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– 🍂 –
Jisung’s first ever September in the northeast brings with it what could be the greatest addition to Jisung’s life since Minho and Chan. Though he won’t realize just how great it is until much later.
On September first, Jisung walks into ‘Crepe It Real’ at nine a.m. on the dot, just like he has for the past five months after Minho took over opening the bakery for him. He drops his stuff in the office, grabs his apron off of its hook and makes his way to the register. Minho grunts some semblance of a hello to him when Jisung calls out to him, but stays focused on layering and frosting the crepe cake in front of him.
There’s not many people out and about right now, so Jisung takes to rearranging the display case and wiping down behind the counter.
He makes sure the sweet and savory crepes are displayed in the correct places, and turns the cakes that already have slices taken out of them so that the layers can be seen. Jisung is in the middle of getting a rag and a bucket of counter cleaner when the bell above the doorway rings loud and clear through the low jazz music playing in the shop.
“I’ll be right there!” Jisung scrambles to put the cleaning supplies down in a good spot as a kind voice calls back for him to take his time. When he rounds the corner, he finds an elderly woman peering into the display case. He clears his throat lightly and launches into the greeting he and Chan had come up with months ago.
“Hello! How can we crepe it real for you today?”
The old woman laughs at his greeting. “Wow, that's refreshing. It's not everyday that you hear something other than ‘what can we get for you.’”
“Ah, yeah. I wanted something that would make people laugh when they heard it,” Jisung rubs the back of his neck, proud but shy about her pointing out his word play. “I’m glad you like it!”
“Puns have always been my favorite,” she says. “Now, I must admit I’m having a hard time choosing. Which one would you pick?”
Jisung takes a moment to think. “I’ve tried all of them, and I’ll admit they all have their charms, but on a day like today, and for a sweetheart such as yourself, I’d have to recommend the Strawberry Short-crepe.”
He points it out in the display case, strawberry and whipped cream filling only barely hidden by golden brown pancake.
“We use two crepes so that you get a bit more of the biscuit flavor that strawberry shortcake has, and the whipped cream filling is made just a bit thicker so that it doesn’t melt and it helps it spread evenly across the strawberries.”
He glances back up at the old woman once he’s done with his explanation. She’s still wearing a smile, looking at him similarly to how his grandmother does when he’s gone off on a tangent. He can feel his face heat up slightly from her gaze.
“I’ll try that one, it sounds delicious.” She moves over to the register as Jisung spoons batter onto the hot plates and spreads it thin. “You have a way with words young man, are you trying to butter people up to get yourself more votes?”
“Votes?” He asks, flipping one crepe, then the other as they start to lightly bubble.
“Don’t tell me nobody’s explained the December holiday festivities to you yet.”
“Mmm, nope! This is the first I’m hearing of anything like that. Would you mind explaining? I missed the midsummer farmer’s market this year as well, unfortunately.”
“Oh that's a shame, it’s really lovely. There’s always next year though.”
As Jisung finishes making and wrapping up her food, she goes on to explain how every year the town puts on a holiday festival the weekend before Christmas day. There’s winter games and raffles, activities for children of all ages. If there’s snow, then a hill for sledding is set up, and another area is sectioned off for snowball fights. Similarly to the farmer’s market, people sign up to set up booths and sell all sorts of things: from hats and scarves to funny little carved animals. The major difference though, she says, is that one local business is chosen by the townspeople to be the main food vendor.
Jisung feels stunned. The bakery (crepery?) has been doing well with minimal advertisement, but it could change everything if he were to get chosen for this.
“Last year it was limited to the diners in town, this morning the town board made a post saying this year it’s the bakeries’ turn to sign up.”
“That’s amazing,” he says. “When do sign ups start?”
“Today,” she laughs when Jisung’s eyes go wide in shock. “Don’t worry, you have lots of time. The participating bakeries are announced at the end of the week, people can vote until Halloween, and then on November first the winner is announced!”
