Summary: Yunho was tasked to cook. 

Squatting beside the couch, Jaejoong stared despondently at the space below it. Lying flat in the middle was the brat of his cat, Jiji. After the very successful wrap up of his three day showcase at Tokyo Dome, Jaejoong caught on the first flight back to Korea. Much to his annoyance, his pet did not acknowledge his presence when he got back home, even when he made a great show of slamming his door open. So being the most pathetic pet owner in the universe, Jaejoong went to pacify his beloved pet cat. But the Russian Blue rejected every advance Jaejoong made and was now hiding under the couch, trying to get away from his persistent owner.

Falling flat on his , Jaejoong huffed before sprawling across the cool marble flooring beneath. The three consecutive days of showcase had finally taken a toll on him and soon Jaejoong was nearing the edge of unconsciousness. The harsh vibrating in his pocket jolted him awake instantly, and he winced at the sudden brightness of the morning sun. Not even bothering to look at the screen, the sleepy man answered the call.

“Jaejoongie!” He could hear the apparent relief in the voice. It was familiar, but his fogged mind could not pinpoint exactly who it was.

“Jaejoong-ah, Yunho here!” The deep frown etched on the raven’s face was immediately smoothened out when he realized who called.

With his eyes still closed, Jaejoong hummed his acknowledgement.

“Jaejoong, this is very important, are you free now?”

The lead singer nodded his head.

“Jaejoongie, this is not a video call. I cannot see you.”

Jaejoong scrunched his nose in annoyance before humming his positive answer. Seriously, why isn’t Yunho hanging any time now, Jaejoong thought.

“Then can you come here now, please? The address is XXX.” Yunho begged.

“Huh?” Finally finding his vocal chords, Jaejoong voiced out the first word that surfaced in his mind.

“I cannot really explain a lot right now, but I really need you here.”

Sitting up from his sprawled eagle position, Jaejoong finally registered the urgency behind Yunho’s words.

“Why? What happened?” The now awake man started firing questions while trying to search for his carkeys.

“Jaejoong-ah, just come here as fast as possible and you will know.” Yunho’s vague reply did not sit well with the lead singer as the gears in his brain started turning.

“Wait a moment, where are you right now again?”

“XXX….”

“Isn’t that the SBS station?!?”

Yunho cursed mentally at his quick-witted friend. The people around him were not helping either as they were all busy trying to smoother their snickers.

Upon hearing muffled giggles, Jaejoong got even more suspicious. A quick glance at the clock showed that it was 9.45 in the morning. Why was Yunho in the studio at 9.45am?

And suddenly everything fell into place.

“Why, why, Yunho-yah, are you perhaps in the midst of filming Cook-King?” Jaejoong teased as he swirled the carkeys around.

(AN: I made up this program, and from the failed name, it’s apparent that this program has something to do with cooking.)

A slight scuffle was heard from the other end of line, before another familiar voice was heard.

“Annyeonhaseyo, Jaejoong-shii!”

“Omo, annyeonghaseyo, Yoo Jaesuk-shii!”

“Jaejoong-ah, will you be able to come down and help Yunho out and his mission?”

“I’ll try my best~!”

An hour later, Jaejoong found himself in the middle of a very busy set, with PDs and coordinators running everywhere. Scanning the messy studio quickly, Jaejoong caught sight of Yunho and headed straight for him.

“Jaejoongie! You came!” Yunho broke into a wide smile upon seeing his savior, and the waves of emotions propelled him into enveloping Jaejoong tightly.

“Why are you behaving as if you’ve just seen God?” Jaejoong sent Yunho a pointed glare, but was being blocked by the gigantic shades perching on his sharp nose.

“Because you are my God now!” Yunho threw his arms in the air and exclaimed passionately. The theatrics earned them much laughter around the studio. Like a child trying to tug his parents towards the toys department, Yunho dragged Jaejoong towards the middle of the studio excitedly.

