A week had passed and there was no mention from Ailee. I woke up the next morning to find that I was still heavily burdened with heaps of emotions. Our manager called me out as soon as I was awake and glared at me when he saw me. I had only stepped out of the dorm when started to chide me for leaving the company without his permission.

I just hung my head and took all his words in, I had no energy to talk back. After he had calmed down, manager hyung put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a slight squeeze. I gave him a weak smile in return and shrugged his hand off before re entering the dorm.

I spotted Junhong coming out of the bedroom at that very moment and went straight to him to apologize that I couldn't go to the movies with him. He seemed to understand as he half-heartedly nodded and reassured me that he was actually planning to go with Jongup if I wasn't going anyway.

Youngjae came out right at that moment and Junhong muttered something before retreating away from us. I caught Youngjae's sleepy eyes and subconsciously went over to him.

"I told Junhong I couldn't go to the movies with him," I said.

Youngjae raised an eyebrow at me and I continued, "We weren't doing anything else, honest. We were just talking for a few seconds when you came out of the room-"

I was cut short by Youngjae who commented curiously, "Why are you telling me this... It's not like I'm suspicious or anything."

Indeed, why was I explaining to Youngjae. I didn't know. Maybe because I thought he would misunderstand for sure. Or was it because I thought it was necessary?

Youngjae yawned and I cleared my throat.

"Do you want breakfast?" I asked him. "I can make some for you."

A smile lit up his features and he replied, "Really? That'd be great... although I'll have to make sure you won't eat it all up yourself."

"I won't if it's for you," I blurted out and blushed when he froze and blinked twice at my statement. "Come," I said and took his hand, leading him to the kitchen.

There it was again, the unmistakable flutter of something inside my chest. I was still confused as to what had triggered it but I thought I had a very good idea since it usually happened whenever Youngjae was around me.

I turned my back to him and faced the stove. I was determined to make the best pancakes Youngjae had ever tasted. Youngjae slid silently to a seat at the dining table and he watched as I took some ingredients from the fridge and the cabinets. As I was doing so, I glimpsed back from the corner of my eye at how Youngjae had his chin on his hands and was gazing at me with a dreamy look.

It made me feel slightly insecure and nervous with him staring at me like that so I whipped around and told him, "Youngjae ah... can you find something to do while I'm cooking?"

Youngjae smiled and took out his iPad from a bag I hadn't realized he was carrying.

"Are you going somewhere?" I asked him and he shrugged before smiling again and plugging his earphones into his ears.

I huffed, annoyed at his lack of response and turned back to my cooking. Soon, the pancakes were sizzling at the bottom of the frying pan and often, I had to snap myself back down to earth when I caught myself staring wistfully at the pancakes. Fortunately, the pancakes survived and I made sure there was enough for the both of us (six pancakes should be enough right?) and put the plates on the table.

I sat down opposite of Youngjae and reached over to unplug the earpiece from his ears before grinning and gesturing at the plates before him.

Youngjae eyed the food and looked at me bemusedly. "Are we expecting a party?" he asked.

"No, it's just you and me," I said and cut a piece of pancake before waving it in front of Youngjae's mouth.

"Say 'ahh...'," I said.

Youngjae chuckled and allowed himself to be fed by me, his cheeks tingeing a slight pink afterwards. We both ate in silence after that. I poured syrup onto my pancake and dug into it, occasionally looking up at Youngjae because I just couldn't help it. There was just something to the way he looked with the sun from the window behind me shining in his face. I felt myself marvel over the way he ate, how he delicately put a slice of pancake in his mouth and chewing it before swallowing it. How his Adam’s apple would bob up and down with each swallow...

"Dae yah," he said all of a sudden, snapping me back to reality.

"Yes?"

"This is really good," he said. "I didn't know you could cook."

Something warm filled my heart and my eyes lit up. "Really?" I said.

"Mmm," Youngjae replied, nodding his head. He then smiled, causing me to gulp and turn away.

