“Last time I checked, you’re the baker not the cashier.” Seokjin said as he came out of the kitchen and towards the counter. He had just finished the last batch of cupcakes and they are now cooling at the back. He crossed his arms and leaned his hips on the counter while looking at Luhan with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, come on, Jin. It’s just that I haven’t seen him for three days. He haven’t missed a day before.” Luhan complained then pointedly looking at the door of their small bakery again.

“Then why don’t you march out there and order your usual espresso or caramel macchiatto? And while you’re at it, ask him out too. It’ll give me less of a headache and less work.”

“But he must’ve been feeling sorry for spilling the drink on me before. I don’t really want to catch him off guard by going there. Also, what do you mean less work? I’m paying you enough, aren’t I?”

“Okay. First, this had been going on for three days now, two excluding our day off. Second, I’m the assistant baker, not the head baker, which is, if you need reminding, that’s you. Lastly, you don’t pay me, aunt does.” Seokjin said, holding out a finger as he enumerated the facts at Luhan.

“But she’s my mom!” Luhan whined.

“Yes. Your mom. But she’s still the one paying me, not you. And I should really report that you’ve been slacking off at work.” He answered, crossing his arms again.

The bell on the door rang, telling them that they have customers to attend to. Luhan immediately whipped his head towards the door, his expression falling instantly when he realized it was just the grandmother who always comes for fresh bread in the afternoon.

“Any fresh ones out the oven, dear?” she asked in a sweet tone.

“Yes, grandma. I’ll take them out from the kitchen for you.” Seokjin answered with a smile. He went to the back to get the freshly baked goods, but not before giving Luhan another pointed look.

When he came back out, Luhan was no longer behind the counter but was instead talking next to the grandmother. “…yes dear, he was sighing a lot…” he heard last before the old lady noticed him and took the paper bag from Seokjin’s arms.

“Maybe you should go and pay him a visit. Maybe then you’ll both be smiling.” She winked at him before turning back to leave with bread and a thermos, which is full of coffee that she undoubtedly ordered from the cafe.

Luhan held his head with both of his hands before slumping on the counter. Seokjin propped himself on his elbow and rested his chin on his hand, merely staring at Luhan.

“Wad dyu wan? (What do you want?)” Luhan mumbled, feeling Seokjin’s eyes on him even if he still has his face merging on the counter.

“I’m not saying anything.” Seokjin answered. At this point, he knew he doesn’t need to do or say anything because Luhan is already… well…

“I don’t know how to ask him out!”

…yeah… that.

Seokjin didn’t reply and instead went back again to fetch the cupcakes that were cool enough to be displayed on the cupcake tower.

“Jin~ Don’t force me to ask him out, please~”

He specifically chose to put the cupcakes in red, pink and white wrappers so he can arrange the tower with the dark colors at the top then the light colors at the bottom.

“He’s so perfect, why would he agree to go out with someone like me.”

Maybe he should take out the flour and the rest of the ingredients for cake. With the rate Luhan is going, he’ll be in the kitchen after a few minutes. His cousin had always been good with talking to himself when no one replies to his worries. And somehow, it always ends up with him baking.

Their first day in town was an almost identical copy of what is happening right now. The barista at the cafe instantly caught Luhan’s attention, and unfortunate to say, Luhan ratted off Seokjin’s ears with “Oh my gahd! He’s so cute! I want to talk to him but how?!”

Well, the day ended up with Luhan baking an entire batch of cupcakes but then coming to his senses afterwards and realizing that giving someone you just met an entire tray of cupcakes isn’t the smartest move. So he just decorated one relatively large piece and gave it to the short barista with a “I hope you take care of us.” then bouncing on his feet back to Seokjin and ratting his ears off again with “He smiled at me! And he’s just so adorable!”

“The only thing I ever gave him was a cupcake!”

Maybe he can make a small chocolate cake, too. Taehyung did give him a large serving of Strawberry Créme Frappuccino, which was just wonderful. He also found out during their movie day that Taehyug made it himself which was just sweet of him. Sure, he did kind of already thanked him for it by treating him to the movies, but he just wanted to give Taehyung something that he made. An equal exchange or something.

“Do you think he likes me?”

Taehyung did mention before that he likes sweet things, so maybe he can make something based on that.

“Grandma said that he was sighing a lot. Do you think that has something to do with me like she said?”

But maybe he shouldn’t make it too sweet. It’ll be hard to finish if it’s too sweet. Even if he do have a sweet tooth, Seokjin still wants him to find it delicious enough to finish in one sitting. He sure as hell finished the frappuccino in one sitting even if it’s an extra large serving because it was made perfectly to his taste.

“How should I ask him out?”

Maybe adding a touch of coffee will balance the flavor a bit.

“Do you have any idea, Jin?”

“Do you think coffee will go well with chocolate for a cake? Or maybe I should just use dark chocolate?”

Luhan’s face lit up almost immediately before scrambling back to the kitchen while yelling, “You’re a genius!” back at Seokjin.

~*~

A couple of hours later, they have two small cakes on a tray. One is a coffee cake and the other was a dark chocolate cake.

Luhan still has no idea why Seokjin was baking cake next to him the entire time, but he was busy trying to perfect his cake that he failed to question his cousin about it.

Although, after finishing his little work, Luhan realized he forgot one important detail… ‘How will he give it to him if Minseok was avoiding the bakery for two days now?’

“Taehyung will bring him over. I told him to come because I have something to give him.” Seokjin intervened when he saw the dread on Luhan’s face. “Also, do me a favor and ask him out already, okay? I’ll keep Taehyung busy so you can talk to him properly.” Seokjin added.

