Chapter Nineteen –Baby Steps

“Have you eaten, Luhan-ssi?” Yoona took the initiative to dominate the conversation since Luhan seemed to be flustered. He may be taken aback to see her in such a shocking state. Anyone would be overwhelmed with astonishment if they were to see her tonight. It as if she was another person, though; her dress was quite racy that exposed some parts of her body. To be honest, she wouldn’t have worn this kind of dress if it wasn’t for Luhan. For God’s sake, she’d be insanely embarrassed as though she wasn’t wearing any clothes at all.

“Uhm... uh... I haven’t...” Luhan replied shakily, his eyes never budged at Yoona’s direction even for a slight. Plus. His heart never stopped beating so uncontrollably. “Do you prepare dinner, eh?”

Yoona nodded and smiled at him enthusiastically. “Yes, I’ve prepared some, Luhan-ssi. Do you want try a bite?”

“Uhm, alright...” answered the latter. Then, he followed her footsteps to the kitchen. He really hoped that the dinner time would be fine and the edginess inside his body would stop functioning. Little deep inside his heart, he wanted to spend his time with her in which they hadn’t spent time together for a quite while. He utterly longed for the moment they were both together, in such a blissful ambience.

Once they reached the kitchen, Luhan was drowned into a state of massive shock. He was flabbergasted to see the dining table was decorated so beautifully. The ligting was even limited to candles, rendering the atmosphere to be more relaxed. On top of that, the abundance of scrumptious dishes adorned on the table made the dinner looked so glorious.

Indeed, it was like a candlelight dinner that he couldn’t have imagined Yoona would prepare for him. It caused him to feel so touched by all her tenacity. Yoona had worked her body off for this reminiscent dinner. He was deeply moved, indeed.

“Y-you prepared all this?”

The younger nodded, smiling gleefully. “Yeah, I prepared all this, Luhan-ssi,” she said in a bashful tone. “Do you like it, by any chance?”

“I like it.” Luhan gave her a light nod. “Even though I wasn’t expecting this kind of dinner, thank you anyways.” Another sincere smile swept across his face and it rendered the younger to cringe in embarrassment.

Yoona grinned in bliss. The fact that her husband cherished this candlelight dinner eased her heart. To be honest, she wasn’t very confident about this plan of throwing this dinner. She was kind of afraid that Luhan may detest it or he even may toss everything around like he did before. But luckily, he didn’t. And of course, she felt very glad.

“Spaghetti carbonara?” Luhan asked spontaneously as he took a seat facing Yoona. He peered at the variety of dishes on the table. He had no idea how much time Yoona needed to make all these mouth-watering dishes.

“Why?” Yoona stared at Luhan as she swallowed her saliva nervously. Even though she had known that Luhan might do not want to eat the spaghetti like he did previously, Yoona still prepared him one. “Do you like spaghetti carbonara, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I like it,” Luhan replied cooly.Then, he took a sip of his drink before tasting the spaghetti. “It tastes good!” he blurted out as he took a bite of it. It indeed tasted deliciously good. It fit his taste very well.

“Really?” Yoona almost wanted to jump in joy as she heard Luhan’s comment.

He nodded with a wide smile. “Yeah, it really is. This spaghetti of yours really tastes good!”

Yoona grinned in satisfaction. The fact that Luhan favoured her dish really made her day, seriously. It felt like she was on the cloud nine.

Then, both of them continued to eat in such a relaxing mood. It was good for them as the atmosphere was slowly getting comfortable. Occasionally, they would stare at each other and chattering timidly.

Though the dinner turned out insanely awkward and they were pretty bashful with each other, Luhan still treasured the dinner as one of the best moments in his life. It gave him such a heavenly feeling as if they were dating instead of being spouses.

***

They ended up watching television after the dinner had ended. Though the tv programmes seemed to be amusing, Luhan could not help but always get distracted. He would steal a glance at her almost every seconds sneakily and without Yoona’s knowledge. Indeed, he had completely lost his concentration to the television.

