Like anyone else, Joonmyun's got his share of talents. He can sing like an angel and dance like a professional, he's good at public speaking, he can blow like the most expensive , and his looks aren't half bad -- if being hot counts as a talent. But, also like anyone else, he's got his share of... untalents. Joonmyun is absolutely awful at being painstakingly y of his own will, he can't take care of toddlers worth , and his cooking skills are certainly not up to par. 

 

     Unluckily for Joonmyun, his boyfriend and the love of his life, Chanyeol, loves being cooked for.

 

     But, luckily for Joonmyun, his best friend Kyungsoo is an aspiring chef attending a culinary arts school. Every Tuesday, Kyungsoo visits Joonmyun's apartment after classes to give him a cooking lesson, and today happens to be the first Tuesday of Joonmyun's "level-seven lessons-session with Doctor Do" (as Kyungsoo so insists on calling it, but Joonmyun refuses to). They're crowded around the stainless steel convection oven covered in ingredients ranging from egg whites to God-knows-what-that-is and clad in frilly aprons of the girliest genre, anticipation high as the fruit of their hours worth of labor (okay, more like thirty minutes worth) is finally being unveiled.

 

     "Careful, Joonmyun," Kyungsoo advises softly, laying a guiding hand on his best friend's flour-covered arm as Joonmyun slowly pulls the oven door open. "Do not make any sudden movements and absolutely do not speak any louder than in a whisper."

 

     Joonmyun nods curtly to acknowledge the advice, ducking his head into the heat of the oven so Kyungsoo can't see the growing smile on his face. He has to bite his lip to suppress a giggle because he doesn't want his friend to be offended that he thinks it's funny how Kyungsoo takes cooking so seriously. When a gasp of admiration spills over Kyungsoo's full lips at the perfection that is Joonmyun's first souffle, though, the task of keeping quiet becomes all too hard, and a strangled form of laughter makes its way out of Joonmyun's throat. 

 

     Kyungsoo slaps the back of his head and Joonmyun whimpers because ow Kyungsoo has really thin and slightly bony fingers.

 

     "Sh," the cooking connoisseur hisses, "I told you to whisper."

 

     "Yeah, and you also told me not to make any sudden movements, but look what you just did. Pretty sure slapping is a sudden movement." With the hand that's protected by a quilted, pink oven mitt, Joonmyun cautiously reaches in and tucks the rim of the souffle dish underneath his thumb. He can feel Kyungsoo's hand tense on his arm and he mumbles with a roll of his eyes, "A souffle is not a wild animal, 'Soo. I can handle this." 

 

     Kyungsoo doesn't reply even though he wishes he could've, because by the time he has a chance to, Joonmyun's already very, very slowly sliding the dish to the edge of the oven rack. Kyungsoo's eyes are as round as the spring-green bowl they mixed the ingredients in and his chest is painfully tight where his breath is stuck in his esophagus at the suspense. A souffle is an incredibly delicate creation and in this moment, even after an accumulative of forty-two grueling days of lessons, Kyungsoo doubts that Joonmyun has the cooking expertise to handle one.

 

     Unsurprisingly, his faith in Joonmyun is restored when the souffle makes it to the counter unfallen. 

 

     They both let out a sigh of relief before flashing each other a quick smile and Joonmyun turns on his heel to open the refrigerator door, as parlaid by the instructions Kyungsoo had earlier recited to him. The worst part is over, and now they can rest easy. Humming to himself, Kyungsoo gently lifts the souffle again to transfer it to its new resting place while they wait for Chanyeol to come home and taste their creation, which is apparently much sooner than they had bargained for. 

 

     The door to the apartment flies open when Kyungsoo's that close to setting the souffle on the shelf of the fridge. The mahogany slab crashes into the wall adjacent to it with a loud bang that has Joonmyun flying back against the counter and Kyungsoo squealing like a baby piglet in surprise.

 

     "Baby, I'm home!" Chanyeol hollers ceerfully at the top of his lungs, throwing his duffel bag down on the carpet and kicking his shoes off rather disgracefully. His car keys clatter across the glass coffee table, easily pushing a newspaper that obstructs their path onto the floor, and that extra little flutter of the papers in motion is all it takes.

 

     The souffle, unwilling to put up with such a clamorous din any longer, falls.

 

     Kyungsoo, knuckles white from where he grips the bowl so ferociously, takes one look at it when he recovers at least to some extent and also falls.

 

     "The souffle!" he wails, cradling the bowl to his chest like it's a child that needs consolation from its mother as he lays on his side in a pile of patheticness. "My souffle! Chanyeol, damn you! Damn you! It was so perfect! This is the last time I will be giving you cooking lessons if your boyfriend continues to them all the hell up! Joonmyun, this is unacceptable!"

 

     Joonmyun, however, is not disgruntled in the least because honestly, it's just a souffle. He tuts at a sniveling Kyungsoo looking stupid on the floor before turning his chin to look at Chanyeol, a broad smile spreading across his round cheeks when their eyes meet. Chanyeol opens his long arms invitingly and Joonmyun rushes forward to bury himself in their embrace, cooing softly when Chanyeol encircles him in a warm hug and buries his nose in Joonmyun's reddish-brown curls that smell faintly of coconut. 

 

     "Baby," the taller exhales after taking a particularly deep whiff of Joonmyun's scent, his broad hand rubbing circles in the small of Joonmyun's back, "I missed you so much."

 

     Joonmyun can feel the smile on his face grow a little wider at that and he snuggles into his boyfriend's chest like a kitten seeking warmth. "I know, yeobo. You always tell me that when you get home from work."

 

     Chanyeol pulls back and plants a tender kiss on his boyfriend's supple lips. The gesture earns an exaggerated wretch from Kyungsoo in the kitchen, but neither Chanyeol nor Joonmyun care because the warmth the other gives is too distracting. Joonmyun only rolls his eyes again and giggles softly because unlike Kyungsoo, he's always loved the way Chanyeol busts in the door like he owns the place. Chanyeol's akin to a living hurricane, but Joonmyun doesn't mind it one bit.

 

     Like anyone else, Chanyeol's got talents, and one of those talents is making Joonmyun love him to pieces even when he's being an absolutely intolerable goofball.