Chapter 30: Reaching perfection. [FINAL]

Foods were served and all of them hovered over the table before they sat and began eating. Cooking wasn’t really my forte but I never really think I cook so badly. It was still edible though. That’s all that matters, right?

Chanyeol chewed his rice slowly after he took a spoonful of stew and give it a taste. He was a little bit stunned before he turned to Baekhyun. “How is it?” he asked, knowing how Baekhyun was quite picky with his food among them all especially he was certain Baekhyun was pickier than he was.

“It’s good.” Baekhyun nonchalantly answered before he fed himself another spoonful.

Jongdae joined Chanyeol staring at Baekhyun who was especially nice and not complaining. “Does love make food tastier? I’m sure we are eating the same food.”

“Is it that bad?” I scolded when I came with the last dish, frowning at the complaints I was receiving.

“I wouldn’t say it’s bad because it wasn’t so bad, but it wasn’t tasty either. This is weird, your cooking left me speechless. I have no words for it.” Jongdae tilted his head from side to side in wonder and both he and Chanyeol couldn’t stop making small noises over it while Baekhyun and Sehun were eating obediently.

“Well, brother in law has no say in this. I’ve warned him about what he’s getting himself into and I think he’s doing really well.” Sehun said and they went for a high five with a knowing look darting to each other.

“Sehun! Look at this!” Dahee dashed from Baekhyun’s room to the kitchen, gathering people’s attention on her in alert because of her voice. “It’s the hard cover edition! The graphic is so much prettier than the usual ones on market. That’s why it is so expensive.” She muttered poutily. Dahee turned to Baekhyun with that sweet smile she only used to ask for a favour. “Sehun’s brother in law, can you let this go as giveaway to me? And leave an autograph here too.” She flipped the cover to the blank first page inside.

“No, you can’t have it! It’s mine!” Baekhyun exclaimed.

“Why?” Dahee whined childishly.

“Where do you get this from?” Baekhyun scolded her like she was a little naughty kid. “Wait a second, did you go into my room? You did not try to look into my lap – “

That gave enough idea to Dahee as her face brightened and turned to run back into Baekhyun’s room. “YA! Don’t even think about it!” Baekhyun shot up from his seat and ran after her. “I need to make money to get married! That room is off limits, get out of there!”

Chanyeol shook his head as he watched the scene. It was nothing too interesting to pay attention on so, I was pretty sure he was just trying to distract and avoid eating the dishes I’ve cooked. I can see through you, Park Chanyeol. “I only thought idol group members have sasaeng.”

