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I. The first time was in a bagel-induced rage.
“HYUNJIN!” Changbin hollered in the general direction of the living room.
“What!”
He heard some faint shuffling from the other room. That boy better be ready for the wrath of God coming his way.
“Get your ass in here, Hyunjin!”
“What the hell could you possibly need at 8 am!?”
More shuffling. Hyunjin was gonna have to see what he did and explain himself; he was so ready to lay into him.
“Look,” Changbin demanded, eyeing his sleepy roommate warily. Despite Hyunjin’s brunette bedhead, he was not getting any favors from Changbin.
Hyunjin moved closer and stared at the kitchen counter in front of Changbin. He then cocked his head at his black-haired roommate, his expression quickly shifting to be nearly as annoyed as Changbin’s.
“You called me in here for a flipping bagel?”
Damn right he did.
He trusted his roommate with one little thing, and he somehow had to find a way to screw it up. If there was one thing Changbin needed in his pathetic life, it was a functional, working, and not-lopsided breakfast. And here he was, staring at a bagel -- his bagel -- that was not at all cut symmetrically. No, one side was definitely cut lower than the other, like someone sliced through the previously-uncut bagel at a 75 degree angle instead of a 90 degree angle.
Changbin shook his head. “I trust you with one goddamn thing, Hyunjin: to buy the goddamn groceries for this household. You said you didn’t want to clean, so I clean up after you and your perpetual guest of a boyfriend. Part of buying the groceries is to slice the uncut bagels from the grocery store at a 90 degree angle!”
Hyunjin sighed, stepping back away from “his” handiwork and a very frustrated Changbin. “Look, squirt --”
“I’M OLDER THAN YOU!”
“And I’m 5 inches taller than you. And I’m telling you and your little ball of fury that you’ve got going on there that I didn’t cut those bagels.”
“Then who the hell did?” Changbin huffed, pointing an accusatory finger at Hyunjin while the taller boy scoffed at him. “Because it definitely wasn’t me.”
“I started going to a bakery that pre-cuts them like three weeks ago,” Hyunjin reluctantly explained. “Seungminnie suggested it, and they do all the bagel cutting.”
“Do they only employ idiots?" Changbin complained.
“Look,” Hyunjin replied, rolling his eyes. “Why don’t you go take your defective bagel and march on down to the bakery at the end of the block and be small and scream at them at 8 am?”
“Maybe I will!” he countered, letting the “small” comment slip. That’s a lie: he’d never let it slip. He’d just let it simmer with his stewing rage that Hyunjin dared poking fun at his height on the regular. Maybe one day he'd wake up with all his shit high enough so that even he couldn't reach it.
“Well, I’m going back to bed,” Hyunjin said, turning to head back toward his bedroom on the other side of the living room. “Where my very cute, very not-angry boyfriend was cuddling with me until someone decided to be a little drama queen.”
“I swear to god --”
“-- Can’t hear you~” Hyunjin hummed, quickly moving out of earshot and back to his bedroom.
Changbin shook his head and looked back over at his uneven bagel. This is why he couldn’t have nice things.
“I hate you,” he mumbled at the bagel.
“I still hate you,” he repeated, looking down at the brown paper bag he was now carrying with him. Inside was the very much intensely-hated bagel that Hyunjin suggested he take back to the bakery; Changbin was still bitter after his bagel-less breakfast. He didn’t have much to do this morning, and he was pretty hellbent on giving the bakery a piece of mind. They didn’t know what was coming for them.
It was a little cloudy and gray today, so he was wearing a light gray parka that was a little too big on him -- he refused to buy the small size -- along with black adidas track pants with the trademark white stripes going up the sides. He honestly didn’t care how he looked; he was just going to the bakery, acting all “dissatisfied” or whatever the corporate word for his pure, unadulterated bagel-rage was, and getting a replacement bagel or a dozen. It was simple, really.
Then again, slicing bagels was also supposed to be easy.
God, he hated idiots. Stepping off of his apartment complex’s stoop, he quickly hung a right at the sidewalk and stormed off toward the bakery. Changbin was on a mission: he demanded recompense for his shitty morning. In fact, he had already decided exactly how this conversation with the bakery staff was gonna go:
”I demand a new damn bagel!” hypothetical Changbin demanded, dramatically dumping the old, stale, moldy, gross-looking, highly-defective bagel on the counter.
