Kyungsoo completes the finishing touches to the cake display, organising the pastries into straight lines and looks at his handywork, critically eying each row for irregularities. He works hard to make it so all of the food here looks appetising at the start of each day, being the perfectionist he is, so it grates on his mind all day unless everything is in exactly the right spot.

He looks around the small shop that he and his parents own (well his parents own it, he just works here,) to make sure everything is in order when a looming figure in the window catches his eye. Its no so unusual a sight, it's still early in the morning, and they haven't opened yet; sometimes people wait outside so they can get the best bread fresh out of the oven. But usually they are middle aged women, or office workers with slick hair and very little time.

Not casually dressed teenagers. the teenager in question looks alarmed at him having noticed him there, and turns awkwardly, walking away with stiff steps. Kyungsoo makes a face. Well that was possibly the weirdest thing he's seen in a while. He decides not to take any notice of it, instead continuing to arrange the warm loafs of bread on the shelf behind him, until his mother calls to him from the kitchen, to change the sign on the glass door from 'closed' to 'open.'

He forgets all about the weird guy in the window until the next day, when he's halfway through his routine check and spots the silhouette in the window again. This time he stays a moment longer, but promptly disappears, leaving Kyungsoo to stare after his jerkily retreating form. The kid looks about the same age as him, so he shouldn't really be calling him 'kid', but there's just something about him, about the way he always looks so guilty to be caught near here, how he doesn't really look scary exactly, just curious, that makes him seem younger than he probably is. Kyungsoo pegs him for about sixteen or so, just a couple of years younger than him.

This phenomenon repeats itself for the next week an a half, every morning the kid shows up before opening times- which is really early, as they open at nine O'clock every day except sundays, when they open at ten- and Kyungsoo gathers more and more clues as to who his stalker is. His stalker has dark hair, that looks like it hasn't been cut in a while, but used to be a fashionable style. He has a rucksack everyday, which must mean he goes to school (Kyungsoo doesn't, he forewent university in favour of a stable job working for his parents,) and he wears the same blue jeans every single day. They are frayed at the heel, which makes Kyungsoo wonder how long he's had them, if he's been able to wear them down that much.

In some respects, he's kind of creeped out, because the kid's always down here to see him, but then he reminds himself that by saying that he's being a little narcissistic: maybe he's just here to buy something, but too shy to come in, which brings Kyungsoo to the conclusion that he's scary for some reason. 

"Mum," he asks, as they're closing up for the night, his dad is cleaning up in the kitchen, "do you think I look unapproachable?" 

She finishes folding her apron, puts it down and turns to face him, folding her arms.

"Well, who told you that?" She frowns,

"No one, I just. There's this kid who comes and hangs around every morning before we open but he never comes in. So I just thought," he shrugs, unable to finish the sentence. His mum nods thoughtfully.

"Maybe you should invite him inside," she suggests, as if he hasn't thought of that one already.

"I've tried, but every time I make a move to go open the door he runs off," Kyungsoo complains. 

"In that case, I think I have an idea," she smiles, meandering off into the kitchen behind the door, where they cook the bread and cakes they sell here. Leading on from there is the rest of their house. Kyungsoo follows her into the living room, curious as to what she might be thinking, when she pulls out a post it note and a pen.

"Write on the other side so you can stick it up on the inside of the glass. You can leave it there overnight, that way he'll definitely see it in the morning," she winks, heading upstairs, probably to take a shower. It's not easy cooking all day, its sweaty work.

Kyungsoo stares at the tiny pad of post it notes in his hand, and wonders what he could write to encourage the kid to come in, or at least stay a few minutes longer. It surprises him just how much he actually cares about this now, when the first day he saw him he could never have seen him again and not cared a bit.

In the end, he scribbles down 'please come in' above a smiley face that takes up most of the square of flourescent paper. He hopes it works, as he sticks it to the glass above the closed sign.

-

The next morning, Kyungsoo feels absurdly nervous as he heads downstairs after getting dresses and brushing his teeth as he always does. But today there's the exception that maybe the guy will come in. If he does, what would he even say? He has no clue.

Hesitantly, he peeks around the door to see if the kid's there, only to be disappointed. There's no one there. He quells the disappointment by starting with his routine, the smell of break and sugar settling in the air already since his mum and dad have already started cooking. He sets the glazed buns in straight lines like he always does, and without breaking concentration for even a second, aligns the bread loaves on the shelves behind him.

