Strawberry Love
Title: Strawberry Love
Author eoryndal
Rating: pg-13
Warning: some swearing, implied sex, mild case of substance abuse and ridiculous amounts of blushing boys
Pairing: Kai/Suho, HunHan
Genre: romance
Summary: Kai works in a café and tries to ignore his clingy co-worker as best as he can. Also, he likes to drug his customers sometimes. But it's for the good of the people, he says.
A/N: Dedicated to my wonderful kaseum who gave me the prompt 'UM SOMETHING WITH A CAKE SHOP. OR A CAFE. AND IT'S HUNHAN. BECAUSE THEY'RE PRECIOUS.' I don't think this is enough HunHan though ;___; Kai kept invading my storyline like the Exo teasers OTL
It was one of those slow Thursdays.
In the morning, a few men in suits had ordered their typical coffee on their way to work, and around noon a throng of high school girls had filled the little café with their laughter and chatter, buying cappuccino or hot chocolate and a few snacks.
The rest of the day was uneventful and stretched like chewing gum. Kai sat behind the counter and played games on his phone, pointedly ignoring his co-worker Suho who was eternally cheerful and talkative. He was also a good half head shorter than Kai despite being older but that didn't stop him from slinging his arm around Kai's shoulder in an almost intruding way.
Kai preferred Taemin's company but the kid only worked at the café on Sundays.
Suho emerged from the kitchen with a wide grin on his face and was just about to open his mouth when the doorbell chimed, announcing a customer.
"I'll get them", Kai sad, pocketed his phone and left Suho standing.
"Welcome", he greeted amiably and bowed to a boy about his age, maybe a bit younger, who looked around and took in the unoccupied tables a little insecure, not sure where to sit. "Table for one person?"
"Ah, uhm. No, for two", the boy stuttered in a tiny voice and Kai had to suppress the urge to laugh at him. A date, his mind catalogued automatically, courtesy of years of experience from working at a café. First date probably, if his nervousness was anything to go by. Kai led him to one of the more secluded booths with round tables and cosy, u-shaped benches by the windows, and while the boy shrugged off his jacket and scarf, Kai went to fetch him a menu.
"Looks like the weather is colder than I thought", Suho said with a nod towards the boy's thick clothes when Kai returned behind the counter to leave him to him study the menu. Their café was suffused with light and warmth but through the large windows, Kai could see some people gripping their hats or skirts at the occasional gust of wind.
"It's probably stormy. Or he's just one of those people who're cold all the time", Kai shrugged and threw a demonstrative glance at the clock on the wall behind the counter. "Don't you have a birthday cake to decorate?", he asked, cutting their conversation short.
Suho's face fell dejectedly for a split second but then his cheerful smile was back in place. "What would I do without you?" He laughed at Kai, even though it didn't quite reach his eyes this time, and vanished in the kitchen. Mrs Kim was scheduled to pick up a cake she had ordered for the seventh birthday of her twins in about an hour.
Kai sighed and watched Suho's back as he rummaged around in the kitchen, collecting all the colourful ingredients he needed and started slathering pink and yellow whipped cream on the cake base.
He wasn't sure why he treated him so harshly sometimes. It wasn't like he hated him. But he could be a bit too much to handle on slow Thursdays. He averted his gaze and saw that the boy in the booth by the window had put down the menu and was playing with his phone; the way he twirled it around in his hands made it painfully obvious that he was waiting for a message from his date. Kai chuckled quietly and grabbed a pen and a notepad from the counter.
"May I take your order?"
The boy looked up, taken by surprise, and fumbled for an answer. "I, uh, uhm. ...Is it okay if I wait?"
"Sure." Kai smiled reassuringly, drawing a relieved smile from the boy in return, and left him again.
In that moment, the doorbell chimed again and two identical enraptured squeals announced Mrs Kim's twins. They stormed to the display shelves next to the counter where the cookies, cupcakes and various pastries were laid out, and squashed their faces against the glass. Kai cringed inwardly but schooled his features into a polite smile and bowed to greet Mrs Kim who followed her two kids. Spoiled brats, Kai's mind commented. He wasn't too fond of kids, especially the likes of these who were tugging on their mummy's coat and pleaded for strawberry muffins.
Luckily, Suho emerged from the kitchen, balancing some sort of fairy castle in pink and yellow with sprinkles of colourful sugar candies on top. The girls went quiet in awe and stood on their tiptoes to watch Suho pack the cake in a box carefully while Kai received Mrs Kim's money and gave her the change.
Lazy silence returned to the café afterwards. Suho checked if nothing was missing on the display shelves -- out of habit rather than out of necessity, since they both remembered the few pastries they had sold today -- and then announced that he was going to take a break.
Kai looked at the waiting boy in the booth by the window and decided it was time he did something for the poor boy. Judging from the clock that now read a few minutes past four, he had been way too early for his date which, Kai could bet, was supposed to start at four. He mixed two hot strawberry milks and stirred a tiny drop of a 'special ingredient' into each mug.
Admittedly, that was most likely illegal, but Kai felt that it was his duty to ensure his customers had perfect dates. And with how fidgety the poor guy by the window was, his date would probably be anything but perfect. Relaxing a little never hurt anyone.
He carried the tray with the two mugs and placed it in front of him on the table. The boy looked up with an astonished and confused gaze that spelled 'But I didn't order anything' as clearly as if he had spoken the words.
"Don't worry, it's on the house." Kai smiled at him and as the boy's face lit up and he grabbed one of the steaming mugs eagerly, he wanted to ruffle his hair. Instead, he went to the kitchen to get a cleaning cloth and wiped off the smudges the kids had left on the display window.
A few minutes later, the doorbell chimed once more and Kai interrupted his task to look up, expecting the boy's date to finally arrive, but instead of a cute girl, it was just another boy who entered the café, bringing a gust of wind with him. Kai heard Suho's steps in the kitchen, returning from his break, but he ignored him as usual, and went to greet the new boy who was just pulling off a white and light blue woollen hat, revealing dishevelled honeyblond hair.