A small crowd quickly gathered around the counter, recoiling at the sight of Changbin’s uneven bagel.
”Oh my god, we’re so sorry,” the middle-aged woman at the counter apologized, quickly shoveling new, very evenly-sliced bagels into a new paper bag. “Please accept these dozen bagels as an apology!”
Changbin didn’t see what could possibly go wrong with his plan. It was marvelous, fully thought-out, and completely infallible.
After hyping himself up about how upset and angry about his bagel he was this morning, he was nearly at the door to the bakery. He paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and barged in the front door. The place was oddly empty: no one in the front, no one at the counter, no one in sight throughout the entire damn place.
Probably because of their shitty bagel-cutting.
Changbin strided over to the counter and aggressively rang the service bell next to the register. He heard some clanging from the back, probably from metal pans clumsily crashing into each other. Changbin hoped whoever sauntered out here from the back was ready for his unending wrath and bagel-induced fury because he was fully ready to make them feel totally and completely--
“-- Oh, hey, sorry about that!” a deep-sounding voice quickly apologized, snapping Changbin out of his funk. He immediately looked up at the source of the voice, expecting a very large man to accompany the very deep voice he just heard.
“We don’t open til 9 am, but I can help you out since it’s almost 9 anyways,” the other boy -- Felix, his nametag said on his unremarkable T-shirt -- continued. Felix was busy yanking off some plastic gloves; Changbin was busy with something else.
Namely, who the eff was this cute boy and why did he have such a ridiculously deep voice. Changbin felt entirely off his rage-game, sizing up Felix’s long, fluffy-looking platinum-blonde hair, his narrow, hooded eyes, his constellation of freckles, and his soft-looking lips. Not to mention that he felt a little embarrassed just walking into a store before it even opened.
“What’s up?” Felix piped up, interrupting Changbin’s eternity -- no, moment of weakness.
“I, uh,” Changbin stuttered, sorta forgetting why he was here in the first place. “My, um, roommate bought a bunch of bagels here a few days ago?”
Felix looked a little perplexed by his meandering, opaque-sounding comment. Even Changbin was startled by his own timidness, how he had been reduced from a bastion of bagel fury to a squeaking prepubescent teenager.
“And you wanted to buy more?” Felix suggested, his own voice sounding unsure of what exactly Changbin was doing here.
“No!” Changbin replied, perhaps a little bit too loud because Felix looked like he was getting progressively more weirded-out by Changbin’s volatility.
“Sorry,” he muttered, trying to compose himself. “My roommate bought a bunch of bagels from here, and one of them was sliced really unevenly, so I was hoping to get a new one?”
Changbin held up his paper bag. Instead of aggressively dumping the bagel out on the counter, he daintily pulled it out and set it on top of the paper bag. The bagel was clearly cut at an angle, and Felix seemed a little taken aback by the severity of the unevenness. Changbin was too enamored with watching Felix’s ear piercing dangle whenever he moved his head to care about Felix’s reaction to the bagel.
“Oh, I’m really sorry about that! I just finished a new batch of plain bagels, let me go grab one for you.”
His eyes followed Felix as the blonde-haired boy disappeared into the back again with his uneven bagel in hand. Honestly? He could watch baker’s hair bob up and down all day. Y’know, after getting lost in Felix’s eyes for a few months.
Changbin shook his head. What the hell happened to him? Five minutes ago he was ready to start taking names. He sure took Felix’s name, but instead of dropping it into the idiots-who-don’t-know-what-they’re-doing box, Felix’s name went somewhere else. What happened to all the outrage that he had built up over the past hour? What happened to the corporate capitalism-fueled demand for a refund-slash-replacement?
Felix hastily returned with a pair of tongs straddling not one, but two bagels. The plain one he had promised and another bagel with dark-blue spots.
“Like I said, I’m really sorry about that,” Felix consoled, picking up Changbin’s bag and slipping both bagels in. “I threw in a fresh blueberry bagel to make it up to you…”
“... Changbin.”
“To make it up to you, Changbin,” Felix repeated. Changbin nearly shuddered. He didn’t like blueberries, but the way his name sounded -- especially the “Bin” syllable -- when it rolled off of Felix’s tongue in his rumbling deep voice was enough to make him acquiesce to the subpar bagel flavor.
“T-thanks,” he murmured.
Felix smiled back at him, his pearly-white teeth basically ending all coherent thoughts that Changbin was having. “No problem.”