A tinkling bell noise from behind him breaks his reverie, and he turns with a jolt to find the kid shyly stepping inside, and taking the post it note down from where Kyungsoo stuck it on the glass. Kyungsoo smiles,

"Hello. I was wondering when you would finally come in," his smile morphs into a smirk at the kid's skittish appearance; he looks like he might bolt at any moment. The boy colours in embarrassment, and grimaces,

"Yeah, I'm sorry. You probably thought I'm some kind of creepy stalker, I didn't meant to make you feel uncomfortable or anything," he shrugs and stares at the wooden floor. 

"What are you doing here every day anyway?" Kyungsoo finds himself asking, but he doesn't get a response. He his lips, the absence of words becoming a little awkward.

"Ok, well you can stay here for a while if you want. We don't open till eight, so you can stay until then, so long as you don't get in the way. It's a lot warmer in here than out there anyway," The kid nods, and steps to the side, so he appears unobtrusive. Kyungsoo pauses for a moment, waiting to see if he'll say anything, but he doesn't, so he goes back to arranging the pastries. 

A little later, Kyungsoo is burning with the need to know more about this kid when it hits him he still doesn't even know his name,

"Jongin," is the monosyllabic response he gets when he asks.

"How old are you?" He tries, but again the only response he gets is that he's seventeen, just two years younger than him. He keeps trying, even though it breaks his concentration and means he has to redo some of his pasty lines, but eventually he gets Jongin to start talking a little more. When opening time rolls around, Jongin says he should go, but that he'll come back tomorrow. He looks at Kyungsoo intensely before he leaves, and Kyungsoo blinks back at him, confused.

The door opens and closes with another tinkle of the bell as Jongin leaves, promising he'll be back tomorrow.

-

After that, they can't get rid of him. He's back every single day, getting friendlier and friendlier with each visit. Kyungsoo wishes he could say he regrets it, but he's not had much contact with his friends since they all started at university, they've been busy, so it's nice to have someone to talk to. Also he's cute too, so there's that. It's on the third day that it begins.

"Hey, hey Kyungsoo listen! I decided to sell my vacuum cleaner," he announces. Kyungsoo looks at him confused, "well, it was just collecting dust." He grins gleefully, and that's when Kyunsgoo realises it was a joke. A bad one at that,

"Oh, ha ha. Hilarious. Get out of the way, would you?" He pushes past him, ignoring the winded noise Jongin makes and gets on with his work. They lapse back into ordinary conversation after that. But it only gets worse; every single day he comes back with a new joke. Some are funny and some make Kyungsoo want to throw bread at him, but he doesn't because that would be a waste,

"What happens to a frog's car when it breaks down? It gets toad away, get it?"

"Who makes their living by driving their customers away? A taxi driver!"

"Why did cinderella fail at basketball? Because she had a pumpkin for a coach!" 

They're funny at first, and Kyungsoo chuckles at them, but they get old pretty quickly. It feels like Jongin is trying too hard to impress him, maybe because he's younger than him and he wants to be closer. He knows how it feels, when he was back in high school there had been a guy who was a year older than him and he'd done his best to get his attention but it had never really worked out.

After a while his appreciatative smiles degenerate into him raising his eyebrows sceptically. If he'd started off like this, he would've kicked him out ages ago, but he has this puppy-like quality that instead makes him want to keep him around a little longer. Jongin catches on quickly that his jokes aren't funny anymore, and they fizzle out, leaving a dry empty tension, wherein Jongin says virtually nothing and Kyungsoo keeps up a steady stream of smalltalk until Jongin has to go.

-

About a week more of this and the awkwardenss begins to abate, and Jongin is regularly buying cakes for breakfast. Kyungsoo offered to pay for him, but he said he could afford it.

They're chatting familliarly now, as Kyungsoo rearranges the gingerbread- he'd made it crooked last time, thanks to Jongin- about one of his friends at school. 

"So then the idiot decided to go and ask her if she was busy, and she looked so scared he had to apologise for freaking her out and now all of her friends gather around her like some kind of barrier every time he goes by, it's hilarious!" He snorts, shaking his head. Kyungsoo thinks it's a little mean he's getting so much enjoyment out of his friend's misfortune, but nobody's perfect. 

"Yeah, I'm sure," he nods slowly. Jongin's smile slowly falls off his face, and he bites his lip. Kyungsoo winks, to let him know he's not annoyed with him.

