I don't need anything from anyone
It's just not my year, but i'm all good out here
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

The smell of freshly baked pastries surrounds the place. I wasn't so fond of mixing up my seasons. I relate different scents to each season--Spring was clean, fresh scents. Summer had fruity scents. The smells get more cozy like a warm hug when the weather gets colder. Fall was musky, spices, and well--pumpkin. Winter was more sweet, like cookies and marshmallows.

One of the reasons I choose to help Margaret around this time is because of that very reason but mostly because she needed the help. When I first moved here I used to study at this bakery all the time and soon noticed how busy it got for her.

It was a win-win situation, I got free pastries and got paid. I enjoy working here a lot more than at the pool, Margaret is a sweet lady. I was never close to my grandparents so in a way she was that for me, even if I was to deny it and say she was a pain in the ass--she is by the way. She's stubborn and always forces me to dump all my life stories on her when I return to work.

I walk up to the counter and greet her with a smile, "When does my schedule start?" I ask her as she smiles widely at me.

"I was starting to think you wouldn't show this year" Her hair seemed to get more grey from the last time I had seen her. Truthfully, I didn't visit the bakery during summer break--ever, actually which would seem surprising given how close I had gotten with Margaret and her husband.

Summer break catches up to me, I take multiple shifts at the pool and I'm usually always beat after the long hours in the sun and having to put up with all the obnoxious kids who seem not to understand what different type of headache you get when the sun is beaming down on you for hours. On top of all that, I've been taking at least one summer class.

I shake my head and walk around the counter "Never, I love all the free sweets you give me" I joke around with her and she hits me playfully with a hand towel.

I follow Margaret to the back and I walk towards the computer, "I don't have many classes this semester, finally my summer classes come into play" I tell her, looking over my schedule that wasn't too bad. If I could live life without having to work a day in my life, I would die a happy man.

But, I'm also determined. I have my life planned out and I will not die a broke joke. That would be pathetic, people from your past often stalk your social media--this is me saying this, someone who notoriously stalks people's social media out of pure boredom. I want to be successful and brag about it--remaining humble of course. Sue me.

"How are you, hun?" Margaret's question makes me divert my attention from the screen and towards it her. "Everything still bad with that boy Hyunjin?"

I roll my eyes and lean against the wall "I don't really want to talk about that... ever" I mutter and cross my arms over my chest while looking down to the tiled floor.

Margaret hums lowly, "You know, breakups are rough. When I was your age--" I look up to meet her gaze and she senses my mood that's suddenly dropped at the mere mention of the male's name. "Not the time?" She sends me a soft smile.

I shake my head "When it comes to talking about feelings, never the time" I push off the wall and walk back to the front. Ready to leave and return to my bed, a nap sounded amazing right about now especially knowing I had work later.

I eye the glass case full of sweets, "I was working on a few new recipes over the summer when you come back to work I'm going to need your rating to see if it fits the fall and winter menu"

I turn to Margaret and nod slowly "Of course, only if I can have a Blueberry muffin"

She eyes me, looking over my face "You hardly eat my blueberry muffins, you usually opt for the pumpkin cheesecake"

I shrug "I need to switch it up sometimes"

Margaret rolls her eyes and starts to bag up two blueberry muffins, though I only asked for one. She gives me the bag and I give her a thankful smile "Since my husband says it's good luck to do charity work"

I scoff, holding my hand on my heart dramatically "Ouch" We both laugh. As if it was on cue, the door chimes as someone enters the bakery and my phone starts to ring, "Bye, please have that pumpkin cheesecake ready for me when I start" I tell her as I walk away.

"Of course hun," She says as I exit the building. Pulling my phone out of my pocket and seeing my mom's name on the screen. I inhaled deeply, preparing myself for the long debrief she was going to give me on my walk back.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

A long debrief is exactly what I got, I walked slowly in hopes we would end the call before I got the the apartment but luck wasn't on my side as I walked to my apartment door, struggling to hold the phone against my ear with my shoulder, the bag of muffins rustle and right before the key could get into the hole the door opens wide.

"Everything okay out here?" Minho chuckles lowly, taking in my slightly annoyed look. "I thought we were getting robbed"

"And Grace--who was that?" My mom asked from the other side of the phone.

