Chapter Text
working as the owner of a bakery was not an easy task, especially when milk hadn't gotten an application from anybody in months. it wasn't like there wasn't a big sign hanging on the window that said "now hiring!” in big, bold letters for the entire street to see. everybody who entered the bakery already had a job, or was not interested in working a minimum wage job. (that was all milk could afford to pay them plus tips.)
milk was lucky to have at least two employees under her belt. but unfortunately, one called out sick and the other had paid time off that day.
a heavy sigh drew out from milk's lips, resting her head on the palm of her hand. she watched the oncoming rainfall begin to make its way onto the pavement, raindrops forming puddles on the concrete and water traveling its way to the nearest sewer. welp. rain meant little to no customers for the remainder of the day.
the pads of milk’s fingers drummed along her cheek, tapping in a rhythmic pattern. her attention divided between the people running with bags and briefcases over their head, seeking shelter from the downpour, while some with umbrellas treated the gloomy weather like a minor inconvenience.
what was milk to do about her boredom? mop the floor while blasting music? stare at her phone until someone enters? cook more pastries and items to stock in the display case? do all three?
well, she had nothing to do, and there were three hours until closing.
milk tightened the strings of her apron, with a mop in hand and a bucket full of clean water, she spun the dial of her speaker and began to play her playlist
full of upbeat, pop music. the bakery boomed with music, filling the once empty silence with exhilarating tunes. milk began to sway her hips side by side, matching with the tempo of the song, she slid across the floor with the mop, leaving long streaks of soap and water along the floor.
using the handle as an imaginary microphone, milk lip-synced the words to the song as if she were the singer herself. occasionally pointing and waving at nothing to feel the energy of performing on stage and during the performance, she managed to get the whole shop and kitchen spotless clean. not a single speck of dust was safe from milk.
sadly, milk's time alone was cut short by the sound of the bell at the door, she hurried out to the register, fixing her ponytail before she greeting the customer. “hello- oh.” a familiar face entered the shop, long brown hair and a tall figure was all milk needed to know who it was. her shoulders relaxed back, knowing that it was a friendly face at the door.
" hey ." view, a long-time friend of milk, waved her hands to greet her. it wasn't like view to show up to her bakery in the evening. in most cases, they'd hang out after milk closed up shop or in the early morning hours after a long night of drinking. so seeing view arrive when she usually would be at her job was a very rare occurrence and raised some eyebrows at least for milk.
"hey.. i thought we were meeting after i closed?" milk turned her whole body around, her back facing view as she began to whip up the regular drink view would order. "why are you here four hours early? " she added the finishing touches to the drink, shaving a graham cracker on top the whipped cream, covering it in brown crumbs. she added a big straw and turned back to serve her friend the drink.. and nearly dropped it on the freshly cleaned floor.
standing beside view, a much shorter woman appeared, her wavy-caramel locks fell past her shoulders, and her round black pupils stared right up at milk, meeting her eyes with an equal amount of shock. “i’m here because i wanted you to meet someone, she’s interested in looking for a part-time job.” view, seemingly unaware that the pair knew each other already. “love…?”
“milk? is that you?”
view looked at both girls having a practical staredown with each other. she looked back at them dumbfounded, her gaze rocking back and forth between them. “oh, you guys know each other already?” she questioned, but the question seemed to fade into the silence as she stood awkwardly after receiving no response. “she’s-” milk began.
“— a childhood friend i haven’t seen in over a decade.” love finished her sentence. sure. she could say that.
approaching the register to get a closer look of the older woman. milk swallowed a large lump in her throat. seeing love get closer and closer made her nervous, as if they were still kids.
milk and love’s parents were long time friends themselves, milk’s mother knew love’s since college, and became close ever since. milk came first, with the joy of being married and having a child, milk’s mother encouraged love’s mother to wait for the right time, seeing as how she was soon to be engaged and married, it was likely she were going to have a child soon enough.
growing up, milk and love were always together, on playdates, combined family trips, the playground, every moment of them together was exciting for them. they understood each other at a young age, they had their arguments, petty disagreements over snacks, anything like typical friends would do: they’ve done.
