“PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

“NO.”

“OH, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE WITH ALL THE GOOD AND SWEET THINGS ON TOP. JUST THIS ONCE!”

“You said that the last time and look what happened.”

“I mean it now. I really mean it! Mark my words, write it on stone, record me saying this. I’ll get my voice recorder and –“

“OKAY OKAY, I GET IT. SHEESH, such a fuss over a trivial thing. Fine, I’ll teach you how to cook ONLY IF you promise to follow every one of my instructions and NOT bail out like last time, understand?”

“Yeah, yeah I get it. Thank you sooooooo much!” Kai gets out of the kitchen jumping in glee after giving Kyungsoo a kiss on the cheek.

Such a child, Kyungsoo thinks and shakes his head in amusement. He continues peeling off the apples for the other members until it hits him. Putting his knife down, he grimace at a revelation.

Did he just accepted Kai’s request to a cooking lesson?

His eyes grow wider as he remembers what happened the first time he agreed to do so. Kai nearly burnt the whole kitchen down and left stains that took forever for him to clean with the help hundreds of bottles of cleaning detergent, and not Kai.

Why didn’t he help him even if he was the reason for the disaster?

‘Oh, sorry, but I really need to go to dance practice.’

‘I’m really tired from practice today. What about tomorrow? I reeeeeally am sorry though. I’ll reward you with something else later.’

And he always falls for it. Damn you and your soft spot for Kai, Kyungsoo. Damn you.

It’s not that he doesn’t want to share the kitchen with anyone, it’s just that whenever someone tries to help, they just ruin everything.

Like that one time, Luhan cut a whole box of tomatoes just because they were making Tomato Rice that day. Well, the members had to eat everything tomato for two weeks just because of that – Tomato soup, tomato juice and even tomato kimchi and kimchi.

And guess who got all the blame? Let me give you a hint ; Not Luhan. That boy blinded everyone with his face, and he got all the blame for not giving proper instructions.

He never felt like spitting in anyone’s food so badly until that day. He didn’t though, and is still wondering why.

Kai better behave this time, or he have to resort to drastic measures – fencing the kitchen with barbwires and mine traps.

~

“RISE AND SHINE, MY DEAR KAI!” Kyungsoo opens the blinds to let the sunshine in.

Kai immediately lets out a groan and turns over in his bed so that his face opposes the direct sunlight.

“I said, RISE AND SHINE, MY DEAR KAI!” he pulls the blanket and pushes Kai off the bed, who falls off with a loud thud.

That would wake him up.

“Ouch! What was that for?” Kai shouts groggily, rubbing his eyes.

“It seems that you have forgotten the plan for today. Cooking lesson, remember? It’s either today or never because we’re gonna be busy for a few weeks after this,” Kyungsoo explains while lending a hand to Kai so that he can stand up. He’s not that cruel, after all.

“It’s 8am! I thought you’re gonna teach me how to make lunch, which is hours away!” he whines, obviously unamused that someone has disturbed his sleep, even if it is his beloved.

“We need to go grocery shopping! Prepare all your mask and caps, we’re going undercover!” Kyungsoo displays a grin and Kai has no choice but to give in.

~

“I still don’t get it why you won’t just let our manager buy the groceries for us. It’s such a hassle to go on your own,” Kai whispers under his cap and side-eyes Kyungsoo, who is acting like nothing is out of the norm.

“I’d like to pick my own fruits and veggies, thank you very much. You wouldn’t understand,” he replies and holds Kai’s hand in order to shut him up. Works every time.

“Hurry up, we need to get into the store before somebody notices!”

They fasten their foot steps and try as hard as they can to not look like idols under cover on the way to the grocery store.

“Okay, now let’s look at the ingredients. We need some bacon, onions, spaghetti, garlic, tomatoes and some more apples. I only brought 50 dollars here, so don’t go around picking up expensive stuffs without thinking,” Kyungsoo warns with a stank eye. He knows that Kai has a habit of buying things compulsively, and throws a tantrum if he can’t get it.

