Episode One

Caution

Up at 2am, just like every other day.

Kwon JiYong stretched out and yawned against the sleep still settled deep in his aching bones. Running a hand through his fluffy orange hair, he sat on the edge of the bed and wished for obligation to evaporate so he could crawl back under the comforter with Seungri. He was at that point in adulthood where he didn't even need an alarm anymore and he hated it. No matter how much he loved his job, or how many times he reminded himself that he was living his childhood dream, he would always hate that his life was structured enough to be lived without an alarm. An angry puff of a sigh popped through him as he stood, dragging his bare feet across the plush carpet to the freezing cold tile of the bathroom. The floor heater kicked on as his tiptoed in and flicked the light switch. He always, always closed the door tightly behind him before he the light.

At least three more sighs made their way through his lips as he pondered in sagging, tired, face in the mirror. The bags under his perfect brown eyes looked darker, and his skin seemed blotchier than usual, but maybe that was the price he paid for a mostly perfect life...and also for staying up way too late talking to YoungBae. Rather than take a shower he twisted the knob for cold water in the sink and dipped his head until his bright hair was under the faucet. Water poured into the white basin, tinted hot orange as it ran through his neon locks.

There would be an argument later about sink hair washing, like there always was. Seungri found it repulsive for some reason. Honestly, it was easier than washing it in the shower, at least this way he didn't have to scrub the color off the back of his neck. After he rinsed out the last of his orange conditioner he dried his hair with a black hand towel and slid quietly back into the bedroom. He managed to open the creaky dresser without a sound and traded his grey tank top for a black t-shirt. His blue plaid pajama pants were replaced by beat up jeans and he threw his clothes in the bin by the bathroom door when.

"I didn't hear you take a shower," a groggy, muffled Seungri yawned out. White hair shifted in the dark and poked up, just barely, from the blanket cocoon it was wrapped in. 

"I only washed my hair," JiYong sighed. He was going to get caught anyway, might as well just fess up since Ri would probably forget the whole conversation, "I always shower and put my make up on at five. There’s no reason to put it on just to mess it up at this hour."

"Ji, it leaves orange all over the basin," Seungri mumbled from under the sheets. 

"Aish," he grumbled, "I cleaned it out. Go back to sleep already." He ran a frustrated hand through his hair before panicking and wiping it on the towel he was still holding. Hopefully he didn't have an orange hand; SeungHyun would never let him live that one down. 

It was the day of sighs as he stumbled through the dark dining area on his way to the door. He was forever thankful that YoungBae and Daesung had been okay with rooming dorm style across from SeungHyun down the hall past the living room. JiYong wasn't sure what he would have done with the extra fifty feet worth of stumbling space in the morning. It was bad enough just walking from the master bedroom to the door in the dark. At least he could say that his slippers were always in the same place. The door groaned with him as he pushed it open. They were a grouchy choir of creaking and . That all changed with squeaky hinges finally gave up and the smell of everything Ji loved about his life came wafting in. The scent of cinnamon and vanilla warmed his sleepy soul out of its stupor. 

Descending the narrow flight of stairs was utter agony...and also very cold. Why hadn't he expected cold? It was the middle of October; of course it would be cold. October was his favorite month of the year because his whole life started to smell like pumpkin and peppermint. Summer was fun, strawberries and fresh fruit were always good, but winter had the charm of heavy spices and making everything feel dense. Sometimes it was nice to feel heavy.

 As he turned the corner into the Flour Boy Bakery, he couldn’t help but smile. A row of five coat hooks lined the purple wall just before the entrance each one with a little wooden cubby above it, curtsey of YoungBae’s incredible handyman abilities. The wooden boxes were all painted and decorated for the person they belong to, a sweet gesture from the sunny craftsman from three years ago when they had still been renovating the space they now had. JiYong’s box was bright white with a delicately painted plaque with yellow letters that read “GDragon,” he loved it so much. Each hook had at least one apron hung on it, and some of them had sweaters given the time of year. Daesung’s had more sweaters than aprons, the poor guy had been sick for months. Ji managed to drag a long, threadbare, old cardigan over his arms before he dug into his massive collection of aprons. Most of them were gifts; because what else would you get a fashion-ista who plays with messy kitchen ingredients all day?

Upon swift inspection the orange haired baker decided it was very much a day for his favorite of all aprons. It was coal black with flecks of gold thread poking out, SeungHyun had spent hours hand painting a gorgeous metallic red and gold dragon on the pocket and in bright gold glitter embroidery it had “Glitter Dragon” scrolled all the way from hip to shoulder. It always made him smile on days when he wanted to curl back up in a ball and sleep. He slipped the adjustable neck string over his head and tied it as he walked.