This was too much, I had an inkling I was falling for him but I thought the feeling was just slight and temporary and that it would go away. However, it kept getting stronger as I found more and more reasons to like him.

Youngjae glanced at his watch, his eyes widening as he stood up and stuffed his iPad back into his bag.

"Dae... I need to go somewhere... I'm really sorry I couldn't finish the pancakes but I'm already late," he apologized.

"Where are you going?" I asked, my heart was already sinking fast.

"Er... somewhere... I won't be long, I promise," he said before rushing out of the kitchen.

I sat there, staring at his half-eaten plate of pancakes in front of me. It made me doubt that he was actually speaking the truth when he said he liked my cooking. I felt angry that he had lied to me like that. If he really didn't want to eat the pancakes, then he should've flat out told me instead of making some excuse that he needed to go somewhere. Which reminded me... where did he need to go off to so urgently? Curiosity overtook me and I thought, he wouldn't mind if I followed him right?

---

I watched from behind a van as Youngjae lingered outside a ‘closed’ bakery. He peered into the shop and I followed suit, wondering what he could be looking for. My question was answered when someone came down the unlit bakery before turning the lights on and unlocking the door for Youngjae. It was girl who looked like she was still in college. As she opened the door, her face turned into a look of utmost surprise when she saw Youngjae. After exchanging small bows to each other, the girl hastily invited Youngjae into her shop. Now there was something wrong with this and I planned to investigate further. Bending down really low, I snuck up to the bakery and hid behind a huge potted plant which was fortunately big enough to cover my body.

I peered through the window of the bakery, heaving a sigh of relief when I saw that Youngjae hadn’t noticed anything. If I dared say so myself, I was rather good at spying on people. Maybe they would like to consider me for their new James Bond movie.

I peered from between the leaves as the girl led Youngjae to the counter.  My stomach clenched when the Youngjae smiled at her and she blushed.

Youngjae flipped through a catalogue near the counter and the girl leaned forward and said something to Youngjae, her eyes fixed on his face. He looked up at her and laughed, apparently amused by what she said. The girl then continued flirting, twirling her hair and blushing and giggling whenever Youngjae said anything. I stared at the girl with distaste. Apparently she knew who he was as she pulled out a piece of paper and shyly handed it to Youngjae who gladly took it before signing on it.

I wasn't amused. The girl was swooning all over Youngjae by the looks she was giving him. He however, seemed unaffected... Or was he just in pretence? Thinking that it would make him look cool. A few minutes passed, with the two having a nonstop conversation and Youngjae flipping through the catalogue, until Youngjae wrote something on a piece of paper that the girl handed him before giving it back to her.

He was probably giving her his number and my insides boiled at the thought. Did that mean he purposely came to this shop so that he could flirt with that girl? My suspicions were confirmed when he bid her goodbye and left the shop without even buying anything.

But he was gay... Yet that didn't stop him from going into that shop and seeing that girl. It also didn't stop me from being so worked up over a single conversation between them. I didn’t know what was going on with me but I disliked the fact that Youngjae was meeting an overly clingy and obsessive girl... even if she was just a fan.

I dodged around a corner when Youngjae walked to my direction and took a shortcut back to our dorms so that I would reach there earlier than him. I caught Himchan at the dining table, munching on the uneaten pancakes. I was still in a foul mood so I just snapped at him, even though he was older than me, and shooed him out of the kitchen. Really, I thought while washing the plates. I should just pay Youngjae back by giving him the cold shoulder. He deserved it. I nodded firmly as I put the plates back to their respective places and roughly shoved past Youngjae as he entered the kitchen, wiping the smile off his face.

(A/N: Okay… this was a short chapter and it was practically nothing at all >< Sorry everyone, I just don’t have the ideas yet… and I thought maybe I’d just rather showcase Daehyun’s developing feelings for Youngjae first before the intense plot kicks in. Hehe… So yeah, just sorry for this one ^^”)