Chapter Text
Snow crunching beneath his designer boots, Hyunjin walked down Queen Street as a heavy snow fall turned Toronto into a winter wonderland, Christmas lights dancing in the evening snow. Flipping up the collar of his charcoal grey cashmere peacoat he wrapped his red scarf more tightly around his neck admitting he was going to have to invest in some heavier winter weight clothes if he was going to stay in Toronto for much longer. He loved his condo downtown, usually utilizing it in the spring or autumn, but recently he had felt suffocated in Seoul. Back home everyone knew who he was, and even if people didn’t come up to him, he still knew his every action was being watched. His fame hadn’t spread outside of South Korea though, much to his manager’s dismay, so in Toronto he was just another person walking down the street in the snow. Until one of the few drivers on the road hit a slush puddle and sent a wave of cold water down Hyunjin’s entire right side.
Taking a breath as the shock from the sudden cold hit his nerves, he looked around to see one of the only businesses open, a brightly lit shop called Truman’s Bakery with twinkling Christmas lights around the window. Seeking refuge in the heat, Hyunjin pulled open the door with the ringing of a bell and walked into the shop, his nose filling instantly with the smell of baked goods. The shop was painted in a soft lemon yellow, and had pale pink trim around the ceiling, doorways and baseboards. The chest high pastry case was filled with cookies, cakes and brownies that all seemed too adorably decorated to eat. Shaking off his wet arm, Hyunjin looked at the row of Christmas sugar cookies shaped like Christmas trees, ornaments and presents and smelled the fresh coffee when someone rushed out from the back.
“How can I help you?” he asked with a slight accent to his English and Hyunjin’s heart plummeted. It was just his luck that when he wanted to be anonymous he would find the one bakery run by Koreans on the block. Hyunjin looked at the man behind the counter, he was nearly as tall as he was, but looked about a year or two younger with a narrow angular face. His short black hair was pushed out of his eyes by a black headband so it stuck up at strange angles and his full length apron was covered in bits of icing like he had been pulled away from decorating the cookies.Hyunjin looked back at the case to take a moment to think, concentrating on the Christmas music that was lightly playing in the background. His eyes landed on a shelf of sugar cookies in the shape of animal heads, one row a chick, one a fennec fox, one a puppy, and one a chipmunk looking thing Hyunjin didn’t actually know what it was. The cookies looked so absurdly out of place next to all the Christmas related treats that Hyunjin couldn’t help but smile.
“I’ll take a small coffee and one of the-” Hyunjin leaned towards the pastry case to read the nametag in front of the cookie he wanted, “BbokAri cookies. Also some paper towels if you have any.” he said, taking off his soaked glove to try and get warmth back into his freezing fingers. The worker’s eyes grew when he noticed the puddle that was forming under Hyunjin’s right side from the water dripping from his sleeve. The young man sprang into action, grabbing some paper towels so Hyunjin could at least dry off his cold red hand then calling into the back for a mop.
“How do you take your coffee?” the worker, whose name tag read Jeongin, asked heading to the coffee maker.
“Black,” Hyunjin answered as another person came out of the backroom with the mop and bucket. He was shorter than the other man, with his long blonde hair done in an intricate bun at the back of his head. The two muttered to each other as the one with the bucket wheeled it into the customer area seeing the mess for the first time.
“Geez mate, what happened to you?” he asked, in a deep voice with an Australian accent Hyunjin wasn’t expecting. Feeling defensive over his state, Hyunjin looked at the blonde and instantly lost all train of thought. This man was otherworldly beautiful, even with the flour that was swiped across one of his cheeks that did nothing to hide the wash of freckles underneath, and with the smirk he was giving Hyunjin he felt a sudden heat rise in his own cheeks that he didn’t know if he could pass off as redness from the cold outside.
