A/N: I know Jaehyuk isn't much of a cook, but I wanted a JaeSun fic and I really liked the whole idea I had for this and really anything cooking related is just so great for me, I'm actually going to be attending culinary school starting next year. So, enjoy Chef Jaehyuk and culinary student Changsun! Kind of long, 4k words.

 

    “Come on, Changsun, just run up there, the mailbox, and run back. You’re tongue won’t get stuck.” Minjun says from Changsun’s driveway, leaning against their snow fort.

    “Of all the things you could have dared me to do, you want me to do this?” He shakes his head and pulls his black and white, skull patterned face mask down.

    “Hey, your dare is the reason I’m not wearing any underwear right now. As strangely nice as it feels, it’s weird as .” Changsun raises his eyebrows. “Go that mailbox.”

    “Alright, alright. I’ll do it.” The brown haired college student says as he sets out on the adventure that is his neighbor’s mailbox as quickly as possible because: A) it’s ing freezing outside and B) would anyone be looking forward to a mailbox?

    The mailbox has chipping black paint on metal with the numbers 1-3-5-2 stuck on the side, the corners peeling off. He sighs and turns back to Minjun who sticks his tongue out and starts laughing. Leaning over, because the mailbox is about four feet tall and he is about six, he just barely touches his tongue to the freezing metal that was the chipped part of the mailbox(he figures metal probably tastes better than paint, but it’s still pretty bad). He looks over to the window of the small, white house and sees a tall man with red hair wearing a blue sweatshirt and staring right at him. Immediately, he tries to pull away, but he is only tugged back. His tongue is stuck.

    Panicked, he looks back to the house and realizes that the man is gone, beige curtains still swaying. He looks in the other direction, trying to find Minjun and call him over, but all he sees is his front door slamming. That just ditched him and now the embarrassingly handsome neighbor is walking out of his house and coming up to him. God damnit, Minjun, you should have just dared me to be your slave or something, he thinks to himself as he hears the crunching of the snow being stepped on grow louder.

    “So, uh, why exactly is your tongue on my mailbox, sir?” he asks. His voice is super deep and horribly nice.

    “My friend’s an ,” he tries to reply, avoiding looking at him at all costs.

    He chuckles lowly and Changsun can hear water sloshing in a cup, “I’m here to save you and your tongue. Relax, I won’t take a picture and post it on Instagram or anything.”

    He looks up and sees the steaming glass of water with long fingers wrapping around it. “It’s not too hot, is it?” he attempts to ask.

    “Lukewarm. It’s only steaming so much ‘cause of how cold it is out here.” He steps forward and puts one hand on top of the brown haired male’s head, pushing him back as far as he can, and starts pouring the much-warmer-than-lukewarm water onto his tongue. Changsun tries not to yelp too loudly when the water hits the red, sensitive flesh of his tongue, but it doesn’t take long for him to safely pull away from the mailbox.

    The student puts a hand up to his mouth, “You lied.”

    He shrugs. “It’s freezing out here. Let me make up for my lie and make you some hot cocoa. You can tell me the story about why you my mailbox while we drink it, friend and all.”

    Changsun takes a moment to think about it; should he leave Minjun to entertain himself in his home and go have hot cocoa with an attractive guy whom he embarrassed himself in front of, or go kick Minjun’s and deny his kind neighbor’s offer? He could punish him later on, but hot chocolate really sounds good right now and the pretty redhead’s waiting for a response so he nods.

    “What’s your name, kid?” he asks as they speedwalk up the driveway.

    “Lee Changsun.”

    “Yu Jaehyuk,” the elder says as he opens the door, “After you.”

 

    When they enter the kitchen, Changsun slows his pace, too amazed to continue. He looks around at the dark cherry cabinets and all the cool gadgets that occupy the shiny black countertops. There is a big rectangular island in the middle of the large room with shelves underneath the counter, fully stocked with large bowls, platters, and more appliances than he could name. On the wall over the large window that’s above the two-compartment stainless steel sink is a rack of crystal wine glasses, matching racks for the actual bottles framing the window.