I sigh loudly, pushing past Minho and taking off my shoes, "Nobody Mom" I motion towards the phone and Minho understands.

Minho walks past me, sitting on the couch--where I assume he was right before I got here because of the glass on the coffee table that still has a small amount of green liquid in it. Usually, I would go to my room and talk some more--or listen to my mom talk but I follow Minho to the couch, sitting down.

"That didn't sound like one of your other roommates, are you seeing someone new?" She asked me and she didn't hide the slight distaste of the thought. Yes, my mom knew about Hyunjin. It was kinda hard to hide when the male was with me more times in the day than when he wasn't.

"No" I groan, I look to a curious-looking Minho, "We got a new roommate, he's a dick" Minho smiles and lets out a low breathy chuckle.

Fuck, his smile was just so contagious but still, I forced myself to not smile back as my mom continues "Well you should try working out, it really is good for stress, and that includes sexual stress"

My eyes widen and I look away from Minho, "Okay Mom, look I have to go now" I say in a hurry, "Great talking to you, love you, bye" I pull my phone away from my ear, hanging up and feeling my cheeks slightly tint a shade darker.

"You look drained" Minho points out and let my head fall back onto the couch, my eyes close and I hum lowly.

"My mom likes to go on and on about her pilate workouts and her new friends," I tell him about the lady that raised me, sorta.

"New friends?" His voice sounded intrigued, making me look at him.

I shrug and nod, "She moves around a lot, and with that, new... everything"

Minho's brows raised slowly like he was coming to the realization of something. I look down at my lap and to the bag, grabbing it and handing it to the male beside me, getting up after he hesitantly grabs it.

As I walked away I felt his eyes on me, and the sound of the bag opening, "You brought these for me?"

I stop at the threshold of my bedroom door and look towards him, "Margaret gives me free pasteries" I shrug, "And you told me you liked the blueberry muffins, consider this me paying you back"

Minho's brows push together, "For what exactly?"

I inhale quietly "You were there for me last night when you didn't have to be, thank you for that," I say to him before going into my room and finally getting to nap before my shift at the pool.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Lloyd blows his whistle, shaking his head at the little girl who dives into the pool, "No diving" I yell, knowing Lloyd never had the guts to actually put his foot down. The boy was softie to the core.

The sound of laughing catches my attention and I look over my shoulder to the table that is now occupied by none other than Hyunjin and his friends, including Minho who didn't come here with them often.

I push down the bitter taste in my mouth and look back to the pool. I grab my water bottle only to find it empty, looking at Josie who gives me a guilty smile.

"Fucking bitch" I mumble to myself, getting off the lifeguard chair and walking to where she stood at the concession, placing the empty bottle on the counter, "You work one hour at the pool and gain the audacity to drink my water" Josie usually works concession, but today she worked an hour on lifeguard duty while I worked concession.

The girl sighed loudly, "You forget we kissed before" she reminded me, "A very sloppy, drunk kiss—"

"I get it, Josie"

"You two kissed before?" The sound of Minho's voice creeps up behind me and I look to him as he now stands beside me. "That's... surprising"

I give him a questionable look "Is it?"

Minho shrugs and Josie says "Well at least we both found out about our true selves"

"I already knew I was into guys," I told her and she furrowed her brows.

"Yet you gave into the kiss" She scoffs, "Are you even sure you're into guys?"

I awkwardly look to Minho who also looks at me confused, "I was in my experimenting phase?"

"Oh fuck off" Josie curses as she puts a new water bottle in front of me. Her words make Minho and I laugh loudly.

"Why are we conversing with the workers?" Ryan walks up to us, throwing his arm around Minho and the male shrugs it off, "Who isn't working"

I roll my eyes, grab the water bottle before walking off. I refuse to acknowledge Ryan, he just continued to antagonize me but it doesn't matter because every night my pillow is cold and hopefully his isn't.

"Stop being immature" Minho spat towards the male who he calls his friend.

"Why do you constantly stick up for him?" Ryan bites back but the more I walk the more I stop hearing their voices altogether.

I sit back down on the chair and open up the cold water, taking a drink and feeling the cold drops of water spill onto my naked tanned chest.

