Chapter Text
Jaehyun huffs as he climbs up the last flight of stairs that lead up to his room, a stack of heavy boxes in hand. Why’d he against hiring a mover to help him with his things, he doesn’t know why. All he knows is that he’s made the decision of moving from his old and crappy apartment complex down to a newly opened one far from it. Although the rent was quite pricey, Jaehyun didn’t mind as the place was spacious and the owner offered to help him furnish his room before he moved in, to which he was grateful for.
No more moving couches or tables all alone, he had once said to himself before moving.
But what he hated was moving his other things and Jaehyun was not happy with the amount of “miscellaneous” belongings he had collected over the last few years.
He drops the last of his boxes on the floor just right by the door, sighing tiredly before unlocking his door with the keys. Jaehyun starts to pile the ridiculous amount of boxes into his apartment, shoving them in with his foot impatiently. He was starting to feel hot in the slightly cramped hallway and all he wanted to do was crash on his couch and lounge with his rather small fan that his boss gave him two months ago.
When all of his belongings have been shoved and piled neatly next to an empty plant pot, Jaehyun lands on the couch as exhaustion washed over him. Why did I even decide to move when it’s night, I hate myself now, he says to himself as he takes off his glasses and places them on the low-rise coffee table before rolling on his stomach. He allows his chin to rest on the throw pillow and moves one arm, positioning it so that his phone is directly in front of his face.
Business emails and invitations invade his screen making Jaehyun wince at the amount of work he has this week. It’s not that he disliked his job, but a change of pace and environment would probably benefit him more as he was getting tired of savory and spices dishes from around the city. He wanted something new but he wasn’t sure what the something new was.
Jaehyun drops his phone beside his glasses and lies on his side. His mind swirls at the amount of things he has to do over the weekend before going back to work on Monday. For now, he allows himself to succumb to his exhaustion, the silence of his new place calming him down as he shuts his tired eyes. Now weary, he allows himself to think of two things before he ultimately falls into a deep slumber.
At least the commute is nearer. And the place is bigger.
࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ
Jaehyun wakes up to someone knocking on his door, the noise startling him as he nearly falls off the couch. He reaches out for his phone to look at the time, his screen reading 10:29a.m.. He feels groggy, obviously regretting the decision to crash on his couch instead of his bed but at least he got the sleep he badly needed. He sits up and untucks his oversized shirt from his sweatpants as he reaches out for his glasses.
The knocks got louder, Jaehyun asking the person behind his door to wait a bit as he gets up from his couch. He scratches his hair as he opens the door, his eyes still slightly closed from being woken up unceremoniously.
“Yes?” he says grumpily. His eyes land on a smaller man in front of him, clearly a worker from the cafe just beside the apartment complex judging from his uniform. His eyes were wide and bright as he looked at Jaehyun, a small smile playing on his lips. He resembled a puppy and Jaehyun couldn’t deny that his eyes were magical but in a cute way.
Pretty, his mind says. However, Jaehyun’s gaze moved up to the man’s hair and . It was bright pink, the color screaming fun and exciting which Jaehyun hated . Jaehyun liked simplicity and class and the pink hair only made him suspicious about the man in front of him.
Although he was not denying that the man looked handsome , unreal, even. As if he came straight out of a comic book.
“The landlord just informed me about someone moving in here and as a tradition, I’d like to give you these.” Cotton (because his hair looks like cotton candy and Jaehyun found it right to call him that) lifts up a small box and opens it, revealing a neat arrangement of small pastries sprinkled with powdered sugar on top.
“What are these?” Jaehyun asks as he takes the box carefully, examining its contents and giving it a sniff.
“Those are beignets,” Cotton says, hiding his hands behind his back as he flashes Jaehyun a lovely smile. “I baked a fresh batch earlier, just before the cafe opened and the landlord asked me to bring some up to the new tenant.”
“And you do this…” Jaehyun trails off, poking at the sweet delicacy. “As a tradition?”
“Yes!” Cotton answers excitedly, clapping his hands together. “Although we don’t give beignets all the time. One tenant was given shortcakes when they first moved in here.”
Jaehyun stares at Cotton and back at the beignets. Something about Cotton struck him yet he couldn’t put a finger on it. However, Jaehyun was still sure about one thing and he wasn’t going to hide this from the baker.
“I don’t like sweets,” he apologetically says, smiling sadly as he returns the box to Cotton. He notices the man’s eyes grow sad, a pout forming on his lips as he looks at the rejected gift. He looked like a dejected puppy, to say the least, and Jaehyun resisted this odd urge to give his head a pat.
“That’s so… weird ,” Cotton says quietly, looking at him strangely as he holds the box gently to his chest. “Who on earth wouldn’t want sweets? It’s a delight and you’re missing out on it,” he adds, holding up the box of sweets for Jaehyun to take again.
To begin with, Jaehyun was not offended in any way. For the longest time, his friends have been asking him to eat sweets and he’s denied all of them, even denying the chocolates his admirers gave him during his birthday, opting to accept sour tapes instead.
