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The Letter 63
Chapter 63
O.K
Four hours after Chanyeol should’ve been at the office, he finally arrived. He ignored the glances he got when he entered the building, but what Chanyeol couldn’t ignore once he reached the privacy of his own office was Sehun bursting in with a thick load of paper work, folders, and files.
“Heard you finally came in,” Sehun started, skipping greetings and all. “Now you can work on all this.”
“What is that?”
“Don’t know. They just gave it to me when you didn’t show up.” Sehun settled the work on Chanyeol’s desk then stared at him as he lounged in his chair.
Chanyeol glanced at Sehun’s way when there was a splotch of silence that followed. “What?”
“I told you, Chanyeol,” Sehun said, pointing a finger at him. “I specifically told you to not have sex after the two of you made up.”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“It became my business when Luhan had to get out of bed too soon to open the store for Baekhyun and I came to work with a hell of a lot more paper on my desk than when I left,” Sehun retorted before almost running a hand through his hair, but stopping immediately after realizing that he didn’t want to ruin its perfection.
“Just be happy that I’m even here,” Chanyeol grumbled. “If I had things go my way, I wouldn’t even be here right now. I’d be off doing something more worthwhile, but Baek insisted on carrying on with the norm.”
“Ah,” Sehun nodded, giving Chanyeol a look. “Byun’s still the one with the brains in this relationship.” Quirking his lips, Sehun pushed a few things on Chanyeol’s desk aside to make room for when he sat on it. “So, tell me. What’s happening?”
Straightening his position in his seat, Chanyeol leaned over to grab a pen. “About what?”
“You and Byun.”
Chanyeol took a pen, only to fall back in his chair and not attempting to sort through the stack of papers that were more important that what they appeared to be to normal people. “The only thing we set up was a date on Sunday.”
“ Hn.” Sehun watched Chanyeol tap the pen in his hand against the desk, knowing that the guy’s mind was far too preoccupied to fully focus on the tasks in front of him. “What do you have planned?”
Giving Sehun a disapproving glance, Chanyeol frowned. “Why do you want to know?”
“The last time you dated was in high school. Let’s face it. Your ideas for a date are probably dated and a little childish,” Sehun explained. “You’re rusty, but that’s fine—I’m here.”
Ignoring the remark, Chanyeol scoffed. “I don’t have anything yet, but I’ve got a few days to figure things out.” A second later, Chanyeol added, “And my ideas aren’t childish—Hell, the last person I dated was him so I think I know what I’m doing.”
“Or do you?” Sehun challenged. “How do you know if Baekhyun’s taste has changed? Hm? What if he likes the more mature type now? He might’ve acquired certain exotic tastes—”
“Funny, Sehun. You’re really—fucking— funny.” The remark was said dryly, but Sehun didn’t seem to be too affected by it. “Leave me alone and go back to work. I don’t wanna be buried in this and I don’t want to work overtime, either.”
“You don’t work overtime unless you want to, boss,” Sehun pointed out, “but whatever. I’m leaving. If you need any ideas, I’m right next door. I take Luhan out as much as I can, and when I do, it usually gets me sex. Just lettin’ you know.”
“Well, hello,” Luhan greeted when he saw Baekhyun walk in through the front entrance, giving wide smiles out to customers. “It’s about time you arrived.”
“Sorry. Got delayed a bit,” Baekhyun mumbled as he let himself in behind the counters. “What’re we running low on?”
“The standard red velvet with your little signature swirls and artistic touches on it that makes it more appealing than it actually is,” Luhan said with a grin on his face. “Then we need a little bit of your seismic vanilla ones with that cherry flavored thing—I forgot the name, but you get it.”
“You work here. You should at least know the names of these things,” Baekhyun laughed.
“Right. And you, as the owner, should open up the shop by yourself.” Luhan reached out and pulled Baekhyun closer to him with one arm, practically fan servicing their young population of customers. “I can notice your minor limp, Baekhyun. Did you do something naughty last night?” Luhan whispered in his ear.
“Luhan—”
“I can practically still smell the sex off of you despite the fact that you showered,” Luhan continued. “And you have that after glow. I would know.” Then, Luhan pulled back, giving Baekhyun a shrug while motioning to himself. “I would know because I have it, too.”