He had no idea why he was being like this, though. And also, he did not know why he found that Yoona literally made him feel distracted the fullest. Everything about her made his heart flutter uncontrollably.

Once again, for the umpteenth time, his pair of eyes twinkled at Yoona more obviously than before. He even moved closer at her inch by inch. His head ducked forward to her as he moved slightly. Unfortunately, Yoona who was being composed previously, apparently noticed his glance, jerked her head in mild astonishment as soon as she coincidentally took a glance at the latter.

“Luhan-ssi?!” The younger’s eyes grew big as fell open. “What’re you doing?” A tinge of scepticism dripped in her words as she peered at the latter. Her eyebrows knitted forward quizzically.

“I... uhm...” Lost in words, he couldn’t utter any words to cover up himself as Yoona had caught him red-handed. “Actually... I had no idea why I did that.” He ended up making up a fake laugh. Probably, he did not want Yoona to draw into curiosity.

“Oh, I get it,” she merely answered even though she supposed Luhan was acting strange. Then, she shifted her eyes at the tv screen again.

“Uhm, Yoona-ssi,” Luhan had the guts to proceed the paused conversation. He could not help but want to ask Yoona some sort of questions.

Spontaneously, Yoona’s eyes averted at him again. Her eyebrows creased together as she tried to digest what Luhan was up to. “What’s the matter?”

“Do you, by any chance...” he deliberately trailed off and continued his paused words after swallowing his saliva edgily, “just prepared the candlelight dinner?”

Dumbfounded, her frown went deep as she tried to grasp his words. “What do you mean? I don’t get it.”

“Ah, nothing actually,” replied Luhan as he shook his head briskly, a laugh escaped from his mouth to cover up himself. All of a sudden, he felt a rush to stop the intention to interrogate Yoona though he was keen towards tonight’s event. He wondered if Yoona had prepared another event after the dinner like a confession from her or anything that may be logical. But after realising that they ended up resting themselves at the couch whilst watching tv, he supposed Yoona was not up for that. Somehow, dissapointment crawled over his heart but he tried to hold it back. He did not want Yoona to notice his sudden change.

“Oh, alright-”

“Wait a minute.”

“Eh?”

“Don’t you want to make a confession?” Eventually, he found himself to unveil his inner thoughts to her. He failed to hold his immense curiosity at all.

“Confession?” Yoona was dumbfounded. She did not understand what was Luhan referring to ‘confession’. She did not have anything to confess to him in particular, though. “I don’t have one, Luhan-ssi.” Yoona shook her head in return.

Luhan seemed dissatisfied; a devastated sigh emerged audibly as he lowered his head. Then, he managed to look at the younger back with a pair of passionate eyes. “Then, I shall make one.”

“Eh?” Yoona once again, fell into a state of surprise. She had no idea what had gotten into him, though. He had been pretty peculiar tonight (right after the dinner ended, to be exact). “You have a confession to make? About what?”

Luhan struggled to hold his breath in deeply and breathed it out as if he felt so composed.

Yoona, on the other hand, could not help but wait for his confession with a thumping heart. She found herself feel afraid that his confession might turn out to be something that might sadden her for the rest of her life for instance ‘let’s break this off,’ or ‘you and I are not compatible for each other,’ or even ‘I have grown to like someone else so we should cut this marriage off,’.

Everything may be possible but everything was up to Luhan. Yoona could only pray that it would not be dreadful as she wondered. But by any chance, if Luhan came up with a decision to part ways, she will accept his request wholeheartedly. She had it all throughout their bitter weeks and felt like to give up right now. How would she want to remain being Luhan’s wife if the latter did not love her even for an ounce of thin air?

Let’s break if off. How much longer are you going to cry yourself silly?

“Yoona-ssi,” the latter started in a sluggish voice. He seemed so composed as the gaze that laid on Yoona seemed calm, as calm as the water that flow