There was something about seeing sweets that made him want to hurl in the most unfashionable way intended and he couldn’t understand why was that. Everything that seemed like a sweet delicacy seemed too much ; from the amount of frosting to the decorated chocolate on it to the oozing filling it had made Jaehyun dizzy.
“Just give it a taste,” Cotton speaks up again, bringing Jaehyun’s mind back to where he was. The man looks at him with anticipation as Jaehyun hesitantly takes a beignet and takes a bite from it, carefully chewing on the delicacy while the man before him watches his suffering.
The powdered sugar melts in his mouth as he chews, coating his tongue with a thin layer of sweetness that was (surprisingly) absent on the actual pastry. The bread was still warm, making it soft enough to chew, which he greatly enjoyed. It wasn’t the kind that dried up in your throat once you swallowed; in fact, it made Jaehyun want more and so he allows himself to finish the last bit of the beignet on his fingers, licking his lips free of the leftover powdered sugar on it.
“Well?” Cotton asks curiously, biting his lip to suppress a smile that was threatening to form on his pretty face. “Pretty good, right? I baked that myself,” he proudly adds as he closes the box of beignets. Jaehyun was still chewing slowly on the delicacy, giving himself time to get used to eating something foreign.
He swallows rather forcefully, something Cotton laughs at. “It’s a nice treat, but I’m seriously not looking into sweets. And if you don’t mind me commenting on it, the bread started to dry up once it was already cooling down. It’s probably because you left that box open when I handed it back to you.”
Cotton gapes at him, his mouth hanging open. “No way.” He re-opens the box and takes a beignet out, taking a bite out of the delicacy and chewing quickly. His shoulders slightly dropped and Jaehyun looks at him rather apologetically while the smaller man looks at him suspiciously, finishing the last bits of his own beignet.
“Are you a critic or something?”
“A food critic, to be more specific. But I never really critic sweets because I hate them,” Jaehyun answers mechanically, crossing his arms over his chest. “And I won’t be taking the beignets. Thank you for making me taste them, though.” He moves to close the door but the hand on the sleeve of his shirt stops him, causing him to turn around, much to his annoyance.
“What is it this time?” he asks. His coffee-deprived self couldn’t wait any longer to leave the house and go for a cafe hunt despite the fact that there was a cafe just beside the apartment complex. Cotton purses his lips, as if hesitating to ask Jaehyun for something but the taller one gently removes Cotton’s hand on his sleeve, saying, “Speak up. I don’t have all day.”
“Is it okay if I have you taste some of my creations any time?” Cotton asks him shyly, looking at him with those big puppy eyes of his that were damn near irresistible . Jaehyun was taken aback by the request but made no efforts to show it to the smaller man before him.
“Why would you want me to do that?” Jaehyun asks pointedly. “And I’m not a casual “foodie” as what other people would like to call me. I actually critic food for a living so I’m sorry if I pass off as a casual critic.”
“Not at all!” Cotton says as he holds a hand up in defense, stepping back a bit from Jaehyun. “And you’re the closest person to me that has proper knowledge on food.”
“First of all, we’re not close—”
“I was talking about the location,” Cotton answers him almost immediately. “Look. All you have to do is give comments on what I bake so that I can improve them and help the cafe. It’s not that much of a big deal.”
“I have work, too, in case you didn’t know,” Jaehyun retorts. The smaller man was not easy to handle and normally, Jaehyun would have shut annoying people up already. But Cotton put up a fight, his words biting him back as he argued with him.
“When are you free?” Cotton asks him. Of course he’ll be asking that. Of fucking course.
Jaehyun resists the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose as he answers the persistent man's inquiry. “Saturdays and Sundays. Except for when there are food markets—” He gets cut off by Cotton clapping his hands together, shoving the box of beignets back into Jaehyun’s hands.
“That’s perfect. I’ll see you around,” he says as he begins making his descent on the dizzying flight of stairs, his pretty pink hair bobbing like that of a puppy. Jaehyun walks over to the rails, looking down at the spiral while trying to spot Cotton.
“What do I do with these?” he calls out to nothing. Cotton’s head peeks out from somewhere, a grin plastered on his face as he looks up at Jaehyun.
“Keep it! It’s on me!” he announces and disappears, probably off to run down the last few steps, much to Jaehyun’s amusement.
He stares at the box on his hands. Something about Cotton’s offer seemed suspicious but he didn’t know why.
Sweets were supposed to be delectable, something one should enjoy. But he feels like hurling over the fact that he has to taste them every now and then , just for the sake of helping the smaller man out.
Jaehyun shudders at the thought of eating and digesting sweets. “What nightmare-ish welcome,” he mumbled to himself as he enters his room, deciding to drop by the office and hand the beignets and a cup of coffee to his friend, Johnny, instead.
࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ
The next weekend rolls in and Jaehyun finds Cotton standing in front of him once again. It was only a little after nine in the morning when the pink-haired man knocked and appeared before him, the man in question donning a plain white button down shirt, the front part tucked neatly into a pair black pants. He smelled of home baked goods and mostly vanilla, the scent alone enough to tickle Jaehyun’s nose.