A sudden, and completely uncalled for bout of nostalgia overtook JiYong when he pushed the lazy glass door open and breathed in the early morning at the Flour Boy Bakery. For three years this brick building in the center of historical down town had been his home, his work, and his life. The walls were covered in local modern art; the furniture had come from the JYJ Furniture Gallery and TVXQ Antiques. SeungHyun had picked all of the chairs, not a single one matched because he had been unable to pick just one design. The tables had been collaboration between YoungBae and Kim Junsu, mismatched but charming; like the whole of the building.

The building had been built in the early 1800’s, still had much of its original brick. Rooms were still mostly intact, only slightly altered as the years had gone on. There were even little steps right in the doorways to get down into them from the ‘lobby’. The furniture was arranged into three divided seating rooms by vague themes that made little sense to anyone but SeungHyun and Ji. A suggestion had been made by a regular customer from YG contracting to knock down some of the walls, but Ji liked how it was split up. He paused his slow walk at the massive front window and looked out on the street where no one else was awake or moving yet. They opened the earliest of any of the stores on the block. Flaming Charisma Cupcakes didn’t open their doors until seven in the morning. Onew had insisted that cupcakes were not a breakfast food when they moved in a year and a half ago. JiYong tended to disagree with that.

 The front door opened into the lobby, to the far left was the counter where Seungri took orders, behind the register was his coffee making equipment. The glass displays filled with sweets were empty as of yet. Nothing had been decorated to put out yet. He slipped under the usually movable but clearly locked down part of the counter that was off to the side, took a deep breath of autumn spice and smiled like a child.

Before they had moved in it had been vacant for six years, and he had fawned over it. He and SeungHyun had dreamt of this building from the day they had walked into it eight years ago, before TVXQ Antiques had moved around the corner. They had dreamt of this bakery for so long that even three years later he couldn’t believe he was standing in it. For eight years he and SeungHyun had worked as chefs by day while trying to maintain a pastry and custom cake baking home business. His inheritance and years of hard work had paid for it. All of his parents support before that awful car accident had brought him here, to this place, to his childhood dream with his best friends.

JiYong had never gone to college. From the day he turned eighteen he had reached for this and only this. In fact, it had probably been since he was twelve or thirteen, but that was beside the point.

“Good morning SeungHyun,” He called over the noisy music that reached his ears over all of the kitchen noises. It was customary for them to listen to hip hop music in the early mornings but SeungHyun being SeungHyun made an effort to keep it at a respectful volume before Ji woke up. He was an infamously light sleeper.

The head baker popped through the doorway, gripping the trim to lean out. His glasses were falling off his nose and his messy, undone hair was a shocking new shade of mint blue. “Good Morning Ji,” he offered in his early morning gravel tone. “Bad night?” he remarked, dragging his eyes up JiYong’s slender form, likely taking note of the glitter dragon apron.

“When did you get your hair done?” Ji asked, ducking under his companions arm to get into the kitchen.

“Ah,” SeungHyun chuckled, “Heechul said it was too plain for working here, so he had me over there at eleven last night before I started baking.”

“I like it,” He offered with a smile that his old friend couldn’t see.

“So, why the rainy day apron?” He had clearly gone back to chopping walnuts, the knife was making a loud thud as it cracked through the solid ingredient. Most of the time that was already done by this hour so he had probably decided to make something special.

“I was up all night with YoungBae,” Ji confessed as he picked at the clues left by his freshly dyed business partner. There was cream cheese out…that was suspicious. “He’s worried about Dae.”

The response he got was a low hum, “Isn’t he going to the doctor today for tests?”

“Yeah.” Ji offered distractedly as he poked his nose into the industrial mixer and sniffed.

“Yah,” Seunghyun shouted, “I’m surprising you with raspberry walnut cheesecake because I heard you going to bed when I was leaving for Heenim’s Hair Creations. Quit being a snoop and make your butter-cream.”

JiYoung turned around to face his station and found that there were already bricks of butter stacked up on the edge of the long stainless steel table next to a ten pound bag of powdered sugar and various other things he was going to need for his usual, first, and most favorite task of the day.