Kai couldn't help noticing that he looked really pretty for a boy, with his cute nose, large, expressive doe eyes and cheeks flushed lightly from the cold wind outside. Maybe this Thursday wasn't so lame after all.
"Welcome!", Kai said with his best smile. "Table for one?"
"No, actually... I'm here to meet my friend", the handsome boy said and looked around. "I'm a bit late though." He spotted the boy by the window and waved happily. "Oh, Sehun-ah!"
The boy looked up, a bright smile blooming on his features and he waved back. "Lu Han!", he called, motioning for the other boy to sit beside him, pushing the second mug of strawberry milk into his hands.
Kai had literally stopped breathing as the scene unravelled in front of his eyes and it dawned on him what he had done. He dove behind the counter and crouched there, hiding from his customers' views.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck -"
"Fuck what?" Suho looked down at him with an expression half of concern, half of amusement.
"I think I just did something very, very stupid. And if I don't hide here for the rest of the day, I will be able to see exactly how stupid it was. And if anyone ever finds out, I will definitely get fired and most probably put in jail."
Suho tried hard not to laugh but Kai could see the corners of his lips twitching.
"Alright, stay here while I take their orders. And when I'm back, I expect a full report. If you killed someone, I'm ratting you out to the police though. If not, I'll cover for you... and possibly blackmail you till the end of your days!"
He vanished, and a few moments later, Kai heard an exchange of a few words from the other end of the room, too soft to make out what was said, too short to collect his thoughts or think of a way out. He wasn't good at lying, and when Suho returned, sitting next to him on the floor behind the counter, he spilled the truth.
"I might have put this in their drinks." Kai pulled a tiny bottle out of his back pocket and handed it to Suho without meeting his eyes. A second later, a choked gasp told him that Suho recognized the label on the bottle.
"You spike-"
Kai clamped a hand over Suho's mouth to stop him from shouting out loud enough to be heard across the whole café.
"Ssh, are you crazy?!", he hissed.
"You fucking spiked their drinks, I can't believe it", Suho whispered back frantically through a gap between Kai's fingers. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"
"I didn't mean any harm. I was so sure the guy was waiting for his girlfriend, or girlfriend-to-be, or whatever and I just wanted to help him with his date, really. How could I know that he was just meeting his friend. His guy friend?" Kai tore at his hair. Suho let out an exasperated sigh.
"They ordered chocolate muffins, one for each. Go, while I stay here and calm down."
Kai scrambled up and took the two biggest chocolate muffins from the display and turned to go but faltered for a moment, unsure if he'd rather face Suho's accusing look or witness the extent of his slip-up. The latter won because, to be brutally honest, Kai was the tiniest bit curious what was going on between the two right now.
However, he almost dropped the plates with the muffins when he saw and heard the two of them in the midst of a heavy make out session. The younger one was practically in the other boy's lap and his tongue, from the glimpse Kai got before he squeezed his eyes shut, was pretty far down his throat. They made slick noises and little gasps and Kai wanted to bang his head against something. The sudden thought whether the pretty boy's lips were as soft as they looked, didn't help the slightest bit. That was something he usually didn't even give a fuck about when he was dating girls.
He wanted to turn around and flee but, oh god, Suho was leaning on the counter like the amused spectator that he was. For some reason, seeing how unfazed Suho was by the whole situation made Kai feel even more flustered, and a bit angry at himself for getting so worked up.
He put the plate on the table and jumped back to his safe place behind the counter as fast as he could, going straight back to pulling his hair.
"I'm going to hell. Oh god, what have I done? They're both guys! This is so wrong!"
"The only thing wrong is that you put a freaking aphrodisiac into their food. You know... at the café I worked before, we had our fair share of couples, too. But I can't remember seeing as many of them making out as in this café. I though there was just something in the air here, but somehow, I'm beginning to suspect you have something to do with that."
"It was for the good of the people!", Kai mumbled into his hands in which he had buried his face. He didn't have to look up to know that Suho was regarding him with amused eyes, probably still leaning on the counter, all casual, and bathing in this situation in which he clearly had the upper hand over Kai for once.
"At least you learned your lesson. But, you know, I'm pretty sure those two would've been all over each other even without your assistance."
Kai didn't react, didn't even lift his face from his hands, he just sniffed demonstratively. But on the inside he had to agree with Suho, remembering how the faces of the two boys had lit up the moment they recognized each other. Maybe it wasn't that bad that they were both boys. He had to smile a little and was glad that his face was still hidden so that Suho couldn't see it. Maybe he wasn't going to hell.
"How cute, they're feeding each other. I should force you to sit and watch them."
"No!"
Okay, scratch that. Straight to hell it was.
"No? How about I narrate it to you then? Hmm, looks like right now, that Lu Han guy is sliding his hands up the other one's -"
"Hyung!", Kai wailed and looked up at Suho pleadingly who returned his gaze with a chuckle and a gleeful look all over his features.
"What was that? You never call me hyung. So I have to talk dirty to you to get some respect out of you?"
Kai buried his face in his hands again and pretended to cry. He had seen enough of boys kissing for today, or for his whole life for that matter, and he really didn't need to hear 'Suho' and 'dirty talk' in one sentence. Why couldn't today be Sunday with Taemin? Why did it have to be Suho? Suho, who always invaded his personal space, Suho, who smiled at him and talked to him no matter how often he brushed him off, Suho, who smelled of chocolate and freshly baked cookies and seemed to be completely okay with the idea of -
"Oooh." Suho made an excited and somewhat accomplished sound and crouched in front of Kai, hitting his knees repeatedly to get him to look up. Kai gave in and was met with a face full of Suho leaning way too close into his personal space again. "Guess what they just did?!"
