“You have to tell me where you live sometime,” was the first thing that Jinyoung said as I sat down in the seat opposite to his.

   “What’re you talking about?” I asked confusedly.

   It was 9o’clock on the following Monday morning and I had just stepped into the small café, spotting Jinyoung’s red head immediately.

   “It feels so rude to not pick you up or bring you home,” he shrugged, before breaking into a chuckle. “What’s with the hat?”

   I quickly took off the red cap that I had on low over my head and stuffed it into my handbag embarrassedly. “I didn’t want anybody to see me, okay? I’ve never skipped before!”

   “At all? Wow, I just corrupted an innocent youth…” he feigned shock and then shook his head, smiling. “Aigoo, you’re so adorable!”

   Feeling my heart speed up by a minuscule amount, I quickly addressed his previous comment. “My mom would have a field day if you brought me home – you’d never hear the end of it,” I said matter-of-factly.

   “Great, I can meet the ‘rents,” he joked.

   All I did was glance shyly at him and smile. Was he being extra flirty today?

   We each bought breakfast (I insisted on paying for myself this time) and walked out of the store, munching on sandwiches.

   “What did you want to do today that was so important?” I asked as we walked as a slow, relaxed pace down random streets.

   “Who said that it was important?” He said, taking a big bite of food.

   “You made me skip school for nothing?!” I screeched.

   He laughed, “Let’s go to the mall.”

   “You made me skip school to shop?”

   “I thought girls liked to shop?”

   I paused. “Good point. Let’s go shopping!”

   “You’re such a pushover,” he teased.

   “Yah!” I smacked his arm, giggling because it was true. “I’ll ditch you right now if you don’t be nice!”

   “Yeah, yeah,” Jinyoung said mockingly. Side by side, we walked to the mall with the sun shining on us the entire way there.

---

   Jinyoung strolled casually from one window display to another, lazily checking out what the stores were selling, but not really interested in buying anything. You had run off, found a “really, really, really cute shirt,” (in your words, anyway) and embarrassedly asked if you could possibly try it on. Jinyoung had of course readily agreed, persuaded by your unintentional aegyo. He had told you that he’d wait outside, and ended up looking at random window displays nearby.

   Jinyoung walked by a jewelry store, pausing at the display of sparkling objects. It wasn’t one of the brand-name jewelry stores, so they had many cuter, creative things rather than just thousand-dollar diamonds.

   Stepping inside somewhat awkwardly, he tried to look as manly as possible as he scanned through the objects.

   “Looking for something today?” A mature sales attendant asked politely.

   “Ah, uhm…not really anything specific,” answered Jinyoung. This was way out of his league. “Something cute,” he decided.

   “Oh, for a girl, yes?” The lady winked slyly before continuing, “You should get something meaningful.”

   Meaningful. Jinyoung nodded and thanked the lady before continuing to browse. Stopping at the bracelets, he found a silver charm bracelet with sparkling miniature books dangling off of it.

   We did meet at the library, Jinyoung mused, smiling slightly. And girls like sparkly things, right?

   “I’d like this please,” he said hurriedly as he brought the bracelet over to checkout.

   “You are going to get so many brownie points for this,” the sales lady smiled. “That’ll be $20, please.”

   Jinyoung quickly paid and rushed back over to the clothing store, where you were just paying for the shirt. Stuffing the small box into his pocket, he grinned as you came out of the store squealing, showing him your shopping bag.

  So adorable, he thought.

   The two of you continued strolling through the mall, pointing out interesting things.

   “Does that seriously say 3% off?” Jinyoung said, laughing.

   “You’d look great in that neon pink skirt,” You joked.

   “Not as great as you’d look in that tuxedo,” he pointed out randomly.

   You suddenly gasped before jogging over to a display case nearby and crouching down to peer into it. Jinyoung caught up with you quickly, realizing that it was a bakery. He watched as you ooh’d and ahh’d over the decorative cakes and cookies.

   “We could make that too,” he said challengingly as he crouched beside you.

   “You can bake?”

   “All you do is mix stuff and throw it in the oven, right?”

   “Where, though?”

   “I don’t know,” he shrugged, “My place or yours?”

   He watched happily as he could see your excitement rising. Your eyes danced and your voice went higher than normal. “Yes, please! Can we really? We could just go to my place, my mom’s probably at work. Jinyoung, please, please!”

   He grinned as you shook and tugged on his arm, almost toppling him over. He pretended to debate, putting his finger thoughtfully on his chin. “Hmm…”

   “Would that be alright?” You said giddily.

   Jinyoung finally smiled and nodded, making you burst into laughter, throwing your hands up in the air.

   Anything you want is alright, he thought.

---

   “Welcome to my humble home,” I announced proudly as I led Jinyoung through the door. We had gone straight to the market to buy some basic ingredients before walking back to my house. “My mom won’t be home until another couple of hours, so let’s try not to break the house before that,” I warned, leading Jinyoung into the kitchen to drop off the bags.

