Using spoons, the duo of devil and angel tore slabs of dough from the bowl and smacked it onto baking pan liner paper. Jeonghan wiped some off his spoon and ate it raw.

“Oh, it’s good.”

Seungcheol beamed with joy. “Well, I sure hope so. I made it myself and I’m a pretty good head of household I dare say. I could probably raise a dozen kids.”

Why was he saying such dumb and unreasonable things? A dozen kids. Who would ever do that?

“That’s ambitious. Can you really handle it? You’re only a little scoop of raw dough yourself.”

“I’m not just a scoop of dough. If anything I’m a whole bowl. Or at least multiple scoops.”

Seungcheol cringed at his own words. Who would call themselves “scoops”? This long haired boy in his kitchen was turning him brainless. But at least all batches were prepared now.

He shoved the first pan into the oven and set a ten minute timer. Strangely glad to escape the sole focus of Jeonghan’s attention, he hushed the boy back into the living room were soft instrumental strumming had replaced the ambient background music.

Joshua had unpacked his instrument and was twisting the tuning pegs. Not only had he prepared his instrument, but also been to the bathroom apparently. His hair was fluffed up and fell perfectly. Seungcheol knew exactly what product the boy had used, because this was his house and it had been his product.

There wasn’t anything that could stop the angel from taking a seat and bobbing his foot to the tunes, so Seungcheol kept standing in the kitchen doorframe hoping not to look awkward and tried not to scrunch his face into a look of displeasure. He reminded himself that his friend – his best friend – was simply trying to entertain his guest and that he had no right to Jeonghan’s sole attention. But his hands tingled with anticipation, as if he had to snatch the blond boy away from danger any second now.

Jeonghan himself looked perfectly relaxed, his eyes sometimes closed, sometimes dashing over Joshua’s figure. But always fixed in the direction of the musician.

For ten excruciating minutes the eldest boy in the room was torn between trying to keep calm and trying to find a way to break up the situation. He wanted this night to be a good experience for everybody, but Jeonghan just looked so pretty…

Seungcheol entertained the thought of simply kicking Josh out at the next opportunity, but Jeonghan would probably have left as well if he did that.

At long last the kitchen called him back and he took out the first batch of cookies, where after the other batch entered the oven.

If there was something he liked about the whole Halloween thing it was the fall themed flavorings and candy decorations. The rest he could do without. He didn’t need an excuse to watch a- Wait! That was the perfect solution.

Carrying a bowl of warm, soft cookies, just crunchy around the edge, Seungcheol came back into the living room with a grin.

“You know what’s weird, Joshie?”

The guitar player turned to him. “What?”

“It’s Halloween but we haven’t watched a single horror movie yet!”

“Um, I don’t think…uh.”

Seungcheol felt a dizzying pang of guilt. Joshua liked horror movies. Now the boy had to weight between keeping impressing his crush with music skills or watching a movie he liked. Seungcheol felt like he was scheming against his beloved friend.

Getting Jeonghan on board was a matter of seconds and all three were back on the sofa, eyes on the screen. They quickly agree on a classic: The Thing.

It was hard to focus on the motion picture when Jeonghan’s hand was right there, almost begging to be held. At least some shoulder contact was possible. Seungcheol scooted closer and closer with every minute of the movie. But so did Joshua.

Slowly munching his cookie, Jeonghan didn’t seem to notice how he was becoming the center of a silent struggle. He simply looked straight ahead and occasionally shifted his legs to – perhaps accidentally, perhaps on purpose – touch the legs of one of his hosts.

Twenty minutes into the movie, Joshua sniffed the air. His eyes were squished as if he had trouble remembering something he urgently needed to know. Just as the characters on screen made a suspicious discovery and ominous music set in he said “Seung? Did you leave anything in the oven?”

Now Seungcheol could smell it too. He had forgotten to turn the timer on again. The cookies had been in for twice as long as they should. Smoke was coming faintly from under the door.

He bolted to the kitchen, Joshua right behind him. Bursting through the door, the boy behind crashing into the one in front. Everything was smoky.

While Joshua ripped open a window, Seungcheol pulled his little fire extinguisher from its corner. Using a baking glove, he opened the oven door, to reveal tiny piles of crispy ash. At least there was no fire.

Coughing and with burning eyes, the boys agreed to wait for the smoke to dissipate out into the night.

They returned to an empty living room.

As the protagonists of the movie were gathering around their strange find and agreed to begin the autopsy, both boys couldn’t hide the disappointment on their face. Angel and parrot were gone.

But there was a note. Jeonghan had torn a piece form Seungcheol’s calendar, and put it on the table. The duo bent over it and read the note in the flickering light of candles and screen.

Sorry I couldn’t stay. Family called.

Was nice meeting you, Scoops.

Josh, call me ;)

-Angel

A number was scribbled below the note. Joshua pocketed the paper. He didn’t say anything but he smiled so wide the corners of his mouth would probably start to hurt.

Defeat. That was all Seungcheol felt.

Actually he felt a lot more, but decided that hitting Joshua wasn’t going to help. It might make him feel better, but it wouldn’t help. He quenched his anger with cookies – the unburned kind.

When Kurt Russel fired up the flamethrower to incinerate a pile of flesh, Seungcheol had almost forgotten – or distracted himself from – his loss. If Joshua and Jeonghan started dating he would probably see more of them together and he wasn’t prepared to think about that. Not tonight.

The doorbell rang. Seungcheol had forgotten whose turn it was but Joshua didn’t make a move so he got up and readied the candy. And the toothpaste, because he might as well try.

After filling up children’s bags with sweets, he remained by the door. Wistfully staring out on the street he tried to assess how to handle the situation. Could he ask Joshua to keep it low-key with Jeonghan? How much did the angel mean to his friend? More than to him? Just a few hours and he had grown weirdly attached to the boy.

Finally closing the door, he still wasn’t ready to rejoin the movie watching activity. Instead he stared out the window and pitied himself.

Then the devil led an army into his front garden.