“Another one of your nature flowers?”

“It’s been a month since I painted one. I saw those dandelions by the house next to us, and I really liked how the sun reflected off of the petals.” Kibum smiles, dipping his brush in the paint and scooting his stool closer to the easel.

Minho carefully steps over the newspaper littered on the floor and bends down to examine his friend’s newest painting. As usual it looked beautiful and beyond realistic, the dandelion’s bright yellow petals oozing in cheerful delight under the clear blue sky.

“The ones by Jinki hyung’s house?” Minho says, gesturing to their neighbors.

“Yup.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t get yelled at by- what’s his name again?”

“Jonghyun?”

“Yeah, that bastard lawyer douche from the other day.”

“I’m sure he was just having a bad day.” Kibum shrugs.

“Are you kidding me? He looked about ready to nail our mouths shut!”Minho exclaims, walking to the living room and plopping down on the couch to watch the soccer game.

Kibum tosses him the remote to the TV. “We’ll see.”

“You’re actually thinking about meeting him?”

“Why not?”

“I can already tell that’s going to be a disaster.”

The artist laughs, setting his easel aside and standing up to take his dirty apron off. He walks over to the sink in the kitchen, washing his paint filled hands with care.

“I’m going to the bakery down the street, you wanna come with me?” he calls out to his best friend.

“Nah, just got started watching this.”

Kibum smirks. “Jinki hyung’s coming over, isn’t he?”

Minho doesn’t respond.

“Have fun with your date!’” the painter calls out, stepping outside and closing the door behind him before Minho could respond.

He shakes his head and chuckles to himself, side glancing at the house next to them. He never knew Minho would ever take a liking in the Jinki boy, especially since their personalities are the exact opposite.

Minho leaned more towards the athletic side, while Jinki was more of a sensitive and loveable boy. Still, they had gotten somewhat acquainted during the past couple of days.

Kibum shakes his head as he turns to walk towards the direction of the bakery, his mind wandering to another topic.

Jonghyun.

He was an interesting person, at least to the artist. He felt like the lawyer was being misunderstood. Like he was hiding his true self under the permanent scowl and foul attitude of his.

Although Jinki told the artist and Minho that it was basically impossible to get Jonghyun to talk, Kibum felt challenged in a way. He was curious to see the lawyer smile, to have his husky and soft voice speak in a whole new different tone.

Kibum was confident he could prove Minho wrong. He would show him that Jonghyun was not what he appeared to be.

His thoughts get interrupted as he swings the bakery door open, the smell of baked bread wafting to his nose and making him inhale the pleasant scent.

The shop was large in size; a square shaped unit with a long counter in the middle with different kinds of pastries displayed behind the glass. Among the busy workers was a young looking red haired boy, who was surprisingly directing the workers.

He had slightly slanted eyes when he smiled, his round cheeks complimenting his oval shaped face. He was a tad shorter than Kibum, a slim figure with dexterous hands. He was running all over the place either behind the cashier, helping out as a waiter, going into the kitchen, decorating cakes off to the side, packing the pastries into boxes and bags, it seemed like he was a mouse scurrying about.

The artist hesitantly steps forward to take a closer look, and the young boy lifts his head to meet eyes with Kibum.

“Hi! I haven’t seen you before, have I?” his voice was lower than what Kibum had expected.

“I just moved in with my best friend a couple of days ago.”

“I see. Welcome to the neighborhood! If you need any help I’ll be right here, okay?”

Kibum decides right away that he likes the boy. “Thank you. So you’re the manager of this place?”

“My parents are the owners, but they’re out of town at the moment. They usually leave the place to me when they run errands. Which is pretty much all the time.”

The artist’s eyes widen in surprise. “Wow. You seem to know what you’re doing.”

“I’ve been trained to bake ever since I was five.”

“How old are you now? If you don’t mind me asking…….”

“I’m nineteen.”

Kibum raises an eyebrow. “You look a lot younger than that.”

The boy smiles. “I get that a lot.”

There’s a ‘ding’ at the door and three new customers come in, acknowledging the boy and calling out to him. He waves and bows in respect, surprising Kibum once again at his social status.

“It seems like you know everyone around here.” the artist points out in amazement.

“I’ve been living here all my life, so I pretty much memorized every street and house owner in this neighborhood.”

The boy turns his attention to a cupcake on the stand, whipping out the red frosting and skillfully decorating it with a plastic spatula. Kibum recognizes right away that the boy was making a rose. He could tell from the way the petals started to overlap on top of each other, just like the way he paints them.

The boy’s eyebrows furrow in concentration when he gets to the tip of the rose, having to pull out a toothpick to carve out the detailed lines.

“Need some help?” the artist calls out.

The boy looks up at him. “You know how to do this?”

“I won’t mess it up, I promise.”