If there were only one solid reason JiYong could never be vegan, it was his unmatched love of butter-cream frosting. It was his Kryptonite. On any given day he got to make it in at least twelve flavors and he loved every moment of it. SeungHyun was the batter master, the king of cake carving, and the pastry dough god. JiYong was the unmatched, undisputed, reigning king of frostings, fillings, and decorations. He made a lemon curd so delicious it had stopped screaming matches between Kris and Suho about the differences between EXO Deli and EXOdus Subs. A tub of his frosting lived in HeeChul’s fridge at all times for when Hangeng was away working in place of ice cream. Maybe he was being cocky, but he was pretty sure he was completely unrivaled in the frostings and fillings department.

So JiYong and his fabulous orange hair settled into the usual morning routine. It was calming, dumping bricks of softened yellow butter into an industrial mixer. His problems started to melt away somewhere between making sugar flowers and stuffing huge piping bags with gloriously hot pink frosting.

Once the majority of the early morning pastries were made and slid into cases it was time to go back upstairs and shower so they could look presentable if they needed to help in the front of the house during rushes. This was the part of the morning that both he and SeungHyun had to drag themselves though. It was the obligation of business ownership that no one had warned him about. Back when they had been doing the at home catering they could bake in whatever they wanted to.

Just as Ji was about the haggle with himself for ten more minutes covered in sugar and greased in egg splatter SeungHyun handed him his phone, which had been charging in the office all night, “You got a message from Onew just now,” he drawled, shaking the flour out of his hair.

It was super cold against his warm hands. The screen blared the time at him, 4:45 am, he slid his finger across it and it unlocked to a message that read “JongHyun forgot to order white fondant again =/, can we buy some from you.”

Ji sighed, “JongHyun messed up their fondant order again,” he offered, “Do you think we have any to spare?”

“If we’re getting more tomorrow we can give them enough for this week,” Seunghyun shrugged, “You’d have to ask Dae when we’re getting more.”

“Right,” He sighed again. “I’ll go up first.”

Blue hair bobbed and long fingers waved, but their owner was wholly consumed by pulling the cream cheese danishes out of the oven. He might have said, “Right behind you,” but he would be at least another half an hour and then he would have to get ready while Ji and YoungBae dipped all of the doughnuts he was about to finish making in glaze, sugar, or frosting.

The frosting lover put his apron up and threw his sweater back up on the hook on his way up the stairs. Kicked his fluffy slippers off at the door and found Daesung surprisingly awake. The blond nodded in greeting from where he was sitting at the kitchen table, coughing a little into his cereal bowl a bit as he did so. The dark circles under his eyes were getting even darker.

“Hey Dae,” JiYong offered with a concerned smile, “Feeling any better today?”

He shrugged, his t-shirt rolled off of his shoulder. A lot of his clothes were suddenly too large for him, even his belt was pulled two settings smaller than the well worn spot it had occupied before “I can’t even tell anymore.” Poor Dae had been going from one infection to the next for a month now, “I’m getting those test results today though. Pray for nothing serious.”

“Quick question before I go shower,” Ji interjected awkwardly, “When are we getting more fondant?”

“JongHyun forgot to order his again didn’t he?” Dae asked, “We are getting more tomorrow.” Bless him, he always ordered the stretchy white marshmallow cake topping on the off weeks just so that they would have some if poor JinKi and MinHo needed it for Flaming Charisma Cupcakes. They used it way more than JiYong usually did. “I’ll call him and let him know, I was just headed down to the office.”

“Thanks Dae,” JiYong said, brushing his fingers across his unwell but ever-cheerful friend’s shoulders as he came to stand behind, “We all appreciate the foresight.”

“They appreciate it more than you do,” Daesung laughed, “Are the danishes out of the oven yet?”

“They just came out,” Ji remembered, “I’m sure SeungHyun made one just for you.” He always did, SeungHyun was sweet and thoughtful in ways that no one ever expected, it was part of his charm.

“Thanks Ji,” the blonde had suddenly perked up considerably and stood to leave reaching around the baker’s slender shoulders before he bounced sluggishly out the door.

JiYong took out his pone and texted JinKi back anyway with, “Hey, Daesung says he’s going to call, so wait ten minutes to see if he remembers. Usual arrangement.” Which was that SeungHyun would answer the catering bell at the truck dock and bring Onew his ingredients in return for some cash and a half dozen fried chicken and waffle cupcakes for which the cup-cakery was well known.

He flipped on the light as he walked into his shared bedroom; Seungri made the most horrific screeching dinosaur noise and threw the sheets up in rage, “I don’t want to get up.” Eventually he rolled over in a huff and slammed down on the carpet. Silver hair contrasted the creamy beige of the floor as he rolled around in grouchiness.