Jisung nods along as she finishes up her explanation and gives him the town’s facebook and instagram page. He finishes up saying goodbye just as Chan walks through the door, looking still half asleep but ready to tackle the day nonetheless.
“We have to win that festival spot,” he says, uncaring of Chan’s confused look as he moves over to the window, peering around the golden paint of their logo. He glances down the street to where Bin’s Buns’ neon sign shines in the front window, door opening and shutting as the regulars of the shop go about their daily pastry run. “If we want business like that , it’s gotta be on like donkey kong.”
– 🎃 –
Jisung goes down to town hall after the bakery closes that evening to sign up for the festival. Before he can push the door open, it swings in on its own. A guy stands there that Jisung hasn’t gotten the chance to see around town yet. He’s a little intimidating.
Yeah, INTIMIDATINGLY HOT! Jisung urges his brain to shut the hell up as he takes in the man in front of him. He’s got on blue jeans and a black t-shirt, and Jisung thinks it should be illegal that someone looks so good in such a simple outfit. He’s built kind of like a dorito, with a nice waist and crazy broad shoulders. His stomach hangs over his belt line just a little bit and Jisung knows in his heart of hearts that this guy must give the best hugs ever, though his brain is trying to be a little more obscene.
His eyes finally make it up to the guy's face, where he’s staring at Jisung with an eyebrow raised. It shouldn’t be as attractive as it is, with his sharp eyes and round cheeks.
“Uh,” Jisung gives the biggest smile he can, the one that always gets him out of trouble with Minho. “Hi! I don’t think we’ve met yet, I’m Jisung. I run–”
“Crepe It Real.” Big boy interrupts him and Jisung feels his face fall a little at his tone. “I’ve seen you going in and out a few times, I didn’t know you ran the place. I’m Changbin, owner of–”
“Bin’s Buns.” Jisung interrupts him this time and feels a little vindicated when Changbin scowls. “I should’ve guessed.”
“What's that supposed to mean?” Maybe Jisung shouldn't get on the bad side of a guy who looks like he could throw him into next year if he wanted to, but he’s always had a hunger for danger and a big mouth that runs rampant at the worst times.
Like now apparently.
“Nothing…” he starts to scooch his way into the doorway and around Changbin, heading towards the sign up sheets. “I guess I should’ve expected you to be here, that's all. Though you might as well take your name out of the running, I plan on being this year’s vendor at the winter festival.”
Changbin lets out a snort behind him, the door falling closed as he follows Jisung.
“What makes you so sure you’re going to win?” He asks. “I’ve been here for five years, people in town love my shop. Why would they pick the newest bakery in town over a classic?”
Jisung levels Changbin with a look that could boil water, pausing his writing momentarily. “What makes you soooo sure they’ll choose you this year, when they haven’t every other?”
As soon as the words leave Jisung’s mouth he regrets them. Usually, making enemies out of people who work in the same industry is considered really bad networking. Changbin’s face goes red and splotchy, eyes glaring right back at Jisung.
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see who comes out on top,” he says.
Jisung huffs a laugh, going back to standing from where he was hunched over the sign up sheet. He gives Changbin a look, thinks to himself ‘There’s no way a guy like this isn’t straight as a board,’ and decides to pour gasoline on the fire.
“Yeah,” Jisung practically breathes the word. He steps closer to Changbin, does a very purposeful, slow glance over Changbin’s body, and brings a hand up to run a finger across his collar bone to his shoulder. He swears Changbin shivers, though whether it’s from interest or rage he can’t tell. Jisung steps past him and towards the door as soon as his hand leaves the fabric of Changbin’s shirt. He doesn’t look back even though he can feel eyes burning into the back of his head.
“I guess we shall.”
—
In the weeks following Jisung’s introduction to Changbin, he throws himself into selling the bakery as much as he can.
He tells the few regulars that they’ve managed to accrue to bring their friends, starts leaving leaflets in the library and on the town board. Jisung even makes a post on the town facebook page advertising birthday cake orders!! (When Minho finds out about that one, he’s less than pleased.)