    “What, never seen a kitchen before?” Jaehyuk joked. “Take a seat, Changsun,” he says as he hits the large, dark table in front of the sliding door.

    “Your kitchen is amazing.” He mutters and sits in a comfy, cushioned chair.

    “Thank you. Just like most chefs, my kitchen is my pride and joy,” he says as he easily pulls out two mugs from a tall cabinet, one with Santa on it and the other a snowman.

    “You’re a chef?” The taller male nods. “That’s awesome! I’m actually in culinary school now.”

    “Really? Which school?” He puts the mugs of milk in the microwave and comes to sit with him.

    “Le Cordon Bleu. It’s my third year there, I just started my bachelor’s and already have my associate's in culinary arts.”

    “That’s awesome. I went to culinary school in London, but decided to come back to Korea to open up my restaurant. I lived there for most of my childhood without my mother because she wanted to come back here. I figured four more years away wouldn’t hurt, but there’s no way I could live there forever.”

    “That’s awesome. So you speak English?”

    “Fluently,” he says in English as the microwave beeps, then gets up to finish the hot chocolate.

    “I have no idea what you just said so I’ll take that as a yes,” Changsun declares awkwardly.

    The two sit and chat about their favorite things to cook, what they struggle with most, new knife techniques, and really just anything they could possibly think of. After being there for about four hours, completely ignoring their hot cocoa, Changsun thinks that it would probably be wise to either go home or call his mother and let her know where he’s hiding away. Jaehyuk convinces him to stay and cook dinner with him, and even volunteers to call his mother for him.

    “Hello, Mrs. Lee? Yes, this is your neighbor, Yu Jaehyuk. Ah, yes. Your son, Changsun, came over for a while. Do you mind if I keep him a little longer? I think it’d be really fun if he cooked dinner with me. Yes, uh, I’m actually a chef myself, I have a restaurant not far from here. I’d love it if you came and had dinner there sometime. Of course, you wouldn’t have to pay a cent. Alright. Alright. Thank you, Mrs. Lee, I’ll come get you next week. Okay.”

    He gives Changsun his phone back with a cheeky smile, “You can stay as long as you want. Actually, you are now mine, she says so. What mom says goes.”

    “What do you mean, I’m yours?” he asks, blushing a little.

    “She said I can keep you for as long as my precious heart desires, then she changed her mind and said I can just have you, so long as she’s still allowed to see you and get free food. Go in the fridge and pantry and pick some ingredients you wanna work with; we’re improvising tonight, no recipe.”

    Changsun walks over to the fridge, “You’ll get tired of me soon enough,” he says as he pulls out a bell pepper of each color, a yellow onion, and butter.

    “What makes you say that?” Jaehyuk asks, leaning on the island and watching as the younger makes his way to the walk-in pantry.

    “I dunno.” This time he grabs hot chili paste, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, glass noodles, curry powder, basil, rosemary and some flour. “You just will,” he says as he sets it all on the island.

    “Nah.” He watched, impressed as Changsun set out his ingredients. “And what is it that you want to do with all of this?”

    “Fusion? I’m not quite sure. I was thinking we could make a japchae stir-fry, then use the spices i grabbed, hot chili paste, milk, and flour to make a creamy, spicy, almost Italian but definitely Korean sauce? Pour it over the noodles and garnish it with some colorful diced peppers.”

    The red haired male gaped at the description, immediately impressed. “My mouth is watering and we haven’t even started cooking yet. , kid, you’re good.” Jaehyuk walks over and opens up the glass noodles, handing them to Changsun, “You start the noodles, I’ll cut the vegetables.”

    “I wanted to cut the veggies,” he protests, but to no avail.

    “No. I don’t like people touching my knives. Make the glass noodles.”

 

    Two months later and the two had met a number of times already for what Jaehyuk called “cooking lessons,” but Changsun preferred “hanging out with his favorite hyung.” Something’s different, though. The air in the kitchen when they cook. The look in Jaehyuk’s eyes when they sit in the livingroom, watching cooking shows or working on homework. The feeling when he hugs the younger every time he greets him at the door. The ache every time he has to leave. The sleepy smile when he wakes up next to the elder in the morning because he just didn’t want to leave the night before.

