Haeun felt like her face had been flushed ever since she had left Baekhyun’s apartment.

The moment that Baekhyun’s large hand had pressed up against her cheek was on repeat in her mind, and for the life of her, Hauen couldn’t figure out why. 

When she had first left her apartment, she had hoped that the fresh air and the walk would’ve helped her clear her mind, but instead, she just left Baekhyun’s apartment with even more questions. As a lawyer, it was her job to raise questions and then answer them, so when she kept raising all these questions about why she was so flustered around Baekhyun and she couldn’t answer them, Haeun was left feeling suffocated and utterly frustrated. 

Groaning as she walked, she looked at her phone’s clock. It was almost 8, and there were very few people out on the road. Haeun was slightly worried that something might happen, so she stuck to the brightly lit roads in front of restaurants that still had people in them. She looked around at the street she was walking on, and her eyes caught onto the sign for the cafe that Taehyung worked at. The cafe had an exposed brick exterior with glass panel windows and doors. During the day, the curtains to the windows to the cafe would be open to let in the bright sunlight, but there was also a set of windows that looked into the kitchen that remained closed more often than not, but the curtains were sheer enough to see moving silhouettes through them. 

She bit her lip for a second, contemplating whether it was worth it to go in and see if he was free. Plus it would be nice to see him before his birthday on the 30th. Ever since she found out that Taehyung had worked here, she tried to come by as often as she could to see him and say hello; with their busy schedules, it wasn’t easy for them to find time to meet up. She visited so much that the staff was all familiar with her.  

Haeun ended up walking over anyway, but as she pulled on the door to the cafe, she found it locked. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion — the sign was lit up, and she could see movement behind the main counter through the curtains, so she didn’t know why the cafe was closed. If they had closed early for Christmas, she figured that all the staff would also be sent home.

She pulled out her phone and hesitated for a moment as she pulled up the text chain with Taehyung. The last conversation they’d had was earlier in the morning when they had wished each other a merry Christmas, and Haeun decided to just ask if he was still working.

She leaned against the brick walls of the cafe, hoping she didn’t look too creepy, and waited for a response. Thankfully, it came soon enough, and it said that he was actually still in the cafe.

Immediately smiling, Haeun called him. 

“Hey,” he answered, his voice sounding distant as though he were on speakerphone.

“Hi, so this is weird and all, but I’m actually outside the cafe. I thought it was still open, but the doors are locked.” 

She heard him huff out a laugh. “Alright, hold on. I’ll let you in.” The call cut off, and she turned to face the doors, rocking on her feet slightly, hands in the pocket of her jacket. She had missed joking around with him, and so Haeun was excited to speak to him in person (and maybe he’d provide a much needed distraction from her thoughts). There was the sound of movement coming from the cafe, and soon enough, the sound of footsteps drew closer until she saw Taehyung’s bright smiling face through the glass doors as he unlocked it.

“Hey,” he greeted. Haeun smiled as she ducked inside the store, and she turned to watch her friend lock the doors back up. 

“What are you still doing here?” she asked, wandering into the cafe, breathing in the sweet aroma of baked goods.

From the outside, the cafe looked small and quaint, but inside it was incredibly spacious. There were plenty of tables for sitting down across from the main counter where the display case and barista set up was along with the cash register. 

“We usually have a shortage of pastries the day after Christmas, so I offered to stay back and bake, so I could take the day of my birthday and New’s Year’s off. Do you want to come back to the kitchen?”

“Are you kidding? Of course!” she excitedly answered. Taehyung grinned and beckoned her to follow him. Pushing the doors open to the kitchen behind the main counter brought Haeun into an entirely different world. Her talent was normally in cooking, but she admired those who could bake immensely because it was something she always somehow failed at. 

“It smells amazing in here,” she sighed, walking farther into the kitchen and looking at where everything was placed and organized. It looked like any other professional restaurant kitchen, except there were six feet tall open ovens that had trays of what looked like buns baking in them as they rotated in the convection oven. On the counter were bags and containers of ingredients — flour, eggs, almond flour, sugar, and milk were the ones she could immediately recognize — and there was a tray of cinnamon buns resting on the counter. There was Christmas music playing softly through the cafe’s speakers as well.

“I just pulled the cinnamon buns out of the oven,” he laughed. “Do you want one?”