The boy hesitates a little, but unlatches a part of the counter so it acted as a small swinging door for Kibum to slide through.

“May I?” Kibum asks, pointing to the toothpick in the boy’s hand.

The other nods in return. “All yours.”

The artist takes the toothpick and positions it in between his fingers, bending down over the small cupcake and carefully picking at the red icing. He imagined the toothpick as a paintbrush, imagining how he would paint the lines to make the petals look real.

Very gently he carves out the tip of the rose, curving it around the icing and creating the small overlapping petals inside the small space. It was tedious work, especially since there was no room for error. It wasn’t like painting, where he could paint over his mistakes or cover it up. A wrong move with the icing meant wasting the ingredient and starting over again.

When Kibum finished, he found that his forehead had started to sweat. He stretches his back as he throws the toothpick in the trash, muscles aching from staying in the same position for a long time.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s the best I could do.” he says to the boy.

“What are you talking about? This is perfect! You never told me you were a baker yourself!”

Kibum laughs. “Not quite. I’m actually an artist, to be exact.”

“That explains the icing.”

“I’m actually working on painting a dandelion right now, so thanks for the practice!”

Shaking his head, the boy delicately places the cupcake in a small box and hands it to a customer. “You’re definitely different than anyone else I’ve ever met in this bakery.”

The two end up taking a seat somewhere in the corner of the bakery, sipping on hot tea with a plate of cookies baked by the boy just moments ago.

They sit and talk for hours, conversation only pausing when either of them took a break to eat or drink.

Kibum learns that the boy’s name is Lee Taemin, a drop out from college. His parents were against it at first, but he was sure he wanted to take the path of managing the shop and becoming a professional baker one day. He didn’t want to study in college, but learn about it from his parents instead.

“I like to keep traditional.” Taemin explains.

“No, no, I understand.” Kibum says.

“What about you, hyung? How did you manage to learn the art of painting cupcakes with icing?”

“I went to college where my mom used to go.” Kibum replies. “I graduated early by three years on a bachelor’s degree.”

Their conversation continues well into the night, up until the closing time of the bakery. By now the shop was almost empty, with only a few lone customers left packing up their stuff and getting ready to go home.

“I should get going.” Kibum says, rising from his seat. “My friend is expecting me at home and I’ve been gone way longer than I had intended.”

“I enjoyed talking to you, Kibum hyung.” Taemin beams at him.

“I’ll come back soon.” Kibum promises, smiling at the younger boy.

They exchange phone numbers before the artist leaves, slipping out into the night and surprised by how dark it had gotten.

He was glad he met Taemin though, it seemed like he was a really nice kid.

When the artist got back home, he found Minho and Jinki bent over an intense game of chess.

“Really, Minho? Chess is like, the only sport you’re bad at.” Kibum says, watching amusedly as his friend struggles to move one of the bishops over.

“He told me he won the championships in high school.” Jinki says with a frown.

The artist snorts and Minho shoots him a glare. “I don’t think he can even beat me. And I’m horrible at chess!”

“Kibum, I really need you to shut up now.” Minho says lowly.

“I’ll be in the kitchen.” the artist replies innocently.

He smiles as soon as his back his turned, stifling his laughs as his friend threw frustrated groans periodically.

As he begins to set up the ingredients, he looks out the window and notices the glint of Jonghyun’s suitcase as the lawyer steps out of the house with his car keys in hand. His face is slightly concealed because of the lack of lighting, but Kibum knew that he was in a hurry, judging from the way he was taking quick steps.

Was he always this busy?

“Checkmate!”

The artist turns back abruptly to find Minho with his face in his hands, a triumphant looking Jinki sitting across from him.

Kibum laughs and returns to his cooking, the thought of Jonghyun still lingering at the back of his mind.

A/N: So I've introduced Taemin in this one ^^

Pay attention to him, bcuz he is going to play one of the most important roles later on in the story (u decide what that means). Again, no jongkey in this one. I wanted to get Key's pov first before hopping back to Jjong again. The fic mainly follows Jjong's side of the story, but I'll try to write about what's happening with Key sometimes like in this chapter. 

Anyways, there will definetely be some jongkey during the next update, so all of u that's been wanting some interactions between the two of them will finally get a taste of that. But I warn you, don't expect it to be like in To Love Again where everything is perfect. This time around, I've got a whole bunch of things planned out.

And oh my god guys, I'm still gaining subscribers every day and I just want to thank all of u for subscribing <3

I'm sorry I can't thank u all personally cuz I'm really busy and lazy at the moment, but i want u guys to know I freaking love u all so much for supporting me and this fic. And ur comments and feedback is what keeps me going and motivated. It means so much to me guys, really.

Okay, I'm rambling again. I should really stop talking so much. I have no school on monday so I'l try to update soon. See you all soon!