Walking home from the meeting after having signed the contract that assured them the shop for another year, Jongdae turned to Yixing. “How do you know someone that high up? I mean, he’s literally a multi-millionaire already. Do you have connections or something?” he asked, tilting his head slightly. They were strolling down a somewhat busy street, having bought a smoothie to drink along the way. Minseok was walking closest to the road, having to be careful not to be pushed out in the street filled with cars. It was rather sunny in comparison to the clouded weather before, sun breaking though the thick, grey layer on the sky as they wandered further.

Yixing shrugged. “It’s Myeonnie, I’ve known him since high school. He’s Yifan’s boyfriend,” he replied in a light tone, smiling as he mentioned his brother.

Luhan furred his eyebrows. “Yifan? But isn’t he like in Jeolla or whatever?” Yixing’s older brother Yifan was both Luhan and Minseok’s age, and only Minseok had met him. They clicked pretty well, but right now Yifan was studying art in Jeolla. Minseok often wondered how he was going to support himself with such a degree – artists rarely got well-paid work, but he guessed that Yifan wouldn’t have such a problem if his boyfriend was Kim Joonmyeon.

“No, that goes over there!” Jongdae sighed, having directed Luhan and Yixing around for ten minutes without them getting anywhere. “The other way! Now it’s facing the wall! For gods sake, have you never done interior designing before?”

Yixing squinted at Jongdae, a snappy look in his eyes. “No, as a matter of fact not. Could you just please give us understandable directions, my fingers are starting to hurt.” He replied, voice dripping of sass.

“Hey, you’re the one giving me a headache with your useless sense of placing stuff!” the two youngest started bickering, and Luhan groaned.

“You are both giving me a migraine, could you just both please shut up?” He was currently carrying a small couch around in the shop together with Yixing, having no idea where Jongdae really wanted it. ‘There! No wait, I meant there! Three meters to the right… not your right, my right!’. It was giving him a sore head. They had been arranging the place for days without end. He had thought everything was just covered up with linen sheets and ready to be used again, but it wasn’t that simple at all. They were almost arranging everything anew to get things to where they originally were, and it was a tiring job. At the same time, Joonmyeon had given them permission to tear down a wall for an unused room to make space for a small kitchen for Jongdae to make pastries in. That itself was a separate job, and Yixing had called electricians and god-knows-who all day to get it all in place. With all the workers running in and out as they were trying to arrange the shop at the same time, it was evident that a huge mess would ensue. The kitchen wasn’t even near done, but they had announced they would open by next week, so until it was done and all the new kitchenware was delivered, they would have get deliveries from a nearby bakery.

It was going slow, Luhan was tired and his back hurt, but he was happy. It was nice. He could see progress, and he could see how glad the others looked. Tiredness may have been covering it pretty well, but deep down he could see the tugs of Minseok’s lips as he cursed the cash register for not working properly. Yeah, it was nice.

Luckily the outsiders working on the kitchen had quit for the day, leaving them free to arrange until the next day. Yixing and Luhan finally put the couch down when Jongdae decided he was happy, sighing tiredly as they slumped down in it.

“I never want to lift another thing in my life ever again,” Yixing announced. Luhan let out a groan as he draped his body over the furniture with his legs slung over’s Yixing’s, agreeing.

From behind the counter though, Minseok rolled his eyes. “You’re hopeless,” he commented as he put cups that had been stored away back in the cupboards. Luhan sat up and was about to protest, but just then someone opened the door to the shop.

Sitting on his knees behind the counter Minseok couldn’t see who it was, but whoever it may have been it was obvious that they had mistakenly walked in there.

“Sorry,” he said as he put the last glasses in place and stood up. “We’re not open yet,”

Luhan and Yixing quickly sat up from where they were lying pretty unprofessionally, and Jongdae tilted his head curiously at the person in the door.

Well, people. A tan, tall and very handsome boy was walking in first, followed by a shorter male behind, with a rather cute appearance. The former was lean with plump lips and a mischievous glint in his eyes. He was wearing a simple t-shirt and a baseball-jacket, but still managed to look like a model. In his left hand he was carrying a box, and in his right he had a notepad. The latter of the two had big eyes and heart-shaped lips, but even with his somehow cute appearance he looked more serious than the first one.

“Oh no!” the taller smiled and shook his head quickly. “We’re not here as customers!”