The studio was set with six workbenches, three in a row. Each workbench was fully equipped like a miniature kitchen, with 3 stoves, and the entire length of it was covered by ingredients. Unable to resist, Jaejoong picked up an apple and started munching on it. The delicious crunch ringing in his ears effectively blocked out most of Yunho’s babble and he could only catch a few senseless phrases here and there.

A signal from the main PD alerted the filming crew that filming would proceed in thirty minutes and Jaejoong started to panic when Yunho did not seem to cease his babble.

Interrupting Yunho mid-speech, Jaejoong asked for his coordi-noona.

“Why would you need Hana?”

Jaejoong slid down his shades till the tip of his nose and revealed his dark circles under the pair of enrapturing doe eyes.

“Whoa, why did you look like you haven’t slept for days!” Yunho commented as he caught sight of those panda eyes.

Ignoring his unhelpful friend, Jaejoong finally spotted his favourite coordi-noona and ditched Yunho alone at the workbench, who was in the midst of his why-we-should-have-enough-rest speech.

“Welcome back to Cook-King, and in a few moments from now, the guests will start cooking their dish which was chosen by them just now,” Yoo Jaesuk delivered his lines naturally as the filming started.

“And because today’s dishes are very difficult, for the first time in this program, the guests are allowed to invite an assistant to help them. Funnily, most of them have got their mothers down to help them. Nothing beats the taste of homecooked food, isn’t it? Omonim, annyeonghaeseyo,” The MC greeted the mothers as the camera spans across the set.

“Isn’t that Jaejoong-shii!” Yoo Jaesuk exclaimed as the camera focused on the man.

Hiding his smile behind the back of his hands, Jaejoong greeted the viewers.

“Ahh, Jaejoong-shii, let me tell you a secret,” Yoo Jaesuk smiled conspiratorially and Jaejoong felt Yunho stiffened beside him.

Before Yoo Jaesuk could spill the secret, he had his mouth covered by the leader of DBSK. He started to struggle futilely which caused more laughter from the guests.

“Whoa…. UKnow Yunho, are you Kim Jongkook number 2? I couldn’t even escape!” Yoo Jaesuk wagged a finger towards the now sheepish man, who started to laugh to cover his embarrassment.

“But really, Jaejoong-ah, I send my deepest gratitude to you,” Yoo Jaesuk suddenly spoke in a serious voice.

Tension rose in the set as the emcee threw everybody off guard with his words. Even Yunho was perplexed.

“Because you were the only one who was willing to help Yunho out!” The unexpected revelation evoked howls of laughter from the entire set, and above the chaos, one could hear a distinct three syllabi laughter.

Fifteen minutes into the competition, and every workbench was filled with chopping sounds, except for one.

“Yunho, what did you say we have to cook again?” Jaejoong asked, with a blank look on his face.

“Seolleongtang? (AN: oxbone soup)”

“Do you think it can be finished in two hours and fifteen minutes from now?”

Yunho shrugged. He had no idea how to cook seolleongtang, not to say the time it takes to cook it.

“Erm, PD-min did mention that it’s either Seolleongtang or jimddak.”

Gone was the sullen look as Jaejoong immediately faced Yunho.

“Did you say Jimddak???” And Yunho immediately pictured Jaejoong in an anime setting, jumping into the air, with sparkles and shiawase bubbles around him.

“Yeah, but we will have to prepare Kimbap and Japchae as well if we chose Jimddak.”

The slighter man waved a hand in the air, as if Kimbap and Japchae were or no problem to him. Tightening the apron around his waist, Jaejoong removed the many rings adorning his fingers and placed them beside the sink.

“Yah, chop this into big chunks,” Jaejoong instructed as he dump a featherless chicken onto the chopping board and proceeded to gather all the seasonings needed for the dish.

With the butcher knife grasped firmly in his hand, Yunho stared at the lifeless chicken with great determination. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and raised the chopper high in the air. Letting out a euphoric cry, he swung down the chopper only to have it stopped mere millimeters away from the poultry. His eyes trailed the hand that was gripping his wrist and was met with an incredulously looking Jaejoong.

“What the hell were you trying to do!” The scandalous expression on Jaejoong’s face broke down Yunho’s resolve as he started pouting.

