“See, it smells and looks so much better if we use natural ingredients. I really wasn’t confident about the instant sauce or something, I rather make it myself.”

Different from the original plan he suggested, I still ended up going for making my own marinade for the Bulgogi. “Yeah yeah, you win. It does smell good already and you haven’t even started cooking. Can you try cooking a piece already?” Kyungsoo peeked at the bowl that I just covered with a cling wrap. I’m going to let it sit for about an hour. “Eh—oppa, be patient.” I hit his hand when he attempted to take one and put it in the wok that’s on the stove. “See, this is why I prefer you using the instant one. I’m so hungry.” He whined like a child while rubbing his tummy. It’s my day off today but he’s working of course, he just took a break and went back home for lunch.

Well, he obviously can take as much break as he wants.

Lucky bastard.

“Well, no one told you to skip breakfast.” I hiss at him and roll my eyes. He just chuckled and pinched my cheek. “Ayy—oppa.” I groan and move away. “I wanted to save a lot of space for your beef rice bowl, alright?” He argued in defense. I look away to supress the urge to giggle at what he said. “You’re expecting way too much, I’m not that good.” I muffle while looking down to the bowl of marinated beef. I slowly gaze at him to realize he was staring at me. I gulp hard. Sweat trickles down his forehead, his hair was quite damp because of it too. A towel hangs on his shoulder and the chest area of his shirt was wet with sweat. “You can go relax at the living room, I’ll finish this up as quickly as I can.” I mutter softly.

It’s not even the end of the day and he looks like he has done so much work.

It always amazes me that he owns this whole land but he still works as hard as his employees, if not harder. “Yeah, I am relaxing right now.” He replied and leaned more comfortably on the counter beside me. He grabbed the end of the towel on his shoulder and wiped his sweat. “L-let me.” I mumble and snatch the towel from him. He freezes on his spot as I do the honours of wiping the sweat around his face and down to his neck.

“You’re pushing it, Han Iseul.” He says.

Huh? What?

“Pushing what? I’m just helping you, you look really exhausted.” I matter, my touches getting gentler as my hand arrive down to his collarbone. I was about to go back up to his head when he grabbed me by the wrist to stop me. “Okay, fine. I’ll stop. Geez, I was just helping.” I mumble out to act cool until he twirled me around, my lower back meeting the edge of the counter. He grabbed my other wrist and pushed both my hands down to my sides. “Y-yah, what’s going on?” I ask while moving my head back as far as I could go. holy .

“I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now but I was not sure if you would like it. But I think you would now.”

I blink rapidly as I look back at him. His eyes travel down my lips and I shiver just by watching that action take place. O-okay, for real. Did I just turn him on by wiping his sweat because that was not what I was trying to do, although like I have promised myself last night, I’m going to start working on my skinship. Didn’t expect it to escalate this fast. Jesus Christ, he’s so easy to trigger. “W-wait—you haven’t even made things o-official.” I stutter while clearing my throw.

“Do you want me to?”

. ing . What do I say?! Do I say yes? Would I seem too ty if I said yes? Should I play hard to get? OH MY GOD, I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THIS. For ’s sake, I just woke up, washed my face and brushed my teeth, and pretty much slacked off before starting to cook. I should at least take a shower first!

Han Iseul, this is just a kiss. Your whole body is not involved yet. Wait, who even mentioned kiss? What if he meant something else? BUT WHAT ELSE DOES THIS MEAN THEN?! I’m freaking out.

Okay, fine. Maybe the best decision is not making a decision. this, I’m just going to go for it and kiss him first—

Ring ring.

Our eye-contact got interrupted by Kyungsoo’s phone ringing. He looked rather pissed because he rolled his eyes while leaning away from me. He took his phone out of his pocket. “Oh, it’s mom. Sorry, I need to take this.” He said and walked over to the living room leaving me frozen like ice in the kitchen. What just ing happened? I turn around to face the counter as I work on calming myself down. “It’s okay, Han Iseul. Breathe.” I whisper to myself a couple of times. Oh my god, did I almost have my first kiss right there?! That thought alone makes me lose my breath.

“Come on, Eomma. Just move on from the past because I already did. Don’t make a scene—no, I’m not getting back with her. What kind of question is that?”

I tilt my head as I overhear Kyungsoo’s phone conversation. They must be talking about Lee Seul. I gently walk closer to a wall closer to the way leading the living room to hide as I try to eavesdrop. “Because I don’t want to—reason? If I tell you, you’re going to act so silly and I don’t want that to ruin everything—no please, I will tell you when it’s all official.” He continued arguing. I bit my bottom lip. Is he talking about. . . us? “Oh my g—Eomma, can you just promise me that you’re not going to act so childishly when you come visit? Please, you’re going to make her feel awkward. Fine, yes, it’s her. But please, I’m trying to take things slowly, don’t embarrass me, please.” He pleas like a child.

