***Warning: double update if you didn't catch Chapter 89 a few hours ago, so make sure you go back and read it if you haven't yet!***

The first thing that struck her was how lived in the apartment felt.  She took Baekhyun’s beanie off and looked around.  The walls of the front room had been painted in a happy, splashy patchwork of anything from pale pink to magenta, matching the curtains that hung across the single window behind the TV.  There was only one couch and an armchair that looked like it had seen happier days possibly a couple of decades ago, but they were both jazzed up by cheerful cushions in different reds and pinks and a stack of cushions in various shades of blue leant against a cupboard in the corner.  Baekhyun crossed over to this, sliding like a little child over the wooden floorboards, and put his umbrella and coat in it.  As a second thought, he also shoved his schoolbag in.

Jinsu couldn’t help smiling at him as he turned around.  They’d only got in the door a few seconds ago, but Baekhyun in his natural habitat was so relaxed she wondered how it had even happened.

“This probably isn’t what you were expecting for a birthday date,” he said as he slid back across, turning to a sharp halt like an ice skater coming to a halt on an ice rink, “but Chanyeol said something about spending time together and food, so I thought what better way to do that than to bring you home and cook you a really amazing dinner?  Nice relaxed environment, nobody home except us, we get plenty of time to ourselves without interruptions or teasing, and good food to boot.  We also don’t have to worry about journalists and dating scoops if we’re somewhere completely private.  After yesterday, something really chilled will probably do you good.”

“Okay,” Jinsu agreed happily.  It sounded about perfect.  Then again, it was with Baekhyun, and anything with Baekhyun sounded about perfect.

“Great!  Well, bathroom’s at the end of the passage, Mum and Dad’s room, my room, the washroom-which-was-my-sister’s-room-before-she-moved-out is next to it, and we’re going into the kitchen.  Can’t really get lost in this place and if you really want a tour behind the bathroom sink or to look at the innards of the washing machine, we can do that later, but I’m getting hungry, so I think we should go cook.”

Jinsu followed him into the kitchen, which was the only room that led directly off the front room.  It wasn’t even a quarter of the size of her one at home, and there was just enough space for two people to walk abreast between the counters and the kitchen table, which had a small vase of flowers sitting in the middle of it.  Baekhyun paused to pop his phone down into a dock and selected a playlist.  Blues music seeped through the kitchen on slow volume as he washed his hands and picked out an apron for Jinsu while she washed hers.

“What are you going to cook?” she asked him.

“We are going to cook paella.”  He flashed a grin at her before dropping the apron over her neck and reached around her to tie up the waist ribbons.  He had to stand flush against her to do it and Jinsu found herself on eye-level with his chin.  The soothing music in the background washed away any remaining nerves she had, and it made Baekhyun’s loose, quasi-embrace feel even warmer and more comfortable than it already was.  He’d only the side lights above the counters when they walked in, which cast a lot of his face into shadow, but highlighted his cheekbones, the shadows of his lashes lengthening on them, and glimmering through the ends of his hair almost like a halo.

On impulse, she reached up on her tiptoes to kiss him.  Baekhyun paused with surprise, but a satisfied noise came from deep within his throat as he tilted his head, parting his lips.  Then his fingers nimbly finished off the knot he’d been tying and his hands pressed into the small of her back, keeping her there.

The singer gave way to a guitar solo with a soft piano riff behind it, the drum beat continuing on almost hypnotically with its hi-hat and drum brush.  Jinsu allowed herself to sink closer to Baekhyun as one of his hands crept up her back to between her shoulderblades, and then to the base of her hairline at the back of her neck.  He pulled back once for breath, but as their lips met again, his grip tightened, and this time the kiss was heavier, deeper, so much stronger that Jinsu almost felt like all her breath was being out of her as she was drawn into a vacuum.

A sudden very loud chord from the electric guitar accompanying the vocalist’s reentry at an almost shouty volume shocked them both so badly that they jumped apart.  Both were badly out of breath, and even in the dim light, Jinsu could see that Baekhyun’s pupils were blown.  His lips glistened moistly before they turned up into a little smile and he let out a breathy, embarrassed laugh.  Jinsu joined in.

“Paella?” he suggested, sounding completely dazed.  He blinked around the kitchen as though he didn’t recognise it, but like a magnet, his gaze came back to rest on her lips again.  Suddenly self-conscious, Jinsu bit at her bottom one.  He groaned softly, closing his eyes.  “Don’t do that.  It’s way too tempting and we’ll never get anything cooked.”

The guitar struck up on another solo and Baekhyun shook himself.

“Paella,” he repeated, turning away and heading for one of the cupboards over a counter on the opposite side of the room.

About fifteen minutes later, Baekhyun ended up turning on the main lights to, as he put it, “help combat temptation and actually get some cooking done”.  Jinsu sat on one of the counters, laughing at his flustered, blushing expression as he did so, his hair sticking up on end, but the bright lights did kill the mood a little and they finally started getting the food together instead of being distracted by each other every time one of them turned around after getting something out of one of the cupboards or the fridge.

It still took Baekhyun a few more moments to clear his mind as he surveyed all the ingredients he had out on the table, along with chopping boards and chopping knives and pans.

“Have you ever had paella before?” he asked her.

Jinsu shook her head.  “I know it’s a Spanish dish and my brother keeps telling me I’d love it.”

His face lit up, evidently proud he’d serendipitously hit on something she’d most likely enjoy and would be new to.  “Well, it’s super easy to make.  Even Sehun’s capable of this one.”  He frowned.  “I think.”

Jinsu snorted, but he was right that it wasn’t at all complicated.  The blues list turned out to be almost exclusively blues rock, which wasn’t a music genre Jinsu would have pegged Baekhyun as liking, but even if the lyrics didn’t suit the mood, the music and the slow beat did, and she was a bit regretful that he’d called it a day on the kissing so they could actually get on with making the food.

Chatter slowly took over instead.  Baekhyun taught Jinsu how to chop vegetables quickly like a professional chef (“this is what fingernails exist for and I cringe whenever I see people painting them”), but she still spent half the