"What", Kai asked tonelessly, not because he wanted to know but because he wanted to get this over with and get rid of Suho as fast as possible. He felt uncomfortable and crowded with the shelf under the counter pressing into his back and Suho's arms leaning on his knees.
Kai thought that maybe breathing through his mouth would help reduce Suho's chocolate smell. He prayed that this corner behind the counter was dimly lit enough to hide the angry blush on his cheeks. This had stopped being fun for him some time ago.
"They went to the toilet", Suho whispered conspiratorially, and added, stressing each syllable. "Together. You know that toilet has just one cabin. They're so getting in on in there. Really, that was a job well done." He chuckled and clapped Kai on the shoulder in that annoying way he had. And then, thank god, he deemed it enough torture for Kai.
"Alright, I'll let you off the hook. I'll be in the kitchen cleaning up. We're closing for today soon anyway."
Kai just stayed sitting behind the counter and tried to recall what his life had been like before today.
"Uhm, excuse me?" A soft voice brought him out of his reverie. He wished he could just remain seated and listen to that pleasant tone but he knew he had to stand up and face the two boys. Who, according to Suho, had just had sex, or most definitely something very close to it.
"Yes, what can I do for you?" He was almost painfully aware of his heated cheeks and tried not to notice that the two were holding hands in the most inconspicuous way possible and that the air around them was still seething a bit.
"We would like to pay." They exchanged a look and then the boy with the doe eyes said. "I'll take the bill." His small, careful smile was enough for Kai to hit the wrong button and mess up the bill so he had to cancel and start again, blushing a bit deeper and wishing for Suho to come save him, but he didn't, so he had to get through this alone which, somehow, he did.
He watched the two leave hand in hand, then he closed the door and turned the 'open' sign around, before putting chairs up on the tables. Wordlessly, and still thrumming with tension, he took a mop and a bucket from the corner in the kitchen where the cleaning utensils were stored and wiped the floor of the café.
When he was done and returned to the kitchen, Suho was still slaving over the account books but he looked up and smiled at Kai.
"You look beat. I'll wrap this up quickly. Hey, I tried a new recipe for cinnamon rolls, the dough is in the big bowl on the table. Could you try it and tell me what you think?"
"Sure!" Kai dipped a spoon in and scooped up a good amount. As much as he loved sneaking bites of dough when Suho was baking, an act that always annoyed the other, trying the sweet stuff with permission was even better because that way he could enjoy it to his heart's content. Suho eyed him and chuckled, shaking his head a little at his enthusiasm, but there was something else playing into his smile that wasn't there usually.
"What? This is really good!"
"Is it?" Suho asked back in a tone Kai couldn't really identify, closed his books and sauntered over to Kai. He stood way too close again, draping his arm over Kai's shoulder. "I'm glad you like it."
His arm was too warm on Kai's shoulder, as was his whole body that was pressed too close against Kai's side, his head almost on his shoulder. Kai thought he was breathing through his mouth again but he wasn't fully sure if he was breathing at all, his brain was kind of foggy and his cheeks were way too hot.
"I like chocolate", he blurted out, not sure anymore where that connection came from, earning a soft chuckle from Suho.
"I like you", Suho retorted and reached up a bit to smash his lips on Kai's.
"And I've been wanting to do that for quite some time now. I thought that was clear from the way I acted around you but somehow it didn't get into your head."
He was about to disentangle from Kai, when he grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. Drawing a shaky breath, he asked. "Wait. Can we do that again? Preferably with lots more tongue."
"I- I'm not sure." Suho swallowed, looking very sheepish suddenly, and darted his eyes around to avoid meeting Kai's gaze. "Only if you really want to." Kai slid his hand up Suho's arm and started inching closer to Suho's face, hoping that was enough of an indication, that, yes, he wanted this very much.
But Suho took a step back. "Wait." Through the haze in his mind, Kai noticed that Suho was looking up at him in that adorably nervous way, gnawing his bottom lip that Kai would prefer to have between his teeth right now, but then he followed his eyes to something he placed on the table next to the bowl of dough. "I'm sorry", Suho mumbled and the tips of his ears turned pink. Kai recognized the little bottle instantly and, oh. Well, that explained why he was feeling so hot and why his heart beat like crazy whenever even the smallest part of his body touched Suho.
"How much did you put in?" Kai was surprised and a bit embarrassed at the husky tone of his own voice but he liked how flustered it made Suho.
"Uhm, not much. Maybe a spoonful", Suho admitted in a small voice, trying a careful smile. Kai felt another rush of blood through his whole body.
"Fuck! A spoonful?"
He wondered briefly why he wasn't angry at his friend for drugging him. Instead, the thought turned him on even more and he couldn't stop himself from grabbing a good fist full of Suho's hair and kissing him forcefully, despite his attempts to say something. Only when he deemed Suho's mouth ravished enough and started sucking down his neck did the other get the chance to speak again.
"Was that... too much?", he managed to ask between little gasps.
Kai released his neck and came up to stare at him with such a dark, intense gaze that Suho blushed crimson and leaned back slightly, thighs hitting the kitchen table. Kai followed and pressed him into the table. "Shit, you have no idea", Kai panted. "No idea." Then he captured Suho's lips again, pushing his tongue into his willing mouth until he was only vaguely aware of rubbing his hips up and down Suho's leg that was conveniently between his.
Needless to say, the next morning at the café was very awkward for the both of them. Kai arrived first and opened the café, hoping cowardly that Suho had caught a cold and stayed at home. But two minutes before nine, he stormed in, looking terrible, like he hadn't slept the whole night and hadn't had breakfast on top of that. Kai hadn't slept much either, but in his case that was because even after doing it three times against various flat surfaces of the kitchen, the aphrodisiac of the the drug still hadn't worn off completely.
When their eyes met, both of them froze for a second, at a loss for words, nervously licking their lips at the same time. This caused Suho to draw in an audible breath which in turn made Kai blush and then they avoided each other as best as they could for the rest of the day.
