Five days later, Hyunjin stood in the baking department of a supermarket and was on the verge of a breakdown.

He had received a shopping list from Felix, but there was so much choice of everything that Hyunjin really couldn't decide.

After pounding over it for two evenings, they had finally decided on brownies and cookies, for the simple reason that the residents could decorate the cookies.

Why Hyunjin now stood in front of the sprinkles and tried to choose three varieties. Which was somehow really difficult for him.

"Why did he just send me off alone," he complained and sounded so desperate that he drew the attention of another young man to himself.

"Can I help you?" the younger one asked uncertainly and smiled shyly at Hyunjin.

Surprised, Hyunjin turned around and looked at the younger one. The curly brown hair nestled perfectly against the cute face, which somehow reminded him a bit of a squirrel.

"Uhm, yeah, maybe? I... Uhm... I don't know which sprinkles to buy," Hyunjin confessed and blushed as if that was something to be ashamed of.

"For what?" the brown-haired asked curiously.

"Cookies.."

"Oh, that's actually quite easy, I would say... my best friend-" he took a deep breath before he continued speaking "we often baked cookies together..."

He reached for chocolate droplets, smarties and a kind of colorful sugar sprinkles. "Here, they are best for cookies. The chocolate droplets and the smarties can also be put into the dough as well."

Surprised, Hyunjin took the choice of the younger and packed them into his shopping basket.

The brown-haired had already turned around after he had packed sprinkles into his own shopping basket and wanted to head to the checkout. Curious, he turned around and looked at Hyunjin questioningly.

"I...uhm.. Thank you...?"

"Han Jisung. And gladly..., with a gentle smile on his lips, the brown-haired turned around again and walked away.

Hyunjin looked after him thoughtfully, but couldn't really understand why something about the younger one attracted him.

Irritated, he finally shook his head and went on himself. Filled his basket with strawberry milk for Felix and energy drinks for himself.

He was already really looking forward to the next day when his baking workshop would finally take place. Even if he wasn't really sure if it would all work out the way he wanted it to.

But actually it was only important for him to spend time with Jeongin and Chan, even if he tried really hard to put such thoughts aside. After all, it was absolutely unprofessional to make friends with patients, but he couldn't help it. The delicate bond with the two grew a little further every time he spoke to them.

And even if he tried to deny stubbornly, it was more than friendly feelings for Chan. He had fallen in love with him. Although at the same time he was incredibly insecure and also quite anxious.

At some point he shook his head with a sigh and tried to distract himself with other thoughts.

The kittens had almost no more food, which was why he next went to the pet shop to buy food for the fur balls . What turned out to be almost as difficult as shopping sprinkles. He hadn't imagined that there was so much choice of food and treats and yet he now stood in front of a huge shelf full of cat food.

Helplessly, he shook his head and turned in circles only to stop abruptly.

"Are you following me?"

Charmingly grinning, the brown-haired -Jisung- came closer and shook his head. "If at all, you are pursuing me, cause I'm the one working here," he giggled, pointing his finger at the name tag on his chest.

"Oh... well. Maybe you can help me now too? I have two kittens since... uhm since about a week now and I have no idea what food to buy. By the way, I'm Hyunjin..."

"Nice to meet you. Again. And of course I can help you, otherwise I wouldn't work here. I would recommend cans instead of the bags, that way you'll get more for your money. And in any case, wet food with a high meat content. Apart from that, I would recommend smaller treats so that they can shew and swallow them easily."

While he explained to Hyunjin what he had to pay attention to when feeding his kittens, he pointed to different types of food that he could recommend to the elder and Hyunjin simply stuffed a few of the cans into his shopping basket.

"Otherwise, I would perhaps recommend you to set up a small fountain with bubbly water, as cats usually drink too little. The moving water usually attracts them, which then causes them to drink more."

Hyunjin shrugged his shoulders and nodded. Shortly, he also packed the box into his basket and followed the brown-haired to the toy section.

"Cats don't really need that much toys. It is more important that they have, for example, something to climb on and small caves to which they can retreat. Maybe it would be advisable to buy a scratching post."

Thoughtfully, Hyunjin twisted his face. Surely it made sense to offer the kittens something to climb and scratch, but he wanted to choose it together with Felix. "I think I'll buy one the next time together with my best friend... he brought them along and will certainly be happy if he can choose one."

Jisung nodded patronizing, as if he understood exactly what Hyunjin was talking about. "I'll give you my card, then you can get in touch if you want to buy one. Maybe I can get a discount for you."

Smiling, Hyunjin followed the younger one to the cash register. Somewhat surprised by how much had ended up in his shopping basket, even though he actually only wanted to buy food.

"Thank you. Glad that you helped me again," said Hyunjin and winked at the younger, who immediately blushed.

"You're welcome."

With a much better feeling, Hyunjin left the shop and drove home, where Felix and Minho were immersed in textbooks.

