Once upon a time in a village on a far, far away land, lived a baker and a candle maker. They owned a shop that located across each other. As the only baker and candle maker in the village, their shop was always full of customer.

The candle maker’s name was Hakyeon. Hakyeon was a friendly and bright person. Everyone liked him. He made candles with special scent for everything. You wanted some scent to raise your apetite? Hakyeon had it. You needed something to help you sleep better? Look for a special sleeping candle in Hakyeon’s shop. You’re tired with all the insect in your house? Hakyeon had a candle that scent could repeal the insect.

The baker’s name was Taekwoon. Different from Hakyeon, Taekwoon talked less and stared more. His stare could kill, according to the young girls in the village. His hand, however, earned the title of “the hand of god”, because all his breads, cakes, and cookies were exceptionaly delicious. Once you ate one of his masterpiece, you won’t stop coming for more.

Hakyeon and Taekwoon had known each other since they’re a child.

Hakyeon’s hobby, other than creating scented candle, was showering Taekwoon with his unlimited love. Taekwoon’s hobby, other than trying a new recipes, was rejecting Hakyeon’s love.

***

The day after tomorrow was a special day. It’s Taekwoon’s birthday. Taekwoon had this tradition of opening the shop earlier and closing it later and gave all the baked goods for free on his birthday. Before his birthday, Taekwoon locked himself in his personal kitchen and let his young apprentice took over the bakery. Just because he’s going to give everything for free, didn’t mean that the quality of his artwork needed to be reduced. In fact, he put more effort than usual.

Taekwoon thought of it as the sign of gratitude towards the villager. Despite his cold and unfriendly facade, everyone was always coming back to his bakery. They always smiled and praised Taekwoon for his work. Taekwoon wished he could thanked them properly, but instead he covered his face with his hand and wished no one noticed his reddening ears.

Taekwoon was in the middle of filling the cream puffs with chocolate custard when Hakyeon’s face appeared in his pheriperal vision. He grinned while looking at the baker’s face.

“Good morning my strawberry cheesecake~”

Taekwoon kept filling the cream puffs.

“I see you’ve start with your birthday project.”

Ding! It’s the oven. His ginger cookies were done. Taekwoon left the cream puffs and rushed to the oven number 6.

“Ooh, is that chocolate cream puff? I really like this one!” Hakyeon was about to land his finger to one of the cream puff when he sense a great danger hovering on him. Oh how he enjoyed the feeling.

“Don’t you dare touch my cream puffs with your filthy hand.” And Hakyeon screeched.

“You don’t know how much I love your voice!”

Taekwoon put the tray full of ginger cookies to the table and let it cool down. Then he went back to his precious cream puffs.

“Even the way you ignores me is temptating.” No answer, as expected. Taekwoon was already focused on his cream puffs. Hakyeon sat across Taekwoon, eyes set on the face of the baker. Even looking at him in silence like this was fun for him.

But he couldn’t stay too long, he afraid Wonshik would put the wrong things in the wrong shelf again and cried. So he put the small package he’d bring with him on Taekwoon’s work table.

“This is Taekwoon’s candle, a special edition I make especially for my love,” Hakyeon said, “I put some wild flower and grass essence since you look tired lately.”

Taekwoon squinted his eyes to the candle. It’s intriguing actually.

“Also, I put the most important ingredients of all, which is my heart and soul.”

“Leave.”

“Can I kiss you first?”

“Leave.”

With that Hakyeon left Taekwoon’s personal kitchen through the window. Of course, not before he landed a small peck on Taekwoon’s cute cheek. Taekwoon swore Hakyeon’s laughing voice that echoing through his kitchen will be there for a while.

***

Taekwoon went to the bakery when his cute-but-not-really-cute apprentice, Sanghyuk, left for lunch break. And ofcourse, Hakyeon was there, grinning ear to ear with two lunch boxes in his hand. Taekwoon sighed and stood behind the cashier machine.

“Let’s eat together, my pumpkin.” Taekwoon ignored him as a customer came in. It’s the lady from the flower shop. She smiled at Taekwoon, and later at Hakyeon.

“Hello, madam. You’re pretty as always,” Hakyeon said, raising his barret hat with his free hand.