“You need to brew coffee lazy,” was all that JiYong had energy to say in that moment. “You’re already twenty minutes late. I’m getting in the shower.” He added with a certain hesitation because announcement usually meant an offer to join and he hadn’t been in the mood to deal with his boyfriend for days now. The younger man was…flippant and flighty despite their nearly ten-year relationship. They had been through a lot of ups and downs, and were currently on a sort of down.

Ji wouldn’t say it out loud just yet, but he suspected Ri had a new mistress. He only ever missed work when he had a mistress. It made his own heart ache in his chest. For whatever reason JiYong had thought Seungri would have grown out of all this by the age of twenty four. In fact, he had thought his younger lover would have grown out of it just after high school but he never seemed to.

“Don’t forget to wash your hair,” Seungri offered sweetly, “It’s a hair washing day.”

“Thanks,” JiYong sighed, stripping off his sugared shirt as he stepped over the as-of-yet unmoving Seungri, “Get up,” he insisted, ‘tripping’ squarely over his companion’s ribs. “You have work to do.”

“I’m going,” Seungri huffed, “I’m going.”

“Can you make sure to send SeungHyun up if he’s not already and tell YoungBae to start dipping doughnuts for me since we don’t have any deliveries until later?”

“YoungBae is up already?”

“Seungri it’s 5am.” JiYong shook his head and paused in the doorway to the bathroom waiting for the floor to heat up some, “The rest of us get up before 4:30 most days don’t we?”

The silver haired man finally gave in and pulled to his feet, “Enjoy your shower.” Was all he said before he got up and Ji spun into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The red-ish brown tile was pleasantly warm this time, and he could take time in the silence to grimace at the way his faced look sunken in with exhaustion in the huge vanity mirror before he he water. When YoungBae had updated the bathroom he had kept the old cast iron claw footed tub. Ji suspected it actually could be removed but the short mohawked handyman was upset when Seungri had asked for a big whirlpool bathtub and honestly Ji had been too. He had only conceded because he didn’t want Seungri to break up with him again, which admittedly was not the best reason to not stand up for himself.

JiYong hated this part of his day, but supposed it must be a good sign that he would rather be baking than showering; at least he had a passion. He pulled a shower cap out of the drawer to the left of the sink and pulled it over his preciously dyed hair. With a flick, the hot water came on, screaming through the old pipes in the cold October air. He stripped the rest of the way down stepped in, pulling the curtain all the way around its rickety metal track.

Upon further contemplation he decided that it wasn’t really that he hated showering, or putting his make up on, in fact, he quite enjoyed both. He would just rather be decorating cakes, or dusting frosted cupcakes with edible glitter. By virtue of his routine, that just made his less favorite things the worst part of his day. That was pretty darn good.

He took care to cover the mole on his face, and made a mental note that he would need more foundation soon, rolled eyeliner into his waterline, dressed in a purple v-neck t-shirt and jeans, and then ran back down the stairs. It was 5:15 am, and almost time to start the day.

The Glitter Dragon apron came back on, the doughnuts and pastries were fresh and shiny in the glass case and the whole world smelled of fresh coffee mixed with cinnamon and fresh baked vanilla sheet cake.

Seungri didn’t even turn to look at him or wave from where he was taking down chairs in the red room that was closest to the upstairs. Ji could see that YoungBae was out front pulling the sidewalk seating into position though the giant storefront window. The deliveryman smiled and waved at JiYong brightly. He was wearing his white apron with the bright yellow sun on it that said TaeYang across it. He chatted pleasantly with the patrons that had formed a line that was starting to go down the street just like most days.

For the first time in his life he didn’t hear SeungHyun come thundering back down the stairs. He jumped with two hands clapped down on his shoulders. But relaxed when he felt a warm cheek rest next to his and the sweetly deep voice of his dear friend whispered, “Welcome to your Flour Boy Bakery Kwon JiYong.”

As the weight lifted, his stress was ripped away with it and his leader spirit came roaring back, “Lets go.” He laughed, sauntering to the door.

“Fighting!” Dae, Ri, and SeungHyun screamed back, and the door was officially open for the morning.

“Welcome to the Flour Boy Bakery,” JiYong greeted the waiting crowed.

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Hello new Friends!

So this is an odd project, the first I have embarked upon in many years. I’m excited and terrified. Its way outside my usual genre and probably my comfort zone. It’s also set up to be a little bit of a monster. If you like it leave a comment, I would love any kind of constructive feedback!

 A huge shout out and big thanks to White Tigress for convincing me that it was a rabbit hole worth tumbling down and here’s to hoping we can all enjoy this journey.