Jongin keeps me in his embrace for a lingering while. His warmth releases the troubles I have inside, like fever that's pampered with compressed ice. The scent of mint emanates from his smooth skin and it smells naturally captivating, adding to the comfort he unknowingly does to me.

"You've gotten chubby.." He whispers, squeezing me more.

But it brings me to abruptly panic, and I shove myself from him. Crap crap crap! He notices my baby fats!! Will this put him to a suspicion that I'm not Jaera?

"Hey... I like it, it makes you more huggable.." Jongin chuckles, pulling me back.

For unknown reason, the sound of Jongin's chuckle strikes my heart to start. His boyish smile stuns me for a moment, making me ridiculously speechless.

"I said I like it," He says.

“N-No i-it's not that.."

"Then why are you blushing so hard?"

"I'm not blushing!" My head drops shamefully.

Jongin is studying me intently, and it makes me even more agitated.

"Stop that." He speaks after that short while.

"S-Stop what?"

"Stop scratching your leg, it turns me on."

I shoot back at his face automatically as my hands still on my sides. His gaze is dark and threatening, and I'm back to being nervous when he's like this. Not knowing what to do, I bend down to pick up the coat that has fallen on the floor. What must I do next? What shall I say? Think, Jaemi, Think.

"Uhh.. H-Have you... eaten? I ask stupidly.

Jongin raises an eyebrow. "Not yet.. Why?"

He's asking me why! Stupid, stupid, how can I not think of a better question?!

"Uh.. I don’t know, I-I can cook for you if you want?"

"You? Cooking? Where?.. Here?" He asks, surprised.

"Uhh, yes? What do you want for dinner?" I try to hide my nervousness.

Jongin laughs once again and quirks his head to a side. "This is so rare."

"Huh?"

"I dunno,” He says, “Anything. Whatever you can cook."

"Err.. okay." I fidget awkwardly, feeling totally stupid. "I-I'll j-just.. buy.. groceries… for a moment. Anyway it's still a bit early. I"ll be quick!" I turn around when Jongin catches my arm.

"Let's just settle with fried chicken, I have lots in the fridge." He begins to pull me inside his room and closes the door behind us.

Once inside, I search for the kitchen area immediately, proceeding to my task just to prevent being awkward with him. Jongin trails behind me wordlessly. Although it's not my first time to be here, I can’t help but to admire his pad; its theme speaks masculinity and sophistication. A bit reluctantly, I open the fridge and become surprised to see that it's extremely loaded and untouched.

"Wow." I mouth.

"A maid comes here every week; leaving over some groceries, doing some cleaning.." Jongin explains initiatively, reading over my amusement.

"Oh."

"Everything gets spoiled though, I rarely eat in here."

"W-Why?"

Jongin laughs impassively. "Obviously I can’t cook, I might even put this building on fire if I try."

It makes me laugh.

His fridge has everything. It is complete with different cuts of meat, even kimchi, canned juices, milk, eggs, vegetables, spices, and many others—all sorted and organized. So at first, what I intended to do is just to prepare fried chicken, but I decided to prepare another dish to put the other foodstuff to use.

I take a few vegetables such as radish, squash and cabbage. Good thing that he has soybean paste and tofu and peppers too.

Jongin is curiously staring at me and I try to neglect the nervousness that I feel. Not just the nervousness, but Jongin as well. I begin to turn the stove on and leave the beef I'm boiling. As I wait for the beef stock, I chop the vegetables gradually. But still, my heart is beating so fast and I can’t even twist it for moderation. Jongin leans over the counter and stands beside me, observing casually. I try to focus on what I'm doing but he keeps on inching closer, making our arms touch. It feels like electricity to my skin, and so I move off a little from him.

It feels incredibly distracting. I turn to peek at him at the corner of my eye, and what I see is his chocolate skin and his… flat stomach.

"C-Can y-you perhaps wear a shirt?" I ask.

Jongin chortles a little, facing me. "Why?" A smirk graces his plump lips as he leans closer.

“I-I don’t know, j-just wear something.."

"Does this distract you?"

YES! IT'S SO DISTRACTING! "Uhh, n-never mind.." I stutter and turn to the beef stock as an excuse to escape him.

But he follows me again and stops next to me. I awkwardly stride back to the counter and chop the squash even though I’m already done with it. My legs are trembling so I move and move around just to prevent myself from being obvious that his presence bothers me to a high level.

I don’t know how I managed to withstand Jongin, but I'm very glad that I was able to cook rice during that breath- time. The vegetable soup is almost done too. I check on the boiling pot and seep the taste, and it doesn’t taste so bad. I begin to prepare the chicken meat in a big bowl, pouring an amount of flour, pepper, and salt altogether.

I hear Jongin squirm which makes me turn to him.

"Are you hungry already?" I ask.

Jongin's lips curves to a smirk again, leaning over the counter with one hand, facing me.

"Very hungry."

I panic jumpily, "I'm so sorry! Just wait a little more, Its almo—"

"Not for food." He inserts.

"Wha-what?"

"You.” His voice rises a little, “I'm hungry for you. I want to have you right now but you keep on resisting me."

I might have jumped from the shock. His glare immobilizes every part of me.

"I'm s-sorry..” I stutter, “I didn’t—“

But in a fast daze, Jongin corners me over the counter and claims my lips. My mouth falters with the sudden attack, and he kisses me hard and hungrily. The hammering in my chest becomes too much. I can’t think straight, I can’t function when he's taking my breath away. I am weakened by his audacity, and my hands fall to my sides, surrendering. Jongin feels it, and his hold of me softens. His kiss becomes slow and tender, divulging my quivering lips into a different pace.

"T-The soup.." I whisper against his lips, getting my state of thought back to reality.

Jongin ignores my remark but I place my thumb between our lips, stopping him. Jongin breathes hard, staring at me in disbelief. His chest is heaving heavily.

I haven’t even noticed that I'm already seated over the counter and Jongin's half-carrying me to reach his height that we're leveling and face to face. We breathe hard as our foreheads touched. My heart pounds painfully and it might drop. "Don’t be like this, please.." I whimper between hard breaths.

Jongin drops his head and in a breath. "What's stopping you? What's wrong Jae? Wha—“

"I didn’t come here for this Jongin,"

Jongin doesn’t speak. The look on his face speaks something between hunger and solemnity.

"Please… I.. I just want to be with you… to see you. Cant we j-just be like that?"

Jongin looks up and meets my eye, consuming the message that I'm telling him in silence.

For a moment we just stare at each other's eyes till he nods in understanding. He cups my face lightly and plants a quick kiss on my lips before backing away, letting the moment go.

*

I don’t know what happened but there's something about what I said that has somewhat changed Jongin as we begin to eat the dinner that I prepared. He has finally worn a shirt too and he makes me feel less nervous than before. He doesn’t give me the dark stare too.

Quite frankly, I like it.

Yet, there is still this throbbing in my heart as I watch him eat the food that I cooked. Does he like it? Why isn’t he saying anything? I begin to gorge an adequate amount in my mouth and I feel satisfied with my work. But the point is, how about Jongin?

"I love it babe so stop looking at me and eat already." He interjects, as if he  could read my thoughts.

I smile after hearing it from him. It relieves me that he loves it.

Then I suddenly remember the purpose that I came here. "Anyway.. A-About the news.. about, you know… the guy—"

Jongin interjects. "I don’t give two s