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"I got the job!"

Those were his first words when he stepped inside his flat, holding his rolled-up apron proudly in his hands.

"Congratulations little brother." Lukas said, his mouth in a small smile, which for the often expressionless man, was quite the emotional reaction.

"Don't call me that." Emil said, removing his shoes and then proceeding to walk over to his brother, who was hunched over in his pajamas with a book in hand. (Quite an unlikely sight for the Norwegian, Lukas liked to stay crisp and fresh in his appearance.)

"What happened to good posture?" Emil joked, smirking as he hung his new apron up to keep it looking fresh and clean.

Lukas didn't respond, instead choosing to turn the pages of his book.

"You going to sleep?" Lukas asked him.

"I guess so."

"Good night then, little brother."

"Good night." Emil said quickly, trying to escape out of the room before Lukas could sa-

"Where's the rest of my greeting?" Lukas asked innocently, although that was the complete opposite of his intentions.

"...Big brother."

Emil stormed off into their bedroom, not wanting to see Lukas's satisfied grin.

That night, Emil had a dream. Or, more accurately, he had multiple ones.

Ones with future mishaps at his new workplace that send shivers up his spine once he awoken from them. Ones that were in full black and white. Ones that were confusing and blurry; filled with anguish filled moments and twisted endings that he was never brave enough to stay asleep for; he wasn't one to admit it, but those dreams scared him. Others were brighter and happier dreams; ones with sunshine radiating from the atmosphere of the vision.

All of them, however, had Leon. And that's what confused Emil.

He awoke to the ringing of his phone alarm with bloodshot red eyes in the morning, the type his brother's friend had whenever he got hungover, which was quite often.

Those dreams...they were intense...almost intense to throw me off my game today.

But not intense enough.

Emil looked to the side to see the time on his clock. It was 7AM, and it was officially the beginning of his first day at work in Yao's Palace, working alongside a cheery Taiwanese girl, a loud and almost obnoxious Korean teen, a quiet and polite Japanese man, and a warm and energetic boss.

Alongside with a hard to read teenage Cantonese teenager, with choppy dark brown hair and amber eyes, impossibly messy eyebrows, and with a really, really good smile. The kind that makes you want to smile back, not only because it's so rare for the person to actually be smiling, but also because your heart just felt warmer and you could feel your exterior melting and I'm rambling again.

Despite the time, his brother was already out of the flat, meaning that Emil had the apartment all to himself. Getting up finally from his bed, he brushed his teeth, combed his hair, washed his face, and ate a light breakfast. For clothes, since it was summer, he settled with a white polo shirt and dark red khaki pants, wearing his shiny tennis shoes. He grabbed his hanged up apron and his keys, exiting the room.

Let today be a good one, please.

Wishing on whatever lucky morning stars that were still miraculously shining at 7:30AM, he set off to the store, apron in his hand, courage in his heart.

Wait...

Emil ran back upstairs and retrieved his wallet, tucking it in his pants pocket.

There.

Not even five minutes into his trek, he bumped into someone.

"Sorry." He said, looking up to see that it wasn't just anyone. In fact, it was Matthias, a Danish man who was friends with his brother, (although Emil swears he feels something more than friendship between them) and who was also a little too crazy, energetic, and just...loud for Emil. Especially when it was just the two of them. In the morning. In the really early morning.

"Hey Emil! What's up?" He exclaimed, pulling Emil into a bone crushing hug.

Cripes, it's Matthias.

"T-too tight...and I'm fine." Emil stuttered, trying to loosen himself out of the Danish man's grip.

Matthias let go of the hug and rested his elbow on Emil's shoulder, much to Emil's hidden discomfort. "I heard from Lukas that someone landed himself a job! Man, my little Emil is growing up so fast! What's the job for?"

Damn you Lukas, telling your "secret boyfriend" everything.

Emil sighed and removed Matthias's elbow, releasing the tension and weight from it.

