After yet another sleepless night, Jinyoung stood on his balcony, staring into the distance as the sky finally started lightening up as the sun had revealed itself from its slumber. Even without looking at the clock Jinyoung knew that it was around 6:30 am. He had greeted the early September morning at this precise time all too many times, usually sipping on a cup of freshly brewed coffee and buzzing in anticipation for what new fun experiences would happen at work. As time went on however that anticipation morphed into dull boredom before finally evolving into dread and suffocation.

The twinkling of the wind chime next door harmonised with the shy singing of the birds and Jinyoung swooned along to the melody, having found one more thing to enjoy in his otherwise directionless life.

From the corners of his eyes, Jinyoung saw the bright yellow curtains swing open, signalling that Youngsoon was up and about to start off her day already. That struck Jinyoung as unusual because Gureum did not open until 10 am and since she did not work in the kitchen, there was no need for her to be up so early. Arriving at work half an hour before opening time would have sufficed, at least that was what he remembered his aunt doing. Resting his head on the balcony railings on the side closest to Youngsoon’s balcony, Jinyoung realised that he had a pretty decent view of inside her flat and somehow he found himself following every single one of her movements, ignoring the fact that he might come off as a creep.

Unaware that she was being observed, Youngsoon had finished eating a simple breakfast that consisted of overnight oat. Quickly washing the bowl and spoon, she then disappeared into the bathroom and reemerged a few moments with light make up and wearing a long sleeve pastel green shift dress. After checking that she had her phone and keys in her bag, Youngsoon then grabbed the two bags of trash that had accumulated from the previous night’s gathering and slipped on her trusted yellow Converse.

When she opened the door to exit however, Youngsoon froze upon being greeted by an unexpected face, her hand stuck on the door handle.

“Need help?” Jinyoung pointed at the trash bags while rubbing his neck sheepishly with the other hand.

Youngsoon’s eyes drifted from Jinyoung’s face to his hand and then to the trash bags before going back to Jinyoung only to see him reaching for one of the plastic bags already. He then started heading towards the lift and Youngsoon hurriedly locked the door, catching up to Jinyoung with a light jog.

“Do you always go to work this early?” Jinyoung glanced at Youngsoon only to find her looking in his direction already and thus making him snap his face forward again. “I thought as manager you could leave the opening up prep to the other employees.”

By now they had left the lift and were heading for the trash bin area.

“The pâtissier contacted me late last night about some mistake in delivery that will affect the dessert of the day so I’m heading over early.”

Having thrown away the trash, Youngsoon prepared to bid Jinyoung goodbye but when she turned towards him, the words ‘hope you have a nice day’ lost its momentum and failed to leave . The reason was simple; Jinyoung was standing much closer than she had expected and his physicality told Youngsoon that he was headed towards the bus stop rather than returning home. That proved to be true when Jinyoung walked past her with his hands in his pockets, though he did slow down and glance back when he realised Youngsoon was not moving.

Catching that action, Youngsoon pushed her body forward and the two of them made it to the bus stop just as the bus was arriving. Biting on the inside of her cheeks, Youngsoon wondered where Jinyoung was going. She was aware that he was currently unemployed so he could be going out job hunting. However seeing his casual attire of graphic t-shirt and faded jeans, that theory was thrown out the window. Then was he following her to Gureum? For what purpose though if they would arrive at least two hours before opening time? It would not make sense that he was simply accompanying her since he had absolutely no reason to do so.

They had now gotten off the bus and walking up the familiar hill that led to Gureum. Not wanting to come off as prying and invasive, Youngjae swallowed down the questions bubbling inside of her and thus the whole journey remained almost excruciatingly quiet. Jinyoung however was aware of how confused Youngsoon must have felt at the moment even if she did not let it show. After all, any other normal person would have hammered him with questions as to why he was following them but for whatever reason, Youngsoon had opted to remain quiet.

Nonetheless Jinyoung was glad that Youngsoon had decided to not question him about his actions because he was not too certain of the answer himself. He just knew that he did not want to remain in his flat and in a whim, he dashed out just as Youngsoon was about to leave.

As they neared Gureum, Jinyoung had to take a double look at what was waiting for them. Standing in front of the gate of the teahouse stood a male — who Jinyoung assumed was the pâtissier — already wearing the modernised hanbok uniform and holding a green pumpkin with yellow blotches. It was quite a comical imagery that reminded Jinyoung of the tanuki statue from a shrine he had once visited while in Japan. The angry expression of the pâtissier augmented the hilarity of it all.

“This is kakai,” the male stated is a low voice as soon as Youngsoon stood in front of him.

It must have been an urgent situation because the pâtissier showed no attention to Jinyoung nor did he question Youngsoon why she had company. Instead he jumped straight into the issue at hand.

“Right,” Youngsoon hummed in an equally low voice, unfazed by the male’s random and sudden comment.

“Wrong,” the pâtissier snapped back while shaking the pumpkin in the air dangerously close to Youngsoon’s face. “What I wanted was kabocha.”

“But they are both still pumpkins right?” Jinyoung questioned out loud but immediately regretted his actions.

The pâtissier’s nostrils started flaring and he raised the pumpkin as if planning to throw it in Jinyoung’s face for making a stupid comment. Fortunately Youngsoon was present and being the ever-so-calm and collected person she was, she easily stepped in and prevented any bloodshed from happening.

“Yoongi, what is the issue exactly?”

The pâtissier who Jinyoung knew now was called Yoongi turned