"I thought I had until Monday." Jongin had his back turned to the already burning bacon, his posture automatically changed once realising who the caller was. His back straightened and he stood smart and proud, although his face said otherwise. He noticed the sudden footsteps coming down the stairs and abruptly ended the call, this was probably the first time Jongin had ended a call abrupt with his father. 

He quickly stuffed the phone back into his pocket and twirled, only to be faced with a very worried Soeun. His eyes followed her gaze and soon realised why she was slightly concerned; an intense amount of smoke hovered over the pan of bacon and the sizzling of oil invaded the kitchen, next thing they knew the smoke alarm began to ring. 

"Turn the cooker off!" Soeun yelled over the sound of chaos, she reached for the nearest piece of cloth and started frantically waving it under the alarm. Rather than doing as she had said, Jongin stood still for a few seconds, admiring her- "YAH! THE COOKER!" Her sudden outburst finally turned his attention to the cooker... Well, not really a cooker now... 

Flames bombarded where the bacon had once been and overwhelmed the cooker; Jongin glanced towards her, she was too busy with the smoke alarm to realise the fire slowly making its way to her body. He immediately leaped and gently pulled her down and away from the advancing fire, a scream surpassed her lips at the shock of being pushed to the ground but the fear slowly crept away. Soeun looked up to realise that Jongin was placed protectively on top of her, sweat dripped off his forehead as he tried his best to search for the fire blanket that he had dropped nearby. 

"Are you guys stupid?" 

That was the first thing they heard after the series of loud squirting, the fire alarm had come to a slow stop and finally, the pair on the floor looked up to their saviour. Sehun stood in his space-invasion pyjamas with a strong hold on the fire extinguisher; rather than concern, anger had seemed to build up. A stern expression took over, almost like a parent scolding their kids. 

"You could've burnt the house down! Wait, no, you could've hurt yourself!-" Sehun abruptly ended his sentence and tried to conceal his care with even more deadly glares; a small smile appeared on Soeun at the thought of the two step-brothers finally beginning to care about each other but was it really directed to Jongin? 

"I guess the cooker just got cooked."  A hefty chuckle erupted from Jongin at his joke, but the crowd was hard to please. He pulled away from Soeun, who was trapped under his body which was meant to be protecting her from the fire... romantic, right? He hastily got onto his two feet and pulled her up as well, "I said the cooker just got cooked..." Laughter filled the smoke-filled kitchen, but it was just his laughter. 

"You should probably learn to cook rather than making hilarious jokes." Soeun playfully stuck her tongue out before running behind Sehun, in case Jongin started to tickle her or punish her in any way in that form. Her hands lightly grabbed hold onto the lanky boy's back and a fluttering feeling invaded his heart, he quickly ignored it and went back to scolding. 

"She's right, learn how to cook. The breakfast you make is terrible and-" Just as he was about to flick Jongin, a loud knock interrupted. And then footsteps commenced, heavy and loud. Soeun instantly recognised who was coming.

"Dad?" She was right, her dad opened the kitchen door to find his attention right to the now black cooker, he raised his eyebrows and signalled at his daughter to come. That was all it took for her to obey him and follow diligently behind, she waved goodbye to the brothers and dared to do nothing else in front of her father. Once outside the house and on the patio, her father began to start talking.

"Did you get hurt?" It was slow and quiet, but enough for Soeun to hear. Her footsteps behind him grew steadier and she took her time to reply.

"I'm fine." Her father nodded his head in acknowledgment of her answer, they made it outside their house, considering it was only next door, and then he turned to face his daughter. He sighed uneagerly and awkwardly smiled.

"I mean did you get hurt?..." Soeun slanted her head slightly and mouthed the word 'hurt' to herself; an attempt to try and understand what exactly her dad was trying to ask, she was oblivious. "I mean did any of the boy's do anything to you... Your friends inside told me that your in some sort of relationship with one of the boy's and you know... Teenager will still be teenagers-" 

"We're not going to talk about s- about relationships, okay?" A blush overwhelmed her cheeks and a deep sigh collapsed out of her, Soeun was quick to change the topic of discussion. "You said my friends were inside?..." He nodded in reply and made way for her to enter the house, he rolled his eyes at his desperate attempt to actually act like a parent. 

Soeun speedily ran up the stairs and into her room, in an attem