"Morning, Sleeping beauty!"

Jisoo chirped in as she saw Yixing stirred on the couch. He looked a bit disoriented as he looked around like trying to recognize his surroundings, then he sat up and wiped his face lethargically. Jisoo poured some warm water and walked up to the couch,

"I'm overslept," he said in his hoarse voice.

"You are. Here, take this." she handed him the cup of the warm water so he could drink it, which he did.

He cleared his throat, still looked clueless about the situation. "I'm sorry," he said after a moment of silence.

"It's fine. You looked so tired so I deliberately didn't wake you up." Jisoo took the cup back from him and walked back to the kitchen. She couldn't hold back her smile seeing how lost Yixing looked, he probably didn't plan to a sleepover and somewhat this seemed to upset him. 

"I got a spare toothbrush for you and a towel if you want to clean up." she told him, "And I think I have Sehun's clothes here if you want something to change."

"Uh, that's fine. I think I have some change of clothes in my car." 

While she was making the pancake batter, she watched him folding up the blanket and sitting forward while resting his elbows on his thigh, as if loading his consciousness to action mode. He rose about a minute later to get out of the house and back not long after that with a small duffle bag,

"My gym equipment," he explained as he caught the questioning look in her eyes as to why he would bring around some spare clothes in his car. Jisoo raised her brow, then she told him where the bathroom was which he immediately headed in. 

She started to cook the pancake.

Yixing joined her again about fifteen minutes later. She was serving the pancake on the table when he pulled a chair for himself. He looked much fresher than before in his white T-shirt and the Supreme sweatpants, Jisoo was not really sure whether it was the one they bought together the other day. He sniffed a little and wiped his nose with a tissue and sipped on the hot ginger honey tea that Jisoo made for him.

"Sorry, I don't really cook. But I hope it makes a proper breakfast," she told him about the pancake while serving the maple syrup on the table. It's not like she couldn't really cook at all, she meant it like, she thought she could make an edible pancake. But she indeed only could make simple dishes since it's always for herself, and she never really tried to cook something more complicated than spicy soft tofu stew, so, well...

"Pancake is more than proper. It's a feast for me." Yixing simply laughed, "I never really have a big breakfast myself, even when my mother is around."

"What do you always have for breakfast?" Jisoo asked she watched him plated some layers of pancake for her first before he served one for himself. She remembered that time when he did a similar thing for his mother at the Chuseok dinner, and it made her think that Yixing was probably used to do this rule of order. That's impressive.

"Cereal or toast. Or any leftover from what my maid cooked for the day before."

So he had a maid, well of course he did. She didn't think that he would have any time left to do some house chores with that habit of his, the maid was indeed the only reason how he could live like a civil human by keeping the house, and the clothes, clean.

"My maid is that type who would grumble if there no chores to do. So, it's fine if you don't cook. Let her do the job."

Jisoo didn't hold back her smile as she saw him did the same, he talked about the future again. That's so sweet. They let the silence engulf them for some good moments to enjoy their pancakes. She put some topping choices on the table, including the whipped cream and chocolate ice cream and some berries. And Yixing looked happy that he was able to try all the topping choices since Jisoo made quite a lot for them both.

They then talked about his schedule which was quite hectic for the upcoming two weeks. He asked if she had some plan outside the house today, which Jisoo replied with a shake of her head. She planned to do the laundry and did some clean up with the house since she had been putting it off for three weeks already, including her absence to the States, that, except Yixing had another plan to ask her for a date out since it's Saturday. But apparently he wanted to have some rest and he asked if he could stay the day instead because he was too lazy to drive home. He had to fly to Shanghai again tomorrow night, so he told her that he wanted to spend more time with her if she's okay with that.

And she didn't mind. It's nice to have a company on the weekend anyway.

"Let me wash the dishes." he prompted when they finished all the pancakes.

"Uh-uh, no. You sit back, I'll do it myself." she started to clean the table, but Yixing took the dirty plates from her, insisting.

"You feed me breakfast, so it's only fair if I do the dishes. It's not like I'm a guest here anyway." he pushed her away with his hip and made his way to the sink. And that just told her that it was undebatable, so she went to wipe the table and put the topping bottles and cups back into the fridge. As she closed the fridge door, she made time to stay there and watched him busying himself with the dishes while humming softly.

There'd never been even once in her mind the thought that she would witness something like this before her eyes. She was watching Yixing's back, washing the dishes in her house, and it looked so dreamy. She had had those imaginations about her future with him, she saw him doing many things in there, but this was not one of them. 

It's not a bad thing, she loved it instead. She liked what she was witnessing right now, the back view of him, that broad shoulders that he had, the way he enjoyed his chore, and the idea of him doing this itself, it's just too⁠—it's just too hard to believe that they were in this stage where they would help each other doing the housework already. The pace was slightly too fast, but she didn't hate it.

"It's rude to stare." Yixing commented as he probably caught her idleness behind his back, and it snapped Jisoo from her small reverie. A bit blushed, she walked up to fish out a cloth to wipe the wet plates and stood next to him.

"You have a nice back view, I can't help it," she said just to save her face. Sometimes being shameless just helped her a lot saving her from embarrassment, at least he wouldn't for the prominent blush on her cheeks.

Yixing just laughed inaudibly but said nothing. "Let me do that. You go do something else." he took the cloth from her, as he finished washing and started to wipe the wet plates and put them in the drawer.

