The bakery was closed on Mondays, the one day of the week that Joohyun got to sleep in, and she loved waking up leisurely.

She checked her messages as she lay in bed. Her Instagram account was up to a hundred followers. 

A skittering at the window caught her attention, and she turned her head just in time to see a mouse duck out of view on the other side of the pane of glass.

She climbed out of bed and caught sight of Seungwan in the driveway.

While most of Daegu region experienced warm and hot weather year-round, their small town of Purpletown was a magical exception that saw fair amounts of snowfall each winter.

It was cold out now, but he wasn’t wearing a coat.

Seungwan had a heavy sweater on, and work gloves and a wool toque on his head. He was unloading drywall from the back of his jeep.

Joohyun drew the blinds closed and quickly got dressed in equally warm clothes.

When she emerged from her bedroom, two sheets of drywall were stacked in the hallway, and the door was open for Seungwan to carry in the last sheet.

“What’s all this?” she asked when she stepped outside.

He turned and waved. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“Nope.” Joohyun crossed the lawn. “I think we have a mouse, by the way. He tried to get in my window.”

“This place is a hole. We probably have more than just mice.” 

“Hey,” she protested. “I love this house.”

“And I love that you love it.” Seungwan flipped the bird at the second storey. “But I’m not feeling that charitable towards it at the moment. My shower this morning was the final straw for the wall in the upstairs bathroom. It crumbled on me.”

“Oh, no!” She looked at the drywall. “Another emergency repair?”

“Yeah. And I bought new tile because it was on clearance. I guess I’m spending my days off this week doing an impromptu renovation.”

“We can share the downstairs bathroom,” she offered. “And I can help with the repair.”

“It’s your day off, I’ve got it.”

“Will it go faster with a second pair of hands?” Joohyun propped her hands on her hips. “You helped me at work. Let me at least carry stuff.”

Seungwan stopped and gave her a slow, appraising look. “I can’t argue with that, I guess. Grab that box of tile.”

She followed him all the way upstairs, and after setting the tile down on the landing, she peaked into the bathroom. 

The tile wall behind the tub had a gaping hole in it, and grout and shattered ceramic chunks littered the floor. “Oh, damn.”

He leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms over his chest.

A crowbar in his hands made him look fearsome, very capable of bringing the bathroom to heel. “I’m going to start demolition. There’s another pair of work gloves in my jeep. Can you grab those, and bring up the plastic garbage can from the back?”

She nodded and slid past him. “RIP, old bathroom.”

His laughter echoed around her as she dashed down the stairs, and then she heard a shattering crunch just before she hit the porch. He wasn’t fooling around.

His jeep was unlocked, and she hopped up into the driver’s side. She saw the gloves on the dashboard, and when she reached for them, she noticed a couple of her flyers sitting on the passenger side, neatly paper clipped together with a note. Drop off at the long-term care centre.  

Joohyun sat down and picked them up, her fingers tracing his neat handwriting.

Seungwan was helping her in more ways than she knew. Why wasn’t he telling her about where he was leaving the flyers? Had she given him the impression she didn’t want help? 

Maybe there was a part of her that had really wanted to do it all herself, but that was human nature.

Same as Seungwan’s first instinct to waive her offer with the bathroom.

She put the flyers down, grabbed the gloves again, and got out of his jeep.

But those thoughts kept swirling through her head as they knocked down the walls, as Jongin arrived with a trailer for Seungwan to put the construction rubble in, as they demolished and swept and vacuumed.

By the end of the day, they had the bathroom back to studs and ready to be re-built.

“We make a good team,” Seungwan said as he brushed dust out of his hair outside after dumping the final bin of rubble into the trailer. His breath puffed in front of him.

“You did most of the hard work. You get the first hot shower.” Joohyun beamed at him. “And I’ll put the kettle on. Do you want tea? Hot chocolate? I’ve been practicing making these hot chocolate bombs that melt in the cup.”

“Yep, that. Sold. But you can have the first shower if you want.”

She pushed him back into the house. “Go. I’ll get one later before bed.”

Seungwan kicked off his boots, then headed down the hall into her bedroom. The shower hissed to life, then the bathroom door clicked closed.

Joohyun heated up some leftovers for dinner at the same time as she made the hot chocolate, and when she heard Seungwan reappear in the hallway, she turned to tell him that she had food on as well.

She caught the curve of his , broad and muscled, down to a low-slung towel wrapped around his hips.

He disappeared into the shadows at the front of the house, and an unexpected memory slid to the front of her mind.

Seungwan, sprawled in an overpriced hotel room, a sheet barely covering what that towel covered now.

How beautiful he had been as she watched him sleep, how young and sweet he looked that morning.

Joohyun hadn’t known then that he would become her best friend.

She’d only known he’d been very good for a lonely part of her soul, and she couldn’t want too much of that goodness.

Now she turned back to the stove.

It wasn’t news to her that her husband was hot. It was just unexpected that she noticed in a blushing, strange kind of way.

Her alarm was so freaking annoying.

Joohyun smacked her phone twice before she found the snooze button.

After the sleep-in the day before, and a thought-disrupted night of tossing and turning, she had to drag herself out of bed and into the bathroom.

She blinked blearily at her reflection, then washed up.

She braided her hair, then pinned up all the loose strands.

Quickly and efficiently she transformed herself from a grumpy sleepyhead to a professional-looking baker.

It had snowed overnight, and she pulled on her winter coat and heavy boots for the short walk. Even as the weather turned, she still loved this part of her day.

At the bakery, she traded her coat and boots for the chef’s jacket and clogs she kept there.

Chocolate chip cookies in first. They were the fastest, and she needed more of them than anything else. Then cupcakes.

Fifteen minutes before she needed to open up, she took a quick break to eat a bit of breakfast herself, then washed her hands and headed out front to flip the sign.

Weekdays weren’t nearly as busy as weekends. There was a pattern to the day. Steady drop-ins for the first two hours, almost always wanting a dozen of something to take to a workplace.

And then it was quiet for the next three hours.

Joohyun would get better traffic here if she served coffee, she knew that, and she thought back to the point Seungwan had made about knowing who to ask for help.

Her own confession that she didn’t like to ask for help grated. She didn’t find any pride in that, so she packed up a to-go tray featuring her newest treat addition, marshmallow dream squares.

She put up a back in fifteen minutes sign, locked up, and marched across the street.

Sooyoung was alone in the salon, working on her computer in her real estate corner.

“Hey neighbour,” Joohyun said, holding the treats up. “I come bearing gifts for a favour.”

Sooyoung's face lit up. “I just made a pot of tea, can I interest you in a cup?”

The tension Joohyun had been carrying between her shoulder blades eased, and she sat down across from the other woman.

“That would be great. So, uh, you mentioned something when you brought Seulgi in the first time. You thought the owner of the diner might have an espresso machine he’s not using?”

“Oh yeah, almost certainly. Sooman never throws anything out.”

“And he doesn’t want to use it?”

“Sooman hates latte culture. He thinks it’s a waste of time for his employees to make fancy coffee when a drip machine makes a whole pot at the press of a button.”

“But people want fancy coffee,” Joohyun protested.

Sooyoung shrugged. “And he’ll be happy to send them your way if you want to serve it. Do you want me to introduce you? We could go there for lunch later.”

“I would be eternally grateful.” Joohyun took the cup of tea the other woman handed over. “Thank you.”

“Milk or sugar?”

“Neither, I’m good with it like this.” She nudged the box across the de