Three months flew by faster than they realized, both boys became closer, sooner or later they even became best bros. Their bond is becoming noticeably a lot closer each days passing. Jokes were thrown every now and then, skinships became a norm, corny pick-up lines somehow found their way between the two. It even came to the time where Mingyu can now freely call Wonwoo as ‘hyung’ without the latter feeling uncomfortable. They don’t know when it all started to progress that well, it just magically did.

                With winter season finally kicking in, Wonwoo who’s wearing 2 layers of sweater walked his usual route to the bakeshop only to stop when he was a couple of blocks away when he spotted a delivery truck unloading a couple of huge boxes. Beside the truck was Mingyu, wearing an equally thick layered of clothes as he watched the workers unload. Wonwoo waved hello to Mingyu in which the latter replied back with a nod.

“Hey Mingyu, what are those?” Wonwoo asked as he stood beside him, eyeing the workers who were having a hard time in moving the heavy-looking boxes, he offered to help but the men insisted so he just shrugged it off.

“Presents from my grandma from France.” Mingyu nonchalantly said as he signed the papers presented to him by one of the delivery men.

“France? I never knew you have relatives in France?”

“She works there, in a 4-star Patisserie. She helped me a bit in starting this little bakeshop by giving me some ovens. She even insisted of sending me money on a weekly basis for the shop’s necessities. I refused her offer and told her I could manage but she insisted of helping so she decided to help me with the supplies. So in retrospect, she’s my supplier of ingredients. She has her own farm and flourmill in France.” Mingyu sighed as he looked at the heavy-looking packages almost his size and cursed under his breath.

“Oh, so that explains the fancy looking label on your flour sacks in the kitchen. But why is she giving you these stuff so suddenly?” The shorter male asked as he inspected the 3 boxes; 2 large ones and 1 medium sized one, it doesn’t have any prints whatsoever, just pure plain cardboard boxes as an exterior packaging.

“It was her birthday 2 weeks ago, she gave me these ovens as ‘gifts’ when in actuality it’s practically hand-me-downs since she received new ones on her birthday. The real question is, where do I put all these things, I mean my current ovens are still working fine and my kitchen’s too stuffed already for a couple more…” Mingyu thought hard as he circled around the boxes thinking of a place to put them. He suddenly looked at Wonwoo and flashed a wide smile. “Hyung! Didn’t your mother had a background as a chef? How about you get one and I’ll use the other left? Yeah?”

“What?! Are you crazy?! I can’t accept THAT it probably costs a fortune!“

“Hyung just help me on this one, okay? Just think of it as an early Christmas gift or something? I swear it’ll help me big time if you just get one of these bad boys. Please? Hyung? For me?” Mingyu jutted his lower lip and looked at Wonwoo with doe eyes. The latter inwardly bit his lower lip fighting the urge to give in to the younger’s imprudent request. In the end he lost and just heaved a sigh. Mingyu smiled victoriously.

“It’s so unfair you have to use that trick.”

“Well, it works every time so why not? Right?” Mingyu laughed as he grabbed the side of one of the tall boxes. “But first help me carry these things inside, hyung”

                After getting all the huge packages inside the house. Mingyu took the liberty to open them, revealing 2 commercial combi ovens and an espresso machine, on top of the espresso machine was a letter taped artfully. Mingyu grabbed the envelope and read its content.

“Oh god, Grandma… why…” Mingyu facepalmed. Wonwoo was behind him peeking over his shoulders, curious of what was Mingyu reading.

“Why? What did it say?”

“She sent 35,000 Euros to my bank account…”

“THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND EUROS?!”

“Hyung, she works as a patissiere in a famous patisserie in France… Of course she’s rich.”

“I know but still that’s a really large amount of money when converted to Korean Won. What are you planning to do with it?”

“I… I really don’t know… hyung…” Mingyu whined, showing that same puppy eyes to Wonwoo, the latter looked away just in time before he got swoon by Mingyu’s begging technique.

“Oh no you don’t! I won’t fall for the same trick twice in one day, and hey that’s money we’re talking about, I’d rather receive mine from working hard than accept charity.”

“I know, I think of the same thing, that’s why I was so against the fact that she’s gonna send me money for assistance”

                Both males sat on the couch beside the door, they decided that they’ll be closed for the day until the problem at hand is solved. Mingyu frustratingly ruffled his hair while the other male just sat there staring at the ceiling thinking of something. Wonwoo’s eyes wander the entire shop and landed on the espresso machine placed on the counter.

“Hey”

“Yeah? Got any bright ideas?”

