"Changmin, what color paint do you want for the walls? Do you want wood flooring or carpeting? Do you like rugs by the way? Wait, do you like the shower more than the bathtub? You could take one of them out you know. Or do you want to keep both? Oh and the kitchen, do you want an island in the middle? And the tiles..."

Just that morning Yunho gave Changmin a stack of print outs on available places from his real estate buddy. Changmin only schemed it before putting it to the side. Now Yunho's rambling on about paints, flooring, and bath and kitchen options.

All Changmin wants is for the other to stop. He knows his hyung has always been the talkative type, but sometimes he just wishes the other wasn't. Plus the younger really wasn't in the mood right now.

"And the kitchen tiles..."

"Stop." Changmin tossed the magazine he was holding on the coffee table. "Please just stop." He turned and glared at Yunho. "Can't you see I was trying to have my free time here. All I want to do is read my magazine. While you, you babble on about paints, and rugs, and tiles. And you still haven't fixed all your shoes in the entryway like I told you this morning."

Changmin lets out an exhausted low growl. "Damn, forget this." And stood up.

He turned away not wanting to even look at Yunho, and left the room to his own and slammed the door.

"Crap!" Changmin sounded off his frustration the moment he leaned his back against the closed door.

What had I just done? Why am I like this? Changmin questioned himself.

Maybe it is better I moved out. He's probably tired of me nagging and blowing up in his face like this all the time. Changmin thought.

He took some deep breaths and counted till 30 to calm himself down, and decided to open his door again. Then surprise there was Yunho standing in front of his door.

"Sorry." They both said at almost the same time.

"No." Changmin continued. "I'm sorry for blowing up on you for no reason."

"No. I get it," Yunho responded like he understood.

Changmin turned his head away as though it can hide whatever his was trying to hide. "No. I don't think you would."

"I would if you could tell me," Yunho said eagerly.

I can't, Changmin said in his head. And he told the other, "Maybe another time."

"Okay." Yunho looked a little disappointed, but managed a small smile. "Hey, want to order in tonight? From your favorite pizza place."

"Sounds good," Changmin smiled, "but we've been ordering in almost all week. How about I cook tonight instead?"

"Sounds great." Yunho perked up. "I'll help."

"Eee..." The younger chuckled. "I rather you not," he said, reminded of what happened the last time the elder tried cooking them dinner.

Yunho scratched the back of his head with an embarrassed grin. "Okay, I gotcha."



"You sure I can't help with anything?" Yunho was hovering over tonight's chef.

Changmin stopped his chopping and caught his eye on the boiling pot of water on the stove. "Um, can you put the pasta there in the pot."

Yunho got to the task quickly and within seconds, "Done!" he chimed.

Changmin could feel the other looking over his shoulder. He felt the lingering body heat. He felt the hand on the small of his back. And he flinched.

Changmin tried to focus on his cooking. While Yunho continued being his usual touch-feely self gliding his hand upward over the younger's back and settling on Changmin's shoulder where he squeezed - like it would massage away the tension that the younger was trying to hide.

"Are you making spaghetti carbonara again?" Yunho asked.

"Yea. Why? You don't like it." Changmin shot the other a look.

Yunho shook his head. "No, your carbonara is one of your better dishes."

"Better? You don't like my other dishes?" Changmin was getting a little offensive - not serious though.

"Well..." Yunho looked away. "The curry you made the last time was good. But..."

"But...?" Changmin was waiting.

"It was so spicy I thought my tongue was going to fall off," Yunho finally admitted.

Changmin blinked. "You thought your tongue was going to fall off?"

"My tongue went numb and I couldn't taste anything for the rest of the day," Yunho explained.

Changmin let out a small laugh. "Why didn't you say anything?"

Yunho shrugged. "You said you wanted to learn to cook so I didn't want to discourage you."

Changmin rolled his eyes. "How am I suppose to learn from my mistakes if you don't tell me these things?"

"Sorry?" Yunho said, probably unsure of what he was apologetic for.

Changmin huffed, grabbing the last of the chopped ingredients into the sauce pan and stirred.

"Yah, come and taste this." Changmin got some of the carbonara sauce into a small spoon and held it up to Yunho who hopped in front of him.

Ideally, Yunho was suppose to take the spoon himself. But instead he grabbed Changmin's hand with the spoon and guided it to his mouth.

Changmin sighed to himself, why does he do this to me? "How is it?"

"Delicious." Yunho grinned.

Changmin didn't believe him so he got some sauce into that small spoon again and tried it for himself. And thought something was still off about the taste.

He turned to Yunho who was already setting up the table, and pouring two glasses of red wine. Sometimes when he looks at his hyung like this he wonders about things.

It's a Friday night and they're two men home alone together cooking dinner. The lighting looked oddly dim. Yunho decided to turn on a soft ballad on their sound system. And of course, don't forget the red wine. Now if a couple of candles show up that would seem like something really was off - which they did not.  

But here they were clinking their glasses together sitting across from each other. And somehow it all feels fine when Changmin sees Yunho smiling back at him after a sip of wine.




Afterword: The story is almost coming to an end and I just want to say thank you for reading, especially those who have continually commented. Thanks to those silent readers too - I see you hiking up my view count. And can't forget the subscribers *kisses* I've never been a confident writer so all your feedback means alot to me and keeps me writing.

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