Chanyeol is in the kitchen, singing along to one of his favourite songs of Chen that’s being played on his phone, when he suddenly feels arms circling around his waist and a familiar weight settling in between the blades of his shoulders. Surprised, he almost drops the pair of chopsticks into the pot of budae jjigae he’s been busying over for the past hour. Yet, Chanyeol doesn’t need to turn back to know who’s latched onto his unsuspecting back.

“Soo?”

There’s no answer from Kyungsoo, but Chanyeol feels the tightening of Kyungsoo’s arms around his waist and the weight on his shoulder blades burying deeper between them. Chanyeol chuckles knowingly. “You should take a seat, dinner will be ready soon.” Kyungsoo doesn’t budge, but Chanyeol smiles and continues to stir the budae jjigae with his chopsticks. He doesn’t speak anymore, for he knows that Kyungsoo will open up on his own when he’s ready to share, as he always does after a while.

It’s when the budae jjigae is boiling does Chanyeol speak again, “Soo, I have to move the pot from the stove to the table, so could you let go of me?” And he waits for a couple of seconds, busies himself with the visual of their dinner by arranging the ingredients with his chopsticks. But Kyungsoo still doesn’t budge, his arms still tightly wrapped around Chanyeol’s waist, head still resting between Chanyeol’s shoulder blades. Chanyeol sighs. “Fine, I’m going to move it anyway. Please don’t make any sudden movements, alright?”

With a Kyungsoo stuck to his back, Chanyeol carefully hefts the pot up with his rubber alligator gloves and awkwardly shuffles to the table, eyes fervently darting between the pot in his hands—to prevent any spillage—and the young man that’s shuffling along with him—to gauge if he's going to make any sudden moves. Fortunately, the pot, Chanyeol, and Kyungsoo make it safely to the table altogether, and after setting down the pot in the middle of the table, Chanyeol removes the alligator gloves while turning himself around. Or at least, he tries to.

“Soo…” Chanyeol coaxes, his tone lowered significantly to that deep, soothing baritone that Kyungsoo has admitted (once) to liking it. “Please let go, dinner’s ready.” He’s still looking forward, unable to turn himself to face Kyungsoo because his waist is still being tightly circled and his shoulders are seemingly locked in place by Kyungsoo’s head. Kyungsoo still doesn’t seem like he’s ready to share but Chanyeol’s waited rather long enough for him to open his mouth. And, Chanyeol’s hungry. There’s no way he can sit in their dining chairs with Kyungsoo glued to his back; hell will freeze over when Chanyeol finally gets to sit on Kyungsoo’s lap (for dining purposes).

Well, Chanyeol supposes it’s time to take things into his own hands. Literally. Using the advantage of surprise, Chanyeol grabs onto Kyungsoo’s hands and quickly separates them, turning himself to Kyungsoo’s direction the instant he doesn’t have Kyungsoo’s arms around his waist. Chanyeol does feel apologetic towards Kyungsoo, though, for his shoulders blades knock into Kyungsoo’s head while turning. In apology, Chanyeol gently rubs that side of Kyungsoo’s face, and a fond smile graces his face when barely four seconds later, Kyungsoo is nuzzling his nose into Chanyeol’s palm.

Having known Kyungsoo long enough to know all, if not most, of his quirks, Chanyeol immediately recognises his boyfriend’s first step in showing that he’s ready to share. He follows-up, thumb lightly grazing the bridge of Kyungsoo’s nose, a soothing action that he knows Kyungsoo likes. “Shall we have dinner? It’s going to go cold soon, the jjigae.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t respond, just continues to nuzzle his nose into Chanyeol’s palm, in which Chanyeol always can’t help but compare to Toben who does the same thing to Chanyeol’s palms whenever they visit his parents. Tiny Toben is adorable, no doubt about that, but to Chanyeol, Small Kyungsoo is way, way, way more adorable. And he would announce it to the world with every chance he gets if not for Kyungsoo’s (very) violent tendencies. Kyungsoo is adorable, no doubt about that, but he’s also frightening (definitely no doubt about that either). Even so, Chanyeol adores him, loves him so, so much.

And Chanyeol would love to keep having Kyungsoo nuzzling into his palm (because it’s ing cute) but he’s hungry and the budae jjigae he’d painstakingly prepared for almost an hour is going cold and Chanyeol knows that Kyungsoo dislikes eating cold meals. So, he tries to use that little fact to get Kyungsoo off his back and to settle down for dinner. “Soo, don’t forget that you don’t like your meals cold. And the jjigae is definitely turning cold with every passing second.”  

