wrote this chapter on 3/2/24, and Wenwen recommended Other's Melodies by Gatton on her bbl few hours ago.

Seungwan had a shift the night before Joohyun’s second weekend at the farmer’s market, but he managed a decent amount of sleep overnight.

They hadn’t had a single call between ten last night and six this morning, so he racked out and got plenty of unexpected rest.

He’d missed her first day at the market, but he wasn’t going to miss today, so once they were finished handing over to the next crew on Saturday morning, he drove over to the market instead of heading home.

He saw her as soon as he headed down the main aisle.

Joohyun was alone, standing ram-rod straight behind her table. He smiled at the sight of her blue apron, and then grinned even more broadly when a family stopped at her table before he did.  

She caught sight of him as she sold them an assortment of treats. Would he ever tire of the way her face lit up? Probably not.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you,” she breathed when they were alone. “How was your shift?”

“Quiet.” Seungwan made a face, surprising himself. In his pocket, his phone vibrated, but he ignored it. It wasn’t going to be work.

“Isn’t that good?” 

“Yeah. No, it was a decent shift. Still getting used to the new team, that’s all.” His phone vibrated again, and again, so he excused himself and pulled it out of his pocket, only to laugh at the long string of messages he’d apparently just missed from his brothers.

Junmyeon: Remember when we used to all do Saturday breakfast at Min's?

 
Chanyeol: Nope, because you refuse to move home.

Junmyeon: Oh right. We could start a new tradition. I just landed at the harbour.

Jongin: Dude, some of us have lives.  

Junmyeon: You’re on a lounge chair in front of the garage. I can see you. Do you even work?

Jongin: It’s eight in the morning. I’m enjoying my coffee.

Junmyeon: Enjoy another one at the diner, let’s go.

Baekhyun: Taeyeon is sleeping in, but I can meet people at the diner. Junmyeon, are you going to get a ride with lazybones, or should I come down and pick you up.

Jongin: I’ll drive him.

Chanyeol: Seungwan, are you reading these messages, or have you put us on mute because you’re sleeping, too?

Seungwan turned the phone around and showed it to Joohyun. “So apparently Junmyeon flew down this morning. My brothers are all meeting at the diner for breakfast. I’ll head over there now.”

“Have fun! I’ll be quiet when I get home, in case you’re sleeping.”  

“I’ll probably try to stay up all day and hit the hay early tonight."

Seungwan took a few steps towards the entrance as a woman paused to look at the cookies. “Those are delicious, by the way,” he said loudly.

The customer glanced at him and he winked at her. She blushed and told Joohyun she would take a half dozen. Joohyun bit back a laugh and waved goodbye to Seungwan.

At the diner, he parked next to Jongin's car and headed inside.

His brothers had commandeered the corner booth, which normally sat six people.

The four of them took up all the space, and Seungwan had to grab a chair to sit at the end. 

“You made it,” Junmyeon said, grabbing him in a bear hug before he could sit. 

“I was at the farmer’s market when you arrived.” Seungwan nudged Jongin. “It was hopping.”

Baekhyun laughed. “We’ll be heading there later. Does Joohyun have a table there today?”

“She sure does.”

As Jongin muttered under his breath, Junmyeon handed Seungwan a menu. “How’s the job treating you?”

He didn’t want to admit it was whooping his . 

“And how’s married life?” , he didn’t want to answer that question, either.

As long as it was just the two of them, Seungwan didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about how ed up his brothers would think he was if they ever found out he couldn’t bring himself to fall in love, that he’d found an alternative of a sort.

So he made a non-committal shrug and smiled. It was great, but not in a way they’d understand.

“How’s your new bride adjusting to life in Purpletown?”

Now there was a topic Seungwan could sink into. “Joohyun’s a force of nature. She’s going to have the cafe ready to be re-opened as her dream bakery in a few weeks. She already has an opening day picked out.”

He went into great detail on the process, and the updated alarm system he’d installed himself, until Junmyeon's eyes glazed over. “How about you? What sparked the unexpected trip home?” Seungwan asked.

“Had a charter cancel at the last minute and thought I’d spend the day with my favourite people.”

Just a day, though. That was almost always the limit with Junmyeon. He might come down for two or three around a holiday, if they were lucky. Like he kept one foot away at all times.  

When breakfast ended, Seungwan went home and had a power nap, then met Joohyun at the bakery as she unloaded and cleaned up from the market.

“I thought I’d just check in, see what else needed to be done around here. Are you almost ready for opening day?”

"Nope." She gave him a wide-eyed, terrified look. Then she laughed. "Yes?" 

He had no doubt. "Yes."

"Maybe." She ran through her to-do list, then locked up the front, turned out the lights, and followed him out the back door.

