Jong In and I had grocery bags full of baking ingredients in our hands (well, in his) when we bumped into Se Hun at the lift lobby.

“Oh, annyeong!” I said happily at the mere presence of him.

He smiled but froze a bit when he saw Jong In following behind me.

“Good evening, hyung. You two…. What are you doing here?” He asked Jong In as we entered the lift.

“Oh, me? This troublesome girl made me come to-“

“It’s a secret!” I quickly said while cupping my hand over Jong In’s mouth – how could he (almost) spill my surprise plans so easily?!

“See you in school tomorrow!” I waved goodbye to Se Hun while shoving Jong In into my house, in fear Se Hun would see what were in the grocery bags and guess what we were up to.

“He… He’s going into your home? Don’t you live alone?”

“Oh, yeah, but he comes over every night, didn’t you know? I thought you saw him at least once after all these days…. Anyway, we’re going to get busy, talk to you tomorrow!” I grinned while thinking about what his reaction would be upon receiving my hand made cookies.

“Every night? Just the two of you? Oh Sun Hee, you-” I shut the door before Se Hun could finish speaking. I did it with utmost reluctance – I would never have done so usually, but I only had a meagre few hours to learn baking and I might not even succeed.

When I turned around, Jong In was leaning against the wall with his arms folded, examining me.

“Sun Hee ah, are you sure you want to shut him out like this? He seemed like….” He paused for a while before continuing with a mysterious smile, “Never mind…. Maybe it’s for the better.”
 

We were kneading the cookie dough when there were urgent knocks on the door.

“Se Hun?” I looked at him questioningly.

“You, you…. You two are making too much noise. I am here on behalf of our neighbours to ask you to quieten a little.” He said in a rush.

“Too much noise?” I frowned in confusion. I have absolute faith in the soundproof system of our apartment. Plus, Jong In and I had made far more noises fooling around in the past than we did tonight while baking. We didn’t even talk much because I was so focused on kneading the dough and taking down notes.

Never mind that, “Ok noted, good night!” I smiled and hurriedly closed the door before rushing back to the kitchen.

Barely 10 minutes passed before the knocks on the door sounded again.

“Yes, Se Hun?”

“I… My stove doesn’t seem to be working. Can I come in and borrow your kitchen?”

“MY KITCHEN?” Of course not?! My cookie dough and baking stuffs are sprawled across the kitchen counter!

“Yes… Is it too inconvenient?” He looked slightly disappointed.

“...... Of course not! Give me a minute!”

I ran back into the kitchen and whispered to Jong In to move all everything into my room.

“You may come in now.” I opened the door for Se Hun again.

“Thank you.” He said while looking around, as if looking for something, or someone.

I watched on while he placed two eggs and a bowl of rice on the kitchen counter, while telling him where my cook wares were placed.

“Ok, feel free to treat this like your home! I’ll be in the room.” I rushed to my room to check if my cookie dough have been ruined during the moving.

“Squeeze it like this.” Jong In said while showing me how to knead the dough.

“Tsk, you ate so much for dinner and that’s all the force you have? Press harder.” He instructed while I tried to shape my cookies with a cookie cutter.

“The bed is too soft...” There was only a thin sheet of baking paper between the cookie dough and my bed, so every time I try to cut the dough with the cookie cutter, it sinks in and makes it more difficult than it should have been.

After hesitating, Jong In replied, “Maybe we shouldn’t dirty the bed. Let’s do it on the floor. Don’t worry. It will be hard for you since this is your first time.”

We were about to move the dough and baking paper to the floor when the bedroom door flew open, “WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?”

“Se… Hun?” I widened my eyes as he barged in with a furious expression and a cooking spatula in one hand.