“Welcome!”

You couldn’t help but smile at the baker’s son welcoming you just as he always did every morning. You waved to him and he waved back as he handed his customer’s order and moved onto the next one. You stood in line with only three people in front of you, and you began to fiddle with your phone, stealing glances at the handsome young guy behind the counter. His slender fingers wrapped around the pincers picked out the most delicious looking pastries anyone had ever seen, and carefully placed them in a brown box which was then tied up with a pastel green ribbon, the bakery’s main color scheme.

The sun peered out through the white curtains, illuminating the room naturally which had a few tables scattered here and there with a peony placed in the center of each one. But you had a feeling, that it was actually Jeonghan’s smile that lit up the room. Whenever he would serve a customer, he would always nod towards you, as if trying to tell you that you two will meet again soon enough. You simply smiled back, the apples of your cheeks turning a light shade of pink. You didn’t remember how long it had been since you started going there, and it felt as if you grew up with the young man. An over the counter friendship turned to a one sided crush and an exchange of bright smiles, but nothing more. You never met for coffee, or a movie. You didn’t know his last name, or whether he had a dog or a cat, maybe he was allergic to animals? Did he like working there? Did he like to drink coffee? You thought you should bring him some one day, but you were too shy to do it, and to ask whether he liked it or not. The only thing you knew about him was that you desperately wanted to rest your head on his broad shoulders, to run your fingers through his long hair, to be the reason he smiled all the time, to gaze into his brown eyes before placing a ki-

“Morning.”

You lifted your head from your phone, meeting his eyes instantly. His head was tilted to the side with his lips curled into a genuine smile, leaning on the counter with one leg crossed behind the other. You let out a small exclamation, realising it was your turn. Your lips rolled under your teeth as you approached the counter, taking small penguin-like steps while holding onto the long strap of your purse.

“The usual?” he asked, already moving away from you. You simply nodded, not really sure of what to say to him other than the daily formal exchange. You stared down at the crumbs on the counter, beginning to count them because you were afraid that he would catch you staring at him. Not that you didn’t already do it, just with only you at the counter he had nowhere else to pay attention.

“You have an exam coming up? Biology?”

Your head shot up, looking back at Jeonghan with widened eyes. “You can read minds too?” you asked exasperatedly. He let out a puff of laughter, holding onto his stomach with his hand as he threw his head back. He pointed to your purse.

“Your biology book is sticking out.” He said, stifling his chuckle. You felt your cheeks redden, and you instinctively tried to push the forsaken book out of sight. The last thing you wanted to talk to him was about school, nevertheless the subject you loathed with all of its technical terms and memorisation. You had enough of complicated latin names of diseases found here and there in body parts you never knew existed.

“Yeah.” You said dryly, making it sound more annoyed than you intended it to be. You mentally slapped yourself, thinking that you definitely pushed him away with just one word.

“I remember some of my biology courses, glad that’s over.” He sighed, putting a tray away as a customer left it to leave the bakery.

“You don’t go to school anymore?” you blurted out. He shook his head with a smile.

“I finished High School about two years ago, decided to take a break and help out my parents with the business. I should be getting back to school soon.”

Thanks to a dumb book you learned a lot more than you ever did about this boy. You two continued to talk before you almost screamed as you saw the time, realizing you were very, very late. You ran out of the bakery with the cheese Danish in between your teeth and a brown bag in the other hand, running after the bus that had just passed.

Jeonghan watched you run out with a saddened look painted on his face, having enjoyed the longest conversation you two ever had. Being a regular customer, he had gotten used to your presence, thinking his day was going to be good the second he saw you come in. He knew your name, and that you were just a few years younger than him, but that was about it.

Somehow you made it to school, thanking the heavens you were only a few minutes late. At your break you opened up the brown bag, having ordered a second Danish. You could live off of just that for the rest of your life, and when you looked into the bag, your eyebrows knitted together. You pulled out a heart shaped cookie with half of it glazed in pink icing. You never ordered it, but the corner of your lips tugged into a smile and you sighed happily as you realized it must have been Jeonghan who put it in. He never failed to give you an extra pastry free of charge, making you smile every day.

You only hoped that one day, you could have the courage to give him your own heart.

***

Exams hit you like a holy goat with explosive diarrhea. You couldn’t get out of the house, constantly studying, barely eating or sleeping. You were completely disconnected from the world and forgot how the sun on your skin feels like. Thank god after 4 weeks, you were finally done and you were free. Freedom never tasted so sweet, and you knew how to make it even sweeter. Though it was late and you had just gotten out of your last exam, you wanted to stop by the bakery as you haven’t been there in ages. You wondered how Jeonghan was doing, whether he noticed you were gone or not.

The first morning when you didn’t appear, Jeonghan thought it was unusual, but tried not to pay much thought to it. He began to panic a little as the days dragged on without your presence, and he feared the worse. Maybe something had happened to you, maybe you had moved without notice. He tried to stay positive though, thinking he would see you again, secretly hoping it would have been soon. He also blamed your absence on everything that went wrong, like burning bread for the first time in his life, serving cold coffee, a machine breaking, his mom accidentally whacking him in the face with a rolling pin…

You were practically sprinting to the bakery, afraid they would close before you got there. Luckily you didn’t get hit by a car while running out onto the street with your arms flailing for them not to close yet. You somehow made it five minutes before closing time, noticing that there was no one left. Actually, there really wasn’t anyone there. No one at the counter, no one sitting at the small round tables.

