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Taekwoon is an idiot. He has no clue how to go about any of this, and he’s aware of just how incapable he is when he’s standing in front of his stove trying to follow a simple recipe for a chocolate ball filled with vanilla cream and he can’t do it. The apron is too tight around his waist and why was he even wearing an apron in the first place? (Minyul had told him that they should wear aprons when they baked, and where a toddler got that kind of information, Taekwoon was too afraid to ask, so he’d put the apron on and Minyul was in his miniature one that still fell down well below his knees and they’d started trying to make cookies. Which was good, because it was White Day.)
The overwhelming scent of chocolate chip cookies encompasses the room, and even opening the windows had done little to stifle the scent. That was alright, though, because the odour would mask any smell that the chocolate Taekwoon was attempting to create for Jaehwan would leave behind. He hoped. Profusely. At the very least, if the chocolate didn’t work out in the end, he would have something to give to the fae as a token of his affection. Even if they were only chunks of baked batter filled with waaay too many chocolate chips because Taekwoon had made the mistake of letting Minyul pour the bag into the cookie mix. The kid had just wanted to help, though, and people had to make mistakes to learn from them.
The inspiration to make his own chocolate came to him when Taekwoon was grocery shopping. The fluorescent, too- bright lighting of the store had sent glares off of all the plastic wrapping around the various food items and sent Taekwoon into the realm of Hell that was a Strain Headache. He could never give Jaehwan something from a place like that. A place that rarely cared about colour and jacked up prices to feed off of its consumers like the leeches that corporate executives were. Taekwoon would give Jaehwan something that he worked hard on and cared about and something that Jaehwan would really like. Something that was sugary enough for the fae’s unrelenting sweet tooth. That is, if he ever figured out how to make the damn thing. The football player was starting to regret not just picking up a few packages of chocolate cookies, maybe some pocky sticks for a game or two, rather than putting himself through the trouble that was All of This.
Exasperated, the dark- haired man wipes the back of his hand across his forehead in an attempt to alleviate some of the tension that was forming there. When they said to leave the chocolate to cool, did they mean to let it harden? Because that seemed like a bad idea since it wasn’t in the shape it was supposed to be. A Pinterest tutorial would be more helpful than this recipe, and Taekwoon silently cursed the publisher that sent the instructions into the real world only for fools like him to be confused by them.
The sound of his phone hitting the counter causes Taekwoon to wince. He shouldn’t take his aggression out on the electronic piece; it wasn’t doing anything to hurt it. Although, it was reflecting the recipe back at him, almost like it was mocking him for not being able to figure out something as simple as making a piece of chocolate.
“Uncle Ta?” There’s a tug at the side of his apron, and Taekwoon looks down to see the beseeching eyes of a child left unattended for too long. “Almost done?” Minyul asks, probably about the cookies. Taekwoon checks the timer on the stove, placing a hand on top of his nephew’s head to ruffle the hair that was standing up in a disorderly way.
“Two minutes!” He confidently tells the child, and Minyul smiles so widely up at him that Taekwoon has the sense that he can overcome this stupid chocolate dilemma. He was the one who was making it harder on himself by not just Navering the answers to his own dumb questions anyway. He could delete his search history later.
“They have to cool down, too, OK? Maybe ten minutes before we can eat them?” Taekwoon gestimates. He was not letting Minyul get burned by a cookie. Not while he was legal guardian. The boy pouts at that, but the adult knows that he’ll get over it.
“Can you go wash up while we wait? They might be ready by the time you’re done,” Taekwoon reasons, and that’s enough to have Minyul gasping and scrambling on his pudgy legs to the washroom.
“That means your face, too!” Taekwoon calls after the boy, knowing full well that there was flour smeared all over Minyul’s chin from an accident about an hour earlier.
He doesn’t get a response, but he doesn’t need one. Now he had a few minutes to figure out the rest of the instructions for Jaehwan’s treat. The insistent glow of his phone screen wasn’t going to let him off the hook as easily as being dismissed by a parent.
Minyul returns soon enough, but Taekwoon suspiciously eyes the patch of white that still sits just above Minyul’s chin. If he squinted so that his vision blurred, the flour almost resembles a goatee, and Taekwoon tightly presses his lips together to keep from laughing aloud.
“All done?” He makes sure to ask, because Minyul may be a child, but he was a terrible liar.
“Uh huh!” The child insists, clinging onto Taekwoon’s leg. His tiny arm wraps around the base of Taekwoon’s thigh while his other hand is busy rubbing at his eyes. It was only around five in the evening, but Minyul hadn’t had a nap, so there was reason to be tired.
