Lee Jong-suk let out a heavy sigh, then walked in the police station, while holding firmly on the backpack in his hand. Whenever he passed by an officer, he would exchange greetings and a smile with them. Since he visited Kim Woo-bin almost everyday, everyone in the station knew about him and also liked him. They even gave him the nickname „Angel“, and even the chief of the station would call him so whenever he saw him.

Finally, he arrived at his destination, the violent crime unit. He stood before the door and fixed his eyes on the youngest detective in this unit, his younger brother Lee woo-bin. Woo-bin sat in front of a young criminal who probably was in his seventeen. The detective asked the criminal about his address and the name of his parents but the teen grinded his teeth at him to insult or look down on him. He took a pen on his desk, and slapped this on the boy’s head. Somehow, he looked pissed off.

A woman who worked there as the only female sergeant in this section, spotted Jong-suk and called to him. This shouts brought Woo-bin’s attention to his older brother, a smile appeared on his face. He walked to him. Woo-bin’s sudden change from a bad to a good cop surprised the arrested boy who was just treated roughly by him.

Jong-suk brought a bento out of his backback, „You forgot these again.“

Woo-bin played the clueless man, rubbed on his head and laughed in embarrassment.

  „Sorry“, he apologized for making him come the way to him. He did an apology with his innocent expression, but inside he didn’t feel sorry at all for always forgeting his lunch to lure his brother out to him.      

Woo-bin realized that it was already 3 p.m so he called to his colleagues to take a break for lunch but his sunbae who was his female partner didn’t let them go. She touched Jong-suk who she always saw as her younger sibling on the shoulder, and asked him for details of the delicious food he cooked today. Woo-bin grinded his teeth, he felt bothered by this touch. The closeness between Jong-suk and his colleagues always disturbed him, but he didn’t have the gut to tell them to bug off from his precious family. Ever since he was a kid, he always wanted his brother for himself, but he had no choice as to accept the fact that his brother and his easy going personality was admired by many people.

The greedy eyes of the co-workers fell on the three standing in the middle of the room. One thing kept woo-bin thinking for two years since he began to work here. He always asked himself what those greedy eyes of his co-workers were for: For the delicious food or for the beautiful Jong-suk. Everytime he pondered about this matter, he never got the answer to this question. He just sighed while taking the hand of his sunbae from jong-suk, held his brother on the hand and rushed with him outside in the garden where they could be away from his colleagues. They sat on the bench.

Jong suk brought the food out of the bag and opened it. One side of the bento was filled with gimbap and the other side with eggrolls.

  „Where’s your food?“, Woo-bin asked him after he saw that this bento won’t be enough to fill both of them.

  „Ah I have work in a hour. I need an empty stomach since I have to taste the many food I’ll prepare today.“

  „Won’t you collapse if you work with empty stomach?“

  „Not really“, Jong-suk glanced with a genuine smile at him, „You know, tasting many food can replete you anyway.“

Woo-bin shrugged on his shoulders to end this topic, then took the bento and digged in with his chopstick. First, he gulped two eggrolls he loved so much. He didn’t even take the time to chew on it before swallowing it. The older one sat there, watched how his younger brother devoured the food he prepared for him. Somehow, it made him hungry to see him eat with so much passion. His stomach responded with a loud rumble to tell him that he was hungry and needed to fill him here and now.

Jong-suk pated on his stomach to calm it down but as he glanced over to woo-bin, suddenly the younger one stretched his arm to him with a gimbap between his chopstick.

  „I know you’re hungry…“, Woo-bin explained to him. 

Woo-bin reached his arm to him. It was a sign that he should quickly take the offer before he change his opinion and eat everything. With a little smile on his lips, Lee Song-suk took the offer, came closer to Woo-bin and opened his mouth to be feed from the handsome man in front of him. Woo-bin fell in silence. To see the beautiful face of jong-suk so close to him, left him lost for word. He gulped while placing the chopstick with the gimbap in jong-suk's mouth.

An ominious aura laid in the air, Jong-suk felt someone watching them. He looked around himself only to find everyone’s eyes on them. It was so quiet around them that he could even hear his own shallow breath.

