Dae Hyun sighed as he placed another batch of sweet bread in the oven. He was exhausted from the busy day but he still had another hour until closing and then he’d have to get everything ready for the next day. He carefully set the timer before he headed back to the front to help Jee Hye with the customers.

Jee Hye offered a smile when she saw his tired expression, “almost there.”

He nodded, “I just hope I can stay up long enough to make it out the door.”

She laughed as she grabbed a box to fill an order. Dae Hyun looked around the empty shop, “what are you doing?”

“We do this every year,” she explained. “When there’s an hour left before closing on New Year’s Eve, we make Variety Boxes. Instead of people choosing what they want they just buy whatever we put together. When everything is sold we close up and clean.”

“Don’t we have to get things made for tomorrow?” he asked.

She nodded, “we only have to do a few things because the shop’s not going to be opened until the afternoon.”

“Why?”

She chuckled, “because everyone in town will be drunk tonight and won’t be awake until then.”

“What about the kids?” he asked, “they don’t drink.”

“Some sneak a few when their parents are wasted,” she shook her head. “Or they end up staying up as late as they possibly can.”

Dae Hyun nodded, “Do you want me to put the breads into bags?”

She nodded pointing to everything as she spoke, “trying fitting a dozen into one of those bags. And with those larger bags try fitting a dozen small rolls and half a dozen of the the slightly larger ones. We trying to keep the types of bread separate though.”

Dae Hyun nodded his understanding. “And what do I do with the ones that don't make it to half a dozen?”

“Put them in a large bag and we’ll take them home,” she smiled. “They’re supposed to be thrown away but Eun Chan doesn’t like wasting food so she tells us to just take the left overs home.”

“Well that explains why there is a never ending supply of bread and sweets at the house.” He chuckled, “every time I look in the pantry I find a different type of bread or cookie.”

She shrugged with a large smile, “it saves us a lot of money, especially since we know how to make it ourselves.”

The silver haired boy nodded, “now if only the maknaes would eat whatever is in there instead of coming here.”

“We can probably teach them to make some,” she giggled as she closed the now filed box.

“That would only interest them for three or four days at the most,” he sighed grabbing the boxes of bags and place them on a cart to make bagging the breads easier.

Jee Hye watched him push the cart to the shelves. Biting her bottom lip in thought, “have you talked to Young Jae?”

He nodded as he pushed open the sliding glass of one of the cubes, “we talked last night.”

“About everything?” she pushed gently.

“Yes we did,” he opened a bag and began filling in carefully.

She pulled out another box to fill, “are you sure?”

He looked over at her, “what do mean?”

She shrugged, “Him Chan mentioned that he was alone most of the time and that he could be afraid of being alone.”

The silver haired boy nodded again, “yea, he told me about that. That’s another thing we have in common, monophobia.”

“Are you afraid because of what happened with you late mate?”

“No,” he slowly tied the bag. “It’s from something before long before I ever met her, before I even met Yong Guk or Him Chan.”

Jee Hye nodded, “do you want to talk about it?”

He shrugged, “maybe a little later. I could tell everyone at once to help pass the time when we get home.”

She nodded with a small smile, “and we’ll be with you every step of the way.”

Dae Hyun nodded as he grabbed another bag. He just hoped they would be with him after he told them.

“How many more of these things are we making?!” Yong Guk looked to his mate when another bowl was placed in front of the trio.

The black haired man shrugged, “I’m tired of sweet breads, donuts, cookies and whatever else comes from the Bakery.”

“Do we really need a thousand popcorn balls?” he asked.

“At least we have different flavors,” Jong Up said happily as he began forming another ball before handing it to Jun Hong to be covered in a colorful paper and a ribbon holding it closed.

“And why do they need to be wrapped so pretty?” the purple haired man asked.

“Because I want them wrapped all pretty,” he folded his arms, “and the wrappers help them last at least a little longer.”

“And when we go out we can take some without having to worry about putting them in something,” Jun Hong joined in making sure he didn’t wrap the wrong flavor of popcorn ball in the wrong color wrapper.

Yong Guk sighed in defeat, “where’s Seo Gu?”

“He went to pick up Dae Hyun and Jee Hye.” Him Chan smiled softly, “I would ask Dae Hyun to help but he might be tired of packing things away.”

Young Jae gently tapped Yong Guk, “I don’t think he’s considered a popcorn ball anymore.”

Yong Guk looked at the once popcorn ball in his hand holding it up for all to see. The maknaes laughed out together, “it a popcorn pancake.”

“Poor thing never had a chance,” Him Chan said as he carefully sat down next to his mate, Yong Guk quickly placing the misshaped popcorn ball in a bowl in favor of helping his mate.

“What are we going to do with it now,” Young Jae picked it up, “I don’t think a wrapper would cover it.”

“Split it and eat it,” Him Chan suggested. The blonde shrugged and broke the popcorn ‘pancake’ as evenly as he could before handing out the pieces.

“Eww,” Jun Hong made a face, “it taste like sweat. Did you wash your hands before touching the popcorn?”

“Yah,” Yong Guk looked at the maknae trying hard not to laugh. Him Chan reached over to ruffle the maknaes hair, “that’s not nice.”