“Why are you back?” Jaehyun asks him stupidly. It wasn’t that he forgot Cotton’s offer, it was just that he was working and he didn’t want to be disturbed. Of course Jaehyun realized that he could’ve rejected the baker’s knocks from earlier but it was already too late and now here he was, standing in front of the man from last night.
Cotton holds up a small pack of cookies, the kind women give to someone they liked whenever it was Valentines Day. “I’m here to ask you to taste my dark chocolate fudge cookies. And I know it’s only morning but I have a shift in an hour and I wanted you to taste this before I leave for it,” the man shyly says, smiling from behind the packet of cookies. It was shut tight by a pink and frilly ribbon that was too childish for Jaehyun’s taste. And Jaehyun didn’t want to be mean but if Cotton was going to ask him to taste something, he expected something more.
“Aren’t cookies too elementary to be taste tested? Judging from how it looks, they could be just be basic cookies everyone baked all the time.”
He watches Cotton’s face scrunch up in protest, his eyebrows drawn together and his lips tightly sealed. “Just try one piece,” he says, untying the ribbon on the packaging and opening it just enough for Jaehyun’s hand to reach inside. The critic eyes the plastic of cookies, clearly judging it internally but not uttering a word about it. Jaehyun gives Cotton a look, the latter’s eyes wide and pleading, like a puppy desperate for a small treat.
He sighed tiredly. Jaehyun wasn’t used to dealing with troublesome people so early in the morning, yet here was a person brave enough to test the limits of his patience. “Just one piece,” he says and takes a cookie, examining it before drawing it near his face. The bitter smell of the sweet snack looked tempting and before Cotton could even urge him to take a bite, Jaehyun does it wordlessly, chewing slowly at the small piece he’s bitten.
The sweetness was overwhelming, however most of it was dissipated by the bitterness the dark chocolate it had. However, what surprised Jaehyun was the melting chocolate that rested on his tongue after biting into the delicacy, the sensation leaving Jaehyun thirsty for water. He finishes the last of the bite-sized cookie before painfully swallowing the remaining pieces.
“Too sweet,” he comments, crossing his arms over his chest. “I could taste the bitterness, but the chocolate was still annoyingly sweet for me,” he adds. “It could use some more work, though I have no idea what do you plan on doing to that.” His remark was slightly harsh and Jaehyun hopes that it was something that would make Cotton stop from coming back.
However, he was taken in surprise when Cotton hands him the pack of cookies, smiling triumphantly at Jaehyun as he begins to take note of what the younger has said to him. “Thank you for that. I think I know what to do next time,” Cotton says, pocketing his phone. “I’ll be leaving now. Have a good day ahead!”
“Wait,” Jaehyun calls out, the pack of cookies in his hand. Maybe he did feel a bit guilty about what he just said but he couldn’t help it. But Jaehyun wasn’t the one to leave a mess and not clean after it. “If you’re going to be doing this every weekend, then we have to set some rules,” he says, drawing Cotton’s attention back to him.
Cotton walks back to his door. “I’m listening.”
“Firstly, I won’t accept taste-testing during weekdays and during mornings, even on mornings during weekends. I know I said my weekend was free, but I’m specifically free during the evening.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Come after eight in the evening because I’m already done with dinner by that time. That’s all,” Jaehyun says. Cotton nods, understanding Jaehyun’s terms and draws out his hand for Jaehyun to take. The younger takes Cotton’s hand and shakes it firmly, sealing their deal officially.
“My name is Lee Taeyong. It’ll be a pleasure working with you, Jaehyunnie,” Taeyong says, letting go of the younger’s hand before bolting down the stairs. Jaehyun is confused once again as he walks to the rails, shouting, “How do you know my name?”
“My boss told me! You gave our cafe an A rating so thank you for that! Hope to see you dine in Timeless Coffees next time!” Taeyong calls out, his head popping out as he smiled up at Jaehyun. They don’t converse more after that and jaehyun is left stunned to himself, the pack of cookies still in his hand.
࿐ ࿔*:･ﾟ
Later that evening, Jaehyun gives in to his curiosity, opting to take one of the cookies Taeyong offered him that morning. He had just finished his rather meek dinner of fried salmon paired with a huge bowl of kimchi rice when the thought crossed him, much to his surprise.
“What am I thinking,” he says as he reaches out for the packaging on his island counter. He unties the ribbon on the plastic and draws out one cookie, his nose scrunching up in disgust. There was no way he’d allow himself to even take a bite of that treat, no matter how inviting the chocolate on it still looked at the end of the day. He forces himself to eat the piece he’s taken, chewing rather quickly before swallowing it with a glassful of water. He’d have to get rid of the cookies somehow and so he makes the decision of giving them again to Johnny, texting him and giving him a heads up about his small “gift”.
Jaehyun shakes his head, lightly chuckling to himself at the poor attempt. He clears his dishes and washes them quickly, storing them in his dish cabinet before fully exiting his kitchen. His mind buzzed with the thought that he'd have to test taste sweets from the bubbly baker downstairs and the mere idea made his skin crawl.
If this was the “something new” he was wishing for since last night, then he wanted out of it and now .