As soon as I picked up Kyu Hyun’s call, he didn’t give me a chance to speak. “Ji Na! What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” he asked, his voice filled with so much worry.

For a moment there, I almost believed that he was really sincere about his feelings for me. I mean, if he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be this worried over a message saying I was in an emergency, right? But I wouldn’t trust him as easily as before because after all, everything we shared before was a lie, and I tried to remind myself about that. “I’m fine. Nothing’s wrong, okay?” I finally responded as calmly as I could. “Look, I made a mistake. That message wasn’t for you. I just sent it wrong. I’m sorry.”

He wouldn’t believe me. “Yah, are you really this proud that even if you’re in an emergency, you won’t let me help? Would you rather die than receive help from someone you hate?” he remarked so seriously, like I really was in a matter of life and death.

“I’m not dying, not even hurt, okay? I just need to learn to cook right now.” I mumbled, embarrassed by the fact that I couldn’t cook. “Anyway, I better hang up now. I’m not ready to go back to the way we were before.”

As I was about to terminate the call, he suddenly stopped me. “Wait!” he shouted loudly and hurriedly. “What if I help you with this cooking problem of yours? Would that be enough for you to forgive me?”

I thought about it. Was his deal reasonable? Could I trust him? “Do you know how to cook?” I asked, trying to make sure he wouldn’t fool me.

“Of course. I have an older sister who loves to cook.” He replied proudly. “I know it’s hard for you to trust me now, but believe me, I won’t fool you twice.”

Seeing that he seemed to be really sincere about this, I decided to trust him. After all, I was desperate, wasn’t I? “Fine, we have a deal. But where would you teach me?” I said, softening up on him. “We can’t use our kitchen because my parents invited some guests over.”

“Let’s use the schools cooking room, the one the cooking club uses, I’ll meet you there in 10 minutes. And don’t worry about bringing anything. I’ll bring everything we’ll be needing. Just be there, okay?” He instructed, probably forgetting that it was Sunday, thus, the school was locked.

“I only have one question. How are we going to get in there?” I asked, reminding him. “Unless you’re an expert when it comes to opening locks with no keys, I don’t think that place is a good idea.”

But he didn’t change his mind. “Don’t worry about it. You’ll see when you get there, the doors would be open for you.” he remarked like it was no big deal. “See you then.”

After he hanged up the phone, I started to get ready. But as I did, I wondered just what Kyu Hyun was up to. He wasn’t going to break into the school, was he? I mean, he wasn’t that type of person. But still, he couldn’t simply enter the building without any means.

When I got there, the locks on the school entrance were really gone. As I entered, I tried to observe any signs of how Kyu Hyun managed to do it. But I couldn’t find any, so when I arrived at the cooking room, I was itching to ask him. “How did you..” I asked, knowing that he knew what I was going to ask so I didn’t bother finishing my question.

He smiled mischievously in response. “I broke in.” he answered proudly. Hearing that, my eyes widened. “What’s wrong? Did I do anything bad?”

Was he crazy? If people learned that he did this, he would definitely be expelled. And being with him, I might be labeled as an accomplice and also be punished the same way. “Yah, have you ever considered how much trouble we’d be getting if someone finds out?” I exclaimed, starting to get mad. How could I have let him get me into this mess?

Suddenly, his smile even widened. “I’m just kidding.” He said, taking something out from his pocket. It was a set of keys, as he showed me. “See this? These are the keys. The janitor is a friend of mine and he owes me a favor. And so I borrowed these from him.”

“Oh.” I said in a small voice, suddenly ashamed of getting angry so quickly.

Luckily, he didn’t find my attitude upsetting. “Let’s start then.” He said, leading me inside the room.

When I got inside, I was surprised to see three grocery bags on the table. “You bought all these?” I asked, walking over to them and checking what were inside. There were different kinds of vegetables, some eggs, uncooked rice, even some frozen meat.

“Well, you didn’t exactly specify what you wanted to cook, so I just bought ingredients that can be used in most dishes.” He responded with a smile.

For the first time in days, I returned his smile. “Thanks for doing this.” I told him sincerely.

And for a moment there, we just stood looking at each other in silence. But it was a good thing he broke the ice. “So, what do you want to learn? Fried rice? Omelet? Kimbap?” he said in a mock bragging tone, focusing on removing the food from the grocery bags. “Just name it, I can teach you anything.”

Because of his mock bragging tone, I found myself laughing a bit. He sounded so silly, it was funny. “I’ll go for fried rice since I’ve heard it’s not that hard and I like eating it.” I answered him, going over to his side to help him. Once everything was out of the bags, I faced him. “So what’s the first step?” it w