“Um, I got splashed by a car passing,” Hyunjin admitted his signature shyness kicking in at the worst possible moment. The blonde looked at him with concern and Hyunjin continued to stare until the man behind the counter cleared his throat, placing his coffee and a bag with his cookie down by the cash register. Hyunjin was glad he had an excuse to look away and blinked a few times to try and get his head back on straight, or as straight as it could be with him. Reaching into the back pocket of his jeans for his wallet, Hyunjin stopped when he heard the man with the mop give a small shout at the man behind the counter.
“Innie, don’t take his money,” he said sternly, his tone of voice leaving no room for argument with the younger man. Hyujin looked from the man behind him to the cashier, not sure what was happening at the moment. Jeongin just shrugged, looking at Hyunjin with a small smile.
“Gotta do what the boss says.” he said with another shrug. Hyunjin looked at him for another second before taking a bill, large enough to cover the cost and then some, out of his wallet and sticking it into the mason jar on the counter indicated for tips. Giving Jeongin a small smile Hyunjin picked up his coffee and cookie, turning to face the man behind him he raised his coffee cup in thanks, which just seemed to annoy the blonde if the way he pursed his lips said anything, Hyunjin made his way to the few aluminum pink and yellow tables and chairs that made up the small cafe. He watched with a satisfied smile as the blonde took a huffy breath then continued mopping up the puddle Hyunjin’s coat had made on the floor before going into the back, leaving the mop and bucket out in case there were any other snow related messes. Taking the lid off his coffee Hyunjin wrapped his long fingers around the cup, feeling the warmth from the liquid warming his cold hand, and watched as the snow fell outside the window. It was so serene and peaceful Hyunjin told himself it wasn’t because he could see every time the blonde came out from the back in the reflection of the window. Feeling his phone vibrate in his coat pocket nearly had him groaning at the interruption. Pulling it out of the inner pocket of his coat, Hyunjin heaved a sigh not really wanting to answer but knowing he had to. Since if he didn’t Chan would just keep calling until he got through. It was one of his more annoying habits, even if Hyunjin didn’t hate it at all.
“Channie-hyung, please tell me you actually slept last night.” Hyunjin answered before taking a sip of his coffee, noticing how the two other men in the shop turned to look at him as he started speaking Korean. It seemed he was going to have to watch what he said since they could understand him.
“And please tell me you aren’t drinking coffee late at night wherever you are.” Chan chuckled into the phone.
“It’s not that late,” Hyunjin tried to keep the pout out of his voice but failed. Chan always had a way of making Hyunjin feel like a trainee that needed to be taken care of all over again. He had moved on from being an idol into modeling when it was obvious he wasn’t going to be placed into a group, and was only being used as a backup dancer, but Chan, Lee Know and Changbin had all refused to break off contact with him when he left, Chan often checking up on him the way he figured an older brother would. Taking his cookie out of its bag Hyunjin took a bite, and couldn’t help the noise of surprise at how good it was, buttery and soft that totally melted into his mouth with icing that wasn’t too sweet even though it covered the entire top of the cookie.
“How are you doing?” Chan asked, getting right to the point. Hyunjin took another bite to prolong his answer, knowing that whatever excuse he gave Chan was going to see right through anyway. When Hyunjin didn’t answer right away Chan continued. “Binnie’s asked if I’ve heard from you lately.”
Hyunjin sighed, of course Changbin would reach out to Chan just like they all would have. It had been incredibly hard watching the three of them being formed into a group, leaving Hyunjin behind. There were just added complications when it came to Changbin, mainly that the two of them lived together as roommates even though they had been having a private off and on affair for the last few years.
“He called me when we got home from an event and he noticed you were gone.” Hyunjin rubbed his forehead with his hand, but still he said nothing which seemed to prompt Chan to continue his one sided conversation.
“He ended things again didn’t he?” Chan asked, obviously deciding to get right to the point of this phone call. Hyunjin still said nothing, taking another sip of his coffee as Chan sighed on the other end of the phone. “Why do you keep going back to him if you know he’s just going to hurt you?”
