"Whoa, behind you!" alerts Chanyeol.

I let out a panicked squeak, and begin to rapidly fire down everything in sight.

The zombie on the screen lets out a piercing screech, just before crumbling down onto the floor, for the screen to move on. As this one dies, a couple more pop out from behind the rusty barrels, making us both automatically aim our guns at them. The group eventually falls down with the help of Chanyeol's grenade, allowing for our characters to progress further on. We discover a few extra bullets along the way, and Chanyeol laughs at how I'm constantly lifting my gun to the side, and stepping on the peddle on the floor, to reload my bullets.

Now, a choice between a door or the metal stairway appears on the screen, making us both stare at it.

I turn over to Chanyeol. "Which one should we take?" I ask.

He shrugs his shoulders. "You pick," he encourages. "They both look shifty, so..."

"Hmm..." I hum out loud. "The door looks like something most people will take, so...let’s take the stairs!"

"Wait, hold on—"

But I've already decided our path, and as soon as we reach the top, this giant, mutated figure drops down from the ceiling, to let out a horrendous cry.

My eyes widen, at the monstrosity of it. "Ew!" I yell out, with a cringe. "What the heck is that?!"

The zombie is now crawling towards us on all fours, and I begin to shoot in a frenzy.

"Yeah, I was going to say that the door is our way out," says Chanyeol, as he brings out another grenade.

The bomb takes a chunk of the monster's health bar away, but it's still not enough.

I gawk at him. "What do you mean you 'forgot'?!" yelps my voice.

Chanyeol laughs. "Come on, it’s okay," he declares. "We can do this!"

And right as he says that, the zombie's claw-like hand, creates a huge gash right across my screen.

My lips frown at the damage caused. "Dude, we're going to die!" I cry out. "Well, maybe just me, so—"

"Hey, hey, hey!" chides Chanyeol's humorous voice. "Don't die on me again, okay?"

The pout on his face makes me laugh. "Okay, okay, I'll try," I say, with an exaggerated sigh. "But I'm not making any promises."

We go on with our shooting for a while longer, and although the beeping on my side of the screen, (signalling my near death) is really distracting, I try not to stare at it too much.

And I'm not sure how it's happened, but our characters on the screen suddenly stop running, to watch the giant zombie before us, scream out in agony, before finally collapsing onto the floor.

It then hits me that we've just finished the last round, and our score is high enough, for our names to be entered into the system. Chanyeol and I both let out cheers of excitement, by giving each other a high-five with giddy hoots. As this happens, one or two people walking by, looks at us weirdly, but when they see the huge 'winner' sign, plastered onto the screen behind us, they quietly laugh to themselves. We both sooner or later tonne down our silliness, by finally typing in our names, except that there's one itty bitty problem—there's not enough room to type in both of our names together.

Chanyeol offers to put in my name, but I don't feel right about shining on my own, (even if it's just a game) since it was a team effort thing. So because of that, I tell him to go right ahead and click in his name, (since he did more) but he shakes his head, for also feeling the same. With that, the two of us stand here for a bit, feeling a little unsure as to what to do, until something appears to peace itself together in Chanyeol's head, making him at long last, type. I blink a little, as my mind quietly collects the letters that he's pressing in, and when it's finished, I laugh.

"'SuYeol'?" I read, in amusement.

Chanyeol grins at me in response. "Or do you prefer ChanBin?" he playfully says.

With a smile, I shake my head at him. "No, it's cool," I laughingly say. "Anyway, I think we should move, because there are people who want to play."

The two of us go back to exploring the arcade, and the next game that we play, is a dancing game. Chanyeol hesitates a little, (which is unusual of him to do) but quickly shakes that off, by inserting in a coin. Being familiar with this game, my hand is able to swiftly pick out the options for our arrow's speed, where we then go on, to select a catchy, and (what we think sounds like) a fun song, to dance to. I'm excited, but is soon feeling confused, when I see the slightly nervous look on Chanyeol's face, and...I think I have a slight idea why.

Because unlike how he was saving my from the zombies, this time, I'm the one who's keeping our health bar just a little bit over the 'game over' side.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" I say, with a frown.

My comment appears to make him miss a couple of more arrows. "Aish, I can't do this," he helplessly says. "Subin-ssi, I have something to tell you—I'm not a dancer."

I laugh a bit, as he continues to struggle. "And neither am I," responds my entertained voice. "You just have to follow the rhythm, and you'll be fine."

And even with that advice, (can I even call it that?) I see that Chanyeol is still hopelessly missing the arrows moving up the screen.

With my feet proceeding to step onto the blue and pink squares, I can't help but laugh at Chanyeol's grumbling, and stiff movement. His face would brighten up, whenever he would step at the right timing, but aside from that, his eyebrows would be furrowed together, with his lips curved down into an obvious frown of dissatisfaction. When the game finishes, Chanyeol attempts to shield me away from the screen, hoping to hide his low score from me, but I see it anyway, and . He feigns grumpiness, narrowing his eyes at me, but just ends up laughing alongside me, and admitting defeat.