milk was a timid child, despite being the oldest between her and love, she wasn’t someone who particularly hung out with the girls who gossiped about drama and fiend over boys, she had more male friends. she was never, however, romantically interested in them, they were all too gross to date. they were good at basketball, which is the sole reason why milk hung out with them during lunch period. they often would complain about how good milk’s shooting was, saying that her advantage was her height. it wasn’t milk’s fault that she was taller than the average girl in sixth grade.
love was the complete polar opposite of milk, she wasn’t the most outgoing, but she certainly had her group of friends that she stuck with whenever she wasn’t around milk. if milk had a different class or was out playing basketball, she would be with her group of friends. she was herself with her friends, they weren’t like the other female students at school who were obsessed with makeup and boys, she didn't have to doll herself up every day, she could come to school bareface if she wanted. it's not like her friends cared.
milk would always find herself drifting towards love, if she had to choose between playing basketball or talking to love, she'd pick love. basketball was a way to distract herself whenever love wasn't available. if she couldn't do either, milk was a lost puppy wandering the halls of the school. milk enjoyed listening to love talk or complain about different topics no matter how little they were. to be honest, she was more focused on the talker than the talking.
going into highschool, milk and love remained close, perhaps closer than ever. they always hung out after school, going to each other's homes to study, play games, talk for hours on end- it seemed right.
only for milk, though. she wasn't very informed on relationships. she had friends who had horrible relationships and would often cry to milk as she comforted them with snacks and words of support. as for romantic advice, she had none. milk never experienced the feeling of being attracted to someone, all of those romantic, cheesy novels or movies she read never had her wondering if she could experience the same level of love.
the person milk be around was love, most of the hours of her day were taken up with her. gradually, the feelings of excitement turned into something unexplainable for milk, she couldn’t label it because she didn’t know what it could be, until she mentioned it in a conversation with her guy friend, book.
“what is it called when you feel happy around your best friend?” milk spoke after several moments of deafening silence. “what?” book looked up from his textbook to furrow his brows at his teenage friend. “do you mean happiness?” milk paused before answering, and shook her head. “no.. happiness would be like if i went home and saw my cats.” she leaned back in her seat, not realizing the weight of how weird her words sounded to book.
“those two situations can exist at the same time, milk.” book set down his pen, now fully engaged in the conversation. “is this a hypothetical question you’re asking or..?” unsure on what her intent was in asking, he questioned her once more. “is this about love?” milk froze in place, not that she wasn’t expecting book to ask that question, but that she ultimately realized that this was the feeling that she struggled to comprehend.
falling in love.
“i’ll take that as a yes.” book shook his head, scoffing at how ridiculous his freshman friend looked. “soo… how long have you had feelings for love?” he chimed milk back into reality, snapping her attention back to him. “feelings? what do you mean by feelings?” milk looked completely astonished, poor girl. she never had experience in this before.
“as in, you want love to be your girlfriend.” book replied, his posture poised and her hands crossed neatly in his lap. milk abruptly shot up from her seat, knocking her chair back on the ground. “gir- girlfriend?!” she stared at him wide-eyed, the thought of having love as her girlfriend hadn’t crossed her mind, hell, she didn’t even know if it was possible to date a girl. milk never learned about that before. “girlfriend.” book repeated. “i think earth thought you were two were dating too.” he pondered for a moment before nodding to confirm his suspicions.
“you’re so happy whenever someone mentions love, and you always ditch us without saying goodbye if you see her nearby.” milk was oblivious to how her actions looked towards her friends, ditching them to hang out with someone she was closer to and never once had a dull moment with. it was no wonder that they thought they were dating. “we’ve been friends for a long time.. since we were kids.” she fixed her chair, flopping back into her seat as she began to put two and two together.
seeing love laugh, how did that make milk feel? warm . it made her feel warm. how about if love asked her to hang out like she normally would? happy . happy that she would be spending time with her long time childhood friend.
milk had a crush on love, and she didn’t even know it.
huh .
after that day, milk began to act odd- not around love, she had to act normal around love otherwise she’d think her best friend of 11 years was going batshit crazy. a small brush of the finger had her heart racing, this was the things people would do in movies, they’d brush their hands together accidentally, make eye contact, tension thicker than ever and slowly gravitate towards each other, pressing their lips together in a slow kiss.