“How about, turning this bakeshop into a café? You know… since you have pastries and what goes best with pastries? Coffee and tea, right?” Wonwoo pointed at the espresso machine on the counter.

“Hmmm… That’s actually a great idea, and I can use the money to buy new tables and renovations, yeah?”

“Exactly!”

“Brilliant! I love it! Truth be told, I thought of opening a café instead of a bakeshop before” Mingyu’s eyes were practically gleaming with excitement as he kept talking about how cool cafes are and how homely was the cafes he went in during his university years. Wonwoo just listened amusedly at the younger’s continuous yapping.

“Hey hyung. Let’s close for the day and go to the mall.”

“Hmm? What for?”

“I know this store there that sells cute chairs and tables. I wanna start this café plan as soon as possible.” Mingyu said excitedly.

                After managing what has to be done in the shop. They left the place not forgetting to get extra layers of clothes as the weather outside is really chilly and then they set off to the nearby bus stop. The bus ride was filled with them sharing ideas on what kind of coffees and teas they’d put in the menu, Mingyu told Wonwoo about how he had a barista lessons when he was in university and how to make perfectly brewed coffees. Wonwoo on the other hand told Mingyu about how to make the perfect tea, he learnt the art of tea making when he was younger from his grandmother before she passed. It wasn’t long ‘til they reached the mall, in fact they never noticed the time as they were busy sharing stories.

“Hey hyung, let’s go grab some grubs first before getting down to business, whaddya think?” Mingyu asked.

“Well I’m actually kind of hungry too… so, yeah okay”

“I’m craving for something hot since it’s pretty cold lately.”

“I want something spicy…”

“Wanna go for ramen then?”

“I was just about to say that!”

“Awesome! I know a great place that sells great ramen” Mingyu grabbed Wonwoo’s hands as he happily dragged the latter to the ramen place he was talking about. Wonwoo just stared at their clasped hands as he let himself be dragged by the younger, smiling internally at how comfortable was the younger’s warm hands clasped around his cold ones.

                After stuffing themselves they went for a short walk around the mall, window shopping at clothes store and checking things inside whenever they stumble upon a kitchenware store. They ended up buying a couple of wares for the shop and some coffee mugs. Without realizing they reached the furniture shop Mingyu was talking about. They looked around the store, admiring all the furniture displayed craftily in the store.

“So what’s your plan?” Wonwoo asked, not shifting his eyes away from scanning the store’s displayed tables.

“I was thinking of an outdoor set, where people can just sit outside and admire the nature and relax, plus the inside of the shop’s too crowded with shelves anyway.”

“Hmmm… How ‘bout circular end tables with parasols?”

“Yea! Exactly what I was thinking” Mingyu happily pointed to Wonwoo as he raised his hand for a high-five which the latter received well. “Also I want them to be made with metals and the surface with glass”

“Paired with cushioned metal chairs I’m guessing?” Wonwoo retaliated with a cocky grin and a raised eyebrow.

“You just read my mind” Mingyu heartily let out a chuckle.

                So both of them looked around the entire store, looking for their desired style, after finally choosing the table and chair they wanted, Mingyu proceeded to the front desk and signed his order of 7 tables paired with 4 chairs each before signing the papers for his orders he told them to deliver it a month prior to today. After their hour long scavenging hunt for the café’s tables and chairs. They chilled for a bit on the resting bench in front of the store they were in just a couple of seconds ago. Mingyu fished his phone from his parka’s pocket and checked the time, while he was at it he saw one of the reminders he set for his to-buy list, remembering that he also needed coffee beans and tea powder for a test run for his espresso machine.

“Oh hyung! Can we go to the supermarket? I kinda need to buy some things”

“Yeah sure, I’m actually up to buy some snacks anyway”

“But we just ate an hour ago? Are you going to hibernate or something?” Mingyu joked.

“Yah, meals and snacks are different.” Wonwoo faked hurt, landing a playful punch to the younger’s toned arm.

                When they arrived at the mall’s supermarket, Mingyu grabbed a shopping cart while Wonwoo grabbed a basket and went on with their shopping. Mingyu grabbing the things on his list and whatever he thought he would need, from daily necessities to ingredients and spices he thought he might use in the future experimentations. On the other party was a man busy filling his basket with snacks. While both were walking an isle with stalls of free samples, one stall caught Mingyu’s attention. It’s a stall of a free taste cake but wasn’t an ordinary stall like the rest.

“Hello, would you care to try our challenge?” A woman carrying a tray of bite-size cake slices approached them from the stall.