“How was school?” Taekwoon tries to distract the child from the sight of the cookies literally baking before his eyes in the oven.
“Mmn-okay. Dohyun hurt his knee.”
“How’d he do that?”
“Falled.”
“He fell?”
Minyul nods and Taekwoon, utterly perplexed, jumps when the timer for the oven goes off and he has to take the cookies out of the oven.
“Mind sitting down while I grab these? I promise, you can have the first one, OK?” Taekwoon bargains and his nephew releases the grip on Taekwoon’s leg to clamber his way into the living room. The apron trails behind him, threatening to trip the toddler with every step, but it wouldn’t be a hard fall if it did happen. Taekwoon was glad that he’d bought cooling trays.
The cookies look good. Golden brown, more brown along the edges, but that usually meant they were cooked. Taekwoon’s overly- protective Parental Instincts tingle and he needs to cut one open to be sure that they really are thoroughly done, but his anxieties are settled when there’s no raw dough pooling in the middle of the little circles of deliciousness. The scented candles meant to mimic the smell of baked cookies had nothing on the actual thing. A deep inhale, and Taekwoon’s troubles are resolved. He forgets that he has his first preliminary match coming up in a few weeks. All he knows is that his stomach is starting to grumble, but he’d sworn that Minyul would get the first one. He was a good uncle. Didn’t go back on his word.
Jaehwan was going to be gone for the majority of the day. He’d sent Taekwoon a text to tell the human that, but he hadn’t specified the why. If it was work related, then he could have easily just said so. Then again, there was no worry plaguing Taekwoon, because the fae for sure knew how to take care of himself, and could probably knock a few thugs off their feet if he was in the middle of an altercation. It was good, anyway. The day was going to be a long one already with Taekwoon dreading interaction with the asparas since Jaehwan knew about White Day after his intensive investigation on the Love Days in South Korea. His fascination with the customs was endearing to say the least, but now he was so looking forward to the rest of the year that Taekwoon was anxious. Nothing seemed right for Jaehwan. There was food, and he seemed to like things with a sparkle to them, but what did man- made objects hold for a creature that could create light just by a thought?
Taekwoon is suddenly overcome by the image of Jaehwan sucking contentedly on a Chupa Chomp and he takes a hard gulp before yelping loudly. He’s burned his hand on the pan holding the cookies. That’s what he got for letting his mind wander.
“Ouch! Son of a…” he grumbles, intensely aware of the kid sitting in the living room. Speaking of…
Taekwoon’s index finger pokes a the side of one of the cookies, watching as the dough caves in, but bounces back firmly.
“Minnie-yah! They’re ready!” He calls, slipping one of the chocolate- oozing snacks onto a plastic plate (depicting an image of the Power Rangers) so that Minyul could eat. Taekwoon’s stomach grumbles again, but before he’s tempted, Minyul bolts into the room and slides into place at the island. He has to jump to get on the seat, but when he’s situated, he’s ready to eat. His uncle watches with unbridled affection as the child blows on the top of the cookie before popping a piece into his mouth.
“S’good!” He mutters with his mouth full, and Taekwoon clicks his tongue on the roof of his mouth before grabbing a piece of paper towel for Minyul to use.
“You think Jaehwan- Hyung will like them?”
“Mnhm!”
“Good.” Taekwoon sighs in relief. The cookies have another function to serve. Plan C. (Plan B was running to the store before Jaehwan came back, but Taekwoon knew that the mall would be busy for the day and he just wasn’t about that life.)
“Uncle Ta,” Minyul pipes up after a second, causing Taekwoon to jump.
“Yes?”
“I like Whannie- Hyung. He’s funny,” the child says as the epitome of seriousness.
“Yeah, he is.”
“And he tells good stories.”
“Yep.”
“And he can do magic,” Minyul adds wistfully. Taekwoon narrows his eyes.
“Have you told any of your friends about Jaehwan’s magic?” He asks carefully. Minyul shakes his head, but he frowns, too.
“I tried! But they don’t believe me…” Minyul looks devastated, but when he immediately goes back to gobbling down the cookie, Taekwoon knows that the rejection isn’t causing the kid any lasting damage.
“They don't need to know anyway. It can be all of ours’ secret, ok?” Taekwoon coaxes, grabbing a cookie for himself and biting down into the mushy, messy sweetness. His coach would be furious if he found out, but Taekwoon had no intention of telling the man he was cheating on his diet.