Luckily, Fridays were always livelier than Thursdays which meant that Kai almost always had customers to attend to, and Suho had his hands full in the kitchen kneading dough and baking pastries to keep the displays filled and some additional work in preparation for the orders people liked to make for Saturdays.
Kai's heart jumped into his throat every time he had to exchange a word with Suho and most of their conversations that day ended in stammers and a rush of memories that made them both blush. They could have successfully continued dancing around each other like this the whole day if the doorbell hadn't chimed at a few minutes past four as the door swung open to reveal a boy about Kai's age, maybe a bit younger, and another, very pretty, boy with doe eyes and a white and blue woollen hat.
Kai dove straight behind the counter before they could see, let alone recognize him.
"Suho!", he whisper-called into the kitchen desperately. "Suho, please!"
Suho emerged with an apron on and his hands full of flour. As he saw Kai crouching behind the counter with a terrified look on his features, and noticed the two boys from yesterday slowly making their way through the crowded café, looking for a place to sit, he laughed at Kai in his usual cheerful way -- which Kai had missed a lot during the day, if he were honest.
"You want me to take them?"
Kai nodded frantically. Suho chuckled. "Okay."
He was already on his way but then he stopped and turned around to Kai once again with a mischievous spark in his eyes. "But only because I like it when you beg."
Kai felt the by now familiar rush of blood to his face and remained adamantly behind the counter, watching Suho run this way and that in order to keep up with everything. There was a slump at a quarter past five which gave Suho the opportunity to plop down on the floor next to Kai, slinging his arms around his neck and dropping his head on his shoulder, making loud snoring sounds.
"Are they still there?", Kai asked, strictly refusing himself to give in to the urge of burying his nose in Suho's hair and inhaling deeply.
"Yes. You suck. I hate you."
"I know. ...What are they doing all the time?"
"Making out, what else. If you hide every time they come in, I will tell the owner, and have him transfer half of your pay to mine."
"No, please! I will vote you employee of the month!"
"Not even if you vote me employee of the year."
Employee of my life, Kai's mind corrected but then another part of his mind kicked in and told him to stop being ridiculous. He wriggled out of Suho's arms, and jumped up before the other could even blink, much less react.
"Go take a break. I got this. I don't want to lose my paycheck!"
At about six, the same businessmen as usual came in, their suits a bit more wrinkled than in the mornings, and bought the same typical coffees to go for their way home. The students put bookmarks in their books, the couples wrapped scarves around each other's necks and the café emptied slowly. Kai stood at the cash register, smiling and bowing people goodbye, stealing glances at Suho who cleared the tables.
He wasn't aware of daydreaming, until a soft voice shook him out of his thoughts.
"Excuse me?"
Kai turned his gaze to the two boys standing in front of him, holding hands inconspicuously. He almost chuckled at the sense of deja-vu.
"We would like to pay. And I'll take the bill today", the younger boy said and dug in his wallet. Kai pressed some buttons on the cash register and, out of the corners of his eyes, saw them exchanging very inconspicuous loving gazes. He felt his heart swell a little and couldn't hold his tongue when he handed the boy his change.
"You're such a cute couple", he remarked lowly, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. Both of them shook their heads and waved their free hands -- the fact that they kept holding their other hands didn't escape Kai but he refrained kindly from commenting on that.
"We're not -"
"Sure", Kai interrupted with an understanding smile, leaned a bit closer and nodded across the room at Suho who was wiping one of the booth tables. "We're neither." The two boys blushed a little, the doe eyes of the pretty boy sparkled and the younger boy smiled a little smile that was almost a smirk.
"You're always welcome in our café."
After they had left, the silence of evenings fell over the café and Suho pulled out the account books while Kai mopped the floor. Then he switched off the main light and took the last few pieces of cake from the display shelves to put them in the fridge, but he hesitated on his way into the kitchen.
A string of nervousness coiled in his stomach as he observed the older boy's form in the chair at the kitchen table, electric light humming above him, illuminating his dark brown hair that always smelled a bit like chocolate. Maybe sharing his personal space with someone who was half a head shorter than him wasn't all that bad, Kai thought and advanced into the kitchen with sure steps.
"Uhm, Kai", Suho called when he noticed his presence.
"Hm?" Kai looked up from where he placed leftover cakes in the fridge, expecting to meet Suho's gaze but the other kept his eyes fixed on the account book.
"About yesterday...", he mumbled with a small voice into the columns of numbers and trailed off, maybe still doubtful that he and Kai were on the same page. Kai was suddenly all too aware of all the times he had avoided Suho today, probably crushing his confidence quite a bit in the process. He did look like he was steeling himself for a rejection.
This was the point where he knew he had to jump over his own shadow and confess that he liked Suho back even when he wasn't under the influence of stimulating drugs. So that's exactly what he did. He hadn't expected Suho to freeze for a moment and gnaw his lip and still look doubtful, though.
"But where does that leave us?"
Kai stood up, closing the fridge door with his hip, leaning against it and regarded Suho thoughtfully who was now looking up at him like a guilty culprit awaiting his verdict. As much as Kai enjoyed seeing him all flustered, he preferred his cheerful Suho over this timid one, and he was determined to make this whole situation comfortable enough for him.
"Idiot", he said and chuckled which sparked a visible flurry of hope in Suho's eyes, and then he answered teasingly. "Right now, it leaves me thinking about how much better the leftover whipped cream in the fridge is going to taste on your skin. Hyung."
"Oh." A forceful blush conquered Suho's cheeks and advanced all the way down his neck. "Okay then." It made Kai want to kiss him silly but he suppressed the urge for now and just let his smile widen into a somewhat lopsided, mischievous smirk, grinning at Suho until he couldn't help grinning back.
"And we have a crate of fresh strawberries coming in tomorrow. I can think of a lot of delicious ways to use them. But if you breathe a word of this to Taemin, you're dead."