“What kind of challenge?” Mingyu perked as he eyed the small triangular slices of cake on the tray.

“It’s simple, this cake contains 7 secret ingredients, if you guessed 1 correctly you win a prize depending on the difficulty of what you guessed; there are 4 easy ones, 2 mediums, and a really hard one. So, do you wanna try?” The lady presented them the tray, asking them to take a slice.

Mingyu just grinned and looked at Wonwoo’s direction mouthing a ‘hyung, you got this!’ before laughing. Wonwoo just flashed an amused smile at the other as they both grabbed a piece each.

“You have only one chance to guess.” The lady on the stall grabbed what seems to be a hierarchy board of the answers. There are 7 rectangles aligned vertically and 5 were covered, the 2 bottom rectangles where the words ‘honey’ and ‘lemon’ were written aren’t covered. “These two right here has already been guessed so refrain from answering them”.

Both males savored the taste of the slice even closing their eyes to focus on their tongues.

“I can taste chestnuts” Mingyu answered.

“Is there chestnut in the chart?” The lady rhetorically asked as she took a quick glance on her cheat sheet. She removed the sticker covering the 4^th rectangle from the bottom and revealed the word. “Chestnut is correct! Under the easy category! Congratulations! You’ve won a cupcake!” She then grabbed a small box from under the stall and handed it to Mingyu.

“Umm…” Wonwoo awkwardly interrupted. “I… I’m going to guess for cherry blossoms” He added shyly.

Mingyu just looked at him with a confused stare, while the lady just looked at him with an equal if not more astonishment as Mingyu. She checked her cheat sheet and looked at Wonwoo again with an even bigger amazement.

“WOW! Amazing! How did you manage to guess that? It’s the hardest ingredient on the list! Oh my gosh!” The lady excitedly removed the sticker covering the topmost rectangle on the board revealing the ‘cherry blossom/sakura’ ingredient.

“Congratulations! You received a whole cake and a molding tray set!” She grabbed a nicely wrapped set of molding trays and a box of cake from under the booth and handed the items to Wonwoo. The latter just gladly accepted the items and bowed to the lady before continuing their shopping.

Mingyu looked proudly at Wonwoo, the latter felt orbs were staring his directions and turned to look at Mingyu only to see him already staring back.

“There you go again, amazing me with that unique skill of yours.” Mingyu smiled sweetly as he walked ahead of Wonwoo and into the frozen section. The latter felt blood rushed to his cheeks and felt suddenly hot in contrast of the freezing weather, he frantically fanned himself to cool down before slowly catching up with Mingyu.

                Finally paying separately for whatever they bought, Mingyu ended up buying a lot more things than he originally planned, while Wonwoo just bought a plastic bag full of snacks. Mingyu looked at the contents of the bag and then to the latter and then to the bag again. He internally asked himself, how come this pig never gain weight even though he eats a lot. But he just shrugged the thought off. After leaving the mall, they headed straight to the stop nearby and rode a bus back to the bakeshop. Once they already took a seat, Wonwoo began to dig in the contents of his bag. Mingyu just looked at him amusedly, Wonwoo saw him looking and handed him a bag of chips which the other humbly declined, but instead Wonwoo tore the bag of chips open and fed Mingyu. The latter let out a chuckle before giving up and just eating the chips being offered to him by the other. They were happily chatting about small things, but Mingyu remembered he wanted to ask something to Wonwoo and so he did.

“Hey hyung, you know I’ve been really curious about your palates since the first time we met. How did you get such amazing sense of taste?”

Wonwoo stopped from eating before answering. “Oh that. Well let’s just say that it runs in the blood, however, it skips a generation, mine is actually trained rather than inherited. You see my great grandmother has the same skill but when she was having grandma, she didn’t inherit the, as we like to call it, ‘golden tongue’ but when grandma had mom, the ability transferred to her but when mom was having me, I never inherited the ability so mom trained me to having the ability so you can say I’m like the combo breaker of the chain. Since instead of skipping me, I managed to make my own golden tongue.” Wonwoo laughed to himself while Mingyu just looked at him with still curious eyes.

“Then how’d you got THIS good?” Mingyu pressed.

“Oh well you see back when we were still fortunate. My mother would ALWAYS bring me with her when she works, it wasn’t that of a luxurious restaurant, but it had good sides especially on the abundant menus. So while she is working on cooking, I watch her and she let me taste every single spices she use, either raw or cooked. It went on for a few years until the taste embed on my palates. Actually it went on even when we were kicked out from our house, when I took 3 jobs it was all as a server on a restaurant, tea, and coffee shops. The chefs and baristas in the shop were nice enough to let me lay a hand on the ingredients they use so I use that privilege to further enhance my palate’s capacity, until now I’m still looking for tastes that I haven’t encountered yet.” Wonwoo explained while eating chips from the bag he was holding.