Minseok furred his eyebrows and Yixing, Jongdae and Luhan got to their senses and walked over to him. The person speaking went up to the counter, putting the box – which Minseok now could see was full of beautiful, intricate designs with a logo in the middle – down. The shorter went up and stood beside him, his face slowly loosening up and spreading into an honest smile.

“I’m Do Kyungsoo,” he held his hand forward, “I’m the owner of Dyo Bakery, we came to an agreement of working together last week.” Everyone shook his hand and introduced themselves, repeating the gesture with the person beside him.

“I’m Kim Jongin! Only employee and delivery boy slash chef slash cashier slash waiter slash handyman!” he grinned. “it’s a pleasure to meet you!”
And in that second, seeing the boyish Jongin and his employer Kyungsoo, Minseok decided he liked these guys.

Jongin looked around. “Wah, it’s so nice in here! No wonder people come here! Why did it even close down? Well, you’re back up now though so I guess it’s fine! But really, I’ll probably start coming here every day,” he started talking and although somewhat flurried at first, Jongdae happily joined in. Soon they were both talking, and Kyungsoo couldn’t do anything but roll his eyes.

“Sorry,” he said, “He’s always like that, but he’s a good kid. We really just wanted to visit before the business started, so we know each other’s faces. We also brought you something from our bakery,” he nodded towards the box Jongin had put on the counter, a crooked smile playing on his lips.

Knowing Yixing, Minseok swore that if they hadn’t met Kyungsoo and Jongin literally a minute ago, he would have hugged them. The younger was a huge lover of sweets, and pastries were no exception. He glanced beside him, and the look in Yixing’s eyes confirmed his thoughts.

“Really?” he exclaimed happily. “Thank you so much!” but instead of opening the box, he went behind the counter and started taking out cups and ingredients. The coffee machines had been more or less in the same condition they had left them in, so it had been one of the easier jobs, getting them up and running again. As he left, Minseok and Kyungsoo began discussing the future of their cooperation, with occasional comments by Luhan. The latter was halfway in the conversation between Jongin and Jongdae and halfway in Minseok and Kyungsoo’s, juggling them.

After a couple of minutes Yixing returned, two cups of coffee in his hands. Seeing how they were all still standing, he hissed at Minseok. “Really? You haven’t asked them to sit down yet?” then he rolled his eyes, expression changing as he looked at Kyungsoo and Jongin. “Wanna sit down? I made you coffee in return,” he smiled. Agreeing, they sat down around one of the tables Luhan and Yixing had put out the day before, under the watch of Jongdae (meaning: the only table they had put out as Jongdae was pretty goddamn demanding).

“But why were you closed down to begin with?” Kyungsoo asked after a while, having chatted about pretty much everything there was. They were really nice people – Minseok could really see a good relationship between the shops. They clicked very well, and although Kyungsoo had come off as a rather stoic if not cold in the beginning that image had changed immediately as they began talking. It was supposed to be a quick visit, but minutes had quickly turned into hours, and the coffee and pastries were long gone already. But maybe that was just as okay, seeing how Yixing and Luhan probably had no intention of moving things for Jongdae.

“Some uncertainties regarding ownerships with other things,” Minseok replied, cleverly avoiding how it really had went down. Kyungsoo nodded slowly, and the conversation continued. He found out that the latter was younger than himself, but seeing his appearance that didn’t really come as a shock. What was a little bit more surprising though was that Jongin was younger. Even if he didn’t really go for being older than Kyungsoo, they looked like around the same age. Kyungsoo owned the once family-driven bakery full-time while Jongin only was a student working there, but he had been around since high school so Kyungsoo counted him as a permanent part of the staff already – well, the only part of the staff, that was.

And the night dragged on. They eventually ended up on their original topic which was business, before they realized what the time had come to be and Kyungsoo and Jongin went back to close down for the day.

“But you know?” Luhan said on their way home that day. It was only he and Minseok in the car, the latter driving as he rode shotgun. “I think this can go well. It’s been kind of distant for a while now, but… I just think it could really work, you know?”

And Minseok agreed, although he didn’t reply by words. They were closing in, the end in sight. It was all going to be okay.

Well, funny how Fate seemed to hate the two of them, though.

Feedback is much appreciated! I hope you all have a lovely weekend^_^