says as he smiles at the memory. It was all because of his naivety that he's in this mess in the first place.

"Really?" Yoochun teases in question, "Tell me more about that after our job's done, alright?"

"Hm?" Jaejoong takes the tray into his hands and smirks, "Its not worth hearing."


It was times like these night shifts that he feels guilty for pretending he was something he wasn't. He was surrounded with real good people and he had to be careful not to spill anything about himself too much. Worse is that he doesn't want anything related to it to end.


He learns to take the bus and subway home in a few days. He gets sucked into the world of middle-class people who work their bodies harder than the people he'd seen when he was young. The fact that he doesn't get paid relieves his guilt a little. Does he really want lives like these to be under his hands and decisions?


He was in his car when he sees Yunho and Donghae with another tall man with them walking to work. And somehow, he feels envious of them. Freedom. What does it feel having that in every sense of the word?

“Hyung, can we stop here for a sec?”

His driver slowly puts the vehicle to s stop, “What are we doing here, Jaejoong-ah?”

“I- I’ll get off here. I have co-workers to walk with.” And with that he steps off the car and briskly walks to the direction the three were taking, wishing things weren’t literal.


“Yunho!” He calls out as soon as he was near enough, and then he realizes he doesn’t really know what to say next.

“Oh, Jaejoong! Heading to work?” Yunho slings an arm over his shoulder, slightly shaking him as they walk, and he fervently nods, “You and Donghae too?”

“We’ll be coming in late, today. I have things to do for school for a while first.” Yunho places the distance back between them. Jaejoong was far beyond curious as to what art students can do and how they create their masterpieces.

“Ah, by the way, meet Changmin, he’s- are we really friends? Aren’t you too much of a douche bag to really be friends with me?” He teases and Jaejoong actually laughs at that with the three of them.

“Nice to meet you, my name is Jaejoong.” He says as he composed himself in front of the laughing man, “Nice to meet you too.”

Changmin thinks it might be beyond him to judge but he had a different gut feeling with Jaejoong the moment he saw him. It was pretty odd, the aura he exuded.


- - -


“Yunho, where did you say Jaejoong’s studying?” they were in Yunho’s attic-slash-studio in his house, working on a scale model for class, surrounded by supplies and artworks.

“I never told you, I never really asked him.” He says, covering a part of the miniature to spray paint on some other parts.

“I don’t think he’s really, you know, on the same page as we are.” Changmin stops working completely and thinks again.

“Exactly how did you come up with a conclusion when you’ve met him once?” He grabs the roll of tape around Changmin wrist and continues the job.

“He looks classy and somehow his words are always vague when he talks about himself.” Yunho looks at him, pondering, “Do you think maybe… Somehow… Possibly… He’s the heir to J-Kim?”

“If he is or he isn’t, its none of our business. Clearly, he’s with us to work and not flaunt his status around. Give him a break, he hasn’t aggravated anyone, anyway.” But then, Yunho has had enough of Changmin’s accurate hunches to partially believe this one. And then he notes himself to be careful from now on. Kids like them are far too naïve most of the time.



A/N: Well this turned out longer than it originally should have been. Supposedly a one-shot that dragged on and is at present, a 6-part story. ._. There's something in the waters of sleeplessness that gets to me. So, I'm terribly sorry. Also coz I've been having confidence issues ever since the last thing I wrote.