"Then I'll just go wash up." she said then, which Yixing responded with a short 'okay'. "Anyway, I'm going to do the laundry for the sheets and blankets and everything else. Can you help me take down the curtains after you do this?" 

"Sure. Anything else?" 

"Yeah, please don't fall asleep while you're at it." she teased.

And Yixing smiled sheepishly, which looked so cute that Jisoo really wanted to pinch his cheek. "Yes, Ma'am," he said with a salute, and Jisoo couldn't stop her hand to really pinch him on his cheek before she spun around and left behind her bedroom door. 

She didn't take much time to take a shower. When she's done, she took her time to do her morning skincare routine. Because she initially had dry skin, and her long haul flight was kind of making it a bit worse, she applied more layers of moisturizing products to her whole body. Yixing knocked on her door when she was drying her hair, letting her know that he had taken down all the curtains and asked if there's anything else he could do to help. Jisoo told him to put the curtains into the giant bag from the laundry room, she didn't hear him anymore after that.

Jisoo took out her oversized Monki sweater from the closet drawer and put it on top of her black tank top with a denim short. She then put her hair up on a bun style and took the blanket from her bed to put on the laundry pile.

Yixing was lying on his stomach on the couch while reading the second book of the 1Q84 when Jisoo emerged from her bedroom. She glanced sideways to look at him and caught him doing a double-take on her.

"What?" she asked him in confusion, as he tilted his head as if he was peeking on something under her sweater.

"You wear something under that, don't you?" he pointed on her leg, the face was stoic.

A bit dumbfounded, Jisoo pulled up her sweater to show him her short, which was overdrowned by the oversized sweater. It's that when he put his hand on his chest, like he was relieved or something, Jisoo finally got what he meant by his previous question. And she chuckled,

"What were you thinking?" she probed him.

"You keep wearing revealing clothes in front of me, Baobei, I might have a nose bleed one of these days."

And Jisoo burst into laughter, seeing how ridiculous this was. She didn't even aware if what she wore was counted as revealing, it's not like she ever showed him her private parts or something, because all this time she always wore what was comfortable for her. 

"Well, your mind is just too filthy, you can't blame me." she retorted.

"Haven't you heard about this?" Yixing pulled up his back and sat on the couch, "Like a fisherman putting bait onto a hook, your brain puts worms of thought onto the hook and goes fishing for your attention." he then said. Jisoo tilted her head as she was trying to apprehend what he was saying, there again the metaphors. He always hooked her into thinking mode again.

"So, you're saying that I'm the fisherman?" she asked.

"You're the worms. I simply go fishing, you know." 

Jisoo scoffed, she almost threw him the blanket in her arm if she didn't remember that it would take time to fold it. She would probably have to get used to him calling her things. He called her stupid the other day, and now it's worms. Not that she hated it, it's just refreshing because she was used to taking people's respect and politeness before. Yixing's joke was surely a new breather. But apart from that alone, did he mean that she's been feeding him baits all this time with her choice of outfits? She just realized that if this was his way of telling her what to wear without being too overtly controlling, he was really good at it. Heck, he was always good in good a good impression on himself. Like, she wasn't offended at all.

"Well then, haven't you ever heard about it too? The mind is a good fisherman, so don't take the bait." She smiled back to him, it didn't mean that she had to listen, hadn't she?

Even so, she still appreciated him though, she knew that he meant it good to ask her to wear something more proper for his eyes. But she liked and was comfortable with what she was wearing right now. Yixing needed to adapt his eyes to familiarize himself with this because, at least for now, she didn't intend to change the way she dressed simply because he asked politely. But she would fulfill his request to save his nose from bleeding, so yeah, she'll close up a bit. They didn't talk about it again after Yixing threw his hands in the air, and gave up.

Jisoo told him that she would step put a bit to the laundromat, and Yixing asked to tag along. She returned to her room to get her bag and returned to the living room with a box, which she then gave to Yixing.

"What is this?" Yixing asked as soon as he wore his gray hoodie.

"A gift," she said. "Happy belated birthday."

Yixing let out a small smile and stared at the cover box just before opening it. He immediately laughed when he found two pairs of socks in them, with a print of the initials of his name on each sock.

"You can combine the two. Unmatched socks are the trend these days." Jisoo said jokingly.

"Really?" Yixing put off the socks he was wearing immediately and threw them into the laundry bag, then put on a pair of new socks that Jisoo had given.

"Your idea is very original, I'm so impressed." Yixing commented half laughing, then held up his thumb. "I don't really celebrate my birthday, so I don't expect anything at all. But thank you for the gift."

Jisoo raised her brow then shrugged. She didn't say that she bought it last minute because she only remembered his birthday a week later. But she just understood why Yixing didn't discuss it at all, men might indeed be less concerned about birthday than women. Minseok and Sehun never celebrate their birthdays either, sometimes if Jisoo really forgot, they would only discuss it a few weeks or a month later.

Yixing helped her carry her laundry bag along the way. The laundromat they were going to was not so far from her apartment, so they both took a walk there. The sky was cloudy when they came out of the house, today's weather forecast said that the sun would not be seen until tonight, while tomorrow it would rain all day. The air was even colder today, only about fifteen degrees with a fairly strong wind, Jisoo was lucky that she wore her sweater, it really saved her day outside.

"I was joking about the socks," Jisoo told her at the laundromat. 

She had just finished putting all her laundry in the washing machine. She turned it on then she sat next to Yixing at the round table while waiting for their laundry to finish in twenty minutes. She put two cups of a latte on the table for both of them, the place was quite quiet this morning. A bit unus