Giving an innocent, confused look, he scratches his ear and changes the topic, “ What are you going to teach me today?”

“I’m going to teach you my star dish – Kimchi Spaghetti. I know how much you guys love it,” Kyungsoo’s eyes sparkle, just like every time he talks about cooking.

“Awesome! I’ve been wanting to learn that. Let’s see how far can I butcher this dish of yours..”

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I wouldn’t, but my cooking skills says otherwise.”

Kai sticks out his tongue and runs to the vegetable aisle with Kyungsoo on his lead, who is having trouble running with a shopping basket.

After half-an-hour of shopping, they finally picked out everything that is in the shopping list and is ready to pay.

At the cashier, Kyungsoo shouts out unconsciously,”I TOLD YOU NOT TO TAKE EXPENSIVE THINGS!” He then takes out a box of expensive chocolates from the basket and waves it in front of Kai.

“...but it’s my favourite and they’re having it on sale.” Commence the puppy eyes.

Since they’re already at the front line of the cashier, he gives in and mentally prays for everything to add up to 50 dollars or lower.

“Wait, aren’t you guys Kyungsoo and Kai from EXO?” the cashier stops and stares at them.

The both of them freezes and awkwardly gives out fake coughs and fixes the cap and mask.

“Uhh, of course not. Thanks for the compliment though. We’re kinda sick, so can you please speed things up a little bit?” Kai does some damage control and fidgets uncontrollably.

The cashier shrugs and continues her job, much to the relief of Kaisoo.

“I totally saved our asses back there. Your shrilly scream could be recognised anywhere,” Kai teases and Kyungsoo just makes a whatever face, rolling his eyes.

“You still owe me 15 bucks for that box of chocolates though.”

~

“Okay, now. Let’s get cookin’!” Kyungsoo happily declares and throws an apron to Kai, who catches it suavely.

“What is this? I get a frilly, pink apron when yours are much more cooler with the superman logo. This is not fair!” Kai expresses indignantly, looking at his girly apron.

“Well, this is my kitchen, So I’m the superman in charge in here, while you’re the... assistant in a frilly, pink apron. Chop chop, we don’t have all day!” he waves his spatula around and smacks Kai’s with it. Kai gives a very suggestive grin and gets smacked in the face.

“Don’t think dirty thoughts in the kitchen. We make food in here! Okay now I want you to take these vegetables and wash them for me. After that, I’ll let you do all the cutting. I’m the boss here today, so I get to boss you around. Don’t complain!”

Kai groans and kicks himself for making such request in the first place. Why did he want Kyungsoo to teach him how to cook so much? It’s because he wants to apologise for the last time he left him alone to clean his mess. He knows how much Kyungsoo loves cooking, so probably asking him to teach him something that he loves would make him happy.

Besides, it’s been awhile since they’ve spent time together alone.

Kai practically drags his feet to the sink, and opens the tap. Out of clumsiness, he drops a few tomatoes that rolls over to Kyungsoo’s feet beside him.

“We’re not even started yet, and you’re already like this. I foresee a lot of headaches in the future.” He picks up the tomatoes and gently puts them on the sink, so that Kai can continue his washing.

“Okay, done. What’s next?”

“Cutting up the ingredients! You need to dice the onions and tomatoes, mince the garlic, and cut the meat into cubes.”

Dice.. mince.. cubes..

”Come again? I can’t understand you except for the part of me cutting the ingredients,” Kai looks at Kyungsoo with a confusing look. He really doesn’t have a clue about what the man is saying.

Shaking his head, he takes a knife and puts it into Kai’s hand. He then proceeds to hold the said hand and show Kai how it needs to be done.

“You are really hopeless, you know. Why in the world am I even attracted to you in the first place,” he ponders to himself while adjusting himself behind Kai, hand still on Kai’s hand. They are both standing near the kitchen counter, Kyungsoo’s face on Kai’s shoulder.

