sweeten up my life
sugar, youSo I'm not dead yet. I'm still wenseul trash though ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"These pastries taste like heaven."
Flakes of a honey-glazed danish flutter and fall onto a small ceramic plate with another bite, oozing with apple filling as the blissful sigh is answered with a snort.
"Keep eating them till you die, then."
Joohyun sips her smoothie as her friend immediately stops to respond with a puppy-eyed look.
"But…" A less-than-subtle glance is shot over at the petite woman arranging decorations behind the counter.
"Yeah, yeah," the writer drawls to the hopeless teddy bear of an artist she calls a friend. "Pretty girl to live for, I know. Honestly, Seulgi."
"D'you think she baked these?" the younger one mumbles through a mouthful of blueberry muffin now, ignoring the exasperated look thrown her way as she leans out of her seat to continue spying on the attractive lady behind the counter.
Joohyun rolls her eyes. "You think I would know?" she says, finishing the last of her drink. They've been coming to this hole-in-the-wall bakery for her smoothie and Seulgi's new crush for about eleven days in a row, now. "Look, why don't you just go and ask her yourself?"
Seulgi scoffs. "What? No. No way."
Her companion clicks her tongue and stands despite her protests. "Come on, I've got to go meet Jinah now, anyway," she grumbles as Seulgi follows suit. "Just take the plates to the counter, compliment the food, maybe ask if she baked them…and take the conversation from there."
"But what if —"
"Seulgi," Joohyun cuts in with a raised eyebrow, and said girl bites her lip; wonders when Bae Joohyun of all people became qualified to give her tips on socialising. "Really, it's just a conversation starter. You can't keep stalking this girl forever."
"I'm not —"
The older brunette shoots her a flat look.
"…Okay, fine. I'll give it a try."
"Good," Joohyun smiles, satisfied as she pats her . "Now go. Work your natural charm."
Seulgi just grumbles once more as she leaves, pouting at her retreating back until the door swings closed with a chime of the bell and a "Thank you!" called from somewhere in the kitchen.
Then alone with only her own mediocre flirting skills at hand, she hesitates. What if her natural charm doesn't work? What if the conversation dies faster than Joohyun's character in every Overwatch game she's been dragged into? What if the cute girl behind the counter doesn't even bat for the same team?
She almost slaps her own forehead. Park Sooyoung already worked her detective skills the other day and found out that said cute girl actually has an ex-girlfriend. So really, she's just being a chicken. And Sooyoung hates chickens that aren't deep fried to a crisp. She'd kill Seulgi if she found out the latter had let her chance pass by after taking the liberty of spying on the cute girl for her.
Better woman up, then, she thinks to herself resolutely, gathering the plates and mugs into her hands and ambling over to the counter. The woman arranging decorations inside the display cabinet looks up, a smile steadily pushing itself onto her lips. It looks a little forced. Tired. A customer-service smile: one that's nothing like her usual sunny, genuine grin.
Seulgi bites her tongue from asking about it, and puts the tableware down instead.
"Oh," the lady starts, her smile falling slightly. "You didn't have to —"
"It's alright," Seulgi says quickly as she watches her return to rearranging the cabinet. "It saves you the work."
The girl stares at her a little longer then; eyes as deep and disarmingly soft as the chocolate brownies at her hand.
And naturally, Seulgi blanks.
Now's your chance! Tell her how delicious they were!
"Those were the saddest pastries ever."
…You had one job.
She can practically hear the pastries themselves gasping at the heinous comment, the bluebells on the back shelf abruptly wilting in their vase as her crush's smile falls.
"O-Oh really?"
(Well. At least she isn't fake-smiling anymore…?)
"Yeah," Seulgi nods vehemently, because apparently she can't function like a normal human being — let alone flirt — to save her life. "Who even baked them?"
The cabinet door is slid shut then with a firm click.
"I baked them."
One. Job.
"Oh."
Awkward doesn't even begin to describe the air around them, and it's somehow made worse by the fact that there's only two or three other customers in the bakery besides Seulgi. It's bordering on silence inside the place, broken only by clinks of silverware and the clatter of food and beverages being consumed.