He kind of goes off the deep end, making Minho and Chan bake and taste test new ideas daily. Some work out pretty well and go into the recipe book to be released at a later date, while others… Others go right into the trash and are agreed to never be spoken about again. Jisung thinks they should go crazy with the pumpkin spice for their first fall at a new location: suggesting pumpkin pie crepes, pumpkin spice cakes, pumpkin teas, and of course pumpkin spice lattes and iced coffee. Minho manages to talk him down to doing only the drinks and the crepes, and Chan gets him fixated on other fall flavors that they could add to the menu, like apple, cinnamon and chai.
When coming into work a few weeks after their unspoken competition started, Jisung spots new window and door decorations at Bin’s Buns. There’s pumpkins outside the entryway, and sticky decals on the inside of the window in the shape of leaves. He calls Chan immediately and has him go pick up multiple sets of decorations, ranging in theme from harvest to spooky in preparation for halloween.
(He also makes Chan go over to Bin’s Buns to do reconnaissance work and he comes back with a loaf of sourdough bread in the shape of a pumpkin, complete with a cinnamon stick poking out of the top to replicate a stem. Jisung’s blood boils at how cute it is.)
The two bakeries are in constant stand-off, one of them upping the ante in one area and the other doing the same in a different area until they notice and switch tracks to catch up.
Does Jisung maybe go a little overboard? Yes, yes he does, and Minho makes sure he knows it everyday. However, it's all in the name of winning (and proving Changbin wrong) that he’s doing all of this in the first place.
As October rolls around, so does the time for people to cast their votes at town hall.
Jisung puts a little reminder on the bottom of their menu board for their customers to vote for Crepe It Real, and somehow he doesn’t see hide nor hair of Changbin throughout the month. (Which is a good thing , Jisung didn’t want to see him and his stupid, handsome face anyways.) As the weather grows chillier, he has to try and keep himself together. The anticipation is killing him, and everyday that passes has him walking into the bakery feeling like a can of soda that's been shaken viciously.
Finally the day arrives. November first.
The town board goes live on facebook at noontime to release the official date of the holiday festival and announce the activities and vendors this year.
The bakery is closed at the moment, a sign on the door saying they’re out for lunch. In reality, Jisung, Minho and Chan are huddled around the desk in the office with facebook pulled up on the monitor. It’s not a bad livestream, the town hall wifi holding out pretty well, the audio is good and the video isn’t super pixelated. Clearly , someone at town hall knows what they’re doing when it comes to this stuff.
Jisung is on the edge of his seat the whole time, trying so hard to be patient. Minho dozes off when the spokesperson starts talking about the district’s budget for the upcoming school year, and Chan pulls out his phone during the infrastructure changes coming mid-spring, meanwhile Jisung stays glued to the computer screen.
“ And now, as I’m sure you’ve all been waiting for ,” Jisung goes rigid, smacking the two on either side of himself to get them to pay attention. “ It’s time for a few short announcements about the Annual Holiday Cheer Festival. ”
They go on to explain how people can sign up for a craft booth, the different raffles that will be available, the date (and the rain date) for the festival, and possible snow required activities.
Chan, who had been listening quietly up until now, suddenly points to the chat on the right side of the screen. “Why are people asking about where to turn in their votes?”
“What?” Jisung can’t pull his eyes away from the stream to look at the chat. An easel has been brought out with a sheet on it, hiding something vaguely poster-like underneath it. Luckily, Minho reads a few comments out loud.
“‘Where was the ballot box this year?’ ‘Me and my kids didn’t get to vote for our bakery of choice this year, frowny-face emoji. Anyone else?’ ‘are we live voting via poll in chat????’” Minho sucks in a breath. “This doesn’t look good Jisung-ah.”
He knows. His hands feel like ice, and he can barely hear the stream with how his heart is beating in his eardrums.
