“Kim Jongdae! What are you doing in the kit-”

You stop in your tracks when you arrive at the door frame of your house kitchen. The tiled floor is littered with grains, powders and random utensils. The cabinets are opened, the drawers are pulled out and what is supposed to be your kitchen no longer looks like it. To say you are shocked is an understatement, maybe even fear manifesting itself in your beating heart.

You hear rustling coming from inside, somewhere behind the kitchen island. 

“Kim Jongdae, are you still alive?”

You cautiously say to who you assume as your boyfriend. Somewhere in your heart, you truly wish it is a thief breaking into your house rather than your clumsy boyfriend; at least you’ll get to beat the crap out of him for destroying your property. But when a flour-covered head slowly emerges in fear across of you, that wishful thinking vanishes.

 "You know what, you survived this catastrophe but I won’t let you live if you don’t get this clean up by tomorrow.“

You say with a calm tone but your hands flail around, showing him a mess even the blind would cry at the thought of it. He hasn’t said a word, nor does he dare to do so. Having the courage to mess with your sacred place from the first second he decided on it, he should have prepared himself with greater courage to face the liability that comes along.

You go into your bedroom and let yourself sink into your comfy bed, trying to erase the disrupted image of your precious kitchen. It is supposed to be your anniversary with Jongdae today but a long day at work has bittered it; a customer spat hurtful comments at you, your boss was furious, your colleague left more work for you, your rose plant died. And just when you wonder if the day can be any worse, you come home to a disastrous kitchen.

You shower and get dressed in your pajamas, but not even your favourite lavender-scented body wash could lift your spirits. You are at wit’s end, just ready to tear your hair apart. Upon closing your eyes, however, Jongdae’s face pops up in your tired mind. The exhaustion of the day has caused your head to be fuzzy, but you finally realise that your boyfriend has been in the kitchen,baking.

Kim Jongdae doesn’t bake.

He never does, and he swears he won’t do it for the rest of his life anymore after he almost destroyed his mother’s kitchen at the attempt of baking a cake for her birthday.

At that time, you wondered if he was exaggerating the details; ‘it can’t be thatbad’. But he had developed some sort of a phobia to baking. When he first learned of your all-time hobby, he shivered at the mention of the word and told you he admires your courage. You thought he was joking, a second nature to his fun personality. But whenever you told him you were baking, he would stay away from the kitchen and occasionally shout from the living room asking if you’re fine. 

You quickly run down the stairs and into the kitchen, fighting your exhaustion.

"Jongdae-ah?”

You prompt after taking a deep breath and stepping into the nightmare-ish place. It is the tiniest bit better than the first horrid image. At least his handsome face isn’t fully covered with flour or food dye, too.

You walk over to him and hug him tightly, ignoring the dirty environment and his shell-shocked expression. He has thought of his girlfriend giving him the silent treatment or even being hostile towards him rather than an intimate gesture like this.

“____, y-you’ll get dirty. You should stay outside, I promise I’ll return everything to normal by tomorrow!”

You can feel the guilt and sincerity in his voice, it is as if he’s begging you not to be mad at him.

Well, how could you? You notice a stand mixer with dark brown batter in it, despite the havoc on the kitchen counter. On the kitchen cabinet above it are a few printed papers, one with bold letters saying; “FOOLPROOF CHOCOLATE CAKE”.

You can’t help but chuckle as you let go of the embrace. Of course, Jongdae realises what you are laughing at and sighs in embarrassment.

“Really, Kim Jongdae? You are blessed with a miraculous ability to mess up a recipe that is practically foolproof.”

You can’t help but say that to your boyfriend who is getting redder by the second. This side of him is totally adorable, completely defenseless and 180 degrees different from his usual troll attitude. Even the goofy Chen turns beet-red during times like this. But your heart flutters, knowing full-well that you’re the only one who can see him like this.

He is acting so cute and shy that you go up to him and kiss his batter-smudged cheek, catching him by surprise again. You showering him with kisses and hugs is the last thing he imagined in a situation as chaotic as this. After your lips, you are amazed at the batter that tasted better than you have imagined.

You inch closer to the recipe and tilt your head to read through it as Jongdae attempts to clean off the counter. When his hands take the bowl of batter to dispose it, you stop him.

"Let’s finish the cake.”

He stares at you like you are dumb, as if you have suggested murder.

“This is unsalvageable, _____! I messed up terribly!”

He sighs in agony, making you shake your head and tell him his batter isn’t all that bad. He thinks you’re just trying to make him feel better but you insist on finishing the cake that your beloved boyfriend did. If there is any way he’ll get over the ridiculous phobia, it will be with this.

You direct Jongdae over the recipe, which he obediently follows. You never understand precision until you see Jongdae living it. As a frequent baker, you had eventually learned to cheat your way through inaccurate measurement of ingredients but this boyfriend of yours won’t let a single particle stay where it doesn’t belong.

You know he’s just paranoid, so you reassure him that having an extra gram on the scale won’t cause the cake to explode. It has only been him being clumsy and not understanding important terms in the baking terminology. You two spend the hour completing Jongdae’s cake in the midst of your cluttered kitchen space, even sitting down on the kitchen floor waiting for the cake to be baked.

You are snuggled cozily next to Jongdae, and it’s no doubt you are just as messy as he is despite you are in your pajamas.

“I honestly thought you were going to kill me, _____,” He confesses as he runs his slender fingers through your soft hair.

“I’ve been researching how to bake a cake, problems that could arise and how to solve them, I even searched how to overcome my fear of baking! But it turns out that I so bad I could fail a foolproof recipe and caused a ruckus like this.”

He sounds defeated at the end but you take his hand in yours and squeeze them.

“I won’t deny that I was extremely upset when I came home to a kitchen that doesn’t seem like a kitchen anymore. But then before I went to bed, I just realised you were baking! I’m sorry for saying those words to you. You went through a lot and I can’t imagine how much effort and courage you had put to bring yourself near a stand mixer and actually bake something on your own. You’re really something, Jongdae!” You award him with another peck on his cheek.

“Well, I thought I would do something special for our third year anniversary. But now there’s only,” he checks his phone for the time, “15 minutes left of today. I’m sorry we wasted so much time because of my stupid idea.”

Jongdae berates himself and you see how much he regrets his decision.

You throw your arms around him in an effort to remind him that it’s fine. 

“Happy Anniversary, Jongdae! I should be sorry, it was me who got back from work so late and then I had to blow up at you. I’m the luckiest girl to have such a perfect boyfriend like you.”

“What do you mean perfect? I can’t even bake a cake!”

“I love you; your strengths and your flaws. They are what makes you Kim Jongdae. And I love Kim Jongdae.”

You can see he is really touched by your words as he hugs you back tighter and kisses your hair lightly.

“Thank you for helping me through my ups and downs, for never letting me go when I , for always showing me that I’m the luckiest guy in the world, for brightening my day with your beautiful smile. Happy Anniversary, ____. I love you.”

His sweet voice reverberates in the kitchen and your mind, tugging at your heartstrings.

The oven bell rings, interrupting the romantic moment, but both of you excitedly move to the front of the oven door to check on your all-night effort. By appearance, the chocolate cake looks good enough to eat and the fragance wafts through the whole kitchen pleasantly. You are confident enough that it will taste great, which it really does, but Jongdae keeps on doubting. That is, until you slice a few pieces and feed it to him.

You peek at the clock in the kitchen and realise there are still three minutes to midnight.

“Well, we do have an anniversary cake baked by my lovely Kim Jongdae, after all! Happy Anniversary!”