She sort of wishes a black hole would tear open time and space in order to swallow her up, but apparently her sleep deprived brain-to-mouth filter has other ideas.
"I still stand by what I said," it says then just to make things worse, and Seulgi resigns herself to her crush-less, forever single fate.
Even still, the baker doesn't seem all that deterred by the bluntness. To her credit, she simply raises her eyebrows and props a hand on her hip — almost as if she's amused. "Well, why don't you try baking them, then?"
Seulgi bites her lip and shrugs one shoulder, and tries not to look too sheepish. "I would, but I don't know how to bake," she says earnestly, trying for an apologetic smile. "I do know the taste of sadness, though."
"Hm." Something more vulnerable crosses the woman's eyes then as the stiffness of her shoulders relaxes. "You do?"
Seulgi chuckles a little. Maybe the conversation can be saved, after all. "I've tasted it before," she explains, and thinks that if they had been talking about this when she had just broken up with Ahyoung months before, she'd be bawling on this pretty lady's shoulder by now. "But…anyway." She sticks her hands into her pockets with a quick incline of her head. "I wanted to say thanks for the sad but delicious pastries, Miss Blueberry."
It earns a puzzled blink. "Blueberry?"
"Your hair," the taller one says, smiling at the dip-dyed, sapphire tips as she makes her way to the exit in a lazy, backwards walk. "Plus the fact that your blueberry muffins are the only things here that don't suit the pathetic fallacy of rainy days, post-breakup."
"Wha — Hey —!"
The door swings closed behind Seulgi as she waltzes out with a grin on her face and a spring in her step; her pursuit for the object of her affections diverted from its demise, for now.
Besides, she muses to herself. It could have gone a lot worse. Joohyun should be impressed when I tell her!
Joohyun is not impressed in the slightest.
In fact, she orders Seulgi to go back to the bakery the very next day in order to apologise for her rudeness. Of course, the younger girl whines and tries to reason that giving the sweet bakery lady some space would be the best course of action.
Joohyun hires Yerim to help force her through the front doors of the Velvet Café and Bakery at ten AM anyway.
That's where Seulgi finds herself five minutes afterwards too, ditched by her childhood friend and her younger step-sister, sitting alone at a table in the corner as she debates whether or not to approach the baker she mindlessly insulted.
On one hand she might be forgiven, and she could start over again.
On the other hand she might not be forgiven, and any chances she might have had before opening her dumb mouth may well be washed down the drain for good.
She sighs, just about ready to start her own pity party in the little café before immediately sitting up.
Wendy.
The glimpse of a nametag flashes at her again as the cute baker passes her once more on her way back from serving coffee, and Seulgi can't help but stare after the petite woman as the name sets off in a loop inside her head.
Wendy.
She bounces her leg, ideas whirling in a flurry around her head — all starting with an icebreaker and an apology centred around the simple but fitting name.
Wendy.
Her body goes autopilot to take her to the counter, her brain-to-mouth filter feeling fully functional for once, and her mind clearing in preparation for the perfect opening words to a perfect, heartfelt apology.
Wendy Wendy Wendy Wendy Wendy Wendy Wen —
"Do you come here often?" she starts, managing to save herself from walking right into the display cabinet as she flashes the baker a tentative grin.
Wendy glances up, and the warm smile that Seulgi sorely missed the day before drops into a thin line. "Hello to you too," she says cautiously after a moment. "I would have thought after your complaint yesterday you wouldn't be back."
Seulgi winces. "I never said your pastries tasted bad," she says, and when Wendy gives an uncertain hum she sighs. "Bad and sad are two different things, you know."
The smaller girl's expression softens a little at that. "So…they're not bad?" she asks slowly, tapping her fingers at the countertop.
"No," her customer affirms, a slight smile on her lips. "They're delicious, in fact. I think I told you yesterday."
Wendy snorts. "Yeah, before you ran away."
