Chapter Text
Xiao Dejun is a good baker.
He tells himself that he is a good baker with moments of fail just like everybody else with their profession when having bad days but this is the fourth time he has failed this Cruffins recipe and if he doesn't finish this soon then his sweet, but very terrifying best friend might just kick him out of his own bakery, well, kind of his bakery but his older brother has it under his name because there was no way in hell Kun could handle a bakery let alone bake.
His brother was an amazing cook, too amazing that Dejun sometimes mistakes his homemade food as take-out food from those fancy restaurants that he and Kun go to at every end of the month because they've made it into their little holiday.
Dejun starts working faster as he sees the clock near noon and puts his last tray of his cruffins for the day and hopes that it's perfect so Taeyong, his self-proclaim business partner and best friend won't have to scold him. He briefly wonders about Kun and his well-being. Kun got a job outside of their town two years ago and though Kun still does their little holiday with the same enthusiasm back when they were 16 and broke, the nagging inside Dejun's head doesn't stop like how the restaurants they go to every month gets better and expensive as Kun accepted that job outside of town and how he only see his brother once a month.
He misses him but they've had this conversation quite a few times already and Kun's answer about his job was always the same. "Don't worry. I'm always safe."
The timer beeps when it hits zero and Dejun lets out a happy squeal as he sees his cruffins golden-brown.
"Perfect," Dejun whispers as he sets the batch down on one of the counters and gets out of the kitchen to tell Taeyong the good news.
The morning had been slow. Too slow that they called Yangyang and Sicheng, their assistants, to stay home. Dejun hopes that by noon they would be pretty busy.
Dejun taps Taeyong's shoulder softly and the older turns around. Taeyong sends a smile to the younger and lifts one of his eyebrows.
"Finally succeeded?" Dejun giggles at the question but nods.
"They're perfectly golden-brown." the younger proudly exclaims as he grabs Taeyong's wrist in the direction of the bakery's kitchen.
Dejun's bouncing on his feet as he watches the older take a bite of his cruffins and squeals in delight as he watches Taeyong close his eyes and savors the pastry. It's Taeyong's way of saying 'this is to die for, Dejun.' and pride swallows Dejun whole as he watches Taeyong take another piece.
"Let's hope noon would speed stuff up that we have to call Yangyang and Sicheng. They sounded too relieved when we told them that they didn't have to come." Taeyong mutters. The two giggle at the memory of hearing Yangyang and Sicheng taking a deep breath of relief as they told them to stay home. The two had been together when the two bakers called.
They got Yangyang and Sicheng 6 months after Kun got a job in the outskirts of their little town and although the two bakers were quite suspicious of the two considering their town didn't have many young people and they mostly knew everyone, they took them with open arms and immediately formed a close bond with the two.
Dejun and Taeyong are cleaning the dirty tables while they wait for noon to come and make their way to the kitchen for lunch as they finish.
"I am so close to just going across the street and getting a salad," Taeyong mutters as Dejun looks for something to eat with his head fully deep inside the fridge. The two had been eating their leftover bread for the past two weeks, consisting of jelly doughnuts, German cinnamon swirls (Yangyang almost physically fought him to put it on their menu), macaroons, and eclairs.
Dejun was also beginning to become sick of it but he was too proud of his pastries to stop eating them for lunch and besides, Dejun's a good baker. His pastries taste like heaven.
The two eat in silence for a bit before finally sitting down as they wait for business to start. The door is pushed open and both boys softly coos as they see 3 children running up to them.
"Hi!" Taeyong exclaims as Dejun stands up to crouch in front of the children.
"Hi." the little girl between the two boys softly whispers as she looks at the floor. Dejun resists the urge to pinch the little girl's cheeks to not scare her away and instead coos as he watches her bend her teddy bear's fingers.
"What can we do for you three?" Taeyong asks as he also crouches down and the shorter one of the two boys speaks up. "We smelled something sweet and I was wondering what it was!" he exclaims. "It smelled so sweet that I begged Min to take us to where the smell was and we found it came from your cafe." Taeyong giggles as he watches the small boy's brown hair bounce lightly as he speaks.
"Well, what would you like?" Dejun softly asks as he leads the 3 children to the counter. "I want a jelly doughnut!" the small boy exclaims as he watches the tall boy,--who was called Min--order. "I'll get a chocolate doughnut." Min orders as they explain to the little girl what was happening. The two older boys coo as they finally see the little girl's face. "She'll get a hot chocolate." Min orders for her.
Dejun nods at Min as he heads towards the kitchen and Taeyong leads them to a table that was near the counter. Dejun gets fresh jelly and chocolate doughnuts and makes sure that the hot chocolate is not too hot for the little girl before making his way back to the children.
"Stop." a voice whispers behind his head as he feels a cold barrel pressing against the back of his head. Dejun freezes and before he could even register what was going on, the man starts on talking again. "If you move, I will pull the trigger," the man threatens and Dejun wants to cry. What the fuck is happening-
Taeyong.
Fuck. Taeyong is with the children and judging from the situation the man might have a connection to the three children that just walked in and Taeyong is with them and he could be in trouble or worse.
Dejun drops the tray that was holding the doughnuts and hot chocolate and runs towards Taeyong. He's glued in his spot as he sees Taeyong surrounded by a bunch of men with sunglasses and ironed suits and he feels the cold barrel once again. "I told you that if you moved-" the man doesn't finish his sentence as the little girl runs from her spot and hugs Dejun's knee.
"Mr. Sheep, leave him alone!" the little screams and the man behind them tsk, and Dejun racks his brain. 'Mr. Sheep? Why does that seem so familiar.'
"Bella, please go back to Minhyung and Donghyuck." Dejun looks down and sees Bella shaking her head. "Bella..." the man threatens but she stays put.
Dejun's about to wince as her grip tightens before the door is again push open and three more men enter. Dejun feels the cold barrel leave the back of his head and sees the man that was behind him run towards the three men and bow along with the others.
Dejun looks at Taeyong and finds the boy is already looking at him and Dejun smiles as he sees Taeyong look unhurt but clearly annoyed at the company.
Taeyong's about to yell at them to leave the bakery at once but is cut off by Bella.
"Daddy!" she screams and suddenly all attention is on him and Bella who still has her arms wrapped around his leg. Dejun counts there are at least 10 of them including the 3 men that were late to the party.
Dejun notices that Mr. Sheep's head is bent down but before Dejun can overthink, the man in the middle speaks. "Don't you know kidnapping is illegal?" the man drawls, painfully slow but with a dash of mockery but Dejun refuses to let it scare him.
"Don't you know threatening a man is illegal?" Dejun sasses back, he keeps his voice soft to not scare the children. "This is a bakery for god's sake and children are present!"
The man reaches out for his gun and his crew does the same. "They must share the same brain cell," Dejun mutters underneath her breath but Bella hears, and unfortunately, she understands and lets out a snort. "Daddy! The old man is nice! Stop being mean!"
Dejun gapes at her. 'Did she just call me an old man?', Dejun screams inside his head. He sees Taeyong bring a hand up to cover his hand--probably to stop himself from laughing out loud--and he resists the urge to roll his eyes.
Mr. Sheep, on the other hand, Dejun notices, was snorting quietly as he brings his hands together for sanity. The man retracts his hand and settles it back to their original place. Dejun's shoulders sag in relief but he still doesn't know how to feel as he was about to be shot in his own bakery. He feels Bella slowly let go of his leg and he throws a smile in her direction but stops himself from patting her head. Their asshole of a father might shoot his hand and if doesn't, the rest totally would.
God, it's a Sunday and he was really about to die in his bakery.