Chapter Two: Coconut water and the Lemon Tart 

The next day Jaebum woke up in a much better mood, the clouds were gone and it was bright and sunny.It was warm days like these that Jaebum enjoyed the most. It was also Friday which meant he only had to work today and then he was free for the weekend.  Jaebum never cooked breakfast and usually went to the coffee shop to eat but now he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to do that. The shop wasn’t the same anymore, but Jaebum was hungry and he had plans for the day. He always stuck to the same schedule and today shouldn’t be any different.

After dressing himself in his gym attire Jaebum headed out the door and made his way to the café. When he arrived there were even more people seated in the shop, their gossip loud in Jaebum’s ears. Jaebum tried to ignore the ual looks he got from both the men and women in the shop as he made his way to the cash register. Jaebum was waiting in line patiently until someone bumped into him, giggling before saying a shy sorry. Jaebum nearly growled at the girl before turning his attention back to the front.

“Oh hey it’s you! How are you today, did you enjoy my coffee cake?” Jinyoung asked cheerfully. Today Jaebum noticed that the silly man was wearing a yellow apron with little lemons all around them that stopped just about the ruffled bottom of the apron. Raising his eye at the offending color Jaebum just said, “Do you still make the super fruit Bagel here?”

“Oh yes I forgot!” Jinyoung said, before leaving Jaebum to run through the double doors he had come through earlier. Jaebum looked on confused before Jinyoung came back, just as quick as he left with a baby blue bag in his hand.

“Grandpa told me that you were a regular and that you liked this on the weekend’s so I made it ahead of time just for you, but don’t worry it’s still really fresh. I even grow some of the berries that go inside myself.” Jinyoung said smiling brightly. He looked so happy to have remembered this one piece of information.

“Uh…thanks that was really kind of you, is there any chance you have coconut water here, I usually get it from the local international mart but I didn’t have time for it yesterday.” Jaebum said, he knew it was a long shot but the old man that used to run it had a few bottles every now and then, said it made his baking taste even better.

“You are just in luck mister I have on bottle left. I used some of it in my lemon tart today so I hope you don’t mind that it’s open. If you do I can’t help you.” Jinyoung said sadly.

Jaebum normally would have said no to such a thing from strangers but he hated drinking plain water after a workout and drinks like Gatorade just tasted way too salty. So sighing Jaebum just nodded his head and said, “That’s fine I don’t mind.” He was happy that Jinyoung gave him a discount on the water before he put everything into a larger pastel purple bag before waving good-bye to Jaebum as he left.

Before getting to the gym Jaebum eat his bagel and drank his water before noticing that there was another thing at the bottom of the bag. Picking it up he saw a nearly packaged pie piece. It had a yellow jam top and a sticky note attached to the bottom that read,

 Sorry about the coconut water, I’ll be sure to have some in stock just for you. I hope you enjoy the lemon tart. I made it with love. ,

                                                                        Jinyoung

Jaebum didn’t know how to feel about the message but he was pleased to hear that he only needed to make one stop at the café to get his precious coconut water. Deciding to eat the small tart and then work it off he unwrapped it from its confinements and took a bite. It tasted less sour than he anticipated but it wasn’t overly sweet. The fragrant scent of lemons danced inside Jaebum’s nose. While Jaebum wasn’t fond of sweets he actually liked this one, and if anyone would have said that they caught a slight smile on his face after he ate his treat, well he would deny…deny…deny.