"Bubble tea store, it's Yao's Palace."

"Never heard of it." Matthias said.

You literally work at a competing store that's neck to neck in competition, how have you not heard of it? It's literally two blocks away.

That's when Emil noticed a small white gift bag being held by the Danish man, a wrapped gift poking out of the bag opening.

"What is that?"

Matthias, surprisingly, quieted down and said, "Uh, a present for someone."

Emil was about to ask who the gift was for, but, as soon as Matthias entered Emil's day, he left just as quickly, whisking away as fast as the wind that was currently blowing in the crisp morning air.

Strange...he left so quickly.

With that out of the way and in the past, he continued his walk to his first day in training.

"Congrats Emil, you didn't die of sleep deprivation while making the trek here."

That was his first "warm" welcome into the store at exactly 7:50 AM. Emil was always a punctual person, and was almost never ever late for anything.

He whipped his head around to see no other than Leon, with bed-head hair (He can so pull off the "I didn't brush my hair yet I look totally hot" look, Emil thought.), apron on, and what looked like were...slippers?

"Says you, what's up with the slippers?" Emil asked jokingly, taking the chance to tie his apron around his waist.

"Comfy." He simply said, his voice so monotoned, it scared even Emil to some extent.

"Where...is everyone else?" Emil asked, looking around the building. No customers were here yet, and all he heard were the voices of him and Leon,

"We open at 10AM, I called you here early 'cause I need to teach you everything, newbie. You still don't know the ropes around here."

Emil blushed slightly. "Don't call me newbie." He stuttered.

"Whatever, follow me into the kitchen...newbie."

Leon walked off into the back of the store, leaving a dazed Emil following his footsteps.

I swear I could hear the smirk in his voice when he said that.

"Welcome to the kitchen, where all the magic happens." Leon said, although how he said it was so sarcastically spoken and non-expressive, it made Emil chuckle.

"Someone's excited to teach me." Emil said, following Leon.

"I am actually." Leon said, grabbing random ingredients such as condensed milk and a container of tapioca, which to Emil, looked like the spoiled milk carton that Matthias gave another friend of theirs, Tino, for April Fools (He got the stomach flu for a week after that.), and the tapioca like little...black balls. Seriously.

"First thing is tapioca pearls. I'll show you how to make the original flavour of boba along with that. Then, I'll teach you how to make the ones with fruit and other substances, and you can work it out from there."

"Detailed." Emil said sarcastically.

"I try." Leon said, a hint of humour in his voice.

Leon took a container of tapioca out.

"I already did this beforehand like, last night, but like, you have to soak the tapioca bubbles for a few hours to make them tender. Got that?"

Emil nodded. "100% understood."

Leon filled a pot with water and put it on boil. "Now, we wait. Since the tapioca takes the longest to produce, I'll show you how to make the original flavour and the pearls at the same time."

Moving at an immense speed, he grabbed cold black tea from the fridge, the condensed milk, and sugar syrup.

"Bubble tea time, bitches." Leon said sarcastically.

"Mix 3/4 cup of tea with ice, 2 tablespoons of cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar syrup in a shaker."

"Shaker?" Emil asked.

"Gets the flavours in better than a blender." Leon said, pouring his ingredients in.

"You seem quite...experienced. How long have you been doing this?" Emil asked, watching Leon intensely.

At least this gives me an excuse to stare at hi- NO EMIL. You will not fall in love with Leon.

"You want to shake things up?" Leon said, giving the shaker to Emil.

"Sure, I guess." Emil reluctantly said, timidly shaking the shaker.

"No Emil, harder; faster."

Leon looked at him with a cheeky smile, giving him a wink.

"...I hate your ass." Emil said, crimson while speeding up his movements.

" Tsk, don't discriminate." Leon said. "I thought you were open toward all booty types."

"Shut up." Emil said, on the verge of bursting at this point.

Leon stayed quiet, but remained a coy smile on his lips. "I think the mixture is good enough."