    It’s morning and Changsun stayed the night last night. He wakes up and there’s actually no one in bed next to him this time. He’s kind of glad that he won’t be holding back from wanting to kiss him, but he is confused. Not too confused to skip his morning pee, though. He heads to the bathroom then walks out to the kitchen because he smells something yummy and assumes the redhead is the one cooking it.

Jaehyuk is standing in front of the stove, flipping an American style pancake. His hair is an absolute mess, but he doesn’t look sleepy at all. He’s grinning a little and even humming. The sight makes Changsun smile and he walks in as quietly as possible, listening to the low hum and just watching as the man cooks perfect pancakes until he finally turns around. He gets startled at first, but laughs it off. Now it’s Changsun’s turn to get surprised.

    Jaehyuk walks up to him as soon as he stops laughing and grabs his face, squishing his cheeks a little as he pulls him in and kisses him sweetly. They both have morning breath and slightly chapped lips, but once the two start they don’t want to stop. The elder of the two reaches behind him and turns the stove off, then replaces his hand, this time on Changsun’s hip. He pushes the younger against the counter that’s behind him. As soon as he does this, though, the student pulls away, breathing kind of heavily.

    “Hyung, what’s this all about?” he asks.

    The taller of the two smiles and replies, “I’m relocating. My restaurant. I’m getting a bigger place. I can add to the menu, hire more people. It got approved, Changsun, I start transferring everything tomorrow!”

    “Wow, that’s amazing! Haven’t you only been in business like two years, though? How are you relocating already?”

    “Business has been great since day one. People just like it, I guess,” he says and gives Changsun a peck on the lips. “Be my business partner.”

    “What?” he asks, eyes wide. If he was surprised by the kiss, he was completely shocked by the proposal.

    Jaehyuk starts fixing the younger’s hair and says, “I want you to be my partner. Business partner and…” he gives him another peck on the lips, “My not-so-business partner.” This would be a lot less awkward on Changsun’s part if he had his degree in business management already and if, you know, their hips weren’t pressed against each other. That part’s pretty distracting.

    “I mean, I don’t-- I guess, but I can’t-- I don’t--” He sighs, trying to get his words together and focus on what he’s saying before he continues. “Yes to the not-so-business partner, but aren’t you worried about someone with no experience working at your restaurant?”

    Jaehyuk thinks for a moment, “Be my tournant. I’ve seen you in the kitchen, you more than know what you’re doing. You can take charge there, go from station to station and see if anyone needs help. If you don’t know something, come get me. Once you get your bachelor’s, you can take up management and be my right hand man.”

    Changsun smiles again because that actually sounds like a great idea and hugs him tightly. “Let’s do it.”

    The elder can’t help but to scoop his face up and kiss him once again. This time the brown haired younger was much more into it, his arms wrapped around him, kissing him back passionately. He thinks about how funny this all is; he met him when he his mailbox and he helped him get unstuck, and now they’re kissing in his beautiful kitchen, planning to be business partners.

    That night, after spending the majority of the day making out on Jaehyuk’s couch, he actually goes home. The older protests, of course, but since Changsun just wants to tell his mother about the restaurant and their plans, he let’s him leave with one last honey-like kiss and some left-over food for the lovely ladies in his life.

    When he walks inside, his mom promptly asks a million and one questions about the sweet, handsome, and talented neighbor, so he sits with her in the livingroom and answers the least creepy questions, adding in that he’s super excited about relocating.

    “Wow, that’s great! First he’s handsome, now he’s successful too?? Sending your sister over to his restaurant all the time isn’t working fast enough, start bringing her over with you! I need him as my son-in-law,” she beams. Both Changsun and his sister shake their heads at the comment.

    “Please, mom, he’d have to be straight for that to work,” he replies and his mother pauses for a moment before bouncing a bit on the couch.

    “You can marry him then!” she jokes.

    “Slow down, mom, we only started dating today,” he says casually before getting up and walking to his room, leaving his shocked and confused mother to whisper-yell “He was gay?!” to her daughter who only shrugs in response and returns to her phone.