“Is that even a question? Give,” she ordered, holding her hand out. “Please,” she added, with a sweet smile on her face. He passed her one with a fond eye roll, and she let out a hum of appreciation as she bit into it. It was still warm so the icing had melted into the bun, and the pastry itself had dissolved on her tongue, the layers melding into one in .

“I love you,” she declared. “This is amazing.”

“Glad to know that you love me for something.”

“You know it,” she laughed.

“So what’s up?” he asked, moving around her to the three stand mixers in the corner of the kitchen and starting each one of them. The engine sound became a background noise fairly quickly as she sat down in a stool near the shelf and ate her bun while watching Taehyung work.

Haeun shrugged. “Was on my way back home from Baekhyun’s and figured I’d try to see you in person.”

He glanced up at her from where he was adding in ingredients into a bowl. “Is that why you were all smiley?”

“Smiley?”

“Yeah,” he nodded, looking back down at the bowl. “When you smiled at me, it was a bigger, brighter smile. I’ve never seen you smile so carefree before. Plus your cheeks were red, but I can’t tell if that was from the cold outside or not.”

Haeun tilted her head to the right in confusion; she’d never heard anyone else say that to her before. 

“Seriously? If anything, I figured you would’ve called me out on being down on Christmas,” she responded, the remnants of the icing off the tips of her fingers.

“You seemed fine to me,” he answered, picking up a whisk. “Why? Did something happen?” Haeun bit her bottom lip and started chewing on it, wondering if she should say anything. How was she supposed to talk about what happened if she didn’t even understand what happened?

Clearly recognizing the inner turmoil Haeun was going through, Taehyung spoke up again, “Alright, you don’t need to tell me anything immediately, but it could do you some good to get it off your chest, but if you’re going to be staying, get off your and help me.” He had a firm, stern look on his face.

Haeun was so surprised at the order that she gaped at first before barking out an incredulous laugh.

“Wow,” she spoke, watching as Taehyung’s stern face melted into a teasing smile. “Am I going to get paid for my work?” she asked as she stood up to make her way over to stand next to him. She peered into the bowl that he just finished whisking and found it to be what looked like a chocolate batter for something. 

“It’s for lava cake,” he answered without her even voicing her question. “And no, considering I’m giving you a therapy session for free.”

Haeun laughed. “Fair enough.” That caused Taehyung to laugh as well. He passed an empty bowl to her along with a recipe. He told her to measure out the dry ingredients for three batches and just whisk them together. 

“Not even you, a horrid baker, can mess this up.”

“You’re really just going all out on the rudeness right now, huh?”

“Your words, not mine.”

Haeun rolled her eyes, choosing not to respond because they were her words. Instead, she picked up the kitchen scale and placed the bowl on it, carefully measuring all the ingredients out for what looked like a chocolate chip cookie recipe. 

Together they worked in silence — her on the cookies, him on different cream fillings after he finished the lava cake batter and placed it in one of the smaller ovens —, the only sound coming from the clatter of the utensils and the Christmas music for a while until the oven’s timer rang, scaring Haeun bad enough that she jumped in her place. She raised a hand to her pounding heart. 

“Holy ,” she breathed, trying to take a deep breath. Taehyung snorted from across the kitchen, and she glared at him. He raised his hands in a placating manner, and she just huffed and looked away as he went over to the oven to pull out a rack of buns. Upon closer examination, they looked like they were red bean stuffed buns. 

“Timers beep, Haeun,” Taehyung teased.

“Yes, I am aware, .” He laughed, grabbed two buns off the tray and set them down on a plate with a few paper towels.

“Come here,” he beckoned with a wave of his hand. He was sitting down on the stool next to the one she was sitting at a bit ago with the plate in front of him. She sat down next to him, and he pushed the plate towards her as he picked up one of the buns, broke it in half and bit into one half. It felt like he was suddenly staging an intervention as she mimicked his actions and bit into the bun herself — golden brown, soft, incredibly warm, and filled with sweet red bean paste  — and as he spoke up, she knew she was right.

“So,” he started, “what’s up? Did something happen at Baekhyun’s?” Haeun just looked at him with a withering look, and he sent one right back.

“Maybe.”

“Are you two dating yet?” Haeun looked at him with a judging look that she hoped clearly expressed how much of an idiot she thought Taehyung was being. She knew he understood when he spoke up again as he raised an eyebrow at her, “What?”

“We aren’t dating! Why would you think that?”

“Well f