Maybe it was the realisation that Baekhyun had been cooking for her for the past few days, or because she was feeling a bit guilty after what Minseok had said struck home, part of Jinsu reluctantly had to agree with Minseok that Baekhyun wasn’t exactly a bad person after spending half an hour in his presence.

Well, comparatively.  If that half hour had been two weeks ago and had been at school, Jinsu was well aware that it would have been hell on earth.  But when it was somewhere lost on the timestream with Minhwan incrementally becoming something of a megalomaniac and Baekhyun liked the guy about as much as Jinsu did, it was very easy to agree with the notion that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

There were no snide comments, no aggressive movements – nothing that made Jinsu feel afraid or powerless or belittled, and something from the awkward air of breakfast remained.

But even though Baekhyun met her down in front of the main deck and suggested they go up to Minseok’s room because Minhwan and Junmyeon and one or two others were still hanging around the main controls and computers, and even though he was patient in waiting for her to take the lead and appeared to be listening carefully to everything she said, it still took Jinsu some time to twig that he was really making an effort to be civil.  They’d barely spoken a word between them beyond Jinsu asking for one or two things, like a computer mouse or a memory stick, for that entire half hour, and Baekhyun definitely didn’t have anything to do, but he didn’t nag or complain or attempt to lean over Jinsu’s shoulder to see what she was doing, or pester her with questions about it, or query when she decided to take a break.  He sat there attentively rather than impatiently, occasionally disappearing into the en suite bathroom to refill Jinsu’s glass of water, and otherwise passing her things she asked for when she needed them.  Jinsu wondered if this was because of Minseok’s slave-for-the-day coupon, but that was only supposed to start when she showed it to Baekhyun, not when he decided it.

After an hour and a half of staring at coding on the screen and tweaking it in various places, Jinsu sat back, rubbing tiredly at her eyes with her left hand.  She heard rather than saw Baekhyun closing the computer lid, but didn’t complain.  She needed a break or she was going to get a headache.

“More water?” Baekhyun asked, speaking for the first time.  Jinsu nodded, in part because she was thirsty and in part because his momentary absence might give her a chance to sort out her thoughts for how she was going to cope with. . . this.  Taking a break meant not really doing anything for a short while, and unless Baekhyun left the room, that was going to mean a very awkward silence while they both just stared at the walls and twiddled their thumbs.  Unless she left the room, of course, but she got the impression Baekhyun might follow her if she did that.  And in any case. . . there probably were things she ought to talk to him about and straighten out with him, and now was as good a time as any.  They’d both got over the shock of Baekhyun being discovered as the mystery chef and that had had time to settle, and the longer they left things like being able to communicate on a basic level, the more awkward that was going to get.  Baekhyun had taken the initiative in making sure they would work together, Jinsu decided, so she was going to take the initiative to ensure that they could.  And that required communication skills – which she wasn’t totally sure she had.

Still, she ought to try.  Even if she felt completely out of her depth, she ought to try.  And for some reason, that made her pulse race and her palms sweat.  She wasn’t good at this kind of stuff.  It had taken her long enough to get comfortable with Jongin and Kyungsoo and the others, and they’d been the instigators rather than her.

Maybe it was better if they just didn’t talk, she tried to convince herself as Baekhyun returned.  Baekhyun would probably be more comfortable with that anyway.

He handed her the water in silence and then looked around as if for somewhere to sit down, clearing his throat.

Jinsu was not a dunce to social cues, and she knew that meant that Baekhyun was finding the situation awkward too.  That just made her anxious, and there was a drip of water running down the outside of the glass, and Baekhyun was fiddling with his sleeves so one was shorter than the other, and—

She squeezed her eyes shut against all the things that were possibly wrong and disordered in the room and swallowed, the sound loud and squelchy in her ears.  Taking a deep breath, she inched her eyes open again.

“Thanks!” she squeaked out, her fingers clenching a little too tightly around the glass and her knuckles going white.  Her pulse was still racing.  Why did it have to be so hard to just. . . talk?  But then again, the only people she’d ever really “just talked” to without them making the effort first were her big brother, Mrs Kwon and Sungwoo.  Possibly Saeeun, but she thought that Saeeun was the most talkative out of the two of them there and had probably been the one who really got conversation going.  She couldn’t even talk to her own parents that much.  In light of that, perhaps it wasn’t surprising that she was more reactive than proactive when it came to interacting with other people.

Baekhyun, though, looked very surprised at being thanked, and even more surprised at Jinsu’s obvious anxiety.  He almost jumped out of his skin, and then looked around the room as if convinced that somebody else was talking with Jinsu’s voice.  Discovering that this was not the case, he held up his hands and took a step backwards.

“I’m not going to attack you,” he said in a calm voice.  “Take a deep breath and let go of the tension.”

“I’m f-fine,” Jinsu insisted.

“You’re holding that glass like it’s a weapon.”

“O-oh.”  Jinsu wasn’t sure if it was her nerves or not taking in what he had said properly, but she let go of the glass.  It shattered on the floor and water went everywhere.  Sh