    The next day, when Changsun goes outside to leave for school, Jaehyuk is waiting in his own driveway, leaning on his car, and motions for the younger to come over by him. He obeys, of course, and kisses him as a greeting. “What's up?”

“I'll take you to school today.” He unlocks his car and opens the door for his boyfriend. “Get in,” he says, a sweet smile on his face.

He gets in the car and Jaehyuk closes the door for him, getting into the driver's seat and putting the key in the ignition. Letting the car warm up a little bit, he looks over at Changsun. He’s wearing a black t-shirt under his gray sweatshirt that’s partially ped, ripped blue jeans, and black converse, holding his bulky navy blue backpack in his lap. It seems as though the sun kissed his skin just right; he’s tan, a few shades lighter than his hair. His coffee-colored eyes look up from his bag to his boyfriend and he scrunches together his eyebrows.

“So why exactly are you driving me to school today?” he asks.

“What, I can’t drive my boyfriend to school without a reason?” He leans over and kisses his cheek. “What time does your first class start?”

    “Not until 10:30. I usually either nap in my car for an hour or so or Minjun makes me take him on an early morning ‘adventure’ to the convenience store or something,” he explains, sleep still lining his voice.

    “You didn’t eat breakfast, did you?” He’s always wide awake once he has food in his stomach, but that’s clearly not the case right now.

    “I don’t usually eat breakfast at home since my mom and sister don’t eat in the morning,” he replies quietly, leaning his head back on the leather headrest.

    “What about your dad? You don’t really talk about him.”

    Changsun freezes at the question. He swallows hard, his lips, and turns to look out his window. They aren’t even moving, still in the driveway, so he’s just looking at his own house. “My father…” he sighs, “When I graduated high school, he had a meeting at work right before the ceremony that lasted longer than planned. He was rushing to get there because he really wanted to see me walk the stage, but there was an accident…”

    Jaehyuk puts a hand on the younger’s thigh. “Changsun, I didn’t--”

    “I had to cancel my graduation party and spend the evening in the hospital by his side. He was unconscious, but I wanted to be there anyway. He never woke up.” He finishes with a shaky voice and bites down on his lip, trying to hold back the tears that want to push themselves out. He hasn’t talked about his father since two or three months after the funeral aside from on his death anniversary and birthday.

    “I’m so sorry,” he says, clearly sincere, and gently squeezes his thigh right above his knee expecting it to be quiet for a moment, but as soon as he squeezes the younger shrieks and turns to his boyfriend with wide eyes.

    “I’m ticklish, don’t do that. Holy . That tickled more than it should have. Next time you wanna console me, just kiss me. Jesus” he exclaims, all in one breath, before they both burst into laughter.

    As their laughter turns into simple smiles, Jaehyuk reaches a hand to behind Changsun’s head of brown hair and pulls him in for a quick, sweet kiss. They pull away after only a few seconds(shorter than any of their other kisses), and the redhaired driver shift the car into reverse and pulls out of his driveway.

 

    At around six-ish, Jaehyuk sits in his car outside of the school’s library and calls up the precious student that is his boyfriend.

    “Hello?”

    “It’s me. Stop studying and come outside, I’m here.”

    “Hyung, my essay’s due tomorrow, I can’t.”

    “You have to eat dinner anyway, you skipped breakfast and probably had ramen for lunch. Come eat with me, then you can finish up your essay at my house and I can even help if you need it, alright?”

    “But, Hyung, I--”

    “Changsunnie~ Come have dinner with me~~ Please?” He can hear the younger sigh through the phone and he smiles, knowing he convinced him.

    “I’ll start packing up my stuff. I’m hanging up.”

    Within two or three minutes, he sees his tall boyfriend still wearing his chef uniform as he walks out of the library. Not watching where he’s going, he runs into a girl much shorter than him and bows apologetically, only looking at her for a second before he continues his search for Jaehyuk’s car. As soon as he knows where he’s going, he starts speedwalking and gets in the car in a rush.

    He leans over and pecks the elder on the lips. “It’s ing cold outside.”

    “Nice to see you, too,” he replies with a chuckle. “You look adorable in your uniform.”