“This is my first time chopping chicken, Jaejoongie,” The masculine man whined, with his lower lips jutted out.

“You looked like a psychotic man in the midst of butchering his cheating girlfriend.” And if possible, Yunho pouted harder. Shooing the petulant man away from the chopping board, Jaejoong started to chop the poultry into the desired size while the ex-butcher was demoted to peeling garlic and onions.

In the midst of marinating the chicken, the masseur heard sniffing beside him. A quick glance at the taller man confirmed his suspicion. Trying to maintain a straight face proved to be an impossible task, especially when Yoo Jaesuk was making y background noises as he massages the chicken while Yunho was sniffing away.

“Yah, how can you still laugh when I’m crying like this,” the peeler complained as Jaejoong hid his face behind his back to cover. Taking pity, Jaejoong dab the tears away with his sleeves, earning swoons from the onomatopoeia-talented emcee.

A lid was placed over the bubbling Jimddak pot, letting the dish simmer as the duo busied with the next dish, Kimbap. Yunho volunteered to slice the vegetables into long strips which earned him a dubious look from Jaejoong, while Jaejoong himself did the egg rolls. By the time Yunho had started to slice the second vegetable, he was getting bored by the simple task and was very tempted by the gochujang sitting innocently in front of the chopping board. Dabbing the gochujang onto his forefinger expertly, he made a noise of pain when the thin red line was visible. The pale man whipped his head around and saw Yunho nursing his injured finger.  He dropped the frying pan immediately and grabbed the aforementioned finger to gauge the injury. Upon clearer inspection, Jaejoong realized that the so called blood was actually gochujang and twisted Yunho’s finger in revenge. Yunho howled in real pain as Jaejoong continued to twist his fingers while Yoo Jaesuk was at the side cheering the slighter man on, trying to avenge for the manhandling earlier on.

“Yunho-yah, rice,” Jaejoong ordered as the ingredients for the kimbap was ready and it was time to roll them into shape.

“What rice?”

Giving up, Jaejoong opened the rice cooker only to find it empty.

“Where’s the rice!” And Yunho immediately escaped from the workbench, with Jaejoong hot on his heels.

After much trouble, they were ready to roll the kimbap, rice courtesy of Eric. (It was more like Yunho stealing rice from the blur leader of Shinhwa, who up till then didn’t know that his rice was stolen.)

Placing the long strips of vegetables and eggs onto the white bed of rice, the rolling began. Jaejoong rolled the bamboo up nimbly while Yunho imitated the actions from his partner. When they unrolled the bamboo, Yunho couldn’t help but laughed at the state of his kimbap. Due to his greediness, he had put in too much vegetable in it, causing the kimbap to burst from the pressure. Jaejoong completely lost control as he laughed and clapped hardly at the epic fail. He tried hard to subdue his laughter but one look at the mess set him off again. Attracted by the commotion, Yoo Jaesuk hurried over and saw the failed kimbap. Slapping Yunho’s back in consolation, he spoke, “Yunho-yah, you are still better than Hyori. For two years, I had to suffer under her hands in Family Outing.” The sincere confession had Hyori, who was cooking at the front, throwing dirty looks at him.

“Hyori-yah, what is this!” The nation emcee exclaimed as he approached Hyori’s workbench. A dish had been completed and was set aside. Not only did the dish look edible, it actually looked appetizing.

“Omonim, you worked hard!” Yoo Jaesuk saluted Hyori’s mother who busied herself with the last dish, still camera shy.

“Oppa, stop disturbing me. Go away!” Hyori mock kicked the annoying emcee in the .

“Hyori-yah, how can you do this to me? I’m your oppa-“

“YAH!!” A cry broke Yoo Jaesuk mid-speech as everybody turned to the back to see Jaejoong yelling at Yunho. The almighty leader, with overflowing charisma and masculinity, actually looked contrite as he stared at a fuming Jaejoong with the pot lid in his hand. Like a reprimanded kid, Yunho slammed the lid back in its original space with his hands up in the common surrender pose. Jaejoong resumed his frying of Japchae while the leader hung behind him, sneaking peaks at the slighter male.

