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A rapid set of knocks terrorized the back door of Changbin’s kitchen.
Changbin sighed. He had closed his bakery to customers a few hours ago and he was already well past his normal curfew. It was almost midnight. By the sound of it, it was either an annoying Karen looking to pick a fight, some lost and angry drunkard, or Jisung sniffing around for free snacks again.
He threw down the piece of dough he was kneading and wiped his hands clean with a towel.
Changbin knew he shouldn’t have been staying this long in the first place, but he really had to try out this new milk bread recipe he found in a magazine at the doctor’s office. It was stupid confusing to read and unnecessarily complicated: all the more reason to try it out.
He tried to peer through the door’s frosted glass windowpane, but the wet winter weather made it extra foggy that night. He braced himself before opening the door. “I’m sorry, but we’re closed-”
He stared back at Jisung holding hands with a raggedy-looking little teenager. The boy’s long black bangs almost hid his eyes and his cream sweater was faintly stained and tattered at the sleeves. His jeans were pretty ripped along the knees; probably not an intentional fashion choice. Obviously, this wasn’t enough clothes for the weather as he was slightly shivering– or maybe just a little timid?
“Jisung. What the fuck?”
Jisung’s expression remained calm. “Okay, Hyung, I can explain. But first, we are very hungry so if you could please fix us some sandwiches, that’d be great!”
“No,” Changbin replied, blankly.
The stranger pulled at Jisung’s sleeve and mumbled, “It didn’t work, he said ‘no’.”
“Don't worry, I got this,” the older whispered back. He turned back to Changbin and pointed a finger at his face accusingly. “Oh, you monster! Couldn’t you at least spare a muffin or two to a poor little starving orphan? Huh?! Huh?!” He gestured towards the boy.
“Yes! Poor and starving!” the boy mimicked.
Jisung really did it this time. Oh, he was gonna get it. Changbin knew how to deal with the cats he picked up off the streets, but what were they supposed to do with a whole kid?!
“Jisung, what did you do?!”
“I just brought a friend, Hyung!” He casually draped an arm over the teenager. “Look, he’s harmless and he doesn’t bite.”
“Yea, I don’t bite!” The boy flashed a strained and awkward smile. Meanwhile, his wide eyes read ‘absolutely terrified’.
Changbin crossed his arms and gave the boys his signature hard stare. The one that he uses when he’s really confused or disappointed to the point that he’s pissed off.
Jisung visibly winced. He elbowed his guest next to him.
“Oh uh- ah, well, I guess it’s back to searching the dumpers for me,” the boy murmured.
Changbin’s right eye twitched.
“Maybe… maybe I’ll get lucky this time and I’ll find something that isn’t expired...” The teen pouted and wiped his eyes with a dirty sleeve.
“Ahh! Fine! C’mere!” Changbin pulled the boy inside but stopped Jisung with a hand. “Not you. You can stay out here and freeze, you brat.”
“Heh! Whatever,” Jisung replied, “I was just leaving anyway… I’ll just go empty-handed. No croissants for Seungmin and Hyunjin to eat with their coffee. No muffins to surprise Felix with in the morning… and no mini cheesecakes for poor old Jisung even though Changbin-hyung’s are his favorite.” He put a hand over his chest and sighed.
God, Changbin was just too soft sometimes. “Come grab something from the fridges and then leave. You have sixty seconds.”
Jisung dashed in and out in less than thirty. He had really memorized the kitchen’s layout by now, to Changbin’s dismay.
Meanwhile, the baker offered a stool to his new guest but he politely declined. He just stood and stared in awe at the huge steel appliances, leftover baked goods, and all the shiny tools used by Changbin and his kitchen staff.
Jisung hugged both of them before stepping out with his overstuffed doggy-bag. “Changbin-hyung will give you something good to eat. Come back safe, okay?” He said to the teen, who nodded.
His and the other boys’ shared apartment was just down the street, but Changbin still thought his concern for the younger was cute. He was still mad, though. “Yea, yea. Out with you, I’ll take care of him.”
“I know! Love you, Hyung!”
“Uh-huh.”
Jisung popped his head back in the kitchen for a moment. “Hey! You love me back, right?”
“Of course. Now out!”
Changbin locked the door and finally turned to give his full attention to the young stranger.
“I’m sorry about all that. He’s very impulsive. And stupid, too. And dumb.”
The boy smiled politely at him and kept on checking out his kitchen silently.
Changbin began rummaging the fridges for something quick to whip up. But by the looks of it, he knew he had to do more than a simple sandwich to help this little guy out.
“Hey, is what he said true?” he asked, “That you’re from an orphanage?”
“It’s a foster home—a big one—but, yea, I guess,” the boy replied. He pressed a hand onto a cold stainless steel tabletop.
“Well?” Changbin asked, expectantly.
Despite his shyness, the teen answered well like he was just waiting for Changbin to ask or like he already had a response memorized in his head.
“It’s, uhm, my last year there before I turn of age. I have a plan all set up for me and everything for when I leave. I just want to... to explore first, you know?”