He made an awkward face and scurried the hell out of that bakery, leaving Felix to return back to whatever Felix was doing before Changbin interrupted his life.
II. The second time came with a newfound desire for something sweet.
A few days after the whole Bagel Incident, Changbin felt some stupid feeling nagging at the pit of his stomach.
It wouldn’t go away.
Changbin oscillated between, like, two feelings: mildly-annoyed apathy at the world and unbridled rage. Mostly apathy. This feeling was neither of those, so he stuck it into the do-not-speak-of-this-ever-again box. He liked boxes. He could shove stuff in there -- like Hyunjin’s annoying face -- and never think about it ever again.
Except… he was hungry. He wanted something sweet. Something baked. It was a craving, and he couldn’t shake it. Changbin decided he needed to go to the bakery.
“Hyunjin, I’m going to the bakery. Do you want anything?”
Changbin was standing in his bedroom doorframe, looking over at Hyunjin who was sprawled out on the couch watching Netflix. HIs roommate glanced over at him, shooting him a look that was a cross between confused and amused.
“I thought you hated grocery shopping?” Hyunjin quizzed him, cocking one eyebrow.
Changbin crossed his arms defiantly. “Going to a bakery is different from going grocery shopping.”
“I guess,” Hyunjin begrudgingly accepted. “But, like, even if I asked you to get something for me, would I actually be able to eat it?”
“What?”
“You looked like you were damn near gonna rip my arm off when I picked up that blueberry bagel that they gave you the other day,” Hyunjin dryly commented, shaking his head. “I thought you hated blueberries.”
“People change!” Changbin countered, getting slightly more aggressive.
“Why are you even going there?” Hyunjin replied, getting slightly pushy. Hyunjin and him had a mostly functional roommate agreement -- until Hyunjin decided to start pushing Changbin’s buttons. Y’know, like this.
“I want something sweet, okay!” he shouted.
Hyunjin shook his head again. “What about the Oreos in the cupboard? Or the ice cream in the freezer.”
“I want something different!”
His roommate shrugged. “Suit yourself,” he commented.
What a useless conversation. Changbin shut the door to his bedroom and walked over to his mirror. Hyunjin could’ve just said that he didn’t want anything instead of being a little shit about the whole thing. A tall shit. Whatever. Changbin decided that he couldn’t go to the bakery wearing the same black track pants as last time, so he rummaged through his wardrobe, finding a pair of tight black skinny jeans with a few strategically-placed tears along his knees and thighs. Next, he looked in his closet and immediately found what he was looking for: a light-blue sleeveless T-shirt. He quickly changed and sauntered out of his bedroom, daring Hyunjin to give him any more shit before he left.
“Did… did you change just to go to the bakery?”
Changbin groaned. “Some of us like to look good when we go out!”
“Not you,” Hyunjin snarked, chuckling to himself.
“Shut up,” Changbin growled, slipping out the front door to avoid hearing any more snide Hyunjin comments.
“Aye, Changbin!”
So much for an uneventful trip to the bakery.
Honestly, a very small (basically undetectable) part of Changbin hoped that Felix was working again. And then the gruff, apathetic Changbin told him that that was a stupid thought and that he was stupid for having it; he just wanted a flipping cupcake or something. A croissant. An eclair. Something sweet. Felix definitely not included.
He was hoping that he could just slyly walk into the bakery, grab his pastry, and escape without a word to the resident baker who he met a few days ago. He had no such luck, Felix instantly spotting him as soon as he walked in.
“H-hey,” he stammered, ignoring Felix’s brilliant-looking smile. Well, trying to ignore it but actually fully aware of just how pretty his smile was.
“Back for more bagels?” Felix asked, waving him over to the counter. There was nobody in line, but a few patrons were off nibbling on baguettes and croissants at the tables along the windowed front of the bakery. Changbin, however, immediately thought about how ridiculously bad his first Felix encounter went, feeling a bit ashamed that blunt, apathetic Changbin was reduced to a sniveling wimp in front of Felix. Not again, he promised himself. He was just here for his pastry.
“No, I’m actually here for something sweet,” he sauvely explained. And by sauve, he meant didn’t-stutter-at-all-this-time.
“Oh, sweets!” Felix excitedly replied. “That’s my specialty. I make all the cupcakes for the bakery.”