“Yunho-ah, are you the guest of this show or are you the assistant? Jaejoong-ah seems to be the one cooking!” Yoo Jaesuk teased and Yunho attempted to take over the frying pan in a bid to salvage whatever image he had left. In the end, he got his hands slapped away and was bumped to the side by Jaejoong’s hip.

“Yunho-yah, help me sample,” Jaejoong gestured for Yunho as he picked up some Japchae with a pair of chopsticks. Feeding Yunho straight from the chopsticks, Jaejoong waited with abated breath. It had been awhile since he last cooked Japchae, and it was to the extent that he almost forgotten to add in sesame oil.

Yunho chewed thoughtfully at the springy noodles as he tried to come up with words to describe the flavours dancing in his mouth. Unable to wait any longer, Jaejoong used the same pair of chopsticks and tried the Japchae personally. The chewing duo caught each other’s eyes and shared a smile.

A siren rang through the studio, alerting them that they had only five minutes left to the end of the session.  Yunho and Jaejoong immediately went into action, scooping the dishes into bowls and plates, and wiping away any remnants of sauce. The moment they placed their dishes onto the table in front of the studio, the end bell sounded. Jaejoong let out a breath of relief as Yunho hooked an arm over his neck.

“Welcome back to Cook-King! The cooking is finally over, and now is the time for judgement. Everybody, please step up in front of your dishes,” Yoo Jaesuk instructed as everybody took a step forward.

Yunho twisted his neck right and left when Jaejoong was not beside him behind the table. Twirling around, he found Jaejoong crouching at the workbench. He hurried towards his partner.

“What’s wrong? We need to be at the front now,” Yunho whispered.

“I can’t find my rings!” Jaejoong wailed as he showed his bare hands.

“We’ll find it later,” Yunho promised as he guided Jaejoong back to the front of the studio with his hand on his lower back.

Despite Yunho’s reassuring hand on his back, Jaejoong still felt and uncomfortable without his rings. Ignoring the goings on around him, Jaejoong tried to figure out where his missing rings went.

“Try to act like you are aware of what’s going on even though you aren’t” Yunho whispered into his ear. The soft puffs of breath into his sensitive ear drew a shiver down his spine as he smoothed out his facial expression.

Suddenly, Jaejoong had an inkling where his rings might be. Scanning around his surroundings, he realized that nobody was paying attention to them as the judges were about to pass down the verdict for Hyori’s dishes. As surreptitiously as possible, Jaejoong slid his hands into the trousers pockets of Yunho. A firm squeeze on his wrist told him that Yunho was aware of his advances.

“What are you trying to do!” Yunho whispered, with his lips unmoving at all, mastering perfectly the art of ventriloquism.

“Finding my rings!” Jaejoong retorted as he tried to wriggle his trapped hands further down the pockets.

“I don’t have your rings!”

“Then you should not be afraid.”

“We are in the midst of filming, Jaejoongie.”

“Not like they are paying attention to us,” Jaejoong pulled a face as he continued to try and shove his hand down.

“Fans do. Especially Yunjae fans with goddamn eyesight and overactive imaginations.”

“So stop putting a struggle and I’ll end this as quickly as possible.”

Sighing, Yunho gave up and allowed the stubborn man to continue what he was doing. He did not even know why he tried to stop Jaejoong. Jaejoong was as stubborn as him, and when he had set him mind to it, nobody could persuade him otherwise. Not like he had ever won against the lead singer anyway.

Jaejoong frowned when the pocket turned out to be empty. Yunho shot him a triumphed look at being right. But Jaejoong was not to be deterred. He stretched his hand behind Yunho’s back and slipped into the pocket at the other side.

It was Jaejoong’s turn to smirk when his fingers touched cool metal. Pulling his hand out, he opened his palms in front of Yunho. And there, lying on his palm was his rings.

“Now, what did you say about not having my rings, Yunho-yah?”

AN: I have a sequel mapped out for this. ><