“Dahee is not even close to a sasaeng!” Sehun protested loudly, which was really questionable depending on their we have nothing going on with each other status and Sehun’s I wouldn’t date a girl like Dahee principle.

~~~

It always made my heart felt heavy as the surrounding started to get quieter as each of them left. It would’ve been more fun if Jinae was here. Too bad Jinae couldn’t make it since she was so busy with her wedding preparation. Finally, her prince Kyungsoo have the balls to make her his wife. Jinae was so happy the morning after she was proposed and she came into my office, screaming “I’M GETTING MARRIED!” and  we hugged each other happily as we got into our little act, with Jinae as Mrs. Do which she was so happy with that name and walked on memory lane, thinking how much time had passed by.

“Should we get matching colour outfits to Jinae’s wedding? Or is it too bothersome for you?” I asked, as we sat on the couch in Baekhyun’s apartment, lounging the rest of the day off by ourselves.

“I’d like that. You know that I love wedding.”

I looked up at him, feigning a disbelief look. “You, love wedding?” I pointed an accusatory finger to him. “If you want to say you started to love wedding now because that was where we first met, just cut the crap.” I continued.

“It’s not a crap. It’s the truth. We really met at a wedding, ahjumma.” I hit him on the shoulder when he made fun of me. “Say, what kind of wedding would you like to have?” he asked.

“Me?” he nodded in response. “I’d like the kind of wedding that have you as my groom.” I said it out loud before I cringed by myself while Baekhyun found himself widely smiling as he pulled me to him, lifting me up to sit on his lap.

“Oh, where did you learn that from?” he asked seductively. “I like this side of you.”

I wrapped my arms around his neck. “I learnt from the best.”

“You don’t have to flatter me so much. If you want me to kiss you, I could kiss you all day.”

“When did I say – “And he shut me up midsentence when he leaned in and kissed me. My heart always tend to react so well by the mere presence of his lips on mine as it pounded against my ribcage, like it almost wanted to leap out of my chest. As if he knew, Baekhyun never failed to flash that cheeky smile, partially mocking me and proud that he was the only one that could make me felt like that which I hated that look, yet my face was betraying me when the heat indicated enough that I was flushing.

He casually curled my hair around his finger playfully. “Seriously, what kind of wedding did you always imagine to have? Didn’t girls have been dreaming about their dream wedding since they were kids? I remembered how I was always being forced to play wedding with them. It seemed like that was the only thing girls found it fun.”

It was questionable how Baekhyun played wedding with girls when he was a kid but I let it off, thinking nothing was so weird anymore when it came to him. “But I’m not like that.” I retorted.

“That’s because there’s nobody as good looking as I am in your neighbourhood. You know that I am naturally born –“

“With good looks. That’s what you want to say, right?”

“Anyway –“

“Why are you so curious about that?”

He widened his eyes in disbelief. “Ya, why am I curious, you ask me? Not why am I curious but why are you so curious about why I am curious?” I frowned at the excessive amount of ‘curious’ in one line. “Have you ever thought of marriage? With me, maybe? You aren’t planning to marry me?”

“Why? Do you want to marry me so bad?”

“YES!” Baekhyun exclaimed confidently. “If I could, I want to marry you now! But I want to make it perfect for you.” And his voice was getting lower and lower, murmuring while looking somewhere else as if he was embarrassed. “Just so you know, there’s no way in hell I could book the whole hotel in Okinawa and have a wedding there. Even if I work so hard for my whole life, it is impossible to do so. Maybe it is possible but we might be 80 by then.” He added. “My parents didn’t have that much money either. They keep leaving their family behind yet they weren’t paid that much, and then, my grandma has phobia to be on the airplane…”

“I don’t care about any of that.” I cut his trailing thoughts – which I found it was complete unnecessary. “I did have a dream wedding once. I remembered I told my mom about it because I saw a really beautiful wedding dress in a magazine. But that time, I don’t even have a boyfriend. I even made up an imagination of the man I want to marry with.”

“He’s slightly taller than me, I guess?”

“Slightly.” I agreed to which his frown gone deeper. “A man that looks cool but cute at the same time, and has great build, with nice beautiful twinkling pair of big eyes, a beautiful smile, plus, a really deep y voice. Ah! Suddenly, that sounded close to Chanyeol, isn’t it?” I was so fascinated with the surprising discovery to even notice that he was gritting his teeth in irritation. “No wonder the first time I met Chanyeol, I have this really familiar image. He’s so perfect to the description.” Then, I sighed. “But then again, you can’t have everything in the world.”

“Should I set up a date for two of you then? So that you could have everything in the world like I’ve promised you, sweetheart?” he sarcastically remarked.

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Oh my, I think my Baek honey look a little bit angry.”

“I’m not angry!”

“You’re raising your voice now.”

“I’m not!”

“If that’s not raising your voice, then what is it?”

“I naturally speak like this!”

“Right, if you naturally speak like that, I would’ve gone deaf right now.” I retorted angrily. “What are you so mad at, anyway? You know so well I’m all yours. To me, you’re perfect enough for me.”

Twitching his lips in irritation, he muttered “Don’t you think it’s a little bit too late now to say that after you’ve been fangirling over how close my best buddy is to your ideal type? It must have been a while since you’ve seen my body, I have a great build too.” He hit on his chest while his facial expression screaming ‘tough’. “If I have to give it a comment, it has gotten so much better. I bet you can’t even take your eyes off it.”

“It’s a little hard to believe.” I shrugged annoyingly. Oh, the satisfaction of getting on his nerve.

“Should I show it to you then?”

I patted his shoulder a few times with a strained smile. “If that is the way of you trying to invite me to your bed, forget it. I have dishes to wash.” I stood up from his lap and made my way to the kitchen. “Looking at the state of you’re living, you’re probably going to leave it for a year if it’s possible for you.” I nagged.

“Ya, Oh Hana. You purposely try to get on my nerve, are you?”

“While I’m still here, start cleaning the living room, Byun Baekhyun.”

And a loud groan resonance in response. I could sense Baekhyun could’ve been lying on his couch by then as he was ruffling his hair to dishevel in frustration. “I didn’t invite you to come over for a spring cleaning session.”

~~~

He came by my apartment that one night.

I was already on the bed as we were talking on the phone. It was quite early compared to my usual bedtime but an extra time of rest always led to a better mood, and a better day for me. But I know I wouldn’t head to sleep that instant when I was on the phone with Baekhyun.

“I’m on the bed, getting ready to sleep.”

“Already?” he asked. “A tiring day?”

“A little.” I turned to my right side, lying on my palm as my phone was on the other ear, listening to him. “Where are you now?”

“Outside. I’m taking a walk.” He answered. “I just remembered something. Your ideal type –“

“Are we on this again?”

“As far as I know, it’s not Chanyeol. I didn’t know if it’s just my eyes, but it looks a lot like me.”

“What are you talking about now? How can you have a look at it?” I grunted lazily as the sleepiness started enveloping me. “Get home safely, okay? I’m off to sleep. I love you.”

“I love you too but wait a minute.” He spoke quickly before I could put my phone down. It was silent for a really short second but it was long enough when he seemed like he had something important to say. I heard him clearing his throat and as I was about to question what the hell was he about to do to stop me from going to sleep , he spoke up. “Listen.”

I do believe all the love you give
All of the things you do

A curl naturally formed on my lips when I finally knew what he was doing. I turned my body so I could lie on my back as I hold my phone tightly by my ears as I listened to his soothing voice intently.

Love you, love you
I’ll keep you safe, don’t you worry
I wouldn’t leave, wanna keep you near me
Cause I feel the same way too
Love you, love you

With the ever growing smile, I found myself singing along silently to the lyrics. It was honestly nicer and sounded more beautiful listening to him this close, knowing it meant to only me compared to the first time I’ve heard him singing.

Want you to know that I’m with you
I will love you and love you and love you
Gonna hold you and hold you and squeeze you
I will please you for all times
I don’t wanna lose you and lose you and lose you
Cause I need you and need you and need you
So I want you to be my lady
You’ve got to understand
My love

And there it went away my sleep. “You’re sleeping?” As if I was jolted out of my own reverie, I was quite disappointed to find out that it was over when I heard him speaking.

“I’m not. You should’ve sung it till the end. Why are you making my heart a mess, only to sing it halfway?” I voiced out frustratingly.

A boisterous laughter was heard from the other line after I said that but he didn’t make fun of me either.

You are beautiful, beautiful, beautiful
beautiful, beautiful, beautiful girl

I placed my hand on my chest to feel the rapid h