They look beautiful.

Aeri stares at the tray before her. Three cupcakes, dark chocolate with mocha cream sit on it. Sujin watches the scene before her life a frozen tennis match, darting her eyes between the cupcakes, the man and her friend. Aeri thinks they look beautiful alright, the colors are as they should be, dark, rich and appetizing, and the mocha whipped cream looks just the right amount of stiff and the swirls are perfect to the 'T'. Sujin watches Aeri put a small spoonful of the confection into — and sit there blankly. Kyungsoo blinks, furrowing his eyebrows at her reaction, and clears his throat. Aeri looks up at him hesitantly, avoiding his eyes and chooses to stare at the wall behind his head instead.

"It's umm.... uhh..." She gulps.... "It looks really pretty..." Sujin knows something is wrong. She waits as Aeri drinks a sip of water. Kyungsoo leans forward.

"How do they taste...?" He asks, Aeri leans back a bit but offers him her spoon. A mouthful of cake later Kyungsoo stares back at Aeri, slowly placing the spoon down upon the table. "I'll... leave then..."

Kyungsoo puts the apron down and turns to the door. Sujin watches Aeri fight with herself, squeezing her eyes shut and tapping her foot against the floor repeatedly. "Just go, and save my ears," she groans, pushing Aeri a little. Aeri takes a few deep breaths before throwing off her apron and running after out the door. Sujin sits down at the table, tastes a bit of the mocha cream and promptly gags. It tastes flat and lifeless. In all her years of knowing Aeri, she knows that confection was meant to taste rich and voluptuous, with balanced sweetness and softness.... and not like paper. Maybe she should call Aeri back....?

"Yixing ge," breathes out Aeri as she runs into the bookstore, "did you see a guy in black... about ye tall... and—" Aeri freezes, realizing it is in fact Kyungsoo who is standing at the bookstore entrance, holding a book which he jerks behind himself and glowers at her (or so she thinks).

"Yes?"

"C-could I talk to you for a bit?" Kyungsoo slides the book (Baking Made Easy) over the table to Yixing, who is still smiles serenely at Aeri. She feels overly conscious as she leads him outside, aware of his eyes on her back. For a while both of them stare down the empty afternoon road, and Aeri forms gigantic speeches in her mind which fade away as soon as she looks at him.

"Kyungsoo-ssi... if you like, I mean if you still want to, you could work at the café..." Kyungsoo crosses his arms across his chest, leaning back against the wall and throws her a searching look.

"How desperate are you...? Those cupcakes tasted like paper—"

"But they looked gorgeous!!" Kyungsoo raises an eyebrow. "They looked nice...." Aeri mutters looking at the pavement. She takes a deep breath before continuing. "What I'm saying is, if you want to, we could work on different things. I'll bake and you decorate.... I — Sujin was right.... I really could use the help..."

"Okay, but you're working faster."

"And that, there, is another thing we need to work out."

The afternoon slowly shifts into evening, with Kyungsoo and Aeri working out details of the new bakes and drinks that they could start with.

"You need a signature pastry.... Whether it's a cookie or a chocolate, or a drink.... something that will remind everyone of this place." Aeri ponders on the words before hesitantly showing Kyungsoo a sketch stapled to the back of her notebook. It's a small cupcake, with swirled frosting and star-shaped sprinkles. The swirled frosting is in a petal pattern that Aeri has never had the confidence or expertise to perfect. "Lets make it milk with chocolate chips as the base, and vanilla flavored frosting, in rainbow colors."

"Rain... bow...?"

"Like the one on your sign outside."

"Is it possible... that would take so much work..." Kyungsoo studies the drawing carefully.

"What're you naming it?"

"Oh. Hmm... Wish.... Lets just call it a Wish." Aeri looks over at Kyungsoo fixing the aged drawing with sharp pencil and she suddenly feels safe. A wild feeling since she barely knows the man before her, but maybe, just maybe things would work out. She rests her chin on her palm and smiles softly at his bent figure. Scary or not, maybe he could make it all work. Kyungsoo looks up a while later and wavers at her expression. Hastily dropping her gaze to the sketch, Aeri clears nervously.

"I think this might work," Kyungsoo says, "but we'll need to promote this place, I think we'll need to set up a webpage for you."

"I don't know how to...."

"Neither do I," Aeri's face falls, "but I know a friend who could help me."

"Really!?" Kyungsoo bites his lips.

"Yeah I could get that brat to do it," he says thoughtfully. Aeri stops herself from squealing. "I'll bring him tomorrow and you can tell him what you want," Kyungsoo pauses at the door to hang his apron on the coat stand. Aeri holds the door open for him, beaming at him.

"See you tomorrow, Kyungsoo-ssi?" There is an odd tint of doubt in her voice which he chooses to ignore.

"Of course." He offers her a small nod. Sujin watches as Aeri stands holding the door for quite some time, staring out into the street. She rolls her eyes as her friend turns around bumping into the coat stand, before glaring at it and resuming her rather bouncing walk to the kitchen.

'Let's hope you can make miracles Do Kyungsoo, because Aeri sure needs one now.'

Sehun, Kyungsoo's brat in question, turns out to be every bit of the genius Aeri hoped he would be, but also turns out to be every bit of the brat Kyungsoo makes him out to be.

"You people do realize I can't put pictures of empty countertops and display cases," he says earning a sharp smack from Kyungsoo. "Ouch! Hyung!! What?! It's true, I don't think people will want to come to an empty café."

"Less talking, more working," glares Kyungsoo and Aeri moves to a safe distance away. "Also where's my free cupcakes??" It's about an hour before Kyungsoo sends Sehun packing out the doors, the latter yelling for ill treatment and malnourishment, so where was his free cupcake anyway? Kyungsoo sighs deeply against the closed glass door.

"He seems useless but he'll get it done," he assures Aeri who still avoids being within a ten foot radius of him, a difficult task, considering the size of the cafe. She nods briefly and escapes into the kitchen, to find Sujin grabbing a muffin.

"Geez lord, you're still at it?!" Sujin asks waving her hands wildly. "The man is squishy! I don't see what possesses you to be scared of squishy!?"

"He's not squishy okay!" Aeri turns her back to the door. "Did you see the way he glared at his friend? His eyes are so intense they could bore a hole through to your soul. So yeah, he's not just scary, he's petrifying."

Aeri turns around, almost bashing into Kyungsoo who stands with his eyebrows receding into his hairline. Sujin lets out a muffled giggle and watches Aeri duck her head, her face turning a violent shade of red to the tips of her ears, before making some excuse about dust on the sign outside and darting out. Kyungsoo receives a shrug and a half laugh from Sujin as she flips her hair behind her head and walks back to her room. He was such a confused squishy alright.