Their kitchen looked nice and normal on the outside but the second they you opened the pantry, things got weird. There were viles, bundles, bags, piles, and boxes of things I have never seen before. Green roots covered in purple bumps, a jar of bright pink jam with red flakes in it, red and black cubes in a bowl, and dozens of other bizarre things filed every shelf.

I guess they were all foods from their country but gosh darn it where the hell were they from?!

“Um...” I decided that now was not the time to worry about that. I closed the pantry and turned to the boys. “Do you guys have any chocolate?”

“No.”

“Eggs?”

“No.”

“Vegetable oil?”

“No.”

“How am I suppose to make brownies if I don’t have the ingredients?”

Xiumin opened his mouth but closed it when he found he didn’t have an answer. He and Tao pouted and looked at me with puppy eyes. They really wanted those brownies but what could I do? I can’t make them appear out of thin air. I guess I could have one of them get the ingredients, though. If they wanted it that much, they could work for it. I tore a post-it note from a pad I found I found by the home phone and quickly scribbled down what we’d need.

“Here,” I handed the list to Tao. “If you get these at the store, I can make them.”

“Yeah!” He jumped excitedly and dragged Xiumin toward the front door.

“Wait! Wait! I don’t have my wallet!” Xiumin cried. After a minute, the two of them shouted good bye and were off.

Leaving Kris and I alone.

In a small kitchen.

Standing really close to each other.

I was suddenly very hyper aware of him and his every movement. I glance at him and my eyes met his. I tensed and quickly looked away. Why was he looking at me? In an attempt to cover up how awkward I felt and how his very presence was greatly effecting me, I turned to the cupboards and began to look around for the bowls and measuring cups.

Is this what happens every time a cute guy saves your life and lets you rely on him? If so, 0/10. I do not recommend getting into life or death situations when cute guys are around. It only leads to pain, awkward crushes, and being constantly uncomfortable.

It didn’t take long for me to find the bowls and measuring cups. I pull out the ones I needed and laid them out on the counter.

“Well, there’s nothing else we can do until Xiumin and Tao get back with the groceries.” I finally found something to say. “Wanna watch some TV ‘till they get back?”

When I turn to him I found he was studying me carefully and my heart skipped a beat. Our eyes made contact and I found that I couldn’t look away. He was entirely too mesmerising.

“Sure.” He said after a moment and turned away from me.

What on earth was that?

I took a deep breath to steal my nerves before going to the living room.

Kris had already sat down on the couch and was flicking through the channels. As I sat next to him, he settled on a popular variety show. Today, one of my favorite bands was on. I had totally forgotten that this was coming out today. I wondered briefly if he knew that liked this band or if it was just a coincidence but I decided to shove that into my “think about later” file. I smiled when my favorite member was talking and laughed when they joked around.

I didn’t feel nervous anymore. I just felt comfortable and normal again.

***

About half way through the program, Tao and Xiumin finally returned from their grocery adventure.

“We’re back!” Tao voice rang through the house. I smiled and turned off the TV as I got up. I could watch the rest of the show later online. For now, I just wanted to spend time with my friends.

“Great!” I ran over to them and took one of the bags from Tao. Going off of how my arms shook under the weight of one bag and how they had multiple, each bulging with goodies, they had gotten more than what I asked for. “I’m going to need a helper. Who wants to help me? I’ll let them the spoon!”

Tao’s hand shot in the air and Xiumin’s followed as soon as he realized what Tao was doing. Kris half hearted raised his hand a little, but his eyes sparkled.

I raised my finger to my cheek and pretended to give careful thought about who I would cook with. “Hm… Well… All four of us can’t fit in the kitchen… And I really only need one helper...”

Xiumin was standing on his tip toes and bouncing up and down by this point. If I was honest, I wanted to cook with Kris. That would probably end terribly but I wanted it nonetheless. But I also didn’t want Tao and Xiumin to feel excluded. In times like this, it was best to leave it to luck.

“Play rock paper scissors for it.” I said. “Winner get’s to cook with me and the spoon.”

A competitive spark crackled in the air as the three boys looked at each other. They eyed on and other, sizing up the competition, and got into a fighting stance. They slowly brought their hands up and pumped it to the beat of the chant.

Xiumin threw out paper while both Tao and Kris had scissors. He pouted at his hand and went to mope at the couch. Xiumin had been utterly defeated.

Tao and Kris looked each other in the eye. I seemed there was no friendship in this game. After all, it was a dog eat dog world. they shouted out the chant one last time. Tao had paper this time.

But Kris had scissors.

Kris smirked smugly and Tao fell to the ground and cried out in despair, Xiumin rushed to his friends side and cradled him in his arms.

