___________________________________________________________

Nothing seemed to have gone wrong. TaecYeon came down the stairs a few minutes later, wearing DongWook’s old working clothes. YeoJin watched his face for any signs, but TaecYeon only smiled genuinely and so he mustn’t have encountered her friends upstairs. Internally YeoJin sighed in relief. She noticed how the worn pants and the faded t-shirt still made him look awesome. Her brother had just looked silly wearing those. Taec must really be perfect then…

“Shall we begin the cooking?” TaecYeon asked, smiling in such a way at her that he looked downright mischievous. Was he flirting now?! YeoJin wasn’t sure, but she did know that it made her feel very light-hearted and energetic.
“No apron?” she asked, echoing the tone of possibility which YeoJin thought to have heard in TaecYeon’s voice.
“Yes, let’s put those on! There is not much to keep clean, though.” TaecYeon gave her another one of his winning smiles. “At least for me, there isn’t.” He added after taking a glance at YeoJin’s dress.
“Oh, this one is an old one, it’s okay if anything got smeared on it.” YeoJin smiled back.

A minute later the both of them were wearing aprons. YeoJin a soft yellow one with cute bananas on it and TaecYeon a soft green one with cute apples on it. They were part of a set of four, the others being a soft red with cherries and a soft blue with plums. It had been a Christmas gift from the Film House where YeoJin worked.
“Don’t we look cute like this?” TaecYeon asked and a small sound (something between a cute chuckle and a mischievous squeal) escaped him. YeoJin was a little taken aback by his display of affection and nodded awkwardly, she did think he looked cute like that…
“Good, where do we start? Pancake batter…” TaecYeon said and YeoJin spotted a tiny bit of cluelessness in TaecYeon’s behavior. As if he was rooting for her to start telling him the recipe. ‘He does it on purpose...’ she thought.
“What comes first? The flour, or the eggs? Or should we put in the milk first?” TaecYeon asked, picking up the ingredients like a model does in a commercial.
“I always mix them together in alphabetical order. Egg, flour, milk and then sugar. I don’t think it makes any difference though.” YeoJin answered honestly, watching as TaecYeon gave her a nod and picked up an egg.

~~~~~~~~~~

‘Alphabetical order?! What the …?!’ TaecYeon thought, while trying to break open the egg he had picked up.
“That’s genius!” He exclaimed, “It makes a recipe much easier to remember.”
“I know! That’s what I used to say! My friends think it’s weird, but I’m glad someone agrees with me at last.” YeoJin let out enthusiastically, smiling broadly at TaecYeon, who had started to wonder what else he might find out later…

Okay, breaking open some eggs wasn’t his best talent. Breaking the shell wasn’t the problem, it was pretty much crushed in the blink of an eye, but breaking it so that egg and shell could be separated wasn’t that simple. One egg was spilled on the kitchen counter, another egg took half of its shell in pieces with it into the bowl and the other eggs were done by YeoJin.
“It’s not very easy, is it?” YeoJin laughed and TaecYeon was certain their date was still going well.

~~~~~~~~~~

‘He’s faking it, or he really can’t cook…’ YeoJin thought as she took bits of the shell out of the batter. ‘but then why would he want to fake such a thing?’
“Don’t you know the alphabet?” TaecYeon winked, bringing her out of her thinking. “You looked a little distracted… Shall I put in the flour now?”

When YeoJin and TaecYeon had prepared the pancake batter, it was clear that TaecYeon wasn’t as perfect at cooking as he was at the social aspects of their developing relationship. He was actually pretty disastrous… Exactly like JaeBeom had been… For some reason however, YeoJin didn’t feel the least bit of annoyance she had felt with JaeBeom’s kitchen adventures. She thought it was actually kind of cute to see TaecYeon try his best to impress her.