Author eoryndal
Rating: pg-13
Warning: some swearing, implied sex, mild case of substance abuse and ridiculous amounts of blushing boys
Pairing: Kai/Suho, HunHan
Genre: romance
Summary: Kai works in a café and tries to ignore his clingy co-worker as best as he can. Also, he likes to drug his customers sometimes. But it's for the good of the people, he says.
A/N: Dedicated to my wonderful kaseum who gave me the prompt 'UM SOMETHING WITH A CAKE SHOP. OR A CAFE. AND IT'S HUNHAN. BECAUSE THEY'RE PRECIOUS.' I don't think this is enough HunHan though ;___; Kai kept invading my storyline like the Exo teasers OTL
It was one of those slow Thursdays.
In the morning, a few men in suits had ordered their typical coffee on their way to work, and around noon a throng of high school girls had filled the little café with their laughter and chatter, buying cappuccino or hot chocolate and a few snacks.
The rest of the day was uneventful and stretched like chewing gum. Kai sat behind the counter and played games on his phone, pointedly ignoring his co-worker Suho who was eternally cheerful and talkative. He was also a good half head shorter than Kai despite being older but that didn't stop him from slinging his arm around Kai's shoulder in an almost intruding way.
Kai preferred Taemin's company but the kid only worked at the café on Sundays.
Suho emerged from the kitchen with a wide grin on his face and was just about to open his mouth when the doorbell chimed, announcing a customer.
"I'll get them", Kai sad, pocketed his phone and left Suho standing.
"Welcome", he greeted amiably and bowed to a boy about his age, maybe a bit younger, who looked around and took in the unoccupied tables a little insecure, not sure where to sit. "Table for one person?"
"Ah, uhm. No, for two", the boy stuttered in a tiny voice and Kai had to suppress the urge to laugh at him. A date, his mind catalogued automatically, courtesy of years of experience from working at a café. First date probably, if his nervousness was anything to go by. Kai led him to one of the more secluded booths with round tables and cosy, u-shaped benches by the windows, and while the boy shrugged off his jacket and scarf, Kai went to fetch him a menu.
"Looks like the weather is colder than I thought", Suho said with a nod towards the boy's thick clothes when Kai returned behind the counter to leave him to him study the menu. Their café was suffused with light and warmth but through the large windows, Kai could see some people gripping their hats or skirts at the occasional gust of wind.
"It's probably stormy. Or he's just one of those people who're cold all the time", Kai shrugged and threw a demonstrative glance at the clock on the wall behind the counter. "Don't you have a birthday cake to decorate?", he asked, cutting their conversation short.
Suho's face fell dejectedly for a split second but then his cheerful smile was back in place. "What would I do without you?" He laughed at Kai, even though it didn't quite reach his eyes this time, and vanished in the kitchen. Mrs Kim was scheduled to pick up a cake she had ordered for the seventh birthday of her twins in about an hour.
Kai sighed and watched Suho's back as he rummaged around in the kitchen, collecting all the colourful ingredients he needed and started slathering pink and yellow whipped cream on the cake base.
He wasn't sure why he treated him so harshly sometimes. It wasn't like he hated him. But he could be a bit too much to handle on slow Thursdays. He averted his gaze and saw that the boy in the booth by the window had put down the menu and was playing with his phone; the way he twirled it around in his hands made it painfully obvious that he was waiting for a message from his date. Kai chuckled quietly and grabbed a pen and a notepad from the counter.
"May I take your order?"
The boy looked up, taken by surprise, and fumbled for an answer. "I, uh, uhm. ...Is it okay if I wait?"
"Sure." Kai smiled reassuringly, drawing a relieved smile from the boy in return, and left him again.
In that moment, the doorbell chimed again and two identical enraptured squeals announced Mrs Kim's twins. They stormed to the display shelves next to the counter where the cookies, cupcakes and various pastries were laid out, and squashed their faces against the glass. Kai cringed inwardly but schooled his features into a polite smile and bowed to greet Mrs Kim who followed her two kids. Spoiled brats, Kai's mind commented. He wasn't too fond of kids, especially the likes of these who were tugging on their mummy's coat and pleaded for strawberry muffins.
Luckily, Suho emerged from the kitchen, balancing some sort of fairy castle in pink and yellow with sprinkles of colourful sugar candies on top. The girls went quiet in awe and stood on their tiptoes to watch Suho pack the cake in a box carefully while Kai received Mrs Kim's money and gave her the change.
Lazy silence returned to the café afterwards. Suho checked if nothing was missing on the display shelves -- out of habit rather than out of necessity, since they both remembered the few pastries they had sold today -- and then announced that he was going to take a break.
Kai looked at the waiting boy in the booth by the window and decided it was time he did something for the poor boy. Judging from the clock that now read a few minutes past four, he had been way too early for his date which, Kai could bet, was supposed to start at four. He mixed two hot strawberry milks and stirred a tiny drop of a 'special ingredient' into each mug.
Admittedly, that was most likely illegal, but Kai felt that it was his duty to ensure his customers had perfect dates. And with how fidgety the poor guy by the window was, his date would probably be anything but perfect. Relaxing a little never hurt anyone.
He carried the tray with the two mugs and placed it in front of him on the table. The boy looked up with an astonished and confused gaze that spelled 'But I didn't order anything' as clearly as if he had spoken the words.
"Don't worry, it's on the house." Kai smiled at him and as the boy's face lit up and he grabbed one of the steaming mugs eagerly, he wanted to ruffle his hair. Instead, he went to the kitchen to get a cleaning cloth and wiped off the smudges the kids had left on the display window.
A few minutes later, the doorbell chimed once more and Kai interrupted his task to look up, expecting the boy's date to finally arrive, but instead of a cute girl, it was just another boy who entered the café, bringing a gust of wind with him. Kai heard Suho's steps in the kitchen, returning from his break, but he ignored him as usual, and went to greet the new boy who was just pulling off a white and light blue woollen hat, revealing dishevelled honeyblond hair.