“ And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for! ” The member of the board stands and moves toward the easel, grasping the sheet in one hand and holding what must be the poster underneath with the other. “ This year’s vendor is someone very special, the rest of the board and I are ecstatic to give them this honor. Please give a loud cheer for… ”
The sheet is removed, and a blue and white logo is revealed, the white cupcake with a smiley face in the middle staring at them mockingly. The name makes all three of them groan in annoyance. Jisung glares at the stupid cupcake, and wishes he could set things on fire with his gaze just to see the fucking thing burn.
“ Baked to Perfection! ”
Also known as: the most penny-pinching, corner-cutting, inorganic, and just downright gross corporate baked good company in the United States of America.
– ❄️ –
Jisung finds himself awake at the crack of dawn for the first time in a very long while the day after the town board’s live stream. He half-asses getting ready for the day, not planning on being away from his bed for more than an hour.
He ends up outside of Changbin’s bakery thirty minutes before the doors are unlocked, and he knocks continuously until a head pokes out from the lit up back doorway.
It disappears when Jisung stops knocking to wave excitedly, and he resumes with a vengeance. This time he doesn’t let up even when he gets the baker’s attention, and Jisung is extremely pleased with himself when it ends up being Changbin coming to the door.
“What the hell do you want Jisung?” Changbin doesn’t even ask if he wants to come inside, which Jisung finds incredibly rude since he’s freezing his ass off standing here.
“I just wanted–”
“What? Did you want to gloat? Rub it in my face that the town chose quite possibly the worst baked goods brand over me?” Changbin interrupts before he has a chance to really answer and it makes a vein in Jisungs forehead tick with annoyance. “Congratulations, you got what you wanted.”
“News flash, dickhead,” Jisung shoves his way into the bakery and looks everywhere but at Changbin as he speaks. He’s never actually been inside the bakery, it’s nice – cozy. “I didn’t get picked either. So no, I didn’t get what I wanted. And for the record, I’m not the type of person to point and laugh at someone else’s misfortune like that. Fuck you.”
“How would I know what type of person you are? We spoke once and then you spent nearly two months trying to outdo everything I did,” Changbin crosses his arms over his chest as he talks to Jisung and he fights to keep his eyes on Changbin’s face.
“Sorry for going after what I wa-” Jisung cuts himself off, and shakes his head to clear the rest of that sentence from his mind. “Nope, no. We’re not doing this. I came over because I have a proposition for you.”
Jisung might be hallucinating, but he could swear he sees Changbin give his person a once over.
“I don’t do hate-sex.”
“What?!”
“What?” Changbin shrugs. “What else could you possibly mean by proposition? Did you not realize how it sounded or did you do that on purpose to tick me off?”
Jisung elects to ignore Changbin’s second question completely. He clears his throat, ears on fire as he rephrases.
“I have a business proposal for you.” He glares at the other. “Is that better, your highness?”
“What is it?”
“I think we should get a booth at the festival and try to outdo Faked to Perfection,” Jisung holds up his hands to stop Changbin from saying anything. “Before you say no, please listen.”
He pauses and stares at Changbin, waiting for the other to tell him to get out. When nothing comes, Jisung keeps waiting, trying to see how long it takes Changbin to crack. A grand total of five seconds pass before Changbin is gesturing for Jisung to get on with it.
“You’ve wanted this for a while right? I’ve wanted this for not nearly as long but I went kind of crazy with passion trying to earn this despite being new in town. Your long standing business and loyal customers combined with my overall genius is a sure fire way to show the board exactly why we don’t want corporations coming into town activities trying to make a profit. I don’t know what deals the town board made with the devil to get some bloodsucking company to be the main vendor for the holiday festival, but local businesses are always better and we need to prove it to them.”
Changbin doesn’t look convinced, even at the end of Jisung’s impassioned rant. Maybe calling himself a genius was a bit over the top.