“What did I do to deserve a cousin as nice as you?” Luhan faked cry at Seokjin who only rolled his eyes as he took out both of their cakes outside the kitchen.

As if on cue, Taehyung and his older brother came in the bakery. Minseok looked like he wanted to merge with Taehyung’s back with how much he’s hiding behind his younger brother. Obviously, still embarrassed over the spilling-frappuccino-all-over-Luhan’s-bake-uniform incident.

“Go and ask him out, okay?” Seokjin whispered before walking past Luhan. He walked towards Taehyung and angled his head towards the direction of the tables away from the counter and said “Help me decorate this?” motioning to the cake he was holding. Thankfully, Taehyung pried his older brother off his back before following Seokjin to the side.

Minseok was looking anywhere but Luhan, fidgeting a lot and doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

Luhan knew he was probably still embarrassed about facing Luhan, but he couldn’t help but coo at how cute Minseok looked.

“Hey.”

“Uhm… hi.”

“You didn’t come yesterday?” Luhan started.

“Yeah… well, you didn’t come either.” Minseok answered timidly. “Are you still mad?”

“What? No. I just didn’t want to surprise you in case you’re still embarrassed about… you know.”

“Really? You’re not mad anymore?” The light and hope in Minseok’s eyes was hard to miss and Luhan almost forgot to answer, he might’ve if it wasn’t for the broken expression on Minseok’s face when he misunderstood Luhan’s silence.

“Yes. I wasn’t really from the start. It was an accident.”

The relief in Minseok’s face made Luhan regret not visiting the cafe earlier. He was obviously worrying over whether Luhan was mad at him or not.

“So yeah.” ‘Go and ask him out, okay?’ Seokjin’s words were ringing in his ears and he looked to the side and took a deep breath before he reached out for the tray of coffee cake he made specially for Minseok. “Are you free next Wednesday?”

“I think… why?”

“Well… uhm… I was wondering… if maybe you’d want to go and have a da--- I mean hangout! Yeah. I was wondering if you wanted to hangout with me.”

Minseok’s eyes dropped to his feet and mumbled a quiet, “Just hanging out?” which he surely didn’t mean for Luhan to hear, but he did. He had grown used to Minseok’s soft voice over the years to understand his exact words.

“Yeah, sure. We can hang out on Wednesday.”

Luhan took another deep breath before toughing it up and finally saying the words he cut off earlier. “Well, I want it to be a date, if that’s okay with you?”

The way Minseok’s ears instantly turned red didn’t escape Luhan’s eyes and he regretted not asking properly the first time. “So, is it a date then?” he asked again, wanting to hear or see some sort of confirmation from Minseok’s side.

After a long while, well actually just a couple of seconds, Minseok gave the lightest of nods and Luhan was just elated. And well, when he’s excited, he just runs his mouth non-stop.

“Uhm… so I made this coffee cake, maybe you can give it a taste and you can tell me if it’s good enough and maybe I can add this on the shelf and I can give you the entire thing if you like it. It really isn’t much but I hope it’s to your taste. I made this less sweet and more coffee-like so maybe this won’t be very popular with kids but maybe with coffee lovers. I can actually wrap this up for you or maybe you want to help me decorate it first. Wait, I’ll bring it out to the table so we can decorate it a bit. We can put candies and maybe some frosting and… *thud*

When Luhan opened his eyes, he found himself flat on someone and immediately tried to scramble off. His entire form froze when he realized that the cake he was holding was no longer in his hands. A quick scan and he found the cake he was looking for, and also, the person he knocked over.

Minseok’s face was covered with coffee flavored frosting while the rest of the cake was on the floor right next to Minseok’s head. The color drained from Luhan’s face as he scurried off of Minseok, not knowing what to do first, to wipe the frosting off or to help him up first.

While Luhan’s mind raced, there was the sound of light hearted laughing and Luhan found Minseok laughing from where he was still on his back complete with cake frosting on his face.

“I guess we’re even now.” he said after he finished laughing.

“What?”

“Remember the frappuccino?” Minseok said as he was helped up by Luhan.

“Yeah… kinda hard to forget that one.”

“Well, I actually made that for you.” He smiled through the brown frosting and he looked absolutely wonderful in Luhan’s eyes.

“...really?”

“Yeah.” Another laugh, “If I knew I was going to spill it anyway, I should’ve dumped it on your face so you could’ve at least tasted it.” Minseok swiped a bit of frosting off his face with his finger before tasting it and smiling back at Luhan again, “This is really good. Next time though, I prefer it on a plate.”

At this, Luhan let out his own laugh and finally managed a more coherent response, “I think I prefer mine on a cup, I’d rather not have you dumping an entire serving on my head.”

“Noted.” Minseok said through another smile.

Without thinking much, Luhan swiped his own finger through the frosting on Minseok’s face before tasting it himself, “I should’ve added more coffee.”

Minseok didn’t respond, but his cheeks was burning a bright red, and Luhan, realizing what he did, also burned a bright red.

That was the scene Taehyung and Seokjin walked in on, intending to fetch a box to fit the cake in after their little decorating session.

“Why are they being two pieces of tomatoes with cake frosting?” Taehyung asked no one.

“Honestly, I have no idea myself.” Seokjin answered from his side.

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Akira: At the rate I'm going, I think I'm just writing this for fun. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this. 

This is honestly the only thing I can update right now. I'm so busy with school that I can't write the fics that tackles a deeper storyline. I hope this fic will suffice for now.

Comments are very much appreciated ㅠㅠㅅㅠㅠ*