Bright light was streaming through the windows and the filmy drapes gave an almost ethereal feel to the sunny little kitchen. It was a compact one with just the necessary appliances and just enough room to work- Jackson liked it that way, because when they had to work together, the space constraints added to secret pleasures. They were going to bake a cake today. Youngji was carefully piling out the ingredients and checking the recipe. Jackson did not care about the cake; all he cared about was them doing it together.  

Youngji preset the oven and began measuring out the ingredients. If she thought she was going to peacefully get through this, she was sorely wrong. Jackson was right behind her all the time trying to get her to spill the flour, measure the sugar wrongly, arguing about baking powder and baking soda….if he had his way, he would even have argued that the whole recipe was wrong. Youngji huffed and argued straight back but, at this rate, she was not going to finish anything. The best way was to set Jackson a task. She asked him to sift the flour while she measured each thing out. For a while there was peace and after she finished all the measuring, she turned around to check on Jackson. She all but collapsed on the floor laughing.

Jackson had more flour on himself than in the bowl and was glaring at Youngji warning her not to laugh. She gently shook her head at how adorable he looked amongst the whole mess. Jackson gave up sifting and leaned against the counter sulking. Youngji finished the work with the flour while glancing at him and flashing an apologetic smile. She asked him to get the eggs and add them while she whisked. Jackson took one look at the eggs and smiled mischievously. He took one of them and hit it hard on Youngji’s head. She was startled and annoyed at the same time. But, he did not give her a chance to retort as he added the egg into the bowl and she had to concentrate on controlling the whisker. He cracked the rest of the eggs the same way while Youngji gritted her teeth from the pain and frustration.

With the batter done, she poured it into the baking pan, put it in the oven and set the time, all the while avoiding Jackson and his antics. He was getting concerned with that stern look on Youngji’s face and immediately regretted the egg episode. Meanwhile she got the chocolate and cream out to make the ganache (frosting) and began breaking the bar of chocolate to little pieces. Jackson took one of them and offered to feed her but she swat his hand aside. He sighed and popped it into his mouth instead, and then grimaced. It was dark chocolate and so bitter that he wanted to spit it out, but could not, not here. Instead he caught hold of the bowl of sugar and ate one whole spoon of it. As the bitterness receded, he noticed that Youngji no longer looked angry. His silliness actually was cracking her up and she was trying to control her smile and maintain a neutral expression, but the corners of kept twitching.  

Jackson gently bumped her shoulder with his to get her to smile openly, tilting his head to try and look at her while she put her head down firmly as if to concentrate on what she was doing. She added the chocolate and hot cream into a large bowl and stirred carefully to make a rich molten ganache. He bumped her again, a little stronger this time, and ended up spilling the chocolate onto her left hand as she held the bowl. Youngji almost screamed at him, but controlled herself just in time. Not here, she reminded herself. Instead she put on her best annoyed face and held up her chocolate covered fingers at Jackson to reprimand him for what he had done. He looked at her hand and suddenly hit on an idea.

Youngji could easily guess what he was going to do, she could almost read his mind, and that naughty smile was saying it all. She immediately withdrew her hand but Jackson caught her wrist to stop her. She looked at Jackson pleading him not to do anything so risqué. But, he had already decided to do it. He slowly brought her fingers to his mouth and the chocolate off. One by one, he savored her fingers, all the while looking at her and witnessing all the emotions clearly crossing on her face. Youngji could not help feeling the shivers that ran from her fingers and right to her core. Just when she thought she could not bear it anymore and should stop him, the timer of the oven went off. That gave her an excuse to move away from him and she closed her eyes momentarily to steady herself and remove the image of Jackson his lips. 

Everything she did after that was almost robotic; her mind was totally awry, but totally aware of Jackson as he followed every move of her without taking his eyes off even for a second. She couldn’t look into his eyes anymore and somehow finished the cake, but it hardly registered in her mind. When she couldn’t decide what to do next as she stared at the cake on the counter and just wouldn’t look up at Jackson, he came around, leant forward with his elbows over the counter and looked at her face, smiling. She could feel her cheeks heating up and was sure she was blushing fiercely. Suddenly, he swiped the cake frosting with a finger and smeared it on her nose. This startled her and she jerked her head up and looked at him. Her eyes grew wide as she saw him leaning slowly over, getting closer to her face. He was so close now that she felt his breath on her face and she closed her eyes shut.

“CUT! Ok!” 

And just like that, they were jolted back into the real world. With a sigh Jackson drew back and Youngji cautiously opened her eyes. The silence was abruptly broken with a lot of activity- lights being adjusted, stylists fidgeting with their clothes, the PD rambling about how good the MV was going to be- it was almost like their precious personal space was being invaded. However, both of them knew that their commitments came before anything else and maintained a professional attitude. 

While all of them huddled near the monitor to review the scenes shot, Youngji was conscious about the people around commenting in whispers about how natural everything looked and speculating if it was all real. This began worrying her.

“I was right! Binding you with a script would not have given the same brilliant results. Letting your natural interactions flow was a good decision. I’m so happy!” the PD exclaimed, thumping J on his back.

Jackson gave a sly smile and said, “Yeah, that sure was natural.”

Youngji blushed all over again, praying no one noticed her now, but at least one person was aware of it.