Baekhyun paused for a second before bursting out laughing at Luhan’s utter brashness, making multiple customers smile—even some of his other workers grinned. No one blamed them. Baekhyun’s laugh was just a joy to hear.
Patting Luhan on the shoulder, Baekhyun struggled to control his embarrassed face. “I’ll be in the back working on those cakes.”
Smirking, Luhan excused himself from the store’s front and followed Baekhyun to the back then into the kitchen. “So, who’d you spend last night with?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know,” Baekhyun replied as he pulled out a metal bowl from a storage board. “Because apparently, Sehun was the one who broke it to him.”
Luhan held his hands up in front of him. “In my defense, I wasn’t expecting Sehun to bring him here. In fact, it surprised me to even see them for lunch yesterday—”
“Lunch?” Baekhyun placed his hands on the kitchen counter. “Chanyeol was here yesterday? For lunch?” For a moment, he went silent. “I didn’t see him…”
“How could you?” Luhan said, shrugging his shoulders. “You were too busy flirting with your female crowd—and your small amount of fan boys—for you to even notice him.”
After lugging a large sack of flour onto the sturdy counter, Baekhyun put a hand on his slightly aching back. “One, I’m just friendly—”
“Seductively friendly—”
“No, just friendly—and two, no wonder that idiot was so prepared,” Baekhyun mumbled then paused before striding over to the sink. “He knew when I was closing up so he knew when he could get me alone with making a commotion—”
“I’m sure Sehun told him to come after closing, though,” Luhan interrupted. “Chanyeol’s impulsive—always has been for as long as I can remember. I’m sure that all he wanted to do when he saw you in here was push everyone aside like some sort of stupid, cheesy romance movie, but then turn that same movie into an x-rated film right in front of your customers.”
Baekhyun pursed his lips. “Luhan,” he said in a warning tone.
But Luhan didn’t take the hint on purpose. “If Chanyeol had his way,” he continued, “he would have broken his three year sexual hiatus in public and your fan club would’ve seen you making love—ahhh.” Luhan touched his chest. “I’m getting a little emotional just thinking about this,” he teased.
Baekhyun scoffed as he took out ingredients from the fridge and overhead storages. “Can keep me out of your sexual fantasies?”
Luhan cocked his head. “Let’s not pretend that these are fantasies. I just really think that if it hadn’t been for Sehun, Chanyeol would’ve been brazen enough to do it.” He paused a second. “How hard did he come last night?”
Baekhyun was visibly embarrassed. “Luhan!”
“Was he awkward? Did he completely forget to have sex?” Luhan laughed.
“Oh my god, Luhan,” Baekhyun groaned. Turning on the faucet, he dipped his hands under the stream of water. “No, he was…perfect—I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” Turning the water off and flicking his hands, Baekhyun asked, “Why would he be awkward? Chanyeol’s never been awkward.”
“I did just say that he was on a three year sexual hiatus—well, until last night.”
Shaking his head, Baekhyun grabbed a paper towel and quickly wiped his hands. “Realistically, I don’t think so—”
“—But it is so, believe it or not. Sehun knows these things.”
Baekhyun didn’t ask for an elaboration about how Sehun inquired any of Chanyeol’s sexual activities. “Luhan, I’m sure Chanyeol’s—”
“Nope,” Luhan said, shaking his head. He walked over to Baekhyun to help, then did the job of opening the bag of flour. “You weren’t here to see him over the years. He’s been like a loyal dog to you—well, a loyal dog or mourning widow, which ever comparison you prefer.”
Like the day before, Chanyeol took an early leave off of work while damning Sehun with a little more work than he bargained for that day. Sehun had tried to give the paperwork and files back to Chanyeol, yelling that he was the “CEO of the damn company” and that it was his responsibility, but Chanyeol shut the door behind him, cutting Sehun’s rant off.
When he arrived at the café, Baekhyun still had a fair amount of seated customers along with people dropping by. Baekhyun looked like he was caught off guard by his visit, but nonetheless smiled at him, then motioned for him to take a seat.