“Look, I’m uh– I’m sorry for what I said when we first met.” The floor sure is interesting to stare at while he speaks. Wow what an interesting tile pattern. “It’s obvious that people love this place, and for good reason. You’ve clearly worked your ass off to get to where you are now. You should’ve been this years’ vendor, and it wasn’t right for the board to just steal that from you.”
When he looks back at Changbin’s face, the other seems to be less apprehensive of Jisung and his plan.
“Thanks for the apology, I’m sorry for how I acted too.” Changbin loosens his posture finally and scratches the back of his head sheepishly. Jisung is a weak man and does in fact stare directly at where Changbin’s bicep stretches out the sleeve of his shirt. “I shouldn’t have written you off like that. Your cafe has a really cool concept, and you have the determination to make it go far.”
“Is this us officially starting over?” Jisung asks, hopeful.
“Yeah, I guess it is.” Changbin offers him a smile and Jisung wants to see that look directed at him everyday. “Now please get out, I still have prep work to do and only twenty minutes to do it.”
Jisung salutes happily. “Sure thing boss! I’ll come bother you later today with a more fleshed out plan.”
“Wait, no don’t. Let’s plan for tom–”
Jisung ignores the rest of Changbin’s sentence, too excited about getting started on their plan of attack. That, and the fact that he gets to crawl back into his bed for a few more hours before he has to be at his bakery.
—
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays become their designated planning days. They were originally only going to meet up on Friday, but then realized that they only have about six weeks until everything needs to be done for the festival so they amped it up to three days.
(Minho calls his meet-ups with Changbin dates. Everytime he does Jisung is quick to remind him that he regularly sleeps in Chan’s bed and that he has no room to speak on Jisung’s love life (or lack thereof).)
Jisung suggests that they work in the kitchen of either one of the bakeries so that everything is readily available for either of them to use, and thankfully Changbin seems to think it's a pretty good idea. They can’t agree on which bakery to actually use though, so they end up bouncing between each shop every time they meet up.
The only thing they can seem to agree on is that the menu for their stand should be a combination of their best selling items and some holiday themed goodies.
They go about taste testing every item in the other’s bakery, marking down the ones that should be added to the festival menu. Jisung falls in love with every pastry he tries from Bin’s Buns so it's nearly impossible to narrow down his favorites to only five, but he manages to make a list Changbin approves of. Changbin on the other hand is much more methodical when picking out his favorite crepes, choosing two holiday flavors and three of Jisung’s most popular creations.
One night on their second week of planning, Changbin gets the idea to try and combine their best selling item. It goes well for the most part, except for when it comes to actually baking their creation. They can’t agree on what temperature to set the oven at, nor how long the thing should actually cook for, and what they manage to compromise on ends up putting the thing up in flames.
The smoke is so bad when they open the oven that the fire alarm and the sprinklers go off immediately.
The fire department gives them both a towel to dry off with so they don’t freeze while they reset the system. They look less like drowned rats when Minho and Chan pull up to Crepe It Real, Minho barely throwing the car in park before he’s standing next to them and giving them an earful about how stupid they were. He bans them from using what he deems to be his kitchen (seeing as how he spends the most time back there, Jisung can’t really argue with that statement) for the foreseeable future and then ushers them into the car where Chan has turned the heat on full blast so they really don’t freeze.
From that point forward they decide to do all their experiments and menu testing at either of their apartments.
Changbin – very conveniently – lives right above his bakery, though Jisung doesn’t live very far – his apartment is only a twenty minute walk away. Or… a three-to-five minute drive away, but Jisung doesn’t have a car or his license so it doesn’t really matter.
The first time he goes over to Changbin’s place, Jisung marvels at how many plants he has scattered throughout it. Before they start talking about tonight’s topic – which is booth decorations and set-up – Changbin has to go through his routine of saying hello to all of them and giving water to the ones that need it.
(“Dude,” Jisung says in awe as Changbin speaks to a stiff-leafed plant with dark green tiger stripes in a baby-voice. “Why do you have so many plants?”
Changbin straightens and Jisung can see his ears turn a little red at the question.
