BOYS FROM MARS - CHOI SEUNGCHEOL
word count: 2.9k…
pairing: seungcheol x gn!reader
synopsis: you've sworn off men for the month of february, but you also might've fallen for the local cafe's baker two weeks into the month.
genre/s: fluff, non-idol!au, baker!seungcheol, ceramicist!seungcheol, strangers-to-lovers
warnings: does include mentions of wonwoo and dino together, but nothing happens.
rating: pg
a/n: dedicated to my favorite scoups stan @jasminecha <3 also a submission for k-vanity's love in the mix event! the full playlist can be listened to here. songs that inspired this fic the most include:
saturn by sza // universe by thủy // lucky by raveena // sunny days by wave to earth // never tell by luke chiang
“I swear,” you sigh to your friends, “life’s got to be better on Saturn.”
Between the messy situationships you got trapped in and the endless amount of male celebrities that got involved in scandals, you realized one thing. Well, you knew it a long time ago, it’s just been re-emphasized as of late. Men aren’t shit!
Valentine’s Day weekend came and went, with you successfully continuing your man-detox.
Your form of treating yourself on the Sunday after was grabbing boba with your friends. Jasmine tea with herbal jelly always healed you, and after the crappy week you had you were ready to recharge. Some sweet treats to go along with the drinks were an obvious choice as well, including the cafe’s famous egg tarts.
“Boys are from Mars, blah blah. You say all that but haven’t you been looking towards the kitchen since we sat down…” your friend Yeri observed, causing you to snap your head in her direction.
“Okay, but he is uncharacteristically hot for our town, right?” You frown, looking back at the man who hadn’t yet noticed your burning gaze.
A cafe recently opened downtown and you wanted to check it out ever since their TikToks worked their way into your algorithm. Who could turn down cronuts (croissant donuts) with fillings sounding as yummy as ube pandan, black sesame oreo, and dark chocolate rose? You ordered roughly fifteen minutes ago, but knew you were going to have to wait due to the amount of people in the store. What you didn’t expect was for the baker to be so attractive. Sure, the baristas and other staff are also very attractive, but something about the baker and his arms being so muscular made you lose focus. Not only that, he somehow managed to be so attuned to his work that he was oblivious to the amount of people drawn to him. He has to be from out of town, you think to yourself.
You finally shifted your gaze from the poor man just doing his job as he kneaded more dough, turning back to your friends. Your childhood friend, Wonwoo, was still stuck on the barista who greeted y’all. Yeri scuffed at the two of you, unable to believe her friends’ lack of self control.
“Some detoxes aren’t meant to be completed.” Wonwoo shrugs, getting up from his seat after hearing his name called by the barista who took your names earlier, Chan. He seemed similar to your ages, definitely the youngest of the people working at the cafe. He was definitely the type Wonwoo went for. Wonwoo flashed a bright smile, shifting his weight to lean closer to Chan. As he handed his phone to him, your friend and you rolled your eyes at his predictability. And then there were two…
The three of you had sworn off men for the entire month, a feat that would usually be completely achievable. Yet, after finishing your boba you were wavering ever so slightly. The mystery man continues his work, now sporting some flour on his face. Certainly that was an accident, but it only made him look hotter than before. After another five minutes Wonwoo’s and Yeri’s cronuts came out and you stared at your plate where only crumbs remained. Ordering another dessert to share isn’t the worst idea, you nod to yourself, eyes glued to the giant fruit tart in the display case. You ask your friends if they’d be down to share and they agree instantly. Almost too eager. You push your chair from the table, heading towards the counter to order. You turn back to Wonwoo and Yeri, wanting to confirm the order but see them giving you thumbs up and winking. Your face twists into confusion, before turning back as the hot baker walks to the cash register to take your order. You need to get out of this cafe.
Avoiding the cafe proved to be much harder than anticipated. The night you first visited you brought home some egg tarts, happy to share with your loved ones. Little did you expect that your entire household would fall in love with the tarts as well. You became the assigned tart buyer, stopping by the cafe to grab a four-pack nearly every day. A four-pack only cost $6, something that was unheard of in this economy. Besides the inexpensive tarts, frequenting the cafe so much did have its perks. One, for example, was that you were fast in filling up the punch card and now were two visits from a free drink. Another, coincidentally, was interacting more with the cafe’s baker, whose name you learned is Seungcheol.
“Did you see we’re supposed to get more snow next weekend?” He attempts to make small talk, grabbing the tarts for you and packing them away.
You hum a ‘mhm’ before reaching into your bag for your wallet. You were attempting to distance yourself from him, to let a crush die out as a crush, but he made it more difficult each time with his efforts in small talk. Why did his voice have to be so nice to hear?
“You’re good, Y/N, it’s on the house.” The familiar angelic voice interrupts your thoughts.
