Umm, this feeling of sleeping deeply without even dreaming.
‘It’s the best.’
I tossed and turned a little while clutching the soft blanket.
Then I suddenly remembered last night.
“What?”
Why am I lying in bed? As soon as I thought of that, I narrowed my eyes.
Come to think of it, I was with Mr. Kine yesterday and fell asleep at the table on the first floor.
I couldn’t remember anything after that. Did Mr. Kine move me here?
Just then, tok tok—
A knock was heard from the bedroom door.
“Mr. Kine?”
“…This is Noah, Annette.”
“Come in.”
The door opened and a pink cotton ball-like head peered inside.
I asked Noah about Mr. Kine’s whereabouts, but Noah said he did not know.
He wasn’t even on the first floor. Did he go first?
‘I couldn’t even say thank you.’
Yesterday, I was pretty grateful to the stag.
He captured the thug (although, of course, he literally gave him a brief ‘hold’), but he wrote half of the invitations in pretty handwriting.
It was he who carried the sleeping Noah.
He moved him quite carefully and covered him with the warmest quilt, and I was impressed by the kindness of his pats on Noah.
‘Mr. Kine probably left in the middle of the night.’
Well, he must be busy. I wondered how much he must study as a research student.
In the first place, asking him to stay all night was an absurd greed.
In fact, even though I was the ‘pot wielding master’ (I was almost able to chase away demons with a pot), I couldn’t help but feel a little uneasy, thus I was grateful that he was by my side.
After Noah left, I started the morning by making the bed.
And then;
I found an unused mug on the bedside table.
‘Did Mr. Kine put this here?’
I was a little surprised when I unconsciously picked up the mug.
“Ah.”
—-The mug was still warm.
━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━
After breakfast with Noah, the busy and lively schedule of <Little Bakery> started.
First of all, an official came in the morning to check the condition of the gas pipe and ask about the thug.
I answered diligently, and the official concluded that it would take some time to fix the gas pipe.
A few days meant that I had to live in darkness at night. It’s annoying, but I ordered some oil for the lamps.
After that, a salesman of World Daily came and persuaded me that he would give me a bicycle if I extended my subscription, but I flatly refused (after that, I kicked out his business tactic by putting a set of pots on the bicycle).
In the end, the salesman left and I received only one more copy.
After some of that hustle and bustle had disappeared.
“Whew. I’ve been a little busy today.”
It was when I sighed.
Ding ding—
The door opened with a light chime, and guests rushed in again.
‘Oh my gosh, I’m going crazy. What a popular bakery?’
I snorted, thinking about my self-employed rich lady plan, and then said hello.
“Welcome to <Little Bakery>!”
But it was a little strange.
Not the guests who came in the front, but the status of the last two ‘guests’.
The two weren’t in a party, one was too young to come alone and the other—
‘You aren’t supposed to come at this time?’
Because it was Mr. Kine.
I asked the child first.
“Lily, are you here alone?”
She was a three-year-old child, with front teeth the size of a grain of rice.
“Uung, becwase I’m gwoing to bwuy bwued (Yes, because I’m going to buy bread).”
Looking out of the bakery, Lily’s mother was looking inside with a curious expression on her face.
―Well, she lost to the stubbornness of a three-year-old.
I followed by greeting the other guest, who was much taller than the three-year-old, more than twice the size.
“Hello! Mr. Kine.”
“Hello.”
Emerald eyes fixed towards me.
I wanted to talk more, but right then, a customer came in between us and asked about the bread, so it became difficult to continue talking.
—First of all, business.
This self-employed person who knew the sweetness of high sales kindly treated the customers.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kine looked around the shelves with the three-year-old who had rice-grain teeth.
Mr. Kine was tall, so when he was with Lily, it looked like he was with a ‘small hot dog’.
It was cute, so I laughed secretly.
‘But he’s very shy.’
From time to time, I made eye contact with Mr. Kine, and every time he did, he avoided my eyes.
―Oh my God, he’s like that even after spending the night together?
He was a bread fan with great shyness.
At that moment, with her pigtails slightly tilted, Lily said. In front of the baguette.