In a split second, Kai steals a quick kiss and grins at Kyungsoo’s shocked expression.

“That’s why.”

Blushing , Kyungsoo ignores Kai and focuses on the knife and the chopping board.

Kai learns how to dice, mince and cut in cubes in no time. Although if left to cut by himself, he’ll make uneven and messy chops, but it’s okay for begginers, Kyungsoo thinks.

“Let’s cook the spaghetti! Kai, take two pots from the cupboard under above the sink. We’ll use one for the spaghetti and the other for the sauce.”

Kai successfully takes out two pots without making a mess, and Kyungsoo gives him a thumbs up for that which earns an eye-rolling in Kai’s part.

“Open this packet of spaghetti while I fill this pot up with water,” he hands him the packet and brings the pot to the sink. A few seconds later, he heard a forceful sound, accompanied with the sound of uncooked spaghetti dropping to the floor.

Just as he thought.

“Sorry?” Kai smiles cutely and cowers away in his clothes, closing his eyes. He’s very much prepared for what he is going to get.

He opens his eyes again at the pain felt in his head courtesy of Kyungsoo hitting him with another packet of uncooked spaghetti.

“I knew this would happen, I bought extras.”

Saved by extra packets of spaghetti.

Throughout the whole lesson, Kyungsoo keeps on giving  cooking tips and advices.

“The key to cooking the spaghetti is to put a little salt in the water, so that it doesn’t turn out tasteless.”

“Always taste the sauce. Add salt and pepper to get the perfect taste, but don’t overdo it! You don’t want to serve salty food to the others,” he warns.

“Maybe I do.” Kai smiles mischievously, eyebrows wiggling.

“Don’t be a second Luhan. My reputation is at stake here.”

Kai just nods and absorbs in the new information as much as he can.

~

After an hour of running around in the kitchen, Kai finally finishes his kimchi spaghetti.

“Everyone will know I didn’t make this,” Kyungsoo speaks out, looking at the final product, which looks quite different from the original thing.

“Are you kidding me? I put all the chefs to shame!” Kai boastfully compliments his dish, while Kyungsoo eyes him weirdly.

“Are we looking at the same kimchi spaghetti here?”

“Meanie.”

~

They served Kai’s dish for lunch to the members.

The horrified look on everyone’s face when they heard that Kai made it was priceless. Kris even convinced them to order out, but Suho stopped him before he could dial in the number for Chinese.

Suho thought it was best to give Kai’s dish a try. The worst that could happen is them having diarrhae and skip practices, which is not entirely a bad thing.

Surprisingly, the spaghetti kimchi tasted delicious, much contrary to the appearance.

Kai nods proudly at Kyungsoo, who only smiles in return.

“I told you I bring all the famous chefs to shame!” Kai shows off, still not letting everything pass.

“Well, in the cooking world, you don’t look at the disciples, they look up to the master that trained the disciple. Just saying.”

They are now in the confinement of their room, exhausted from a day of cooking. Body immediately finding its way to the bed, they plop themselves down and rest with their eyes open, looking at the ceiling.

“It was fun though. Today. It’s been awhile since I’ve had this much fun cooking. Oh, before I forget, why is it that you want to learn how to cook anyway? It’s not like you’re going anywhere far away from us, and I’m the one who cooks for you guys,” Kyungsoo tosses sideway in their bed and looks directly at Kai, still smiling as widely as before.

Kai turns to look at him and faces him with a smile on his own and steals yet another kiss from Kyungsoo.

“This is the reason why,” he whispers to him and gives out a soft smile, eyes sparkling with sincerity. After a moment of staring, he stands up and heads to the bathroom for a shower.

Expecting something more, Kyungsoo just laid there, still shocked at Kai’s actions. It is obviously seduction.

Such a tease.