“Jisoo, get me the frosting!”

“Mingyu, preheat the oven!”

“I SAID GET ME THE FROSTING!”

It was a busy, busy day at the bakery – there were customers coming in and out despite it not being peak hour or lunch hour but employees weren’t increasing; they had to run around to carry orders and follow their head baker’s orders to the bone. Sometimes, employees wanted to quit but they couldn’t forget how much the head baker had done for them; almost half their lives had been going smoothly because of her.

BANG!

“Choi Sooyoung!” Tiffany screamed, stomping into the kitchen with a grumpy pout on her face, “how dare you call my Sunkyu and tell her to stop so damn loudly?! I’ll punch you for embarrassing her!”

Sooyoung screamed and threw her toque in the air before running around the baking table; Tiffany was a freaking fast runner when she wanted to be and if Sooyoung wasn’t careful, she wasn’t going to leave the bakery alive today. Tiffany chased after Sooyoung, growling as she manoeuvred past the other employees to chase after the shikshin.

Granted they were a popular franchise (yes, they were now a franchise with chains across the country), this sort of behaviour wasn't considered rare. 

 “FANY, STOP!”

“YAH! OUCH!”

And the entire chase stopped with a poor woman on her ; neither the chaser or the runner on the floor, mind you.

Everyone watched as the head baker blow a stand of hair away from her face, almost as if she was walking in slow motion towards the two idiots who were playing a game of tag and the woman on the floor. Their head baker was a nice, calm-headed one but when it came to the woman on the floor, the former could be so different. 

“Geez, baby,” the head baker sighed, supporting the pouting woman up from the floor, “you came in at a completely wrong time.”

“Hey, Taeng…”

Taeyeon huffed and placed her hands on her hips, turning to face the two guilty parties. She had lost count of the number of times her girlfriend had been knocked down by her two best friends; if only her two immature friends could learn to grow up and set good examples for her other employees. Unfortunately for Yuri, she always entered the kitchen at the wrong time and ended up on the floor. 

“I’m not saying you need to cut down on your y time, Fany,” Taeyeon said, crossing her arms as she faced the pouting American, “but you need to stop taking leave just to have .” Sooyoung was about to gloat when Taeyeon turned to her this time, “and you need to stop ing them because you’re single and lonely.”

While Taeyeon was busy giving her two friends a scolding, Yuri had gone deeper into the kitchen to greet the other employees. She had become a regular not just as a customer, but as Taeyeon's girlfriend too. Most of the time, Yuri brought multiple drinks and other goodies for everyone in the bakery even if she struggled to carry all. 

Yuri smiled when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her waist from behind, a head resting in between her shoulder blades. She turned slightly and held Taeyeon’s arms, “missed me that much, huh?”

Taeyeon rolled her eyes and let go of her girlfriend, forcing Yuri to turn around to face her. She crossed her arms and glared at Yuri, “is that even a valid question? You were so bloody busy with the last project that we haven’t slept together in days!” Taeyeon was not joking around though; she missed having Yuri's arms around her so much. 

Yuri pouted.

“I was so busy with this one so I pushed that one back…”

Flashback.

Taeyeon knew she was in deep after she took indefinite leave from work to take care of Yuri till she was in the pink of health but who could resist those charming puppy eyes? Well, name her one person because Taeyeon couldn’t think of a single person who could. For heavens’ sake, if Yuri was in bed and trying to beg her to stay with her; Taeyeon wouldn’t deny even though it meant that her bonus wouldn’t be deposited into her bank account for lack of attendance.

“I’m so dead.”

“Yeah, you are.”

“Shut up, Soo.”

Sooyoung threw her hands up in surrender and carefully tiptoed around the nervous baker; her friend was nervous and afraid enough. She didn’t know if Taeyeon was going to be able to keep her job because she was already stepping all over their manager’s toes unintentionally. It didn’t help that their manager was also biased against Taeyeon because she was as good as a professional baker who could open her own bakery.

Taeyeon's ankles knocked against each other's as she tried to focus on kneading the dough in front of her; the mere thought of Seohyun threatening to fire her was putting her on edge.

“Kim Taeyeon!”

“Oh… damn it.”

Her trembling fingers twisted the door knob before she stepped in timidly; Taeyeon was not scared of Seohyun but this time, she was - Seohyun, after all, did have the power to fire Taeyeon for not following the rules set by her; one being the fact that Taeyeon took leave without telling her anything about the extended few days.

“Yes?”

“You should know why I called you here,” Seohyun leaned back against the chair, her eyes flickering upwards to glare at Taeyeon, “I don’t have to spell it out for you, right?” 

*

*

Needless to say, Taeyeon was out of a job for the next few months or so; Seohyun had made sure to let other bakeries around know that Taeyeon didn't have a good record. Yet, it was also due to that that every other bakery didn't really desire to have a sloppy baker in their organization. Taeyeon wasn't sloppy, but who would believe an employee over a manager's words? 

“Baby, I’m home!”

Yeah... Yuri and Taeyeon had moved in together a week after Taeyeon had been fired.

“Yul…”

Yuri frowned and she threw her duffel bag on the floor, welcoming her pouty girlfriend into her arms. She rubbed Taeyeon’s head and bent slightly, placing a kiss on Taeyeon’s hair, “what’s wrong, cutie? Are you feeling okay?” Yuri lifted an eyebrow when Taeyeon simply whined, burying her face deeper into Yuri’s neck.  

Deciding that Taeyeon was not going to open about her problems anytime soon, Yuri let go of Taeyeon and made Taeyeon look up so their eyes could meet.

“Tell me what’s wrong.”

Up till now, Taeyeon couldn’t believe that she had actually fallen for Yuri’s mischievious and playful antics even though she vowed never to let it happen in this life. From the very moment Yuri wanted to see the creator of the brain cake, Taeyeon knew there was going to be a problem. However, looking at it now, she was especially glad that Yuri had asked to see her or else, none of this would be possible.

She wouldn’t be living together with Yuri, neither would they be practically enveloped in each other’s love like they were now.

“Nothing’s wrong, Yul.” Taeyeon whispered, climbing up to Yuri’s shoulders to nip onto Yuri’s ear lobe, “I just missed you…”

And it was clear what they spent the rest of the day doing.

*

Taeyeon knew that with Yuri gone, she needed to tidy the apartment if she didn't want to live in a pig sty. She knew the one place that needed loads of cleaning was Yuri's study room; Taeyeon wasn't one to infringe on privacy but she wanted to know what Yuri was up to this past few weeks; the woman was too busy to even spend time with her nowadays.

“That woman better be busy with something reasonable or else…”

Stepping into the study room was probably one of the most nerve-wrecking moments Taeyeon had ever had in her life but she wanted to know what Yuri was busy with. Her jaw literally unhinged when she saw the number of 3D-models in the various shelves and on the table as well; no wonder Yuri couldn't go on dates as often as before.

Well, Yuri was an architect so it was normal but the one model that caught Taeyeon's attention was the one with the label, ‘baby’s bakery’ - what did that even mean?

“Oh my God…”

Yuri’s little note before was more than enough to touch Taeyeon’s heart a thousand times over; the woman had been planning to build a bakery for Taeyeon since she knew how much Taeyeon loved to bake. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise to be sacked from her precious job so now they were going to get a bakery for Taeyeon on her own – with that, Taeyeon would own the bakery and she could do what