"Kyungsoo? Have you turned the sign yet? It's five past!" Jongin whips out his phone, panicking 

"Oh god, I'm late!" His face is a picture, Kyungsoo thinks, eyes as wide as saucers and mouth hanging open in the very definition of fear. Apparently he has a spartan teacher for attendance in the mornings. He snatches up his bag and takes off like a sprint start- then runs into the glass door on the way out with a comcial 'bonk' sound and Kyungsoo laughs so hard he almost collapses. By the time he recovers, Jongin is gone, but that image is going to stay with him for a long time. And it serves him right really, for being so mean to his friend. 

-

After that incident Jongin suddenly becomes infinitely more clumsy, walking into things and stubbing his toes on things and dropping stuff. That gets old ever faster, especially as most of the times it seems staged. Kyungsoo can't fathom why Jongin is deliberately hurting himself, but it's starting to get on his nerves a little.

He draws the line when he trips magnificently over a box of cakes and sends a few of them flying. 

"Jongin?! What is wrong with you? You can't keep doing this, you're going to break something. Just stop it, please." He glares at Jongin for a moment, taking note of his cowed expression and red face- as it should be, he just cost us at least ten dollars in produce. He crouches down to clean it up, growling at how there's cream all over the wooden floor. He'll need to go and get something from in the back to get it off properly.

He slams the door a little on his way through to the kitchen, and his parents both look up,

"Are you two ok in there? I heard some shouting," his dad asks. Kyungsoo scowls, grabbing a flannel with more force than necessary and wetting it under the tap,

"We spilled a couple of cakes," Kyungsoo mumbles, still annoyed at Jongin for making the mess. 

"Kyungsoo, calm down. We can survive the loss of a few cakes, it'll be fine.We're not going to go bankrupt because of this, so you should tell Jongin it's fine too, ok?" His mum instructs, putting down a crate with loafs of bread fresh out of the oven.

Kyungsoo rings out the flannel and sighs, seeing the logic although he doesn't want to.

"Yeah, I will."

"Good," She goes back to hefting the bread across the room where it can be left to cool. Carrying the damp cloth, Kyungsoo goes back into the front, where he half expects Jongin to have left. But no, he's still there and the moment Kyungsoo opens the door, he's met with a barrage of apologies,

"Kyungsoo I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to annoy you or ruin your stock or break stuff! I'm so sorry, please forgive me!" Jongin looks utterly distraught, and Kyungsoo thinks he can even see tears in his eyes. He never pegged the kid to be a crybaby.

"It's ok. It's just a few, you haven't ruined anything, really. Just don't do it again." Kyungsoo deadpans, kneeling on the floor to start scrubbing away the sticky sugary mess. 

"Of course! I won't, I promise," Jongin says, and Kyungsoo feels like it could almost be accompanied with a salute. He shakes his head, and scrubs harder. 

"Why did you suddenly start being all clumsy and useless, anyway?" Kyungsoo asks, but he doesn't get an answer. Determined to shake a response out of him, he looks up and hits his leg, repeating the question a little more sharply,

"Um," Jongin starts, shuffling uncomfortably above him. Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow, "I just wanted to make you laugh, that's all," he murmurs. Kyungsoo doesn't know what to say. He didn't know what he'd been expecting but it wasn't that, he's sure. He wipes away the last bit of cream on the floor then stands up, facing Jongin square on.

"You wanted to make me ...laugh?" Kyungsoo clarifies, sorely tempted to make fun of him- after all, who comes along and thinks that falling over everything is a good way to make him laugh. But then before that he'd been telling him all those jokes, that makes sense now.

"Yes." He coughs fakely into his fist, his face so red it's probably hot to the touch. Kyungsoo doesn't test that theory out the way he might have done yesterday, "I- You have a really nice smile. And I like you a lot. Like in a boyfriend kind of way," Kyungsoo goes through a series of emotions including shock, confusion and incredulity.

Jongin doesn't meet his eyes as he squirms past Kyungsoo, puts his school bag on and walks out the door calmly but stiffly, like it's taking all his effort to look normal. Kyungsoo follows him numbly, opening the door and leanin out to maybe call him back, but he's already half way down the road, running quickly. Kyungsoo would never be able to catch up.

-

Jongin doesn't come back for a week.

-

Two weeks.

-

"Didn't he give you his phone number, or facebook details? Anything?" His mother asks, slightly concerned. Kyungsoo told her what happened not ten minutes after Jongin left, and since then she's been asking every single day if he's been back to see him yet. Kyungsoo shakes his head, wanting to wrangle the idiots neck, only he can't because he has no way of finding him. What kind of moron confesses to someone, then runs away?