Some young bystander found them cute and giggled at them but the few of them were shocked to witness a man feeding another man. It was obvious to see that some felt offended by them. Jong-suk cursed himself for being so stupid to forget his surroundings for a moment. He reminded himself that they were not home but at a public place. His flawless face turned red like tomato from embarassment. He turned aside to hide his face and chewed quietly on the gimbap.

While Lee Jong-suk was fighting with the embarrassment, woo-bin seemed not to be disturbed by the crowd. It was more like he ignored them or didn’t find them important enough to be noticed by him. His eyes were fixed on one thing: It was the chopstick that his loved one had in his mouth. He thought he should take the chopstick in his mouth and taste it before the warmth from Jong-suk’s lips disappeared.

  „It would be like an indirect kiss“, he thought over and over in his head. This indirect kiss made him so happy as if he just won a lottery of hundred milions won. 

He took the last eggroll and placed it in his mouth. Even if lips doesn’t have any taste, he just imagined to himself that Jong-suk’s lips had a sweet and unforgetable scent that he had like to taste everyday.

All the sudden a hand packed him on his shoulder, this rough touch ripped him from his fantasy, more like his daydream. He was so surprised that he nearly jumped out of his pale skin. It was Jong-suk who shook him up. He was busy with looking at his watch that he missed to see the rare, scared face of his younger brother. Bad luck! Problably he won’t ever see this scared expression again.

   „I have to go“, he stood up before he could finish his sentence.

  „The family you’ll cook for, are chaebols, right?“

  „Yeah. Why?“

  „Be careful. A chaebol family looks nice outside but they're malicious inside.“

  „What made you think like that?“

  „I had an invesgation against a chaebol one and… Let just say, it didn’t go well as planed.“

  „I’ll be careful, you worrywart.“, he said then ruffled on Woo-bin’s hairs, and ran toward the road to catch a cab.

Woo-bin never liked it to be pated like that by him. First, it made it look like he just see him as a kid and don’t take him serious. Second, it made him recognize the fact that Jong-suk and he are brothers.

He realized that they can’t be involved romantically. This reality hitted him so hard that he felt pain in his chest. He grabbed on his chest to calm his poundering heart.

Lee Jong-suk arrived at his destination, exited the cab and waited in front of a huge house. The gate that separated him and the villa was eyecatching, it was high and also had the width of his own bedroom. The luxurious mansion problably had more than 15 rooms and on the right side was a huge garden where almost hundred people could fit in for a garden party.

  „So this is the life of a chaebol, huh“, he spoke in amaze to himself.

He looked around. The next house in the area is a kilometer away from this amazing villa.

Why so far away from the society? Did they want to keep a secret from escaping outside?

Jong-suk was so amaze from the sight before him that he didn’t notice a voice speaking through the speaker to him.

  „May I help you?“, the manly voice asked again.

  „I’m Lee Jong-suk, the cook you hired a few days ago.“

Jong suk was a self-proclaimed cook for special small event. Since he didn’t attend any cooking school and haven’t any cooking certificate, he couldn’t make an advertisment for himself like other official catering do. He just made an annoucement in the newspaper with some picture of a table decorated with various food he prepared. Sometimes he regretted it that he could only graduate from high school since it hindered him from showing his potential as a cook. Because of lack of money, he choose to drop from high school and to work to support his brothers.

Thinking of the success of his brothers brought a smile on his face.

The one thing he would never regret in his life, was to give up on his own future for his brothers. Even if he didn’t went to any university, his brothers are successful and he was proud of them. Even if he didn't earn much, he could afford living with the money he get from cooking for customers who called for his service.

The owner of this house saw his anouncement in the newspaper and wanted him to cook for a special guest. They told him not to bring anything but a delicious dish he could enchant them with. He was free to choose the menü and he would have many helpers as much as he needed. It was the first time he took a job from a chaebol as rich as them, and it was also the first time the customer left the choice of the menü to him. he prepared himself to do well. Maybe he could get more offering from them if he matched everyone’s taste.