Since there wasn’t that many people left, Baekhyun excused himself from duty. He went off and got a small plastic plate, picking and placing one of the gigantic sugary goods on display on it. Then he stuck a tiny plastic knife in the pocket of his apron. After he picked one out, Baekhyun went to join Chanyeol.
Chanyeol rose to pull Baekhyun’s chair out, but Baekhyun waved him off. “I got it,” he assured, balancing the plate with one hand while pulling his chair out with the other. “Didn’t know what flavore you’d like so I chose something half and half inside. It’s just plain vanilla and chocolate.”
“That’s really something, Baek.”
“I made it.”
“I know you did.”
Sitting down, Baekhyun smirked. “I made it just for you. Actually, I wasn’t expecting you until later. I didn’t expect you’d cut work this early, which you really shouldn't do—”
“I didn’t cut,” Chanyeol said.
Raising an eyebrow, Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a look that told him he didn’t buy it. “Sehun called and asked to talk to me. I think I would know whether you cut or not, idiot.”
Chanyeol put a sour look on his face. “If I wanna see you, I will. Work can be held off.”
“Hm.” Baekhyun took the fold of the cupcake’s paper wrappings and slowly started to peel it off. “I don’t want you putting me ahead of work, Chanyeol.” When he saw that Chanyeol was going to refute him, Baekhyun continued quickly. “I’m just saying. I don’t want you spoiling me,” he mumbled. “Find a perfect balance.”
“But work’s boring,” Chanyeol complained. “I like it here.”
Taking the plastic knife from his apron, Baekhyun tried to decide where to begin cutting the piece of pastry. “You can’t keep leaving Sehun buried under all the work that’s meant for you.”
“But that’s his job—and what’re you doing?” Chanyeol asked as he reached over and stopped Baekhyun from slicing into the treat.
“I made it too big,” Baekhyun grimaced.
“Who cares? I don’t want you cutting it up.” Chanyeol took the cupcake and held it in his hand. “It’s not that big.”
“That’s because your hands are fucking enormous, idiot.”
“But you love the feel of them, don’t you?”
Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “That’s beside the point,” he mumbled. “I don’t want you to choke and die out on me.”
“Cause you love me?”
“No, cause I’d be faced with manslaughter and a ruined reputation…”
“Well I’m glad you care about something,” Chanyeol laughed. He held the treat up to his lips and took a small bite out from the top.
“Chanyeol, really. Just let me cut it in half at least.”
Chanyeol shook his head and finally took a serious bite out of the chocolate side. Baekhyun watched him evaluate the taste and felt a grin grow on his face when Chanyeol gave him a thumbs up with his free hand.
When Chanyeol tried to talk, it came out a bit muffled so he tried again after he swallowed. “It’s good—really good, Baek. I didn’t know that you could do things like this.” The statement suddenly brought another thought to Chanyeol’s head. “I mean, if I was actually doing things right back then, maybe I would’ve known, but—”
Baekhyun held a hand up. “Let’s move past it, Chanyeol…” He paused for a moment. “You know the movie date?”
“How could I forget?”
“You’re eating a recreation of what I made for you that day—it’s a little more glitzy, but that’s because back then I didn’t have much to work with,” Baekhyun explained. “The half and half flavor was supposed to surprise you because it’s supposed to reflect you. You know, the way you’d surprise me with everything you did. The sprinkles and aqua blue frosting’s just for your personality. Bright and vast, kind of like the sky.Then the size. It’s a giant cupcake made for a giant pabo.”
Chanyeol was left speechless. He glanced down at the cupcake in his hand before turning his attention back at Baekhyun, who merely shrugged. “Since it’s bigger than all the rest of the cupcakes in display, it stood out. A lot of people asked me about it. Some even wanted to buy it from me, but I told them that they couldn’t have it. I told them that it was mine. The giant that stood out was mine.”
In all the time that Chanyeol knew Baekhyun, he knew that the guy would never confess anything directly. In fact, that explained all the letter writing. Adding onto that, after Baekhyun left, Chanyeol realized that even though Baekhyun was never upfront about anything concerning how he felt, when he wasn’t looking, Baekhyun would leave traces of how he felt here and there—Chanyeol was just too busy looking for the obvious to notice.