"I'm not very good at talking to pretty people," Seulgi replies earnestly, lips quirking up even more at the flush of pink that ades the baker's cheeks. "But, since I'm doing it right now: hi, I'm Seulgi, and I'm sorry for insulting your baking."
Success.
The beginnings of a smile works its way onto Wendy's lips as she leans absently on the side of the counter. "Apology accepted, Seulgi-sshi."
Triumphant with her victory in 'Operation: Apology', Seulgi barely resists the urge to fistpump the air as she grins down at the woman. "So. You're Wendy, right?"
Startled for a second, Wendy opens , closes it, then looks down when Seulgi nods at her name tag. "Oh! Yes," she nods quickly, flustered as she brushes her fringe back. "You can call me Seungwan, really. It's my Korean name."
The artist hums, eyes crinkling into slight, joyful crescents. "Seungwan sounds nice," she comments. "Can I call you Seungwan whenever I come here, then?"
Her crush raises her eyebrows with an upwards twitch of her lips. "How often do you plan to come here, anyway?"
"As often as it takes to get you to stop making sullen pastries," Seulgi says playfully, and the smaller woman grimaces.
"If they really are like that, I suppose it's because I've been a little stressed these past few days. Overbearing parents and all, you know?"
The lithe brunette nods with feeling. "I do. I just didn't know stress could translate into a sad taste despite how delicious your pastries are."
Seungwan chuckles at that. "No offence, but maybe the 'sad' taste is just an indication that your tastebuds don't suit my baking. Which raises the question of why you bother to keep visiting."
Seulgi bites her lip.
Full offence, but forget pastries: if only you weren't so cute, I wouldn't be coming here every day in the first place.
"Wait, what?"
…What?
"What."
They fall into a mutual stunned silence, filled with the alarm bells in Seulgi's brain and the weight of her words being far too blunt to be ignored.
Idiot, you said that out loud!
"I—I didn't say that," she rushes, wide-eyed and red-faced. Seungwan continues staring at her. "You didn't hear that!"
The baker blinks once. "Seulgi —"
"Actually —" The taller one cuts in clumsily. "I, um — I just remembered I have some very important things to do outside of this bakery. At work. In…my studio. Yeah." Then, as an extra precaution: "It's very urgent."
"W-Wait!"
Before she can turn and run away again Seungwan catches her by her sleeve, leaning halfway over the counter in doing so and visibly wincing as her stomach presses sharply against the edge.
When Seulgi notices it she doesn't even have time to ask her if she's okay, as the smaller one releases her with a sigh while fixing her with a firm yet soft stare.
"You —" she huffs. "You're cute, too."
Seulgi just gapes at her. "Come again?"
Her lips curve up with something like endearment as she releases her sleeve. Seungwan looks far too knowing then — more cocky and teasing than anything — and Seulgi definitely feels like melting into the floor now.
"You're cute," the baker grins warmly, and something like a shotgun goes off in Seulgi's chest. "So I guess I'll let you off easy with your insulting 'sad pastry' comments."
"Oh. Good," the taller girl stammers. "I mean, I won't make any more anyway because that was insensitive of me. I don't know what I was thinking. Certainly not about the fact that they tasted bad, or something." A pause. "Which they don't, by the way. Just to clarify again."
Unlike before, this awkward mess of words is rewarded with a giggle. "Well, since you're here…" Seungwan leans down for a moment to reach for the display cabinet, and just as Seulgi peers over at her she stands up with a single danish on a small plate in her hand. "Care to give your thoughts on one of the fresh batches of today?"
Seulgi tilts her head quizzically as it's slid over the counter to her. "Now?"
The smaller woman grins, and the forecasted cloudiness of the day is debunked as sunshine personified suddenly illuminates the quaint café. "On the house, just for you."
A moment passes while Seulgi tries to control the blush that floods her cheeks at the sight, but when Seungwan's looking at her with a hopeful glimmer in her eyes, she gives in and takes a bite.
And instantly smiles back as the flavours melt in .
The pastries taste of happiness.
Hope you all had a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or just a really great weekend overall! Here's to 2017 being a little less horrible :'^D
Comments