“I lwike thish (I like this)?”
“…….”
She was talking to Mr. Kine who stood next to her. Mr. Kine said to the baby hotdog.
I really liked him, who recognized the charm of the signature baguette of <Little Bakery>.
I added a ribbon to the packaging and smiled happily.
The baby hotdog nibbled the bread with her grain-sized teeth.
“Do you lwike bwuead (Do you like bread)?”
“Like.”
This time he answered in a lower voice, affectionately and with respect to the baby.
‘Fufu, it’s cute.’
Just listening to it was healing, so I stopped packing for a while and looked at the two warmly.
“Do ywu lwike it (do you like it)?”
It was then. Mr. Kine’s eyes met mine.
“…I like it.”
The emerald-colored eyes looked at me intently as he answered.
For a little, my heart tickled, somehow.
“Keuk, kkeuk”, I coughed and started concentrating on packing the bread.
‘What, why are you looking at me while answering her?’
His cheeks were blushing as he spoke while staring at me.
‘You should speak to the baby hotdog.’
‘Sometimes, you look at me in a strange way, hogu regular.’
(TL/N: I can’t remember if I explained this last time or not, but ‘호구’ is slang for pushover, a person who is so foolish that everyone use her/him for their own benefits.)
After long deliberation, the baby hot dog bought a baguette (the baguette was the size of her own body) and sausage bread, and mumbled, “Bwuead…” while she happily toddled away.
It was after all the guests had left.
Mr. Kine approached me.
“Owner.”
“Yes?”
“I saw you yesterday, and I’m seeing you again today.”
Thanks to this, he was promoted to ‘bread fan’, and he smiled with a nice face like an angel.
It was a pleasant smile that made people smile along.
He hesitated for a moment, then offered a bouquet of flowers.
I smiled without hesitation.
“Thank you, Mr. Kine.”
Maybe it was because of yesterday’s promise.
“…It’s crushed. I will bring you something even prettier tomorrow.”
He seemed to have a really good memory.
Seeing how he came to keep the small promises he made in passing.
Today’s bouquet was equally fragrant and pretty. When I was looking at the bouquet with a smile;
“Huh?”
There was a small card in the bouquet.
―No, looking back, it wasn’t a card.
It was a ‘business card’. Black color.
I thought cynically.
‘As expected – you approached me because you had something to sell.’
I should have known from the time when such a handsome, flower stag-like man kept hanging around and giving bribes.
The cynical self-employed person looked at his business card, thinking, ‘Tsk, I got hit.’
“……?”
The business card was engraved with a small pattern (a black sheep) and an L.
And ‘unknown address’.
—That was all.
I twirled the business card between my fingers and waved it.
“What’s this?”
“After closing today, could you come to this address?”
He had a pretty serious face.
It didn’t look like he was trying to sell anything, and it wasn’t a business card related to baking tools, so I tilted my head in confusion.
“I have something to tell you.”
“What do you mean?”
“…It’s about me. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you.”
You couldn’t tell me something about yourself?
Of course, the hidden story of an innocent and handsome man was quite appealing.
Though at the same time, I had this thought.
‘What is it, I’m not going to follow him and be captured by a shrimp boat, right?’
‘I’ve gotten a little closer with Mr. Kine these days, but…’
That was very recent.
Until now, he was just a man who suddenly appeared six months ago and I had never spoken to.
Even though he had a kind smile, I was a bit reluctant to receive such a suspicious business card and go to an unknown address (especially as the black sheep on the black business card seemed somewhat dangerous).
The serious eyes under the wavy brown hair spoke again.
“I have prepared a present that you will like.”
“…A gift?”
“Yes.”
―It’s getting more and more suspicious, Mr. Regular.
I slipped the business card I was holding between my fingers and put it in my pocket.
“Well, my help isn’t around lately, so I am busy preparing for sales.”
This was 100% true.
Whenever Um went on a break, I had to do business alone, so it took me a while to make the dough.
“Can I see you later, and go when I have time? I hope you don’t wait too long.”
Aside from being suspicious, I’m really busy.
He smiled coolly as if he was happy just with that possibility, lips rising.