This time around, Chanyeol caught onto Baekhyun's little and subtle cupcake analogy. He understood Baekhyun's small claim on him and it spoke louder than anything Chanyeol's ever heard before.
Without letting another second go to waste, Chanyeol set the cupcake back down on the plate, reached over, grabbing Baekhyun by the front of his apron shirt, and pulled him forward at the same time Chanyeol leaned over. Right in the middle, Chanyeol connected their lips.
When the connection was made, everything else seemed to have disappeared. Neither of them took notice at their surrounding or the pairs of eyes watching them.
The two only pulled apart when Luhan coughed loudly at the front of the counter. "I'm all for your sweet moment, but you've got people watching and I'm not sure how comfortable either of you are being watched."
Pulling back and letting Baekhyun go, Chanyeol looked around to find that people were looking at them. Unlike Baekhyun, who turned beet red, Chanyeol smirked and let them know that what they just saw really did happen and that he was more than just a customer or "friend" to Byun Baekhyun.
Baekhyun glanced down, still red, and wiped nonexistent dust off his apron before scooting his chair back and rising. "I should go back."
When Baekhyun turned to leave, Chanyeol got up and held him by the hand. "Sunday. Don't forget."
Baekhyun turned around and gave him a look. "Worry about yourself, idiot. I won't forget."
"Yah! I won’t forget either. I got it all in here," Chanyeol said, tapping at his head.
Baekhyun scoffed, but nonetheless smiled. "You better."
He went off to retrieve a small, plastic container for the rest of the cupcake and returned, handing it to Chanyeol, who proceeded to place his half-eaten cupcake inside it.
"Chanyeol, go back to work for now. I'm still open for a while."
"But—"
"I'll meet you when everything's done," Baekhyun offered. "Then we can....talk about what we want to do on Sunday."
Chanyeol looked down on him. "Meet me where?"
Baekhyun paused for a second. "Your place..."
Without caring about the people around them, Chanyeol swooped down and placed a quick one of Baekhyun's lips before he could even react. Then Chanyeol gently traced his jawline with a finger.
"You know the code. Let yourself in."
O.K
Four hours after Chanyeol should’ve been at the office, he finally arrived. He ignored the glances he got when he entered the building, but what Chanyeol couldn’t ignore once he reached the privacy of his own office was Sehun bursting in with a thick load of paper work, folders, and files.
“Heard you finally came in,” Sehun started, skipping greetings and all. “Now you can work on all this.”
“What is that?”
“Don’t know. They just gave it to me when you didn’t show up.” Sehun settled the work on Chanyeol’s desk then stared at him as he lounged in his chair.
Chanyeol glanced at Sehun’s way when there was a splotch of silence that followed. “What?”
“I told you, Chanyeol,” Sehun said, pointing a finger at him. “I specifically told you to not have sex after the two of you made up.”
“I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
“It became my business when Luhan had to get out of bed too soon to open the store for Baekhyun and I came to work with a hell of a lot more paper on my desk than when I left,” Sehun retorted before almost running a hand through his hair, but stopping immediately after realizing that he didn’t want to ruin its perfection.
“Just be happy that I’m even here,” Chanyeol grumbled. “If I had things go my way, I wouldn’t even be here right now. I’d be off doing something more worthwhile, but Baek insisted on carrying on with the norm.”
“Ah,” Sehun nodded, giving Chanyeol a look. “Byun’s still the one with the brains in this relationship.” Quirking his lips, Sehun pushed a few things on Chanyeol’s desk aside to make room for when he sat on it. “So, tell me. What’s happening?”
Straightening his position in his seat, Chanyeol leaned over to grab a pen. “About what?”
“You and Byun.”
Chanyeol took a pen, only to fall back in his chair and not attempting to sort through the stack of papers that were more important that what they appeared to be to normal people. “The only thing we set up was a date on Sunday.”
“ Hn.” Sehun watched Chanyeol tap the pen in his hand against the desk, knowing that the guy’s mind was far too preoccupied to fully focus on the tasks in front of him. “What do you have planned?”
Giving Sehun a disapproving glance, Chanyeol frowned. “Why do you want to know?”
