“BOO!”

Lana unleashed a bloodcurdling scream as the refrigerator door suddenly popped open, revealing the tiny teenage boy jam-packed inside. She had only looked away for a short moment when Kyungsoo crawled in, apparently having decided to scare the living daylights out of her for some unfathomable reason. She slapped him lightly on the shoulder and yanked him out of the on-display appliance.

“You can’t just climb into these fridges!” she scolded as he straightened up and dusted his pants off. An employee in a blue collared uniform nearby eyed the couple warily. Lana groaned and fought to avoid suspicious eye contact with the worker.

Prompted by Lana’s sudden impulse to buy cinnamon rolls, the oh-so-mysterious food he had apparently never heard of, Kyungsoo decided that the antique bus needed a mini refrigerator. Thus, the time-traveling duo paid a visit to the first appliance store in its path, which just so happened to be the very first Best Buy ever opened in South Korea according to the yellow sign set up outside its entrance. Brand new at the time, the funky-shaped blue building showcased quite an impressive range of refrigerators—so impressive, in fact, that Kyungsoo seemed to be having difficulty picking one out. After three walks around the appliance section, he finally stopped to point at a short, compact fridge, declaring, “This is the one!”

Lana’s eyes shot back and forth between the teenage boy and the refrigerator he gestured to in disbelief. She raised a brow, wondering if this was supposed to be some kind of joke. The appliance he had settled on was rainbow-colored, bathed in glitter, and clearly made for a spoiled twelve-year-old girl’s bedroom. Not only did it clash with the entire interior décor of the bus, but it was also a downright revolting sight to behold.

“Two jokes in one day? You’re really on a roll,” Lana muttered, though she had a sinking feeling that Kyungsoo wasn’t at all joking about his eccentric fridge choice.

“Hey, I like it,” he tutted, crossing his arms. “That’s all that matters, since it is my bus after all.”

Lana simply shook her head as the boy ran off to flag down an employee and finalize his purchase. (She couldn’t help but wonder how he had secured so much cash. In the end, she figured he probably had a genetically-engineered money tree from the distant future stowed away somewhere on the bus.)

A good twenty minutes later, the pair wheeled a huge cardboard box to the vehicle parked outside. Thanks to some carefully coordinated teamwork, they somehow managed to lift the heavy appliance up the steps and onto the bus without crushing any toes or dislocating any shoulders. While Kyungsoo unpacked the fridge and set it up (which turned out to be little more work than plugging it into an electrical outlet), Lana plopped down on the booth bench to take a breather.

Next step on the cinnamon-roll expedition was a grocery store just around the corner. Kyungsoo took the opportunity to restock on provisions; luckily though he seemed to have already prepared a mental list of the groceries he needed before the two set foot in the store. While he hunted down nonperishable foods and bottled water, Lana set out in search of the refrigerated-food section, promising to meet Kyungsoo back at the cash register. Since he requested she pick up “lots and lots of cinnamon rolls”, she grabbed five rolls of precut dough and hauled them to the front of the store to check out.

Lana had just pulled one of the packages of dough out of a grocery bag and set it on top of the new mini refrigerator when Kyungsoo seemed to be struck by a sudden epiphany.

“Ohhh!” he blurted out rather loudly, slapping a hand to his forehead. She blinked at him in bafflement. “So this is a cinnamon roll! Believe it or not, I’ve seen pictures of these before!”

Lana cocked an eyebrow. “Believe it or not, I believe you. Cinnamon rolls aren’t exactly an endangered species in the grocery store.”

She ducked into the fridge to busy herself storing the rest of the packages. Meanwhile, Kyungsoo picked up the wrapped-up tube of dough and marveled at it with childlike wonder.

“You don’t understand,” he insisted. “The only reason I’ve never seen a cinnamon roll in person is because they were outlawed the year I was born. Apparently the icing was causing a lot of hemorrhoids, so the government had to make cinnamon-roll trade illegal. I heard they were big on the black market for a few years before they just died out altogether.”

“What?” Lana snapped up, suddenly snatching the package back from him and staring down at it in horror. “Should we even be eating these?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Kyungsoo chuckled, waving his hand dismissively. “These injuries didn’t come from actual ingestion. Besides, I bet they’re delicious!” He held his palm out, beckoning Lana to return the tube to him. “Can I do the honors?”