With a click sound, the gate got open. As soon as he walked the long path to the house, a man in his fourty, dressed in a black suit, came outside. A young woman, dressed in a black blazer and shirt, acompanied him. Both of them bowed for him in an elegant manner as greetings and introduced themselves as the junior butler and one of the maid of this house. Jong-suk too bowed the same way and shook hands with them.

The junior butler brought him inside the mansion. Like expected, the inside was really luxurious but it was more extravagant than he thought, no word could discribe it. The only thing he could say, was that everything here was expensive than his apartment including his furniture. The decorations in the villa were made of gold and the ceiling lights were even sparkling. At that moment he thought how poor his life was but he wasn’t jealous of the people living or working in this large house. Every beautiful thing has his own dark secret. He just knew from the silence surrounding him that something didn’t feel right. 

  „You can have any luxury in this world but I’m sure you can’t be happy in this kind of world“, was his thought. 

Many maids, male workers and an older man, who seemed to be the grand butler, formed two queue with a space between the queue. They waited in front of the stairs as if they expected a special guest or were about to welcome the queen. A clack sound from a high heel stepping on the stairs, echoed in the air. The junior butler, the maid and Lee Jong-suk took the way to the kitchen. Before he could disappear in the corner of the kitchen, he caught a glimpse of the madam dressed in red. He found it too bad to not see the entire face of this woman, but since it was the first and the last time they saw each others, he told himself to just live with it. Their path won’t cross a second time anyway.

As he stepped in the grand kitchen, the maids who welcomed the madam, rushed pass him and formed a queue before him and welcomed him. It was his turn to introduce himself so he prepared his voice for it. It was the first time he had to introduce himself before so much people he have to work with so he felt a little bit embarrassed.

He bowed to them, „I’m Lee Jong-suk, the cook for today. I’m lookind forward to cook with you today“, his soft voice said to them.

  „He’s so young“, a girl whispered to the next one beside her.

  „Moreover, he looks so cute“, another girl replied.

This compliment made him blush in embarrassment.

When the grand butler gave the girls the signal to begin cooking, some rushed to wash the ingredients needed for the food. Other prepared the side dishes.

A few hours later, the preparations were going well, and everyone helped as much as they could. Lee Jong-suk put salt in the sauce on the stove, then stirred the sauce. Suddenly, a maid next to him flambeed the food in the wok which kindled the fire of the gas stove.

Jong-suk took few steps back in fear from the flams. He turned pale, his eyes filled with fears widened then fixed on the fire. An occurance replayed in his eyes as if he had a vision.

Flashback: a young boy was trapped in a house and surrounded from a raging fire. He wanted to escape but the flams were everywhere, it seemed like he would meet his demise in the fire. A room was next to him. Children sreamed from inside for help. He pulled at the doorknob but the door refused to open. The hot doorknob burned his palms, he immediately took his fingers from it.  

The cries of burned children echoed in his head, he grabbed on his head and desperately shook his head in shock. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead, his body trembled, he panted heavily. His heart thumped hard, it hurted in his chest. He felt a lump in his throat, it was difficult for him to breath. He stepped back till he bumped against something. He couldn’t move an inch but when he saw the shocked faces of the maids, he realized he just make a big mistake he wasn’t aware of.

He gathered his courage, lifted up his head to look at the thing he bumped against. A broad shoulders appeared behind him, he looked up and saw a man standing too close to him.

  „Young… Young master“, called the junior butler.

Lee Jong-suk turned paler, and widened his shiny eyes as he heard how the butler called the young man standing before him. His knees trembled and gave up on strength . His view turned blurry, he couldn’t stand straight on his feet anymore and collapsed. Before he could touch hard on the ground, a strong arm was put around his back. The strong arm held him firmly and prevented him from hitting hard against the clean ground that reflected every details, even the pimple in your face.

He breathed loud and too fast. The only thing he captured in his eyes was the handsome young master who supported him with an arm around his back.

Thanks for the support and enjoy the next chapter of Bromance :)

PS: Sorry for the picture in the story. Hope it don't disturb you too much...