“Now we need to wait for the dough to chill,” D.O explained, putting two bowls filled with dough in the fridge.

“And how long with that take?” Mi Sun asked, taking a seat at the kitchen table and watching as D.O ran around, putting things away and pulling other things out.

“Not too long,” he smiled, “I still can’t believe you’ve never made short bread cookies before.”

“I’ve tried,” she defended herself, “but it never worked out. So I stick to other things like cupcakes and pies.”

“Then it’s good that you’re learning what to do now,” D.O was bursting with pride that he was showing Mi Sun how to do something. Him. Not one of his bothers or some stranger. He was in the spot light right now and he was going to make darn sure that he did a good job.

“You really love to cook, huh?” Mi Sun laughed. Normally, the kitchen belonged to her and Jongup since they were the only ones who were any good at cooking, but since D.O had come along it had become his property. Mi Sun wasn’t even sure if she knew where to find anything anymore because D.O had reorganized everything the way he liked it. While some might find that annoying, she found it cute.

“Yeah,” D.O laughed along with her, “most of the others aren’t that great in the kitchen, so over the years I’ve become the one to cook us meals. Several of our past masters have left all the cooking to me and those who didn’t learned how to cook from me.”

“Did my mother learn from you?”

“No,” he smiled, “she knew how to cook long before she met your father. Truth be told, she actually taught me a few things.”

“My mother was a good cook? Better than you?” Mi Sun blinked. She remembered hearing for Suho that D.O had often monitored her mother to ensure that only the best food was made for her. She’d just assumed that D.O was the better cook after hearing that. Now he was telling her that wasn’t the case. Then why did he monitor her mother’s cooking when she was younger?

“Yes,” D.O explained, sitting down beside her, “and when you were younger, she’d always insist on cooking for you. Even though I knew she was better than me, I just couldn’t help keeping an eye on what she did. I admit, I should have just left her alone, but I wanted to do something to help raise you.”

“You could have played with me like Luhan and the rest of the guys did,” she joked, “you didn’t have to annoy my mother.”

“That’s true,” he nodded, “but I was never too good at that. I was always afraid I’d do something wrong and you’d come to hate me.”

“Jongup had the same problem when we first met him,” Mi Sun said, looking off with a thoughtful expression, “poor boy had already been abandoned once, but he didn’t know why. When we came into his life, he was so scared that he would do something to upset us, to make us abandon him, that he kept his mouth shut and was just as shy as Daehyunnie. He wouldn’t even smile, he’d just hug his bear and follow us like a lost puppy.”

“Really?” D.O just couldn’t picture Jongup without his normal kind, happy smile on his face.

“Yeah,” she smiled, “but after a while, he started to realize that nothing he could do would drive us away. and he started to open up to us and smile. I’d say you need to realize the same thing, that nothing you could ever do would drive me away, but I think you might have already realized that.” D.O smiled, nodding. Yah, he had come to realize that over the weeks he’d spent around Mi Sun.

“I think the dough should be ready,” he said, getting up and bringing out the dough.

Mi Sun followed him, helping to roll out the dough before grabbing the cookie cutters. From there, the pair just had fun cutting out shapes – stars, snowflakes, flowers, and moons – in the dough and putting them on the pan. They laughed at each other whenever someone’s shape got messed up and tied to help them right after so that their next shape didn’t get messed up, too. D.O smiled to himself the whole time, trying to think about how it could be any more perfect.

“How goes the baking, noona?” Zelo asked, coming into the kitchen for a glass of water.

“I’d say it’s going good,” she replied, “we should have the first batch done in a little while.”

“Call me when they’re done,” Zelo grinned before leaving, “I’ll get the Jongup hyung and we can have a homework break.” Then the teen was gone, back to his room so he could finish the mountain of homework he had to finish before Christmas break ended.

“We should have prepared twice as much dough,” D.O laughed, “Zelo and Jongup will have eaten this batch before the others can get any.” Mi Sun laughed too, not denying it.

“What do you want to use to decorate them?” she asked, “I’ve got sprinkles, those hard silver ball things, and some of those little gummy fruity things.”

“Sprinkles sound good,” he nodded, helping her go through the different varieties of sprinkles. D.O silently wondered how there could be so many types of sprinkles; rainbow, chocolate, white, green, and blue. Honestly, who came up with this?

“How about rainbow?” she suggested, “that way we have a bunch of different colours.” D.O nodded, grabbing the container with the sprinkles they wanted from the cupboard.

The pair decorated their cookies before putting them in the oven. While they waited, Mi Sun took the opportunity to ask D.O for some cooking tips. Seeing an opportunity to grow closer to the girl, he was more than happy to offer any tips and advice he could. D.O was so into it, he almost forgot about the cookies in the oven until Mi Sun remembered and reminded him.

“I’ll go get Zelo and Jongup,” Mi Sun said as she got up, “I should be able to help them with some of their homework in the time it takes for the cookies to cool.” D.O smiled and nodded, but on the inside he wished that she could have stayed longer.

“Something smells good,” Chanyeol grinned as he came into the kitchen not long after Mi Sun had left.

“Did Mi Sun have fun baking with you?” Baekhyun asked, following the taller in.

“Yeah,” D.O nodded with a small smile of his own. Even if she had left too soon for his like, she’d enjoyed baking and enjoyed being with him. What more could he ask for? “Don’t touch those,” D.O scolded Chanyeol after noticing the other making a grab for one of the cookies, “you’ll burn your mouth. They just came out of the oven.” Chanyeol nodded, pouting even though his did as told.

A/N: I did say that the next one-on-one time D.O got would be fluffy, didn’t I? I LOVE making short bread cookies with my mom using this recipe we got from my dad’s side of the family (truthfully, it’s one of the only things I bake with my mom ‘cuz I like baking by myself). I shared a few with some of my college classmates last year and everyone loved them (I felt so proud). What about you guys? Anyone like making short bread cookies or eating them?