“I don’t realize how many there really are until someone comes over,” Changbin laughs nervously. “I’m allergic to fur, and yeah I could get like a fish or a lizard or something but it’s just not the same, you know? So I get plants instead.”
Jisung thinks he understands, at least a little bit.)
At their next meet-up – where they actually purchase all the supplies they need for the booth – Jisung introduces Changbin to his pet moss in return for telling him about his plants.
(“Their names are Ma, Ri, and Mo,” he says, pointing out each ball in their little water terrarium. He adjusts the lamp that shines into their bowl and tries to move some duckweed out of the way so more light hits the other aquatic plants.
Changbin laughs beside him as he peers into the bowl, admiring the way Jisung has arranged the dark rocks and a piece of driftwood around the plants. “You named each one a syllable of the actual name of the moss? Really??”
Jisung shrugs in response. “I guess my naming capabilities had to be saved for Crepe It Real.”)
Eventually, they find a groove to working together and a part of Jisung wonders how he’ll ever go back to working on his own.
– 🌨️ –
Jisung’s phone vibrates violently where it's stored in his apron pocket. Since it's slow at the bakery he pulls it out for just a moment just to see what the notification is from. After all, it could be something urgent from Chang–
Oh… it was the weather app.
He tries not to be disappointed, he really does. But he and Changbin are supposed to be finalizing the drink menu for their booth tonight and Jisung hasn’t heard anything from him all day. He heaves a sigh and glances out the window, slipping his phone back into the pocket with the notification unread.
The thick clouds outside reflect his current mood: gray. Down in the dumps some might say.
It's fine, he’s fine . He’ll get the chance to bug Changbin later, once his shift is over… which is in four hours. Great.
—
Bin’s Buns is already closed by the time Jisung gets there at seven. He frowns at the locked door in front of him, the dark interior mocking him.
Snow steadily falls onto Jisung’s head as he moves over to the front window to peer inside, looking for some sign of life anywhere. It's only then that he sees the notice posted just to the left of the door.
‘Closed Early Due to Incoming Storm.’
Huh. Well, that would explain literally everything. Jisung can’t leave though, not yet at least. They need to get this menu finalized, there's only two weeks left until the festival and he knows for a fact they both want to put out samples for people to try before the big day.
Jisung pulls out his phone to call Changbin, and finally reads the notification from his weather app that he had ignored earlier.
‘Nor’easter, winter storm to deliver heavy snow, wind…’ the rest of the message is cut off, too long to fit into the little notification box.
How much snow could one storm really produce? Jisung thinks nothing of it and calls Changbin, the other sounding very shocked to learn he’s currently downstairs at the front of the bakery. Changbin tells him to go to the back door and then promptly hangs up on him, which is very rude and Jisung intends to give him a lecture on how rude as soon as he gets upstairs.
The door is already open when Jisung gets to the back of the building, Changbin standing in the doorway in gray sweatpants and a very nice looking dark green pullover hoodie. He’s staring out into the back lot as if the snow accumulating offended him personally, and while Jisung doesn’t like snow very much himself, this seems a little over the top.
“Jisung,” Changbin pulls him inside and starts bodily moving him up the stairs after closing the door tightly. “Did you just ignore the storm warnings that have been going out all day?”
Jisung sees no point in lying. “Yes, but you have to cut me some slack! I didn’t even know they were storm warnings, much less for this area!”
The groan Changbin lets out sounds truly pained, and the part of Jisung that lives for sowing chaos preens.
“Okay, well you’re not leaving now.”
Changbin’s words shock him to his core. They’re definitely closer than they were a month ago, but not that close.
“What the hell do you mean?”
“I mean exactly that: you’re not leaving. The snow is only going to get worse from here on out and people act like complete idiots the minute it starts sticking to the ground.” Changbin kicks off his shoes and leaves Jisung absolutely flabbergasted in his entryway. “You can’t drive so either Minho, Chan or I would have to take you home, or there's the worse option of you walking, which is definitely not happening now that it’s pitch black outside.”
