eight: shrimp fried rice

Did I hear that right? Are the words that left his mouth really the words that I heard with my own two ears? Is this Hitler reincarnate really asking me out for dinner? Is he really asking me this? But really, the question that’s stealing the spotlight is... Should I say yes?

I gawked at him for probably the longest time ever recorded gawking at a person – long enough for Kris to revert back to his pissed attitude. Kris lifted up a hand and pinched my cheek so suddenly that my nerves shot up tenfold and it hurt twice.

“Ouch!” I whined as he stretched my cheek, the frown on the blonde idiot’s face twitching up to a satisfied smile.

“Oh, your cheeks are pretty flexible.” He said, his hand still attached to my cheek.

“Stoff ih, you bashtar!” I whined stop it, you bastard while my cheek was being pulled to breaking point. I stepped on his foot, earning a yowl from him as he finally released my cheek. “Are you a kid or something?!” I said once I rubbed and massaged my aching cheek.

“Tch,” Kris hissed as he stared at his foot. “I’m sorry, your staring disturbed me so much I regressed back 10 years.”

“Sh-Shut up!” I spat back. “Anybody who was asked such a thing like that out of the blue would be surprised!”

“Not as surprised as you.” Kris raised an eyebrow. “What? Feeling shy?”

I tried not to blush but I pretty much knew it was too late. My cheeks heated up as I stared down at my own two feet. “N-No...” I shouldn’t have tried to lie. It failed miserably.

Kris chuckled victoriously and I wanted to spit at his shoes. I shot a glare back at him before turning around to head for the exit or some staircase somehow. Kris blinked and decided not to chase after me, instead he opted to call out, “So is this a yes?”

“Whatever!” I yelled back, walking down the hall to, finally, a staircase near the end of the hall.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.”

“Don’t put words into my mouth!”

“Well someone has to do it, right?”

Jerk, jerk, jerk! I blushed as I ran for the stairs. When I was out of view, I leaned back against the wall to catch my breath and to put a hand up to my chest, only feeling the heavy pounding of my heart for the first time. Oh my god. I thought as I gulped; as if gulping down the lump in my throat would help make my cheeks revert back to their natural color. Calm down. Calm down Park Chanyeol.

I moved my hand all the way up to my forehead, as if checking to see if I had a fever because I sure felt like I did. I was dizzy and panting and just plain exhausted but a part of me was, dare I say it? Happy.

I found myself sitting on one of the steps of the staircase. “.... Dinner...” I mumbled as I ran a hand through my hair. I’m going to have dinner with him.

, why do I like it?

I found myself back at my apartment – for lack of anything and any place to escape to. I tried to calm myself down and while it worked for the first hour since I arrived, the nerves suddenly returned every time I glanced at the clock because Kris’s shift at the cooking school was about to end and I wasn’t ready at all for what was to come afterwards.

I sat in my bathtub for a while, wondering why I had decided to take a bath so early in the afternoon, not really ready to admit that it was because I was getting pretty giddy about our date. I was hoping to see if the cool waters could have some kind of effect to my forever hot face. I splashed myself with water, mumbling, “You’ve got to be kidding me...” Nothing seemed to work and I was beginning to worry nothing ever will.

When I finished taking a bath, I was changing and drying my hair with my towel. It was during this time when I heard the knocks on the door and the hard pounding of my heart all over again.

“C-Coming.” I called out from the bathroom, my hair not entirely dry but a part of me didn’t want to keep whoever it was (though I had a pretty good idea who) waiting. I threw the towel aside and ran to the door. When I opened it, lo and behold, Kris was behind it all dressed up in casual clothing once again. I tried to keep a straight face but the fact that my hair was still dripping wet kind of gave it away that I was nervous as hell.

“You want to catch a cold or something?” He skipped any form of greeting and inquired, raising a smug eyebrow.

Somehow it calmed me down for a moment. I rolled my eyes. “You caught me in the middle of a bath.” I lied. I was way done with my bath. Why the hell did I have to lie to him about that though? I bit my bottom lip and held the doorknob for support. “Well?”

“Well?” He echoed. “Why don’t you dry your hair properly and get ready?”

“What?” I gawked at him again before clearing my throat, “A-Are we really...?”

“Yes.” He answered my unfinished question as if he knew what I was going to ask. Well, my guess is that it was pretty obvious what my question was going to be. “Dry your hair. If you catch a cold, I’m not held accountable for it.”

Selfish bastard. I thought to myself as I swung around to head back to the bathroom. I stopped midway and turned slightly, hiding a part of my face that was turning red from embarrassment. “You can come in, you know?”

“...” Kris tilted his head before smiling, “Fine then.” The moment he stepped inside my apartment, which wasn’t the first time mind you, I felt the whole world suddenly corner me. I bolted out of there and hid behind the safety of my bathroom, grabbing the towel from somewhere only to smother my face with it. Forget drying my hair, my whole body was on fire all over again and I had this insane urge to take a bath once again just to cool it back down to normal body temperature.

Of course, I had no time for that anymore. I looked at myself on the mirror and realized that this wasn’t normal anymore. This was beginning to take over my whole mind. This was something I needed help with and for some strange reason; Kris’s name was the only name popping in my head that could help deal with this. I pressed my hot forehead against the glass. Hot to cool. I sighed, mentally and emotionally prepping myself.

When I returned to the living room (after this impromptu ritual thing that I did in the bathroom to calm myself down), Kris was seated on my two-person sofa, relaxed as ever and skimming through some of my magazines.

“I was beginning to think you had fallen asleep in there.” Kris said, not bothering to look at me as he flipped a page.

“I wouldn’t!” I spat, walking over to him just to prove to myself that it wasn’t because of Kris that I was feeling this way. That it wasn’t Kris who is the solution to my problem.

“Oh really?” Kris timely looked up and I froze. Oh god. I began to sweat and I pulled myself back, looking aside. God dammit. So much for proving to myself. Kris threw the magazine aside and stood up, our nearly similar heights suddenly dawning on me. “Well, ready?”

“....” I made a face. He smirked.

“Is that a yes again?”

“Stop it.” I grumbled, turning around to take my coat. I heard him chuckle at the background and I admittedly felt with every fiber of my being that it was the best sound in the world right now.

I followed him to what looked like his own apartment complex and it hit me like a freight truck that we were going to eat at his place. I grabbed his arm, much like how I grabbed it at the marketplace and asked stupidly, “Are we eating at your place?”

He gave me a look that screamed: no , Sherlock because obviously, his apartment is right there. I instantly pulled back my hand and blushed.

“Never mind then.” I mumbled but he laughed softly at my reaction.

“Were you hoping for something else?”

“No...” I looked aside. “S’just that... I didn’t know...”

“Well,” He hummed as we climbed the steps to his apartment, “I thought I’d let you taste some of my cooking once in a while too.”

Again, my heart leapt. I gulped, “Well... it’s not the first time.”

“What?” He turned around, just time with us arriving at his front door. I can already tell, from the door alone, that this was going to be a nice place to live in.

“That time...” I muttered. “When you made potato with vinega