“Y-you do?” Changbin asked. Of course he did.
“Yeah!~” the blonde-haired boy sing-songed, motioning for Changbin to follow him to the glass cabinet with all the baked goods. Felix giggled: “It’s kinda why they hired me.”
Why did Felix’s voice sound so pretty. Why? Why why why?
“Oh,” Changbin eventually choked out. Why did his voice always get so quiet and unsure when he was around Felix?
“Yeah, I actually don’t like making bagels and breads so much,” Felix added. “Kneading the dough is really exhausting?”
“I see.”
“You’d probably be good at it, Changbin,” Felix mentioned, looking at Changbin’s exposed arms. “Considering how much you work out.”
“R-right,” Changbin flatly replied, trying not to think about how Felix definitely had to have been checking him out to notice his biceps. Felix was definitely not flirting with him, no way. Meanwhile, the baker giggled at his non-answer.
“So we have 9 different flavors,” Felix reported motioning toward the cupcake portion the display. “The first is a chocolate cupcake with sea-salt caramel frosting. Next, we have a traditional red velvet cupcake with buttercream frosting. After that is the banana chocolate swirl cupcake with cream cheese frosting. And then we have my personal favorite, a brownie cupcake with cookie dough flavored frosting. Oh, if you liked the blueberry bagel, we have a blueberry cheesecake cupcake with the same buttercream frosting as the red velvet. And --”
“I’ll take one of all of them, Felix,” Changbin whispered, cutting Felix’s tour-de-force of cupcakes short.
Felix looked up at him, a little shocked. “You’re joking, right?”
“No. They all sound amazing.”
“Wow. Um. Okay!” The blonde-haired boy looked like he couldn’t fight the big smile tugging at his lips, instantly starting to beam at Changbin. Moments later, Felix was crouching down to pull out one of each cupcake, throwing them on a cardboard tray for Changbin to ferry home. Changbin didn’t know what to do with his eyes -- whether to watch Felix as he carefully grabbed each cupcake with a slab of wax paper or to awkwardly look away while Felix was doing his thing. He did a little of both.
Felix slid the cardboard tray across the display case and moved over to the register to ring him up. “I hope you don’t have to walk too far,” Felix commented, sounding a little worried.
“No, I just live down the block.”
“I see.” Changbin swore he saw Felix bite his lip after replying, but he must’ve been imagining it. His stupid brain playing tricks on him.
After Changbin paid, he started the delicate task of balancing his tray of cupcakes in one hand so that they didn’t get smooshed and lose their perfect frosting swirls. Felix shyly smiled at him: “I hope you like them.”
“I-I’m sure I will,” Changbin stuttered.
With that, he disappeared out the front door, pretending not to notice Felix’s gaze lingering on him.
“YOU BOUGHT NINE CUPCAKES!?”
“Look, Hyunjin,” Changbin tried to explain, setting the tray down on the kitchen counter. “They all sounded good, okay?”
“I can’t believe you,” Hyunjin cringed, grabbing the receipt on top of the tray to see just how much money Changbin blew on cupcakes. “Hmmph, looks like they only charged you for 8.”
“Really?” Changbin replied, a little perplexed. It had to have been a mistake, right?
“So can I have one?”
“No,” Changbin defiantly rebuked, causing Hyunjin to shoot him an annoyed glare.
They were all his.
III. The third time he needed something long and hard.
Get your mind out of the gutter!
Changbin was in a full-blown panic. He was in charge of making dinner tonight, so he settled on pasta. Everything was going great, he had started the sauce, the water was boiling for the noodles, he had a pan ready to sear some sausage, the oven was pre-heated for the bread… for the bread that they didn’t have.
Shit.
“Hyunjin!”
“What!” his roommate shouted from the living room.
“Get your ass in here!” he demanded, stirring the red sauce. He turned the burner down to the lowest setting, and waited for Hyunjin to drag his lazy butt into the kitchen. “You forgot to get a baguette for dinner, didn’t you?” Changin asked accusingly.
“Forgot?” Hyunjin incredulously parroted. “I didn’t forget, you asked me to lay back on the carbs!”
“Yeah, well now I want carbs!” he chastised. “Get your ass over here and stir this sauce, I’m running to the bakery to pick up bread.”
