By the time dawn rolled around, everyone had cleared out. Joohyun wasn’t allowed to turn the power or water back on for forty-eight hours and then another inspection, but she didn’t want to leave her bakery.

Baekhyun offered to drive her home, but she decided to wait until Seungwan was done with his shift. She sat down at the table under the window and listened to the hum of the electric heater in the kitchen, and the faint growl of the loaned generator powering it from just outside the back door.

As far as catastrophes went, this was a manageable one. She hadn’t expected to make an insurance claim so soon after opening, but happened, and nothing had been so badly damaged that she wouldn’t be able to re-open in a week.

Seungwan's offer of securing a line of credit crawled around at the back of her mind, a gremlin she couldn’t quite evict no matter how hard she tried not to think about it.

Joohyun wanted to find her own way through this. She needed to know she could do it on her own. But there was now a hollow hole in the middle of her chest where certainty and security had started to take up residence.

Once upon a time, stressful events hadn’t been a problem for her. She’d done four tours overseas and sailed through all of them without any mental health issues.

One awful marriage later, and she felt fragile as over a bit of water damage.

She’d started to think the one very happy marriage—deliberately constructed to protect her!—would counterbalance the toxic past, but here she sat feeling shattered, so apparently it wasn’t that easy.

A knock at the front door startled her out of her thoughts. She got up, prepared to apologize for not being open, but on the other side of the glass she saw Sana Minatozaki, who looked sympathetic enough that Joohyun had no need to provide explanation.

Apparently, word was spreading.

She opened the door and stepped back. “You heard?”

“I think everyone already awake in Purpletown has heard,” Sana said regretfully. “Sooyoung said you were waiting here for Seungwan. I thought I’d see if you needed any help. I heard about the freezer brigade last night, that’s great. But if you need help on the business side of things…”

“I can’t think about your proposal right now, I’m sorry.”

“No, of course not.” Sana glanced around. “Can I speak freely?”

Joohyun laughed weakly. “Sure.”

“My parents have built a solid business they would love to hand over to me some day soon. I have all the work I could ever need with them. They want to send me to a fancy business school, for the prestige more than anything, although I’m sure I’d learn a few things. Bluntly, I’m not poking around in your business because I need to make money. I know we don’t know each other, but I’ve been following you on Instagram since the first time I came in here, and there’s something special about this shop. You are special.”

Tears welled in Joohyun's eyes, much to her horror. “Oh.”

“, did I say the wrong thing?”

“No.” Joohyun swiped furiously at her face. “I think you might be the only person in town who notices my Instagram account, though. You and Seungwan, anyway. Last night Sooyoung took some video for me to post and I just…can’t…” She threw herself back into the chair, tipped her head back so she was staring at the ceiling, and she howled in frustration.

Then she swore a blue streak.

When she righted her head, Sana was sitting across from her. “Feel better?”

“Hardly.” She paused. “A little. Yes.”

“What needs to happen?”

“Insurance claim. A plan to re-open. A plan to make that re-open profitable enough to cover the days we’re closed, and a new budget plan to cover the fact that my insurance premiums will go up.” A plan to not have to lean on her husband.

“What are the first steps?”

“I see what you’re doing.”

Sana gave her an innocent look. “What am I doing?”

She was helping, and Joohyun was being suspicious for no good reason. She cocked her head to the side. “You really want to help me talk out my next steps?”

“Yep.”

“I’ll be right back.” Her joints protested as she slowly got up and walked back to her office. A few boxes on the floor had been damaged, but everything on the desk survived. She grabbed her clipboard, a couple of sheets of blank paper, and a pen.

Time to make a to-do list.

When she returned, another person was at the door. Sooyoung waved, and Sana got up to answer it this time.

Sooyoung had three takeaway coffee cups in a paper tray, and Joohyun pointed her finger back and forth between the two of them. “This is starting to feel organized.”

Instead of answering, Sooyoung shoved a cup of coffee in her hand. “Decaf, so you can sleep in a bit. I come bearing a message from Sooman.”

Joohyun groaned. “It’s pie day. I forgot all about it.”

Her friend gave her a funny look. “Well, yeah. But he doesn’t care about that. If he doesn’t have any pie, he just tells people to eat more fries. He wants you to know you can use his kitchen if you have any urgent baking to do.”

“His pies are the only external order I have.” Joohyun took a long, restorative inhale, breathing in the perfect scent of diner coffee. “But I should probably think about taking him up on it, if only to make stuff to sell at the farmer’s market this weekend. If I can get a—”

“You can,” Sana interjected. “I know, you didn’t want to think about the plan until next year, but I’d done my preliminary research anyway. They haven’t been booking all the tables out over the winter, you’ve got a spot there if you need it.”

Joohyun glanced at Sooyoung. “Did you know about her scheme?”

“Only in the broadest of .”

“Is that how the two of you wound up here at six in the morning?”

“Who can sleep with all this excitement? We’d much rather be here so you can tell us all about your next steps.”

“It’s really boring.” Joohyun stopped, hearing herself. Sana was angling for a job, so her interest was at least related to that. But Sooyoung had been here most of the night, and had a business of her own to open in a few hours. The only reason she would have come back with coffee, the only reason she would have reached out to Sana and made all of this happen, was out of friendship. “You’re really interested, too?”

Sooyoung pulled up a chair. “You know, I really hope your ex wanders back into town at some point so I can punch him in the face for whatever he taught you about asking people in your life for things. Or just, you know, talking out. Yes, I’m here to just listen to you talk about whatever you want to talk about. That’s what friends do.”

Joohyun squished up her face, forcing hot tears to stay the hell back. She had work to do.

“We’re brainstorming how to take over the world, isn’t that right, Sana?”

“It sure is.”

They were still working when Seungwan arrived an hour and a half later. He looked sweaty, dishevelled, and tired. He also looked so good it made Joohyun's chest ache, which only reminded her that every part of her body hurt.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” he asked as he stepped inside.

Sooyoung and Sana immediately stood up, put on their parkas, grabbed their coffees, and made their goodbyes.

“I’m ready to go home,” Joohyun said, leaning into Seungwan's warmth.

“Hot shower and bed for us both,” he murmured into her hair. “Together.”

On the short drive, she told him about leaning on Sana. “And then Sooyoung showed up, just to listen, and I felt really stupid for questioning them.”

“It’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help,” Seungwan said. “Baekhyun reminded me of that, an