I cover my mouth to supress my urge to giggle at the way he begged his mother to behave.

“Wha—no, nothing happened yet. Why are you so naughty, Eomma? See, this is why I didn’t want to tell you yet, you’re not going to stop.” He starts laughing in embarrassment. “Yes, that’s why I told you, you don’t need to worry about Lee Seul. . . I have my eyes on—why would I sneak into her room—oh my god, Eomma. Stop. I am not sneaking into anyone’s room, I cannot believe I am hearing this from you, you’re so silly.” Kyungsoo muttered making me widen my eyes. Oh my god, his mother must like him to get married already, it seems that she’s pushing him so much. Even when I met her for the first time, it’s like she really wants Kyungsoo to settle down already.

Well, he’s turning thirty after all.

“Okay, see you. Be careful on your way, okay?”

I flinch when Kyungsoo walked back into the kitchen. “My mom’s coming today, probably around dinner time.” He said and walked to the dining table to sit. “O-oh, that’s good. The Bulgogi should be enough for her too.” I walk over to him and grab the other chair so I could sit closer to him. “You should eat the snacks you bought, an hour is a long time. I didn’t know you would take a break so early so I started quite a bit late.” I mutter as I put my hands on the table and start fiddling with my fingernails. He leaned on the table sideways so he could face me better. He put an elbow on the table and settled his knuckle on his temple. His other hand then traveled over to mine.

I gulp in nervousness.

It was silent yet comfortable. He lightly taps his index finger around my knuckles as if counting them. I have never shared this kind of interaction with anyone before and so I don’t know what to do or how to react. I just sat there frozen while watching him slowly sneak his hand into mine. I literally held my breath when I felt the warmth of his palm against mine.

To calm myself down, I decided to strike up a conversation. “Uhm, Oppa. If you w-were to move to a big city. . . w-what do you think you would be doing? Like what job would you get?” I ask. I thought he would stop holding my hand if I talk but instead he just held it more, open my knuckles flat on the table and started drawing random shapes on my palm with his other hand. “Hmm. . . probably still anything that has something to do with farming.” He softly answered with a smile. “But I mean it depends.” He suddenly added.

“Depends on what?”

He tilted his head while staring at me affectionately. “I never really wanted to move to a big city, like ever.” He said making me look down. “But if my future wife really loves it there, I’m willing to learn how to love it just as much. I mean what could go wrong, right? We can build out own business there, who knows.” he suddenly added making me look up.

He looked down to my hand while smiling. “Maybe we can have our own Bulgogi Restaurant, with natural ingredients, not the instant ones.”

I let out a hearty chuckle and push his hand jokingly.

I sigh and stare at him. “Well, who knows. Your future wife might actually want to stay here and be away from the chaos of the big city.” I speak playfully. He chuckled and looked up to me again. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I think she’s a big city girl, she’s the type of person who would wear high heels while farming.” The silly Kyungsoo continues to play along. I gave him a side-glare before bursting out of laughter with him.

Our very relaxing exchange of ideas was interrupted by a knock.

We both turn towards the opened front door. It was Lee Seul. Oh god, for ’s sake. I pull my hand away from Kyungsoo’s grip and stand up. “Oh, Seul-ah. What’s up, how was your first night here?” Kyungsoo politely greeted but I hear that light but worn out sigh he let out before speaking, meaning he’s not that interested on seeing her. Lee Seul came into the house and into the kitchen with us. “Well, it’s pretty much the same for me everywhere I sleep, always broken. I usually am able to sleep pretty late, like around two or three in the morning that’s why I woke up late. You know. . . nightmares, here and there.” She spoke as she stood behind the chair on the dining table. I look down feeling sorry for her and I know Kyungsoo felt the same because he let out a heavy sigh. “Oh and also, one more thing—oh my god.” Lee Seul suddenly groaned as she massaged her temples.

“What’s wrong?” Kyungsoo asked. “I just realized that the guy from last night, stays in the room right next to mine. If it’s okay, I would really love to change rooms because he’s so loud late at night, that is one more reason why I couldn’t sleep. I’m not even kidding, I don’t know what he’s doing but he keeps on shouting or like cheering and stuff, I think he’s playing a game or something. Oppa, can you do something about it?” Seul suddenly looked more bothered as she explained the situation. I pursed my lips together to supress the urge to laugh.

I actually got a text from Baekhyun last night.

He said he just found out h