"Babe, I'm back," Hyunjin shouted and dropped the two shopping bags gasping.

Blushing incredibly, Felix came to the front door and stared at Hyunjin half angry, half amused. "You should stop calling me- God, what did you buy?"

"Unlike you, I'm at least worried about our children...," Hyunjin snorted with playful indignation, for which he only harvested raised eyebrows from Felix. "Yeah, ok, you're right, that doesn't make sense."

At that moment, Minho came strolling into the hallway and just saw Hyunjin pressing a strawberry milk into Felix hand.

"I bought it especially for you, babe," Hyunjin said with a grin, lifted the two bags up again and disappeared into the kitchen to unpack them.

Felix looked nervously over at Minho, who just looked at him curiously. "Do I also get a sip?"

For a moment Felix was frozen, but finally nodded and handed the strawberry milk to the older. He took the small bottle and took a sip while he watched Felix all the time. "Almost as sweet as you," he muttered and licked his lower lip before returning the bottle to Felix.

With trembling hands, Felix took the bottle and then followed Minho back into the living room.

In the meantime, Hyunjin had unpacked the bags, filled the bowls of the kittens and tried to find out how to build up the small fountain.

Sighing, he finally gave up, stuffed the pieces back into the box and carried the whole thing into the living room. "You're probably familiar with something like that, aren't you? Can you maybe build it up?" he asked Minho and sounded so desperate that the older one just nodded and took the box out of his hand.

Relieved, Hyunjin let himself sink to the ground next to the two and watched as Minho built the fountain in a few simple steps.

⍭〄⍭

It was already early evening and Chan was still sitting at the pond with the night flowers, although he knew that he would certainly have to return to his room soon.

The care taker was quite a bit away from him and observed another group of residents who were busy watering the plants.

In the meantime, he was no longer quite as closely monitored, but there was still always a care taker nearby, even if there was no longer one standing permanently next to him.

Which grew his hope that they would let him go home again at some point and that he could still put his plan into practice.

At least 85% of the time he was sure that he wanted to follow his family to death.

But at least right now his thoughts revolved around a completely different topic: Hyunjin.

He hadn't seen the blonde care taker for two days, because he was probably free and somehow he missed him. Even if the older female nurse had always been near them after he had had his panic attack, he had been able to talk to Hyunjin at least a bit.

And someone else had somehow managed to sneak into his life, even if Chan had tried everything to avoid it.

"Hey Chan," Jeongin's voice suddenly appeared next to him, as if the younger had felt that Chan had thought about him.

"Hi Innie."

Without saying anything else, Jeongin sat down next to him and put his fingers in the dark, cool pond water. He had quickly understood that Chan usually needed some time to talk to someone. And that it was easier if you let him start the conversation.

"Do you know... the blond caregiver...?" Chan asked after they had sat silently next to each other for what felt like an eternity.

"Do you mean Hyunjin? Sure. He shared his brownies with me," Jeongin said with a smile and even if most of the times his good mood wasn't genuine, it was a real smile this time.

However, this caused Chan's heart to clench painfully and he had to take a deep breath. "Oh..." he murmured and didn't really know what to say.

"He will come back tomorrow and do a backing workshop with one of the therapists," Jeongin babbled cheerfully and was actually looking forward to the next day, which was usually not the case, even if he didn't necessarily look like that. "He's taking care of me, you know?"

Chan nodded thoughtfully and fished a stick out of the water. Without really thinking about it, he drilled the stick into the palm of his hand. The thought of Hyunjin taking care of someone else hurt somehow.

And although everything in him tried to resist the urge, he still had to ask the next question. "Did he... also bring you flowers...?" he asked so quietly that the younger one almost couldn't understand him.

Surprised, Jeongin looked up and shook his head. "Flowers? No, did he bring you some?" he asked and looked at Chan with big eyes.

A stone fell from Chan's heart and he felt as if he could breathe properly again. "Yeah...," he whispered and had to smiled even though he tried to suppress it.

With a surprised smile, Jeongin looked at the older inconspicuously and realized how calm and peaceful Chan suddenly looked. As if a heavy load had fallen off him. And in him grew the suspicion that Chan perhaps felt more for Hyunjin than he would admit.

"So we're going to the baking workshop together tomorrow?"

Without hesitation, Chan nodded with a smile and threw the stick back into the pond.

Together they strolled back to the building after the care taker had called out to them that curfew would begin soon.

Before Chan could disappear into his room, he was surprised that Jeongin pulled him closer and wrapped his arms around him. "Sleep well, Channie."

And with that, the younger one had already disappeared, while Chan still stood in front of his room door and tried to forcefully push away the warm, happy feeling inside him. But when he finally lay down in bed, the warm feeling was still there and tiny butterflies fluttered around in his stomach.

꧁⟢ ⍭〄⍭ ⟣꧂