“Oh I see, then how ‘bout that thing earlier with the cake, how’d you know it has cherry blossoms? I mean are those thing even edible? They’re flowers, aren’t they?” Mingyu asked, while he also grabbed a chip from the bag on Wonwoo’s lap.

“Ah~ My grandmother used to be a member of a tea club for the elderly. I went in their tea ceremonies once, they made all sorts of teas for me, one of it is the sakura tea, which is made of literal sakura. At first I was a little reluctant about tasting it, but it turned out to be sweeter than what I was expecting, it had a tinge of breeziness in it too, it kind of felt like the spring season in a form of tea, that’s why I never forget the taste of that one tea. All the other teas were fine, but that cherry blossom tea left a mark on my tongue that never left.” Wonwoo looked up and smiled as he reminisce all the memories from when he first tasted the tea.

Mingyu just stared at him admiring all the edges of Wonwoo’s face illuminated by the florescent street lights that ever-so-slightly highlight Wonwoo’s face. He never really noticed that he was staring until Wonwoo looked at his direction and he just blinked and woke to the reality that he was staring at the older’s face for far too long. He looked away and blushed but the other male just simply went back from gobbling up all the remaining chips in the bag on his lap. It was already dusk when they arrived back at the shop. Mingyu dropped the bags at the counter of his personal kitchen and went straight off to making dinner for both of them.

“What are you doing?” Wonwoo asked while grabbing another snack from his shopping bag.

“Dinner? What do you prefer? Soup or stew?”

“Oh, you don’t have to bother making some for me too, I’ll leave soon.”

“You’re not staying for dinner?” Mingyu sadly rephrased.

“Yeah, it’s getting pretty late, and after all I’m about full from all the snacks I’ve been eating.”

“Oh…” Mingyu disappointedly looked at the ground.

Wonwoo felt a slight pang in his heart seeing the younger down. He guiltily bit his lower lip before saying “You know, on second thought, I do feel kind of famished.”

Mingyu practically beamed “Really? Then what would you like then?” He excitedly asked, looking like a puppy being offered a treat.

“Anything that can be cooked fast” Wonwoo flashed a smile at the overgrown puppy in front of him.

“Soup it is! Is mushroom soup fine?”

“Sounds magnificent! I can help you with the preparations”

“Oh hey by the way, I’m gonna make a family serving, mmkay?”

“What? Why? That’s too much for… the… two of us…” Wonwoo blushed at the thought that he’ll be eating together, alone with Mingyu. He hid his face on his hands as he exploded into a pink mess, remembering that the younger was in the room, he quickly shook his head and internally slapped himself to calm himself down.

“I was actually thinking that you could bring some home for your family”

“Oh… You should’ve said that first!... instead of making me think of embarrassing thoughts…” Wonwoo mumbled the last set of words.

“What? You said something?” Mingyu looked at the direction of the mumbling Wonwoo who was poking mushrooms splayed on the chopping board in front of him.

“N-nothing!” Wonwoo then grabbed a nearby knife and carefully chopped the mushrooms.

                After they were done eating and sharing awkward glances whenever they found fit. Wonwoo washed the dishes as a form of gratitude for the meal and Mingyu let him. When he was done washing, he proceeded to grab his shopping bags and cake box together with Mingyu’s homemade mushroom soup which the younger tightly secured in a large stainless container. Mingyu saw Wonwoo off the shop and was about to bid farewell but instead he hugged the older tightly.

“Thanks for today hyung, I had fun… since you were there with me” Mingyu said while still tightly hugging the older. Wonwoo was profoundly blushing but it was good that the taller couldn’t see his face behind him.

“I-it was fine… I had fun too” Wonwoo hugged the taller back with his other hand that isn’t holding anything but the cake.

They stood still for a minute just like that, sharing each other’s warmth as if they were the only two people left in the world. Mingyu broke the hug and just stared lost to the older’s dark orbs, he flashed a short smile before waving Wonwoo goodbye while the latter walked away.

“Damn hyung, how do you make me feel so much at ease just by standing in front of me? That’s kinda unfair, you know? You made such a huge impact in my life and I assure you, one day, you’ll take responsibility for this. I just hope you’re ready when that day comes.” Mingyu chuckled to himself as he went in his house and closed the door behind him.