“The last time you dated was in high school. Let’s face it. Your ideas for a date are probably dated and a little childish,” Sehun explained. “You’re rusty, but that’s fine—I’m here.”
Ignoring the remark, Chanyeol scoffed. “I don’t have anything yet, but I’ve got a few days to figure things out.” A second later, Chanyeol added, “And my ideas aren’t childish—Hell, the last person I dated was him so I think I know what I’m doing.”
“Or do you?” Sehun challenged. “How do you know if Baekhyun’s taste has changed? Hm? What if he likes the more mature type now? He might’ve acquired certain exotic tastes—”
“Funny, Sehun. You’re really—fucking— funny.” The remark was said dryly, but Sehun didn’t seem to be too affected by it. “Leave me alone and go back to work. I don’t wanna be buried in this and I don’t want to work overtime, either.”
“You don’t work overtime unless you want to, boss,” Sehun pointed out, “but whatever. I’m leaving. If you need any ideas, I’m right next door. I take Luhan out as much as I can, and when I do, it usually gets me sex. Just lettin’ you know.”
“Well, hello,” Luhan greeted when he saw Baekhyun walk in through the front entrance, giving wide smiles out to customers. “It’s about time you arrived.”
“Sorry. Got delayed a bit,” Baekhyun mumbled as he let himself in behind the counters. “What’re we running low on?”
“The standard red velvet with your little signature swirls and artistic touches on it that makes it more appealing than it actually is,” Luhan said with a grin on his face. “Then we need a little bit of your seismic vanilla ones with that cherry flavored thing—I forgot the name, but you get it.”
“You work here. You should at least know the names of these things,” Baekhyun laughed.
“Right. And you, as the owner, should open up the shop by yourself.” Luhan reached out and pulled Baekhyun closer to him with one arm, practically fan servicing their young population of customers. “I can notice your minor limp, Baekhyun. Did you do something naughty last night?” Luhan whispered in his ear.
“Luhan—”
“I can practically still smell the sex off of you despite the fact that you showered,” Luhan continued. “And you have that after glow. I would know.” Then, Luhan pulled back, giving Baekhyun a shrug while motioning to himself. “I would know because I have it, too.”
Baekhyun paused for a second before bursting out laughing at Luhan’s utter brashness, making multiple customers smile—even some of his other workers grinned. No one blamed them. Baekhyun’s laugh was just a joy to hear.
Patting Luhan on the shoulder, Baekhyun struggled to control his embarrassed face. “I’ll be in the back working on those cakes.”
Smirking, Luhan excused himself from the store’s front and followed Baekhyun to the back then into the kitchen. “So, who’d you spend last night with?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know,” Baekhyun replied as he pulled out a metal bowl from a storage board. “Because apparently, Sehun was the one who broke it to him.”
Luhan held his hands up in front of him. “In my defense, I wasn’t expecting Sehun to bring him here. In fact, it surprised me to even see them for lunch yesterday—”
“Lunch?” Baekhyun placed his hands on the kitchen counter. “Chanyeol was here yesterday? For lunch?” For a moment, he went silent. “I didn’t see him…”
“How could you?” Luhan said, shrugging his shoulders. “You were too busy flirting with your female crowd—and your small amount of fan boys—for you to even notice him.”
After lugging a large sack of flour onto the sturdy counter, Baekhyun put a hand on his slightly aching back. “One, I’m just friendly—”
“Seductively friendly—”
“No, just friendly—and two, no wonder that idiot was so prepared,” Baekhyun mumbled then paused before striding over to the sink. “He knew when I was closing up so he knew when he could get me alone with making a commotion—”
“I’m sure Sehun told him to come after closing, though,” Luhan interrupted. “Chanyeol’s impulsive—always has been for as long as I can remember. I’m sure that all he wanted to do when he saw you in here was push everyone aside like some sort of stupid, cheesy romance movie, but then turn that same movie into an x-rated film right in front of your customers.”
Baekhyun pursed his lips. “Luhan,” he said in a warning tone.
But Luhan didn’t take the hint on purpose. “If Chanyeol had his way,” he continued, “he would have broken his three year sexual hiatus in public and your fan club would’ve seen you making love—ahhh.” Luhan touched his chest. “I’m getting a little emotional just thinking about this,” he teased.