Changbin definitely understood. “Ah. So you ran away.” The baker gave the vacant stool next to him a pat but the teen refused it once again. He instead stood leaning toward the oven Changbin was preheating, taking in its warmth.
“Basically, yea… but I’ll be going back! Eventually, just like last time! Please don’t call the cops on me.” He looked at Changbin with his hands clasped and a mild panic on his face.
“What?! Hell no, I won’t!” the older exclaimed. “Don’t worry about that.”
You’re my problem now, Changbin thought.
He looked over his young guest.
The ends of his messy hair were dry and split. His skin was mostly clear but a little sallow. His lips were chapped too. Probably dehydrated. He didn’t look too-too skinny. His wrists weren’t thin at all and his cheeks were still full, so that was good. Most notably, he donned a full set of braces that would need proper looking after.
Changbin caught on to his overthinking. He was looking a bit too far into this.
Jisung knew what he was doing bringing this kid here, didn't he? He probably knew Changbin couldn’t just let him go back to… to God knows what! What could it be? A mattress on the side of the road? The pile of dirty clothes in the corner of Jisung’s room? How could he sleep at night without knowing where this kid was gonna sleep at night?!
Oh, he felt the headache coming on.
“I see. But can you, um, still get adopted?” Changbin pressed on.
“Uh, yeah, I guess.” The teen dropped his gaze and started picking at his nails. “But everyone picks the younger ones. They don’t want kids my age. I’m so old, I’d just be wasting their money.”
Changbin’s heart sank at the sight.
“But, do you… do you want to get adopted?”
“Huh?!” The boy perked up and flushed. “No-no! Of course not… that’d be weird.”
“Why?”
“It just would.” He huffed and turned back to warming up his hands over the oven.
Changbin didn’t understand this kid at all and he was kinda getting riled up imagining all those adults rejecting him. What?! What does age matter?! He’s still a kid! Cheap, lazy dicks. Ugh.
But he was even more surprised with the boy’s response. Why was it so bad to be adopted last minute? Oh, well… maybe a lot of things could go wrong now that he thought about it. But there’s surely a loving parent or two out there for everyone! Right? Right?!
“And- and I’m going back anyway. To go through the plan they set up for me. I’ll go to college and room with people like me,” the boy continued.
“And you don’t want that?”
“I, uh, I don’t know yet.”
Changbin sighed and turned back to his workspace. He’s been there.
That’s when he realized that this whole distraction had just cost him precious baking time. He immediately tucked his dough into a greased loaf pan and chucked it into the oven.
Changbin pulled out the stool once again, this time in front of the hot oven. The teen happily accepted.
He turned his attention back to the fridges. “You allergic to anything?”
“No, nothing.”
Good. Changbin got to work on a simple ham and cheese on sourdough. The kid would surely love his sourdough. It’s one of Changbin’s specialties. The number of starters he killed at the beginning of his baking career was kind of embarrassing to think about but now people line up at five in the freaking morning to snatch one!
He fired up the stove and melted some butter over a skillet. With a bread knife, he cut up a fresh loaf.
After toasting two slices in the butter for a moment, he placed atop some freshly sliced ham and a generous serving of the special grated cheese blend that the shop uses for grilled cheeses.
He then used a grill press to smush down the sandwich. The cheese oozed out of the sides and the whole thing started to brown and crisp up faster.
Changbin snuck a glance at the boy by the oven. God, the kid was practically drooling watching him cook.
He transferred the sandwich onto a plate with a spatula and made sure the boy had a view of the gooey cheese stretch when he sliced it in half and pulled it apart.
The baker served it up alongside a tall jar of water.
The teen refused such a generous portion at first but after a ‘Hyung took all this trouble making you this and you’re not gonna take it?!’ from the older, he complied.
Changbin watched him happily gobble up his sandwich. The kid really did eat like someone was about to take it away from him.
“You know, I ran away too.”
“Huh?!” the boy choked, “Really?!”
“Yea! But not like you. My family is nice and well-off and stuff. I went to school for architecture. But, I mean, look at me now.” Changbin dusted some flour off his apron. “I think you can guess the rest.”
“You love baking,” the younger pointed out.
“Duh! I get to make good food from my own two hands and it gave me these guns!” Changbin rolled up a sleeve to flex his hulking bicep.
The boy’s eyes widened like saucers. “Wow, you’re so cool! But what did your family say? I-If you don’t mind.”
“It’s all good. They were… fine? Pissed off, obviously, but they still wanted to support me. Parents are so confusing.”
“Wow, I wish I had a dream like you,” the teen said, frowning, “then maybe I wouldn’t be feeling so lost right now.”
“Ehh. It is pretty sweet, I’ll admit it. But I can’t really give you advice on that, Kid. Not everyone has a dream… and that's okay.”
Changbin was really trying his best to comfort this poor kid, he really was. That year he spent doing math until dawn and carrying fragile model building projects through campus was absolute hell, but it felt like the safest path to follow at the time. It wasn’t until he binged watched a baking show during vacation that he found his true calling. It wasn’t easy, obviously, but that urge to commit and exceed felt new and invigorating.
