Today, Taemin was busying himself in the kitchen. With his hands covered in flour and breadcrumbs, he looked at the heated oil and slowly dropped the piece of marinated chicken into the pot.

“Ahh!” he yelled in shock as a drop of oil landed on his hand.

“Taemin-ah! What are you doing! Open the kitchen door right now!” came a worried voice beyond the kitchen door. Kibum was pacing in the halls, trying his best not to panic as Taemin locked himself in the kitchen.

“I’m alright hyung!” replied the maknae. “Just hold on for a while okay?”

“Taemin-ah! Don’t mess up the kitchen, I’ll cook for you, okay? Just come out, now!”

“Hyung! I’ll clean up later, so just go away!” yelled an annoyed Taemin.

Only after hearing footsteps going away from the kitchen did Taemin return his attention to the chicken in the pot.

“Noooo!” hissed Taemin as he saw that the chicken was overcooked and burnt.

Dammit, thought Taemin as he fished out the burnt chicken. It already the fifth time I failed at this!

Looking at his last piece of chicken, he prayed hard that it would turn out fine. Gingerly, he dropped the chicken into the pot. Concentrating hard, Taemin stared at the sizzling oil, waiting for the chicken to float up. After a few seconds, the chicken came up.

Yes! Okay, so now, according to the cookbook, I have to wait till its golden and it’s done! Excited that the chicken is going to be done, Taemin smiled to himself. As expected, the chicken became a dazzling golden color. Okay, so dazzling is a little overboard, but it was the best looking chicken Taemin has ever seen. Afraid that it might be burnt again, Taemin sieved the chicken from the pot quickly. Looking at the small palm sized chicken, he sighed. Ahh, I wanted to give him a whole plate of chicken, but one is better than nothing right?

Standing at the door of their bedroom, Taemin took a breath and went in.

“Jinki hyung! I made you some chicken!”

“Really? Thanks!” smiled a very happy Jinki as he sat up on the bed. “Gimme gimme!”

Jinki started to gobble on the chicken as soon as Taemin passed it to him. “Woah, this is good!” marveled Jinki as he finished the whole dish in seconds. “I didn’t know you can make chicken like this, this is awesome!”

“I just followed a cookbook, that’s all.”

“This is too good. Will you make it for me again?” Begged Jinki with puppy eyes. ”Please? I really like it a lot.”

Walking back into the kitchen, Taemin was greeted by an annoyed Kibum.

“In 10 minutes, I want to see the kitchen SPARKLE. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

“Alright!” Taemin replied as he flashed a grin at Kibum.

Rolling his eyes, Kibum asked as he walked out of the kitchen: “Did you succeed?”

“Of course,” said the maknae with a mischievous glint in his eyes. “After all, the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, right?”