“Don’t die, Tao!” His voice cracked from sorrow. “There’s so much to live for! Think of the brownies! Think of the brownies!”

“You guys are absolutely bonkers.” I giggled and smiled at them fondly. “You're taking this way too seriously. If you want to eat raw brownie batter that badly, you guys can the bowl as long as you promise to share.”

“That’s not it, Hanuel Gi.” Tao huffed at me. “I want to cook with you.”

“So you don’t want to the bowl?” Xiumin looked at him hopefully.

“Wha- No! I do!”

I laughed and tapped Tao’s shoulder. “Well, we can cook together another time.” I glanced at Kris. “But tonight belongs to Kris.”

Kris’s eyebrow twitched slightly.

He sighed and took my hand, dragging me toward the kitchen. “Let’s get going. If we don’t get started now, it’ll be midnight by the time they’re done cooking.”

“Oh! Right!” I let him drag me to the kitchen, his warm hand in my own. The sudden contact had made my heart beat in frantic, irregular beats that made my chest feel like it was on fire.

I was in for a world of pain if things continue like this.

When we got to the kitchen, Kris sat down on the counter and looked at me expectantly. I raised an eyebrow at him, confused. We were suppose to make brownies not laze around. Why was he on the counter?

“What?” He asked after a second.

“I thought we were going to make brownies.”

 “Weren’t you going to make them?”

 Wait, did he think I was just going to let him sit around while I did all the work?

 “Not alone.” I held out both of my hands to him. “You’re helping me.”

 He sighed, but nodded, and took my hands to help himself down. We turned to the bowls I had laid out and the bags of groceries.

 “Welp. The first thing to do is get the ingredients ready.” I pulled one of the bags closer to us and pulled everything out of it.

Apparently, I had been right. None of the things in that bag were for the brownies. They were all sweets. I didn’t know where they put anything so I pushed that bag toKris and pulled another toward me.

“Put that away for me, will you? I don’t know where anything goes yet.”

He wordlessly took the bag and put it in the pantry. I started to dig through the mounds of candy and cookies and found the eggs underneath a bag of chips. In the next bag was the brownie mix and everything else I needed. I pulled them all out and put them by the bowl while Kris put the rest of the food away.

“Let’s get started!” I grinned at him and he smiled back. I opened up the box and pulled out the mix then ensured out everything we needed and poured them into a bowl. Kris and I took turns stirring them, switching out whenever we got tired.

Kris obviously hadn’t done much baking before. He put too much power into stirring and every once in a while some would slosh over the edge before crawling down the side of the bowl.

“Careful, Kris! We want to have some batter left to bake.” I poked fun at him the third time he spilled some. He scowled at me and set the bowl down on the counter. His hands were covered in chocolate and, unfortunately for me, he wasn’t planning on his fingers clean.

Instead, Kris reached out and poked my cheek and smeared some across it. I squealed and my hand flew up to touch the chocolatey deliciousness. I rubbed some off and quickly counterattacked by poking his nose, leaving a small dollop. He smiled, eyes warm with a competitive blaze, and lunged forward. I spun to the side to avoid him and my arms zipped out in time to just clip his cheek. Kris looked at me incredulously. I was beating him. We continued to do this weird dance of attacking and dodging around the kitchen. It was gearing up to be an all out war.

Kris managed to corner me and smirked as I glanced around, looking for an opening I could escape through. He slowly lifted a hand toward my cheek, taunting me.

However, the closer his hand came to my cheek, the more aware I became of the situation.

It was just the two of us in the kitchen. Tao and Xiumin had resigned themselves to their fate of not cooking with me and decided to make the most of it by loudly watching a cop show. I had my back up against the counter with no where to escape and Kris’s face was unbearably close to my own. I could feel my cheeks growing warmer.

Just then, the oven beeped loudly to let us know it was preheated. It temporarily distracted him. I saw an opportunity.

And I took it.

I dove under his arm and ran to the bowl of batter.

“We haven’t put it in the pan yet! Sorry Kris, We’ll have to continue this later.” I picked up the bowl and hand it to him, not quite meeting his eyes though. When he took it, I busied myself with scraping out as much as I could.

Once the brownies were in the oven cooking. I put all the dishes except the bowl in the sink. The bowl I took with me to the living room Tao and Xiumin perked up the second they saw it and Tao took it from me when I sat down on the couch with them. When Kris sat down next to me, I pretended to be absorbed in the show on TV. I could still feel my heart pounding and I desperately didn’t want him to know how much he had effected me with that silly play fight.

After an awkward (well, for me anyway) period of time, the brownies were finally done. I handed out slices to everyone and we all dug in. The boys decorated every last crumb of brownies and complimented my cooking.

I didn’t know if my heart could take living with Kris, but I had a feeling I would enjoy my time here nonetheless.