Back at the house, Seungwan had some training material to read through, which ended up taking more of the afternoon than he expected.

While he studied, Joohyun worked on her computer, both of them quiet and productive in the living room.

When she stretched and talked about dinner, Seungwan was startled to realize it was already that time of night. 

"Do you want to keep working?" She pointed to the kitchen. "I can make something and bring plates in here."

Seyngwan got up. "Let's eat in here, but I'll take a break and help you cook."

"Sandwiches?" Joohyun poked around in the fridge. "Or there's some chilli we could re-heat."

"Do you mind sandwiches? Easy to eat while I study."

"Not at all." She pulled out the fixings, and they worked side by side to make a couple of different kinds.  

Then they went back to their work, food at hand.

When he finally finished his reading, he collected their plates and washed them up. She'd put her computer away and curled up under a blanket when he returned.

"I'm done for the day." 

"Me too." Seungwan knew he should go up to bed. Instead, he sat down on the couch near her feet.

"Hey, you didn't say how breakfast went with your brothers."

He made a face. "They asked me how married life is going."

She laughed gently. "And what did you say?"  

He repeated the shrug and smile he'd given Junmyeon instead of answering. "Just that. I didn't elaborate. Let them draw their own conclusions."

"Works for me." She sighed and leaned back on the couch. "It honestly didn't occur to me that they would be curious. Nobody ever asked me about my first marriage."

She made a face. "Maybe that was a sign everyone thought it wasn't good. And they weren't wrong. But even growing up, my parents never talked about other families. I'm a pretty closed person in that regard. You can always say something like that if it comes up again. 'Seungwan’s private.' It would be true."

Seungwan gave her a tired smile. "I don't need to push it off on you. I'm private, too. It's none of their business. It's just an adjustment, because I used to go clubbing with them, we’d be each other’s wingmen. But I was always playing a game there. They just don’t know that." 

Joohyun frowned. "I’m sorry. That must be lonely."

Seungwan exhaled roughly. "It is what it is. We all came out of the loss of our mom with baggage. Jongin rebelled, Baekhyun and Chanyeol mainlined responsibility like it was , Junmyeon...” He trailed off. “I dunno. Maybe Junmyeon is a combination of them all. He was career driven but also wanted to get out of town. And then there was me."

“You were how old?” 

"Twelve." Just saying it seared something in his chest, sharp and ugly.

Seungwan shook it off. "I'm tired, I should hit the hay."

"Yeah." Joohyun stood up and folded her blanket, neatly putting it back in her basket. "I'm sorry I brought it up."

He stood too. "No, it's fine. It's just hard to talk about." 

"I understand." She moved closer, and Seungwan thought for a moment that she might hug him.

Seungwan wanted her to, and he didn’t at the same time.  

Joohyun gave him a soft smile, grabbed his arm, and turned him, pointing him to the stairs. "To bed, mister. Off you go."

After two more successful Saturdays at the market, where Joohyun handed out all of her flyers and collected a whole jar full of “Favourite Bunny Bake Sale Item Suggestions!”, she was ready for opening day. 

She had no idea how many people to expect.

When she walked over to the bakery with Seungwan, who insisted on coming along for moral support, it was still dark, still quiet.

She braced herself for absolutely nobody showing up. Not intentionally.

Eventually some people would come in from street foot traffic. If she sold a dozen cookies over the course of the day, she would be happy.

Anything more than that would be a bonus. 

So by that metric, the day was a success as soon as the doors opened at seven in the morning, because there were three people waiting, and one of them bought a dozen cookies in the first minute.

As she boxed them up, she asked how they heard about her shop and was thrilled to hear they’d picked up a flyer at the library.

All in all, she had ten customers in that first hour, ten people who had made it a point in their day to wake up early and come to Bunny Bake Sale! as soon as it opened. And they were ten people she hadn't met before.

It was a small victory, but a monumental one.

Over the course of the morning, the same questions kept coming up.

People asked her about how often she would be open. How often her menu changed, and more than one person asked her if she sold coffee. That's all coming soon, she told them, her cheeks hurting from grinning so much.

When Sooyoung and Seulgi arrived mid-morning, she gave them an excited wave, happy to see somewhat familiar faces.

They hung back until there was a gap in traffic.

“It looks like it’s going well,” Seulgi said, perusing the glass case. “I was going to say I’d take a dozen cookies, but it looks like you’re running low.” 

“I have more in the back. I can get you a fresh dozen.” Joohyun grabbed a cardboard box and collected those from the back, along with a new tray for the display. “Hey, I should thank you. Which one of you put the flyers at the library?”

Sooyoung glanced at Seulgi, who shrugg