Though he thought the day would never come, Jongin was more than ecstatic when he finally got his dream job of being a vet and got to move to Seoul. Nothing would please him more than the chance to work with animals, and it definitely pleased him knowing that those who always discouraged his dream as a kid, would finally see him succeed and prove them all wrong. He could be forgiven for feeling just slightly cocky at that matter.

Jongin loved nothing more than working with animals. In fact, he could die tomorrow and would still be satisfied that he got to achieve his dream before he kicked the bucket. Working with animals however, posed its own challenges, and from time to time he just needed a moment to escape the vets and have some time for himself. Every break that he had, he would slip out and explore the city whilst munching on some food he had packed that morning. That was when he first came across the cake shop.

His first visit was pretty uneventful, the shop was actually quite busy for a lunchtime rush, and by the time Jongin got to be served, he would have to pay and dash to make sure he made it back to work before his lunch break ended. When it was finally his time to be served, he stops when sees the guy serving him. Jongin isn’t sure why, but there’s something about the guy that completely captivates him. Whatever it is, it occupies Jongin’s thoughts long enough that the he’s snapped out of his thoughts when the guy asks, “Can I help you?” He feels slightly embarrassed when he turns around and notices the line behind him. Whilst being served, he doesn’t strike up any conversation with the guy, still trying to figure out what was captivating about the guy. Regardless, Jongin still smiles and thanks him, and watches the guy pause before quickly nodding his head and rushing to serve the next customer.

On his second visit, Jongin made sure his break was slightly later to avoid the rush. When entering, he was once again served by the guy from his previous visit and silently told himself he was going to try and talk with him next time.

“What can I get you?” the guy asks, waiting for Jongin’s answer

“What would you recommend?”

The guy raises an eyebrow, not quite expecting that answer. Nonetheless, he turns to the cakes on display and pauses in thought before answering. “I’m not a big fan of dark chocolate, but the dark chocolate cake is our most popular. If you’re looking for something… different, then we have carrot cake. I would say that’s more of an elderly cake though, seeing as its most popular with the group of elderly lady who come by at two o’clock every afternoon without fail. We also have a new strawberry and vanilla cake that we recently made and is becoming quite popular. What will it be?”

“Surprise me”

Again, Jongin’s response surprises the guy, but he still spends time studying the cakes on display before settling on a mint cake. Jongin can swear he sees the faintest of a blush on the guy’s cheeks, and that only makes his smile wider than it had been before.

And so Jongin keeps coming back. On each of the visits he tries to make small talk with the guy, get to know him more. He still doesn’t find out the guy’s name, but he does get him smiling and laughing more. Most of the conversation is Jongin asking questions and the guy replying, even one time ranting to Jongin about his co-worker who was getting himself into a mess over some guy. No matter the conversation, Jongin stayed silent and let the guy talk, relishing in it.

On one visit, the guy wasn’t there to serve him, and instead it was his co-worker who greeted Jongin, smiling and then frowning. “I don’t think I’ve seen you here before, are you new to the area?”

“Oh, yeah, I recently moved here as a qualified vet. I’m Jongin”

The co-worker smiles again and shakes Jongin’s hand, “I’m Yixing. I’ve lived in Seoul… for more years than I can probably count”

“Yixing? Doesn’t sound like a Korean name”

“But it does sound Chinese” Yixing replies with a laugh, “I spent a couple of years over here and then wasn’t sure if I wanted to go home or not. Then Kyungsoo said he was going to open his own business and wanted me to come work with him. No regrets so far!”

“Kyungsoo?” Jongin asks, and Yixing studies his expression. Jongin’s sure that somehow, Yixing is onto him, but doesn’t indicate it and carries on normally.

“Yeah, the owner of the place. Technically the boss, but he’s cool and is never an idiot. Though he is scary if you make him angry”

Their conversation continues until another customer enters the place. Jongin doesn’t remember much of the conversation, but one fact that does stick with him is that he now has a name for the guy. Now that he knew Kyungsoo’s name, he just had to get to know him some more.

Grateful to finally get his break, Jongin hurries out of work and down the road. The morning had been chaotic; an operation required on a cat, a dog was brought after being hit by a car, and animal rescue had brought in another dog that had previously been abused and was extremely malnourished. It wasn’t the animals that stressed Jongin out, it was more the people, the owners who stressed him out. Jongin could understand an owner’s love for their pets, but to be screaming and demanding what was happening when Jongin was trying to help their pet was a too over the top reaction, and at some points Jongin was close to screaming at the owners to just shut up and leave him be.

Arriving at the cake shop, Jongin isn’t even bothered that it’s Kyungsoo and not Yixing who’s serving him. All he does is make sure to thank Yixing and then sink into a seat by the window, not caring how loud his sigh is when he finally gets to relax. Kyungsoo is nearby cleaning tables, but Jongin really isn’t the right mood to talk right now, slowly eating his cake and milking this break he had been given.

He does end up speaking to Kyungsoo when both he and Jongin hear Yixing from the front, talking to two customers who had been arguing as they entered the place.

“Idiot” he hears Kyungsoo mutter, rolling his eyes as well, the comment making Jongin laugh

“Not one for sharing the same joy as you colleague?” he asks, Kyungsoo looking at him in surprise before he replies.

“N-not when you’re doing all the work whilst he stands around and chats” he replies, laughing nervously

“I can only imagine how annoying it must be” Jongin comments and the conversation stalls. Jongin expects this to be the most he’s going to talk to Kyungsoo today, but that wasn’t going to be the case.

“You must really enjoy it in here. Yixing and I have noticed that you’ve become quite the local lately”

“It’s a nice little place to come to when I need to get to relax or get away. My job is amazing, but animals are a lot more stressful to work with than humans… well, unless the owner is in your ear demanding to know what’s going on” Jongin explains

“I wish I could have some time to myself to get out for a while. I love my job too, but as the owner, I never really get the time to step out and think about myself” Kyungsoo says, his comment making Jongin frown.

“You never get the chance for some peace and quiet? Even outside of work?” he asks as Kyungsoo shakes his head

“There’s bills and shipping orders to take care of. If you want to have a successful business, sacrifices have to be made” he explains. For some reason, this bothers Jongin more than it should and he reaches into his coat pocket, pulling out a pen and then reaching for the napkin in front of him.

“This won’t do at all” he mutters, writing down his number and handing it to Kyungsoo. “It has my number on it. You have Yixing working with you, get him to run the shop for the day and I can take you out for a proper day off”

“R-really?” Kyungsoo asks as Jongin gets up from his seat “W-why? I mean I can take days off by myself!”

“Yes, but you’ll never know what a true day off where you can fully relax will feel like unless you’re shown it. I’ll wait for your call”

Jongin leaves Kyungsoo standing there gaping at him with the napkin clutched to his chest. It’s not until he’s walking back to work that Jongin realises what he had done. He isn’t horrified though, in fact it was actually quite funny to him that he had the balls to do that, laughing at the whole situation as he walked back in to prepare for his next appointment.

Doing two updates today actually helps because I can finally explain what these 'bonus' chapters are 

They're not really bonuses but they're separate chapters to the story in that they're specifically Kaisoo and Chenhun specific, whilst the rest of the chapters are purely Sulay. The content of these chapters might seep into Sulay chapters, but they wont take up as much space. I know in the original writing of this, many of the comments were like "it's meant to be Sulay why do the others take up so many chapters?" so I thought this would be a good way to do it. They wont be every chapter, maybe every couple of chapters so that the rest of the story allows for more Sulay content and development. Does this make sense? It made sense in my head when I started writing it. 

Until the next chapter!!