“Oh, Hakyeon you silly man~” the florist said. The way the middle aged lady blushed was interesting.

“Can I help you, madam?” Taekwoon said with oh-so-scary face, and Hakyeon laughed. Taekwoon knew almost everyone in this small village, but communicating with human proved to be the baker’s weak point. Well, except for Hakyeon, and the candle maker took pride on it. Luckily, most villager found Taekwoon’s shy personality as endearing. Only new comer felt offended by the way Taekwoon talked and stared.

“Hello dear, I need some tea snack for this evening. My colleagues from the town will come over and I want to make sure I provides them the best baked goods from this village.” Taekwoon’s face and ears were red when he heard his baked goods get praised. And Hakyeon needed to stop himself from hugging the giant kitty that was Taekwoon.

The florist asked for a recommendation, so Taekwoon shuffled to the display and looked over his products. “How-how about tartlets? They’re small and light and there are a lot of variant...” Taekwoon’s voice got quieter at the end, and both the florist and Hakyeon smiled at that.

“You can trust his recommendation, madam. He’s the best baker in the country after all,” Hakyeon said. It’s funny how Taekwoon tried to look angry when his cheeks and ears were both red.

“Right, then I’ll have two boxes of tartlets please,” the florist said. Taekwoon put out two carton boxes and filled it with the tartlets. “I’ll help,” Hakyeon swirling to the display counter and filled the other box. Taekwoon didn’t say anything and let Hakyeon helped him. Once the florist paid and left the bakery, Hakyeon shoved the lunch box to Taekwoon’s face.

“Eat with me,” Hakyeon demanded. So they went inside and eat, only after Sanghyuk came back.

As usual, Hakyeon would talk a lot. It’s interesting how a lot of things could happen in Hakyeon’s life that he’d always have  story  to share. That day, Hakyeon told a story that involved insect, shelves, and Wonshik’s tears. Taekwoon didn’t really catch the details of the story because the lunch that Hakyeon brought him was so good. It’s too good that Taekwoon 100% sure that the candle maker lied when he said he’s the one that made the lunch.

“Seems like your little apprentice is doing good here,” Hakyeon said after he stopped talking for a while (5 seconds?).

“He learns everything fast for someone who’s started baking 3 months ago. And he’s not ‘little’ appreantice excuse me.”

Hakyeon laughed, “right, he’s a giant bear.” And then the lunch break was over. Hakyeon left the bakery and waltzed back to his candle shop, leaving a tea-scented candle that infused with his love for Taekwoon in Taekwoon’s hand.

***

Taekwoon creaked his neck after looking down too much. He’d been decorating some cakes for a while after the bakery closed. He barely noticed the sun goes down and the stars became more visible. He looked at the pearly white moon for a while and then avert his gaze to his front, only to find a dust-and-ash covered Hakyeon. He screamed and he regretted it. Now Hakyeon would made fun of him with that scream that just escaped his mouth.

“I wish I can record that angelic voice of yours,” the candle maker said. Taekwoon grimaced as he looked at Hakyeon from top to toe and back.

“For merlin’s sake what happened to you?”

Hakyeon grinned, “It’s already late so I want to give you a dinner set. I know you’ll too caught up in your work that you  forgot to eat, that’s why tada!” a delicious looking dinner set was wrapped tightly on Hakyeon’s hand. Taekwoon gulped at the sight, but managed his facial expression in a second.

“You’re not answering my question.”

Hakyeon rolled his eyes, “well, I’ve been calling for you on the front door for a while, but you’re not coming out. So I tried to look for another entrance and apparently the only entrance available is your dirty chimney.”

Taekwoon interest toward the food disappeared, “you got in through the chimney.”

Hakyeon nods. Ash and dust flew around his figure.

“even though you know the chimney is dirty.”

Hakyeon nodded again, “You can feel how big is my love right?”

“And now you’re in my kitchen, with that dirts all over your body.”

Hakyeon scratched his cheek and put out his tongue in a cute way. And then Taekwoon (literally) kicked the candle maker out of his sacred kitchen. The delicious meal, as well as a sandalwood-scented candle, was left on the kitchen table.

