chimchim's| pjm

eight

EIGHT

unsure of when it officially happened or began.
it could've been around the christmas season.
this is when a new aroma filled the air, more frappes and lattes, nods jolly laughter and families arriving to fill the booths of the bakery.

the sickly contagious desire to be with that special person in your life. this was the time when jimin and fei became closest, they stopped seeing each other as coworker and boss; the line between those two faded months ago.

they love their happy little mistakes such as when they were in the back rolling dough and would accidentally touch pinkies, they always found themselves trying to stay like that.

"hyung we're leaving."

another good day at work had been completed and everyone was preparing to head home for the weekend.

jimin whips his hands with the cotton rag in his hands, soaking from the rapidly cooling water.

in front of him stood his employees, stiff aprons laid across their arms as the prepared to take there leave once their director gave the go ahead.

before him stood, yoonha, inha, fei and his newest and final employee kim huni; she was a pastry chef in university and hoped to hone her talents in here.

pushing her black rimmed glasses up against her nose, huni bowed lightly."we're ready to leave if there's nothing else to do."

jimin watched his crew diligently, observing each of their faces. the looked like they were chefs; the way each one of them found it impossible to clog home without at least some form of mess on them, between the powders on their faces and spices in their hair, they all looked like they meant business.

"neh, you can go." he nods and turns away.
the others now and turn, fei stayed behind and smiled to him.

"I'll walk you out."

about a quarter was spent inside the room as the two talked and grabbed jimin's bags. for a while now they had been leaving together, at first it was a result of fei hating him being out by himself working and then it became their little moments to speak freely with each other.

walking out the door, their shoes tapped in a melody. jimin opens the door and ushers her out, as the two stepped out they froze.

confused, they looked up into the faces of their friends where had stood outside in the chill, bundled in their coats.

"ish, I told you they were dating. poor chimchim has never been good with hiding his feelings."

yoonha points at their intwined hands, groaning at his own observation.

"it's cold..shouldn't you all be going home?" fei stumbles to find the right words.

"we should've. but what kind of friends would we be if we left two of them behind?"

inha crossed her arms, words dry in her throat, hair whipping around in the wind.
"yoonha said you'd take no more than three minutes to come out..we thought we'd wait."

yoonha nods, shrugging lightly."so we couldn't understand what was taking you so long..but now..."

the caught couple exchanged a quick glance, both turning pepper hot.

"I really don't care if you're dating, as long as it doesn't effect our work and everyone's friendships then do you." huni shrugged lightly, tucking her thick black bundles of hair under her hat.

the other two nod in agreement, eventually waving the couple off as each person parts to get to their own homes. leaving the guilty party to look at each other, astonished .

"are we really that bad at keeping secrets or..."

jimin rubs the nap of his neck, instinctively fei covers the spot with his scarf. "well since the secret is out..maybe we can go on a date tonight?"

that night the baker and his apprentice took a much enjoyed night out on the town. what they did specifically? enjoy each other to the fullest. laughing as they watched the winter lights of christmas in seoul. they didn't kiss ofcourse, it was only the first date.