Kai couldn't help noticing that he looked really pretty for a boy, with his cute nose, large, expressive doe eyes and cheeks flushed lightly from the cold wind outside. Maybe this Thursday wasn't so lame after all.
"Welcome!", Kai said with his best smile. "Table for one?"
"No, actually... I'm here to meet my friend", the handsome boy said and looked around. "I'm a bit late though." He spotted the boy by the window and waved happily. "Oh, Sehun-ah!"
The boy looked up, a bright smile blooming on his features and he waved back. "Lu Han!", he called, motioning for the other boy to sit beside him, pushing the second mug of strawberry milk into his hands.
Kai had literally stopped breathing as the scene unravelled in front of his eyes and it dawned on him what he had done. He dove behind the counter and crouched there, hiding from his customers' views.
"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck -"
"Fuck what?" Suho looked down at him with an expression half of concern, half of amusement.
"I think I just did something very, very stupid. And if I don't hide here for the rest of the day, I will be able to see exactly how stupid it was. And if anyone ever finds out, I will definitely get fired and most probably put in jail."
Suho tried hard not to laugh but Kai could see the corners of his lips twitching.
"Alright, stay here while I take their orders. And when I'm back, I expect a full report. If you killed someone, I'm ratting you out to the police though. If not, I'll cover for you... and possibly blackmail you till the end of your days!"
He vanished, and a few moments later, Kai heard an exchange of a few words from the other end of the room, too soft to make out what was said, too short to collect his thoughts or think of a way out. He wasn't good at lying, and when Suho returned, sitting next to him on the floor behind the counter, he spilled the truth.
"I might have put this in their drinks." Kai pulled a tiny bottle out of his back pocket and handed it to Suho without meeting his eyes. A second later, a choked gasp told him that Suho recognized the label on the bottle.
"You spike-"
Kai clamped a hand over Suho's mouth to stop him from shouting out loud enough to be heard across the whole café.
"Ssh, are you crazy?!", he hissed.
"You fucking spiked their drinks, I can't believe it", Suho whispered back frantically through a gap between Kai's fingers. "Are you out of your fucking mind?"
"I didn't mean any harm. I was so sure the guy was waiting for his girlfriend, or girlfriend-to-be, or whatever and I just wanted to help him with his date, really. How could I know that he was just meeting his friend. His guy friend?" Kai tore at his hair. Suho let out an exasperated sigh.
"They ordered chocolate muffins, one for each. Go, while I stay here and calm down."
Kai scrambled up and took the two biggest chocolate muffins from the display and turned to go but faltered for a moment, unsure if he'd rather face Suho's accusing look or witness the extent of his slip-up. The latter won because, to be brutally honest, Kai was the tiniest bit curious what was going on between the two right now.
However, he almost dropped the plates with the muffins when he saw and heard the two of them in the midst of a heavy make out session. The younger one was practically in the other boy's lap and his tongue, from the glimpse Kai got before he squeezed his eyes shut, was pretty far down his throat. They made slick noises and little gasps and Kai wanted to bang his head against something. The sudden thought whether the pretty boy's lips were as soft as they looked, didn't help the slightest bit. That was something he usually didn't even give a fuck about when he was dating girls.
He wanted to turn around and flee but, oh god, Suho was leaning on the counter like the amused spectator that he was. For some reason, seeing how unfazed Suho was by the whole situation made Kai feel even more flustered, and a bit angry at himself for getting so worked up.
He put the plate on the table and jumped back to his safe place behind the counter as fast as he could, going straight back to pulling his hair.
"I'm going to hell. Oh god, what have I done? They're both guys! This is so wrong!"
"The only thing wrong is that you put a freaking aphrodisiac into their food. You know... at the café I worked before, we had our fair share of couples, too. But I can't remember seeing as many of them making out as in this café. I though there was just something in the air here, but somehow, I'm beginning to suspect you have something to do with that."
"It was for the good of the people!", Kai mumbled into his hands in which he had buried his face. He didn't have to look up to know that Suho was regarding him with amused eyes, probably still leaning on the counter, all casual, and bathing in this situation in which he clearly had the upper hand over Kai for once.
"At least you learned your lesson. But, you know, I'm pretty sure those two would've been all over each other even without your assistance."
Kai didn't react, didn't even lift his face from his hands, he just sniffed demonstratively. But on the inside he had to agree with Suho, remembering how the faces of the two boys had lit up the moment they recognized each other. Maybe it wasn't that bad that they were both boys. He had to smile a little and was glad that his face was still hidden so that Suho couldn't see it. Maybe he wasn't going to hell.
"How cute, they're feeding each other. I should force you to sit and watch them."
"No!"
Okay, scratch that. Straight to hell it was.
"No? How about I narrate it to you then? Hmm, looks like right now, that Lu Han guy is sliding his hands up the other one's -"
"Hyung!", Kai wailed and looked up at Suho pleadingly who returned his gaze with a chuckle and a gleeful look all over his features.
"What was that? You never call me hyung. So I have to talk dirty to you to get some respect out of you?"
Kai buried his face in his hands again and pretended to cry. He had seen enough of boys kissing for today, or for his whole life for that matter, and he really didn't need to hear 'Suho' and 'dirty talk' in one sentence. Why couldn't today be Sunday with Taemin? Why did it have to be Suho? Suho, who always invaded his personal space, Suho, who smiled at him and talked to him no matter how often he brushed him off, Suho, who smelled of chocolate and freshly baked cookies and seemed to be completely okay with the idea of -
"Oooh." Suho made an excited and somewhat accomplished sound and crouched in front of Kai, hitting his knees repeatedly to get him to look up. Kai gave in and was met with a face full of Suho leaning way too close into his personal space again. "Guess what they just did?!"