***

“Good morning, sugar~” Hakyeon greeted—half screamed—as he watered the potted flower in front of his small candle shop. It was still early morning, the sun was barely there and yet Hakyeon already full of energy. Taekwoon was sweeping the outside of his shop. He didn’t reply to Hakyeon’s greeting, instead he’s focusing on what seemed to be ashes in front of his bakery’s door. Must be remenants of Hakyeon’s stupidity last night. He hurriedly entered his bakery when he saw Hakyeon moving closer to him. The way the bakery door shutted exactly in front of Hakyeon’s face was comical.

“Rude! But I like rude guy so do it again?” Hakeon’s voice muffled from the outside. Taekwoon ignored the candle maker and shuffled into his kitchen. His birthday was the next day, and he’s still had a lot of things to do.

Sanghyuk came two hours later. The giant bear was aware that Taekwoon couldn’t leave his kitchen today, so he’s the one that need to handle the pouty Hakyeon.

“I just want to give him this breakfast.”

“No. He’ll come out when he’s hungry so you better not disturb him. Not today.”

“So I can disturb him on the other day?”

“It’s not exactly my business, though. Both of you can make out in the middle of the village for all I care, it’s just today is a busy day for Taekwoon so—“

“Sanghyuk that’s a great idea! I actually never thought of the possibility of kissing Taekwoon’s cute lips until it’s red and swollen and—“

“Ew, stop it. I don’t need the detail of your wild imagination,” Sanghyuk said. He took two vanilla muffins from the display and put it to a small box. “Here, for you and Wonshik. Now please leave.”

Hakyeon grinned with the small box in his hand. He still left the breakfast in the table, just in case Taekwoon got hungry later. He promised Sanghyuk that he’ll bring lunch for him too, which was okayed by Sanghyuk.

***

The business was good today. As soon as the shop was opened, three customers were there for Hakyeon’s special candle. While Wonshik gave an explanation to an old lady about one particular candle, Hakyeon was sitting behind the cashier counter. He smiled proudly on the sight of his young apprentice.

“Thank you for coming,” Wonshik said as the old lady left the shop. He turned back and flinched when he found Hakyeon smiling like an idiot at him. “What?”

“Nothing? It’s just you’ve studied more now, I see.”

Wonshik scratched his nose. The hardest thing to learn from candle-making was the effect of a scent. What effect was this scent created? Which situation needed this kind of scent? If this scent mixed with that scent, what’s the effect? Wonshik had a hard tie remembering all those scent effects. Even after 6 months learning from the best candle maker in the country (no, he’s not exaggerating. He’s really the best in the country), all he managed to learn was a bit of knowledge of scent.

“So, have you done with that candle you’ve been worked on?”

Suddenly Wonshik looked proud, “yes, It’s on my workshop.” And by workshop, it meant a small room with basic candle making equipments, unlike Hakyeon’s laboratory-like workshop.

“Show me after lunch~” Hakyeon sing song.

“Lunch? Aren’t you going to visit Taekwoon?”

Hakyeon tilted his head in (what he thought) a cute way, “No? He’s busy for tomorrow, I’ll just drops by to give him and Sanghyuk’s lunch box and that’s all.” He said. Wonshik shrugged his shoulder, and then the bell on the front door rang. A customer had came.

***

It’s weirdly peaceful today. Taekwoon didn’t need deep thinking to know that it’s because Hakyeon didn’t disturb visit him today. Yeah, it’s peaceful, but also weird.

When he looked outside the window, the sky color was a mix of orange and some purple. The sun was going down and he hadn’t done with his work. Nervous started to creep up on his spine. Will he be able to finish the baking?

Ding! The sound of the oven. There were five ovens working on the same time, but there’s only one that finished baking whatever it was inside it. And it was the biggest oven. Taekwoon walked over the oven and put out a great big sponge cake from it. He let out a huff when the cake was finally landing on the table. He took thin wooden stick and stabbed the middle of the cake with it, hoping that the cake was perfectly done.

And of course, the hand of god won’t dissapoint him. The cake was perfect, probably the best he had after a while?

Taekwoon smiled widely. And then he heard someone knocking on the kitchen door and calling his name. It’s Sanghyuk. He hurriedly went to the door and open it, to find Sanghyuk standing with lunch boxes on his hand.

