MUFFINS

“And now, please find a partner,” the instructor said in front of us, waving his arms excessively as if he was standing in the middle of a bee swarm.

I looked down, fixed and straightened my pinkish apron – which I found extremely ugly by the way – with my hands before reaching up and tying up my chestnut brown hair to a high knot.

Just as I was about to walk around the room, I felt a light tap on my shoulder. I had some sentences ready in my head, like “Hi, do you want to be my partner for today?” and “Do you want to work with me?” All questions were laid out, but no answer.

“Hey,” I heard even before I had turned around.

I was facing a young man, his cool black hair falling loosely over his forehead, some strands covering his eyes while the left corner of his mouth was lifted into a crooked smile.

“Hi,” I said after I had examined him I flashed a smile as my eyes fell on his baby-blue apron its edges decorated with white laces. “Nice apron you got there,” I mentioned, trying to hold back a laughter behind my hand.

“Prettier than yours,” he smirked back, pointing to my apron. “Ready to make some muffins?”

I bit my lip, still grinning, as his long fingers swiftly opened a package of flour and poured it into a bowl, before weighing it on kitchen scales.

“Exactly 250 grams,” I whispered, my eyes widened in surprise at the three digits displayed on the little dark gray monitor.

“Impressed?” I heard his smile while he added some other ingredients to the bowl. “I hope it won’t stop you from helping me?”

“No,” I answered firmly, grabbing the sugar. After pouring my wanted 100 grams of it, I weighed it. 300 grams.

I quickly took it off the scale, but I heard him chuckling next to me.

“You just had a bit of luck.” I let out a disappointed sigh as I poured the sugar back into its package.

“Hold on.”

Still holding the bowl, I felt how his fingers wrapped around my hand. His skin was warm and I could feel his calm breath right next to my ear. He bent a little forward to guide my hand to the scale. I felt his heartbeat for a second.

As he stepped away from me, I noticed that I’d been holding my breath all the time. Eventually, I exhaled, feeling a light blush on my cheeks.

“You okay?” His voice sounded more like nagging than worried. He didn’t even look up at me while speaking because he was busy filling the muffin paper cups with the dough. The scent of sweet muffins filled the room, crept into my nose, as I watched him walking over to the giant oven on the other side of the room. The other pairs were almost done with their muffins, carefully putting pink and blue frosting on top of their little creations.

I was leaning against the kitchen counter, my arms crossed, my eyes watching him as he came back. He had broad shoulders; his apron seemed misplaced on his black pants and matching black shirt.

“What’s your name?” I asked as he stopped a meter away from me.

He looked at me, his eyes melting with mine. There was it again; my heart stumbled, stopped and started pounding even faster against my ribcage.

“Jongin,” he said out loudly.

‘Jongin,’ the voice in my head echoed over and over again. The corners of my lips curled up into a smile, but I quickly bit it down.

“Nice to meet you, Jongin,” I threw in to distract my lips.

Something about the way his eyes shifted on my face told me that he was looking for a name, but he didn’t ask for one.

“So you like baking?” Jongin asked, casually leaning against the counter too, making our arms touch.

Again, I had to hold my breath for a moment before I could answer. He let out a light chuckle as he saw my reaction, making me blush slightly.

“I hate baking actually.” His eyebrows raised, his lips forming a crooked smile. “It just makes me happy when I see other people being happy when they eat my ugly cakes.”

Jongin laughed softly next to me.

I didn’t know how much time passed when we were standing there, leaning against the counter, waiting. Waiting for our muffins maybe, but also waiting for the other one to break the silence.

Something rang behind us, the kitchen clock, making me cringe and him laugh.

At the beginning his laughter felt like he was making fun of me, but now it was different. Like there was a voice recorder in my head, replaying his words over and over again and, to be honest, it made me smile. Smile like an idiot. It made me happy. So I laughed too, every time he did.

Jongin came back with our – his – perfectly golden muffins which were still steaming and smelled like heaven. As soon as they had cooled down, it was time to decorate them.

It was Jongin’s turn first. His creation was a frosting made out of mint green and pastel violet stars and hearts flying on a cloud of perfectly whipped cream. The muffin was crowned with perfection, leaving me completely speechless.

“Nice, huh?”

He gave me a challenging look before his eyes moved to the cup in my hand which was filled with melted dark chocolate. Carefully, I took one of the muffins and placed it in front of me and slowly poured the liquid over it.

And then it happened.

Out of nowhere, as if someone had stomped on it, the top of the muffins shrunk, resulting my chocolate to form a little puddle. It looked like someone had chopped off the peak of Mount Everest and decided to fill the big hole with poo.

“,” I murmured almost inaudibly, before dropping the chocolate and covering my face with both of my hands out of embarrassment.

I froze in this position, one, or maybe even two minutes, before peeking through my fingers. I had some chocolate on my face, I could smell it, and this was another reason why I didn’t dare to reveal my reddened face.

But what I saw…

…was Jongin happily munching on the ugliest muffin which had ever existed on this planet. He was looking at me with a wide smile plastered on his face as the last piece of my failed first try disappeared between his lips.

“It was great though.”

I dropped my hands and my jaw, gawking at him, wide-eyed, my eyebrows furrowed. Just then I felt how my lips had formed into a smile again.

I smiled at him and Jongin grinned back.

He stepped right in front of me and bent down to my face, whispering, “The most delicious muffin I have ever eaten.”

I couldn’t help but let out a light chuckle at his words.

He added, “By the way, you’ve got some chocolate there,” before he pecked my cheek.