"What", Kai asked tonelessly, not because he wanted to know but because he wanted to get this over with and get rid of Suho as fast as possible. He felt uncomfortable and crowded with the shelf under the counter pressing into his back and Suho's arms leaning on his knees.
Kai thought that maybe breathing through his mouth would help reduce Suho's chocolate smell. He prayed that this corner behind the counter was dimly lit enough to hide the angry blush on his cheeks. This had stopped being fun for him some time ago.
"They went to the toilet", Suho whispered conspiratorially, and added, stressing each syllable. "Together. You know that toilet has just one cabin. They're so getting in on in there. Really, that was a job well done." He chuckled and clapped Kai on the shoulder in that annoying way he had. And then, thank god, he deemed it enough torture for Kai.
"Alright, I'll let you off the hook. I'll be in the kitchen cleaning up. We're closing for today soon anyway."
Kai just stayed sitting behind the counter and tried to recall what his life had been like before today.
"Uhm, excuse me?" A soft voice brought him out of his reverie. He wished he could just remain seated and listen to that pleasant tone but he knew he had to stand up and face the two boys. Who, according to Suho, had just had sex, or most definitely something very close to it.
"Yes, what can I do for you?" He was almost painfully aware of his heated cheeks and tried not to notice that the two were holding hands in the most inconspicuous way possible and that the air around them was still seething a bit.
"We would like to pay." They exchanged a look and then the boy with the doe eyes said. "I'll take the bill." His small, careful smile was enough for Kai to hit the wrong button and mess up the bill so he had to cancel and start again, blushing a bit deeper and wishing for Suho to come save him, but he didn't, so he had to get through this alone which, somehow, he did.
He watched the two leave hand in hand, then he closed the door and turned the 'open' sign around, before putting chairs up on the tables. Wordlessly, and still thrumming with tension, he took a mop and a bucket from the corner in the kitchen where the cleaning utensils were stored and wiped the floor of the café.
When he was done and returned to the kitchen, Suho was still slaving over the account books but he looked up and smiled at Kai.
"You look beat. I'll wrap this up quickly. Hey, I tried a new recipe for cinnamon rolls, the dough is in the big bowl on the table. Could you try it and tell me what you think?"
"Sure!" Kai dipped a spoon in and scooped up a good amount. As much as he loved sneaking bites of dough when Suho was baking, an act that always annoyed the other, trying the sweet stuff with permission was even better because that way he could enjoy it to his heart's content. Suho eyed him and chuckled, shaking his head a little at his enthusiasm, but there was something else playing into his smile that wasn't there usually.
"What? This is really good!"
"Is it?" Suho asked back in a tone Kai couldn't really identify, closed his books and sauntered over to Kai. He stood way too close again, draping his arm over Kai's shoulder. "I'm glad you like it."
His arm was too warm on Kai's shoulder, as was his whole body that was pressed too close against Kai's side, his head almost on his shoulder. Kai thought he was breathing through his mouth again but he wasn't fully sure if he was breathing at all, his brain was kind of foggy and his cheeks were way too hot.
"I like chocolate", he blurted out, not sure anymore where that connection came from, earning a soft chuckle from Suho.
"I like you", Suho retorted and reached up a bit to smash his lips on Kai's.
"And I've been wanting to do that for quite some time now. I thought that was clear from the way I acted around you but somehow it didn't get into your head."
He was about to disentangle from Kai, when he grabbed his wrist and pulled him back. Drawing a shaky breath, he asked. "Wait. Can we do that again? Preferably with lots more tongue."
"I- I'm not sure." Suho swallowed, looking very sheepish suddenly, and darted his eyes around to avoid meeting Kai's gaze. "Only if you really want to." Kai slid his hand up Suho's arm and started inching closer to Suho's face, hoping that was enough of an indication, that, yes, he wanted this very much.
But Suho took a step back. "Wait." Through the haze in his mind, Kai noticed that Suho was looking up at him in that adorably nervous way, gnawing his bottom lip that Kai would prefer to have between his teeth right now, but then he followed his eyes to something he placed on the table next to the bowl of dough. "I'm sorry", Suho mumbled and the tips of his ears turned pink. Kai recognized the little bottle instantly and, oh. Well, that explained why he was feeling so hot and why his heart beat like crazy whenever even the smallest part of his body touched Suho.
"How much did you put in?" Kai was surprised and a bit embarrassed at the husky tone of his own voice but he liked how flustered it made Suho.
"Uhm, not much. Maybe a spoonful", Suho admitted in a small voice, trying a careful smile. Kai felt another rush of blood through his whole body.
"Fuck! A spoonful?"
He wondered briefly why he wasn't angry at his friend for drugging him. Instead, the thought turned him on even more and he couldn't stop himself from grabbing a good fist full of Suho's hair and kissing him forcefully, despite his attempts to say something. Only when he deemed Suho's mouth ravished enough and started sucking down his neck did the other get the chance to speak again.
"Was that... too much?", he managed to ask between little gasps.
Kai released his neck and came up to stare at him with such a dark, intense gaze that Suho blushed crimson and leaned back slightly, thighs hitting the kitchen table. Kai followed and pressed him into the table. "Shit, you have no idea", Kai panted. "No idea." Then he captured Suho's lips again, pushing his tongue into his willing mouth until he was only vaguely aware of rubbing his hips up and down Suho's leg that was conveniently between his.
Needless to say, the next morning at the café was very awkward for the both of them. Kai arrived first and opened the café, hoping cowardly that Suho had caught a cold and stayed at home. But two minutes before nine, he stormed in, looking terrible, like he hadn't slept the whole night and hadn't had breakfast on top of that. Kai hadn't slept much either, but in his case that was because even after doing it three times against various flat surfaces of the kitchen, the aphrodisiac of the the drug still hadn't worn off completely.
When their eyes met, both of them froze for a second, at a loss for words, nervously licking their lips at the same time. This caused Suho to draw in an audible breath which in turn made Kai blush and then they avoided each other as best as they could for the rest of the day.