Changbin sits in his armchair that faces the entryway and Jisung thinks he would look extremely villain-like if he had a very fluffy cat to stroke right now.
“So that leaves only one option: you stay right here until the roads are cleared enough for you to go.”
—
They managed to finish up the menu for their booth fairly quickly, though there really wasn’t any other choice. Jisung is stuck at Changbin’s until at least the morning, maybe even longer with the way this nor’easter is supposed to come down.
Changbin makes ramen as the evening gets later and he realizes Jisung hadn’t really had anything for dinner. Dinner is only slightly awkward, neither of them really know what to say so they sit there stuffing their faces. Jisung asks if they can put on some generic home renovation show to watch after they finish, their bowls and silverware in the sink waiting to be rinsed and put in the dishwasher.
Changbin gets him a pair of sweatpants and a well-loved t-shirt for Jisung to change into once he realizes Jisung is still in his uniform from work. They’re slightly too big on him but they’re also the most comfortable things he’s ever worn, and Jisung flushes when he looks at himself in the mirror. He thinks Changbin’s things look a little too good on him.
They sit in amicable silence as the night progresses, Changbin in his armchair and Jisung cuddled up on the loveseat with a soft blanket. The television plays quietly in the background, and they go back and forth talking about the design choices in the show and how badly the renovators fucked up by doing a minimalist concept for a ranch style home.
Eventually they have to address the elephant in the room as the clock creeps closer and closer to midnight.
Changbin is the one to break first. “Jisung… we have to go to bed eventually.”
Jisung looks at him from where he is decidedly not falling asleep where he sits. “Go ahead, I wanna watch one more episode and then I’ll lay down.”
Changbin fixes him with a deadpan look. “You’re not sleeping on the loveseat Jisung. It’s not that comfortable, trust me. You can have my bed.”
Jisung whines, snuggling deeper into his blanket. “I can’t take your bed from you, hyung. You can’t take the loveseat if it’s not comfortable, I’d feel so bad.”
Changbin looks a little awestruck at Jisung using honorifics for him, but he quickly shakes it off and gets a contemplative look on his face instead, ears steadily turning red as he speaks.
“If we’re both going to be stubborn about this, we could- ahem - we could always just share… uh, we could share my bed.”
The words don’t process for a moment in Jisung’s sleepy brain, but when they do he can feel his own ears heat up. He doesn’t want to refuse, he knows Changbin is right, they’re both too stubborn to let the other suffer on the couch, so he gives in.
“Fine,” he says. “But I get the side that's closest to the wall.”
“Okaty, deal.” Changbin smiles warmly at him and Jisung can feel his heartbeat start to pick up in his chest. He hopes Changbin can’t hear the way it's pounding.
—
Jisung wakes up to a weight across his waist and warmth pressed against his back. He can already tell that last night was the best he’s slept in a while.
He shuffles around trying to get comfortable and sink into sleep once more, but the warmth behind him starts to move as well. The arm around his waist starts to remove itself and Jisung makes a noise of protest, rolling over to chase the warmth that's trying to leave.
“Five more minutes,” he mumbles from where he’s buried in the chest of this human furnace.
Said furnace hums in agreement, and they drift off into the edges of dreamland again.
When Jisung comes to again, it's to his personal heating pack wiggling away from him again and a hand threading through his hair.
“Sung I gotta get up, please let go.”
Doesn’t he know Jisung would rather suffer horribly than be ripped away from his cuddles. He shakes his head vehemently.
“Baby please,” the voice implores.
Jisung sighs, reluctant to give in but maybe he can bargain.
“Kiss first, then you can go,” he grumbles, his eyes still closed and an unhappy pout forming on his lips.
A hand comes up to cup his face, tilting his head back and out of where it was buried in the chest of his furnace. The bright light in the room makes his face scrunch up and he blinks his eyes open to peel around the room before getting his kiss.