imagining doing that with love had her going fucking insane.
milk finally understood the feeling of love. the butterflies in the stomach whenever she would hear her name being echoed from love’s mouth, holding hands with her, oh it filled her little teenage heart with joy. the air between them shifted; milk was more attentive with love. whenever she’d ramble, she’d listen intently and admire love for her perfect facial features.
love enjoyed her time with milk, she was someone who she could rely on whenever she wanted to get away from everybody else, even her friend group. she reminded her of home, a shoulder she could lean on to ramble about what’s bothering her. even when she got a boyfriend in sophomore year.
it was more of a peer pressure on love, it was an average school day for her in the middle of spring, milk was in another class on the other side of the school, and love had a free period with her friends. they had been roaming the track field when a boy by the name of dew approached them.
at first, love thought dew was asking a favor from one of them, but that came to a halt the second he looked directly at her. "could i talk to you in private?" he scratched the back of his nape, looking down at her with his beady eyes. “sure.” she assured her friends that she’d be fine and that they’d be nearby.
dew never deemed himself as a “popular” kind of guy, though, everybody else around him did because he hung out with the popular boys. however, he was the kid who’d be hanging around as the rest would be playing basketball. either reading a book or sketching in his sketchbook.
milk knew he was, she often would attempt to engage in conversations with him- he wasn’t interested for the most part.
“alright, what’s up?”
love folded her arms across her chest, one thing about her is that her patience was thin. she didn’t enjoy the presence of others she didn’t know too well. she’d prefer being around her friends- or milk.
“um… i don’t know how to word this.” dew’s eyes wandered down to his shoes, eyeing the smudge of dirty on his heel. the act confused love, arching an eyebrow as his odd behavior. what was so important that he couldn’t make eye contact with her?
“i love- no, no— i like you.” dew mentally slapped himself for making a slip up, hoping love didn’t hear what he said, he clenched his teeth together, doing everything he could to completely act like he didn’t say that.
she heard it.
love initially wanted to start off with a “sorry” but in the corner of her eye, she could see movement coming from the trees. it was her friends, they were whispering and grinning at love. they began to mouth a “say yes! say yes!” or teasing with “he likes you!” all of them were enjoying the sight they were seeing.
little did love know, milk’s class was long over. she had been scouring the entire school looking for her, from the bathrooms and to the cafeteria. after making a full lap around the entire school, she squinted hard to see love’s friends hiding behind a tree, curious to see if they knew where she was she approached them.
“hey guys, have you seen..”
“shh!” tu shot a finger up to her lips, silencing the clueless high-school student immediately. milk turned to see what they were so focused on and— oh .
watching dew anticipate a response to his confession struck milk in the heart, hard. her expression hardened, her once soft eyes now losing its emotion, watching the only girl she’s ever enjoyed being around, being taken away in the hands of another person.
maybe she was being too dramatic, maybe love would reject dew and everything would be okay.
“i like you too.” love blurted out.
milk’s world just crumbled into a million pieces.
love went home that day confused, still processing what happened at school. did she just get a boyfriend? she didn't know what it was, neither she or milk understood how to ask someone else out, let alone have a partner. wait. milk, where was she? she was occupied for so long that she forgot to check up on milk, the only person who would understand her, offer her a different perspective that would let her see things differently.
love put on her shoes and ran out the front door of her house. she ran down the street of her neighborhood, the evening sky color bleeding into the clouds as the sunlight covered everything around her for the last time. milk lived right down the street like she always did. as she approached the white house, she stopped to catch her breath, her hands resting at her knees for support.
first, love knocked on the glass, peering through to see if someone would notice her at the door. nothing, and no response. she tried again, nothing. she knew milk was home, she wouldn't go out unless love was with her. a long sigh released the pressure on her shoulders, she sat down on the stone steps, leaning her head on a pillar. she had no one to talk to, she was a mental mess, and didn't have anyone to talk to.
could love have thought twice before saying "i like you too"? well, yeah. she just couldn't say no to him. even if she didn't enjoy being around people she didn't know, she still cared about what people thought about her.