Baekhyun scoffed as he took out ingredients from the fridge and overhead storages. “Can keep me out of your sexual fantasies?”
Luhan cocked his head. “Let’s not pretend that these are fantasies. I just really think that if it hadn’t been for Sehun, Chanyeol would’ve been brazen enough to do it.” He paused a second. “How hard did he come last night?”
Baekhyun was visibly embarrassed. “Luhan!”
“Was he awkward? Did he completely forget to have sex?” Luhan laughed.
“Oh my god, Luhan,” Baekhyun groaned. Turning on the faucet, he dipped his hands under the stream of water. “No, he was…perfect—I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” Turning the water off and flicking his hands, Baekhyun asked, “Why would he be awkward? Chanyeol’s never been awkward.”
“I did just say that he was on a three year sexual hiatus—well, until last night.”
Shaking his head, Baekhyun grabbed a paper towel and quickly wiped his hands. “Realistically, I don’t think so—”
“—But it is so, believe it or not. Sehun knows these things.”
Baekhyun didn’t ask for an elaboration about how Sehun inquired any of Chanyeol’s sexual activities. “Luhan, I’m sure Chanyeol’s—”
“Nope,” Luhan said, shaking his head. He walked over to Baekhyun to help, then did the job of opening the bag of flour. “You weren’t here to see him over the years. He’s been like a loyal dog to you—well, a loyal dog or mourning widow, which ever comparison you prefer.”
Like the day before, Chanyeol took an early leave off of work while damning Sehun with a little more work than he bargained for that day. Sehun had tried to give the paperwork and files back to Chanyeol, yelling that he was the “CEO of the damn company” and that it was his responsibility, but Chanyeol shut the door behind him, cutting Sehun’s rant off.
When he arrived at the café, Baekhyun still had a fair amount of seated customers along with people dropping by. Baekhyun looked like he was caught off guard by his visit, but nonetheless smiled at him, then motioned for him to take a seat.
Since there wasn’t that many people left, Baekhyun excused himself from duty. He went off and got a small plastic plate, picking and placing one of the gigantic sugary goods on display on it. Then he stuck a tiny plastic knife in the pocket of his apron. After he picked one out, Baekhyun went to join Chanyeol.
Chanyeol rose to pull Baekhyun’s chair out, but Baekhyun waved him off. “I got it,” he assured, balancing the plate with one hand while pulling his chair out with the other. “Didn’t know what flavore you’d like so I chose something half and half inside. It’s just plain vanilla and chocolate.”
“That’s really something, Baek.”
“I made it.”
“I know you did.”
Sitting down, Baekhyun smirked. “I made it just for you. Actually, I wasn’t expecting you until later. I didn’t expect you’d cut work this early, which you really shouldn't do—”
“I didn’t cut,” Chanyeol said.
Raising an eyebrow, Baekhyun gave Chanyeol a look that told him he didn’t buy it. “Sehun called and asked to talk to me. I think I would know whether you cut or not, idiot.”
Chanyeol put a sour look on his face. “If I wanna see you, I will. Work can be held off.”
“Hm.” Baekhyun took the fold of the cupcake’s paper wrappings and slowly started to peel it off. “I don’t want you putting me ahead of work, Chanyeol.” When he saw that Chanyeol was going to refute him, Baekhyun continued quickly. “I’m just saying. I don’t want you spoiling me,” he mumbled. “Find a perfect balance.”
“But work’s boring,” Chanyeol complained. “I like it here.”
Taking the plastic knife from his apron, Baekhyun tried to decide where to begin cutting the piece of pastry. “You can’t keep leaving Sehun buried under all the work that’s meant for you.”
“But that’s his job—and what’re you doing?” Chanyeol asked as he reached over and stopped Baekhyun from slicing into the treat.
“I made it too big,” Baekhyun grimaced.
“Who cares? I don’t want you cutting it up.” Chanyeol took the cupcake and held it in his hand. “It’s not that big.”
“That’s because your hands are fucking enormous, idiot.”
“But you love the feel of them, don’t you?”
Baekhyun rolled his eyes. “That’s beside the point,” he mumbled. “I don’t want you to choke and die out on me.”