Suddenly, a huge crash sounded through the entire place, and it made you jump up with a yelp.

“I’M OKA-” Clang. Crash. Swish. Tumble. “I’M NOT OKAY.”

You recognized Jeonghan’s voice immediately. A door opened, and a huge puff of smoke shot out with a shadow creeping through it. It was the man you were crushing on, covered in flour from head to toe. He coughed out more of the powder, trying to wipe himself.

“Sorry about that-” he lifted his face up to welcome the last customer of the day. His breath fell short, as he noticed the familiar figure wearing her green cardigan and holding onto the strap of her purse. Time stopped for him, and you were frozen in place as you stared at him with your eyes widened, mostly because you were surprised in seeing him in such a disheveled state.

He stared at you like you were the only oasis in a desert, or the first spring sunlight after a terribly long winter. He jumped over the counter without hesitation, running up to you to give you a long awaited hug.

“I thought something had happened to you.” He whispered, burying his face into the crook of your neck. Shivers went down your spine as if your body was short circuiting, and all kinds of alarms went off in your head including a symphony of kazoos. Your legs gave out, and if he weren’t still holding you in his arms you would have been this puddle of goo on the floor he would have to clean up. “We should sit down and talk.” He suddenly said and let go of you. You found your balance, your surroundings spinning a little. He walked over to the front door, flipping the Open sign to Closed, and locking the door so that no one could disturb you two.

“Are you hungry? Are you craving anything?” he asked, tilting his head to the side worriedly.

Before you could even process a coherent sentence, your brain thought it would be wise to say, “I-I-I’m craving you!”

You slapped your hand over your mouth, thinking that now you had gone and done it. You wanted to run away, hide under a rock and never emerge into the world again. But instead, he laughed softly. “I’m… As you say, craving you too.” He winked at you with a chuckle, jumping back over the countertop to fix you a cheese Danish.

It was pandemonium inside your brain. What was happening exactly, you had no idea. You didn’t want to have an idea. Were you high from the exams? Have the constant sleepless nights finally took their toll on your mental health?

You absentmindedly walked over to a table, not even being able to blink once. Was this all real? Did he actually hug you, and say he craved you?

“You have no idea how glad I am to see you.”

Your head slowly turned towards him, feeling your cheeks ablaze. “M-Me?” Was all that you could say. He nodded, placing a plate full of sweets in front of you and taking a seat.

“Honestly, ever since you stopped coming here, I’ve been having the most horrible luck.” He gave off a sheepish luck. “Things should take a turn for the better now though, since you’re here.”

You nervously began to stuff your face with the pastries, eyes rolling back a little from the pure bliss that they gave you. Jeonghan couldn’t help but smile at the way you were acting, having missed seeing your satisfied smile.

It took a while before you two could carry out a normal conversation. You were finally sedated and could think normally, cracking a few jokes here and there. It was like talking to a lifelong friend, being with him. It was as if you had known each other for years and talked about all kinds of different topics. It was great, you felt at ease again and it was nice to have a change of pace from all of your studying.

Jeonghan suddenly scratched his cheek, and you had to bite your lip to stop yourself from laughing. He was confused at first, and that was when you told him that he had spread flour onto his face. You gently wiped it off for him, your fingers ghosting over his soft skin. After you were done, he naturally went to wipe his cheek as well, making you laugh out loud this time. He had put the flour on him again, and you had to wipe it for him. But as you removed your hand, he grabbed your wrist, trying to tell you to keep your hand on his face. He pressed his cheek into your palm and slowly turning his head to place a small kiss into your hand. You stared at him, wondering why he was acting like that and making your heart race like no other person had done before.

“I really did miss you.” He whispered, looking at the flower on the table. You agreed, saying you were sorry for suddenly disappearing like that. “You always brought a smile to my face, every morning when you came in.” he chuckled, his eyes flickering up to yours. You avoided his gaze by looking away towards the pictures on the wall, trying to hide your blushing expression.

He hesitantly let go of your hand, and it immediately went limp. You didn’t know if you were having a heart attack or your brain lost its connection to it. Your mouth was dry suddenly, and you cursed at your gluttonous nature for having finished all the pastries so quickly.

“I won’t keep you any longer, it’s getting late.” He said, slightly disappointed that you two had to part. But he didn’t want you walking alone so late at night, since he couldn’t bring you home because he still needed to clean up the bakery.

“W-Wait.” You grabbed onto his arm as he got up. He sat back down, looking at you questioningly. “I… Honestly it can’t get any worse than this and I want to move on with my life.” You sighed, exhausted from everything happening around you. “I just want you to know that I really care about you, and during the time when I was studying it made me realize just how much I think about you, and how much I look forward to coming here just to see you. So there. I said it. I’ll get going n-”

Jeonghan’s chair fell back as he sprang to his feet, leaning over the table with his lips in between yours.