It works—Kyungsoo immediately stops, nods his head once. He removes his face from Chanyeol’s palm and makes a move to step towards his chair when Chanyeol slides an arm around his waist, effectively stopping his movement, and whirls him back. Dipping his head down, Chanyeol presses his lips against Kyungsoo’s before pulling away with a loud pop. “A reward,” He whispers. “For listening to me.”

Then, Chanyeol releases Kyungsoo, biting back a smirk when he sees how red Kyungsoo’s face has become in a matter of seconds; it's adorable. He pushes Kyungsoo a tad to get him moving again, gently patting his buttock once Kyungsoo turns, only to stumble to his own chair when Kyungsoo spins around and s his buttock, a cheek nestled in a palm, fingers digging into flesh. And, of course, Kyungsoo’s expression is nothing of what a -r should be wearing. Those large, round, seemingly innocent and naive eyes will be the death of Chanyeol one day (or everyday).

Chanyeol emerges the legs of his chair, where he'd stumbled and promptly sprawled onto, to find a large bowl filled with piping hot jjigae already placed on his penguin table mat. Across the tiny table (because Chanyeol doesn't want to be too far away from Kyungsoo), Kyungsoo has his own bowl of jjigae on his giraffe table mat. He has a spoon poised above the bowl, and Chanyeol realises that he's waiting for him. Chanyeol is so endeared.

“Thank you for the food!” Quickly sitting onto his chair, Chanyeol grabs his spoon and digs in, looking up with his mouth full of ramyun when a giggle comes from opposite. A pair of large, round eyes are looking fondly (and a tad disbelievingly) at him. But Chanyeol knows that Kyungsoo is anything but annoyed, if his pretty heart-shaped smile is any indication for his mood.

“Thank you for the food, Yeol.” Kyungsoo says, his heart-shaped smile widening.

Kyungsoo’s simply lovable. Chanyeol loves him so very much.

---

It’s when Chanyeol has fed Kyungsoo his third bowl of budae jjigae does Kyungsoo finally share. And judging from Kyungsoo’s deeply furrowed brows and pursed lips, Chanyeol knows that the matter most definitely doesn’t seem to be something worth smiling about.

“They’re not sending Yixing over to China as the company’s representative for the pitch.”

And, there we go. That’s definitely not something worth smiling about.

“Why not? Yixing is the obvious choice, isn’t he?”

“He is,” says Kyungsoo, whose spoon is circling around and around the rim of his emptied bowl. There is a scowl on his face. “And he would have been selected if not for Taeyong who suddenly proposed sending Sicheng instead.” Kyungsoo’s spoon freezes in its circling movement around his bowl. “Then he started to bombard the department head with Sicheng’s accomplishments and, , that’s when I knew I was fighting a losing battle.”

Chanyeol stares at Kyungsoo, frowning when he takes in his boyfriend’s downtrodden expression, his depressed mood, and murderous aura. Sometimes, especially at times like this, Chanyeol doesn’t exactly know how and what to do to lift Kyungsoo’s spirit, to make him smile. But he tries his best, anyway.

“Do you need me to calm you down like how Po did to Yao in Mulan? I can do that, y'know, lift you up and turn you from side to side.” And Chanyeol finishes with a cheeky grin.

It works, and even though there's a frown on Kyungsoo’s face, Chanyeol knows that Kyungsoo’s smiling on the inside. He can see the mirth in his boyfriend’s beautiful eyes (which can never mask any of Kyungsoo’s true emotions no matter how hard they try). Chanyeol laughs, only stopping when the mirth in Kyungsoo’s eyes vanish and is replaced by a genuine, threatening expression. And Chanyeol shuts up because he knows death when he sees it in front of him. He quickly ducks his head and continues shovelling jjigae into his mouth, eyes no longer looking at the love of his life.

Chanyeol doesn't realise that he's spaced out, despite his still-shovelling-food-into-his-mouth hand until he feels a heavy weight on his back, and comes to to a Kyungsoo mouthing at his neck. It's immediate, the warm breaths coming out of Kyungsoo’s parted lips followed by the coolness of Kyungsoo’s tongue causes Chanyeol to moan. The pair of chopsticks in his hand cl