“Yes! Time to start baking!” TaecYeon exclaimed enthusiastically and slightly jumped around YeoJin as she took the baking pan out of the cabin.

~~~~~~~~~~

“Sunny, I’m so hungry, can’t we just go downstairs and get some pancakes as well?” Na-Young whispered. They were now both sitting in the bathroom, trying to listen into the date of their friend.
“You know we can’t , YeoJin will kill us if we do!” Sunny whispered back, but she wasn’t afraid of YeoJin’s reaction, she just wanted to follow the date till the end, they hadn’t really began flirting yet. Na-Young gave Sunny an annoyed pout.
“But I’m really hungry…” she muttered. Sunny sighed.
“Sorry Nana, we can’t leave. Even just walking the stairs makes too much noise. Then there’s the window of the kitchen we have to pass and the front door that we can’t close without a sound. We’d better find a way to keep ourselves entertained here, ‘cause it’ll take some time before we’ll be able to leave…”
“Don’t you get in trouble with SungMin if you stay away for this long?” Na-Young inquired.
“Probably not. SungMin works late again today, he’ll be home around 1 AM I think, but by then I’ll definitely be home again.” Sunny answered. “Even if he would be home earlier, he’d understand it. He’s really a sweet guy.”
“Gosh, I envy you, really…” Na-Young let out. She sounded a little annoyed, but that might as well be because they were still whispering and a whisper doesn’t define emotions pretty well.
“Oh, don’t. SungMin may be sweet and capable, he’s also a busy man who comes home late, completely tired.” Sunny confided.
“But still, he comes home for you, because he loves you. And he works hard to earn money so he can support you.” Na-Young said. “Can I tell you a secret?”
“Of course you can, we’re best friends.” Sunny answered and smiled.
“I almost did it with my pet boy… We were slightly drunk and he’s just so y, you know… I couldn’t help kissing him and he seemed to like it. I wanted to go further, but then I passed out, I think… Actually, the next thing I remember is being in my bed, alone. Kind of disappointing, actually.”
“Om my gosh, Na-Young, you’re so bad!” Sunny let out, but couldn’t suppress a grin. It was so typically something for Na-Young to experience.

Suddenly they heard YeoJin clapping her hands excited. What was going on downstairs? And since when was their friend the clapping type of person?

~~~~~~~~~~

“Woah… It looks so good~!” YeoJin exclaimed, surprising TaecYeon with a whole new side of her. He hadn’t quite seen her behave girlishly cute, but he was liking what he saw. Apparently baking a smiley-faced pancake was giving him points. He’d have to thank JunSu for it later. Of course his choice to bake pancakes was one he had thought out carefully. It hadn’t seemed too difficult when JunSu advised him…

YeoJin was so impressed that she let him do the rest of the baking and watched in awe as the pancakes came out of the pan with different expressions on them.
“This one is a cat. OkCat.” TaecYeon laughed and made another. “And this is JinnyPuss.”
“They’re so cute!” YeoJin exclaimed and looked at TaecYeon, who sent her a broad smile. He was happy to know he still had been able to show her one of his skills, albeit a small one.

When the batter was gone and all the pancakes made, YeoJin and TaecYeon went to eat them in the living room. Their conversations were pleasant and easy but didn’t touch any deep topics. Once in a while TaecYeon would feed YeoJin a piece of pancake and she would close her eyes briefly in delight as she ate it. Taec knew she didn’t do it on purpose and loved seeing her enjoy the pancake they had made.

After dinner TaecYeon put everything into the dishwasher. He was glad they didn’t need to wash by hand, he seriously disliked it, while it was part of his job activities as perfect boyfriend. YeoJin had made him coffee and so they sat together in the living room for some time longer. Because it was slowly getting darker outside and the time to say goodbye neared, TaecYeon was beginning to wonder if their date would end as awkward as the previous date.
“I really had a great time!” TaecYeon said after finishing his coffee and stood up from the couch.
“Me too!” YeoJin agreed. “You have to teach me how to bake these smiley pancakes some time!” She laughed and walked with TaecYeon to her front door. ‘So she already chose me?’ TaecYeon thought.
“I will. Thanks for having me.” TaecYeon smiled politely and moved closer to give YeoJin a kiss on her cheek, but she surprised him by turning her head and kissing him full on the lips. He hadn’t really anticipated this, but knowing that it was more or less a duty (what boyfriend won’t even kiss you?), he accepted it and kissed her for three seconds before pulling away. He knew the three-second-kiss was the favorite type of first kiss of many women. It was short and made you want more, but it was long enough to determine whether the other person was a good kisser or not. TaecYeon was certain to be a good kisser, YoonA was always stealing kisses from him and his clients had never complained when they kissed him.
“Goodnight YeoJin, sleep well.” TaecYeon said to his new client as he walked down the little flight of stairs into the front yard, where he spotted and ignored a green looking brush that must once have cleaned someone’s teeth. The brownish remains of snow stuck to his shoes as it had started freezing again.
“Goodnight TaecYeon.” He heard YeoJin say and he gave her one last smile before reaching the gate and stepping into the limo that stood ready to pick him up.
Now he hoped YoonA wasn’t cantankerous with him for coming home late once again.
___________________________________________________________

CherryChocol8 -06.05.2011-