"Next?" Emil stopped shaking.

Leon grabbed the shaker and put it in the fridge. "The water's about to boil, so let's get back to tapioca. Take the tapioca pearls and put them in the water."

Emil grabbed the container and poured it into the boiling pot, stirring around.

"Make sure they don't stick." Leon said, watching over him.

"Got it." Emil responded.

Very, very, VERY uncomfortable with Leon watching me. Especially so intently. Especially since I can't stare at him back. I wonder what his gaze look like right now...

"Emil, don't mush up the tapioca."

Snapping out of his thoughts, he looked down to see the nearly mushed up tapioca.

"S-sorry about that..." Emil said.

Cripes. This is going to be a long day...

"We did it!" Leon said, exhausted.

Emil looked at the table to admire what he created, with the help of Leon. Tapioca pearls, two original milk tea drinks, a honeydew, taro, strawberry, and mango boba (Leon said that the fruits drinks were all the same when it came to steps, it just depended on what fruit you used), and he even made three of their famous horoscope drinks; Cancer, Leo, and Virgo.

"I'll teach you the rest tomorrow, we're about to open in...10 minutes."

"Am I working today?" Emil asked him.

Leon nodded no. "I think it's better if you go home and practice making what I taught you today. Tomorrow, you'll begin your first day."

"Got it. And...thanks for teaching me."

"No problem, pretty boy." Leon said with a small smirk, opening up a few cabinets to get some ingredients.

You...

"Take the tapioca and one of our shakers, so you can practice."

"Did you call me pretty boy again?" Emil blurted out.

Shit.

To Emil's surprise, Leon started laughing. Really hard.

"Yes, yes I did. Glad to see you like the nickname." Leon said, still laughing.

"Shut up! I do not." Emil protested, trying to hide the embarrassment in his voice.

"Sureeeee." Leon said, smiling to himself and passing Emil the ingredients.

"Here you go, pretty boy."

Emil grabbed the ingredients from him. "You suck."

"I try to."

The two teens looked at each other for a few seconds.

Those eyes...I mean, eyebrows. Yeah, those eyebrows. Wow, he needs to fix those up. Yep.

That's when Emil remembered the money in his wallet.

"Oh yeah..here's the $12 I meant to pay you back from when I first came here."

He reached into his pocket and grabbed his wallet, retriving the $12.

"Here you go. Sorry for not paying you back yesterday."

"Thanks." Leon said, taking the money and putting it on the counter.

Another awkward, yet, almost relaxing silence filled the room.

"I like, really have to go, we're opening in like, five minutes." Leon said, cutting the silent aura in the room.

"Okay."

They stared at each other, not knowing what to do or say.

"Bye Leon, thanks for today." Emil said, giving the Canto a small smile before beginning to exit the room.

"Wait, Emil!"

Emil turned around to see Leon...holding a dollar.

"You gave me $13 instead of $12."

"Oh."

Trying to hide his disappointment, he took the dollar from his hand, touching Leon's fingers, clutching them.

"Wait, did I just touch his hand OH MY GOD YES, HELVITIS* YES I DID.

"B-bye." Emil said, blushing slightly.

Dashing from the room, he was about to leave when he heard another worker.

"Leeeooon, where did you get that $11?!"

...Wait, eleven?

"From someone Im, you'll meet him tomorrow."

"How come you get free money?" Im asked.

"Cause I'm fabulous, and you're not."

...Why'd he give me back a dollar then? Did he want to...

His face red, he walked briskly out of the store, putting the dollar back in his pocket.

...To hold my hand?

Emil took the dollar out of his pocket.

It's warm, like his touch.

...

Emil sighed and carried on his way home.

I'm really acting lovesick now, aren't I?

* Hell in Icelandic.

Hormone filled and cute Emil is best Emil! ;D Thanks for reading. REVIEWWW AND FAVVOURRRITEEE AND FOLLOWWWW ok thanks. :)