   “Don’t worry about it breaking,” he said as he dropped the bags and settled into a chair. “Worry about it burning.”

   My eyes widened. “You’ve never baked before?”

   Jinyoung shook his head. “No, why?”

   “I’ve only baked once,” I admitted.

   “What?!” he exclaimed, laughing. “This’ll be fun. Er – where’s the washroom?”

   “By the looks of it, we will burn down the house. It’s just down the hall to your right,” I pointed out.

   “Thanks – draining the dragon,” he exaggerated a wink.

   “TOO MUCH INFORMATION!” I cried, horrified.

    Jinyoung laughed as he left the room. I powered up my laptop, found a random recipe for cookies (it seemed the easiest to make) and opened an upbeat song. I swayed along to the music as I walked around the cupboards, getting out the necessary supplies and appliances. I reached towards the top cupboard, where the flour was kept, but was just shy of reaching it. Why am I so short? I thought. Stretching on my tip toes, I had almost reached the corner of the bag of flour when I felt something brush against my hip. I started to twist around but abruptly froze in place when my shoulder bumped into a solid figure.

   Jinyoung.

   Towering over me, Jinyoung’s shadow swallowed mine whole. “What’re you getting?” He said perfectly casually. His hand was resting ever so lightly on my hip – so light that maybe I was even imagining it, but peering down, his hand was actually there.

  “F-flour,” I stuttered out, feeling a little too warm. Jinyoung’s chest pressed against my back as he reached up and easily swiped the bag of flour down. Without moving away, he held out in front of me.

   “This one?” he questioned. I nodded, taking it and hurriedly escaping by sliding away sideways. As I did so, I swear, I saw Jinyoung smirk.

   Clearing my throat, I shoved myself back into focus. “Let’s bake, let’s bake!”

   Jinyoung and I fooled around so much that it took us way longer than necessary to actually gather and put the ingredients into one bowl, even though we took turns.

   He’d pretend to throw eggs at me, while I’d pretend to hide the vanilla extract. He’d dust my hair with a “crown” made of flour, while I reciprocated by using said flour to draw a happy face on his cheek. Every time we washed our hands, we’d use each other’s shirts to dry them. As I was trying to concentrate on getting the right amounts of each ingredient, he’d randomly jolt me or push me, messing me up. Every time we even tried to do something seriously, it didn’t last for more than three minutes. I was honestly fine with that – it was lots of fun to just be with Jinyoung.

   “I want to mix it!” I proclaimed excitedly once we finally got all the ingredients into one bowl.

   “You’re going to do it manually?!”

   “That’s the fun part! It’s not really fun if you do it all with machines…”

   He scoffed, but smiled and plopped himself in a chair, watching me.

   “You’re going to get tired in two minutes,” he stated.

   “Will not. I’m strong!” I said, pretending to flex and kiss my biceps before continuing to mix the batter fiercely.

   He played on my laptop, opening another upbeat song, which I would first hum to, before getting comfortable with him and swaying along to the music also.

   After one song, however, my arm was starting to feel tired. Not wanting to let Jinyoung know that he was right, I continued.

   After another minute however, my arm felt like it was going to fall off.

   “Jinyoung,” I pouted.

   “Mwo?” He looked up, surprised. “What’s wrong?”

   I paused before answering. “My arm’s tired.”

   He laughed, sliding out of the chair.

   Before I could move aside for him, however, he reached from behind me, resting one hand one each side of the table on either side of me. Straightening up completely stiff, I felt my heart pause and splutter before calming again. He was so close!

   “I’ll help,” he murmured, lowering his face so that his mouth was right near my ear.

   My initial shock didn’t even have time to die down before he blew my mind some more; he wrapped his hand around mine, which was still holding onto the wooden mixing spoon. His hand was larger than mine, cupping over it securely. It also felt warm. Safe.

   I grew intensely aware of every movement of ours together as he guided my hand in slow circles, mixing the cookie batter.

   At that moment, the upbeat song on the laptop ended, changing into a gentle ballad. Jinyoung hummed along to it, his chest vibrating against my back. It was all I could do to keep standing up straight, trying not to lose my mind as his voice, his arms, his warmth, his hand – everything of his surrounded me.

   Subconsciously, my mind was whirring. Did I like Jinyoung? I wasn’t sure what my heart said.

   Yet my body – how aware I was of him, how I rejoiced in his warmth, how his hand fit around mine perfectly, how I wasn’t stopping him – all screamed a distinct answer.

   Swallowing, I noticed that Jinyoung’s breathing was also getting slightly shallower and shallower. Quicker and shorter.

   Neither of us said anything more as our bodies adjusted to each others. Without realizing it, I relaxed by tiny fractional bits, until I was leaning against his strong, sturdy chest.

   I’m not sure how long we both stood there, with his hand making me mix the ingredients. All I knew was that slowly, the air around us seemed to get charged with electricity.

   What was happening here?