“Cause you love me?”
“No, cause I’d be faced with manslaughter and a ruined reputation…”
“Well I’m glad you care about something,” Chanyeol laughed. He held the treat up to his lips and took a small bite out from the top.
“Chanyeol, really. Just let me cut it in half at least.”
Chanyeol shook his head and finally took a serious bite out of the chocolate side. Baekhyun watched him evaluate the taste and felt a grin grow on his face when Chanyeol gave him a thumbs up with his free hand.
When Chanyeol tried to talk, it came out a bit muffled so he tried again after he swallowed. “It’s good—really good, Baek. I didn’t know that you could do things like this.” The statement suddenly brought another thought to Chanyeol’s head. “I mean, if I was actually doing things right back then, maybe I would’ve known, but—”
Baekhyun held a hand up. “Let’s move past it, Chanyeol…” He paused for a moment. “You know the movie date?”
“How could I forget?”
“You’re eating a recreation of what I made for you that day—it’s a little more glitzy, but that’s because back then I didn’t have much to work with,” Baekhyun explained. “The half and half flavor was supposed to surprise you because it’s supposed to reflect you. You know, the way you’d surprise me with everything you did. The sprinkles and aqua blue frosting’s just for your personality. Bright and vast, kind of like the sky.Then the size. It’s a giant cupcake made for a giant pabo.”
Chanyeol was left speechless. He glanced down at the cupcake in his hand before turning his attention back at Baekhyun, who merely shrugged. “Since it’s bigger than all the rest of the cupcakes in display, it stood out. A lot of people asked me about it. Some even wanted to buy it from me, but I told them that they couldn’t have it. I told them that it was mine. The giant that stood out was mine.”
In all the time that Chanyeol knew Baekhyun, he knew that the guy would never confess anything directly. In fact, that explained all the letter writing. Adding onto that, after Baekhyun left, Chanyeol realized that even though Baekhyun was never upfront about anything concerning how he felt, when he wasn’t looking, Baekhyun would leave traces of how he felt here and there—Chanyeol was just too busy looking for the obvious to notice.
This time around, Chanyeol caught onto Baekhyun's little and subtle cupcake analogy. He understood Baekhyun's small claim on him and it spoke louder than anything Chanyeol's ever heard before.
Without letting another second go to waste, Chanyeol set the cupcake back down on the plate, reached over, grabbing Baekhyun by the front of his apron shirt, and pulled him forward at the same time Chanyeol leaned over. Right in the middle, Chanyeol connected their lips.
When the connection was made, everything else seemed to have disappeared. Neither of them took notice at their surrounding or the pairs of eyes watching them.
The two only pulled apart when Luhan coughed loudly at the front of the counter. "I'm all for your sweet moment, but you've got people watching and I'm not sure how comfortable either of you are being watched."
Pulling back and letting Baekhyun go, Chanyeol looked around to find that people were looking at them. Unlike Baekhyun, who turned beet red, Chanyeol smirked and let them know that what they just saw really did happen and that he was more than just a customer or "friend" to Byun Baekhyun.
Baekhyun glanced down, still red, and wiped nonexistent dust off his apron before scooting his chair back and rising. "I should go back."
When Baekhyun turned to leave, Chanyeol got up and held him by the hand. "Sunday. Don't forget."
Baekhyun turned around and gave him a look. "Worry about yourself, idiot. I won't forget."
"Yah! I won’t forget either. I got it all in here," Chanyeol said, tapping at his head.
Baekhyun scoffed, but nonetheless smiled. "You better."
He went off to retrieve a small, plastic container for the rest of the cupcake and returned, handing it to Chanyeol, who proceeded to place his half-eaten cupcake inside it.
"Chanyeol, go back to work for now. I'm still open for a while."
"But—"
"I'll meet you when everything's done," Baekhyun offered. "Then we can....talk about what we want to do on Sunday."
Chanyeol looked down on him. "Meet me where?"
Baekhyun paused for a second. "Your place..."
Without caring about the people around them, Chanyeol swooped down and placed a quick one of Baekhyun's lips before he could even react. Then Chanyeol gently traced his jawline with a finger.
"You know the code. Let yourself in."
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