“Wike thwa chocowate on da cwounter,” the football player’s nephew sounds out while finishing off the last of his chocolate chips. Taekwoon winces, but nods subtly.
“Think you could not tell Jaehwan- Hyung when he gets home? It’s a surprise.” The adult is fervently longing for the child to understand the magnitude of his situation.
“If I can have another one?” Minyul poses the terms, eyeing his uncle with a sly smile that Taekwoon knows he got from Jaehwan. The fae really was turning the kid into a seasoned bargainer. Still, Taekwoon bristles before nodding his head just slightly, and Minyul doesn’t waste a second in holding out his greedy little chocolate covered palms for another one of the sugary biscuits. Taekwoon was at the mercy of two boys that knew just what strings to pull to make him their marionette.
⋯ ◯ ⋯⋯
In fairness, the chocolate turns out not too awfully. There are some very prominent lumps, but if Taekwoon turned it to one side, he could hide them from a first glance. It also lacked a proper seal- one that Taekwoon had tried to fiddle with as his hands shook with sheer concentration, but the chocolate block he had set out on the side just would not fit properly on top of his masterpiece. Oh well. The square of taste-tester chocolate he’d eaten earlier indicated to him that it would have a nice flavour if nothing else.
There’s no time for Taekwoon to think over all of the other things he could have done as the lock at the front door turns. Jaehwan is home, and Minyul is sitting in the living room with some crayons and a colouring book, so of course that’s who Jaehwan goes to first.
The black hair that was Taekwoon’s briefly showed itself past the barrier that separated the living room from the kitchen so that he could catch a glimpse of the two.
“Hey! What’re you doing there?” The fae beams and Minyul smiles just as sunnily back when he raises the book to show Jaehwan his mass of colours and scribbles.
“Whoa! That looks so good! I can’t even do that!” Jaehwan exclaims, taking the drawings that Minyul was offering out to him even while the child starts giggling in glee. “Think you can teach me how to do this?” Jaehwan asks, and Minyul’s head bobs violently with the strength of his acknowledging nod. Taekwoon smiles and disappears back behind the corner and into the relative safety of the kitchen. There’s a clean cloth on the counter that he uses to hide the ball of chocolate, but the cookies are out in the open for Jaehwan to see and be distracted by.
“It’s getting kinda late, don’t you think? Did Uncle Ta let you stay up just to see me?” Taekwoon hears from the room over as he stuffs the remnants of the baking materials back into their designated drawers and cupboards. The sound of footsteps as Jaehwan and Minyul come into the kitchen, Minyul’s hand locked in Jaehwan’s much larger one.
“Looks like you two got up to some fun today,” the fae notes, eyes immediately locking onto the sweet treats laid out like an obvious animal trap on the counter. “Even without me? I’m hurt.”
“No!” Minyul protests, his small head whipping to stare up at Jaehwan with conviction. “Not as fun without Whannie-Hyung.” Betrayal pricks like a thorn in Taekwoon’s heart.
“Really? Well, I think it was probably still fun. We can all make something next time, OK?” Jaehwan pledges, nabbing a cookie from the plate on the counter and sending a wink Taekwoon’s way. Minyul yawns.
“See! You are tired! C’mon, let’s get you ready for bed, huh?” Are Jaehwan’s words of wisdom while he treks Minyul out and into the washroom to brush teeth. Taekwoon is left shaking his head.
“So… fess up.”
“Excuse me?” Taekwoon’s brow arches at the determination on Jaehwan’s face when the fae approaches him after Minyul is asleep.
“C’mon. I can smell it. Where is it,” the asparas demands, lifting his nose. His nostrils expand as he breathes in deeply, scenting at the air.
“What.”
“Chocolate. You bought it. I want it.”
“Well, that’s not exactly true…” Taekwoon trails off, wiping down the last of the counters and turning to face Jaehwan.
“I can. Sniff it out. If I want,” Jaehwan declares, already looking around the kitchen.
“Do you even know what day it is?” The taller of the two men has to move so that the asparas on a mission can check the table behind him.
“I… Ah.” Realization dawns on Jaehwan’s face, and he stops his activities to regard Taekwoon with a little bit of apprehension.
“It’s White Day.”
“Uh huh.”
“And you got chocolate for me.”
“I didn’t-! Nevermind,” Taekwoon shakes his head, shuffling around the statue of a creature that was the fae.
“I made you something,” the football player admits, his eyes averted while he uncovers the cocoa creation so that Jaehwan would finally know the source of the smell.