“It’s complicated,” was the only answer that Hyunjin gave, taking another bite of his cookie and letting out another noise of appreciation. The answer that Hyunjin wasn’t saying was even though he knew Changbin would come to him when the stress and loneliness of being an idol got to him and he would eventually end things when everything calmed down, it was better than being alone. He just wished he didn’t feel it so deeply every time it happened.
“Hyunjinie, Christmas is in four weeks and I was going to go home for it since we don’t have anything scheduled until the new year. Come with me.” Hyunjin nearly choked on his cookie at the offer. He had long ago gotten over the teenaged crush he had on Chan, or at least that’s what he told himself on almost a daily basis.
“I was going to stay in Canada for Christmas. See what all the fuss is about.” Hyunjin answered as nonchalantly as he could given he had nearly ended his life on bright yellow frosting.
“Call me if you change your mind,” Chan said though it was obvious by his tone of voice he didn’t want to leave it there.
“I will, I promise.” Hyunjin answered before hanging up the phone, knowing that was the last thing he was actually going to do.
Felix told himself the beautiful man sitting in his cafe had nothing to do with the small excuses he kept coming up with to come back out to the front of the bakery. He should be focusing on the cookie order that was being picked up that evening which was the only reason they were still open, but it was only a couple dozen cookies and they were all baked at this point. Which was why he kept bringing out trays for Innie to decorate, since there was a customer in the bakery and one of them should be out front. That was absolutely the only reason, even if Innie kept giving him these knowing smiles every time he came out from the back. Besides with all the ovens going it was hot back there and Felix didn’t want the icing on this order to melt. They were a fairly new bakery and had only recently added online bulk orders to their website; he didn’t want to mess up one of the few orders they had gotten.
Felix broke out of his train of thought when Jeongin had to clear his throat again to force Felix to stop watching the gorgeous man currently sitting in his cafe, having what looked like a distressing phone conversation. With the amount of times he’d had to do this it was starting to sound like he was coming down with a cold. Felix snapped out of it, taking the tray of finished cookies to package in the box he was currently loading. He was not at all watching as the gorgeous man was now running his large strong hand through his dark brown shoulder length shaggy hair and - maybe Han was right and Felix needed to take some time off work. Sadly that wasn’t something that was in the cards for him until at least the new year. Though it would be nice to spend some time with a gorgeous man, who was tall with legs for days and full lips and who had just turned to catch Felix staring at him. Ducking his head back down to look at the box he was packing Felix could feel his cheeks heat with an uncharacteristic blush. Peering up over the top of the pastry box lid Felix saw those intense dark brown eyes still watching him, now paired with a smile that promised he would do a whole array of dirty things to Felix if he only let him. Biting the corner of his lower lip, he watched as those eyes followed his movement and tried not to envision what it would be like to have those long fingers caressing his body, but failing miserably.
“Do I need to leave you two alone?” Jeongin whispered into his ear causing Felix to jump and nearly drop the tray of cookies he was supposed to be packing.
“No, of course not.” Felix answered, clearing his suddenly dry throat.
“You sure, the office is just down the hall and Han’s already gone home for the night since you’re here. Hell I won’t even say anything of you want to try to sneak him upstairs” Jeongin whispered laughing when Felix said nothing but just gawked at him. Felix quickly finished packing the order and shut the lid before retreating to the back to clean up. The industrial dishwasher was running as he wiped down the counter top he used to roll out the dough when Jeongin swung open the white door poking his head into the back room.
“The cookie order was picked up, and your incredibly hot eye candy left so I was going to start shutting down the front.” Felix just nodded, taking a steadying breath when he was alone again he braced his hands on the counter top. It had been so long since he’d had a reaction to someone that strong, but as much fun as it would have been to take tall, dark and gorgeous up on his nonverbal offer Felix had over things to worry about right now. Mainly on keeping Truman’s up and running in the new year. He just hoped this guy wasn’t about to haunt his dreams, but also wouldn’t be too upset if he did.