The sun had barely risen when Kwang-su stepped off the village bus into the humming chaos of the city. The air smelled like exhaust, convenience store ramen, and the strangely nostalgic scent of laundry detergent from a nearby balcony.
"Hey, big city, I'm back," he muttered with a grin.
A second later, he was nearly tackled by his hyper younger sister, Kwang-mi, who screamed, "OPPPAAAAA!"
"Why do you always attack me like a k-drama side character!?" he groaned, wobbling as she clung to him like a koala.
His mother came next, dragging him inside with a barrage of questions about village life, his health, and—inevitably—whether he had a girlfriend.
"No, mom," Kwang-su muttered, eyes darting. "Still gay. Still taken."
"Oh, right," she sighed, flapping a towel. "As long as he's cute and treats you right."
Meanwhile, back in the village…
Jun-seo sat on the porch steps of the bakery, chin resting on his knees like an abandoned cat. He'd insisted he was fine—totally fine.
"I'm not sulking," he mumbled as he dramatically ignored five texts from Kwang-su. "I'm being emotionally independent."
Behind him, Mr. Min and Mr. Jin-woo were having their own quiet moment under the shade of the old persimmon tree. Mr. Min was humming while peeling pears. Mr. Jin-woo was polishing his favorite bread knife like he was preparing for war.
That's when Hye-ran appeared.
Draped in an elegant hanbok that screamed "overcompensating," she approached Mr. Min with a smile as fake as a plastic flower.
"Oh, you poor thing," she purred. "It must be exhausting to keep up with someone like Jin-woo. He used to be so wild, you know. I tamed him once, long ago."
Mr. Min blinked like a startled deer. "Um... I think he's very sweet…"
"Of course you think that," she sneered, leaning closer. "He always liked weak, innocent types."
Before Mr. Min could find a polite excuse to yeet himself into the garden, a shadow fell over them.
Mr. Jin-woo.
He was holding a hot tray of cinnamon buns like it was a flaming sword.
"Min-ah, love, would you come help me in the kitchen?" he said with a pointed look at Hye-ran. "I want only you to taste these. No one else matters."
Hye-ran huffed, eyes narrowing as she watched them walk away.
Later that afternoon, a goat escaped from the neighbor's field and somehow got tangled in Jun-seo's laundry.
"I leave him for one day and everything falls apart!" he yelled, swatting at the goat with a towel as Mr. Min helplessly laughed nearby.
They eventually managed to calm the goat down with a slice of sponge cake and a lullaby from Mr. Min. Jun-seo glared at the animal, muttering, "Stupid goat. Bet you didn't eat his underwear."
Meanwhile, in the city, Kwang-su was in the middle of family dinner.
"So," his dad asked with a dramatic eyebrow lift, "this boyfriend. What's he like?"
Kwang-su grinned. "Annoying. Bossy. Kind of mean sometimes."
His sister blinked. "So... he's you?"
"Exactly."
They all laughed—his mom even teared up a little, muttering, "Our baby's in love..."
Later that night, as Kwang-su flopped onto his bed, he stared at his phone.
| Jun-seo: still alive. goat drama. don't ask.
| Jun-seo: not missing you. at all.
| Jun-seo: (miss u)
Kwang-su chuckled, typing back:
| Kwang-su: tell the goat I'm coming back to reclaim my man and my socks.
| Kwang-su: love you.
But while love texts floated between them and cinnamon buns were shared like confessions, Hye-ran stood in the shadows of the garden.
Her eyes locked on the bakery's glowing windows, where Mr. Min laughed softly at something Jin-woo whispered in his ear.
And her smile turned sharp.