You felt your face heat up as you heard him say your name. You shake your hands fervently, “No, it’s okay I can pay.”
“I know you can, but at this point I think you’re the number one customer for these tarts. Are they that good?”
Your brows furrow at his question, “Are you kidding me? They’re so delicious, I mean the custard filling itself is not too sweet but still has a hint of vanilla in it and I taste the smallest amount of… almond?”
“Yes! That’s my secret, it’s like a few drops to each batter, but I didn’t know others could taste the difference as well.”
“It definitely makes a difference! Not to mention the crust is absolute perfection, it’s sturdy enough to last multiple bites but still soft to bite down on…” You trail off, becoming self-conscious of your food ramblings.
Seungcheol doesn’t notice your inner turmoil, but his eyes light up at your words. “You’re so much better than Chan or Mingyu when it comes to expressing your thoughts on the food! I will spend hours working on a new recipe for them to take one bite and say, ‘it’s tasty, Cheol’. It drives me insane!”
You nod, surprised by his extroverted personality. Unable to match the energy on this Wednesday morning, you do your best and manage to give him a faint smile before grabbing the bag that sat on the counter.
“Well, thank you for the free tarts, Cheol.” You hold up the bag, before leaving the shop.
“Anytime!”
As the bells at the top corner of the door rang out, Seungcheol watched your figure walk away from the cafe. He let out the breath he had been holding, placing his hand on the countertop. With his free hand, he grabs his half full cup of coffee, taking sips to cool down. Anytime? Wait did you just say Cheol?
“He’s single, you know?” Chan raised his eyebrows your way, as he whispered Seungcheol’s dating status for the table to hear. Chan’s shift ended thirty minutes ago and he and Wonwoo were already extremely cozy and used to each other’s presence. Wonwoo would not stop blowing up the group chat to give every update to their relationship as the days went on from the fateful first day y’all visited the cafe.
“It’s still February, you know?” You retort, eyes still glued to the baker.
“Yeah, yeah,” Yeri dismisses you.
She knew it was only a matter of time for the two of you to get together. Chan made a separate group chat excluding you to devise a plan to get the two of you together. He revealed Seungcheol would check the door each time a customer came in, then look dejected each time it wasn’t you. Not to mention, he usually only worked one or two days of the week, but his hours increased in hopes of seeing you again. Long story short: neither of you were making the first move and it was driving everyone insane.
A familiar melody played through the cafe’s speaker’s, causing your ears to perk up. wave to earth? Your favorite band, the band whose concert is ingrained in your bones, wave to earth? Taking a picture of your uneaten egg tart, you vowed to upload a story with wave to earth as the background music when you got home. You continued the conversation with your friends, reducing the glances Seungcheol’s way to a minimum of once every five minutes.
Around two hours passed, most customers cleared out leaving just your table and Seungcheol in the cafe. Your friends convinced you to talk to him once again. Before you could say anything, Seungcheol began the conversation.
“Sorry. I, uh, noticed how excited you were when wave to earth’s music came on. The playlist that was playing all night was mine and I loved seeing your reactions to the music. I’m careful in asking this, but would you want to grab a meal sometime? You know, outside of this cafe and all.”
Your eyes softened as your body slowly let go of the tension you were unaware that you had.
“I really enjoy running into you, Seungcheol. But, I am doing this ‘man detox’ where I’m trying not to be with anyone in February. I fall for people too easily and hopefully things will change.” You confess, grabbing your straw’s wrapper and throwing it in the waste bin on his left.
You wished he would go over this moment quickly, not wanting to fight his temptation and your true feelings for much longer. Sipping on your drink, you try your best to act nonchalant despite the butterflies in your stomach.
“I don’t think you can fall for people too easily, it just means you love people sincerely. And that’s not anything that needs to be fixed.” He counters, jogging back behind the counter at the sound of the oven’s timer.
You see Wonwoo, Chan, and Yeri walk out of the cafe, content with you finally having a long conversation with Seungcheol. Before you could reply, he continued speaking.
“The bit about swearing men off for a whole month I understand. Lucky for me tomorrow’s the first day of March though.” He slyly informs, not breaking eye contact as he puts the hot pastries on the cooling rack.
You scrambled to find your phone buried in the bottom of your bag. Once you finally fished it out, you checked and double-checked the date…February 28th. Why are the days going by quicker and quicker?
“I didn’t mean to make you so flustered when I thought about asking you out, we can pretend this never happen-”
“No!” You surprise the two of you from your increased volume.
Seungcheol chuckles before grabbing the ingredients to make frosting for tomorrow’s desserts. “Good, then how does next weekend work? I have a workshop to attend so I won’t be at the cafe for this next week. If you think it over and decide you don’t want to go, no worries. We can go back to a regular customer and baker relationship. If you do want to go out with me, here’s my number.” He explains, wiping his hands on his apron before grabbing a pen and writing his number on a blank punch card.