“Then what kind of maknae would I be if I didn’t act like a brat?” he laughed out as he took another bite.

“The cute kind,” Yong Guk joked. The maknae glared at the eldest.

“We’re home,” Jee Hye sang out as she entered the room.

“Thanks for the warning,” Jun Hong smirked.

“Hey.” She laughed as she gave the maknae a playful glare before holding up the bags in her hands, “fine, I won’t share.”

Jun Hong shrugged playing with her, “then I won’t share the popcorn balls. You’ll only be able to eat Yong Guk’s sweaty popcorn pancakes.”

“Pancakes?” Dae Hyun chuckled as he took off his jacket.

The maknaes nodded. Him Chan hugged his mate as the three youngest decided to criticize him. Dae Hyun sat on the floor next to his mate before grabbing a wrapped ball from a basket.

“Each flavor is marked by the color of the wrapper,” the blonde informed his mate.

Dae Hyun looked to the four of them, “how many flavors did you guys make?”

“Just three,” Yong Guk answered. “Care to help?”

Jee Hye sat herself with the maknaes pulling a bowl close to her, “I will. Are you going to help Seo Gu?”

Seo Gu nodded as he held up the bags his mate carried earlier, “first I’m going to put these on the table before one of us forgets it's on the floor and trips over it.”

Jee Hye giggled before pulling on some gloves, “what about you Dae Hyunie?”

The silver haired boy shrugged copying her action of putting on gloves, “sure, why the heck not.”

“Is that your New Year’s resolution?” Jun Hong smirked as he continued to tease his hyungs, “stop cussing so much?”

“Your's should be to stop being such a tease,” Dae Hyun tossed some popcorn at the pink haired boy.

“We had gloves?” Yong Guk asked feeling silly. Jun Hong quickly took the opportunity to poke fun, “you know maybe if we would’ve told you about the gloves we could’ve saved our stomach from suffering your pancake. And to think we put three innocent lives at stake.”

“Yah the three of you are hardly innocent,” Yong Guk scoffed. Him Chan gave him a light punch on the arm.

The maknae laughed, “I wasn’t talking about us. I was talking about the babies. They could get sick from eating that thing.”

“Jong Up I’m sorry but you might have to look for someone else because I don’t think this little maknae is going to make it into the new year,” the purple haired man joked.

Jee Hye gave the brunette a gentle nudge as everyone laughed. Jong Up smiled brightly, “and Him Chan might just have to call your brother when I’m done with you.”

“Oh!” Him Chan laughed, “Jong Up's fighting back.”

“Jun Hong has rubbed off on him,” Dae Hyun finished off his popcorn ball. Young Jae took the ball from his mate to wrap, “isn’t that a good thing?”

Yong Guk tosses a handful of popcorn at the brunette, “we’ll see about that.”

“Yah!” Him Chan called out as Yong Guk and both maknaes began throwing popcorn at each other, “you’re making a mess.”

“I can see tomorrow’s headlines,” Yong Guk made sure to smash some caramel popcorn into their hairs, “big bold letters ‘Maknaes’ Missing: No One Cares’.”

“It wouldn’t be headline if nobody cared,” Jun Hong countered as he tried to return the favor of putting caramel popcorn in his hair.

“That could be saying that the family doesn’t care but everyone else in the town would,” Jong Up tried to pulled the pink haired maknae off their purple haired hyung.

Jee Hye quickly pulled the popcorn away from them with Him Chan's help. Seo Gu helped Jong Up pry Yong Guk’s and Jun Hong’s hands off each other’s hair. Dae Hyun on the other hand was trying to protect his mate from the fight, though he was deeply amused with their argument he couldn’t shake of his fear. Young Jae tried to help calm his mate’s fear as the little skirmish was broken up.

Him Chan noticed the couple on the couch, “alright calm down you two, you’re giving Young Jae and Dae Hyun a heart attack.”

Jun Hong rushed over to hug the said couple, “Aww I’m sorry.”

Dae Hyun resisted the urge to tackle the maknae to the ground. Young Jae’s laughter helping calm his nerves slightly. Jong Up helping even more as he pulled the maknae to sit awkwardly in his lap.

Him Chan chuckled. Taking a deep breath before beginning a a new conversation, “so Jong Uppie, Jun Hongie, how soon would you two be wanting to mate? You know we have to plan the Couple Ceremony and the Introduction Ceremony. And Jun Hong I know you have an issue with how they go so is there a certain way you want things to go?”

Everyone stared and the younger black haired man in shock. Nobody knew that Him Chan was ready to let the maknaes grow up, not even his mate at his side. Him Chan smiled looking at the maknaes.

Jong Up was the first to find his voice, “are you serious?”

The black haired man nodded with a large smile on his face and merriment shining in his eyes along with unshed tears. Jun Hong stumbled as he ran to hug Him Chan tears already streaming down his face. “Thank you.”

Him Chan wrapped his arms around the maknae as he buries his face on his shoulder crying along with him, “no. I should thank the both of you. You both taught me so much without realizing it.”

Jong Up moved hug Him Chan as well. Both Carriers pulling him into a hug. The brunette asked shyly, “but isn’t mating random?”

Him Chan took the chance to glare at his mate and Dae Hyun, “mating is different with every couple.”