Jongin, apparently. He didn't even give him the chance to respond. In the two weeks he's had to think about it, he's come to the conclusion that he's willing to give it a try with Jongin. He's a little young, and a little immature, but he's cute and interesting to talk to, when he's not trying to be funny. But, it would seem Kyungsoo itsn't going to get the chance to tell him because he's too much of a wimp to come back and find out.

"He didn't tell you anything? Nothing at all?" She clicks her tongue, "Not an address, a school name?" Kyungsoo perks up at that,

"He did say which school he goes to; Westbrook High School. Do you know where that is?" He asks, hopefully. She raises her eyebrows,

"Well, no wonder he came here early in the mornings, that's on the other side of town." She puts down her coffee, "I'll go get the keys, you can drive there yourself," 

-

Kyungsoo sits in the front seat of his parents' audi feeling like a stalker and wondering if he should go home already. He'd only agreed to leave because business had been slow, and he doesn't even know when his school finishes. It's nearing three O'clock now, so it can't be long, he reasons. But then what if he stays after school for tutoring or sports club- he mentioned needing help in english class once, didn't he?

Another half an hour passes, with Kyungsoo listening anxiously to the radio. He looks up and sees a bunch of students passing by, laughing over something. He glances back at the gate, and there are floods of teenagers walking out. Flustered, Kyungsoo gathers up his things in a rush and opens the car door, failing the first time, and jogs over to a somewhere he might get a better view of who's coming out. He gets a couple of weird looks from the students, but tells himself he doesn't care.

Twice, he sees someone he thinks is Jongin, but it turns out to be someone else. He scans the crowd- this is a huge school, much bigger than the one he went to, how can there be so many people?- but comes up with nothing. A squawk to his left draws his attention, then some laughter and a hisses 'shh!' and there is Jongin surrounded by a few boys similar in height to him.

He makes to walk towards him, shoulders releasingtheir tension, but Jongin turns and sprints in the opposite direction, to the sound of his friends hooting in hysterical amusement. Oh no, he's not getting away this time, Kyungsoo thinks, taking off after him.

Jongin is a fast runner, and Kyungsoo definitely is not. After what feels like forever but is probably just a few short minutes, Kyungsoo feels like his thighs are melting and he might very well throw up. But he can't lose Jongin. If he gets away now he'll put even more effort into avoiding him.

"Jongin, wait!" He shouts, but it comes out a little wheezy, so he's not sure if he heard. He dodges around the people dotting the pavement with decidedly less finesse than Jongin, and nearly bumps into several of them, apologising breathlessly to them. Suddenly he can't see Jongin anymore, so he slows down, panting heavily and seriously considering throwing up.

Maybe he went into a shop? He looks around, but doesn't see anything obvious. He walks a little slower, hand pressed into his side to quell the stich raging in his stomach. He goes past an alleyway, then backtracks, heading down there to see if Jongin hid here. To be honest he's getting really tired of this chasing game.

"Jongin?" He calls out, fully expecting the silence he gets in return, but he goes further anyway. He edges his way round the dumpster gingerly, not fond of gerrms at all. There he is, looking sweaty and tired, but not as exhausted as Kyungsoo is feeling. 

"There you are," he breathes, reaching for the runaway. Jongin flinches away from him, cowering into the wall, "you are an idiot," he mutters, before slumping against his chest and groaning throatily. 

"I can't believe you made me run," he groans. Jongin makes a strange sound in the back of his throat, and when Kyungsoo looks up, he seems very distressed. Taking a chance, he says,

"You still like me, right?" He still sounds out of breath, and his hair is sweaty and he probably looks like a mess, but Jongin nods anyway, spluttering uselessly. 

Kyungsoo rolls his eyes and kisses him. Jongin makes another one of those tiny whimpering noises in his throat, and Kyungsoo is beginning to find them rather endearing. He tilts his head back,

"If I didn't like you, I would've kicked you out long ago," Kyungsoo can see the wheels turning in Jongin's head as he thinks. His eyebrow crinkles as he thinks harder, and when he finally gets it his mouth falls open slightly,

"Really?" Instead of dragging this out, Kyungsoo just kisses him again, pleased when Jongin kisses back. Then the ache in his entire body finally catches up to him and he sinks down into a crouch, groaning,

"Are you ok?" Jongin drops down next to him, concerned.

"You made me run," Kyungsoo accuses. Jongin laughs, and rubs his back.

wow im so tired all-nighters are not fun

anyway i hope the person who wanted this enjoys it :D

my tumblr is here, i dont usually post anything about fics, but thats mostly because theres people i know on there irl. but if people sent questions/requents or anything i would try to answer them ^^