    “And you look adorable with your nose all red, but you should still turn the heat up because, , it’s cold. How are you not, like, frozen?”

    “I’m magical.”

 

    When they get to Jaehyuk’s house, the two start grounding some meat, making rice, and cutting up vegetables for bibimbap, as they had both decided they wanted for dinner while in the car. While the rice was cooking and the meat was simmering, Changsun comes up from behind his boyfriend, wrapping his arms around his waist and setting his chin in the crook of his neck.

    “Thank you for getting me today and making sure I eat, hyung, I really do appreciate it,” he says softly, right next to his ear.

    Jaehyuk turns to look at him with a smirk, not setting his knife down, “You’re welcome.”

    Before he can get back to what he was doing, Changsun captures his lips with his own in a less-than-chaste kiss that silently convinces Jaehyuk to put the knife down. Their eyes are closed as Jaehyuk turns around and tangles his hands in the younger’s soft, brown locks, already falling deep into the moment. Changsun trails his fingers around from his boyfriend’s back to his stomach; noting how fluffy it feels, he smiles into the kiss which causes the latter to smile as well. Jaehyuk releases the hair from his grip and lets his arms rest on the younger’s neck, enjoying the moment until his wandering hands reach a place that should not be touched. He starts to the older male’s pants, but immediately his wrists are grabbed by hands that are much stronger than he knew his boyfriend’s to be.

He looks up to see a stern look on Jaehyuk’s face. “Don’t touch my , don’t touch my knife,” he scolds. “There are two important things you should know about me, one of them you may have figured out already. One: I’m aual, meaning I don’t want to have with anyone, even if I do love you. Two: My knives are the most important non-living thing to me. No one besides myself can touch them.”

Changsun stares blankly as he speaks, but soon his eyes turn apologetic and he re-buttons his pants. “I’m sorry, hyung, I had no idea. You just looked so nice and it seemed like you were really getting into it and I was getting really into it. I won’t do it again, I promise, I just-- Wait, did you say you love me?”

Jaehyuk laughs and kisses the brown haired male’s forehead. “I didn’t exactly say that, but in a way I did, and in a way I do, but it’s too early to say that, so why don’t we act like I never did?”

Changsun laughs too and the rice cooker beeps. “Act like you never did what? All I remember you doing is kissing me.” Changsun opens up the rice cooker and fluffs the rice a bit. “Finish cutting those vegetables so we can eat.”

 

    Two months later, Changsun has mastered every recipe on the old menu and helped Jaehyuk come up with more recipes for the new one. He’s got 3 new chef uniforms, perfectly ironed, hanging up in his closet, plus two chef hats sitting on his dresser. Since he couldn’t sleep at all last night, too excited for the grand opening at the new location on a busy street that tons of people are anticipating, he’s wide awake long before he needs to be and has plenty of time to get ready to go.

    He’s showered, shaven, and dressed by 6:30. That means he still has time for breakfast, without bothering the girls. He makes his way to the kitchen and makes himself a stack of American style pancakes for breakfast, just like Jaehyuk made to celebrate relocating. He hums along to whatever tune is stuck in his head as he cooks. He knows he’ll regret getting up so early later on when he’s swamped with orders and all the other chefs need help because they’re all nervous and they all have a ton to do and he only got three hours of sleep, but he tries not to think about that.

    While he’s sitting at the dining room table finishing up his meal with his chef coat ed in case he gets it dirty, his mother comes out of her room to get a glass of water. “What are you doing up so early?” she asks, “Is that a new uniform?”

    He smiles, puts his dishes in the sink, and gives her a big, sloppy kiss on the cheek. “It is.” He starts for the door and buttons his coat. “I’m going to work! I’ll be back around 9, and if I’m not I’m staying over at hyung’s house!”

    “Wait! Since when do you work?!”

    “I work with Jaehyukkie hyung! Bye mom!” And with that, he’s out of the door, leaving his clueless, half-asleep mother alone in the kitchen with her glass of water, staring at the door. She could practically feel the question marks forming in her eyes, but this sort of thing seems to happen a lot since her son started dating the handsome neighbor, so she tries not to think about it too much.