Luckily, Fridays were always livelier than Thursdays which meant that Kai almost always had customers to attend to, and Suho had his hands full in the kitchen kneading dough and baking pastries to keep the displays filled and some additional work in preparation for the orders people liked to make for Saturdays.
Kai's heart jumped into his throat every time he had to exchange a word with Suho and most of their conversations that day ended in stammers and a rush of memories that made them both blush. They could have successfully continued dancing around each other like this the whole day if the doorbell hadn't chimed at a few minutes past four as the door swung open to reveal a boy about Kai's age, maybe a bit younger, and another, very pretty, boy with doe eyes and a white and blue woollen hat.
Kai dove straight behind the counter before they could see, let alone recognize him.
"Suho!", he whisper-called into the kitchen desperately. "Suho, please!"
Suho emerged with an apron on and his hands full of flour. As he saw Kai crouching behind the counter with a terrified look on his features, and noticed the two boys from yesterday slowly making their way through the crowded café, looking for a place to sit, he laughed at Kai in his usual cheerful way -- which Kai had missed a lot during the day, if he were honest.
"You want me to take them?"
Kai nodded frantically. Suho chuckled. "Okay."
He was already on his way but then he stopped and turned around to Kai once again with a mischievous spark in his eyes. "But only because I like it when you beg."
Kai felt the by now familiar rush of blood to his face and remained adamantly behind the counter, watching Suho run this way and that in order to keep up with everything. There was a slump at a quarter past five which gave Suho the opportunity to plop down on the floor next to Kai, slinging his arms around his neck and dropping his head on his shoulder, making loud snoring sounds.
"Are they still there?", Kai asked, strictly refusing himself to give in to the urge of burying his nose in Suho's hair and inhaling deeply.
"Yes. You suck. I hate you."
"I know. ...What are they doing all the time?"
"Making out, what else. If you hide every time they come in, I will tell the owner, and have him transfer half of your pay to mine."
"No, please! I will vote you employee of the month!"
"Not even if you vote me employee of the year."
Employee of my life, Kai's mind corrected but then another part of his mind kicked in and told him to stop being ridiculous. He wriggled out of Suho's arms, and jumped up before the other could even blink, much less react.
"Go take a break. I got this. I don't want to lose my paycheck!"
At about six, the same businessmen as usual came in, their suits a bit more wrinkled than in the mornings, and bought the same typical coffees to go for their way home. The students put bookmarks in their books, the couples wrapped scarves around each other's necks and the café emptied slowly. Kai stood at the cash register, smiling and bowing people goodbye, stealing glances at Suho who cleared the tables.
He wasn't aware of daydreaming, until a soft voice shook him out of his thoughts.
"Excuse me?"
Kai turned his gaze to the two boys standing in front of him, holding hands inconspicuously. He almost chuckled at the sense of deja-vu.
"We would like to pay. And I'll take the bill today", the younger boy said and dug in his wallet. Kai pressed some buttons on the cash register and, out of the corners of his eyes, saw them exchanging very inconspicuous loving gazes. He felt his heart swell a little and couldn't hold his tongue when he handed the boy his change.
"You're such a cute couple", he remarked lowly, just loud enough for the two of them to hear. Both of them shook their heads and waved their free hands -- the fact that they kept holding their other hands didn't escape Kai but he refrained kindly from commenting on that.
"We're not -"
"Sure", Kai interrupted with an understanding smile, leaned a bit closer and nodded across the room at Suho who was wiping one of the booth tables. "We're neither." The two boys blushed a little, the doe eyes of the pretty boy sparkled and the younger boy smiled a little smile that was almost a smirk.
"You're always welcome in our café."
After they had left, the silence of evenings fell over the café and Suho pulled out the account books while Kai mopped the floor. Then he switched off the main light and took the last few pieces of cake from the display shelves to put them in the fridge, but he hesitated on his way into the kitchen.
A string of nervousness coiled in his stomach as he observed the older boy's form in the chair at the kitchen table, electric light humming above him, illuminating his dark brown hair that always smelled a bit like chocolate. Maybe sharing his personal space with someone who was half a head shorter than him wasn't all that bad, Kai thought and advanced into the kitchen with sure steps.
"Uhm, Kai", Suho called when he noticed his presence.
"Hm?" Kai looked up from where he placed leftover cakes in the fridge, expecting to meet Suho's gaze but the other kept his eyes fixed on the account book.
"About yesterday...", he mumbled with a small voice into the columns of numbers and trailed off, maybe still doubtful that he and Kai were on the same page. Kai was suddenly all too aware of all the times he had avoided Suho today, probably crushing his confidence quite a bit in the process. He did look like he was steeling himself for a rejection.
This was the point where he knew he had to jump over his own shadow and confess that he liked Suho back even when he wasn't under the influence of stimulating drugs. So that's exactly what he did. He hadn't expected Suho to freeze for a moment and gnaw his lip and still look doubtful, though.
"But where does that leave us?"
Kai stood up, closing the fridge door with his hip, leaning against it and regarded Suho thoughtfully who was now looking up at him like a guilty culprit awaiting his verdict. As much as Kai enjoyed seeing him all flustered, he preferred his cheerful Suho over this timid one, and he was determined to make this whole situation comfortable enough for him.
"Idiot", he said and chuckled which sparked a visible flurry of hope in Suho's eyes, and then he answered teasingly. "Right now, it leaves me thinking about how much better the leftover whipped cream in the fridge is going to taste on your skin. Hyung."
"Oh." A forceful blush conquered Suho's cheeks and advanced all the way down his neck. "Okay then." It made Kai want to kiss him silly but he suppressed the urge for now and just let his smile widen into a somewhat lopsided, mischievous smirk, grinning at Suho until he couldn't help grinning back.
"And we have a crate of fresh strawberries coming in tomorrow. I can think of a lot of delicious ways to use them. But if you breathe a word of this to Taemin, you're dead."