Chapter 20: Lie

"Baekhyun-ah! How old is this potato?! It's growing eyes!"

Baekhyun looked up from the dining table where he'd been banished. Phone in hand, he was still clad in his blazer and pressed white shirt from work, though he'd loosened the top few buttons. He blinked, baffled, at the brown thing in JaeHee's hand, which appeared to have sprouted little green leaves since he'd last seen it.

"Umm," he offered sheepishly.

JaeHee smiled wryly and sighed, tossing the germinating vegetable in the wastebasket. "Why did you even buy it?" Her voice issued from the kitchen as she rifled through the fridge and cabinets. "Can you even cook a potato?"

"I was...feeling ambitious?" Baekhyun mused. A little grin wound its way to his lips. He had no idea when or why he'd picked up a potato at the supermarket, let alone when he'd last been in one.

JaeHee shook her head, hiding a smile of her own behind long blonde locks. "Keep your ambitions to the office," she chastised with ill-concealed amusement. "They're less dangerous there."

"How do you live, I wonder sometimes," she continued, musing to herself as she accumulated usable ingredients on the countertop.

"We could've gone out," Baekhyun reminded her, as he glanced curiously over the breakfast bar to see what she was doing.

A bounce of loose blonde ringlets expressed the same sentiment she had earlier. "It's rare enough you have time...restaurants are so impersonal." Restaurants were for youngsters just starting to date. Engaged, JaeHee felt discomfort around them, seeing their lively vivacious banter and happiness, the surreptitious glances they stole at one another. It made her wonder if it all went downhill after the initial attraction, the honeymoon phase. It also made her wonder if she had done something wrong or missed some memo, when Baekhyun no longer looked at her the same way - or if it was all just in her head.

"Good thing I brought some groceries," she carried on as packages rustled beyond Baekhyun's line of sight. "I know you well, Byun Baekhyun."

"Mm. Are you sure I can't help?" Baekhyun tried again for good measure.

"Nope! You're good right where you are." JaeHee smiled as she busied herself with the challenge of making dinner in Baekhyun's kitchen.

Baekhyun frowned to himself but didn't push the issue. He turned his attention back to his phone, where a few emails had just come through for work. He opened one and read through it, and had just begun composing a reply when JaeHee piped up again.

"Could you set the table?"

Inwardly, Baekhyun protested. She had barely begun cooking, and he'd just gotten into his email after she'd dismissed his assistance. He stood, however, and pulled two place settings of flatware from the cabinets.

JaeHee flashed him a small smile. He returned it with a tenuous curve of his lips as a sense of malaise clouded his thoughts. Once the table was set he drifted off to the bedroom to hang his blazer in the closet.

"How's the artist search going?" JaeHee asked as she commandeered a meal out of Baekhyun's ill-equipped kitchen. The woman could do magic, there was no question about it.

Baekhyun looked up from the tablet he'd retrieved from the study. A thoughtful expression painted his features, then he smiled wryly. "Haven't found the one yet."

He was met with the sound of a spoon banging on the edge of a pan. "Any leads?"

Baekhyun chuckled. "If I was a detective, that might be true," he allowed gently. "But it doesn't work quite like that."

JaeHee's cascade of blonde waves bounced as she tossed a quizzical pout across the breakfast bar.

"Then how does it work?" She asked, turning her attention back to the stove.

Baekhyun hummed. "Well you go to lots of shows. See hundreds of acts perform. Lots of research. Lots of demo tapes. It's not a familiar model here - it's the opposite of the academy bred idols. It's something of a Eureka moment when you find the one - or so I'm told. It's an uncommon model in Korea." He smiled wistfully, cradling his cheek in his palm with a faraway look in his eyes. He was still waiting for that moment. "And even then, you run the risk of being wrong. Everything can be perfect but the target audience's tastes have changed."

He missed the slight frown that furrowed JaeHee's brow, the shake of her head as she checked on the rice.

"Are they really perfect when you find them? Or do they become that way after you work with them, put time and money into them?"

Baekhyun turned a thoughtful gaze at JaeHee, whose flaxen head was all he could see from where he sat. "Yeah, but there is a spark - something promising about them that gets them signed in the first place. You take a risk on them, but they have something from the start - something people will pay for- and not just the music at that."

"Mm," said JaeHee, and nodded. It was pleasant to hear Baekhyun upbeat and speaking passionately about work - or anything for that matter. When he became animated and smiled and his eyes lit up, it always made her heart quicken.

They lapsed into quiet, Baekhyun turned back to his emails, setting his phone aside to work on the larger screen of his tablet, JaeHee to dinner. Quickly immersed, he didn't realize JaeHee had finished cooking until a dissonant humming seeped into his conscious mind. Frowning, he glanced up. JaeHee had managed to whip up a decent bibimbap and was humming a song under her breath as she served them both a portion. Two shot glasses and a small green glass bottle sat between their place settings.

"Maybe Next Time?" He asked, with a wry uptilt of his lips. "From Kris' new album?" She was butchering it considering that she couldn't rap nor carry a tune, but he knew the song well enough.

"Yeah! It was playing on the radio all day," she grinned as she settled in the chair beside him.

Baekhyun quirked a half smile at the portion on his plate. For a moment he simply blinked at it, as his palms rested flat on his thighs. Eyebrows lifted; he drew a deep breath and exhaled a sigh.

"He's going to do it."

"Mou?" JaeHee asked, cocking her head in puzzlement as she cracked open the bottle of soju.

"Kris. He's going to perform at our--"

"Baekhyun-ah!!!" JaeHee yelped, leaping out of her chair to sling her arms around Baekhyun's neck. "You're serious?!"

Baekhyun grinned. "Yeah. He said he'll do it. And he'll have his guys DJ." He winced lightly at the enthusiastic kiss pressed to his temple, but his smile didn't falter. With JaeHee all but in his lap, he rested his arms around her waist.

"Ahh, you're amazing," JaeHee rested her temple against Baekhyun's cheek. "I'm the luckiest woman in the world," she announced with a pleased hum. She pulled back slightly, wearing an ebullient smile. One hand rested at the back of his neck, the fine, short hairs at his nape. She lifted the other to his face and trailed the backs of her fingers down his cheek. "Thank you," she said with a smile that radiated earnest gratitude.

The kiss that followed was simple and chaste. It didn't make Baekhyun's toes curl or set his heart aflutter - it never had. But now he knew how much more it could be. Intimacy was no longer an elusive daydream, an emotionless act. Every kiss with Chanyeol brought heat to his skin and fed a flame deep inside. The mere thought of it made him flush.

The moment was saved from drawing out by a timely rumble of his stomach. With a grin, he gently pushed JaeHee off his lap. "Let's eat," he said. Reaching out he unscrewed the cap of the soju bottle and poured for both of them. Lifting his glass between middle finger and thumb, he held it out and clinked it to JaeHee's. "To your magical kitchen skills," he toasted with a chuckle, and downed the shot.

The alcohol slid smooth and easy down his t