“You haven’t eat anything today, so I thought why not force the food down your throat,” Sanghyuk said as kindly as he was. Taekwoon glanced at the lunch box. It was obvious one of it was meant for breakfast and the other was for lunch. He didn’t need to ask from whom the meal was because there’s a candle on top of the box.

“Uhm, I’ll eat then,” Taekwoon said as he took the boxes from Sanghyuk’s big hand. Sanghyuk took a peek at Taekwoon’s kitchen and his eyes went wide, “What’s that gigantic cake?”

Taekwoon looked back and realized the cake was still in the visible place, so he hurriedly close the kitchen’s door, creating a loud noise which was resulting in Sanghyuk vomitting bad words from behind the door.

No one supposed to see this cake. Not yet.

***

Eventually the night came. Taekwoon was done with all the baked goods, except for the special cake. He’s decorating the giant cake carefully, to make sure all the cream and chocolate and candies and everything that covered it was perfect. Once he put the final decorating element on top of the cake, he’s work had done. He grinned. Probably his first grin after three months.

It took half an hour to tidy up the kitchen. Start working with a clean kitchen and finish it with a clean kitchen, that’s what his great grand father told him long time ago. So he meticulously cleaned every corner of the kitchen. After made sure not a single dust left in the kitchen, he went back into the house. Not after he took one last glance to the big cake, though.

***

Taekwoon woke up. He’s squirming as consciousness found its way back to Taekwoon’s mind. His body was suspisciously heavy. He kinda knew because it’s not the first time he woke up like this, so he opened his eyes unwillingly and braced himself for—

“Happy birthday my cupcake~”

—Hakyeon on top of him.

Taekwoon slumped back in defeat. It’s kinda hard to breath because Hakyeon squeezed the air out of him. He didn’t want to know how did Hakyeon get into his room since everything was locked except his...chimney. But no, there’s no ash and dust over his body so he’d just assumed the candle maker was teleportating to his bed from wherever he came from.

“Could you please move? I can’t breath,” Taekwoon tried to sound as pitiful as possible. Well, Hakyeon did move though, so it’s good. Taekwoon pushed his body up and sit on the bed for a while. He gather all his sense back before started the...day.

“!” he jumped out from his bed and rushed to the bathroom. it’s his birthday. The shop should be opened sooner and he’s still in his baby blue pajama. He left the ever-so-happy Hakyeon on his bed, deciding that kicked him out of the house will took too much time.

“Taekwoon I can help you bathing you know.”

“Leave!” Taekwoon shouted and Hakyeon laughed. By the time he left the bathroom Hakyeon was nowhere to be found. The only prove that he’s not dreaming about Hakyeon was a box of breakfast and a small gift with birthday card on it on his dining table. Only then he notice the suspicious ashes around his dining room.

***

Once he’s done with his breakfast, he rushed to the bakery. Sometimes he wanted to hug his apprentice for being on time, even when the shop needed to be open earlier.

“I’ve done the peparation, where’s the baked goods?”

Taekwoon led the giant bear to his kitchen. Together they put out all of Taekwoon’s work. Even Sanghyuk need to hold himself to not drooling over the breads, cakes, and cookies. Taekwoon even made some pudding and jellies, he tried something new.

“How about that cake?” Sanghyuk asked when he noticed the three stacks gigantic cake was still on the kitchen.

“Er, no. That’s a special order from...someone.”

Sanghyuk looked at his mentor suspisciously, but then he let it slide. It’s almost time for the opening and people already made a line in front of the bakery. So, with a smile plastered on his face, Sanghyuk opened the bakery.

***

“Look at that,” Wonshik said as he peeping through the window of Hakyeon’s candle shop. A lot of people were queueing in front of the bakery for Taekwoon’s free goods, and it’s already half a day since they opened the bakery’s door. Hakyeon was busy calculating something behind the cashier counter. His round spec was on, a sign of him being concentrating on whatever he’s doing.

“You can go if you want, Shikkie.” Hakyeon said without taking his eyes off of the notebook. Calculator on his left hand and pen on his right hand.

“Do you want me to get you something from there?”

This time Hakyeon looked at Wonshik. He’s humming as thinking. “No, you can just get what you want. Don’t  mind me.”