Only to be met with Changbin’s face inches from his own.
Jisung squeaks and is suddenly wide awake, the past few moments flooding back to him with startling clarity. He launches himself towards the opposite side of the bed and starts rambling in a panic.
“SORRY! Sorry, I don’t know what I was saying. Are you hungry? I’m hungry, we should get up for the day. I’m gonna take a look outside and see if they’ve cleared the roads at all, ha ha ha.”
If Jisung was paying more attention to anything other than his own embarrassment, he would’ve seen the endeared look on Changbin’s face as he rambled his way out of the room.
– ⛄ –
An hour before the festival is set to commence, Jisung is feeling some sort of way and he can’t tell if it's from anticipation or anxiety. Maybe it’s both with the way his stomach rolls with the ‘what-ifs’ that keep popping into his head.
The ugly Baked to Perfection booth just down the lane from where they’re setting up certainly doesn’t help.
Luckily, there are enough things that need to be done before the official commencement that Jisung can't focus on his thoughts for very long. Once the festival starts, Jisung doesn’t even have time to entertain his anxious thoughts, as customers start coming up to them almost immediately. Some of them greet Changbin by name, and there are a few that Jisung recognizes as his own regulars.
They’re kept busy for the entire afternoon, Jisung and Changbin take orders and pass food and drinks out to customers while Minho and Chan cook up a storm behind them. They consistently put more crepe batter down so that there's less of a wait for those ordering something that wasn’t prepared beforehand.
The pre-baked pastries that Changbin had made sell out in a few hours, and they run out of nutella for the crepes soon after. There's still enough sweet (or savory) buns and other ingredients left that people aren’t too disappointed by the more popular things being gone.
Business is steady for the entire afternoon, and the four of them (five, once Felix – Changbin’s secondary baker – arrives with a fresh tray of croissants) work like a well oiled machine.
As the day is winding down and they’re serving their last customers of the evening, an older man in a very nice tweed coat comes up to them. He waits patiently until everyone has been served before introducing himself as one of the town board members. The treasurer specifically, not that it really matters.
Jisung is a little in shock (and his brain is fried from interacting with so many people), but thankfully Changbin takes the reins and introduces the both of them and their shops.
“I wanted to come over and congratulate you boys,” he says, sounding a little sheepish. “I don’t think Baked to Perfection got even half the customers you guys did, and a lot of their treats ended up in the trash from what I could see.”
The board member coughs into his hand briefly before continuing, very obviously reluctant to continue. Jisung is dying from needing to know what this guy is going to say and wanting to get the fuck out of here.
“On behalf of myself and the rest of the town board, we also want to apologize for not consulting with the rest of the town before making a decision on this year's vendor. We offended a lot of people, our local businesses especially. We won’t be doing something like this again. Sorry again, and thank you for making us realize our mistake. Have a happy holiday.”
Jisung is sure he might say something similar back to the man, but he isn’t sure as the ground is suddenly swept out from underneath him.
Changbin has him gripped tight in a hug as he spins in a circle, laughing the entire time. Jisung can’t help but laugh along, the elation of what they managed to accomplish finally bubbling over. They’re still laughing in each other’s arms when Changbin stops spinning and finally puts him down.
Jisung doesn’t have any time to question Changbin’s reaction before his face is being cupped gently in warm hands and there are soft lips on his own.
He doesn’t even want to question it anymore, his senses filled with Changbin Changbin Changbin. Jisung brings his hands up to thread through Changbin’s hair, pushing his winter hat clean off of his head and into the snow as they kiss. It’s everything Jisung had thought it would be, confident and sure, yet so soft and caring. Everything about the kiss screams Changbin.
They pull apart to catch their breath and Jisung swears he hears a wolf whistle come from the direction of their friends, but he’s too concerned with leaning in to kiss Changbin again to care.
If Jisung ever got the chance to go back to the start of fall and try again, he’d do everything the same if it meant he’d get to have Changbin in his arms by the end of it.