Without a thought, I look to where Minho is—searching for him subconsciously as my eyes land on him as he walks away from the concession without Ryan. His eyes are already on me and I mean literally on me. Gaze down to my slightly toned torso that's sunkissed from all the sun I get during the summer. He must've felt my eyes on him, looking up and realizing I had just caught him staring.

Yet, he didn't look away shyly, he held my gaze for a second longer before looking away—almost like he forced himself to pull his gaze from me as he took a drink of his water.

I'm blaming the sun on the fact that my body felt a bit hotter than usual.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I grab my things and sling my bag over my shoulder, walking out to see Lloyd putting some pool floats into the storage room. I wave to him and he waves back "See you" He yells and I just give him a nod.

Turning the corner and to the gate exit, my steps halt for a second when seeing Hyunjin. I sigh lowly, walking out of the gate "Hey" He says, giving me a small smile.

"Hey," I mumble lowly, pulling my bag more onto my shoulder. I sounded uninterested, mostly because I was.

"Look, I'm sorry about Ryan and I'm sorry about yesterday" He apologizes. Why did the two of them keep apologizing for their friend's sick fetish of wanting to piss me off?

Before I could say anything, a small "Hey" made us both look to Minho who walked to us. He sounded surprised to see us both but when I looked at him, he only looked surprised to see Hyunjin with me.

"Minho, I didn't realize you were still here" Hyunjin furrows his brows with a confused smile.

Minho scratches at his neck nervously, "I wasn't" His words were hurried, "I was driving back from the gym and I saw you were still here..." I look between them both. One looked confused and the other looked flustered.

"Yeah, I was-" Hyunjin looks to be and shakes his head before looking back to his best friend "Nothing, you down to hang out?"

"I have nothing better to do with my night" Minho responds before looking at me, I was confused by this whole encounter. "I'll see you back at the apartment?" I nod before walking away, I really just needed a long shower and rest.

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Just because I don't have as many classes this semester doesn't mean the classes I did have weren't hard. I feel overworked. I was a slightly broke college kid who worked and barely had time for a decent meal a day. I usually cook something easy, I'm not the greatest chef but I'm not the worst.

My eyes burn from staring at the laptop screen, trying to get in my last discussion before it's counted as late. Did I get good grades? Yes. Was I a procrastinator? Yes.

The sound of the door pulls my attention away, watching as Minho walks in and notices me sitting at the island with my laptop and most likely disheveled hair, let's say I was near a mental breakdown when realizing I had five discussions due by midnight.

Pushing all that stress aside, I wondered why he got back so late. It was nearing midnight and though he wasn't exactly the earliest sleeper, he usually was back at a decent time.

I look back to the screen as I say, "There's some leftovers in the refrigerator for you" I start to type out my last reply to these discussions. He doesn't respond, just goes to the fridge and takes out the plate of food I had saved for him and warmed it up.

I didn't mind his sudden lack of talking, I needed to focus on my assignments before I got credits off for being late.

Soon I feel him at my side, sitting on the bar stool next to me and leaning over to read my response. I look at him "Personal space would be greatly appreciated"

Minho pulls away and lets out a small chuckle, I squint at him suspiciously as he starts to eat. Looking away and continuing to type.

"Hyunjin asked if we were friends" He finally spoke, making me stop typing and look at him.

"I hope you told me we weren't" His gaze met mine and maybe he was tired but his eyes looked a little red. Maybe he cried... maybe that's why he is so quiet...

Minho laughs and bumps his shoulder into mine, I laugh lowly at his weird mood. He just felt more, I don't know...

He stares at me now, a smile still on his face—a soft one. "You should do that more often," He tells me.

My brows pull together, "Do what?"

"Laugh, it's cute" My smile drops but he doesn't notice because he continues to eat his food, "Oh, and I told him I was always friends with you"

I pushed this feeling away, one I felt often. One that got me into this whole mess with Hyunjin. Telling me to run. To hide in my room and to tell Minho to fuck off.

But as I watch him now, innocently eating the food I had cooked and saved for him. He briefly looks my way, a small thankful smile on his face. I didn't want to run because he was good. This friendship he was hoping for, the one I was giving into without noticing, this is genuine.

Maybe good guys aren't so bad after all.

[Song rec - American Teenager by Ethel Cain]