Changbin removed himself from the stovetop, stormed over to Hyunjin, and dragged him in front of the burners. Parking him in front of the red sauce, he handed the mixing spoon to Hyunjin and left his roommate there to make sure the apartment didn’t burn down -- a risky proposition, but Changbin was only gonna be gone for a moment. He just needed to run to the bakery and grab some bread.
“Changbin, I swear to god, I --”
“-- That’s great, be back in ten minutes!” Changbin quickly threw on his shoes and flew out the door, basically running toward the bakery before it closed at 6 pm.
Even with his short-ish legs, Changbin was there in only a few minutes. Panting, he wildly opened the door and entered the bakery.
“Changbin?”
The black-haired boy, meanwhile, was trying to catch his breath, holding up one finger to tell Felix that he needed a minute. Or ten. Of course Felix was here with his stupid smile and stupid wavy floofy hair and stupid freckles. Not that he actually thought that any of those things were actually stupid -- they objectively were not, he just liked to be dramatic. Or apathetic. Even if he was anything but apathetic about Felix’s smile.
He finally stood up and looked over at Felix, who was more than a little concerned. Changbin was fine, he just needed a moment to die after literally sprinting down the block. He wiped the sweat from his forehead with his hoodie’s sleeve.
“Need… Baguette…” he gasped. “Making… pasta…”
“Oh, yeah, sure,” Felix affirmed, stepping back behind the counter. “Do you, like, need water?”
“N-no!” Changbin shouted, the only way he was able to get words out of his mouth right now. He needed anything but water right now; he was definitely never thirsty around Felix. Nope, never. “Just bread,” he added.
Felix nodded, still looking a little flustered by the whole situation unfolding right before closing. The bakery was empty again, but Felix looked like he was more overwhelmed than out-of-breath Changbin was. The blonde-haired boy grabbed one of the long baguettes from the bucket of bread near the register and rang Changbin’s order up. Changbin pulled out some cash from his pocket and shoved it in Felix’s direction.
“Keep the change!” he instructed, stumbling out of the bakery before Felix could reply. He needed to run back home before Hyunjin burned down their kitchen or Felix made his heart ache too much -- whichever happened first.
IV. The fourth time was against his will.
Changbin was in the middle of dreamland when it felt like the entire world started shaking, like there was an earthquake. Moments later, his eyes snapped open to his roommate and his roommate’s boyfriend hovering over him, both looking extra pleased to be bothering him right now. They stopped shaking him awake when he started shuffling.
“What the eff,” Changbin groggily murmured. Seungmin and Hyunjin usually knew better than to wake him up while he was napping on the couch, even if it meant they had to go snuggle and watch Netflix together on Hyunjin’s bed with his laptop instead of on the couch with the the TV in the living room. And why the hell did they look so damn mischievously happy right now? What did they do this time?
“Hi Changbinnie,” Seungmin hummed, stepping back with his boyfriend. Hyunjin collapsed onto the ottoman, pulling Seungmin onto his lap.
“Why the hell did you wake me up?”
“Oh, no reason,” Seungmin blatantly lied, trying to bait Changbin with his honeyed voice.
“Spill it,” Changbin insisted.
“Well… since you asked…” Seungmin lazily started, his voice trailing off.
“Seungminnie was talking about how he went to the bakery yesterday,” Hyunjin continued, picking up where Seungmin left off. “And how he ran into Felix, one of the bakers there.”
Changbin gulped. Yeah, he gulped. If he wasn’t awake before, he was awake now.
“Yeah!” Seungmin jumped in, scooting back into Hyunjin’s lap a little further. “Felix and I are pretty friendly, so I asked about if there were any new boys in his very gay love-life. He mentioned this one boy who kept dropping by… the first time was about some bagel problem… the second time the boy bought a ton of cupcakes… and last time he came in a huff needing a baguette.”
“Oh really?” Hyunjin asked, prodding Seungmin along.
“Mmhmm,” Seungmin purred. “He mentioned how he thought the boy was super cute, but had really nice arms. Felix also reluctantly teased about how weak he was when this boy came in all sweaty from running down the block to grab a baguette. So I asked what his name was.”
Changbin looked away. He was squirming right now, and Seungmin and Hyunjin knew that.
“And what did Felix say?”
Seungmin smiled at his boyfriend. “He said the boy’s name was ‘Changbin.’ And I mentioned that I knew a Changbin, but it was probably a different Changbin.”
“W-what a coincidence,” Changbin croaked, finally stepping into a conversation he wanted no part of.
