A Basket of Sugar

Salty Muffins

Jeno let out one last sigh before his body surged forward and he collapsed onto the floor. The other person in the room immediately jumped to the unconscious boy's side.

He rolled Jeno over into his arms and pressed his cool fingers onto the boy's sweaty forehead.

"Damn you're hot." The man cursed. "I need to get you to the infirmary."

The man opened the door and poked his head out into the main room. He spotted his friend who was just finishing up his conversation with some investors. He aggressively whispered to the boy to come over.

The friend shot him a weird look but did as he asked anyway.

"What's up Haechan?"

"Mark, I've got an Omega in here who fainted. I'm gonna take him to the infirmary but I need you to cause a distraction so we don't scare anyone." Haechan said.

Mark walked up to Haechan and looked past him, into the room, where the Omega lay on the ground. He looked back to Haechan with an 'are you serious?' look on his face.

"How the fuck am I supposed to cause a distraction and catch the attention of 200 people?"

"You're Mark Lee, you'll figure out a way." Haechan said as he hoisted the limp body into his arms. "I'm gonna wait right here for your signal. Then I'm walking out the door."

Mark glared at Haechan for a few moments, just to prove his point, then he sighed and walked off towards the crowd.

He slipped through the groups of investors and students alike. Then he climbed the stage and deliberately walked in a way to make people think he might be drunk.

Haechan internally cringed for what came next.

Mark pretended to lose his footing and surged forward. He grabbed the pants of an elderly man, who wasn't wearing a belt, to break his fall. Mark tumbled to the ground, followed by the pants.

That caught many people's attention, but not nearly enough.

"Oh my god sir, I am so sorry, I totally didn't mean to do that!" Mark said as he hurried to pull the man's pants up for him. The man angrily pushed Mark off of him. Mark must've known he needed to cause an even bigger distraction, so he over-dramatically stumbled back and tumbled off the stage. While he fell, he knocked over a plate of pastries, coating the nearby professor in frosting before he landed on his back with a loud thud. Everyone gasped and turned to look.

Haechan slipped out of his hiding spot and stealthily made his way to the door.

He glanced back and saw Mark apologizing profusely; trying to help everyone he could. The professor who had been coated in pastries was ironically the culinary teacher.

Haechan readjusted his grip on the sweaty boy in his arms and ran out of the room.

💕💕💕

Jeno's eyes fluttered open as the ceiling above him slowly came into view. It was grey with standard public building LED light bulbs. That makes sense, he passed out in a store room. The ceiling of that room should look like that.

But should the ground be this comfortable?

Jeno shifted around but quickly stopped once the room started to spin. He held still and patiently waited for his vision to clear again.

"You're awake."

Jeno snapped his head in the direction of the voice, and oh fuck. It was him. Lee Haechan. Lee Haechan found him in an empty storeroom. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. How could his day possibly get any worse then this?

"You look pale." Haechan said, "I'm gonna get you some ice water." He got up and walked over to the cooler. Jeno looked around the room and realized that they weren't in some dingy storeroom but they were actually in the campus infirmary. Haechan must've brought him here and there was no telling how many others had seen him. Apparently his day could get worse.

Haechan returned with the water but he didn't hand it over to Jeno like he expected. Instead, he lightly put the paper cup to Jeno's lips and gently poured the liquid into his mouth.

"Thanks." Jeno said in a small voice before looking at his feet. He settled back into his bed. Clearly trying to avoid eye contact.

"My name's Haechan." Haechan tried to fill the awkward silence.

"Mine's Jeno."

More awkward silence fell between them so Haechan decided to give the conversation another jab.

"You um... you looked pretty stressed back there. I know we don't know each other but wanna talk about it?"

Jeno looked up from his feet and met the Alpha's eyes. "You must know I'm an Omega by now, those investors were just giving me a really hard time. It was also so hot, and my culinary professor wouldn't let me take off my jacket."

"Wait, your culinary professor?"

"Yes?"

"Oh my god." Haechan leaned back in his chair. "My friend tripped and knocked a whole bunch of pastries into that guy! I mean the look on his face!"

Haechan let out a loud, deep laugh. Jeno couldn't help but giggle a bit too.

Once Haechan got over his amusement he looked back at the boy lying down.

"So you're a culinary major?"

"Yes?"

"Hm." Haechan looked at Jeno with deep curiosity. "You can smell my scent right?"

Jeno sniffed his scent. "Wow! That smells so wholesome! What is it?"

"See that's the thing... I don't know." Haechan chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "My scent's undiscovered. I've figured out by now that it's probably some kind of pastry but I just don't know what. And this might seem a little forward, but you're the first culinary major I've met on campus, do you think you might be able to help me find my scent?"

Jeno pondered this offer for a bit. He was relieved to find that Haechan wasn't weirded out by him and even seemed to like him a bit. He also couldn't deny his newfound curiosity of this pleasant scent.

"Well my friends do call me the master of spatula and sword. I've done a lot of baking but I admit I've never discovered an undiscovered scent before. This offer is just too interesting to turn away. I think I'm in."

To be honest, Haechan wasn't prepared for that answer, he felt a little caught off guard and slightly embarrassed from it. But he wasn't about to admit to a cute Omega that he made him embarrassed. To cover his shock, he looked away from Jeno and rested his elbows on his knees with his fingers under his chin.

"Well, Jeno." Haechan looked back to him, "It was definitely very nice to meet you."

a/n: What if I told you I have a Jungwoo+Yuta fic in the works?