Absence of sound, and then-
“You… you did this for me?” The blank expression on the fae’s face makes it unreadable, and Taekwoon is overcome by a strange emotion. It sends chills up his spine. He can’t name it, but it’s unpleasant and he doesn’t care for it.
“Yes,” he starts slowly, drawing out the vowel sound. “Are you alright? Jaehwan?” The fae is standing absolutely still, his eyes fixed on the small offering that Taekwoon laboured all day to put together for him. Did Jaehwan hate it? Oh God, Jaehwan hated it. Taekwoon had made something Jaehwan hated.
The asparas starts tearing up. Taekwoon is physically taken aback, going so far as to plant a foot behind him in his surprise. Why was he...crying?
“No one… Thank you,” the fae splurts reverently, lifting his gaze to stare amorously at the human who was fighting against his flight instinct.
“It’s not that much,” Taekwoon reasons, bashful. “I just… thought it would be nice.” The explanation is lacking, even to him, but Jaehwan seems undeterred. Suddenly, long arms are slinking around Taekwoon’s torso and Jaehwan is burying his face into the crook of Taekwoon’s neck.
“Thank you,” Taekwoon hears, followed by a sniffle, and the football player hopes that faerie snot didn’t stick to clothing.
“You’re welcome,” he responds, holding the bundle of mess that was the asparas close to his chest. “I think I used sugar in it. It’s gonna be pretty salty if I labelled my containers wrong,” Taekwoon jokes in a lousy attempt to lift the mood. It must work, because Jaehwan starts laughing, his shoulders shuddering with the action.
“You would totally mix them up,” Jaehwan mumbles again, breathing deeply against the flesh of Taekwoon’s neck.
“Yeah, I would.” They stand like that for a good moment, just relaxing in each other’s presence before Jaehwan breaks the silence by pushing away and rubbing the last of the tears from his eyes.
“It better taste good. Not bitter, or I’ll know this is all just a big prank and you don’t actually like me,” he jokes. The dark green sweatshirt he’s wearing clings tightly to his waist when he moves, and Taekwoon realizes again why the fae is popular with the customers of the cafe.
“How did you even make this? It looks like mud,” the fae critiques and Taekwoon’s jaw clenches. Jaehwan really had a knack for getting on people’s nerves though, didn’t he? What a change of emotion.
“At least I made mine instead of buying it at a store like you.”
“I haven’t been living here for years and that was my first Valentine’s Day so, pfft.” Jaehwan blows a raspberry at the grown man standing not three feet away from him. It was a good point, and Taekwoon had no comeback for that.
“Whatever. I do something nice for you and this is the kind of treatment I get?” Taekwoon mournfully laments as he crosses his arms.
“Oh, I’m very sorry, Your Highness,” the fae smirks as he breaks off a chunk of the chocolate. Vanilla icing starts to ooze from the opening he’s made, and Jaehwan is quick to drag his pointer finger over the gap to let it collect on the tip of the digit. “Did you want some? I’m ok with sharing.”
“No thanks. I don’t know where your hands have been today,” is Taekwoon’s snarky reply, but Jaehwan isn’t having any of Taekwoon’s bullshit.
“I think you should have some,” is the human’s only warning and then Jaehwan is smearing the thick, sugary glaze over his mouth and chuckling maniacally. Taekwoon splutters for a second, but then Jaehwan is kissing the substance off his lips and all is forgiven in the span of a millisecond.
⋯ ◯ ⋯⋯
“So, where did you go today?” Taekwoon asks as the pair get ready to go to bed, unable to keep his curiousity at bay for any longer.
“Hm? Oh, just a wedding. There was one by the Han River. It was pretty.”
“A wedding?”
“Mhm. I like them.”
“And nobody thought it was weird that you were there?” Taekwoon questions, pausing in his pulling back of the sheets.
Jaehwan shrugs. “They couldn’t see me. I just wanted to wish the couple luck. It’s a… thing we do.”
“The FaeFolk?”
“Asparases especially.”
“Oh.”
“Mhm. The Han River is pretty.” Jaehwan remarks, slipping under the covers and snuggling into the warmth.
“You should see it in the spring when the blossoms bloom,” is Taekwoon’s suggestion when he unfreezes and takes his place beside the fae. He remembers to plug his phone in.
“Can we go?” Jaehwan asks, and Taekwoon knows that pleading tone.
“Yeah. We can go.”
Jaehwan deserved to see the pretty things.