“I guess, but if it’s your first time eating cinnamon rolls, you aren’t going to want them to be burnt—”

“Hey, I’m an expert pâtissier!” he defended, smirking as she placed the roll back in his hand.

“Not like it matters,” she teased, sticking her tongue out at him. “Cinnamon rolls are practically the easiest thing to bake there is... So I’ve heard.”

It would take about fifteen minutes for the dough to cook, so the two decided to pass the time chitchatting in the diner booth. Rather, Kyungsoo was on a quest to find out every little fact about cinnamon rolls he could possibly uncover, from exactly what went into the dough to the bun’s land of origin to all alternative monikers. After the knowledge-hungry boy finally realized that Lana was not at all a cinnamon-roll expert and couldn’t answer a single one of his questions, he settled for a different approach.

“So,” he prodded, “how did you find out about cinnamon rolls?”

Lana gawped at him incredulously, slack-jawed. “Seriously?”

“What?” he clucked obliviously. He blinked back at her, clearly failing to realize that anyone born in 2033 who didn’t know what a cinnamon roll was must have lived his or her entire life under a rock.

Lana let out a sigh, deciding it better to not point out the glaring misunderstandings in Kyungsoo’s mindset about the pastry. “My mom loves cinnamon rolls,” she explained. “She bakes them completely from scratch. It’s the one thing she’s good at really.”

Cheeks flushing pale pink for some reason, she admitted, “I could never really do it though. My dad, brother, and I tried to make some for her birthday when I was really little. My little brother fell asleep and conked out face first into the batter. Then I tried to mix the icing and—well, instead of a spoon, let’s just say I grabbed a certain adult toy having no idea what it was at the time. Dad was so mortified. Anyway, when he finally put the dough into the oven, the whole thing exploded. Firefighters had to come over and put the flames out and everything. It was horrible.”

Kyungsoo gaped at his friend for a moment before bursting into boisterous guffaws. “He blew up the kitchen?” he laughed, slapping his knee. When his giggle fit finally died down a minute later, he recomposed himself, clearing his throat and straightening back up indignantly. “Your family sounds really cool though. Tell me more!”

Lana side-eyed him disbelievingly. “Seriously? There’s literally nothing cool about my family.”

“But that’s not true!” Kyungsoo refuted with a smile. “You’re cool, so tell me more about them. Come on, I’m super curious now!”

She sighed, realizing she wasn’t easily getting off the hook. “Well,” she began, “there’s Mom—you know, that puffy-faced midget we saw at my grandma’s house. You probably already figured this out, but she was my dad’s student in high school and apparently his number-one fan as well.” She warded off the need to gag as the image of Yunee watching Dragon Express films in her bedroom resurfaced in her mind.

“And then there’s Dad. We get along pretty well most of the time, though I don’t know if that might change now that I’ve learned about his keenness for schoolgirls.” She shuddered just thinking about it.

“Is it really that bad?” Kyungsoo prodded, cocking his head curiously. “I mean, you can’t really choose what you like.”

“I don’t know,” she sighed. “I mean, it’s not like he still does that kind of thing with his students anyway. He’s entirely devoted to Mom, so I guess what’s done is done. Either way, it’s not like he could change his past, unless we hypothetically offered him a chance to travel back in time and not sleep with my mom so he wouldn’t be stuck with her for the rest of his life—”

“Actually,” the boy interrupted matter-of-factly, “you can’t change the past. Like I said, even if you could, the time police would show up and stop you anyway. Besides, your dad genuinely likes your mom. You heard him say it himself. I find it hard to believe he only married her because of an unexpected pregnancy when he already liked her two years before that to begin with!”

Lana glared at Kyungsoo, ignoring his discrepant argument. “Anyway,” she continued, “my brother Sam just turned fifteen. He’s a lazy gamer, but he’s alright I guess. He gets along really well with my mom for some reason. Oh, and he was born on a boat!”

“Really?” Kyungsoo gasped, eyes noticeably widening. “How did that happen?”

“Well, remember Marina, that British hag we just saw talking to my dad? She invited my parents on a yachting trip off the coast of Florida to celebrate her gazillionth birthday. Even though the trip lasted like a week, my mom just so happened to go into labor right on Marina’s birthday. According to Dad, she didn’t even realize she was giving birth until my brother’s head started popping out! He had to deliver Sam himself. Apparently he almost slipped right through Dad’s hands when he tried to catch him, too.”