He knew that the answers the boy was looking for came with time and growth and following your heart and stuff, but he hated getting that advice as a teenager himself and he wasn’t just about to repeat the same thing.
Changbin settled a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I know it’s hard right now. The important thing is that you have to stay strong no matter what path you take.”
The teen kept his head down and spoke softly, with a slight strain in his voice, “Why? If you’re not on the best path… isn’t that just a waste of time, then?”
“What? Of course not! It’s called living, Kid. When you fall off one path, just pick yourself up and try again,” Changbin reassured him. “What do you really have to lose? As long as you’re trying, you’re living, ain’t ya?”
“I-I guess,” the boy wiped away a lone tear on his face with his sleeve, “But-”
Changbin wrapped his arms around the younger, burying his face into his neck. “Shh, all this overthinking– it’s not good for you,” he whined.
The boy didn’t dare move a muscle but Changbin could feel his own left shoulder start to get damp.
“O-Oh I’m so sorry,” he gasped, grabbing himself a fistful of Changbin’s shirt. “I’m sorry.”
“Mhm,” Changbin hummed.
The teen started choking up. Oh, it was so embarrassing for him to be crying in the arms of a stranger– and at the ripe old age of seventeen, too.
He pressed his sweater sleeve against his red, runny nose and sniffled.
But something about Changbin made him feel safe. He was like… an angel or something. Too nice and too generous. Spoiling him for nothing in return.
“I’m,” the boy finally broke out into a sob, breaking the silence, “Jeongin!”
The baker couldn’t help but giggle. He squeezed him closer. “Hehe! Nice to meet you, Jeongin.”
The teenage boy named Jeongin cried into Changbin’s arms for a good while until his tears ran dry, leaving an icky sting in his throat and his face red and itchy.
Changbin turned his head to wipe away some tears of his own. The kid didn’t need to see that. After making sure the younger was done, Changbin stopped rubbing his shivering back and hands and grabbed the glass of water to bring it to Jeongin’s lips.
The boy giggled into the jar and took a few sips.
Changbin, now settled, cleared his throat. “So… I’m going to be feeding you from now on. For every meal. Don’t worry about it.”
“What? Huh?!” Jeongin was taken aback by the sudden proposal.
“You heard me. I’m gonna feed you.” He grabbed the boy’s dishes and started walking away.
“But… no way! I can’t do that to you!” Jeongin stood up and followed him to the sink. “I’m- you’ll-”
“If you reject, you’ll make Hyung cry.” The baker clung to Jeongin and started fake-sobbing. “Oh no, my new dongsaeng doesn’t like me! Oh, waaah!”
“Absolutely not! I’m not your responsibility!”
“Waaahh! Jeongin hates me!”
“I-I don’t!”
“C’mon, would it be that bad?” Changbin whined as he started on the washing. “You’re breaking my heart, Jeongin.”
“Wait, but- but I don’t know you! Don’t you remember meeting me like only a little while ago?!”
Changbin straightened up. “Hm. What about this, then? Do you know how to wash dishes?” He held up his soapy rag.
“Uh, yea?”
“Can you mop floors?”
“Yes, I’ve done it before.”
“Good! You’re hired.”
“But-!”
“Ah, waaah! My new dongsaeng doesn’t want to work with me! And we would have so much fun together, too! Oh, Jeongin hates me!”
Jeongin started again. “But– ah, fine! I accept! I can work for you sometimes. But not every meal– you can't feed me for every meal.”
“Why not? You’re not living in Jisung and his boys’ rats nest.”
“I don’t have anywhere else to go!”
“That crowded mess with Gatorade stains on the walls?! You’ll stay with me and my two hyungs, obviously! Comes with the job.” Changbin shook Jeongin’s hand. “It’s settled.”
“Ehh, your hands are wet.”
Chan and Minho. Those nice guys would understand undoubtedly. Heck, they might even kick the baker out in favor of this cute new guy. Ehehe. Changbin took a mental note to bring back more desserts that night.
He noticed Jeongin staring at the ground with a huge smile plastered on his face.
“Isn't Hyung nice and kind?”
“Yes, very much!”
“Jeongin?”
“Yea?”
“I forgot to ask one very important question, Jeongin, so answer honestly. Do you like bread?”
“Of course! So much! At the home, they called me-” Jeongin suddenly stopped his words and flushed beet-red. “Uh.”
“Huh? Call you what?” Changbin smirked. “What did they call you, Jeongin?”
“Baby… Baby Bread…”
It was quite a sight after that. Changbin just about nearly broke down and asked for the adoption papers right then and there, and Jeongin was very startled in response because it looked like his brand new guardian was about to pass out on him. For half an hour afterward, they watched the milk bread rise from its pan, turning into something soft and sweet before their very eyes. The baker wrapped it up and stuffed it down the younger’s sweater as they stepped out; not a very practical way of doing things, but it was something warm for Jeongin to finally come home to.