Seonghwa happily walked out of his apartment, a smile on his face and bag hung loose over his shoulder. He had work today, but the aveniments of the day before yesterday succesfully lifted his mood enough for him to be happy even with the bunch of rude customers he had to deal with everyday during his shift at the bakery.
He joyfully walked all the way to his workplace. The sun was already up in the sky and it painted everything in a warm morning light, warming Seonghwa's frame with its gentle rays.
He liked when they gave him the first shift of the day. The bakery opened at 7:00 and at that time people were either chill because it was morning or in a rush so they didn't have the time to stop and complain, so he was in a super good mood.
He entered the still empty stable humming a soft melody and he immediately started to set up the place to open up in half an hour. It was peaceful, he loved the ambience. The empty bakery lit up by the gentle rays of the sun that shone so prettily illuminated the pink painted walls beautifully.
The bakery was different from the others, we might say. Of course it offered countless baked goods like any other bakery would, but in addition to that it also offered the same services as a cafe, minus the table service.
Opening hours came around before Seonghwa could think about it, and he was already flipping the sign on the door from the basic "closed" to the lively and decorated "open". He stood behind the counter and waited for the few usual customers to drop by for their morning blast of energy, however the first face that popped up inside the place wasn't any of the ones he had learned to recognize over the years.
Only five minutes had passed since the bakery opened and a man was already walking through the glass door decorated with various stickers.
The man was tall, with a head of short jat black hair. He looked good, but he also looked exausted in Seonghwa's eyes. Seonghwa could see the hurt in his eyes and his prominent eye bags were a dead giveaway on how he was feeling, Seonghwa suspected he didn't even sleep. The man looked strangely familiar.
Seonghwa put on a polite smile when the man neared the glass counter with all their baked goods exposed for the coustomers and he almost wanted to jump over it and hug the poor man when he received a broken smile in return.
"Good morning and welcome to our bakery, what can I get you today?" Seonghwa recited like a melody. He was sure he could start dreaming about that sentence soon enough from how many times he was forced to say it on a daily basis.
"A large coffee is fine, thank you."
Seonghwa nodded and put the order in the system before he turned around to get the drink done. He watched from the corner of his eye how the man lazily dragged his figure to one of the small tables close to the entrance. Obviously it didn't take long for Seonghwa to prepare the drink, and in a moment he was already walking to the man's table with a gentle smile spread over his lips.
As he placed the cup of coffee in front of the man he sat down in the seat opposite of him. The man looked at him puzzled.
"I know it's not my place to say, but you seem pretty down. This one's on me." He was about to stand up again to walk behind the counter once again when the man spoke up, halting his movement.
"...Thank you. Life's been... particular lately."
A smile pulled on Seonghwa's lips as he sunk down on the chair once again.
"I'm Seonghwa."
"Mingi."
The man, Mingi, offered his hand with a faint smile. Seonghwa immediately shook it. He thought Mingi could use some company, after all Seonghwa knew all too well how it was to be down and not have anyone beside you, and even if he didn't know if Mingi had any friends that could be there for him now he didn't want to leave him alone drinking his coffee and all depressed on a table, since there weren't any customers at the moment.
He still couldn't exactly pinpoint where he had already see this man before, or maybe the fact that he looked familiar was just his mind playing tricks on him, but he decided to shrug it off. At least for the time being.
"Do you wanna talk about it? I've got some time until someone else comes in."
"That would be... really helpful actually." Mingi looked down on his hands wrapped around the cup on the table with a faint smile.
Seonghwa put on the best sympathetic smile he could muster as he crossed his legs in front of him under the little table, readying himself to listen to this -possibly- new-found friend.
Mingi shifted nervously on his chair. Even if he did think that talking about this with someone could help him he wasn't exactly sure talking about it with a complete stranger was the best thing in the world. But what did he have to lose after all?
"Well... I recently lost a friend I was really attached to, it was completely my fault and I can't blame him for it but at the same time I miss him so much but- I mean, I haven't exactly lost him completely. We need a break from each other. I wronged him and I understand that this is absolutely acceptable from his part and it hurt."
Seonghwa's eyes were attentive as he followed Mingi's little speech slash vent. He found himself thinking about Wooyoung. Obviously it wasn't the time to think about his bestfriend, and the two situations were definitely different as Seonghwa couldn't think of something wrong he might have done to the younger, but at the same time Mingi's situation reminded him so much of his own that he couldn't help it.
Mingi took a deep shaky breath before resuming his talk.
"...And yesterday I confessed to the person I love. It- It wasn't- Oh god, sorry." Qiuet sobs left Mingi's mouth as he tried his best to muffle them with one hand while the other tried to unsuccessfully wipe away the tears that had started falling from his eyes.
Seonghwa's brows sadly furrowed. He reached over the table putting his open hand near Mingi's. He liked phisical contact when he felt down, but he didn't want to impose it to someone he didn't know, and he felt it was right to leave Mingi the choice on if he wanted to hold his hand or not.
"You don't have to apologise for crying, Mingi..."
Mingi glanced at Seonghwa's open hand on top of the table and immediately took it sending a grateful glance in his direction.
"I just- I love him so much but he already has someone he likes and I- I expected it, I knew it wouldn't be reciprocated but it still hurts! It hurts so freaking much..."
Seonghwa started tracing little circles on top of Mingi's hand with his thumb. He wanted to stand up and hug the boy so badly, but right as he was about to push himself up from the chair, a woman -one of the many usual customer of the bakery- walked inside the place. The little bell above the door tinkled, the sound bouncing on the pretty pink walls.
Seonghwa squeezed Mingi's hand smiling at the woman, who fortunately for Seonghwa understood the situation in a glance and kindly returned the smile walking over to the counter where she stood waiting for him.
He shot an apologetic glance at the black haired male that looked up at him understandingly and immediately let go of his hand.
By the time Seonghwa finished serving the woman Mingi had already calmend down and was now looking over the few shelves hunged on the wall behind the counter that Seonghwa had meticolously decorated -after asking the owner of course- with a whole set of star wars little figures and little plushies.
Seonghwa could still see the slight redness of his eyes and the few stains the tears had left on Mingi's face, but he was relieved to see that he didn't look as troubled as when he had first came in.
He walked over to him once again and Mingi's gaze immediately shot to him displaying a grateful smile. Seonghwa was glad he could be of help.
Just as he was approaching the table, Mingi too stood up and walked over to him. They stood in front of each other for a few seconds before Mingi widened his arms, and Seonghwa immediately sprung forward to capture him in a bone crushing hug.
They had known each other for a little less than half an hour but it felt as if they had known each other for years, which was strange, but it was a nice feeling.
Mingi was a funny guy. He had decided to stick out for some time and now that he didn't feel as sad he kept on telling fun stories, keeping Seonghwa entartained during his shift and throwing in a few jokes here and there. Seonghwa was expecially grateful when a man that usually liked to yell at him and argue over nothing came in complaining about Seonghwa's presence just to receive a fifteen minutes long lecture from Mingi on why he should never insult or yell at workers -expecially when they worked in the restoration field- because they could always decide to spit into his drink or meal. Seonghwa was almost completely sure that the man would never swear at any worker anymore after that.
Around 9:00 a.m. Mingi unfortunately told him he had to go home to get ready for his own job, but he also asked him if they could exchange phone numbers and Seonghwa didn't hesitate one second when Mingi handed him his phone to type in the number.
Seonghwa was making a lot of new friends lately and he didn't mind in the slightest.
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I uploaded another one-shot, horray!!!