love heard movement, and the door opened ajar. milk peered outside, her eyes hooded and her hair messy as a bird's nest. "oh.. love, it's you. i thought you were my mom for a second." she stretched her arms back, covering her mouth while yawning. "milk.. i need to talk to you." love pushed herself past milk, leaving her shoes at the door, not even giving her a moment to speak before closing the door behind her.
milk already knew that love was coming, she put up the facade that she was in a deep sleep when love would arrive to talk about dew confessing to her. in reality, milk had been crying. tears rolled down her cheeks faster than she could wipe them away. she couldn't bear to tell love the truth, that she liked her way before dew. her feelings were more than just what they did every day, it was the feeling milk had in her heart once she paid attention to love's caring actions towards her.
love stuck out her hand for milk to shake, the latter stared at the hand for a while. ah, so this is what their relationship came to. even after everything they did together. milk took the hand and shook it gently, she brushed her thumb along love’s hand, her skin smoother than ever. she had a firm grip on the younger’s hand, an action to remind them how close they had been despite not seeing each other for so long.
“am i interrupting something?” view peeked over love’s shoulder, taking the drink milk had made for her, taking a long sip from the cup. love shook her head, reeling her hand back to her side. milk would've liked it if she held hands with her a little bit longer. "you look good.. amazing , actually." milk took one scan of love and wow, she was pretty. she grew into her features so well, if she thought love was beautiful before, she was drop-dead gorgeous now.
these weren't the ideal circumstances milk would want to see love again after so long, her hair was tied back with occasional baby hairs sticking up off her scalp, she put on light makeup this morning, and sweat began to form at her brow from the physical labor she had been doing to keep the bakery in order. maybe at a bar or on the street would’ve been nice. "i see you've grown taller." love remarked, noting that she now had to crook her head up more to make eye contact with the woman.
“and you’ve gotten shorter.” milk teased with a chuckle, watching the smile on love’s face turn into a pout. “hey! i’ve grown..” a moment of silence passed before love’s shoulders slumped. “..a little bit.” a heart laughter erupted from milk’s chest, tears forming at the brim of her eyes. she missed this. she missed love, a lot.
view, feeling left out of the conversation, chipped in. “some things never change, huh?” a small grin curved her lips. “yeah, i guess they don’t.” milk hummed. their dynamic had never changed, from the poking fun at each other to the teasing. but it was apparent that the air shifted, going back to their old ways where they’d run and hug each other’s arms was no longer in the conversation.
“how about that application?” view irked, disliking how easily the two of them diverted from the original conversation. she didn’t know that the two were old childhood friends, nor did she know about milk’s crush on love, because she liked love herself.
“oh right.” milk cleared her throat, hiding the growing flush on her face, she opened a drawer, sifted her fingers through some files, and pulled out a piece of paper. she stuck out the paper for love to take, when view snatched it away without giving love the chance to take it. “actually, i just remembered that love and i have some work to do in the morning.” view flashed a smile to milk, glancing at the clock hung up on the wall. it was half-past five, they weren't even here for that long and she was already leaving.
"oh- what about our hang-out?" milk perked up, taken aback by how hastily she wanted to leave. "raincheck." view extended her thumb backwards, directing her attention to the pouring rain. not once did heavy rain affect milk and view's plans together, and the first time it did, it was when she saw love for the first time in years… odd . nonetheless, she didn't voice her confusion and merely nodded.
"i'll get this back to you later this week, it was nice seeing you, milk." love peered over her shoulder to glance at milk one last time. they exchanged looks, a warm smile taking over milk's features, her rosy cheeks brightened as her eyes curved into crescents. love raised her hand high, using her whole arm to wave goodbye from the front door.
milk found herself smiling at the ground while heading back into the kitchen to clean up for the day. even when wiping down the tables, washing the dishes, that cheeky grin never left her face. the stars were aligned in her favor, seeing her childhood crush again for so long opened a part in her heart she had left locked away for a long time. the day love moved away was the day milk vowed never to let anyone take her heart.
oh, but milk forgot to ask her for her phone number.
maybe next time, or when love would write down her phone number on the application, milk could put it in her phone as a "business reason". she was the owner after all.