With that Wonshik left the shop, half springed, and got into the line of people. Hakyeon knew how much Wonshik love Sanghy— Taekwoon’s fruit cake. He’d pobably came back with a whole fruit cake for himself. Yes, that deep voiced guy was a sweet-tooth. Hakyeon smiled at his cry baby apprentice and continue with his work. He’d been calculating the income from last month. Nothing change significally though. He needed to make something new, just in case people had bored with his candle. He’d probably locked himself in his workshop again tonight.

Several people came to Hakyeon’s shop with hands full of baked goods from Taekwoon’s bakery. One young lady gave him a jar of raisin cookies when Hakyeon told her that he’s too busy to get one himself.

“He really make a lot this year,” the lady said, “usually we only could take one or two things, but this year he asks us to take as many as we want.”

“He sure worked harder this year,” Hakyeon commented. He put the lavender-scented candle to a small transparent box and tied it with a purple ribbon. The lady left after she paid the candle and thanking him with smile.

The bell rang and the shop became empty. Hakyeon’s done with all the calculating, so he’s just sat there, watching people queueing in front of Taekwoon’s shop.

“What took him so long?” he spoke—whispered—to himself. He put down the spec to the table and rubbed his nose bridge. He let out a breath and waiting for someone to enter his shop.

The bell rang, he put a smile on his face and welcomed the village chief, whose hand was full of various kind of bread.

***

The people on Taekwoon’s shop decreased by the time the sun started setting. There were only 6 people inside the shop and it looked like no one was still waiting outside. Sanghyuk huffed and peeked at the lunch boxes that waiting to be opened. Yes, both Taekwoon and Sanghyuk were postponing their lunch to serve the people. Well, Taekwoon did shove a small eclair onto his mouth when (he thought) no one was looking.

“Let’s eat,” Sanghyuk said after the last person left the bakery. Taekwoon huffed and took off his apron, and so did Sanghyuk. They sat in the small round table in the corner of the bakery and opened the lunch box that was delivered by Wonshik.

“Why didn’t Hakyeon come today?” Sanghyuk asked. His mouth was full of sausage and potato. Taekwoon shrugged, and that’s because his mouth was full of sausage and potato. They were so hungry that any talk was not interesting for them. Taekwoon looked around the shop. Most of his goods were gone, and he couldn’t be more proud. There were some left over here and there but that’s not a problem. Sanghyuk might took them all as well.

“Oh right, how about that one special ordered cake?”

Taekwoon choked.

“Don’t tell me you forget about that,” Sanghyuk said, a glass of water on his hand but he’s not giving it to Taekwoon, not until he thought his mentor was going to die, “I can help you delivering it, it’s pretty big so—“

“No need,” Taekwoon said, “I’ll make the delivery myself.”

Sanghyuk stabbed a broccoli, “but who ordered a cake that big? Usually a cake as big as that one is for a wedding but I don’t think there is any wedding today?”

“W-well, people might suddenly crave for a big cake out of sudden, you know,” he’s stuttered and repeated the same word. Sanghyuk raised an eyebrow, broccoli still in his mouth when a sudden realization hit him.

“I kno—“

Taekwoon threw a napkin to Sanghyuk’s face to shut him up. And Sanghyuk laughed like there’s no tomorrow.

***

“You’re going to make a new candle?” Wonshik spoke as he chew on the fruit cake. He gave Hakyeon a slice of it and ate the rest in one go. Hakyeon almost laughed when Wonshik told him that Sanghyuk was the one who helped him with the cake. He looked so happy that Hakyeon wanted to go to Taekwoon’s bakery and dragged Sanghyuk to Wonshik and forced them to kiss.

“Yup, we need new product since our income was almost stagnant it’s frustrating.” Hakyeon said. On his dining table were a jar of raisin cookies, two jars of lemon cream cookies, and a box of peanut butter cheesecake. Wonshik took it all for Hakyeon and Hakyeon almost kissed the poor apprentice on the lips.

“You need my help?”

“Not yet, I want you to master the scent mixing first before entering my prescious workshop.”

Wonshik nodded in understanding, “anyway, why didn’t you came to the bakery today? You didn’t seem to be busy when I came back?”

‘No one will be here when I’m going to the bakery you know?”

“I can take care of the shop though.”