"Hey, compared to Kris, I'm actually pretty good," he amusingly says.

This comment makes me curious. "Oh?" I say, with a raise of my eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Chanyeol snickers. "Let’s just say that...his dancing style is a bit like this—" Clicking his fingers together, Chanyeol begins to sway his body, by stepping from right to left. "He'll also do a bit of this," adds in the brunette. "And this—" Chanyeol continues on, to show me a few more cheesy, and very awkward dancing moves that the usual grandpa would do, and I just can't stop laughing, because it's hard to imagine.

Does Kris really dance like this?

The confused eyes that stare at him from afar eventually make Chanyeol stop, as he joins in with me, on the laughter. "Just don't tell him that I told you this, alright?" he cheekily says, with a wink.

With a nod of my head, I do the motion of zipping my lips together. "My lips are sealed," I pledge, with a giggle.

The two of us are now outside, and it surprises me, to see that the sun is now completely set.

I turn to Chanyeol, and show him a thankful smile. "Anyway, I should probably head home," I say. "Thanks for this though; I feel a lot better."

Chanyeol appears to be pleased by my comment. "Any time," he cheerfully says. "You look much better when you're smiling, so I'm glad I could lift your mood up a bit."

This makes me smile a little more, and when Chanyeol goes on, to ask if I'll be okay with heading home on my own, I assure him yes.

And then with that done, we eventually part ways, to where we need to be.

———————————————

When I reach home, I put down my things, and then check the availability of the bathroom. It's free, and as I head into it, with my change of clothes, I see that the light in Kris' room is on, telling me that he's there. After my shower, I notice that the door to his room is wide opened, but it's empty, as the lights are switched off. Seeing this, I skip down the stairs, and make my way into the kitchen, for a glass of water. Kris is watching something on the plasma screen, and when he sees me, he doesn't really do anything, except return his attention back to watching whatever it is, that he's watching.

I take my time sipping down my water, as my mind trails off, in search of what to make tonight, and this is when I notice Kris beginning to make his way over to me.

He appears to be a little unsure about something, and this makes me all the more curious, as I continue to watch him. "So...what are we eating?" he finally asks. "I...kind of like your cooking, so I was hoping you'd make something else tonight."

I'm flattered, yet also rather surprised, by his sudden compliment. "Aw, do you really like my cooking?" I giddily say, with a beam.

Kris stares at me, with that indifferent face of his. "I'm not stuttering am I?" he blankly says.

"No, of course not!" I say. "It's just...thank you."

Turning towards the fridge, I begin to rummage through it, to see what there is, to use. The ingredients are a bit random, and I can't quite figure out what to do, to make them suitable for each other. That, or there isn't enough of one thing, to complete a meal that I can do. I guess I really did use up everything, when I made him the chicken the other day, because other than that, we're really in need of another grocery trip, if we want anything home-made. And now that I've actually had a proper look, where are those grapes that he was talking about?

But then again, it has been a while, so maybe he ate them all, without me knowing...

I shrug off that thought, and go on to tell Kris about our food situation. "Okay, I've got some good news, and some bad news," I start off. "The bad news is that I can't make anything with what we have," I explain. "Although, the good news is that you can decide what you want to eat, and I can try to make it for you, after doing a bit of late night shopping. And well...I guess the bad news for that, is that you'll have to wait for a while, for it to cook, so...it might take a while? That is, depending on what you want me to make, of course."

Kris doesn't say anything yet, because he appears to be weighing down the pros and cons that I've just given him.

I continue on. "Or we can just go out to eat, if you're really hungry," I offer.

My suggestion makes him shake his head. "No, that's alright, I can wait," he says. "Come on, I'll take you to the store."

I do a double-take at him. "Wow, really?" I say, in astonishment.

Kris lifts a questioning eyebrow at me, as if to say "why are you so surprised?" and it just makes me beam at him.

"Well then, I guess you must really like my cooking, huh?" I happily say.

But Kris avoids the question. "Just be ready in five," he says.

I blink at his figure disappearing off into the stairs, just before knowingly giggle to myself.

———————————————

"...So what are you in the mood for?" I question, while scanning the food around us.

The two of us are walking down an isle of instant noodles, and I'm tempted to buy a few, for an emergency.

So I actually do grab a couple, and this makes Kris blink at me. "Oh no, we're not eating this, if that's what you're worried about," I quickly say. "I'm just buying this, because I want to. You don't mind if I do that, right?"

Kris tells me no, and we continue to move further on.

