Dangerous words and pounding hearts.Volume 7.

KOKORO


There can never be enough make up in the world to make you look alive and fresh faced perfect like an idol when you are a bakers daughter at seven in the morning.
Even harder to look like a baking princess at four thirty on said morning.

The whole bakery is full with many of our regulars of late coming in a little band of allies ready to make this interview and show today even more wonderful.
Today is going to be so busy and more than a little stressful.

"GOD help me I am not sure if I should be more scared of the cameras,myself or he crazed young women coming here to be on TV and to see that new reporter from Korea  that I hear is stunning...Uh I am in serious need of some kind of guilt food right now."

I hope off my little chair I keep in the employee bathroom and tip toe into the kitchen to hunt down the butter and apple cookies Mom always bakes for high stress days like today and have the sudden thought wondering if Kenji likes apple butter cookies.

I shake away the thought and munch quietly,watching the group eyeing with anticipation our many new and long held family recipe wares which makes me feel such a surge if pride hat we are truly growing so quickly and having such sincere backing from the community.


ERIIKA

This place smells like if heaven could be full to the very brim of baked goods and was sent to us now.

My brain is hardwired to love all things sunflowers and baked to my figures displeasure but I will run it off later today.
Now I need to be here,no matter what she is to Ken this girl has the establishment that is beginning to be a showstopper all over social media and I need to be here and enjoy what little time I have left before I can never get in unless I have a reservation or a rich boyfriend to buy out the place for a day.

"What should I get?"

I hear a voice,crisp and low with an accent I am somewhat familiar with as every friend of mine has watched so many kdramas that I learned some in the meantime.

"I have no idea.You a cake or pie man?"
"Cake."
"Very sweet or only a pinch?'
"Depends on who is doing the pinching."

Feet whirl on habit and my fist nearly does too when I catch sight of the speaker.

A famous social media baked goods fan and newly graduated to becoming a new reporter after graduating first in his class in Seoul.
Joseph Hwan.

Wow.

"So...what should I pick?Should I pick the cake with the hydrangea fondant or the sunflower with a snarl?"

If expressions could kill I think mine could if it was entirely furious,part of me is also simply struck by his beauty.

I have heard that he was gorgeous and in the footage I saw on TV he was not a sore to look on but in the flesh he is a bit...
Hard to ignore.

He knows it too.
That man is wearing a fitted dark blue suit with no jacket having a sunflower in his lapel and a light blue fitted shirt under that vest with rolled up sleeves that put on full display that he is no stranger to the gym.

He is smirking like a villain and I can't think straight so I run towards the young boyfriend thief who may be my only ally right now to hide from a dangerous smile like that.


KENJI

There is no amount of cramming to help my brain calm down after the last two days.

I can only escape via the gym and hope that no one I know,including my Dad will make an appearance to laugh at my failed shots and idiotic ending of a good thing even if it was the only choice to me.

"It is already dark?Mom is going to kill me for being late to family dinner again......"

Groaning ,I put away my dumbbells an wipe up all the sweat I hadn't realized would be so much and head to the showers to clean up.

One thing a man never wants to hear at seven at night is the sound of a loud door shutting in the gym that was supposed to be completely empty.
I am not the sort to appreciate much company.

Soon as I have my jeans on I take my bag,it is heavy with enough books that if needed I can toss it and buy myself a few seconds to see who my attacker could be until I am just a mere foot from the door to be struck by the sight I would not have guessed here,or while I am less dressed.

"You going to hit me with that?"


KOKORO

It is like he read my mind.
He is staring at the box of breads and baked goods right now and my mind is not seeing that at all.
My mind is not working right.
If it were operating on it's usual spectrum of civil and calm I would have laughed or shoved him but he is right in front of me.

Kenji.
Shower wet.
Jeans.
Red thread knot safely covered with a little plastic bag to keep it safe.
Abs.

"Hello??"

I can't even process right now.I turn around to give him a moment to dress but I don't hear the sounds of a shirt being hastily put on.

"Are you going to put on a shirt so I can actually talk to you?"
"I can hear just fine and I did not tell you to come to a mens gym at night either."

You are making it hard to talk coherently right now.

"You can turn around now,parental guidance is back on."

Turning around somehow is also hard because he had to wear a white shirt and rolled the sleeves way up to make it like a short sleeve shirt.
Man did not barely towel his chest at all and he says 'Parental guidance is back on.'

I turn back around again and I catch the faintest,smallest sound of a laugh escape Kenji.

"Kenji-San...did you mean what you were saying to me before?You like me and you are truly honest?"
"I can't talk to a back Kokoro,I poured out my heart to you and got shoved the least you can do is speak to me with eyes on mine."

I turn around and back to him again,feeling ashamed acting like this at twenty one years old but he makes me nervous,just like he did back then.

"Do you mean what you said to me?All off it?"
"I don't lie.Yes."

I look in his dark eyes,so serious but there is a playful side hidden there I note as well as the hint of a dimpled smile fighting his control but his control still is strong.

"Okay...I want to get to know you but as friends first.I can't fully get past the whole break up over...over me thing.I need to feel as though it couldn't happen to me-"
"It would nev-"
"No!Don't say what you do not know..sorry I sound sharp but I mean it okay?Friends then maybe more but let's see how it goes.Okay?"

Kenji gives me no words but he holds up the index finger that I threaded with a tangible bond.

"You are as beloved to me as this knot."

He smiles only slightly then walks away looking back only once to see if I will follow him.

And.
I do.