“O-Okay, let me think about it,” you muster out. Tucking the card with Cheol’s number written on it in your pocket, you left the cafe. Confused was an understatement.
You returned home and placed the tarts on the kitchen table before heading to your room. As you got ready for bed, you grabbed the punch card from your coat pocket. As if your hands had a mind of their own, his number was added to your contacts before you had time to think. Throwing yourself on your bed as you looked at his contact, you couldn’t help but feel giddy for next weekend. Tomorrow was the start of March after all.
“So, you don’t just work at the cafe then.” You look around in amazement at the ceramic studio you were standing in, unable to imagine him as anything else than a baker. Now his muscular arms were making more sense.
“No, not at all. I only help out there since Mingyu is on vacation visiting his family. Oh, Mingyu is the shop owner by the way. But, if you look under any of the plates at the cafe, they have my initials on them.”
“Wait, so why are you such a good baker?”
“Lots of part-time jobs to support my family. You pick up a few things here and there.” He explains, grabbing a collection of ceramics for you to choose from.
Seungcheol treated you to lunch and the conversation flowed like the two of you knew each other for years. The date was going well, suspiciously well. But you tried to withhold your default thinking, wanting to believe in whatever connection the two of you had.
“Would you like to try to make anything? A flower vase? A plate? A mug? It will take a while to get back to you since I share my kiln with another studio member, but I can expedite it.” He informs you, showing the different models of ceramics you could make.
You look at your options, unable to decide as they all looked cute.
After thinking for a while, you break the silence, “I do love flowers…” You decidedly point at the vase.
“Flower vase it is.” He nods, sitting down and throwing clay onto the wheel before shifting and letting you take over.
You could’ve sworn there was some reluctance in his movements. But once you looked back up at him, he moved his hands over yours to help you mold the vase into the shape you wanted.
The two of you spent over an hour in the studio. Seungcheol was a good teacher, not getting frustrated at your mistakes, even though you knew he could sense your embarrassment. He’s kind. Realizing the sun was setting, he did the finishing touches on the vase, before running into a back room, telling you he had something to give you.
As he left you alone for the moment, you looked outside to notice small white flakes falling from the sky. After admiring the view for a moment, his footsteps enter the room again, now he appeared with both of his hands behind his back.
“Choose a hand.”
You gesture to his left, to which he reveals a white rose. Seungcheol holds it out to you and you promptly wrap your fingers around the stem.
You tilt your head trying to see what else he was hiding, “What about the other hand?”
He holds out another white rose, before looking outside and also noticing the snow. “Shoot,” he murmured under his breath before grabbing his messenger bag from the worktable.
“It should be okay, the snow doesn’t look too heavy just yet,” You comfort him. Your eyes stay fixated on the flowers you’re holding, gently bringing them up to your face to smell them.
His voice calls for your attention, “Y/N.”
As you look up to him, you feel shy once again as he puts the scarf around your neck. Instantly, you feel warm. Although, you are unsure if it was due to the scarf or the actions of the man in front of you.
“It’s getting late, may I walk you home?” He asks, already putting his coat on and preparing for the cold.
You look at him with surprise, not used to men with actual manners. You put your coat on as well, walking through the studio’s doors as he held it open.
“That’s really sweet of you. If you do that though, I will never hear the end of it. Suddenly you’ll become my boyfriend and we’ll need to start planning our wedding out-”
“Our wedding, huh?” He smirks, holding his arm out for you to lean on as the sidewalk the two of you walked on became covered in ice.
“I did not mean to say that part out loud.” You purse your lips together, mentally hitting yourself for unnecessarily rambling.
“Let me at least walk you to the traffic lights then.”
“Deal.”
The lights came far too quick, and you found yourself disappointed by the lack of distance between your house and the intersection. There were barely any cars outside. Everyone must be at home preparing for the weather, you thought to yourself. Soon enough, the two of you reached your agreed destination. Yet, you found it hard to let go of his arm.
“Are you sure I can’t walk you home?” He softly offers again.
“It’s truly okay! My house is not even a ten minute walk from here.”
He squints his eyes, slightly skeptical. “Then text me when you get home safe, okay?”
“Okay, I can do that! Thank you for everything today Cheol, I had an amazing time.”
“Me too, Y/N.”
The crosswalk light turns white, indicating you could walk. You wave goodbye, crossing before realizing you were still wearing his scarf. He was still watching you from the other side as the light began to flicker.
“What should I do with your scarf?” You cup your hands around your mouth to project your voice.
He grins big before mirroring you, “Just give it to me on our next date!”
