Strawberry Cake [EDITING]

~ Epilogue ~

It was a girl.

Their firstborn child, Na Yuna, was a girl.

Jeno swears up and down that she came into the world laughing, and he won't let anyone insist otherwise. Jaemin swears she was born with a full head of beautiful soft black hair.

Chenle swears she'll be a star someday.

Her uncles spoiled her rotten despite Jeno's constant pouting protests against it, and she and Minjun quickly became close as Yuna got older.

The first day of kindergarten was tough- they had homeschooled her for preschool and never needed daycare, so it was difficult for Jeno to wrap his head around the concept of not having his little angel around to help keep him company. She was bouncing off the walls with excitement though since she and Minjun were in the same class, so he had to be happy for her.

He still cried when they dropped her off though.

Jaemin had continued to work at the cafe, and the two of them still went to see Doyoung for their therapy sessions, although most of the time it just devolved into Jeno ranting about Yuna and Doyoung encouraging it. Jaemin didn't mind, it was sweet.

The older Yuna got the less she was home, normally off doing something with Minjun if she wasn't at school, so Jeno took up a hobby of his own- baking. He learned how to bake various pastries and deserts, he even got to the point where he would teach Jaemin a thing or two about baking. He still regressed when he could, still slipped into his headspace a bit whenever he felt safest, but he tried to resist it for the sake of their daughter most of the time. It wasn't until Yuna turned nine that she started to realize her papa acting her age wasn't something that parents usually did. After talking to her dad about it, she didn't mind, because it apparently helped her papa to calm down.

Their other friends continued or started to have kids throughout the years- Chenle and Jisung wound up with a boy and a girl, Hyunmin and Jiyoo, both of which got along great with Yuna and Minjun, and Renhyuck had another little boy named Sunjin. Doyoung Taeil and Kun all got together and started dating after some miracle (and a lot of talking) and even wound up with a kid of their own on their hands, a beautiful little girl named Raein who they adopted. Yuna fell for her the moment she laid eyes on her.

Yuwin had a little boy named Sorin who they didn't get to see often, but when they did it was a treat. He was cute and funny, a close friend of all the kids. Hendery, Yangyang, and Xiaojun adopted a little girl eventually named Jinhae, who Yangyang promptly nicknamed 'eleven', but despite everything she fell in love with Johnten's little girl, Seuljin. Forbidden love, but who were their parents to stop them? Ten just joked that he was glad he didn't lose his baby girl to the heteros. and of course, Lucas and Jungwoo had their firstborn daughter, Rinhyun, shortly after they got home from their Hawaii trip and a couple of years after they had their second kid, a boy named Minjae.

When Yuna turned fourteen, she started dating Raein, and Jaemin finally saved up with Chenle to buy a bakery for their family. The upstairs was where they lived, and the downstairs was where they worked, the bakery keeping Jeno busy when Yuna wasn't around. She and Raein still hung around the cafe occasionally, baking together and laughing about jokes Jeno couldn't quite understand half of the time, but he was happy to see them happy.

But the more time that passed, the less and less time Jaemin and Jeno got to spend alone with each other. So, Jeno came up with a plan. He closed the bakery early before Jaemin could come home, and he sent Yuna away to a sleepover with Raein, he washed up and threw on the comfiest sweatshirt he could find which happened to be one of Jaemin's with sleeves that were just a bit too long and gave him sweater paws. He wore a pair of comfy black sweatpants and he went into the kitchen, hoisting himself up to sit on the edge of the counter, kicking his feet back and forth carefully.

When Jaemin came home, walking through the door with a half-hearted "I'm home!" Called through the upstairs, Jeno's eye's lit up.

"I'm in the kitchen!" He called, and Jaemin peaked his head around the corner with a smile, raising a brow when he saw the older. He walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"What's this for? Shouldn't my baby be getting to bed soon?" Jaemin asked. Jeno shook his head slowly and smiled up at the younger, leaning forward so their noses brushed together for a moment.

"I was wonderin if you could make me something?"

🍓

Jeno watched with his curiosity piqued as Jaemin buzzes about the kitchen, grabbing various ingredients and pans from the cupboards. He set everything on the counters, beginning to mix the right ingredients for the batter and preheating the oven.

Jaemin didn't hate strawberry cake.

Not anymore anyway.

He actually liked it a lot more now than he used to. He liked it almost as much as he liked the strawberry lip balm that Jeno used, but nothing could ever top the sweet way his lover's lips felt pressed against his own.

Jeno on the other hand, still had the same glowing adoration for the desert, even though he didn't get to have it as often. Despite everything, he never baked a strawberry cake without Jaemin around, and he never had any intentions to try and do so.

The first time that Jaemin baked one of these cakes for him was an interesting story.

But the second time he'd baked one of these cakes was an even better one.

It was a long and twisting story full of worry and uncertainties. A tale of a prince being hunted by an evil dragon, and a knight in shining armor coming to his rescue. It was a story about love, but more than anything else, it was their story.

And that was all that mattered.

They were all that mattered.

"What are you making, hyung?"

~Strawberry Kiss ~

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING

*cries*