“BULLSHIT SEO CHANGBIN!!” Hyunjin exploded, practically launching Seungmin off of his lap. A disgruntled Seungmin clambered back onto his lap with Hyunjin calming down and latching his arms around Seungmin’s waist again.
“We know that it’s you!” Hyunjin added, slightly less aggressively this time.
“Okay okay okay, so what if it is,” Changbin dismissed.
“You’re right!” Seungmin sweetly replied. “So what if Hyunjinnie and I walk on down to the bakery and talk to Felix about everything we know about his particular Changbin, including his Munchlax plushie Gyu and how he drools on his pillow when he falls asleep.”
Changbin shot up, his eyes widening and staring daggers at the two boys seated in front of him. “You wouldn’t dare,” he hissed.
“In fact,” Seungmin continued, ignoring Changbin’s empty threat, “why don’t we just go to the bakery right now, babe?”
“That sounds like a great idea!” Hyunjin replied, moving his hands to Seungmin’s waist and helping the shorter boy up. They both immediately started making their way toward their shoes near the door, shooting looks back at a very frustrated Changbin.
“I hate both of you,” Changbin muttered, slinking his way toward the door to grab his own shoes.
It didn’t help that the entire walk to the bakery was punctuated by Seungmin and Hyunjin gossiping about all the mushy ways Changbin had rationalized going to the bakery in the past week. He said that he decided wanted more carbs, Hyunjin taunted, earning a dramatic guffaw from Seungmin. So Changbinnie has a sudden craving for carbs *and* Felix, Seungmin laughed. Meanwhile, Changbin wasn’t his usual explosive stuff -- instead, he was internally-combusting, stewing while he marched in front of the two lovers holding hands. He was so over them, so over this; he just wanted to get it over with so he could head back home.
Seungmin and Hyunjin jogged up to him when Changbin was just about to enter the bakery, holding him back in front of the row of glass windows near the front.
“You have to ask him out,” Hyunjin instructed, spinning Changbin around to face both of them.
“Yeah, or we’ll tell him what you really think about him,” Seungmin added with a wink. “And all sorts of other embarrassing stuff.”
Changbin huffed and darted into the bakery, ignoring both of his bullies’ antics. Hyunjin and Seungmin were not far behind, but Changbin was singularly focused on finding Felix and getting this over with. He still didn’t know what he was gonna say. Maybe he did like Felix a little. But did that mean he was gonna spill his guts to the boy? He wasn’t so sure. It seemed like it didn’t even matter anyways because despite glancing around the bakery a few times, he didn’t see any trace of Felix.
“He’s not even here,” Changbin reported, glaring at Seungmin and Hyunjin. “It doesn’t even matter, though, because I’m not interested in Felix. At all.”
Seungmin and Hyunjin simultaneously made a face, motioning for Changbin to turn around. Changbin sighed and obliged, pivoting 180 degrees to face the door to the back and the register.
The blonde-haired boy of the hour was standing behind the confectionary counter, slack-jawed, holding a small nondescript white pastry box, and eyes wide. As soon as Changbin locked eyes with him, Felix closed his mouth, turned around, and headed straight into the back. Apparently between the time Changbin had first scouted out the bakery and when he started to lie to his roommate about his non-interest in Felix, the baker had stepped out into the front. Just in time to hear Changbin say how he didn’t care for Felix.
“Wait! Felix!” Changbin shouted, hurrying toward the display case. He was blocked by the row of sweets, and he wasn’t gonna hop over the pastries to go find Felix in the back. Instead, he felt his anger flare, and he turned around to face Hyunjin and Seungmin, who both immediately looked away.
“This is your fault,” Changbin scolded. He stormed out the front door and walked back home, not stopping until he pushed his bedroom door open, slammed it shut, and collapsed on his bed.
V. The fifth time he needed to make things right.
Thirty minutes later, Changbin heard a knock at his door.
And then another knock.
And another.
So instead of ignoring the incessant knocking at his door, he decided to threaten his roommate: “Go away, Hyunjin! And if Seungmin’s there, he can go away too!”
There was a brief pause before Hyunjin replied.
“We wanted to apologize.” His voice slightly muffled by the door in between them.
“I don’t want your apology!” Changbin spat, rolling so that he was facing away from the door. His arms were curled around Gyu, squeezing him tight around his chest. Gyu didn’t judge him -- those assholes on the other side of the door did.