Kyungsoo’s jaw hung wide open as he gaped at Lana. “How is that even possible? You’d think she’d know well in advance that she was about to give birth.”

“I’ve learned to never question her absurdity,” she tutted with a smirk and a shrug.

“True,” he agreed. “She does seem kinda quirky, like someone you would expect the unexpected from. So, who’s next?”

Lana frowned at the sudden reminder of the bun in Mom’s oven. Over the past few days, she had all but forgotten about the new baby and her fallout with Dad, probably because it was the last thing on Earth that she wanted to think about right now. She slinked down against the back of the bench and crossed her arms. “No one yet.”

“Huh?” Kyungsoo smiled, tilting his head to the side curiously. “Yet?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “Mom’s pregnant again.”

“Again?” he repeated, flashing his trademark wide-eyed visage. “So you’re going to have another little brother or sister?”

Lana nodded once, quickly glancing away. Desperate to get the topic of conversation away from the new baby, she quickly threw in, “What about you? What’s your family like?”

“Ah, my family?” Kyungsoo hummed, pensively tapping his bee-stung lips with one finger. “Well, I live with my dad when I’m not time traveling. He raised me by himself since my mom died during childbirth.” He shrugged and smiled. “That’s all really.”

Just like that, guilt hit Lana like a freight train. She had just spent the entire day badmouthing her mother right in front of someone who never even had the chance to meet his own. If that didn’t make her a horrible, horrible person, she didn’t know what did. But before she had the chance to apologize, the oven timer went off with a cheery ding!

Kyungsoo grinned, jumping up from the booth. Whether the smile was a façade or not, Lana couldn’t quite tell, but the boy didn’t seem at all affected by his friend’s brusque attitude toward her mother. In fact, he seemed no less cheerful than he had been two minutes ago. He slipped an oven mitt on, pulling a pan full of golden-brown buns out of the oven. As he coated the rolls with creamy white icing, he babbled on and on, awed by the way the glaze melted the instant it hit the hot pastry. Once he had finished, he carefully transferred two rolls onto separate plates and handed one over to Lana.

“Moment of truth,” he declared. Holding his bun up as a toast, he added, “To getting back to 2033 Seoul so Lana can turn in her homework!”

“Hey!” she squawked, but Kyungsoo quickly laughed and stuffed his face with food.

Shaking her head, Lana picked up the roll on her own plate, eyeing it appraisingly. It didn’t look like the ones Mom baked, but it didn’t look terrible either. She shoved it into , biting a sizable chunk off and gnawing on it.

After three chews, she spat the half-baked, half-chewed dough back out on the plate.

“You lied!” she cried, hearing her stomach growl in defiance. “You’re a terrible pâtissier.”

“Hey, this is why I told you to buy extra!” Kyungsoo defended, crossing his arms. Although he tried to look annoyed, he was obviously biting his bottom lip back in amusement. “My oven is old, okay? It always takes a few tries to perfect a new dish.”

Lana grinned, raising the cinnamon roll in the air again. “In that case, I propose another toast,” she teased. “To Kyungsoo perfecting the art of baking cinnamon rolls!”

Author's Note
It’s been FOREVERRRRR, so here’s the longest chapter yet to make up for the wait. /sobs

Okay, I’m going to leave a poll here. I’m curious as to what Wu-family topic you guys want to learn about next. Do you wanna learn about the future baby (what its name is, if it’s a boy or a girl, what it might grow up to be like)? Do you want to see more never-before-seen Dragnee episodes? Or do you perhaps want to learn more about D.O’s dad (although I don’t really have much to offer there yet...)? Please vote!

Credits: Shiniel for part of Lana’s cinnamon-roll baking experience. She suggested young Lana accidentally using the Official Dragon to stir whipped cream for Dragnee Drabbles. I liked the idea, so I decided to stick it in here even though I haven’t written the oneshot yet. (Sorryyy~)

Oh, and a final note: either the next chapter or the one after will be Rated. I’m not sure which yet, because I haven’t decided if I’ll split it into two chapters. Anyway, don’t forget to leave comments! ^^ I love reading all of your comments! Thanks!

Edit: Oh oh oh! And feel free to follow my Twitter! I may look insane at first, but I’m really friendly and always follow back. ^^ I’ll be announcing updates there from now on, too! Peace!!!