The phrase "carrot and stick" is a metaphor for the use of a combination of reward and punishment to induce a desired behaviour.

"Wendy!"

"Wendy?"

"......"

"Son Seungwan!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm here Joohyun. What do you need?" the girl came out from her room while hand holding a piece of blue lego brick, gray baggy hoodie with white pants, few fresh bread crumbs sprinkled on her chest area. She notices the crumbs when her girlfriend shook her head after seeing her looking like a whole cute mess. 

"Look at you. Are you a kid?" Joohyun says as she lightly taps on Seungwan's chest, collecting the crumbs by letting them fall to her other bare hands. She walks away to the sink, "Can you get some octopus for me?" she added.

"Octopus? We can't keep a puppy but you want us to take care of an octopus?" the younger raises her eyebrows.

"We are going to eat them, Seungwan." 

"Wha-?"  She stares at Joohyun's back who was facing the sink and washing the dishes. Processing the conversation that they just had, not saying a word which made the older confused, and turned around, a smile appears when she found Seungwan with her dumbfounded face. Both of their eyes met. 

Joohyun raised her eyebrows where it alerted Seungwan and raised hers too. The older points her fingers on the countertop, "I am making takoyaki, and- what do you think?"

"AH! Takoyaki!" she screams. "Yeah, sure we are eating them. What was I thinking," Seungwan scratches her head while awkwardly touches the ingredients on the countertop.

Her ears and cheeks turn bright red when she found her girlfriend was staring at her, giggling at her little moves. The lego was still there, held perfectly tight in her other hand. She wanted to leave the kitchen and run to her room so bad. She wanted to hide from embarrassment.

Not until Joohyun grabbed her wrist and pulled her closer, leaving no gaps between them, eyes meeting each other as if it was a staring contest. But it was not the competitive one, but rather, a romantic staring contest. 

"So," the older says as she pulls the younger closer by surrounding her arms around Seungwan's waist, she could even feel the latter fast pounding heartbeat and smell the scent of Lavender shampoo on her hair. "So what?" seungwan replies.

"Can you get me either a big octopus or some baby octopuses? I need it right now." 

Seungwan leaned her head back to show her girlfriend a serious face, "Right now? You can't do it later?" 

"I need to make it now though. So we have time to enjoy whatever you want later." joohyun says while leaving a smirky face and an awkward wink. "Please." She whispers to seungwan's ear, knowing that the latter would fall for this trick. 

"Whatever I want?"

She could feel the soft brushes of Joohyun's fingertips tracing through her skin, from her cheeks, slowly brushing strands of hair behind her ears, slowly again tracing it down to her defined jaw. But her hand came back up when Seungwan asks, "Whatever I want? Really?"

"Whatever," one gentle tap on the forehead,

"You," one gentle tap on the tip of her nose,

"Want," one last gentle tap on her plump lips. 

What a tease.

"Alright. Anything you asked for, ma'am. And then we will get what I want when I get back, okay?" She backs off after leaving two soft kisses on her girlfriend's cheeks. 

"Bye!" 

She went out of the apartment and walked few steps to the market which was one block away from the building. There's not a lot of people on the streets so she hums out a random melody while made up unstructured lyrics alongside. "Oh girl, come and pick me up- me up? Light, light me up!" Seungwan whispers to herself.

As she hums out th