Instead of going away, though, Hyunjin and Seungmin apparently decided to bother him more. Changbin heard the door click open, noticing a flash of light moving across his room as it slowly swung open. The two boys quietly stepped in, shutting the door behind them.
“I told you to leave me alone,” Changbin complained.
“Look, we’re really sorry, Changbinnie,” Hyunjin started. “We didn’t mean to ruin everything.”
“Yeah, we just thought you would never talk to Felix if left on your own,” Seungmin added. “So we wanted to kinda force the situation, and that was wrong of us. And we’re sorry.”
“You did a great job of forcing him to hate me,” Changbin muttered, sitting up. He was still facing away from Seungmin and Hyunjin, looking out his window toward the street they shared with the bakery.
Hyunjin spoke up again: “We also apologized to Felix. We told him that we forced you to go down there, and that we pushed you when you weren’t ready to say anything yet. That he shouldn’t hold anything you said to us against him. If Felix wants to hate anyone, he should hate us.”
Changbin groaned. He didn’t want to think about Felix right now. He wanted to go back to being apathetic and empty and alone and not with Seungmin and Hyunjin and their stupid ideas.
“Felix’s shift ends at 6 pm. He said he had something to give you,” Seungmin relayed. “Hyunjinnie, we should go and leave Changbin alone.”
He heard the door click open again, the flash of light zooming across his walls again. “We’re really sorry, Changbinnie,” Seungmin repeated before clicking the door shut.
Changbin flopped back onto his side, squeezing Gyu a little tighter.
He pulled out his phone. 5:50 pm. Felix’s shift ended in 10 minutes.
After about three hours of moping, he finally decided to pick himself up and head back to the bakery. He really didn’t know why he got up -- whether it was the promise of Felix giving him something or the thought that Felix was probably torturing himself over this while having to work at the bakery. On one hand, Changbin was intrigued. On the other, he had no idea how Felix felt.
So that’s how he ended up outside Felix’s bakery with a nasty bout of bedhead and a whole lot of confused feelings that weren’t apathy or rage. Changbin sighed and pushed the door to the bakery open, spotting Felix at the register immediately. The blonde-haired boy froze in his spot, eyeing Changbin warily as he reluctantly approached the counter. Because the bakery was about to close, it was empty yet again. Felix still seemed preternaturally on-edge, a look and feeling Changbin hated, that made him upset.
“Look, I’m sorry about what I said earlier,” Changbin started, cutting straight to the point. “I understand if you hate me, but I mostly just wanted those two assholes to get off my back about this whole thing. I don’t usually have feelings for anybody, and I especially don’t like Hyunjin knowing that I have feelings for anybody. Because he does things like… that. But you didn’t deserve to hear me lie like that.”
Changbin watched as Felix’s eyes lit up, growing a little wider. Changbin sarcastically laughed to himself.
“Truth is, I actually do like you?” he added.
Felix looked shocked. But he also looked like he was fighting a smile, that he was fighting his initial reaction to be happy.
“I like you,” Changbin repeated, this time a little more definitively.
Felix couldn’t help himself this time; he started shyly smiling -- beaming, really -- his cheeks turning bright red right in front of Changbin. It was too ridiculously cute, Changbin had to look away before he started blushing.
“One sec!” Felix said, disappearing into the back. Moments later, he came back with the same small white box he had a few hours ago when Changbin was here with Hyunjin and Seungmin. Felix came around from behind the counter and held it out for Changbin to take.
“For you,” the taller boy instructed while Changbin reached out to take it. “Open it.”
Changbin nodded, carefully holding the base of the box with one hand and unhooking the cardstock latches at the top of the box. As the box started to collapse, it revealed a single cupcake: chocolate base, buttercream frosting, and several numbers written in icing. Changbin counted the digits, realizing that this was Felix’s phone number. Now he was really blushing.
He looked back up at the other boy, who was bashfully smiling. Changbin couldn’t help but smile too, all the pent-up emotions from the past few days rushing to his face in the form of a gummy smile and pink rosy cheeks.
“D-do you wanna go get pizza? Since your shift is almost over.”
Felix smiled again. “I’d love to, I love carbs.”
Changbin laughed. He put the cupcake down on one of the tables and started plugging Felix’s number into his phone. Felix, meanwhile, locked up the register and sauntered over to where Changbin was.
“I think I like carbs too.”