The next few days, Taemin visited the pastry house often, hoping to see Minho again. But every time he went there, it looked the same.

Taemin missed the colorful walls and cute environment. He missed the comforting and sweet smells that greeted him whenever he entered.

Most of all, he missed Minho.

The happy smiles.

His perfect work.

Those comforting words.

Taemin just had to find him. So when he visited the house again to find it still vacant, he decided to go further down into the forest.

“Maybe it’ll lead me to where Minho lives…” Taemin thinks positively.

After what seemed like hours and hours of searching, Taemin realized he was lost. He was in a really dense part of the forest, so many of the trees blocked the sunlight. Taemin could barely see anything in the darkness and he soon grew afraid.

“Minho?” Taemin tried calling out his name. “Minho! Where are you?!” Only the haunting sounds of nature responded.

Taemin’s legs were shaking beneath him from the cold and fright. He really hated quiet and dark places. “Minho…” He whimpered as he slowly crouched down and hugged his knees, hiding his face in them.

“…Taemin?”

Taemin whipped his head up quickly, seeing Minho standing in front of him, holding a flashlight and dressed in casual clothes.

“What are you doing here?” Minho asked in concern. Taemin’s lower lip quivered at the other’s return.

“MINHO!!”

Minho staggered back slightly when he felt the boy glomp him in a tight hug. “W-What’s wrong?”

“I-I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to yell at you before. I was just so angry and frustrated and and-“

“Shh…Calm down. It’s okay...” Minho said softly and Taemin’s hair. Taemin’s body was heaving from the sobs. “P-Please come back…”

“I was going to anyway.”

Taemin slowly looked at Minho. “Eh?” He sniffed. Minho smiled at this, “At first, I was going to go for good, but then I realized I had nowhere else to go. So I’m back now.” He rubs the back of his neck. “Plus, my dad wants me to continue working there.”

“P-Please! Continue working there, I want you to!” Taemin said, shocking the other.

Minho chuckles lightly. “Alright. Wanna help me?” Taemin nods quickly and pries himself off the older male.

When their walking back out from the forest, Taemin looks up at Minho and asks, “Are you really not mad?”

Minho shakes his head. “I understand you wouldn’t mean all of that. You were just depressed, right?”

Suddenly, Taemin remembers the cake. “W-What about the cake? You worked so hard on it after all…” The guilt feeling was starting to come back to Taemin.

“Don’t worry. I have the ingredients right here.” Minho shows Taemin a bag of ingredients that he was holding. “And I memorized the recipe so it shouldn’t be too hard to make again.”

“I’ll help!” Taemin said. Minho looked at him in surprise. “Oh, sure. I’d love that.”

Once they got back into the pastry house, Minho went into the kitchen to put the ingredients down, before taking out the equipment from the cupboards.

“Taemin, could you get the chairs and tables out from the closet and arrange them again?” Minho asks, “The closet is near the front door.”

Taemin nods and walks over to the closet, opening it and finding all of the tables and chairs inside. “So he didn’t pack up everything and leave.” Taemin thinks in relief.

When everything was set up, Minho called Taemin into the kitchen.

“So today, we’ll be making three things.” Minho announces. Taemin whistles at this, feeling kind of excited.

“First is theMilk Chocolate Mousse Cake with Hazelnut Crunch.”

The two of them worked quickly and swiftly with Minho giving the orders to Taemin.

“Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl.” Minho said as he was preparing the butter. Taemin obeyed and after that was done, he went to the large bowl and whisked the eggs and sugar, and then put it on a saucepan with warm water, continuing to stir until it was lukewarm.

After, he took the bowl off the heat and passed it to Minho, who beat the eggs with an electric mixer until cool and tripled in volume. “Sift 1/3 of the flour-cocoa mixture into the bowl.” Minho said as he got out a rubber spatula and cleaned the beater-blades.

Taemin did as he was told and let Minho fold the mixture together with the spatula before putting the rest of the flour-cocoa mixture inside.

After adding the butter and mixing well, they poured the batter into the prepared pan, and baked for 30 minutes.

In the meantime, the two of them split jobs, Minho worked on the mousse, and Taemin worked on the hazelnut.

In the end, they added everything together to the cake and put it on a platter to serve.

Taemin looked at the beauty, wanting to eat it right now.

“Next is the Chocolat Chaud.”

“The what?” Taemin looked at Minho, not sure of what language he’s speaking. “It’s basically French Hot Chocolate.”

“Ooh! Okay.” Taemin loved hot chocolate. And it was perfect considering the cold weather.

“You can work on the hot chocolate, and I’ll work on the last sweet.” Minho said as he passed the recipe sheet he had for the hot chocolate.

When they finally finished, they both brought the sweets to the table.

Minho helped to slice the cake, putting it on a plate and passing it to Taemin along with a cup of Chocolat Chaud.

Taemin carefully took a bite of the cake.

Soft, creamy chocolate of the mousse.

Tender cake center.

Crunchy hazelnut bottom.

“This is really wonderful Minho…” Taemin said in amazement. He took a sip of the sweet hot chocolate to wash it down.

Minho smiled; glad the boy was enjoying it. He took a slice for himself and dug in. After finishing his slice, Taemin went to the treat that Minho had prepared. “What is this?” He asked while taking a bite.

“Soybean Flour Baci.” Minho answered. Taemin hummed in approval, tasting the soybean well.

“…Do you know what Baci means?” Minho asked, peering at Taemin. Taemin shook his head in response, still chewing on the treat.

Minho leans closer to the other boy as he spoke, “It’s Italian for…” He plants a gentle kiss on Taemin’s cheek. “Kisses.”

WOOT! THEY KISSED

This whole chapter was like a cooking show… Don’t read this if you’re hungry! I guess I should have said this earlier

But anyways, hope you enjoyed ^^ Should I make Minho confess? Hmm… Let me know in the comments and I’mma go now, PEACE!