Hakyeon scratched his cheek. Wonshik was about to eat a piece of kiwi when a realization hit him.

“You’re not waiting for—“

“Oh look it’s late already! Go home my apprentice, I need to lock myself in the dungeon now.” Hakyeon pushed Wonshik who still munching on the cake to the front door with all his might. He ignored the fact that the sun hadn’t even fully set.

***

Sanghyuk waved his hand to Taekwoon and went home with a bag full of pastries and breads. Taekwoon waved back before he pulled down the rolling door. Everything went well today. Most of the baked goods were taken and everyone was happy. Taekwoon smiled, he secretly praised himself for the event.

Now there’s only one thing left to do.

***

Hakyeon stepped out from his bathroom and immediately went to his workshop. It’s a medium sized room with big shelves containing jars of essential oil and the other scented candle ingredients. Unlike any other room in his house, there’s not much decorative element inside the room, or more like no decorative element at all. That’s because the room’s purpose was solely for working and experimenting.

Hakyeon stretched his arm and walked to one of the shelves. And when he reached the shelves, the bell’s ringing.

Usually Hakyeon will ignored anyone who came to his house when he’s working on his workshop. This one guest was lucky because Hakyeon hadn’t started anything yet. So he went to the front door, grumbling. He opened the door with a slightly forced smile that was there as soon as he grabbed the door knob. Turned out the one who rang the door’s bell was a giant three stacks cake with long legs.

Wait what?

“Hello?” Hakyeon said. His eyes went to the top of the cake where a small human figurine stood beautifully, then traveled to the cake’s long legs.

Oh.

“Take the cake or invite me in, this is heavy.”

Hakyeon burst to laugh. Taekwoon the baker, really. This childhood friend of him can make an unexpected action sometimes.

“Hakyeon, my arms are going to fall off.”

“Right, sorry. Please come in, Mr. Baker,” Hakyeon said. He opened the door wider so the cake could went through. He’s amazed how Taekwon managed to not knocked over anything despite his sight were covered by the cake. Hakyeon led him to the dining room. Once Taekwoon put the cake on the table, he huffed.

“You’re going to be buffed if you do this for a month.” Hakyeon chirped, he handed a glass of water to Taekwoon. He watched Taekwoon gulped down the water, smiling. And then he looked towards the cake. The top of the cake was almost invisible from his point of view. The cake was covered with white cream as the base, and then sprinkled with candy and chocolate rice. Oh, there was melted chocolate poured on the side too.

It’s pretty, in some way.

“So,” Hakyeon said, “mind to explain?”

Suddenly Taekwoon’s face burned too much that he thought he’s going to explode. Hakyeon laughed when he saw Taekwoon’s face went red faster than a rabbit that run on top of hot grass. Hakyeon didn’t force Taekwoon to speak, he will talked if he wanted to.

Tekwoon cleared his throat, “I—“

“Hmm?”

“This is a sign of gratitude, just like the other things I gave to everyone.”

Hakyeon waited for the baker to continue talking. He knew Taekwoon hadn’t done.

“Thank you for always bringing foods when I’m too busy with work,” oh, he started, Hakyeon thought, “thank you for all the candles. Thank you for visiting my bakery. Thank you for always taking care of me. Thank you for always praising my works, even when my first baking was a total mess.” Taekwoon said.

“Thank you, for always be there for me.”

Hakyeon grinned. He rose from his seat and walk to the kitten-like man. He cupped Taekwoon’s face and kissed his forehead. “You’re welcome, my darling.”

Taekwoon hid his red face by turning his head towards the other direction. Hakyeon messed the baker hair with both his hands, loudly praising the baker for his cuteness. Then he took two forks from the one of the kitchen’s drawer.

“Let’s eat this together,” he said. He gave one fork to Taekwoon. So they started digging the giant cake, non of them bother to slice it up. The cake was sweet. Taekwoon sure knew what’s Hakyeon favorite. They both ate the giant cake in silence. Maybe they should call their apprentices to eat with them.

Wait no, no need. They could finish the cake by themself tonight. Yes, just the two of them in Hakyeon’s dining room, ate a big sweet cake together.

They might had cavities tomorrow. They might gain a lot of weight too. But hey, at least they got all those cavities and weight from Taekwoon’s cake. So that’s fine.