Now in a different section, my hands reach out for a few snacks, and the more I grab, the more I can feel Kris' eyes on me, (I bet he's judging me again...) which make me eventually let out a sigh. "I know what you're thinking," I drone, with a flat expression. "Yes, I eat a lot, but no, I'm not going to bash my head in there, all in one go, okay? You can have some too, if you really want."

But instead of criticizing me like how I thought he was going to, Kris just stares at me, and the confused look on his face, tells me that I had assumed wrong. "Uh, actually, I was just wondering what they are..." he says.

"You mean these?" I ask, while holding up the white bag of chips. "They're like prawn crackers, except not really."

Kris arches an eyebrow. "So are they, or are they not...?" he questions.

I shrug my shoulders at him. "I guess they are, then," I flippantly say, while dropping them back down into the basket.

Kris can't really decide what he wants to eat, so I just end up buying a bit of everything that I can use together. As we shop, I notice a few ladies staring at him from a distance, and saying how he's such a "good-looking young man", which causes me giggle to myself. Kris is either used to this kind of attention, or he's just really good at not reacting to it, because they’re not being very discrete about it either. I'm probably going to go more with the second option, since he's a little quiet, and just appears to be so poker-faced all of the time.

But even though he's like this, I know he's a lot more gentle than he shows.

Like how he's wordlessly taken the basket out of my hold, and has been carrying it around for me, to make it easier, for more things to be added.

Or like how he'd calmly reach for anything that I'd ask for, on the top shelves, even if it turned out to be something that I didn't want to buy, in the end.

It's the little things like this, that are beginning to make me think that...I'm rather thankful, to have met him.

And I guess me appreciating this, is evident on my face, because I suddenly hear Kris poke me a question.

"What are you smiling about?" he asks.

But this only makes me smile a little more, until I let out a slightly embarrassed chortle. "It's nothing," I hastily say. "I'm just happy, that's all."

Kris blinks at me for a bit, and appears to be quite puzzled by my response. It makes me flash him a grin, just before returning my attention back to the shopping. Although, as I try to pick out a tea that I like, I'm suddenly aware that Kris' eyes are still set on me. My eyes flickering over to him a couple of times don't make him stop looking, and so I finally resort to giving him my full attention. I'm confused enough as it is, as to why he's still looking at me, but with how he's eyes seem to be searching for something on my face, it makes all the more puzzled.

"Um, why are you looking at me like that...?" I slowly ask.

With that flicker of surprise on his face, Kris seems to have snapped out of his thoughts. "Oh, I was just thinking of how you look cu—" For some reason, he suddenly stops his sentence, making me tilt my head at him. "Cu...ckoo," he steadily says. "Like a mother cuckoo bird."

My perplexed face now turns into one of bafflement. "I look like a cuckoo bird?!" I incredulously say.

Kris is unmoved to my confusion. "Well, you're bringing me all this food," he says, with a shrug of his shoulders. "It's kind of like how a mother bird feeds her baby."

My eyebrows knit into a crease, as I frown. "But out of all birds, why do you have to pick a cuckoo bird?" I unhappily say.

"It's because you're weird," he states.

I raise a skeptical eyebrow at him. "Huh, says the one who keeps comparing me to things that don't really make any sense..." I mumble. "You called me a grape, a pig, and now a mother bird. But you know..." A sly smile now appears on my face, as I let out a snicker. "I know what you're really trying to say," chimes my voice, and for some reason, this somewhat startles Kris. "You're actually saying that I'm a sweet, cute, and caring person, huh?!" I giggle some more. "Because you know, grapes are tasty, pigs are adorable, and mother birds look out for their kids!"

The stunned look on his face tells me that he doesn't know how to answer me. I laugh some more, and then resume back to shopping, seeing as how he's (more than usual) at a loss of words. 

When our groceries are bought, and eventually paid for, we take them back out into the car together, only to have the peace between us be disturbed, by an unexpected loud rumble.

It's from my stomach, and my hands automatically shield it, with wide eyes.

Kris brings his attention over to me. "You're hungry," he comments.

I let out a sheepish laugh. "It's okay," I jokily say. "I'll just—"

Another growl erupts, making me slowly lower my gaze down onto the floor.

Well this is awkward...

"Don't worry about making dinner," says Kris, from out of nowhere. "We'll just go get some food right now. What do you want to eat?"

I bite down my lip, because the hunger in me, can't seem to reject this offer. "Um...how do you feel about pork noodles?" I say.

For some reason, amusement suddenly sprinkles itself onto Kris' facial features, causing me to tilt my head at him. "Ha, cannibalism," he remarks, with a slight smirk.

"Cannibalism?" I confusedly echo.

It then hits me, because I'm suddenly reminded of my 'joke' from before.

My lips purse together into an unamused frown. "Ha-ha, very funny," I dryly say. "But really, I know a great place that makes some pretty amazing pork noodles."

With that, Kris agrees to this, and once we're both in the car, I start to give him directions of where to go.